GusMac

So, this is going to be the next project, although not the one I'd thought. The kit was a surprise Christmas present from my wife and she's keen to see it built. Having just finished one big grey jet I thought I'd go for something with a bit of colour and having the Maketar Israeli masks it seemed a Block 40 Barak 2 will be the plan. Want to try something new with every build. The Isracast Barak conversion set now seems to be rarer than rocking horse poop so the plan is to scratch build the antennae, tail extension, etc from a copy of the Isracast instructions I have. Looking forward to trying the Ammo paints as well. Have an Asuka M4A4 Sherman which might get built alongside this just for a change of pace.

Okay, here is my first big Tamiya kit, the F-15C built as IDFAF aircraft 840 'Commando' as at the start of Operation Mole Cricket in June 1982. The airframe is often shown with 6.5 kill markings but that's wrong as it only ever claimed 3.5. This depiction is it would have been before it's first victory over a Syrian Mig-23 which I built last time. AM consisted of GT Resin seamless intakes, exhaust set and wheel set, all of which were very easy to use and install. Python 3s and their pylons were from Isracast and the decals were the Cutting Edge set which were nice and thin and settled down lovely. The main grey paints were Mr Hobby acrylics and everything else was Tamiya acrylics. Again used the Ammo panel line washes which are very easy to use and give a nice end result to my eyes. Big thanks to Dennis.E who provided a spare AIM-7 Sparrow after one fell victim to a 'friendly' chew from one of our dogs!! And here she is alongside the Trumpeter Mig-23MF built as her first kill over the Bekaa Valley when flown by Benny Zinker. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the outcome but a bit of a disaster with an attempt at salt fading took some of the joy out of it - it was a long chore to fix the damage but lessons learned for the future. I feel as though my skills are improving with each build but I think I have to speed up a bit - this has taken almost 11 months. The build review can be found here http://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/4635-idf-f15c-commando/ As always all comments welcome. Gus

Evening All Well, I'm calling this one done. Fairly happy with the outcome although some aspects could be improved. Certainly wouldn't repeat the fiasco with the salt-fading for instance! Will post a full set of pictures in the Finished section. As usual, all comments, critiques, etc welcome. Gus

Nice result of an unusual machine. Looks like the love child of an M109 and an earth moving machine.

Red looks cool Micha.

Mine was a bit similar to Paul's and it happened on my current build. Four Sparrow missiles in the process of being painted and suddenly there were three?! Like Jeroen my first suspect was the missus, but the missing item turned up later in the bed of our younger dog, Salty - well chewed! Must have got knocked on the floor and he regards anything he can reach as fair game. DennisE kindly sent me a replacement all the way from NZ.

Stunning work. The worn RAF roundel is just great.

Looks great. I think the lighting in the photos adds to the effect.

Nice to see you back at the bench Cees. Hope you get the motivation to finish the Manchester at some point.

That has gone together nicely. Far better than the Trumpeter version does - they have the spine as separate parts which just creates seams and poor fit where you don't want it. Can you actually see any of your IP wiring in there? The fit looks lovely and snug but not a lot to be seen.

Looks great. Saw some reviews of this on The Modelling News and it looked intriguing. Certainly builds up impressively.

Nice paint Danny. The colour looks good - certainly better than the hideous bile green in Brian's picture!

Nice result Jorge. Wish someone would do a Mig-27 (or a decent conversion set) in 1/32.

Nice result Danny. I've never tried casting, was it really as easy as this makes it look? Funny that an 'incorrect' Mig-29 nose ends up being perfect for the -23. Looking forward to the new Mig-29s from Trumpeter and hopefully they've paid attention to the issues with the previous versions.

Hi Dennis, I don't think Hannants carry the Uschi stuff. I ordered mine direct from Alexander himself at www.uschivdr.com and it arrived pretty promptly from Germany. The UK stockist is Scalemodelshop and I think BNAModelWorld in Oz, which is a bit closer to you, stock some items but I don't know if they have these. I can heartily recommend them though - easy to use, look very realistic and with the amount you get in the tub, they should last a good while.

Didn't realise it was quite so long since I updated this. Progress has been slow but steady what with Xmas, family commitments and exam marking. So since the last update I've repaired the mess made by the salt fading attempt as best I could, then gloss coat and decals. The Cutting Edge ones were great, thin, easy to apply and settled down nice and snug. The kit ones were typical of older Tamiya, a bit thick but settled down eventually with a good douse in MicroSol. Then it was onto panel line washes with the Ammo washes for grey jets which are excellent. Flat coat followed to seal everything in nicely. I used Tamiya XF-86 but it seems a little 'grainy' so I think I might try something else next time. After that it was weathering up the metal areas using Uschi's metal powders. I'm not sure if the results come through in these pictures but I'm pretty happy with the outcome for a first attempt. Then it was adding the GT Resin nozzles and wheels, which again are easy to use and look excellent. Gary Hatherley has done a great job with these. Next step now is adding all the ancillary parts and finishing the ladder. It's been undercoated in Aluminium and gloss coated, so just needs some liquid frisket and airbrush to get some chipped paint effects and then some weathering. Almost at the finish now! As usual all comments, suggestions, etc welcome.

Lovely Jeroen. What do you use to thin the Gunze paints that far? I've always used Mr Levelling Thinner with them but never had the courage to push the dilution that far. Can't argue with those results though.

Welcome Alberto, some lovely looking builds there and obviously some nice sunshine for taking the photos.

Lovely effect Jeroen, that's some precision airbrush work.

If the wings don't go on it's just a torpedo!

Nice looking seat Danny. The colour for the cockpit, barf blue or whatever you want to call it, looks great. I used a Citadel colour on mine that I'd seen recommended online but it looked too 'blue' to me, although I stuck with it. This looks far more correct to me - looks like MRP will be the way to go when the new Trumpy Mig-29A and Tan Su-33 come out, hopefully later this year. I can feel my wallet squeaking already!

Lovely result on the seatbelts Danny. I hate PE belts for modern aircraft but no-one seems keen to do fabric versions so I guess we're stuck with them. The Aires wheel bays look excellent too.

Never owned a ZM kit but given how some seem to rave about them, that seems a bit of an oversight. Doesn't seem to fit with the level of hidden interior detail they give you anyway.

Very, very nice!

That's a serious gun. How are you going to make the multiple barrels?