Yeah that might be a good idea. Not sure if I can get my Thunderjet under way by the end of May with Semester 1 looming in a couple of weeks!

I'll be lucky to finish the Mirage now that my modelling is back to weekends now

Cheers

Casper will be watching closely I have a 1/32 F-16C I want to do tiger stripes on, will be my first 1/32 scale too.

Guys and young lady, there have been a few asking if I am planning to host NMF III. The end of this one is still a few months off but I thought I would ask what you all think. Anyone want to see a round 3 ?

Hi vetteman and Julez, yes I will be doing the tiger stripes on the fin and the drop tanks! I have cut out the paper templates nicely provided by Eduard but it's a shame they didn't include them as masks. They provided that for the ripped metal effect to be added to the wing so I am going to trace and cutout the shapes onto thick mask to stick on the wing to ensure perfectly crisp application without any feathering.

Drop tanks may prove more difficult...

Cheers

Casper cant wait to see this paint scheme are you planning to paint the tiger stripes ?

Yeah thats a cool scheme, are you adding the drop tanks on the finished build???

Yep, Tiger camo on the tail, light gray underneath, dark gray nose, strip of blue gray around the cockpit and NMF across the top and the entire top of the wings.

Cheers

Casper, looking really nice there so far I must have missed a couple of posts and not caught the scheme your doing, Is it a Tiger meet scheme???

Ok, so first two colours are on. A base coat of Light gray followed by some blue gray.

Next I'll do the dark gray for the nose and the yellow with black tiger camo for the tail fin. I want to be able to add the Mr.Colour metaliser over the top and not have to mask anything else around it after it's applied. It has a nasty habit of peeling off with tape.

Cheers

vetteman42

Casper from my own experiance mind you, I have never built a mistake free model, to be honeswt if I ever do build one I will probably give up the hobby because the challange would be gone, gone forever

BTW that last post of mine was meant to read "the Mirage has NO errors present!" I am extremely pleased with the way it's come together.

All Milliputting done and now leave it to dry. First undercoat applied tomorrow;

Cheers

Firesmacker from where I am sitting I would say its a very well done paint job I would think a few more smaller panels done a bit darker would really set it off, it seems a bit too symmetrical to me. Just a thought not meant as a criticism by any means.

Casper from my own experiance mind you, I have never built a mistake free model, to be honeswt if I ever do build one I will probably give up the hobby because the challange would be gone, gone forever

vetteman42

Casper that office is no less than top notch, very well done, Just goes to show what can be done with a " not so good kit " in the hands of a modeler.

Thanks Vetteman, I can see how much I have been improving with each kit. So far the Zero is my fave but the Mirage has errors present!

Cheers

Awesome job, Fermis!

I don't have as many WIP photos as I should. I took a bunch of photos of the 'pit but I think my wife might have deleted them thinking I had already uploaded the pics since I usually do it right away. You ain't missing much since the PE seat belts I used didn't want to sit flat against the seat back for anything.

I did her in overall Alclad II duraluminum and did some panels in dark aluminum for some contrast. I never tried to contrast panels so I'm not sure if it's too stark or not.. There are a few areas where I over sprayed with the flat black but the decals will cover that so I ain't worried.

The gear bay doors are also painted as well as the canopy and windscreen. I should have this one wrapped up pretty soon.

Thanks for looking. As always, any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Regards,

Jeff

Casper that office is no less than top notch, very well done, Just goes to show what can be done with a " not so good kit " in the hands of a modeler.

Casper, awesome looking office buddy well done i have the hobby boss Mirage IIIc half built which will eventually get markings for 75SQD...Hopefully i'll get it finished later on in the year...looking forward too seeing some more work from your end

It literally took an hour and a half to scrape off the ridges on the exhaust. I forgot to take a comparative photo but you can probably imagine the work. But once the exhaust was dressed up with the Eduard PE it looked great. Shot a bit blurry but you can get the idea.

Some structural reinforcing, the fuselage tends to warp slightly inwards. And I remembered to weight the front this time!

Despite some of the parts having a lot of flash and pin marks and the sprues being not the best I've seen, the bird actually is coming together relativity cleanly. I will have minimal Milliputing to do as far as I can tell. There will be a bit of a gap where the top of the wing meets the fuselage but that will be about it.

Cheers

Fermis: Ditto on the cool panel line shading. Another great all around build!

Casper: And another great looking cockpit on your Mirage.

Update: Pulled out the B-29 and got a little more work done on her. The seam line on the top of the fusilage is giving me fits. Keep sanding and repainting it but there always seems to be a crack somewhere in it. I wonder if I'm flexing it while sanding and breaking parts of it. Still hope I'll be done painting soon.

I saw some pictures of the front of the Mirage dashboard and there seemed to be some sort of black mesh coverings under the windshield. I used some railway metal walkway parts as they had a nice sized appropriate mesh.

With a bit of flat black it looks effective

Cheers

Redraider you are doin some very nice work, I like that fact that you removed the panel lines from the wings. They look more real to my eye that way. the yellow looks fine from where I am sitting.

Casper The pit looks FANTASTIC !! The colored PE really makes the detail stand out without over powering the detail.

fermis

 

CallSignOWL:

 

Fermis, you are very quick builder, and how do you paint so well? The airbrushing, for me, is one of the more stressful parts of the build. Your cockpit, too, is amazing.

 

 

 I'm not really that quick (I don't think, anyway), I just just have lots of time on my hands, and I'm a master of time management!!!

CallSignOwl now we know how Fermis builds em so fast and manages his time so well. His help is arriving for the day, a couple cans of Red Bull and this guy is zoomin, kind of like the squirrel in Over The Hedge 

Now Ricky don't forget to call in the secrets you learned so I can build as good as he does one day.

Fermis, seriously, a nice build you have there. I really like the shading and the way you have made the panel lines stand out. It truly does look as if it has seen some use. The scratched ladder in a great touch that really adds to the look of the build.

The front page has been updated with your build my friend.

Fermis, very cool build...The subtle shading looks awesome, i'll have a go at post shading my next NMF i think...Thanks for sharing

All done!!!

I'll post the rest of the pics in the A/C forum for all to see!

Back atcha, Fermis!

Cheers

some stunning work going on in here

Randy sorry for my absence lately things here have been busy...I'll be making a start on the B-29 this weekend and i hope to have the office done in a few days...pics soon

Redraider, "stang's coming along nice! I never get tired of seeing em!

Casper, That is some MANtastic work there!!!

CallSignOWL

Fermis, you are very quick builder, and how do you paint so well? The airbrushing, for me, is one of the more stressful parts of the build. Your cockpit, too, is amazing.

 

 I'm not really that quick (I don't think, anyway), I just just have lots of time on my hands, and I'm a master of time management!!! It's winter time, got nothin else to do!!! As far as the painting...well, um, I really don't know, I'm usually daydreaming when I paint, and it seems to work out.

 Got it all marked up yesterday, let another gloss coat set, overnight. Spent today on the fiddly bits. Missiles need another sealing coat and I'm scratchin a boarding ladder. Finish pics should be in tomorrow, but for now, here's where I left off last night.

 I stepped outside this afternoon to bring in some firewood, and this little critter scared the crap outta me!

I fear I may have made a friend! The poor little guy was shivering soooo bad, it hurt my heart. I normally put a little lead in them....couldn't do it, he was hurt too. I got an blanket (and elbow deep leather gloves) out of the garage, caught him, wrapped him up and gave him some food, and got him nice and warm. I think he knew what was going on, no hissin, growling, or fighting, better than a kitty cat! Once he was warmed up, I set him loose....right back to the wood pile. Every time I'd step back out, he'd pop out. He hung out most of the day, gone now though.

Oh and here's what the pit looks like all put together;

Cheers

I was a little dubious of the coloured PE at first. It sorts of looks printed onto the metal (I realise this is exactly what they do) but it looked sort of grainy like it was a cheap inkjet printer) But once the painted parts interact with it and it's all in the right place then it looks good;

The oil wsh on the back of the cockpit has dried and it looks quite effective

and here is a shot of the instrument panel.

Cheers

Finally some pics. The wings are lacquered up, the nose and rudder are done, and the flaps are foiled (I'll foil the ailerons later).  I should come close to finishing up the paint before I leave for college sunday

Note: The yellow looks drastically different under different light so if it seems to light or bright, that's why

be careful when you are masking over the NMF paint, redraider, tape pulls it up easily and otherwise mucks up the finish.

Casper, that little cockpit is outstanding! Cant wait to see more!!!

Fermis, you are very quick builder, and how do you paint so well? The airbrushing, for me, is one of the more stressful parts of the build. Your cockpit, too, is amazing.

OWL

No pics yet, but I definitely making some progress. Since I decided to fill in and sand smooth the panel lines on the wings, I used Testors metallic silver to replicate the aluminum dope applied in factory to the wings. After that dries I'm gonna spray the black theater stripes (i dont trust the decals) and black wingtips and then finish off the yellow nose and rudder

I should have taken this shot when the oils had fully dried but I think it looks ok.

I've just given the resin seat a nice soapy bath, rinsed and it's now drying in kitchen paper.

Once the seat is in and the instrument panel is attached it should start to look pretty good.

Cheers