WIP : Wave 1/20 SAFS – Construction & Finishing
I found another Shelf Queen which was quite near to the painting stages so what better time than do roll up the sleeves and finish it? Most of the gap filling had already been done although I spotted more things that I needed to fix. The Wave kits use polycaps for attaching the limbs so …...
WIP : Hobbyboss 1/72 F-100F Super Sabre Pt.2 – Painting & Finishing
I decided to order a spare canopy direct from Trumpeter and received it after about 1.5 months. It still has the same fitting issues as the old one but at least it’s not cracked. In any case, I can finally start painting the kit. I began with a base of black. Then I added a …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 VF-0D Pt.2 – Construction
I’ve always used round brass rods to mount my kits because the holes are much easier to drill out. However, the kit can spin in place with a round rod if I don’t use some sort of glue to secure it in place. I’ve previously used a polycap but the clutch eventually wore out and …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 VF-0D Pt.1 – Construction
This will be an OOB build of the twin-seater version of the VF-0 Phoenix from Macross Zero. With its delta wings, I’ve always gotten the Dassault Mirage 2000 vibes from the VF-0D so I’ve also always planned to give the kit the same color scheme as the Mirage 2000D. But while playing around with the …...
WIP : Academy 1/72 AH-64E ‘TNI-AD’ Pt.3 – Painting & Finishing
Time to paint and finish this build. I started with my usual black base and white marble coating. As we shall see later, it wasn’t that effective. The AH-64E fielded by the TNI-AD comes in a 2-tone camouflage of olive drab and green. The CJM decal sheet states that the olive drab is FS34031. I …...
WIP : Academy 1/72 AH-64E ‘TNI-AD’ Pt.2 – Construction
The rotor is next. The base kit is an AH-64D so I need to modify it to the one that equips the AH-64E. My reference for this comes from the Hasegawa AH-64D and E instruction sheets. I made sure they were the same size and then superimposed them together to get a better idea of …...
WIP : Academy 1/72 AH-64E ‘TNI-AD’ Pt.1 – Construction
For this year’s annual TNI aircraft build, I decided to combine it with my annual helicopter build and decided on getting the TNI-AD’s AH-64E Apache Guardian done. What was originally thought to be a straightforward build wasn’t to be. Unsurprisingly really… In any case, this is the base kit… As usual I...
WIP : Hobbyboss 1/72 F-5E Tiger II ‘Area 88’ Pt.2 – Painting & Finishing
The construction phase went quite smoothly but as we shall see, I had a few problems after that… First up is a base coat of black. The engine area was painted in Vallejo Metal Color Pale Burnt Metal and the nozzles with Vallejo Metal Color Exhaust Manifold. These were then masked off with the nozzles …...
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 F-4J Phantom II Pt.3 – Finishing
BuNo 155800 NG-100, an F-4J, callsign Showtime 100, from VF-96 Fighting Falcons, was the aircraft flown by Pilot Lt. Randall ‘Duke’ Cunningham and RIO Lt. (jg) William ‘Willy Irish’ Driscoll when they scored their third, fourth and fifth kills to be the Navy’s only two ‘Aces’ of the Vietnam War....
WIP : Hasegawa 1/72 F-4J Phantom II Pt.2 – Painting
Instead of stripping the pebbly paint I decided to simply sand and buff smooth as much as I can. I could only do the best for the hard to reach areas like the inside of the inner pylons though. I also tried to improve the fit of the canopy onto the fuselage. This kit really …...