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 I added marble coating with Mig AMMO Medium Gunship Grey and Model Air Light Grey. This should create a subtler effect than my usual white marble coat. BTW don’t mind the photo, I realized too late I didn’t take a photo of the kit with just the marble coat.
The Top Aces Alpha Jet is painted in a very nice 3 tone livery of white, light gray and light blue. First up I sprayed the white. The instructions call for Gloss White (FS27874) which I replaced with Model Air Insignia White.
After a day of curing, it was time for the light blue color. Masking was done with rolled blutack and backfilled with Tamiya tape.
I used Mig AMMO Dark Grey Blue in place of the called for FS35180 and sprayed quite tightly against the blutack as references show that the demarcations are quite solid. While they have different FS codes, the blue looks good when compared to many photos I found online.
Then it’s more masking to prep for the gray color.
The gray is Model Color Medium Sea Grey.
As usual for me, once all the masking tape and blutack have been removed, there are various spots that require fixing and finetuning. This stage usually takes a bit of time due to the multiple colors involved. I also found more seamlines and had to fix those. One particularly obvious one is on the nose.
Kinetic missed out 2 notable things with the livery. The first is they have the pattern wrong in the bottom aft of the fuselage and the tailfin which I have to redo.
The other is that the the splitter plates and the leading edges of the intake lips, wings, stabilizers, tailfin and pylons are black. Kinetic only got the deatils of the splitter plates and intake lips color right. Anyway, after fixing all the various livery problems, it was time for more masking.
These sections are painted Model Air Dark Panzer Grey.
The canopy frames were painted Mig AMMO Gunship Grey as per reference photos. Kinetic’s instructions shows the frames are a different color from the rest of the camo but they don’t specify which color it is.
The pylons and fuel tanks are primarily Model Color Medium Sea Grey with the leading edges Model Air Dark Panzer Grey. Gear doors and wheels were also finally prepped.
And could it be that I’m almost done?! Decals and finishing are next!
Build Log
Pt. 1 – Cockpit | Pt. 2 – Main Construction | Pt. 3 – Main Construction | Pt. 4 – Main Construction
Pt. 5 – Main Construction | Pt. 6 – Painting | Pt. 7 – Finishing
Dear Sir,
congrats for this outstanding work!
I’m a TopAces Germany employee, working as a Flight Technician on the Alpha Jets and A4 Skyhawks.
When looking for a Model kit for TopAces Alpha Jet 016, I ran into your website.
I have never built a model aircraft, therefore I wanted to ask you if you could build and paint it for me and in case that, how much you’d charge me for your work.
With kindest regards,
Matthias
Hello. Thanks for the kind comments. And amazing that an actual TopAces technician found my build :D.
Unfortunately I don’t do commissions as I’m too slow so I’m am very bad with timelines. Plus I’m halfway around the world from you in Indonesia. You should try to find someone in Europe who does commissions instead. At the minimum the chances of receiving the item damaged is much less.