ghodges Posted March 11, 2023 Report Share Posted March 11, 2023 (edited) This is the 1/48 CollectAire resin E-1B Tracer, a long out of production kit. It's one of their better kits, but it did give me some troubles, especially the decals, despite gloss coating the decal sheet twice! I cut the wings and folded them... the kit is designed to let you do so, but the wings are molded in the out position. My wing fold detailing is busy, but entirely bogus, so don't rely on my build for "accuracy". The most difficult part of the kit is having to build the main gear before assembling the nacelles, as they cannot be inserted later. It also needs a good amount of nose weight to sit on its gear, though in real life the Tracer tended to sit on its tail wheel when the wings were folded. This is the basic kit. The major parts are hollow molded.... I heated and bent some thick strip plastic to make the wing fold spars, detailing the "hinge" with punched discs... Building the mutli part main gear legs... Detailed the gear nacelles and gear wells with some strip plastic... This shows the vacuform canopy with the overhead control panel the kit provides I made gear door hinges by punching rings and cutting them in half.... The decals, despite gloss coating, tended to fray and tear, as you can see with the bat emblem... it was repaired using a fine tipped Sharpie pen The 4 part wing walk decals had the same problem... You can see the touch ups in this pic (highlighted by the flash) Test fitting the folded wings to the fuselage.... On to the finished model! Gil Edited March 11, 2023 by ghodges 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stikpusher Posted March 14, 2023 Report Share Posted March 14, 2023 Very nicely done! I love the insignia on top of the radome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Deliduka Posted March 16, 2023 Report Share Posted March 16, 2023 Wow! You would never guess this gave you any trouble! Unbelieveable! That came out looking spectacular!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roktman Posted March 16, 2023 Report Share Posted March 16, 2023 Excellent buildup. Looks terrific! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmarc Posted July 22, 2023 Report Share Posted July 22, 2023 WOW,WOW,WOW...Very nice variation !!! well done SIR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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