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"Rat 55" NT-43A Build


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  • 3 months later...

Well folks, summer is over and I've gotten my brain out of fishing mode, and into modeling mode, so it's time for an update on this build.

As some of you know, I am an avid tiger musky fisherman and spend most of my summer chasing these elusive fish. I had a pretty decent season with them, catching 23 fish in about 50 trips. That is much better than last years beating of 4 fish in 35 trips! Attached are a couple of pics of my big fish of the year at 44.5" or 113 cm in metric. It was a real pig, and made my year 😁

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Now..... on to the update. Last night I started adding some of the antenna's that I hope won't get broken off. I also added the vortex generators by the the stabilizers. They give them to you in photo etch, but I'm not a big fan of p/e and decided to scratch them out of strip plastic. The antennas on the top of the fuselage are from a Hasegawa P-3C kit, while the bottom ones are also scratched. There's a few smaller ones that I will add this evening. She's getting closer to paint! Fred.

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10 hours ago, Dutch said:

Fred, this will be a true one-of-a-kind model when complete!  Nice fish BTW!  K/r, Dutch

 

Thanks Dutch! I'm looking forward to getting going on this build again. Now if I could just get my work to slow down a bit.....   Fred.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi everyone,

      The other night I finally got the last of the numerous antennas on the jet. Most were from other kits, notably the Hasegawa 1/48th A-4 kits, but some were scratched as well. Also added were the rest of the vortex generators around the tail. In retrospect, they're probably a little big, but I'm okay with them as its still easier than monkeying around with the supplied photo etch parts! Thanks for watching ;0) Fred.

rsz_1rsz_20210102_121429.jpg

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Lately I have been having a real problem with "lines" in the Milliput on the tail empennage. I assume that they're small air pockets from when the two parts of the Milliput was folded in upon itself to mix the halves. I tried Tamiya white primer, both the spray on rattle can type and the brush on type, and later thin super glue, but nothing worked. Finally I tried brushing on some Testors gray paint and lightly sanding that out once it dried. That seemed to do the trick! The gray lines are the areas that the paint filled in. Fred.

rsz_220210102_121533.jpg

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As I started spraying the Model Master gloss white it became quite apparent that I had missed a number of screw ups. This was supposed to be the base coat, but after seeing what I missed, and all of the lint that was being attracted to the paint, I decided to promote this coat to "primer"! I only did the top half of the model as it is basically too big to hold and paint at the same time. Tomorrow I will paint the bottom and see what I missed there, then go back in a few days and fix the areas that need attention. The fun never ends ;0) Fred.

rsz_1rsz_20210102_124942.jpg

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This spot is where the flat antenna that I added used to be. I finally got a few good reference pics from a fellow modeler, and decided to go with that aircrafts antenna fit from that time period. As with many secretive aircraft like this one, the antenna fit will change over time. So the flat antenna on the roof had to go, and this is the canyon that it left me that I missed...... AAARRGGHHH! I love modeling ;0) All for now, Fred.

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2 hours ago, A-10 LOADER said:

With all the "bodywork" you did to this jet, I'm surprised you didn't prime her first.

I know she'll look great at the end anyway so, keep up the great work.

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

     I tried priming the model with both Gunze and Tamiya white primer on the nose and tail sections as a test drive. I must say that I wasn't very impressed with either product. The Gunze stuff was especially bad. Perhaps I did something wrong with it, but it made a real mess. I sanded everything out as best I could, but apparently I missed several spots. I'm going to paint the bottom this afternoon, and fix the imperfections in the new week. Thanks for your input, Fred.

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 I'm not a fan of Tamiya paints / primers at all. You should try the Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 primers, I really like them. I have the black, gray and, white depending on what my top color will be.

Steve

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Hi everyone,

       Just a quick update today. No, this is not a new snow camo job on my NT-43, I just got done sanding out the flaws in the paint 😄 I gave it a wash and will shoot white over the problem areas tomorrow. If all goes well, I will give it one final coat of white on Sunday, and then sometime next week I'll start airbrushing the details. All for now, Fred.

rsz_21rsz_20210108_155059.jpg

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9 hours ago, Ichitoe said:

Fred - damn, those are nice muskies! 23 of them in a season is very impressive! 

 

Thanks! 23 fish in a season is about an average year for me. Back in 2017 I had my best year with 34 muskies caught, but 10 of them came in one trip! They were absolutely lit up that morning. I even managed to catch three in a row, which is about unheard of. And they were all between 37" and 42", so they had some size on them. What a day 👍 Fred.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 year later...
8 hours ago, Da SWO said:

Any updates?

 

No updates. The paint is really kicking my butt, so I set it aside for awhile. I do plan on getting it finished this winter though.

 

Hopefully ARC will get back in business and I can post without having to endured getting bombed with spam after every post. Until its fixed I won't be posting much of anything. Thanks, Fred.

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