Strength is Victory: भारतीय ईगल of भारतीय वायु सेना

[Gondor]

Well things never seem to go as planned.

Went to remove the fin a bit later and found that for some reason it was stuck in place. After a tug I freed the fin which also removed the longer plastic tube which the brass rod was supposed to sit freely inside. For some reason both the brass tube and plastic tubes were glued together 

So Plan 1B 

Insert longer plastic tube, shorten the Brass tube so it cant get glued to the plastic tube, absolutely no idea why that happened and remove the remaining plastic pin from the fin.

First stage. Longer plastic tube.



The external diameter of the plastic tube is the same as the diameter of the pin that is on the kit's fin so it fits nicely through the existing hole.



Second stage. The remaining plastic pin was removed. This was part of my initial thoughts but I thought that I would not be able to drill far enough into the fin accurately to provide a decent location for the metal pin.



My worries over the depth of the hole I could create were unfounded. I managed roughly 5mm depth. The dark lines further up the fin are pencil lines drawn in line from the side of the plastic pin to act as a guide while drilling.



So that's that problem sorted out! The fin requires a slight push to get it to fit snugly, but it near vertical and able to move freely and also means that I can fit the model into the carry box which only has 9cm hight between the Polystyrene sheet I place my models onto and the lid.



Yes I know that the tail plains need to be fitted, however with the build sequence that I have used compared to the sequence that Airfix came up with, I will be simply glueing them to the attachment points rather than to the washers on the inside of the fuselage.



It's not neat, its not the best ever build either. But it looks like a TSR2 and as I don't intend for this to go into a competition so it's not going to matter that it's not perfect.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Phew, that was grabbing success out of a potential fail mode Alastair. Good job. 

[Gondor]

Phew, that was grabbing success out of a potential fail mode Alastair. Good job. 

Thanks Kit, not sure about the plastic to metal bonding though. All I can think of is a mix of fine tolerance of fit combined with a somewhat porous metal. Had to cut the plastic tube off the brass tube so the plastic tube in the final pictures is a new section. The thicker section of tube fitted to the bottom of the fuselage was glued in place with Revell Contacta Professional then a blob or two of super glue was used to make sure that the bottom end didn't move anywhere.

Added what I hope is the last filler for the model, I will sand it back tomorrow as I like to make sure any filler has had plenty of time to cure.



While the aircraft was flat on its back I decided to fix the weapons bay bombs in place. A touch of paint to cover up the glue between the bombs and they are finished.



A drop of super glue into the hole where the mounting pin was going and a drop on the surface of the bomb to be in contact with the weapons bay roof with a light touch to hold everything in place and that was it. Dead easy 

Weapons pylons got a coat of Light Aircraft Grey tonight as well so I could easily be glueing the Freightdog 1,000lbers onto the bomb beams some time tomorrow. Starting to get to the paint stage now and the box is getting very empty indeed. Still got loads to do including the nose wheels which need the hubs finished off and the tyres painted still 

Gondor

[Gondor]

More progress. It's starting to get finished. Pretty much just the nose probe, wheels and under wing weapons and pylons as well as the obvious paint and decals. Just a shame that I am losing almost all of two days worth as I am shopping with my girlfriend tomorrow, that's providing transport and muscles to carry the shopping, followed by being at her mums to help go through the bits her aunt left when she died. Most of Friday will be taken up with the funeral of said aunt so I may or may not manage to get a little bit of modelling done on Friday evening.

Anyway, enough sad news so on with the pictures.



Still need to touch up the edges of the undercarriage bays and doors with Light Admiralty Grey before I paint the underside in Light Aircraft Grey. I don't expect to be doing that until Saturday though as I have a few bits of PSR that I feel I must do for my own sake.

Now I have drawn some pencil lines under the wings. There is a very good reason for that and once you have looked at the picture I will explain my reasoning behind putting them there. 



Now you have looked at the picture it's my turn to keep my end or the bargain. 

The start of the pencil lines is at the hole in the underside of the wing where the pylon mounting points are. These are defined by Airfix as circles on the underside of the wing near the leading edge, roughly 1.5cm for the outer pylon and roughly 2cm for the inner wing pylon. I measured the distance to the rear of each pylon from the forward locating pin in sixteenths of an inch but drew each line two sixteenths shorter than measured so that I knew where each pylon was to go so that I could try not to put too much paint on that line. Whether it will work we will have to see.

Not sure if I should have serials under the wings and if so what size, nor have I decided what serial range I should use for the aircraft as the Indian Air Force appears to use a different letter for each aircraft type, though I could be wrong about that.

Gondor

[Gondor]

The undersides are now a nice uniform Light Aircraft Grey so I have reached a stage that I do not like. Masking 

It's the fiddling around with tape that never wants to go where you want it to go nor to stick when you want it to and always does when you don't want it to stick.

I can handle the paint demarcation between upper surface colours reasonably well by hand, its the hard edge between the top and bottom colours that I find difficult. Got to be done though or I don't get to the decal stage and the model doesn't get finished 

Still got to come up with a serial number for this aircraft though

Gondor

[Gondor]

First coat of paint on the upper surfaces and it looks a right mess. For some reason the tin of Humbrol paint I am using does not want to stick to the brush unless I spend at least fifteen minutes stirring the darn thing, then after five minutes it needs mixing again or it will stop adhering to the brush. Think I will try adding a couple of drops of thinners to the tin for its second coat. Still got under the tail planes as well as their leading edges and those of the wings along with the cockpit canopies to paint but I think I can get away with sorting them out tomorrow evening.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Well I added some thinners to the paint today but its still thickening up way faster than I would expect so I have to keep stopping to thin it down a bit. My conclusion is that the volatiles that Humbrol are using to keep the pigment liquid are a little too volatile 

All I did on the aircraft today was to adjust the amount of fuselage the upper camouflage will cover as the demarcation line was way too high. Going to add the Green to the upper surfaces tomorrow in an attempt to reduce the amount of painting I have to do. Don't worry, that sentence makes sense to me. 

Gondor

[NARSES2]

Acrylic or enamel paint ?

Must admit I found the "flip" top tubs that Humbrol originally used for their acrylics led to the paint drying out very, very quickly. The newer style screw tops are far better. Humbrol also had to bring their paint manufacture back to the UK as they were having horrendous production control problems, and those overseas made paints are still out there 

[Gondor]

Acrylic or enamel paint ?

Must admit I found the "flip" top tubs that Humbrol originally used for their acrylics led to the paint drying out very, very quickly. The newer style screw tops are far better. Humbrol also had to bring their paint manufacture back to the UK as they were having horrendous production control problems, and those overseas made paints are still out there 

Enamel and it could well be some of the overseas made lot as I buy from Hobbycraft as its the only place I can get to on a regular basis.

Not keen on the Xtracrylic paint but the Humbrol Acrylic is ok.

It's basically each to their own as far as paint preference goes, some hate one brand or range while someone else loves the same paint.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Definitely sure it's the paint now as I have just brushed the green on with no problem other than my fingers getting involved so I now have to touch up the Light Grey on the underside where I left a green thumb print 
They style of the printing on the tin is the same for the greys, multiple coats and thickening paint, with the green having a different font and style and no problem covering and staying liquid.

Starting to look better now there is some decent paint coverage on the top



Gondor

[NARSES2]

It's basically each to their own as far as paint preference goes, some hate one brand or range while someone else loves the same paint.

Gondor

Very much so. I like Lifecolor in acrylics and White Ensign in enamels although I use a host of different makes and my preference can change as quickly as ladies fashion 

[Gondor]

A second coat of Dark Grey is on and it's covered well, must be all the thinners I have added. Touching up the Light Grey will be for tomorrow than I can get on with the black and the metal exhaust area prior to decalling. Definitely getting there.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Looks good. The plane is just a natural in camo. Love the bomb load as well !

[Gondor]

Looks good. The plane is just a natural in camo. Love the bomb load as well !

That's just what's in the weapons bay Captain, there will be two pylons under each wing as well!

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Perfect !

PS-Everytime I see the thread title I see " Strength through Victory" and it doesn't make any sense