Peterpools

Wings and Fuselage Work Continues Progress continues around doctor appointments and tests this past week– just comes with the territory once you’re in your seventies, I guess. THE WINGS First order of business was to add most of the components to the wings, of course the super small ones that would absolutely be broken off and fed to the carpet monster. The radiator and oil cooler assemblies were built up and there are a few injector pins that needed to be filled with Mr Surfacer. The radiators were primed and paint as per instructions and the coolant grills treated with a healthy application of Tamiya Black Panel Line Wash. The framing carefully brushed painted with Model Air Aluminum and the interior walls were Mig Medium Sea Gray. Fit was perfect and no filler needed at all. The clipped wingtips are clear parts, very brittle and no matter how hard I tried, I snapped one off and needed to make a replacement from some clear sprue. Only way to protect them from being snapped off again was to add the ailerons and complete the elliptical wing preventing the clear tips from hanging out in the breeze. The biggest pain so far has been the wing leading edge inserts for the canons and I’ve filled and sanded with both Tamiya White Filler and Mr Surfacer at least four times and I’m sure when I reach the priming stage, I will find the need for more TLC on them. Just has to be a better way of making the parts with a vastly improved fit. Every manufacturer seems to struggle with this but it i is still better then splitting the parts, gluing them together and spending way too much time sanding away. Maybe it’s time for these parts to be 3D printed. Note to Me: paint the lower wing center interior RAF Interior Green – read note and done! Hubert, just couldn’t think of a better way of not forgetting to paint it, which I am more then capable of doing. I had another note posted on the paint rack right in front of me as a backup and second reminder. I went with the flow, looked at a lot of photographs and decided to install the flaps in the up position and no issues getting them to fit nicely. One of the keys in building any Tamiya kit and taking advantage of their exquisite engineering for part fit, is the remove any paint, no matter how small from the gluing surfaces. I do spend a lot of extra time making sure I’ve removed all the paint where needed and also cleaned up any fret gate tips as carefully as I could. The Fuselage The rudder was also added and no issues; some parts still need to be added. I’m still not sure if the armor plate behind the pilot and above the fuselage is painted RAF Interior green or the cammo color – any hep would be appreciated. The panel lines and rivets that were lost when cleaning up the fuselage halves were added as needed (has to be the task in modeling I dislike the most by far). Before the wing is glued into place, I’ll do a bit of test priming on the leading edge inserts and add a panel line wash to see how much of the rivets need to be restored – oh what fun! Thanks for checking in The wing assembly is only being test fitted and the fit is awesome.

Carl When the juices flow, it will be time for the props. And yes: 'oh look shiny yellow thing' - looks so cool and tempting.

Gaz Coming together fantastically .. love the way the figures are interacting with each other and yes post it notes, the secret modeling tool available everywhere. 😉

John That she is. I just stare and dream - time surely has passed me bye.

Gaz Got ya - sounds like you are on the right track

Thanks Carl. Just after I read your post, I went to ZM's site, found the correction and downloaded the PDF. Saved for future use.

Thanks Carl, I never knew and checking it out for sure

John Always is something. I had no idea ZM had revised instructions on how to do the wing fold. Will be checking it out

John Looking forward to seeing how you handle the wing fold when extended.

Phil It more then worked -perfecto!

Gaz Nice start on the snow cover dio base and looking mighty good. I think it's more of looking at the entire scene and determining what's where in relation to objects, shadows and trampled, beat up snow. The base should be your clean pallet of a very grayish white snow. Tracks and road, more slushy and muddy browns mixed in and under the tank and in shadow areas, mix in darker blue, as there is a lot of blue in the shadows. I think by varying the snow color pallet, the overall effect will blend and look very natural. How much blue, gray and browns to added - just play with it. Just my thoughts and hopefully they might help.

Hi John I'm pretty sure I remember your first ZM build many moons ago. Being an Air Force Sandy, I'm assume (chancy word of course), you're planning on the wings extended. The wing fold from what I remember has always been a bit tricky and some closeup pics of how you go about it sure would be very appreciated.

Kev As Gaz pointed out, there are a load of methods to photograph your work and of course I know, I go way off the deep end. Shooting outside, while the colors will be correct at mid-day, the shadows are killers and don't stand in the shade, it's even worse color wise.

Hubert. Sure hope so.

Hubert Did you save the drawings and ig so, can you take a few pics and post them?

Mark Looking so good.

John So glad you're back building the ZM Skyraider and leaving everything closed up except the canopy. Great choice going with the Quinta Cockpit Decals and your front office looks fantastic. With you all the way, front and center.

Phil Right on the button for sure. Doing the same types of builds over and over all these years and it was time to add some spice to the mix

Thanks Carl I've always been an airplane guy and as of late, thanks to my brother, have also started becoming a car guy/model builder. Sometimes I get names and numbers a bit confused but try to match the decals and kits and figure it out as I go. Absolutely correct about the Jag XJR-9LM and I wanted both kits. Hasegawa is a curb side kit and Tamiya, well is Tamiya with all the goodies and the Indycal decals are for only the Tamiya kit. I'll be buying a hopefully sealed Tamiya Jaguar not too far down the road.

Thanks Mark I'm pretty well now set in what I've been looking for and combined with aircraft builds, it's a good thing I'm retired and in full remission.

Thanks Harv Itching to start my next race car build but I first need to get the Spit into the paint booth and get the primer on first.

Phil Another terrific build and the finish is spot on the money! In the first image, the light weathering and steaking looks perfect. Terrific build

Phil She came out looking fantastic. Cammo and finish look just superb. So very well done.

Gaz I'm just the opposite and so very passionate about photography - I've been shooting for over 60 years. About 95% of all the images I post are always taken in the RAW, processed in Photoshop and I'll spend about a good ten minutes on each one. Actually, most the images I post have also been focused stacked and are a combination of anywhere between 4 to 7 images, allowing the model to be sharply in focus from front to back. Just how I do things and way beyond what a normal person would do. 🙃 No matter what camera Kev is using, if he is posting from say Image Shack, you can change the resolution (image size right there as you copy and paste) or if from you PC, the resolution then needs to be increased to increase the image size. I'm not sure why everyone waits for a sunny day at noon to take photos of their work, which is absolutely the worst time of day and worst light unless you use a diffuser or photographic umbrella to soften the light; otherwise, some mighty harsh shadows and hard contrast is at the top of the list. All cameras, even cell phones allow you to change the white balance and then you can shoot indoors and not get the dreaded incandescent yellow caste. Indoor flash, camera and cellphone also removes the color caste but then there are those harsh shadows again. OOPS, time to get off my photography soapbox, my apologies, I just can't help getting carried away.

Hubert I'm right with Rob about starting up a build thread for all of us to follow and enjoy.