stefanwest

Freehand

It was fun. I use these old kits and build them out of the box so I try to make them look as best as I can with just paint.

Going old school.

Bump for update.

Testing the modification I did to raise the inboard engine on the Airfix AWACS kit so it would not sit on the ground. This is a combination of lowering the landing gear and raising the engine nacelle.

Progress so far on the surgery on the engine pylon. This is to raise the nacelle off the ground. Still need to fill in some holes and smooth it out further.

Those the original decals?

Test fitting my first engine. Looks like I need to go ahead and attach the engines and then fill in the gaps and rescribe them for a seamless look where it attaches to the wing. I already smooth out the seams on the engine itself.

Further progress. Fixed the gaps where wing attaches to fuselage. Repaired my work with CA glue as filler and rescribed the panel lines. Made the landing light lens from the kit flush with the wing.

Radome is done. Now to the rest of the plane.

Well. Did not like how the AWACS radome was working out. Using the Eduard mask kept leaving tape residue. So I removed the paint. Scanned in the leftover mask outline, made a reverse image of it. Imported it into my cutter and made a new mask from Tamiya yellow tape. Now you see the results. Ready for gloss coat and decals.

Working on the seams and the cockpit.

This is the heller kit in Airfix box. This one happened to be the cheapest one I found in eBay and the only one I found for sale in awhile.

Added the weight. It needed a lot. Test fitting the bottom wing/fuselage piece and see how the dihedral will look, No huge gaps.

I used Aluminum tubing with plastic sheet stock glued on each end, Everything glued with 5 min epoxy.

This is going to be big. Reinforcing the wings.

Airfix 1/72 B-25 Mitchell. First attempt on painting the plane resulted in bad finish. So I stripped the paint, remasked, recreated the rivets and tried it again. This attempt is better but still having trouble with the finish. Well practice makes perfect they say. So I went ahead and finished it and on the next silver plane I know what not to do. :)

Adding the rivets back does kind of hide the fact that I sanded too much off in certain areas. I am hoping once I spray Alclad, it won't be that noticeable.

Some more progress. In the rivet replacement phase.

Test fitting the pre paint Turrent and checking out my antenna pole.

Love the scout plane. I have a thing for Airfix 1/72 models. :)

Current progress. Test fitted the pre painted engines. Filling in gaps.

Working on the main canopies. Just a few more touch ups and they will be ready for masking.

Interior is done.