Archive for the 'Projects' Category

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General Dynamics F-16N ‘TOPGUN Marines’

Posted on July 25, 2011 in Projects. 0 Comments Tags: .

Kit Info
Manufacturer: Tamiya
Scale: 1/48
Media: Injection Plastic

My 2nd ‘SMLJ Aggressor?’ build will be the General Dynamics F-16N in Marine Corps markings. 22 F-16Ns were acquired by the US Navy to serve in the Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT) role in 1987. By 1995 though they have all been retired. The F-16N is based on the Block 30 F-16C.

One particular F-16N was given a very striking green splinter camouflage and Marine Corps markings. This is the one I will be building, I hope…

By all accounts, the Tamiya F-16 kit is the best one in the market right now. It’s also supposed to be a shake and bake kit. I somewhat agree with this although there are some issues to overcome.

Firstly, the MLG bay. Pin marks are everywhere. Not sure why this is so since Hasegawa and Academy (much older vintages) don’t have this problem. I filled these up with Vallejo Liquid Putty.

The kit also has these 2 panels that are oddly separate. Luckily they fit fine.

The kit came molded as a modern version of the F-16 so some bumps and antennas need to be removed to accurize it as an F-16N. The instruction manual is pretty comprehensive though so it’s a matter of just doing the proper cutting and sanding.

First up, the scoop at the base of the tailfin needs to be removed.

Antenna bumps on each side of the topside wingroot need to be sanded down.

There are antenna bumps on each side of the bottom side wingroot that need to be removed too.

The leading edge of the wings has the RWR (called ‘beercans’) molded on. Well, parts of them anyway. These need removing and cleaning up.

This kit comes with a full length intake which conveniently has 2 seamlines running along the horizontal axis. Joy. Anyway I’m trying this out to see if I can reduce the obvious seamline running across the middle of the intake. So basically instead of a front and rear intake I’m assembling them as one long upper and lower half of the intake. This allows me to easily remove the seamline in the middle.

A quick testfit shows I can still attach the intake with no problems.

General Galaxy VF-22S Sturmvogel II

Posted on June 25, 2011 in Projects. 0 Comments Tags: .

Last few things to complete. And as usual, a minor disaster…

I sprayed the exhaust in Alclad Jet Exhaust and I found the color abit too dark. Given another go, I think I’d have gone for gun metal color. I attached the exhaust petals with cement and carelessly got the cement onto the Alclad. Sigh… paint got removed.

I can’t handbrush Alclad so in the end, I decided to handpaint gun metal on the exhaust housings and layer on Future over it. It’s not too bad if you don’t look closely. :D I do like the contrast between the exhaust housing and the petals though.

Next up is the base which is a 4′x6′ chipboard from Art Friend in Singapore. It’s a simple matter of spraying it flat black from a rattle can and a flat coat over it. Then it’s a brass rod into a hole I drilled through the base.

And I’m done! These are temporary pictures while I take better photos.

Yes it took awhile. But at least it looks decent enough.

General Galaxy VF-22S Sturmvogel II

Posted on June 16, 2011 in Projects. 0 Comments Tags: .

The end is in sight!

After leaving the kit to dry for more than 24 hours, I sprayed on a semi gloss coat of Future mixed with some Tamiya flat base (to of course, flatten the finish). Note near the wingtip a somewhat big glob of black oilpaint which I missed out when I was doing the wash. I guess I’ll just explain it away as space debris impact. :P

Then what remains are the minor details that need to be colored/attached. First up the wingtip and tailfin lights. Red on the left, blue on the right. For this, I painted a base color of silver then brushed on Tamiya clear red and blue. I then topped this off with undiluted Future to shine them up.

The nose is actually bristled with lenses of various shapes and sizes. The instructions call for them to be clear green which I decided to tint them with smoke instead. These are handbrushed with Tamiya smoke and given a coat Future also. To keep track of them I wrote down their part number on a plastic card and used it as a part handler.

The holes where these clear parts go were painted silver and they were attached with PVA glue. The parts fit very tightly in the nose and I actually managed to split the nose open which I had to carefully cement back together.

There are 1 clear lens on each wing.

Then it was time to remove the masking around the canopy. Moment of truth time for most aircraft projects because it tends to make or break the project.

Turns out, I had to use the hobby knife and toothpick to clean up the canopy frame which ended up hazing some of the clear parts. To fix this, I brushed on Future to see if I can shine them up again.

And I’m 95% done! Only the antenna, belly gun barrels, exhausts and base remain! :D

General Galaxy VF-22S Sturmvogel II

Posted on June 14, 2011 in Projects. 0 Comments Tags: .

DAMN! Missed some painting. For lack of a better word, the chevrons on the engine housings need to be painted. The instructions called for a silver color but I chose black gray instead. There are also what looks like gun barrels on each side of the housing that needs to be painted.

The shape of the chevron was pretty complicated so I ended up using masking tape, paper to cover the decals and liquid mask. The it’s a matter of airbrushing black gray.

Next is time for weathering. Having managed to find a bottle of odorless turpentine, I decided to give the kit an oil wash of Paynes Gray on the panels. It also ended up giving the kit an overall filter which blended the camouflage together in my eye. Nice.

For the bottom, the resulting wash was very subtle. It’s only obvious at certain angles, otherwise it’s pretty much invisible. I used a combination of straight Paynes Gray and a lightened version of it. This being the first time I’m trying to ‘wash’ a black surface’, the result is not what I have expected, but it turned out all right.

Operation: Turtle Rescue

Posted on June 11, 2011 in Projects. 0 Comments Tags: .

And…. we’re done!

Operation: Turtle Rescue

Posted on June 2, 2011 in Projects. 0 Comments Tags: .

Mrs. Rocket Punch ordered a turtle-shaped nightlight for the kids. Turn it on and light shines through the shell and a star field is projected to the ceiling and wall. It however arrived with the shell cracked.

So I figured I can weasel out some goodwill from Mrs. Rocket Punch if I fixed this thing.

The patient:

The grievous injury:

The shell can’t be removed easily so work on it had to be done with the plush section attached. I wrapped a plastic bag around the plush section and masked off all the openings on the shell. First round of putty is then put on.

I went through at least 3 rounds of puttying. In the end, I used a combination of Revell Plasto, Tamiya Putty, Superglue + talcum powder and Milliput epoxy putty to fix all the cracks.

After a primer coat of white I preshaded the shell with Vallejo black gray.

Little Rocket Punch asked for 3 colors for the shell so I sprayed Model Master Acryl’s Insignia Blue, Insignia Red and Insignia Yellow. I sprayed Flat White as a base coat over the preshade before spraying the yellow.

And I’m more or less done! All that’s left is to leave the colors to cure about 24 hours and then a layer of Future Floor Polish as a final coat.

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6

Posted on May 30, 2011 in Projects. 0 Comments Tags: .

Kit Info
Manufacturer: Otaki
Scale: 1/48
Media: Injection Plastic

Joining Max my friend at Plamo with this. The idea is to have a long term groupbuild, with the common theme being World War 2 prop planes. One after another.

The Otaki Bf 109G-6 is a 1980s vintage kit. However, from what I’ve read, it’s an excellent kit with very good fit. It was also very cheap. I got it or only $7 SGD from a fire sale. :)

The decals are more or less useless. It’s now yellow AND dried up. Markings for 2 aircraft. I’m looking to replace this with an aftermarket set.

The cockpit is very basic but with the canopy closed, I’m not too concerned.

I decided to leave out the underwing gun pods. This means I have to fill up the attachment points. I first added a blanking plate inside the wing. Putty to follow.

No need for putty here! The fit of the upper wing is excellent! I’m very impressed.

The canopy was dipped in Future and I spent about 1.5 hours masking it. World War 2 canopies… brrr…

I then quickly cut off the other parts and checked the fit of the other parts. Looks like a Bf 109 to me!

Cleaned up the landing gear and miscellaneous parts and onward with the primer to check for parts that need to be fixed. Doesn’t look too bad.

So far, I’m liking this kit. It might be old, but it’s giving me a lot less headaches than the newer modern kits.

Boeing F/A-18A Hornet NSAWC ‘TOPGUN 42′

Posted on May 17, 2011 in Projects. 0 Comments Tags: .

Kit Info
Manufacturer: Hasegawa
Scale: 1/48
Media: Injection Plastic

Night-time chatting with buddies and we ended up deciding to do a groupbuild together on Plamo. This time it’s an Aggressor/Adversary aircraft groupbuild. We affectionately call it ‘SMLJ Aggressor?‘. :D

So what’s my entry? It’s a Boeing F/A-18A flown by NSAWC (Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center) as ‘TOPGUN 42′ in 1995-1996. This will be Hasegawa’s F/A-18A kit with Fightertown Decals’ Ultimate Hornet Adversaries 1 decals. Hasegawa’s Hornets have the reputation as the definitive model kit for this aircraft. Let’s see…

First up, the cockpit as usual. This is given a gray color with the control panels in black gray. The buttons and switches were drybrushed with light gray. The MFDs were given a couple of drops of Future for gloss. Since I’m modeling the aircraft with the engine off, the MFDs are correctly ‘black’.

I decided to replace the kit ejection seat with the resin one from Legend Production. A definite improvement methinks. The resin seat’s slightly smaller but it looks fine in the cockpit.

The basic construction was quite straightforward.

Some interesting details of the kit include the (tiny) support struts for the intakes.

The ‘A’ variant has reinforcement plates at the base of the vertical tailfins.

Hasegawa provides white metal landing gear which are really nice. The nose gear required some work though. The catapult strut and the part of the structure is styrene. The nose gear also came bent but was easily corrected.

The wheels and part of the main landing gear struts are styrene.

There’s also a photo-etched detail for the nose gear bay. There’s only one for one side of the bay though.

Now for some problems. First up, the nose to fuselage fit isn’t perfect. It’s not too bad however.

There’s an injection pin mark right smack in the middle of the topside of the wing. Luckily it doesn’t get in the way of any of the fine details.

There’s a gap when the ladder is in the closed position.

The slimelights at the rear fuselage don’t line up properly. This is even after I’ve added plastic sheet on the inside as a guide for the joining of the upper and lower fuselage.

There’s some gaps inside the main landing gear bay which can’t be fixed easily.

This kit was originally meant for a combat-duty F/A-18A from VFA-97 but for Aggressor duties, aircraft tend to fly without pylons. So the holes for the pylons I have opened will need to be closed. Putty time! :P

And now we come to the major problem with this kit. Besides the lack of full trunking for the intakes (you peek into the intake and it goes nowhere), the fit leaves much to be desired. Both sides left big steps between the intake lips and the engine compartment. Some major plastic manipulation will be needed here.