Opened the box about 3 months ago. Target completion is mid-july (hoping to finish 2 planes this year). I started with smaller planes at 1/72 scale. This is my first 1/48 and hope my "training" in the 72nds pay off.
Cockpit
I was able to get the control panel done. Not much work actually since it only involves decal application.
Electronics Bay
Painted Electronics bay. Decided not to modify the boxes, a little too much hassle to overhaul the entire bay to get it to look close to the actual thing.
sidewall painted metallic blue green, pipes in silver, some black smudge to make bay look a little untidy.
bay 5 with front office.
did not install ejection seats yet.
Intake fan
painted the intake fans in preparation to sticking the upper and lower fuselage together.
Alclad II chrome with a little wash
Intake lips
closed the fuselage, masked the cockpit to protect it from sanding, took a long break, now off to the intake lips
just need to fill up the gaps with putty. one of the parts i hate most.
...putty, sand, prime, check for flaws, putty, sand, prime, check for flaws.... finish when satisfied...
I tried to dry fit the wings and the stabs to see pretty much how it would look. Up to now, i'm still amazed how big this model is.
Nose Cone
now off to the nose. I decided not to put the radar panel since i would be having the plane in its pre-flight mode.
Still aint done with the intake lip putty.
I'll send this post up now and will just send updates as it is quite annoying to upload, tag, comment on too many pics. This will now be officially a multi-part post.
ciao for now..
