I thought this would be a niec companion piece to my F-105 build I just finished. Italeri made a nice little kit with this one. Recessed panel lines, decent cockpit...most of which will be hidden once the fuselage is sealed up around it. Today I got the cockpit painted, weight added to the nose to keep it from tail sitting, assembled the wings and engines. Tomorrow I will start cleaning up seam lines etc. Thanks for following along with this one. "Q"

Neat, I've got this one in a bag somewhere. Looking forward to your build.

Matt, that is a pretty box. I have always loved the vietnam camo. Which scheme will this build be in and what are your impressions of this kit?

Bob

Hi Bob, She will wear a SAE Camo like my Thud. Instructions call for a flat white belly, but I'm thinking more of the camo gray that the thud wore. It looks white when first laid down, but with weathering etc, it quickly changes colors a bit. First impressions of the kit aren't bad. Recessed panel lines that aren't too heavy for the scale. The cockpit is nicely detailed for what there is visible. I added belts to the seats, but the only one you can see is the pilots seat. Had to guess at belt arrangement as there were no clear pics of how the belts routed from the seat back. Call is artistic lisence. Fit of the fuselage could be better in some places. Didn't realize I needed some shims in a couple of places to keep the fuselage from dipping. Took a minor bit of coaxing to get things lined up, but nothing too terrible. The call-out of 20gm weight in the nose is good to know. I added a full ounce to make sure it stays down. Wings went together with just some minor seams to fill and dress on the leading edges. Could be attributed to the age of the molds. Mr. Surfacer 500 filled them easily. More progress to follow shortly. Thanks, "Q"

I may have spoken too soon in regards to the fit of this thing. I ran into some serious seams to deal with. It took some liberal applications of red putty and Mr. Surfacer 500 to fix, but when all was said and done, it looked ok. Most of the work was on the belly so it can't readily be seen. I ran into some nasty seams on the intakes of the engines which I filled with MS 500 last night. After sanding this morning, I may decide to make some FOD covers for the engines and call it even. The exhausts are open all the way to the front so I blocked each of them off with a styrene disk I punched from .010 sheet. Everything is drying at this point so I will revisit that a bit later. Here is where she sits as of now. I will work on the fiddly bits while things dry. The engines fit tight enough that they won't need glued onto the wings. Thanks for watching, "Q"



Before-

After-

Matt, it looks like this is a BONDO a/c with those seams. Nice work (tough work though) so far.

Bob

Once all the seams were dressed and polished out I re-scribed what few panel lines I lost in sanding. It actually came out really well. I thought it was going to be considerably more effort. Granted I did use a fair amount of putty, but most if it sanded out/away. Thanks for the kudos. I got the canopy taped up while everything was drying. Should have the first coats of paint on it this evening.
"Q"

Finally got some paint on the ole' girl. Need to do a couple touch ups around the nose, but overall the paint went down well. Colors are dark tan, dark green, and field green from Model Master. The bottom color is U.S. Gray from Floquil's military colors. Will let this dry for the remainder of the day, then do my touch ups, and gloss coat for decals. Thanks for watching. "Q"

Dang, you're fast. You've got this kit in the paint shop in less time than it would take for me to find it

Looking good...

lol... Thanks Mark. Glad you like it. "Q"

Keep up the good work 'Q'.. You are a speed builder in the same vein as I am by the look of it.

JP was amazed at how quickly I finished a Revell 1/32 Mirage IIIR last year for the Recon Campaign.

The faster you build, the more kits you can build..

Thanks for the encouragement Warren. I do build faster than some folks, but I do have the time to build currently. No school until August, don't have to work etc. Between this and riding my Harley I have lot of free time. More updates and progress to follow.
Thanks, "Q"

Hi Matthew
Your Destroyer is looking excellent despite the challenging steps in the joins. Enjoying seeing your progress so far.
tim

Thank you Tim. I just put the finishing touches to it a few minutes ago. Need to fix dinner and then will shoot some pics of the completed build and get them posted. Thanks again for the kind words. "Q"

Well this one is complete. There were a few hiccup areas along the way with the belly and spine seams, but they were easy to deal with. I lost a few panel lines due to sanding, but was able to rescribe them and all is well. I decided to add the FOD covers as I could not dress the seam on the interior of the engines well enough to eliminate it completely. I could not find any reference pics of what the actual FOD covers looked like on a 66 airframe, so I took a SWAG at it. They are only glued on with white glue, so if I find out they are wrong later, I can pop them off, and replace them with a correct set. I like the little splash of color the candy striped pitot adds to the bird. Hope you enjoyed the quick build. Thanks for following along. "Q"

Looks good, hope I can find this thread when I finally get around to the B-66 in the stash.

Ok Mark, you are showing off now great build and in a time I can only dream about.

Bob

Ah, that's Matt who's showing off

Sorry Mark and Matt, I was thinking about the Gator Glue that Mark wanted a report on and got my posts mixed up. Matt this still goes for you. Ok Mark, you are showing off now, great build and in a time I can only dream about.

Bob

Thanks for the kind words guys. There isn't a lot of parts to this thing to start with, so that was half the battle there. Add to the fact that I have a lot of free time with little else to do...and well, you get the idea. Thanks for the kudos, much appreciated. The next build is coming shortly. I will tell you this much about it...it'll go on a different forum and different site. Totally scratch built too. More to follow...
"Q"

Hi Matt
Congratulations on a outstanding build. The subtle shading of the colours is very effective. So what's next for the modeling machine.
tim

Thanks Tim. As to what is next...something Sci-fi. A total scratch built piece I have been working on for some time now. Trying to get enough copies made to sell at the IPMS nationals in August. I will post some pics over on Model Geek soon. Thanks again for the kudos. "Q"

Matt, this I would like to see I (sci-fi) and have you looked at Von Cuda's End of Days campaign?

Bob

Matt,
Another 'Post Shaded' masterpiece! Your technique caught my attention as I followed your Su-24 build and I just read your 'how-to' article. I can't wait to try it out on a few kits I have with raised panel lines.

Keep up the good work!

Keith