WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 VF-25S Messiah Pt. 1 – Construction
Building up a Hasegawa Macross kit is easier than a typical aircraft kit in that they can be built up in subassemblies like a mecha kit. However, some planning is needed to make this work out so I begin by cutting and dryfitting the major parts together. As usual with Hasegawa, the fit is very …...
WIP : Airfix 1/72 Hawk 109 Pt. 3 – Finishing
Time to finish this thing. The markings come from Scale Nutz, a defunct decal company based in Singapore. The sheet comes with full stencils for 1 aircraft but enough unit numbers to build any of the Hawk 109 and 209s in TNI-AU service in either squadron. I went with TT-1203 from Skadron 12 for this …...
WIP : Airfix 1/72 Hawk 109 Pt. 2 – Painting
I used a gray color on the parts to check for gaps and thankfully, they weren’t too bad. Painting begins with Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black. First on was freehanded AK Interactive Dark Tan. Based on photos, the camouflage demarcations are solid so I used Tamiya Tape for Curves for these. To prevent overspray, I backfilled …...
WIP : Airfix 1/72 Hawk 109 Pt. 1 – Construction
Next up is another aircraft flown by the TNI-AU and my first modern Airfix kit. As usual, I begin with the ejection seats. The kit comes with seated pilots so no seatbelt details are provided. I made these from 1mm masking tape. Cockpit details are decals and are the same for both cockpits. Oddly, the …...
WIP : Nitto 1/20 PKA Gustav Pt. 1 – Construction
Time to thin my SF3D/Ma.K stash! This is a PKA Gustav from Nitto when Maschinen Krieger was still known as SF3D. It has since been superseded by a snapfit release from Wave. While this is definitely showing its age with its 1980s engineering and fit, it’s a multimedia kit: it includes brass rods, wires, springs …...
WIP : Fine Molds 1/72 Y-Wing Fighter Pt.2 – Painting & Finishing
Painting begins with my usual black base using Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black. I’m trying a different marble coat this time with patches of various colors. I wanted to see these would have effect on the main colors. The primary color for the Y-wing is thinned Game Color Dead White. The nice thing about priming in …...
WIP : Fine Molds 1/72 Y-Wing Fighter Pt.1 – Construction
Time for a more stress-free build in the shape of this Star Wars kit from the folks at Fine Molds. As usual with anything that looks like an aircraft, the cockpit is built first. It’s on the simple side but once the pilot is in place, most the things here can’t be seen. With some …...
WIP : Kinetic 1/48 Alpha Jet Pt. 7 – Finishing
On to the finishing stage! First up are the decals after a gloss coat. The decals are designed by Canuck Models and printed by Cartograph. While generally printed nicely, the red bands that go around the bottom fuselage were slightly out of register. Pity. These went on beautifully and are really easy to use although …...
WIP : Kinetic 1/48 Alpha Jet Pt. 6 – Painting
Painting begins as is usual now with a base color of Tamiya XF-1 Black thinned with lacquer thinner. Reference photos show that the Top Aces Alpha Jets are maintained very well with very smooth paint jobs. I decided to take some artistic license by adding some subtle variation to the colors for visual interest. So …...
WIP : Kinetic 1/48 Alpha Jet Pt. 5 – Main Construction
To address the step between the front canopy and the nose, it was a matter of putty + elbow grease with a sanding sponge. However, the way the front canopy attaches to the nose, the port side joint is only (at most) 0.5mm away from a panel line. Naturally I managed to obliterate part of …...
