Paint and layering

Been a while since I've been able to update progress on the project, but it's been busy all around of late, so I haven't had nearly as much time to put into her as I would have liked.  Spent the past couple of days working the base color on.  Had to decant the required color from a spray can, and go from there, since they no longer offer FS36251 in small jars.  This is a bit of an annoyance, but a minor stepping stone to overcome.  Some would wonder why I wouldn't just spray it straight from the can, but with adding pre shading to this project, I didn't want to blast it with a spray can, and lose the effect.   So the extra effort to transfer it to it's own jar, and airbrush it was well worth it.  At this time, I've got the patterns drawn and cut out to start the camo layers for the mod scheme.  Just a quick freehand job using construction paper.  I have used index cards on past eagle projects, but this plane is simply too big, so the construction paper will have to do. 

 

The build to this point has been interesting, with more than a few surprises, most notably, the short shot issue in the molding of the lower fuselage.  I was highly disappointed at the fact that my first encounter with this elusive defect came in a kit that was almost 130 dollars.  To be fair, Tamiya did send me a replacement, but sadly, I already had intakes and engines glued in place, so it was kind of for nothing.  I had to fill the offending gouge with milliput, which worked wonderfully to fill and blend.  You'd be hard pressed to even notice it was ever even there.  From here I'll keep pressing forward with the camo layering, and then move into masking the aft fuselage for the metallic paint process over the exhausts, and the belly.  In all, I have been very happy with the fit of everything.  It's right on par with everything you'd expect from Tamiya.  A couple of odd moments here and there, but absolutely nothing worth losing sleep or interest over. 

 

Forward Progress: Building the Body

So after a busy first few days out of the chute, I'm happy about the cockpit finally coming together.  There was certainly a lot of work involved to get it to where I was happy with it, but for the most part, there was nothing that I didn't like about the process.  I certainly am not near enough into the build to be able to give a 100 percent statement on my full views of the kit, but I can say that if the rest of it goes together like the first part has, then I'll be more than satisfied. 

The odd part is really getting used to the scale.  It's been mind blowing to look at how much bigger the parts are, and how much more detail in involved.  This is a double edged sword to me, because sometimes I just don't know when to leave well enough alone, and move on.  I like to push the boundaries in times like this.  For all the times that I've ever said "Man, if it were just a little bit bigger, I could do so much more..." this is that time!  I'm the first one to always persuade others to always challenge themselves, so what would I be for not taking my own advice? 

I am in the process now of getting the intakes started, and they look like they're going to be very cooperative.  Shown below is simply a picture of a quick test fit in order to figure out where everything needs to be.  This helps eliminate any surprised in the upcoming steps.  However, the realization that I'll soon have a two foot F-15 sitting in front of me sank in, and I couldn't help but stop and take a picture with the quarter thrown in for scale representation.  This thing really is massive, and I am falling more and more in love with this scale as I move through the build. 

My work time has been limited, but not wasted of late.  I have picked up a contract job doing aerospace inspection, so I'm back "on the clock" for the first time in over a year.  It's a temporary position that I'm looking at as a way to fund some new items for the business, as well as a few new marketing items I have coming up.  I don't foresee any detrimental slide to the current deadlines with the projects that I have in front of me, however, this means that my time at the table can't be spent frivolously. 

All in all, the process has been more than fun, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it coming together just as well as the forward fuselage has. 


 

Cockpit progress

Been a busy weekend, so not a whole lot of additional work, but I did manage to get the up front controls done up. Still very happy with the fit and progress of everything. I did go back on some of the side paneling and do some outlining to add a bit more depth.  Also got the exterior avionics bay sprayed so that I can start picking out boxes here shortly.  Looking forward to getting the rest of the small stuff done and the seat put together and painted in the next day or so.

Will bigger be better?

Finally breaking ground on this 32'nd scale eagle.  I do believe I'm still a bit awe struck with how big this scale actually is.  There's many times where I'm hard pressed to make 1:48 scale work, and it's easy to sometimes forget what a difference there is between the two, but this has really been nice so far.  Makes it easy for a fella to get spoiled. 

So far, the game plan has just been to take a look at all the bells and whistles, and make sure that I'm not inches from shooting myself in the foot at any given moment.  With the larger scale comes the cool gadgets, and moving parts that are usually associated with the higher price tag.  Putting these to good use is going to be a great time.  My first challenge was trying to find a suitable color for the avionics "Bay 5" that seems convincing.  Using MM metallic british green, lightened slightly seems to have done the trick, although it still doesn't seem to have the natural look..but without being able to lay eyes on it personally, it's hard to tell.  Pictures can only say so much.  It's enough to keep me content, and I believe that in scale, it looks more than close enough. 

The amount of detail is phenomenal, even for this older Eagle kit.  That certainly means more work, but I don't mind more work as long as the rewards outweigh the hassle.  So far, it's been a joy to work with to really let the skills come out and play.  I'm confident that this is going to be a lot of fun.

Although this is a much bigger scale, and more parts than normal, the engineering of the kit indicates that it may not necessarily mean more work.  A lot of nuts and bolts go into the contstruction phase of this particular plane, which I'm interested to work with to see how it presents itself.  I believe that with smooth sailing, I may not see much more time lapse difference between this and any other project that I'm accustomed to working on that usually requires 20+hours of correctional work, simply due to bad engineering or fit.  I suppose we'll soon find out.