Official Ground Attack Group Build

Made a little more progress on the F/A-18E.  This thing is moving along at a snail's pace.  The job and the new wife sure are cutting into my free time...but I'm thankful for both of them so that's ok.

I painted the vertical stabs in the Royal Maces black and yellow:

Here's the ejection seat.  I went with the resin one.  The flash really brings out the wash.  It isn't nearly as "dirty" with the naked eye:

Here's the photo etch HUD.  I cut out the glass from some thin clear plastic:

I've decided to put 2 GBU-24s, 2 GBU-38s, and AGM-65 and the "funny gas" (asymmetrical tanks) on it.  Since the Navy has the fireproof ablative coating on their bombs I thought I'd try to recreate that on mine.  I just stippled Mr. Surfacer 500 on with a cut down paint brush. Again, the flash makes them look way more rough than they appear to the naked eye:

Here she is primed.  I painted the exhaust shrouds Alclad II steel and masked them off:

Most of the tedious stuff is out of the way (I think) so hopefully things will move along more quickly.

Hi Everyone,

Can I dive in with an Academy 1/72 Hawker Typhoon please ?

Cheers

Tony

Casper and taxtp, i will update the roster momentarily.

i havent gotten anything done recently, it has been far too hat to even sit outside, let alone in a non-air condirioned garage working on kits. Lookin good fellas!

I bought my Typhoon years ago at a swap meet. I've just opened it and found a resin cockpit set inside. Nice litle surprise. I think it just moved up the queue.

Cheers

Tony

Well, the clamps got a workout today (speaking of which, got to get ready for mine, it's legs tonight.)

First the fitting of the fuselage halves, there was a lot to trap inside of the two halves which made it difficult.-

Then I filled and sanded the seam.-

Then the start of the problems. I wanted to mask as little as possible, which meant the alternative nose assembly. (the amount of small openings on this bird gives me a heart attack!). Anyway, there is a small rod that glues into two holes in front of the canopy windows. The part went orbital in the tweezers, and being in a garage, was useless to try and find it. Grrr!!! (it'll probably turn up when I clean the workbench.) I found a part in the spare bins that matched it closely enough, just to cover up the holes.-

Now the hard part, the wing roots on this kit are tiny, meaning that If I tried to use tape or a rubber band to stretch a proper dihedral, they would "pop" up. Clamps in the same spots helped, but i think I'll tackle this tomorrow.-

More coming!

The bangseat on that Hornet looks superb!

I built the Academy 1/72 Tempest some time ago and I'm sure the Typhoon will be as fun to do. Nice detail and good fit.

Here is the latest on my MiL 24 Hind . After being pointed out that the cabin roof looks to low I decided to leave the side doors closed. Luckely there is nice visable cockpit setail through the canopy.

With those stubwings it is really starting to look like a shark now LOL!

I saw a very interesting pix on a MiL 24 walk arround. The horizontal stabs were actually fabric covered!

Theuns

Thanks Theuns. I've got a bit of a thing about Typhoons at the moment, I read a couple of books by a Kiwi bloke called Group Captain Desmond Scott, who won a DSO, OBE and DFC with Bar. The books were called 'Typhoon Pilot' and 'One More Hour'. Amazing books by an amazing man.

Cheers

Tony

I seem to be alternating between the two projects, wings attached and now for the engine nacelles.-

I'm still not looking forward to the masking portion...

More coming!

Here are a couple of progress pics on the little A-37.  Fun build so far.  A few seams to clean and some sink marks to fill, but not too bad.  Should be ready for priming here soon.

DiscoStu, nice little Dragonfly- is that a PE IP or did you paint that yourself?  Either way, that looks great!

Oh that's PE.  This is the Encore offering of the Monogram A-37 so it came with all the bells and whistles.  PE, Resin cockpit and bombs and canopy masks.

Gotta love a 'value-added'  kit.  More mfr's need to do this.

I just flew with a guy at my work who flew A-37s for the IL ANG back in the 80's.  In fact, he said they were the last squadron, I believe.

Looks good so far.

Engines are painted and installed into the cowling. About to attach them to the wings.

Good lookin Dragonfly Stu. One of my favorite jets.

Cheers

Tony

I've been a bit busy with other things the last few weeks so there has been scant time in the man cave. having a bit of a break at the moment so I've been able to get some work done on the A-7

Avionics bays;

Cockpit, ejector seats almost done;

and sewn the bird up;

Not a bad little kit, although having been recently spoiled with a couple of Tamiya 1/32s, it will need a bit of finessing.

Cheers

Got the A-7 cockpit completed 

Cheers

Casper, that's really nice work in there!   Can't wait to see the rest of it.

Casper, I'm really keen to see how that Hobby Boss thing builds out. I like your 'pit, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Cheers

Tony

Caspir that office look "the biz"!

On my side I have sprayed on the light blue on the underside of my MiL 24. I had a rather hadr time finding the correct cammo pattern for the Angolan ship but that is sorted now :-D

Theuns

No pics for now, but I've gotten the Grach's engine nacelles cleaned up and glued onto the fuselage sides and some bombs painted up.  I need to buy some lead shot to fill the nose up before i close the fuselage- I don't know if it'll tail-sit without it but I'd rather be certain it doesn't.

Here is the colours for the Angolan MiL 24. I don't know if it might be some form of ex USSR desert colours?

I know the demarcation line between the colours is WAY to big, but I was plainly to lazy to try and mask the darn thing.

I also drybrused on powdered pastel for the exhaust stains then futured the whole thing readuy for pannel wash and AM decals.

The canopy masking was not done well ,I am afraid that is one of my weaknesses.

Theuns

Looks fine to me, Theuns.   If I send you my addy, could you send me a big box of that cold weather that you're going through?  I'll gladly pay for a bit of relief.  

Here in SA we have strange cold weather. It is not a real "winter" with long cold spels, we get these massive cold fronts that move in from the south western part of the Atlantic and they usually last a few days to a week or so. Yesterday it was -8 deg celcius in some parts, today is less bad at only 2 deg celcuis LOL!

You are very welcome to come and take all the cold you want mate! I am not made for this, I am allot happier in the mid 30 degs or so.

Where you based where it is so hot now?

I grew up in the far north east of SA in a small mining town where high 30's to mid 40's were not that uncommen. I recall regularly the tarroads (asphalt) becomming gooie and plastic displays in shopfronts warping from the heat.

Theuns

Thenus,  I'm gonna throw this out and you can throw it right back if you like.  DON'T do a panel line wash.  I personally have begun to steer away from panel line washes because I think they look unnatural.  They make models look like, well, models...especially in the smaller scales.

The way your model appears in the pics above looks really good, especially in the sunlight.  I'd suggest doing some post shading instead.  IMO it looks better than panel line washes.  I think it would look great if you shaded the panel lines with Tamiya Smoke and lightened/darkened some worn out areas in the camo with lightened/darkened versions of the camo colors.  OR, just wash some of the more prominent panel lines.

I say this because you don't really see panel lines on the real aircraft in the majority of vast cases but, of course, you do what you want.

Theuns, I'm in the far southwestern part of Virginia where it is about 32C right now.   Nights have been dropping to 18-20C or so but really humid.   My house doesn't have AC, so it typically remains hot and uncomfortable overnight.  Since it's still July I can only expect the average temps to rise for next few months until autumn kicks in.

For the record, I'm originally from waaaay up the Atlantic coast from you- Liberia!

Thanx for the advice, yes you are absolutely correct about the pannellines being near invisable on the full size ones I work on. The problem in our scale is that they are to fine to cast a shadow. I would love to do a post shading but my airbrush and skill to do so is by far lacking. :-(

I will only do a wash on the major pannels arround the door and cowling maybe. You cant really see it in the pix due tothe gloss ,but I specifically sprayed the dark brown slightly "patchy" to simulate the fading we have in Africa due to extreme sun and aircraft generally standing outside.

I am sure the dull coat will being it out better.........I hope LOL!

@ DRE - I have never been in the US, but what I have seen from TV your part of the States looks like a beautifull forested area. I moved from a similar area here in SA to the central highlands and there is absolutely nothing nice about the cities here, except for getting work!

I really miss the mountains,forrists and rivers I use to be able to fly over :-(

Theuns

I agree with you Fly-n-hi. I was just thinking about that. In a majority of the photos I look at you can rarely see panel lines at least in the way they show up in washed on a model.

Everything is looking great guys! im going to have to hang up building for a while. i got a spot on a local semi-pro football team and been bustin my butt between work and getting back up to my playing weight, so i have barely had time to eat and sleep when im home, let alone build. but winter is comin on, and that means i will be layed off, so lots of ice fishin and model buildin to keep me occupied:) i will still be comin in to check up on things. Keep up  the great work!

Is the hand up for playing?  Last you mentioned it was in a cast..  let us know if you run across TO out there.