1/144 RAN and RNZAF Superbugs Build Thread

[Cliffy B]

Hey guys, those of you watching my profile thread may of noticed I said I'd start a build thread soon.  Well here it is!  The original plan was to build 4 at once; 2 Echoes and 2 Foxtrots for a model contest next weekend.  Well, thanks to some parts slipping while the glue cured its down to one of each type now.  I'll have to perform some surgery on the mishaps which I'll leave for a later date.  So the Arctic Aggressor bugs of VFC-111 will have to wait but the RAN and RNZAF bugs are proceeding full swing.    After one more round of putty and final construction tonight, they'll be heading for their first trip to the paint booth tomorrow afternoon!  Now onto the photos.

Profiles of the planned bugs

805 Sqn RAN HMAS Sydney (IV) 2010 - Sqn Leader


No 75 Sqn RNZAF 2010



Overall shot of the bench with all 4 main body parts laid out.


Close up on the parts of an Echo.


Cockpits painted.  Instrument panels are provided as well but be warned.  If you glue them in place without first dry fitting the cockpit assembly you'll have a mess of problems.  They don't line up worth anything.  DML could have been a little clearer in how to align the parts instead of leaving it up to guess work.  The cockpit is so small in the end though that you won't miss them if you leave them off entirely.


Ejection seats painted; cleaned up later.


Bodies done with dry fitted nose sections.


Close up on the Echo


Close up on the Foxtrot


Close up on the bottoms showing the amount of filler needed.



Overall I'd say these are pretty good kits.  You just need to dry fit often!  A lot of parts needed sanding/reshaping just to get them to fit where they were supposed to.  After looking at reviews of the larger scale kits I wouldn't be surprised if DML somehow got their hands on some 1/72 Hasegawa molds and scaled them down.  A lot of parts and assembly methods are almost exactly the same.

I'm almost done here, just one more construction step and I can start painting.  Then its time to make some custom decals!

Question, which should be the Echo and which the Foxtrot and what kind of armament?  I was thinking of making the Foxtrot the RAN bug since the RAAF just bought some of the same and the Echo the RNZAF bug.  As far as weapons, I wanted the RAN bug loaded for maritime strike with Harpoons, AMRAAMS, Sidewinders, and a center line tank.  For the RNZAF bug I wanted a SEAD load out with HARMS, LGBS, AMRAAMs, Sidewinders, and a center line tank.  

Thoughts, ideas, complaints, etc... are always appreciated.

[NARSES2]

Quite a little production line you have going there. Not my usual period or scale but it will be a nice way of showing off a couple of very atractive schemes 

[Cliffy B]

Thanks NARSES2!  I'll say this scale can get tricky and frustrating very fast but I enjoy the fact that I can construct in a day or two and crank out fully finished planes in under a week.  Combined with the low cost ($10-15 for TWO kits!) this scale is quickly becoming my favorite.


Update, 5 Hours in Adobe Illustrator and the custom decals and done and printed!!!!  Its my first time making custom decals and they look pretty good.  We'll see how well they work on the bugs in a few days.  I'll let them dry overnight and then hit 'em with the bonding spray tomorrow.

Ordnance all got it first coat of paint today.  Harpoons and HARMS are gonna need a 2nd coat of white, its just hard to get good coverage with that color.  After that I'll try my hand at masking the stripes off and painting those.

Fuselages need one more coat of putty and then they're off to the paint booth.  I'll post up some shots tomorrow night if all goes according to plan.

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Looks very promising. Good luck 

Ian

[Cliffy B]

Alrighty, zee bugs are ready for paint!!!

Ready for primer!


Close up on the ordnance stack.
Currently we have:
4 AIM-9Ms (Swiped from a DML Tomcat kit)
3 AIM-7Ps (Bent the thin arse AMRAAMs all to heck and back so they're in the trash)
4 AGM-88Cs
4 AGM-84Ds
4 GBU-10s (2000 pounders)
4 Mk-20 Rockeyes (Swiped from a DML Intruder kit) for the two twin bomb cradles above them.
1 Lantirn Pod for the GBUs
2 Center line drop tanks
1 Spare drop tank
Some main gear parts and the canopies too.  I see some Future baths in their futures (and yes the pun WAS intended  )



Close up on the Foxtrot


Close up on the Echo


Underside of Echo with hard points installed.


I elected to leave off the horizontal and vertical tails for to make the decals easier.  The fit of the tails is actually very snug so no putty will be needed allowing for a post paint install.  Left off the hard points on the Foxtrot since she'll be getting the wrap around scheme and the Echo won't.  That will make painting much easier.

So off to hit 'em with some primer either later tonight or early tomorrow morning.  More photos to follow.

[sotoolslinger]

Obviously fake pictures as it is impossible to build models that small Nice 

[Cliffy B]

Alrighty...after a wonderfully severe allergy attack that knocked me out for most of the day I have some progress shots, and they have paint!!!!

Two bugs dressed in white.  They look rather nice like this.  I wonder how well a Thunderbirds scheme would look? 


Global shot of the bench with the bugs and all of their tails.


Underside of the Aussie Foxtrot


Topside of the Aussie Foxtrot



I found that the airbrush was useful in laying down the base colors but the camo patterns are better done by hand by a small brush.  They're just too darn small in the scale to try and do complex wavy masking and get it to look right.  Masking sharp angles is easy enough but trying to cut smooth curves.....my eyes still ache and I'm only 23!


Primer is Testor's rattle can Flat white.  I found after much deliberation that MM Light Ghost Gray and F-15 Dark Gray matches the RAN scheme pretty well.  I know its not 100% correct but its close enough for my liking.  All the RAN bug needs now is its black hood and she'll be ready for final assembly and decaling.  I'm not sure if the SEA scheme is gonna happen in time for the contest seeing how tomorrow is my last day to work on them.  I'll try but the RAN bug is taking priority at the moment.  Will have to wait and see what time I have left.  If not I'll finish it up on Sunday.  Wish me luck!

[ChernayaAkula]

Su-weeeet! 


Thunderbirds, huh?

[Captain Canada]

Neato. Small Superbugs are cool !

[Spey_Phantom]

awesome 1/144 superbugs 
i havent seen any 1/144 Dragon kits out here lately, but if i find any, expect me to make some danish or Belgians

i cant wait to see them all finished 

[Cliffy B]

Well it just seems that the plan never really goes....according to plan....  Seems the decal paper I used was a bit too old and the decals dry up and fall apart after removal from the backing sheet  

11th Hour contingency plan in effect for the contest!  The SEA camo did not happen, I'll finish up the Kiwi bug later.  The bug going into the show will look like the RAN bug in the profile I drew up but it will be sporting USN markings since that's all I have.  I didn't want to have to do this but its all I can do at the moment.  Don't have anymore decal paper or time to make new ones so stock decals from from another DML kit will have to suffice for the contest.  Yeah I could wait and not enter anything but I want to enter so I am going to!  I'll be remaking the RAN bug so don't worry.  I still have 4 more "micro" bugs waiting for assembly.

It seems that this particular Super Bug will be sporting a temporary/experimental camo scheme and be assigned to the USN.  Which squadron I'm not exactly sure just yet.  Will probably wind up being VF-31 since I have an abundance of their decals in this scale.  It should still look rather neat and will still be a whiff albeit not the one I wanted to make but oh well.  Live and learn.  I definitely won't make the same mistakes on the next ones.  I'll post up some shots later on.  She'll still be loaded down with ordnance though.  Something about a clean combat aircraft that just doesn't look right  

I'll post shots of the contest as well the finished bug by tomorrow night.  Wish me luck guys!

"When gives you lemons, you make lemonade!"  The bug shall be salvaged.  I will NOT bow to defeat!!!!!

[Cliffy B]

Yeah well when it rains it pours......    Thanks to DMLs insistence on uber tiny parts and the inherent weaknesses of said tiny parts the landing gear crapped out me!!!!!!  She's all decaled up but the gear just went kaput, snapped, and flew off into the carpet monster.  And I already used up the spares earlier because of the same problem.  YARGH!!!!!  Its also 6AM and I haven't gone to bed yet and I have to be up at 8    Thought I could pull it off, was almost there and Murphy and his damn law had to show up....  I'll try and repair it Sunday with some parts from some other kits but there's no way its gonna make it into the show.  I'll post photos later.  Right now I'm going to try and take a nap before I have to jet out to the contest.  Going to go and support my friend and play photo journalist.  I at least learned a lot about building this little buggers and given the fact that this was my first complete model in over 10 years I'd say I did quite well given the time constraints.  Live and learn....

[Captain Canada]

That sucks.

I was building a pair pf their Tornados and was proud as punch that I got the gear assembled properly....then when they dried and I flipped them over, they both had the exact same lean to the left. I was so pissed that they got tossed back into the box and have been there ever since...

[Cliffy B]

Alright gents, here's some shots of the RAN turned USN Superbug currently around 80% complete.  All it needs is the hard points, ordnance, and tails glued on but it's going to take a backseat for a week or so while I finish up a group build entry.

Wound up using the decals for VFA-41 included in the kit and reworked the tail to a more retro design.  All white, gray, and red is masked and painted.  Only decals are the spade, modex number,slime light, and USS Nimitz.  I like it, thoughts?



Here's some overall and closeup shots of the bug.











In retrospect, I think from now on I will build these little 1/144 DML kits as flying dios and leave the gear off.  All the problems started once I tried to cut the gear doors and glue them on.  The gear gave me the most problems with these bugs.  Kudos to DML for making them so detailed but that also made too delicate in areas.  I snapped the Cat attachment bar on 3 of the 4 nose gears before I even got them off the sprues.  It was nice of them to include 2 spares but the sprue attachment points are numerous and poorly placed.  I don't know how many parts I ruined just trying to get them off the sprues thanks to those little tabs being everywhere    They can cast Harpoons with one attachment point at the rocket motor yet the AAMs have 7 points! SEVEN!!!  and they are 1.5mm wide!!!!!!!!   

Enough ranting, hope you enjoy the work so far.

Any comments, thoughts, ideas, etc... are appreciated as always.

-Mike

[NARSES2]

That's some great work there and then to realise it's 1/144