crazypoet

PE is painted up the Duralumin looks a bit bright, but it will tone down once I apply a bit of wash i also folded up and shaped the bay covers. They look a right mess at the moment, due to some paint experiments I did a while back (they were very useful canvases 🤣), but that will all get sorted when I paint the rest of the model Now at least I can move on to attaching the wings and getting this thing up on its legs 🙏

Following this! I have the ancient Monogram kit, that I’ll (eventually 🤣) build, also in Linebacker II colors It will be an education for me to stare over your shoulders as you build this one 🙏

Installed the PE bits around the perimeter of the gun bay - they slotted right in, mostly The piece that bridges across the ammo trays and the ends of the feed chutes was longer than the space, and it took some thinking and judicious trimming. It’s now just long enough that, when installed, it bends up into the airfoil curve that will match up with the panels. I haven’t put any paint on these yet - that will happen later today (my girlfriend is asking about lunch and dinner plans, and those come first 🙏) I’ll do these in Alclad duralumin, I think, with a bit of silver pencil highlights on the fasteners I’m going to try to fit the steel fastener rod across the aft side of the bay (similar to the rod across the forward side). It will take some fiddling around to see if I can shoehorn it into the space and make it look right

Thank you! 🙏 I think it will work when taken as a whole - this is an airframe that’s been though a year of great maintenance but hard service, and it will show and FA made a good point to about emphasis in shadowed spaces, to “pop” the highlights just a bit

Yup - and I know now how to make it better and brighter next time ‘round Using the right paint but with the wrong approach, on a material it wasn’t designed for left things too dull for the space. You're right, it needs to “pop” a bit in that space As Doc said, it should blend a bit better once it’s done, especially taken as a whole, and it will work with the overall weathering I’m planning But I certainly learned something 🤣🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Belts are in and have a gloss coat applied. I’m not 💯💯💯 thrilled with how they look - the brass should be a bit brighter and the links should be better defined (and a lot more even than I could get with slightly shaky hands and a brush 🤣), but I’ll live with it - and promise myself that *all* future ammo belts will be accurate cast resin with realistic links, that I can straighten with a bit of hot water and then airbrush The PE chutes were a bit fiddly to install while stuffed with the rubber ammo belts, but they lined up with no more than the usual amount of cursing, and it’s worth it to see proper links in the chute cutouts I’m chalking this up to “learning experience” and will take a deep breath and move forward. A bit of thin wash once the clear coat dries will help a bit, and then I can finish up the PE in the gun bay and get the wings properly attached

This is beautifully done, and the work you did to make everything “work” is inspiring me to power through some of the similar issues I run into - you’re always a good teacher! 🙏

Welcome to the asylum! And great work, there - always a bonus to be able to watch and learn from each other 🙏

Useful for running, when out of ammo! 😅

The max load per-gun on these was 425 rounds. That would make the full belt a bit over 32 feet long, or about six layers when folded into the bays - these things could get seriously crowded! Even the “normal” load of about 250 rounds per gun would give three layers of linked ammo in each tray I wish I had enough belts to actually do this, but I have to go with what I’ve got on hand 🤣

A bit of actual installation progress, finally 🤣 I have the first two chutes and belts in, and I’m mostly happy so far I realized (of course *after* the glue had dried on the first belt) that I’d set far too much “sag” into it between the supports in the tray. Sooooo…. I went back and added a few snippets of links to fill-in, and it looks ok unless you get closer than about 3-4 inches away. grrr It will look a bit better after a gloss coat and some wash, but it shows what happens when I’m thinking a bit behind what my fingers are doing with the tweezers 🤣🤦‍♂️ The chutes themselves will also get a bit of a touch up with the Uschi powder once they’re all in place Once these are all in and dry, there are a few bits of PE framing around the perimeter to install, then I can face the bay covers. There is supposed to be another steel rod across the back side of the gun bay, according to the photos I’ve seen, but I’m not sure that there will be room for it alongside the PE strip in that same area. We’ll see how it goes at that point The covers will need to be folded up and bent to the appropriate airfoil curves, then they’ll be set aside until I do the final painting and assembly The gun tray cover will sit loose on the wing (not a hinged piece), but the ammo tray cover is hinged with some delicate bits holding it in place The wing insignia overlaps these somewhat, so getting the decals right will be kinda fun - I’ll have to set the covers in-place, cut the decals accordingly, and hope my fingers are steady enough to get everything properly lined up

That’s nice detail out of the box! Have fun with those 😎

Very cool work on that locking latch!

That is brilliant work, dealing with the fit issues and making them look seamless 🙏

So far, so good-enough 🤣 I made an impromptu “straightening jig” with a little lucite square, some doubled-over office tape to hold the belts down, a couple pieces of thick PE fret left over from the picket boat I finished way back when, and a bunch of masking tape The results aren’t magnifying-glass perfect, but given the belts themselves not having molded links, they’re at least reasonably presentable from more than a couple of inches away You can still see where I glued the belt-ends together, but only if you look closely. I’ll live with that, especially since the glued bits won’t all be lined up side by side in the ammo trays. I’m hoping that it will just look like normal variations in the individual links and rounds once it’s all glued in and a light wash applied to tie everything together 🤷‍♂️🙏🤦‍♂️ There’s enough of each belt that looks good that I’ll be able to fill the feed chutes and the ammo bay itself, then I can move on to the last bits of Eduard PE for the gun bay and wrap this stage up