Great Wall Hobbies had molded a rather nice 1/48 scale T-33A early version, and when I saw the Caracal decals, I thought it time to build this kit.
Work naturally started with the cockpit, and the upper fuselage walls are visible when you look into the "Pit". There was one issue that needed to be addressed, and the tops of several injection pin marks were above the line where the tub gets glued into the fuselage. So out came the Bondo, and I filled, then sanded the ones that needed to be removed.
the cockpit tub is nicely molded with just the bare min amount of detail for the side panels.
The instrument panels are comprised of the front panel with raised bezels, and a backing plate that you apply decals to for the instruments, as well as the rudder pedal assemblies.
I primed all the interior cockpit parts with Mig Ammo Black primer to help give some additional shadow detail.
Then I airbrushed the IPs with a mix Mig Ammo FS36320 Dark Compass Ghost Gray and a drop of Black to darken it so that it matched the correct dark Gray FS26231 over the black primer. Then I hand brushed the bezels with Tamiya Nato Black as it's not as stark as their regular black. The next day I applied the decals to each backing plate
Gave the decals a day to cure, then glued up each of the IPs
I also airbrushed the tub, then hand painted the panels Tamiya Nato Black. I still need to finish dry brushing the knobs and switches.
and now you're up to date.
Joel
