Saying that Mike likes IAF stuff is like calling a bear furry. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. "Q"

All, Something has been brought to my attention and I need to address it here. I am not pointing fingers at anybody so please don't take this personally. In past campaigns I have run, I have had people join in at the very end of the campaign by posting only a single pic of their completed build saying something like "Its done" and then in the gallery or just a pic in the gallery. Now I'd like to think that everybody plays by the rules and such, but I know better. So, I am going to have to ask that Work In Progress pics be posted in the thread. If getting a campaign ribbon is the sole reason to be doing these builds, then something is wrong. The builds are about sharing ideas, suggestions, modeling techniques etc. It really puts a bad taste in my mouth to sit here and write this, but it really isn't fair to those that actively contribute to the threads. I hope this clears things up. Thanks, "Q"

Hi all
I thought I would join the party if that's Ok with you all?

I have always liked this image on the cover of this book on the BAC or SEPECAT Jaguar by Arthur Reed. A Cold War aircraft in a cold climate.



I will be building the Airfix 1/72 Jaguar and I will be finishing it as the aircraft on the cover in white and dk green. Started it a couple of days ago, built a scratch cockpit. I may use a resin bang seat although with some minor modifications, the kits seat is not a million miles away in accuracy. I will try to be quick with this one, I even glued the wings on before gluing the two halves of the fuselage. Still working on the cockpit, although I am not going to go mad with it.
All the best.
tim

Jets are not my usual thing but I do have the hasegawa 1/72 sabre in the stash.
So I took it out tonight. VERY basic. Dreaded putting it together.

Actually a couple of hours and the airframe is together and snap tight!
Not bad for a 70s moulding. Feels really well engineered. it all fits very positively.

Has to be gear up unless you want a pile of work cutting out the gear doors.

Boxed in the seat and I'll add some switches and levers before dropping the pilot in. Also added some card round the front intake to avoid the see-through.

Blue Impulse decals look attractive but don't know how successful I'll be.

I assume Japan is OK for Cold War.
Here it is just before I glued up the fuselage.



The kit is basic and looks a bit long and skinny and the panel lines might need killed off. Blue Impulse look super clean. But it was cheap and really quick to put together.

Looking good gentlemen. Thanks for the WIP pics. "Q"

The Start photo of my Mirage project:



I'm using the Eduard 1/48 Mirage IIIC Profipack kit to do an Israel IIICJ. I have the old AeroMaster Desert Mirages decal sheet (as well as kit decals) and just have to decide which specific airplane I'll be doing. Pretty sure it will be a bare metal '67 bird though.

Michael

And some progress:


the Black Hole. Happily Eduard gives you two sets of those handles on the panel, as I lost one of each.


and the nose wheel well (they're one assembly)

I have also sanded back the insides of the leading edges of the wings. To be honest, this isn't my first Eduard Mirage and I remember the fit problems with the wings. The leading edge is all part of the top halves of the wings and the underside butts up against it. There's a big step there if you don't watch out, so this time hopefully I'm going to counteract that. We'll see!

Michael

Got a question for you jet guys. What to do about the jet pipe at the back of my sabre. Looks truely awful.
What can I use to scratch one? I've tried heating styrene stock around a dowel to make a tube but can't get it to stick.
Biro is too big. Plastic straws I have in the house are too small.
I guess a selection of plastic straws might have one close enough.
It is just a case finding one or is there some trick I'm missing in making one?

Thanks in advance.

BTW V little filler needed on the sabre. Tempted to do a NMF, but you don't see the Blue Impulse done in 1/72 often. I'll see how I get on with the decals.

Got it. A 1/72 ME109 fuel tank has the right outer diameter. Chop off the ends and bevel out one end to make it look scale thickness. Perfect.

Gotta love the spares box.

sanded off the raised lines, Coat of primer.

Couple of wee sink marks and slight work on wing roots todo.


Same on the top side.


New jet pipe dry fitted. Again more clean up todo on the seams and tidy up the bevelling.

That Sabre's coming along nicely.

Note that you can often use drinking straws as jet pipes for many early 1/72 jets.

Well, after my misfortune of losing one of the main parts of the kit I have finished the red and silver Scorpion as used by the USAAF in the 1950s and 1960's.

Decals were OK, but they did not like nestling down even with copious amounts of Solvaset system softeners. Oh well.




Oh, and its Revell's 1/72 scale version. The date on the decals was 1991. It has engraved lines and the ft is good to great. Very little filler was used and then it was only the Mr Surfacer 500 variety.

Leep on buildng guys and gals.

Nice build, Warren. Camouflage was not really the priority back then. Love the checkerboard and the shark teeth.

Nice progress, JP. Clever solution for the exhaust pipe.

Looking forward to see more

Nice recovery JP. The Scorpion came out great Warren. Makes me want to drag a few of them off of my shelf and knock one out. Make sure you post a couple of pics in the gallery too. Thanks, and as Warren said, keep at it guys and gals. "Q"

Thanks guys. If I were to build another one I would paint the checkerboards as the decals, while opaque and in register, were difficult to get to settle down, and the white is more pale cream than real white.

But unless ne comes out in 1/32 (please!!) this is my one and only F-89..

1/72 Warren? You must feel like a Giant handling such tiny things.
Very neat with that unforgiving scheme.

[sarcasm]Now my abSOLute favourity part of scale model building. Wait for MicroSol to work it's magic. I never ever feel like it is going to wrong.....[/sarcasm]
Feel my trepidation.


Fingers crossed. Nice colour though.

Insert Obi-wan voice over here..."Patience young Jedi JP" Looking good JP. I like the color. "Q"

Warren, beautiful bird there! Russell

Hi all,

Just found this campaign, and was going to jump in with an echelon Lightning that I got from Red4, but will save that for the vac campaign, so I will jump in with a 1/32 Tamiya Phantom converted into a FG.1 or FGR.2, depending on how successful I am at making my own decals... pics to follow- BTW, I have started this already, but after the start date of the campaign, hope that's ok-

Chesley

Thanks Russell and JP.

JP.. I am waiting to hear how it turned out with the Micro-sol..

Cheers

Patience is a virtue. Don't effing touch it when it is wrinkled.

Turned out fine.

30yr old hasegawa decals stuck together with damp, went on snug and neat with a touch of Microsol.

Just found out the underwing should be silver though. Fuselage is still white though.
A few coats of future should let me mask over the decals with post-it notes
but I'll get everything else done before I respray the wings. At least I'll have a pic of a nice looking A/C if I screw it up .


Pics later.

Welcome aboard Chesley. Your Phantom should be fine. The rest of the group will like your work. This guy does some amazing vacuform work all. He recently scratch built a 1/32 Vigilante. Awesome I tell you... "Q"

Hi Matt, thanks for the kind words- her is where I'm at with the British 'Toom....






Couldn't (and, at $1000+, wouldn't) afford the Wild Hare conversion, so I'm building this using Dr. Frank Mitchell's tutorial over at LSP. pretty straight-forward conversion-

Chesley

Now this I'm looking forward to seeing! I've seen Tamiya's F-4J done in RAF 74sqn markings, but a complete conversion to spey power? Never have I seen that. You sir have more skill and bravery than me, I (nor my wallet) just couldn't bring myself to start cutting up one of those kits.

Thanks, Stephen, I've always liked the 'brute" look of the British phantoms, so it was a natural for me to do this model. The conversion is pretty simple, as all the engineering has already been done by the original modeler- this more like a "paint by numbers" build than anything else. Also, forgot to post the pic of the back end- this was about 1/2 done when photographed, now it is a bit further along....





here is a link to the original article, done by the man who did the masters for the Wild hare kit... HTH!

http://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/JetAge/FrankMitchell/fgr4/fgr4.php