BlrwestSiR

Happy Chinese New Year folks! It's been a busy couple days as a result so I haven't had as much bench time. I did get the seams all cleaned up. It needed a fair bit of touch up. The engine nacelles are now glued on as well.

This will be fun to watch.

Fold a piece of card and tape to the fuselage so it covers the nose gear leg. That should help prevent it from getting banged into.

That should be fun. I was looking at a TIE Fighter myself.

Well, it was in the first Transformers movie...

Looks like it's a day for 1/16 accessories. My SOL set for the AHHQ Achilles arrived today too along with some landing gear for the Tamiya F-35B. Unfortunately the SOL set is a complete mess. The quality looks very nice but the M2 is missing the entire breech/body of the gun. Upon closer inspection, the storage set looks to be for the M10 version as it doesn't match the box top at all. What's there looks nice but won't work on the Achilles. It's US equipment rather than the British stuff I need. I've contacted the seller so we'll see what they say. As for the landing gear set, this will let one build the F-35-B the way it looks on the box art, with the nose off the deck and the front oleo fully extended. Should make for a nice display.

Thanks folks! The encouragement is helping me continue to work on this kit. I did a quick prime to check the various seams. Looks like there's going to be more filling and scribing in my future.

Wow, that is going to an amazing build.

When I sold the decals I ended up doing my Hill Grey one as an homage to Chico. I did the same basic loadout except with an extra SUU-23 under the belly. Apparently this was flight tested once...

Looks good there Martin. Definitely a weathered finish. What's the airbrush issues you're having?

Nice work Jeroen. The flange you made really adds a finishing touch to the nacelle. The Kits World panel is quite a disappointment the way it looks.

Nice start Rog. Thanks for showing us the box contents and what the kit is like. I wonder if some of the plastic might be ABS. Tamiya mixes plastics on some of their kits. I've built one Beemax kit (their 1/24 Celica rally car) and can relate to some of your comments about slightly vague parts location. Looking forward to your next update.

You missed your chance at getting an Armortek tank kit!!! That would have been perfect for her to get around on.

The EJ kit builds an early hard wing E. Basically it's an E in the box with added bits for the EJ plus a grey nose section as well as the clear one that the E only comes with. EJ kept their hard wing and never got slats but did get new wingtip antennas and a radome with the EJ Kai. And Scott is correct, fit the burner cans. after the rear is assembled. Much easier for painting and any seam work.

Overall, the kit goes together well. There are a couple simple things to do to make it look nicer. -Sand off the raised BDR patches on the fuselage. There's a pair of them on the aft end of the fuselage, two on the intakes (some seamless intakes have removed them already) - The outer wing pylons are too far inboard. They need to be moved out. I can't remember how much but I'll see if I can find it. - The canopy is probably the biggest challenge. Tamiya joined the canopy parts to the sprue along the side of the glass. Trim them very carefully of they will splinter and leave a nasty scar on the plastic. You can hide it by painting the sealant edge around the canopy and then attach them to the frames. Another option is Aerocraft makes a replacement set where the glass and frame are one piece. - The outer wing dihedral is off. The outer wings point too far up stock. Add a shim along the upper edge to flatten them out. Nautilus make/made an alignment jig to correct the dihedral. - The other thing is the burner cans are under sized. Most AM ones are too. GT Resin makes correctly sized ones. Sierra Hotel does too. I can't recall who else does. @ScottsGT should have anything I missed as he's built a bunch of them.

Just trying to provide some support to Scott in his time of need.

Or she could be waiting patiently bidding her time for the right moment....

Thanks guys for checking in. This build is moving along a bit faster than I expected, especially with the occasional fit issues I've run into. Anyways, the internal details around the cockpit tub are now done. Which meant I could get the wing in place. Once I do some seam cleanup, the engines can go on too. Here's a test fit.

Nice! I had a bunch of the Tamiya EJ kits in the stash at one point. The original plan was to do them as: 1)- Chico the Gunfighter 2)- early hard wing E 3)- Hill Grey scheme 4)- Euro One G conversion. I sold the Chico decals, got the Hill Grey one done, and have more G conversions than kits and...stalled out. Hopefully I'll get back to at least building a G. Carl

I checked the very brief section on the H and its usage by the Marines and there's no mention of what they did about the lights unfortunately.

Looking forward to seeing your WIP on the Lotus Rog. I'm hoping to pick this kit up at some point. As for the tobacco livery markings, it's not the model companies fault. Beyond any licensing issues, the markings are banned in Europe and North America from appearing on toys, which is what the models are considered. This came about in the late '80s. Prior to the ban, most models had the tobacco sponsors on their decal sheets. Many had to reprint new box art as well as decal sheets to comply with the rules. Thankfully you can get them from AM companies.

Yeah, just hope it is.

Hope this works. My first time on the site using a laptop. It's the best I could do as the book is a it thick and hard to get on the scanner.

Hey, I resemble that remark!!!

Nice camo Phil. I've always got a bit of touch-up no matter what I do.