Hey Gang, here's my latest build! This is the Trumpeter Thunderbirds edition in 1/32 scale. Everything's done except the pilot. Still working on the display but thought I'd post it up for all to see. The aircraft is done in kitchen foil and MCW and Vallejo paints. Tons of Eduard and Aires plus some scratch work here for your perusal roll 
Lots of lessons learned again. That really makes these fun. It’s exciting to get advice from the forum and turn it into art.
I was surprised to find that these jets didn’t have a seamless intake. Good in some regard but took some experimenting to make up a piece that looked welded slip joint.
Pilots in for placement at this point. With a theme of Heading Home he’s giving the thumbs up as he heads for the runway
All the historical photos and the video I watched show very little heat affected zone on these jets. I thought it was just the museum piece but it seems they cleaned the hell out of the tail. This is my first time trying to do this. I used Tamiya clear blue and red, made some purple with these. Sprayed some pale burnt metal over the area where you can see the stiffeners to blend it in.
Here I made the smoke tube out of piano wire and 1mm electrical shrink tube. I read some wild stuff about how they had 2 colors of smoke and the maintenance guys hated it because the dyes were so dangerous they had to wear masks and suits when handling it. They went to white smoke after 1 season it said. This really completes the build!
I even got the little lights inside the refueling probe base
here’s a few underneath
And we’ll finish with the Thunderbird even though it’s hard to see through everything ;-)
In the pattern: Scale Shipyard's 1/48 Balao Class Sub! leaning out the list...NOT! Ha, added to it again - Viper MkVii, 1/32 THUD & F-15J plus a weekend madness build!
