Project 75

[Gondor]

Gee, what do we have going on here? It's a clamp that's holding the fuselage at the width I desire and has been doing so since yesterday evening.

At least it's not a yellow triangle fitted to one wheel of my car!

After a bit of heat was applied with a hairdryer we get this...



Looks good so far, I will check later without the clamp in place.

And the result.



Quite pleased with this. The real result shall be seen when everything is inside the fuselage and the canopy goes on.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

That looks a SERIOUS engineering job Alastair! Clamps and stuff? Whatever next.................. 

[Gondor]

So I have actually glued some more parts together today, just to show some real progress other than faffing around with a hairdryer 



If I said I was exhausted after all that would you believe me?

The engine exhausts were in two parts and have been shown before. I simply added some super glue and put the rear of the engine inside the exhaust pipe. The above picture shows one exhaust from the front and one from the back. They will be fitted to the engines as one of the very last items to be added to the build as they simply slide right in.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Not much done today, seemed to always be busy doing other things. I have managed to slap a bit of paint in a few places though.

An example of which are the intakes



They look glossy but the paint is still wet. I overpainted the outside so that I could try masking them when I get around to painting the camouflage.

I also couched up the cockpit interior with more paint. I had intended to do the panels and boxes in black but that will have to be done tomorrow now.

Gondor

[Gondor]

I had a day off work to get some things done outside of modelling and I accomplished them  I ended up with not much extra modelling time though. What I have managed to do is to glue some parts together.



Excuse the paint tins, they were the only things that would stay in place while holding the main body of the engine nose down so you could see the rear. Part of the engine/shock core assembly sticks out of the back, it's meant to, as it acts as a locating plug for the rear of the engine assembly.



Here are the main part and the rear section glued together. the whole thing is quite large. I now have applied filler to the join line which doesn't fall on a panel line. This makes it far easier to deal with in my opinion. I should have the filler sanded back tomorrow evening when you will get to see them looking far better than they do now.

Gondor

[Gondor]

So on with the PSR.

The majority of the need for PSR is my own fault, so a word of warning for anyone following this. Use a slow-setting glue. I, in my normal fashion, after a test fit, thought there wouldn't be a problem so just used super glue and get on with it. So I ended up with a very slight step as I had the front of the engine pod a little low, not any more as I have used quite a large file to sort one of the pods out as I didn't have a spokeshave available, and the thing is big enough to use one on too.



That's a scaled ruler in 1/72 scale, so you can see how big the engine pods are! So there will be some panel engraving to be done once I am sure the join has gone and there are no major problems with the contours which feel good to my fingers. That's for another day though.

Gondor

[Gondor]

I have been filling and sanding the joint between the front and main bodies of the two engine pods which is why there has not been much of my reporting any progress.

This afternoon I used HATAKA Blue range black paint over the joints and a scratch to see if when sanded back there was any paint left in any recesses.



The upper engine has yet to have the black sanded back while the lower engine has had the black sanded back. No black paint in any recesses which is good.



And to my relief, none for the other engine as well!

Tomorrow I will start painting the ejector seats and work on the doors. Maybe use them for background music at the same time.

Gondor

[Rick Lowe]

   Groan...

[zenrat]

Carefull you don't sand too hard and Break on Through...

[Gondor]

Carefull you don't sand too hard and Break on Through...

Sanding is done. My fault in the first place because I wasn't as accurate as I should have been when joining the parts together. No chance of going through the resin as it's about a millimetre thick and I wasn't too far out, certainly way less than that.

Gondor

[Gondor]

I didn't get much done today mostly due to shopping. I did start on the scissor link for the main undercarriage leg though



I plan to finish it tomorrow. I also added some super glue to the edges of various doors that I damaged in my enthusiasm to start this build.



Fortunately, the damage is slight and confined to the edges. I would not like to repair any damage to the interior of these lovely doors. I also did some dry brushing of the cockpit interior, might add some cables tomorrow.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I never could do dry brushing, it always came out splodgy. I envy you being able to do that Alastair.

[Rick Lowe]

I had the same problem; practice is the way to go. (yeah; easy to say, innit)
Still have a problem with overdoing it, though; 'it just needs a little more - oops, too much!'

[Gondor]

I took a couple of pictures earlier today of the dry brushing that I had done on the cockpit. There is not much else to see today, as I have been filling chips and lost parts from the edge of doors etc, all my fault by the way so there is not much else to see other than a rather boring couple of Red Beard bombs in Hu 3 that have just been painted.





I still can't decide if I should add any wiring or not. Certainly thinking about some kind of HUD for the pilot.

Gondor

[kitbasher]