The 50 Shades of Gray Group Build!

And then, just like that, this afternoon it started to take final shape! 

Next up, sanding...

Yeah that thing takes alot of sanding! It's such a cool plane it's worth it. Looking smart there. Are you doing the HAVE GLASS paint?

Thanks Mongoose. This will be in the prototype scheme of Gunship Gray 36118 over Neutral Gray 36270.

Some nice work here guys. Really need to go through the thread and get a proper look at what everyone else is up to.

Time to wrap up the Harrier. Adde some RBF tags as well as a Hasegawa USAF figure painted in UK Desert DPM. The cut of the uniform looked close enough in this scale. Figures are always a let down.

This aircraft was base at Kandahar in 2009.

Thanks for hosting the GB, deffinetly nice to have somthing different. Please feel free to use which ever pic you choose.

Bish - The Harrier did not disappoint!  Thanks again for participating.  For a matter of curiosity, what materials did you use for the base, like the wood frame?

 Stik - Sweet action on the -35!

Thanks Robert.

The base is a bit of chipboard with some MDF underneath to give it height and a neater underside. The edging is just balsa wood glued and nailed in place then stained and varnished.

Love that Harrier Bish! Great finish on that one!

Glamdring, thanks! I’m doing what I can with this one.

I did seam sanding on the main assembly today, so the only thing really worth taking a photo of was the inlet doors that I addressed. The kit parts sat too low in the openings on the ledges molded, so I created some new ones from thin sheet styrene cut to match the shape and sit on top of the kit parts. A few minutes of sanding after the glue had dried and I had nice flush fitting doors.

Thanks Carlos.

That 35 is coming along well.

Thanks Bish. It’s a decent kit, but it shows what happens when the kit is made before the design is finalized. It has a mix of prototype and production features that are not quite right for either one, OOB.

So today was another good long session at my work bench on this one. It’s been a rainy day here... yes it rains in Arizona... lol! So perfect modeling weather.

First up, the X-35A has a prominent exhaust on the right side aft of the intake that the kit does not include.

So I went to work drilling a hole, added some tube styrene that looks about the right diameter and glued it into place, then sanded it down to proper profile.

Then I glued the intakes in place, the X-35 has a sawtooth edge there compared to the F-35 having a straight angled edge

and lastly, I also glued the vertical stabilizers in place

Now that all of the basic airframe is done, it looks like a -35! There are still a few items that the kit is missing that I need to add before I am ready to start painting.

Nice progress Stik.  The exhaust tube is a good addition.

Thank you Glam. Just a few more things to address before I start painting this one.

I have more or less resolved the gap issue, but am left with an ugly seam issue instead.

Since this isn't going into any shows, I am calling it good enough for my done shelf.

I also broke out the guard rails for the deck and started gluing them on last night.

Some others that are bent into shape.

Today was spent affixing PE. No updates on that, but they will be posted tomorrow.  The stress level has definitely increased now with each piece!

I'm with ya glamdring. PE does up the stress BUT IT LOOKS SO GOOD when you're done :-)

TheMongoose

I'm with ya glamdring. PE does up the stress BUT IT LOOKS SO GOOD when you're done :-)

 

I agree, the brass does make the kit pop.  It would look ridiculous without it, or with molded on rails like the kits of yesteryear.

As promised, here are the PE and deck fitting updates:

The end is near!  Just have a handful more parts to go and a paint touch up on the brass.

And I have only knocked off 2 rails so far.  

You are oh so close to the finish line! Get her across!

Today I added two last external features to this build today. Both are present on the X-35, but not on the F-35 or the kit.

First, on the bottom of the fuselage, there are a pair of speedbrakes. I found some parts in my spares bins that were close enough in shape to work. A bit of cutting and sanding and they were on.

also there is a scoop on the right side of the fuselage aft of the air intake that I needed to add. Again a search of my spares bun came up with another part that I sanded and trimmed to shape that is “close enough”.

More to follow in he next few days...

Some really great work here! I'd like to jump in with Revell's 1/48 F-15E please!

Stik, very good additions.  As one who obviously doesn't much like the process required for it, I admire your attention to those nice and smooth seams!   

Rooster, yes, absolutely.  I have marked you down, and welcome!

Finally finished construction tonight!  I will leave it as a surprise for the weekend, too exhausted for photography tonight.  There is still some paint touch ups, an aerial drone, and a chopper to build anyway before fully finished. 

Looking forward to it glamdring

Guys this is ready for a critique I’ve added alot of details to this cockpit because it will be so open. Used flat, satin, and gloss to change up the different black shades based on what i saw in cockpit photos. I found a shot of the area behind the pilot seat so i was even able to make that look more accurate. I used purple foil wrapping paper for the screens. Used a piece of pe from a ship for the computer connection on each side of the pilot IP. Added the leather armrest in the gunner pit per pics. Then i made a seat shaped screen from a kitchen seive and airbrushed the seats to give them a cloth look. The brown on the headrest and pilot seat sides is to simulate sun fading i saw in lots of pics. Seemed to vary alot which makes sense as it probably depends on how often they were covered and what theatre they were in. I made the ILII decals on the pilot IP, in reality there are 2 one over the other but I couldn’t get them that small. Does what i have look good or should i either do the double ILII or not use this at all?

I think that it looks super “as is”. Only someone intimately familiar with the aircraft or pores over cockpit detail photos would notice the ILII marking situation. The other 99.9% of us will not know the difference.

Wow, Mongoose!  That is incredible detail right there.  I would leave it with the ILII decal as is and call it good.

Thanks Stik, thanks glamdring! Gonna lock and load it. Belts came in yesterday...but today is my wife AND daughter's birthday so no modeling till tomorrow ;-)

A little progress on this today. I added the ejection seat and HUD into the cockpit.

After that I started masking the canopy and glued that in place. Once I finish that I can start priming.

stikpisher those extras you added behind the seat and the wiring really spice it up. A nice realistic touch!

Not much progress but to be expected over the holidays huh. Some slowness is my approach. I’m trying to set up as much stuff to paint at once that I can. Waffling around between steps on the instructions. Pretty close to closing up the body. The one thing worth showing may be the PE work I’m doing. I’ve cut out all the vent openings that i can reference on the walk arounds and am in the process of creating ’shadow boxes’ of stuff that will be behind them so it’s just not open space. Check it out :-)

Stik and Mongoose, very nice work to both of you!

Thanks guys. Mongoose, that shelf behind the seat was empty in the kit. Photos show that area filled with stuff like I tried to replicate. A busy cockpit is an interesting cockpit. Like yours.

Today’s progress report...

I modified the nose to accept a flight test instrumentation boom that I took from another kit in my stash that won’t be needing the boom.

Then I modified the boom to better match the configuration used by the X-35

And lastly I primered the bird all up

Due up next, the basic paint, Gunship Gray 36118 over Neutral Gray 36270