Once the decals were done I gave the whole kit a satin coat before doing my usual panel wash of Abteilung Starship Filth. The panel wash was subtle due to how dark the scheme was which is fine for me. What isn’t fine though, was…
The silvering of so many of the stencil decals was really ruining the overall look.
Luckily it looks much better now or this build would have gotten even more pear shaped.
Moving on, I added the prominent staining on the tailfin with oil paints.
Removing the canopy mask, I found a mistake that needed to be dealt with. This is a simple (relativel to the overall build) matter of masking and re-spraying.
The light at the end of the tunnel is finally in sight.
In the process of adding the lights to the gear doors, I found them to be oversized so I replaced them with Kotobukiya MSG verniers instead. Once painted silver and given a drop of PVA glue to simulate the lens I think they look alright.
I then attached the landing gear. Unlike the usual Hasegawa approach of pins and holes they are a tab and slot affair and the tolerance was tight and took some careful shimming to fit. Once locked in there’s no give. Then I attached the AGM-88 and Komoran missiles. The gear doors then went on but what’s this? The door actuators don’t quite reach the doors?!
I also had some problem getting the doors to align properly to the gear bay and ended up getting the paint stripped away by cement. These were fixed after some gnashing of the teeth.
I did another once-over to check for mistakes and found overspray over the the port intake’s walkway line. Since it’s at a prominent spot I couldn’t look away.
So I carefully masked out the walkway.
And then I again carefully sprayed Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black to restore the line.
Once satisfied I did final assembly of the stores. Note the subtle staining of the exhaust area.
And with that I’m FINALLY all done. This one has proved to be a challenging build and I yet still have quite a few Hasegawa Tornados in my stash /shudder. I wonder if the Revell release is an easier build…
Build Log
Pt.1 – Construction | Pt.2 – Construction | Pt.3 – Painting
Pt.4 – Painting | Pt.5 – Finishing
