Dan: Looks like I missed your last post but though it's a month behind despite your problems the F-15 looks good! 

CN: Nice work on the cockpit there! 

Bob: Fine looking Intruder. Love the pre-shading. Used to see them flying over back in the '80s at school and college. I miss seeing them. 

Gentlemen, thank you for the kind comments, very motivating and encouraging...especially because airplanes are quite new to me so I am not quite sure what am I doing.

Here are some more WIP pics:

Nothing special about the nose cone but it was my first attempt with masking tape to get those sharp edges. I am happy how it turned out

The wheel well

You are moving right along now. It will be in paint before you know it. I always liked the looks of the Saber Dog over the more common Saber. Nice work so far.

BK

CN: Nice clean job on the masking there. 

Dang, I really, really, need to get mine out and get some more work done on her. November will be here before I know it.  

A bit more of a progress here...

The canopy

The wingy-thingy has wings now...

The workplace

Armed...but is it dangerous :-)

Hey CN, great job there. The canopy looks perfect! 

That pilot looks the part in the pit for sure. And all those little red dots to paint; I would need therapy after that. Nice work.

BK

Thank you gentlemen . Any tips on how to weather it, to make it look it flew few times? Some kind of wash maybe to take away that "brand new look" shine?

Thanks...

Nice job there castel, ye a wash would really help.

Yeah, I think I'd go with a panel line wash at least. Not sure what else you could do, I've not applied much weathering to NM aircraft I've built. 

Ya, make sure you have a good clear gloss coat down and then do a panel line wash. It will look the part then and not be over done.

BK

Highly recommend Flory Washes. Unfortunately they are only available from the U.K. But well worth the wait.

You can also use artists oils and orderless mineral spirits for panel washes also. I use that method when I only want the panel lines to take the wash and not the rest of the surface.

BK

I finally got to start building this 1/48 Italeri F-22. There is not really allot to show progress wize with this tipe of model where allot of detail is hidden inside te fuselage.

Here is the engines and thrust vector plates, I used alclad burnt iron to get the colour right

In 1/48 this is a BIG model

Cockpit

Ohhh, looks very cool Theuns! 

Thanx, I got the fuselage joined up, some filling and sanding to follow.

Here is my attempt at "gold tinting" the canopy with tamiya clear yellow in future air brushed to the inside of the canopy. 

Poor quality pic ,sorry

Looks pretty good in the photo. 

Actually, that tint looks really good. The tone of the yellow is excellent and it pulls off the look of the gold tint very well. I like what you've done. I want to do an F-22 but I don't know who does the better kit. Your work here will help in my decision.

BK

Thanx Brandon, the Tamiya clear yellow is quite thick and a few drops in future maked a nice tint, then it takes quite a few coats to build it up, but that way I could controll the level of tint I wanted. 

I tried dipping but the results were not good.

This was more of an experiment to test the tinting as I have NICE 1/48 ea-6 Prowler I need to tint the large canopies.

This tecnique gives the look but still doesnt have a metallic feel :-(

Theuns

That cockpit is gonna look cool

Theuns, your canopy looks pretty good to me!  

With school out I've finally gotten enough time to make some progress on the Intruder.  Decals are on, and the squadron emblem on the tail has been giving me so trouble.  A few well placed cuts with a new no. 11 blade and Micro Sol helped it out.  Now I need to put on a flat coat.

I also got the landing gear ready to go, and the rockeyes.  Slowly getting there...

I first tried the tinting on my F4 with tamiya clear blue and clear. A drop of blue and lots of clear and layered it up like you said. And yes, I think it does look good, and yes the metallic hue is still ellusive. Looking very nice.

BK

She's looking good Bob! 

I agree with Gamera, that does look good, Bob. I still don't have one of those in the stash and honestly, I don't know why. I need to rectify that.

BK

I just love the lines of that A6, I have the Italeri 1/48 Prowler to build soon but the Intruder looks nicer ;-)

As for the F-22, I dont want to have all the weapons bays open, they supply the doors to these only in the open position, and to close them thye really dont fit well, so it will take some carefull work to close it all up.

Theuns

Thanks Theuns!  I'd like to get my hands on a Prowler kit as well.

She's all done!  I learned the hard way to align bombs and sway braces at the same time.  Since I didn't, some of the bombs don't line up right.  Oh well, I still like how it looks overall.

Well Bob, those are the details that only the builder can see. It looks very good to me and I don't see any issues with it at all. Well done, Sir!! I'll update the front page.

BK