(#1 DONE! , pix pg. 3&4) AVG Sunblazers Flight Demonstration Team Yak9 by Airfix

[Mossie]

Definitey bird wings/feathers but that's all I will divulge. 

Like from a bird of prey maybe? 

Yuuuuup!  At this point I think most people have had the chance to have fun at the guessing or sitting on the answer..  Definitely off of a BoP.  There's another caveat to the story that I will get into later on as I refine the write up and get closer toward actual completion. If it pans out, we may have some historically significant information presented that I'm not sure many whif enthusiasts know about. I guess I'll find out soon....

Sorry, didn't mean to be cagey with the answer, I didn't read the first message properly!

I'll add a little background and say they're from the Romulan version of the Klingon D7 cruiser, (not strictly speaking a BoP).  They're from Star Trek The Animated Series  as the Romulan D7's only got bird markings in TOS when it was remastered.

[TheChronicOne]

Definitey bird wings/feathers but that's all I will divulge. 

Like from a bird of prey maybe? 

Yuuuuup!  At this point I think most people have had the chance to have fun at the guessing or sitting on the answer..  Definitely off of a BoP.  There's another caveat to the story that I will get into later on as I refine the write up and get closer toward actual completion. If it pans out, we may have some historically significant information presented that I'm not sure many whif enthusiasts know about. I guess I'll find out soon....

Sorry, didn't mean to be cagey with the answer, I didn't read the first message properly!

I'll add a little background and say they're from the Romulan version of the Klingon D7 cruiser, (not strictly speaking a BoP).  They're from Star Trek The Animated Series  as the Romulan D7's only got bird markings in TOS when it was remastered.

No worries, you were playing along with the "spirit of the game" and I figured it's just "good show" to allow others time to show up and have a guess. 

You nailed it. Good eye, 100% dead on accurate. And yeah... good with the correction, the D7 was a cruiser not a BoP...    I'll not flub that one again. hehhe

You are the Trivia Champion for this round and I'm glad to know I'm in good company around here. I was sure hoping folks around would recognize these and I wasn't disappointed. There has to be at least a few Trekkers in any community, if you ask me..........

[Mossie]

Definitey bird wings/feathers but that's all I will divulge. 

Like from a bird of prey maybe? 

Yuuuuup!  At this point I think most people have had the chance to have fun at the guessing or sitting on the answer..  Definitely off of a BoP.  There's another caveat to the story that I will get into later on as I refine the write up and get closer toward actual completion. If it pans out, we may have some historically significant information presented that I'm not sure many whif enthusiasts know about. I guess I'll find out soon....

Sorry, didn't mean to be cagey with the answer, I didn't read the first message properly!

I'll add a little background and say they're from the Romulan version of the Klingon D7 cruiser, (not strictly speaking a BoP).  They're from Star Trek The Animated Series  as the Romulan D7's only got bird markings in TOS when it was remastered.

No worries, you were playing along with the "spirit of the game" and I figured it's just "good show" to allow others time to show up and have a guess. 

You nailed it. Good eye, 100% dead on accurate. And yeah... good with the correction, the D7 was a cruiser not a BoP...    I'll not flub that one again. hehhe

You are the Trivia Champion for this round and I'm glad to know I'm in good company around here. I was sure hoping folks around would recognize these and I wasn't disappointed. There has to be at least a few Trekkers in any community, if you ask me..........

Yeah, I just saw your response to Flyer and thought you wanted to hold back for the reveal, then saw the text after your pic later.

I wouldn't call myself a Trekker, I enjoy the films and tv series but the reason I recognised them is that I have the kit it came from.  Saying that, I might do a Star Trek build for this GB!

[TheChronicOne]

Knock yourself out! That would be awesome. 

[TheChronicOne]

This kit with a lil buddy, so I've been painting on him. All completely made up. It's my Flight Team jumpsuit and stuff. Painted the thingy yellow cuz it's a life preserver that inflates. Since my decals are having brown and yellow tones I want to stick to similar complementary colors for things so I'm going to be using whites, yellows, and oranges on all this. That's why his suit has the orange accents.









I think I'll bring the orange down a little further on his head covering and maybe try painting eyes with a needle or something..   at this extreme distance you can make out the face pretty good! 

You guessed it.. the eyes became a sun visor. Looks alright to me especially from a few inches or more away. Finished up his gloves and now he'll be glued to the seat.

[zenrat]

i'm a Trekkie by marriage.

Pilot looks good and colourfull.

[TheChronicOne]

i'm a Trekkie by marriage.

Pilot looks good and colourfull.

That sort of counts.  LOL


Thanks! He turned out good. Painting stuff that small can be a pain in the butt but pretty fun when it turns out ok and with minimal re-touch.  Him and his seat are the only interior pieces on this kit. I'm not going to add anything. I want to keep it OOB.  Seeing as how him and his chair are the only game in town, I had to hook him up.  Alls I know is I need some micro brushes or something better than needles. The paint pools up a little ways up the needle instead of on the point where I need it...   Toothpicks are too large. 

[TheChronicOne]

Trying my best to keep up with "in progress" photos. I've been so busy lately..



About to start body work on this plane. The alignment of the fuselage on the under side of this is WRETCHED. I mean, it's BAD.



Copious amounts of filler and sanding will be necessary plus I'm considering filling in the giant hole where it hooks onto the stand. Still undecided on that. Probably not... why let the neat little stand go to waste?

[Captain Canada]

Looking good. Be wary of that pilot tho, he's trying to steal your money !

[TheChronicOne]

LOL!!   

He just might pull a "Putin on the Ritz" and ride off into the sunset with me quarter. 

[TheChronicOne]

Spent a few hours yesterday slowly working on this (and I finally started the Mig 27 as well) trying to fix the most disastrous "stepping" I've ever seen. I don't have much experience using putty yet so I'm not exactly thrilled with the challenge. I'll just say that I'm glad I got to practice a bit before the start of the GB.

Anyhow...





It's all a LOT better but I'm going to hit it with primer here in a minute and we'll watch the dozens flaws come out of the woodwork...   No worries, though, I'm going to address the things I see and hit it with another coat of primer, repeat, until it's all cleared up. I have a really neat scheme planned for the underside I so I'd like it to look good. Normally I might let a little flaw here or there slide but the bottom will be a focal point this time around so none of that!   

[TheChronicOne]

A few hours work later....

I think I got everything smoothed and leveled... as last time, when I got done typing this out I'm going to go hit it with primer.



If It turns out smooth enough for me all I have to do now is put on the final color. Well, one of the final colors. I've hit a bump in my plan. I need to go buy some paint. LOL  This one may sit on the shelf in limbo for a week or more while I progress with the Mig 27 and the yet to be *officially* announced FU-2 Hawk. 

[TheChronicOne]

I just plain old am not good at using filler. I've gotten better but it seems to take hours of effort and multiple re-dos. 



Oh well... I won't give up, I'll keep going.  I was hoping to let this sit a few days and work on my Mig and start my U2 Spyplane WHIF but I'll keep chugging on this. The top side of the plane is pretty close to being good to go but this belly is a disaster and I'm just not good enough to fix it quickly or easily.

I'll work on this and my Mig in between and hopefully by this afternoon some time I can put away my Yak and break out the U2.

[TheChronicOne]

Keep fighting it, I'm sure it will look great when finished.

Did you find a U2 canopy or are you substituting?

No dice yet on the canopy and so far my own stash fails to yield anything. I found the falcon set for about $14 after shipping on ebay but It will probably be another month or so before I can afford it. I have to pay my truck registration all of a sudden. Seems like I forget about it every year til the thing arrives in the mail.  Not only that, one of my larger pieces of lawn equipment had a piece snap in half so I'm going to have to order that.. Not sure how much it will cost. Every time I get things paid down, more things break!   

I guess the good new is I finally broke out the U2 yesterday and started trimming things up and doing some research..   If it comes down to to I'll just build the entire thing and in the worst case scenario I can glue on the windscreen dead last once I finally get it ordered. 

[TheChronicOne]

Finally picked it up again right at the end of the evening here to sand down the latest fixing.

To my amazement, from what I can see, it actually sanded down really, really well. It just all went together this time. Of course, I need to hit it again with the primer but I can see pretty good (20/10 vision and a Dr in the practice for ~40 years said I have the best eyesight of anyone he'd ever seen, and TRUST ME, this helps on these small models) and I think I finally have it well enough to roll with the next phase of painting.