I am happy to report that some progress has been made (not today of course!).  As happens with this hobby it is one step forward and two back. 

To refresh, I am building the skunkworks 1/48 F-16XL, and it has been a bit of a fight at each step.

I am using the AK interactive Xtreme metal for the base, and it will be followed with a 50/50 mix of Tamiya XF-54 and Alclad steel. This is in an attempt to mimic the HAVE GLASS V coating found on the CJ vipers. 

Looking at the finish there are several places where the black base ran (I spilled it on the wing i think) and where other marks showed up. I will have to go back and sand that out and repaint. 

It also appears that the weak main landing gear finally broke so I will have to perform surgery to put in the white metal replacement I purchased.

<Matt

Nice shiney F-16. Looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

I agree with Bish, that 16 looks very nice. It is going to look very super nice with some weathering. This is really a cool build.

BK

68GT: Corsair is looking great. Nice paint job.

Johnny: Nice paint jobs on the three F-16's.

Hogfanfs: Nice MQ-1 and base, a job well done.

Matt: That is one shinny F-16.

Here's a quick run down of the Academy 1/72 F-15C Eagle,

7 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

8 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

9 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

10 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

6 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

12 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

I started the Eagle last evening, there are not that many parts. Should be a quick build.

Matt: Looks awesome! The NM looks prefect in the photos, I can't see the areas with the spillage. Looking forward to seeing how the finished paint scheme is going to look. 

Dan: Looks like a pretty nice kit there. 

Dan, that is gonna be a sweet 15. It appears there are plenty of stencils to keep you busy too.

BK

The lizard scheme Falcon is done. Except for some silvering I'm happy with the result.

TJ, that is very nice. I really like the scheme. It's not just a grey 16, it's really nice looking.

BK

Looks pretty darn nice to me!

Did you try poking a pin though the decal and flooding on some decal solution? If that won't work I've seen flowing a little Future under them help a lot.

TJ,

Nice looking viper!  That's too bad about the silvering, might try the techniques the others mentioned.

The Lizard scheme looks great on the F-16.

<Matt

Gamera

Matt: Looks awesome! The NM looks prefect in the photos, I can't see the areas with the spillage. Looking forward to seeing how the finished paint scheme is going to look. 

Dan: Looks like a pretty nice kit there. 

 

The spillage is visable to the naked eye, so I have to fix it.  On top of that there are several seams that need to be fixed and a fingerprint on the nose that needs to come off.

Thanks all for the great comments.  I am hoping that the tamiya/alclad mix is going to work and not destroy my airbrush.

Dan: That F-15 looks like a good kit, best of luck building it!

<Matt

Gamera

Looks pretty darn nice to me!

Did you try poking a pin though the decal and flooding on some decal solution? If that won't work I've seen flowing a little Future under them help a lot.

 

I have fought the silvering issue all along. This  time with my F4 I went ahead and tried something new. Once I had the Aqua gloss down and dry for a few days I used 3000 grit padded sanding pads for auto use to give the whole kit a sanding with it. What it did was really smooth over the surface of any rough spots AND it actually gave the paint some wear in a few spots that appears like natural wear and fade. The decals went down perfectly and I have had zero silvering on this kit. And this F4 has hundreds of stensils, so the opportunity for silvering was there, but none of them did. I am so pleased with the results this is now my must do technique before I apply decals.

BK

That still looks nice Johnny despite the silvering. It doesn't stand out to much in those pics. I do like the 16 in that scheme.

Finally, a milestone! I finished the decals on the F4. It took me so long cuz there are sooo many to do and I just couldn't make myself do more than 20 min at a time. BUT, I finally have them all down and the setting solution is drying just to make sure they are all fully settled in. Next will be clear gloss and some paint touch ups and on to weathering. Yeeha, I feel like working on it again.

BK

Moving along with the SLUF.

Looks great Brandon but all those stencils has to really put a dampener on things.

Thats nice BK. But ye, lts of stencils, they must have tested your nerves.

68GT

Moving along with the SLUF.

 

SLUF, not hear that one before. Looking nice.

Bish

 

 

68GT

Moving along with the SLUF.

 

 

 

 

SLUF, not hear that one before. Looking nice.

 

68GT, ya, that is looking nice. I like the scheme as well.

Bish, yes they did. I still have a slight twitch in one eye.

BK

BK: Ouch, I hope your eye feels better, that's enough destroy your eyesight! Beautiful work there, gawd I hate stenciling...

68GT: Cool, that's one plane I still haven't built. Love the eye-catching blue on the tail, and is that a puffin? 

tempestjohnny

 

 

Bish

 

 

68GT

Moving along with the SLUF.

 

 

 

 

SLUF, not hear that one before. Looking nice.

 

 

 

 

Bish it's short for Short Little Ugly F@##$$

 

 

RIIIIIIGHT, got it now. BUFF's little brother.

Thanks Gamera.

Thanks BrandonK: Yeah those stencils will take some time to apply.  Nice F-4 with all those decals on.

Thanks Johnny: I agree nice F-16 Falcon, going with a dark green camouflage over a gray one is a nice touch. A job well done.

Thanks Matt.

68GT: Great work on the A-7.

Started the F-15C back on the 15^th, the kit has been going together great. The cockpit is very basic with decals for the interment panels, the joy stick seems to be out of scale.

14 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

15 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

19 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Assembly of part B16 to part E1 was tricky. I first glued E1 to A22 the bottom fuselage half, when dry fitting E1 to B16 the cone shape on B16 sat below E1. So I first glued using CA glue, glued the cone shape of B16 to E1. Letting it dry fully. Then gluing the ends of B16 down to A22. It worked out great.

001 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

20 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Gluing the underside wing inserts.

22 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

23 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Then the intakes.

24 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

25 by Daniel Smith, on Flickr

Dan, I'm watching this one as I have this kit and would love to see where some of the hang ups are. You are moving right along. Nice work.

BK

Hey Dan she's starting to look like a F-15! 

I spent some time looking through all the previous pages since I joined late and there is a lot of great stuff going on in here!  I've finally been able to get a start on my Intruder after being waylaid by a cold and a stomach bug.  I started in the cockpit and I'm still working on it, but I was wondering if anyone had any decent pictures of the deck behind the cockpit.  I can't seem to find any pictures of that area on an actual aircraft, and of all the builds I've seen online, each one is different.  This is the area I'm talking about.

Dan,

Nice!  You are really moving right along with that Eagle!

Bob,

Good start on the Intruder cockpit!  Try and search for walk around photos, there has to be some online that can point out generally what it looks like.  Take that and apply some "artistic license" and you should be good to go.

I have begun the process of stripping off the paint where it dripped, and am going to hit the seams that  I can see and the other flaws this weekend.  Should hopefully get to post a few more shots of progress soon!

<Matt

silentbob33

I spent some time looking through all the previous pages since I joined late and there is a lot of great stuff going on in here!  I've finally been able to get a start on my Intruder after being waylaid by a cold and a stomach bug.  I started in the cockpit and I'm still working on it, but I was wondering if anyone had any decent pictures of the deck behind the cockpit.  I can't seem to find any pictures of that area on an actual aircraft, and of all the builds I've seen online, each one is different.  This is the area I'm talking about.