F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C!!!   

Jim 

Stay Safe. 

Hi,

That tturned out great.

WOW OH WOW!!! That's beautiful Mongoose!!!

Awesome project!  The paint scheme looks terrific and having it posed in mid-flight take off really makes the presentation POP!  Congrats on completeing this most excellent build.

TJS

Oh yeah - that paint job is beautiful. A very nice model and close to the original photos.

Congratulations! And thanks for sharing! Have a nice day

Paweł

Stellar! (No pun intended...for once. )

Fantastic!  She turned out great, and that is no easy paint job.  You should be really proud of that unique build.  Really represents the reference photo - great job on the gear retracting.  Just awesome!

FINITO!

What a fun project. When I saw Miss Demeanour the takeoff scene just spoke to me and I knew I had to try and recreate that scene  I did take one artistic liberty, Flapjack does flybys with the canopy open and since the cockpit turned out so good I wanted to make it visible. So even though he wouldn’t take off with the canopy open in my little world that works out ok 

Here’s the real picture for reference 

and my rendition of it

not much sun this time of year in Cincinnati so will have to take what I can get lol

Here’s a selection of my favorites 

Many thanks to the illustrious Dave Culp from LSP for his work on creating the decals for Miss Demeanour! Without his donation she wouldn’t be complete.

a quick side note, 1 coat of future is obviously not enough per the macro lens lol will have to put a few more on before I show her 

and I’ll leave you with a view panning out to her display in the family room 

Before I do the big reveal here’s one of the big transformations of this build. Of course since there were 2 styles of drop tanks in the kit neither of them was the one Miss Demeanour uses during shows! I needed 150gal tanks. Looking at what i had the 100’s appeared to have the right diameter so i started with them. Inserted 2 pices of 19/32 brass tubes and then used bono glazing putty to blend in the slight step between plastic and brass. Sealed with acid etching primer and then all else as normal to paint.

and the transformation!

that dark blue showed everything. Made me wish i was painting it black just to justify all the 1500+ grit sandpaper i used ​​​​​​​

WHOA That is something else! Amazing paintwork! OH and stars!

keavdog

Nice save!  It's looking fantastic.

Ditto!

Nice save!  It's looking fantastic.

Bit of a setback on Miss Demeanour. I had some crap in the paint on the right wing. sanded it out and sprayed some clear on it. For some reason it 'striped'. No problem, just mix up some clear and spray the wing. I think I accidentally doubled the hardener...the clear went down and didn't self level. Ugghhh! I sanded it but it was so pebbly I ended up sanding the whole dark blue section out.

 

And the recovery. Up close it’s only ok, the last coat crinkled a little in one spot. Not sure why. Plus there’s an edge where the white and blue meet now. Overall though it looks pretty good and I’m super happy with how it went and that I didn’t mess up the underside of the wing while i was doing this.

 

 

so tonight I’m adding all the stuff that breaks up those sweet lines of the Hunter. Look how the enamel clear pops! It was glossy before as sprayed but this is so reflective!

Thanks Greg! You know I have a couple of those ones I want to build...this one was amped up by my son's purchase. Gotta love 'em when they recognize you just need a little push lol

Somehow missed this one up to now...my loss. Your work is extraordinary.

My absolute favorite kind of modeling project: seeing a neat photograph (or the real thing) and thinking "I want to build that!"

Thanks guys for hanging out during intermission  we’re back for the 2nd act, the explosion!

today i did the bright yellow orange and red for the flames off the re-entry vehicle as it blasts into the atmo

 

 

 

 

lots of dry time now. Then wet sanding and an overall clear coat to finish her up. Great thing is there really isn’t any little stuff to do. I’m finishing up a stand, the exhaust is done, ohh I need to do the titanium around the exhaustoutlet, and then mount the landing gear. Done, easy peezy lol

Thanks guys! Appreciate you stopping by.

Next up is the sky blue. The edge against the starry night is a soft edge I sprayed freehand with the light blue enamel. Then i went over everything with a dusting of the Thunderbirds blue to give it a gradient and darken up the color and create the blend from one color to another.

 

 

Wow, love the paint job! The whole thing is awesome, very cool model!

That is looking fantastic.  The star masks worked great and the fade looks spot on.  Airbrush master!

That's looking pretty damn good, the effect with the stars is excellent!

Today saw the 1st coat of enamel in play. Looking at this 1st pic, up close, i may have to be a little closer when i spray. Seems just a little grainy, like it’s drying before it hits the surface. Fortunately enamels love wet sanding lol

 

you can’t really see the fade well in these pics. I applied more coats as I went away from the nose. The poster tac is helping keep a straight line from forming. I had tried just loose paper on the wings and i still got a line at the edge of the blue that was pretty sharp. This looks like it’ll work.

and here’s her hat to keep the dust out of the enamel for 4hours till it drives to the touch.

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This morning I finished up all the lacquer on the aircraft itself. The wing tanks needed another coat of white so they are out of sequence for now lol

applied all the shining star masks over the insignia white

then the primer fade - white to gray to hazy black to solid black

 

and then to the paint booth

 

im really glad i opted for grey over most of the white. The transition would have been to stark otherwise.

next to last was plucking all the stars back off the sky!

 

and last was flicking distant stars onto the night sky with a toothbrush. WetSanded with 3000 grit paper. Some clear coat and it’s ready to dry for a day before i start the enamel colors.

 

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Lots of little stuff happening of course. Painting up the gear, setting up the paint booth, tons of work on the custom drop tanks (can't wait to show these), and creating the graphics.

copy and paste by row on this one, 42 star bursts to the row for the little ones. Those are about the limit of the Silhouette I have, about 1mm, maybe 1-1/4 from tip to tip. My plan is to place these on the white I've laid down to start with. I used lacquer for what I'm calling the undercoat, that way I can tape it up right away and not worry about it peeling or anything else funky. 

Now check out these colors!! I should have the blue and maybe 2 out of 3 yellows on this weekend. I'll be doing multicolor primers to help change the paint tones throughout the fade.

For those of you reading the bottles Miss Demeanor is essentially going to be a Pony Car haha  almost all of these are Mustang or Camaro colors from the 60's! 

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Lots of sanding, bondo, and waiting while working on the drop tanks tonight. Did the 1st round of clean up on joints that didn’t look right after primer. Just a few more minor touchups to do, then finish mocking up the landing gear, and then paint. While waiting for different parts to dry I made up one of my Tamiya 1/32 stands and rigged up a vertical stand for a lazy susan in my paint booth so I’d be able to spin the plane while painting this scheme.

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On the road for a few days but was determined to get some primer on before i left! I’m gonna call it 97% right. 3 small areas to work on - the starboard aerleron underneath, the gun shell ejection chute plugs i made and one area on the belly where i deleted one of the antenna mounts. Not too bad.

 

 

 

 

 

put the 1st coat of bondo on the tanks

and extended the main gear to make them weightless. I went just over double the length of the shaft to 8mm

 

keavdog and Tom thanks, I won't let you down 

So nothing major but a couple funny bits i thought worth posting…

how many times do you want weighted wheels? I know, almost always right! But do they come in the kit, no  so I’m doing a takeoff, no worries right, they never put weighted wheels in the kit, hell I’ve spent more than $100 on weighted wheels BUT NO, Revell has the glamorous idea of putting weighted wheels in this kit! WTH at any other time I’d be singing their praises but they won’t work for this scene

where’s the miliput?

 

ok now the one worthy of a photo, 2 different sets of drop tanks in the kit but are either of them the ones on Miss Demeanour - NOOOOO 

does the LHS have the right diameter styrene, NOOOOOO

does the LHS have the right diameter brass tube, NOOOOOO

more scratch building  this is the fun part. So, I’d say modify my intent at this point, t’s less out of the box and more ‘no aftermarket’ 

I locked my calipers on the od of the brass tubing i had! 19/32”, then used the sharp edge as a sort of scriber and scribed the location on the smaller diameter wing tanks that would match the brass tube diameter. Out with the razor saw and voilà there you have it! I’m using the Flexy 5k CA to hold it together, hoping since it is not as brittle that they won’t break apart. My bondo and sanding phase should prove this out. If it doesn’t break then it’s good to go 

primer shortly I think. Stop back in and check it out!

Excellent progress underway!  You are really moving along on this build.

TJS

Whoa!  She's a big bird!  That yellow looks great - can't wait to see the finished build.  I believe you'll pull it off and it will be a masterpiece no doubt.

Tonight i have the fuse assembled and the wings on. I have to say Revelogram did great with the fit on this model. So far minimal filler, and even that has been all perfect plastic putty. I sprayed some vibrant yellow behind the jet intake strakes and we’re off to the air show.

 

 

still more sanding to do on the belly. The plastic near the join to the cockpit area is really weak as others have pointed out. Needed to get it all glued before final gluing and sanding of the fuselage halves there.

 

 

a little clean up of the ppp once it dries and this will be so smooth. My big goal is full primer by the weekend.