Wow great show!!! Beautiful model of a cool spacecraft! 

Photos of the finished model!

All the different panel colors are actually decals.  I only painted three colors.  Black, Orange, and offwhite.  Okay technically four. The tips of the pods are a dark grey. :)

Final thoughts on this model...

It was fun to paint and assemble.  But those decals were a nightmare.  That is where I spent the most time.  Going through gallons (only a slight exaggeration) of Micro Sol to even get them to minimally conform.  Still lots of places with silvering and in many cases I had to trim the decal after application (that was nerve wracking) because it simply wouldn't lay down cleanly.

My only recommendation to anyone considering this kit, scan the original decals and print your own.

The included base is a great addition and just makes that Hawk soar!

Despite the frustration of the decals this was a gratifying build to complete and the results I think speak for the quality of the model.

I probably would have if I a) hadn't already started and b) taken it as a personal challenge.

Regardless, all the decals are placed and it just needs the final clear coat.  Thinking it will look best with a finish that is just shy of being a satin. 

The base is a nice little dome.  It's going to be a black starfield.  Its final coat will be a satin finish. 

Hopefully will have that completed with pictures posted this weekend.

Wow, now that's a terrific job masking!!!

I'd be tempted to just paint the rings on the probes instead of dealing with those super-thick decals though.

Today's experience with the decals.

Not sure if any of have seen a decal do this but it sure was novel for me.

It was almost perfectly flat and hadn't moved after a couple of minutes.  The above photo was right after I drowned the decal in Micro Sol and it finally started to move a little.

About 3 minutes later I added the one that goes across from it.  Drenched the first one again in Microsol and it's finally starting to droop a little.

Another three minutes and a third drenching of microsol.  We're finally seeing some real motion!

Another and final 3 minutes and we've finally achieved a degree of conformation.

About 12-15 minutes from start to this final photo and its still not done.

7 more pairs of these to go.

Yay....?

Wow, hadn't realized it had been close to a month since my last update on this.  The decals on this model are a royal pain.  They are so thick they don't lay down well.  I've put so much Micro Sol on them that it almost counts as its own coat of paint.

Some of them require as many as 4-5 coats of Micro Sol before they finally conform to the model.

Further complications came in when I noticed the decal sheet had incomplete printings of the decals.  I'll have to mock up some replacements.

Anyways, here's a couple of quick progres pics.

Oh cool! Fantastic job masking off the nose! 

After a couple of near disasters (paint nozzle on the airbrush got severely clogged and then went flying into the ether after removal) was able to get even more done.

Masking is one of those tasks I love to hate but can't argue with the results.  Compound curves suck as they require lots of little pieces of tape in order to get the best coverage.

Added the pink blanky of overspray protection!

The moment of truth.

A tiny bit of overspray but easily corrected and a little bit of touch up with orange to take care of the rest.

Finding out if the masking pull tab idea worked out...

Worked like a charm!  Definitely will be trying that again!

Quick test fit of the ready parts.   Liking what I am seeing here!

Next up will be a light gloss to add decals to the completed parts. 

The rest of superstructer will be painted and decaled separately before final assembly.

Finish line is just over the horizon.

How the heck have I been missing this!?!?!?!

Very cool, and nice work! Looking forward to seeing how she comes out.

Have some time off this week and using some of it to progress this.

Primary color is done on the main hull and painted the belly rockets.

Adding secondary and teritiary colors to other parts.

Not sure how well it shows in the photo but discovered I didn't get an equivalent coating of paint on the nacelles so I have two different shades of orange.  Not sure if I am going to re-mask the one on the right and add additional coats to match up the color.

Next up will be masking the hull to apply the orange outline around the cockpit.

This model has a large number of decals to apply.  Given the number and quantity of them it may be necessary to applly many of them before final assembly to ensure they can be placed properly.

Will hopefully have another update later this week.

Put some time into the paint booth this week.

Got the orange down.

Really pleased with how well the masking turned out for these parts.  The engine bells still have two other colors to be added.

Started assembly of the main body.  Masked the cockpit area and trying something new.  Added a pull tab under the mask to hopefully make it easier to remove once the body is finished being painted.

Shot of the assembled fuselage.

The seams were rather concave.  Had to apply some putty to fill them.  Putty and I don't always get along so fingers crossed.

Thankfully the more challenging areas by the enginers will be hidden so I'm not bothering with filling them.

Masking has started and proceeding at a rather glacial pace. All the details to be picked out make for slow going.  First couple of hours got me this far. 

Did those little arrows by laying down whole pieces of tape around them and then burnishing it down around the edges.  Finally, using a new sharp blade to cut the outlines and peeling off the rest. You can see where some of the primer peeled when I pulled up some tape.

A couple more hours has got me this far.

I found the best way to get a well aligned mask that conical portion of the tank was to cut short pieces and overlap them.

Still more masking to be done on the tank and then onto the exhaust nozzles and cockpit.

Tedious, but hoping it will pay off with nice clean sharp lines and a smooth airbrush finish of the orange.

Real G

Simon says - Build!  

 

ROFL!

Hope you don't mind but the build was temporarily interrupted this weekend by the arrival of this at my doorstep which required assembly and thorough testing. 

After that was done I got back to my real job.  ;)

First coat of color applied to the early assemblies.  These are going to be painted off ship as that will be easiest for masking and painting the secondary orange color.

The color of the plastic is this off white, creamish color.  Going to take a few layers to keep it from bleeding through.

While those are curing started dry fitting main sections of the hull.  They come together nicely but there is a slight misalignment of the molds.

Even at this stage can see the potential.  Yeah it's going to need some adjustment, filling, and scraping but nothing too egregious and well within the expectations of a $20 model.

So exciting!

Simon says - Build!  

Gamera

Oh that looks so cool Phoenix! You've been on a roll lately! 

 

It's such a cool ship- funny that it only appears on one episode of 1999. I got the impression it was some sort of standard Earth military ship- seems like they could have worked in some excuse to use the model or stock footage in another episode or two. 

 

PS: For some reason I keep seeing you in my head as Simon Phoenix, Wesley Snipes character in 'Demolition Man'! 

 

I don't recall when it showed up in the series and it's been a long time since I watched it.  While I did start it again on Prime, it took a back seat to working on models. :)

LOL, Demolition Man is an awesome movie.  Can think of worse things to be compared to. ;)  I chose the moniker Phoenix decades ago because of how often I died in video games.  It seemed rather appropos. 

I'm looking forward to following this build!

Oh that looks so cool Phoenix! You've been on a roll lately! 

It's such a cool ship- funny that it only appears on one episode of 1999. I got the impression it was some sort of standard Earth military ship- seems like they could have worked in some excuse to use the model or stock footage in another episode or two. 

PS: For some reason I keep seeing you in my head as Simon Phoenix, Wesley Snipes character in 'Demolition Man'!