Fiat G.91YP in the PoAF - "Big Butt Gina" - Finished PAG.8

[Dizzyfugu]

Looking very good. 

[Pellson]

Agreee with Dizzy. Really nice. Makes me want to take out my own example. 

[DogfighterZen]

She is a beauty indeed, isn't she?   

Last night i was about to start spraying when i realized i'm depicting this one taxying so the main gear doors should be closed as well as the bigger door for the nose gear so i glued those in place and won't need too much sanding as they fit surprisingly well.

Also remembered that i still didn't have pylons for the aim-9 missiles so i scracthed them up from a pair of unused hasegawa F-16 pylons, the Airfix P-80's underwing pylons and a couple of styrene strips to get something similar to the ones i see on the 3 pics i could find of the G.91YS prototype...





Pretty sure i'm not finishing this one before the end of the year but i'm not worried, i'll finish it when i can...

[NARSES2]

Pretty sure i'm not finishing this one before the end of the year but i'm not worried, i'll finish it when i can...

I like that approach   

[DogfighterZen]

Well, before the end of the year i managed to get a good session in and this was the result...

Scrounging through spare bits...


Got a pair of cannons made from styrene as the only needles o have are way too large for 30mm cannon barrels in this scale, maybe 1/48 would be more accurate...


A pair of chaff/flare dispensers...


And a bunch of RWR blisters for the nose and wings, 3 air scoops on the fuselage and a pitot tube, which was influenced by Dizzy's G.91YS and will be explained in the backstory...


And this one ends the year, hopefully it won't be long till i finish this one as my first for 2024...

Happy new year, y'all! 

[NARSES2]

Neat detail 

[DogfighterZen]

Neat detail 

Thanks, Chris! 

Yesterday i forgot to mention i also sanded down the smaller main gear doors cause they're the ones that will be open and the thickness was simply too much so, i laid them on a flat nail sanding stick and reduced them quite a bit.



Then i cut some styrene strips off a bit of scrap sprue and glued them on the interior faces to provide something more than a simple butt joint to glued them on when finishing the build. Did the same on the smaller nose gear door. The support strips had to be shortened, which was done after i took the pic. Nothing fancy but it will do the job.
I also found some spare F-16 landing gear parts that will provide actuator arms for these doors.



And today, once again, i was ready to spray some paint but then i looked at the drop tanks...
They don't look like the Gina's tanks, which almost look like a banana shape... and the fins are canted indeed but have fins so i sanded them a bit just to sharpen the round noses and then, styrene sheet to the rescue once more...
Tank on the right is the original kit tank, the one on the left has been sanded down and tails were cut to size.
Googled some pics and the fins were cut...



And now, IMO, i have slightly more accurate and better looking tanks... These actually look bigger then the real ones so they may have been newer tanks with slightly bigger capacity...



I still have some sanding to do on one of the tanks' nose because i sanded a bit too much and created a small hole in the seam because i had to sand quite a bit to get close to a pointy nose.
But that will be the last thing before i can begin spraying so, that will be left with some sprue goo drying overnight and tomorrow i may actually begin painting.

[PR19_Kit]

VERY intricate work there ZenMaster! 

[DogfighterZen]

Thank you, Kit! 
I'm having fun for sure because this is going beyond my original expectations for this build. I knew the kit was old and had poor detail but, i admit that i've been growing a bit more demanding in the past years so if there's something i think i can improve without wasting too much time, i'll try to do it.
In a way, because this is an OOP and hard to find kit, i wish i had the skill and determination to go all-in with the interior detail of the cockpit, engines, wheel bays and full engraving of the panel line and rivet detail but there's just so much missing that i think it would end up draining all my mojo and stalling the build.
I would have gone further if i had templates for multiple shapes and sizes of access hatches and smaller service panels but i don't have them so, for the "quick" build i had in mind when i started, this one has gone way past that idea so, maybe i'll try the "All-in" attitude with a similar kit in the future.

Meanwhile, i've had to apply more layers of sprue goo on the drop tank's nose. When comparing the two tanks after modifying them, i noticed that on top of reducing the thickness of the part too much, i made the tank shorter than the other so, i'm building it back up to the original length...

[Dizzyfugu]

Go go go! 

[su27rules]

    

[DogfighterZen]

Thanks for the support, guys! 
I finally found time to reshape the nose of the messed up drop tank...



And now everything is ready for paint... Except for the weapons for the middle pylons...  I'm still trying to choose a type of weapon but that can be left for later because, whatever i end up choosing, it will not be painted with any of the camo colors used on the airframe or drop tanks.
Anyway, i'll probably only have time to spray something during the weekend...

[DogfighterZen]

And today i got stuff cleaned up and sprayed some XF-19, which will be the color for the underside but i sprayed the whole model to check the seam and panel line work because i normally don't use primer. The alcohol cleans the grease and dust pretty well and the Tamiya paint sticks well enough.
As always, i forgot to spray the pylons and gear doors...   and i did find a couple of panel lines that need some deepening in a few spots where there will be camo so, nothing serious.

[kerick]

You have come a long way to get to this point. Looking very good!

[DogfighterZen]

You have come a long way to get to this point. Looking very good!

That is true... guess i deviated a bit from the original simple build idea but i have no regrets, even if it's taking longer than expected. I'm quite happy with the result so far. One thing i still have to do is choose the weapons for the middle wing stations.
I was thinking of Phoenix missiles but that would be the exact same loadout as my previous build, the PoAF Hawker Hunter... The kit does have a pair of rocket pods and bombs but i guess i have to think about what capabilities it would get from a mid-eighties upgrade program...