Hi all

Just arrived at Castle Aeroscale is Eduard's brand new Delfin, which they've kindly supplied for a review-build. Many thanks to Andy for forwarding the kit - which will make a really nice change from my usual WW2 and early aviation subjects:



First impressions are very positive. It looks a well designed and pretty straightforward kit, with some very nice crisp detail where it counts.

I'll try to get underway in the next few days - and I've got next week off work, so I hope to crack on with this and FRROM's IAR-80 then. The two kits should complement each other very nicely.

More soon.

All the best

Rowan

Pulling up a chair for this one Rowan, I can't remember the last jet you built.
Andy

Cheers Andy

My last jet?... actually finished?... it might have been Eduard's MiG-21 - and that was quite a while ago!



But it was a real blast getting away from my usual comfort zone then - and I've no doubt the same will be true with the Delfin.

All the best

Rowan

Hi,
I forgot about that one, and it was only 7 years ago lol.
Also forgot what a stunning job you did of it.
Definitely time to step out of your comfort zone, and build something with the prop on the inside lol.
Andy

Rowan,
I'm joining Andy and pulling up my big old rocking chair for this one. I can't even remember your Mig-21 build it's been so long ago. the L-29 looks like an interesting alternative from the usual jet offerings, especially the ones that adorn my stash these days.

Joel

Cheers guys

I made a tentative start at tea-time and will aim to get stuck in properly in the morning. I spotted one small problem on the ejection seats - a short-shot, which is unusual for Eduard - but it will be easy to fix. I'll take photos once I get underway.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

After a slight delay I'm beginning to get underway - and I should get a bit of quality build-time in over the week ahead.

Here are the basic parts for the ejection seats. They are moulded identically on two sprues, so you need to do a little surgery on the rear seat.



There are knock-out pin marks on the inner sides of the seats and the backs of he headrests. The latter might be visible from some angles, so I filled them all with Vallejo acrylic filler.



Here's the short-shot I mentioned above. At first I thought I must have unwittingly damaged the part, but it's the same on both sets of mouldings in my kit. I'll just trim off the opposite side and add replacement bar from stretched sprue. To be honest, that'll save cleaning up the join in the centre anyway, so it may even be easier in the long run than if the part had been moulded fully.



All the best

Rowan

Aaahhh, very nice to see this one being build. I have the AMK 1/72 kit, whichs begs to be build, so i follow your build with interest.

Which markings will you choose? A nmf variant or a camo variant (I like the TacAir very much).



Jelger

That MIG looks great. I hope you have similar success with the delfin

Cheers guys - thanks for looking in.

@ Jelger - I think I'm going to go for camouflage. I've seriously considered the TacAir scheme, but at the moment I'm leaning towards the Egyptian one. I don't think I've ever built an Egyptian Air Force aircraft.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

Eduard provide a fret of their excellent pre-coloured photo-etched parts. The instrument panels should look great, but the side consoles are a bit 2-dimensional compared with the moulded detail on the cockpit tub:



If you choose to use the styrene details, you'll need to fill some rather prominent ejection pin marks.



Lucking at the bottom of the tub are integrally-moulded rudder pedals. As you can see, they suffer from sink marks due to their thickness. They'd have have been much better as separate items - particularly as Eduard suggest carving them out to replace them with etched pedals.

I'm honestly not sure doing that will be worth it, because there'll almost inevitably be some hard to hide damage from the surgery. So, I'll probably compromise by attaching the etched pedals to the styrene stumps.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

Just a quick update on the previous post. After dry-fitting the instrument panels and centre bulhead, it's clear that the front four ejector pin marks will be hidden, so there's no need to fill them:



The rear pin marks may still show after the seat rails etc. are in place.

All the best

Rowan

Rowan,
any progress on your L-29 Delfin? Seeing you actually build a jet isn't something we get to see very often.

Joel

Hi Joel

I'm hoping to make a bit more progress in the next few days. Everything's been rather hijacked by surprise events in the last couple of weeks, but I think I've got everything sorted and ready ahead of what will be a 15-month modelling/writing project. With that done, it gives me the next few weeks to concentrate on finishing up existing builds.

All the best

Rowan

is this re-pop of the AMK L-29 Delfin or a new kit ?
i did a build review of the AMK kit, it was pretty good.

all the best with yours

paul

Hi Paul,
Yep. its a re-pop with a bit of Eduard magic thrown in the way of resin parts, and several decal options.
Andy

thanks andy, i thought a couple of the parts looked familier. a nice little kit.

paul

Hi again

Today's planned session disappeared due to work as all too often. But, I've got the day off tomorrow, so I aim to get stuck in!

Seeing Paul's and Andy's note that this is a re-box explains a lot. As I seldom build jets, it hadn't clicked that it's the AMK kit in a different guise, but I'd had a definite "this just doesn't seem like Eduard" feeling after the short-shot and as I filled all the ejection pin marks (there are a lot more that aren't in the photos). It also explains why some of the etched parts seem a bit of an afterthought - they are.

Anyway... the current state of play... with the pin marks filled, I've shot a grey base-coat over the interior parts, so it should all start to come to life now.

All the best

Rowan