Revell 1/144 F-18D WiP5

  Well this update is about two weeks old now.  First up, I had the F-18D all decaled and loaded up and thought "result!" then I put a sealing coat of varnish on the bugger.  This is what happened.  Now the "silvering" is where the varnish has reacted with the other varnish, its not where I have screwed up the decals.  I am actually pretty good with decals for some reason... I dunno.  Altho the "reaction" was pretty bad, it melted the glue and paint from the front canopy and the two HARMS fell off too as did the right Sidewinder.

  That little lot just made me cry, well I put the pictures up at Britmodeller as I was putting this build there as an WiP for them to laugh at.  I was given advice by Jessica, tomprobert, and Neal (from Britmodeller) that a light coat of gloss varnish *might* fix this cock up.  Well I gave it a try and here be the results.

  You have no idea how happy I am that this turned out this way, I need to touch up some areas but other than that I am well chuffed that it worked.  All I gotta do now is to tidy the canopy, paint the arrestor hook and the engines and this will be done.  Overall I am massively impressed with the RetroWings cockpit and control services parts.  Will be using their gear again soon. :)

  Constructive comments welcome.

  PEACE!

  Dazz

new project - Hazel and Hi-Nu Gundam

  For Christmas this year I have asked Nat and her family to get me these two Gundams.  I have had my eyes on the Hi-Nu for as long as I it's been out, but I missed out on the first issue of it.  Now I have this one... WOOHOO!  I've gotten these two as I am going to join in my first ever group build.  It will be part of the Britmodellers 1/144 group build.  I decided not to do an aircraft for it as I do them normally.  Plus it's a good excuse to make these two. :)

   Second is the Advanced Hazel, I also wanna get the other Hazels and other Mechas from the Titans Test Team.  I love their logo, I recall reading that some of the mecha in this "series" where named after the rabbits in Watership Down, explains why a rabbit head is the "mascot" too really.

  Yes I have small feet, I am planning on painting these ones and filling in all the gaps... Gundam Style... sorry couldn't resist :P  I have also ordered some decals for these two from America and they should be arriving any time soon.  I am planning something special for one of these two, dunno what yet.  Need to have a trial run with another model yet.

  They will be started in the new year :)

  Peace!

  Dazz

Revell 1/144 F-18D and CF-188A WiP 4

Learning a lot with these little buggers, I done some more work on the F-18D while round Natti's house.  The CF-188A is on hold until I get my Gunze paints I have ordered, also ordered some blues to maybe make an Aggressor style one, Fighting Omars style   Pictures down below.

  Now if I was to make this model again, I would definitely not put the little stakes on the LERX (is that whats it's called?) until after the walkway decal has gone on.  I have had to cut it up and try to stick it on as best as I could.  Think I will be MicroSol'ing that bastard for a while yet.

  I love the little decals for the pilots names.  However I never noticed the little paint bump when I was putting them on, I might have to take them off and try again.  Good job I have bought this model again then

Oh bloody hell, those tiger stripes needed to be straighter, bugger.  As for that little white bit on the badge, you can't see that with the naked eye, so I am going assume it's some kind of light reflection of some kind.  I love the "Marines" decal, it fitted underneath the flap sweetly. 

See what I mean about the badge?  Must of been some kind of light thing.  Tried to get a picture of the whole plane in focus, my camera wasn't playing today.  I just can't do wheels for some reason...

See what I mean about the walkways?  The rear console looks shocking with that massive gap.  The seats do not look too bad, was surprised there wasn't that many stencil decals as opposed to the F-18E... I dunno...

Not much to say here really, except that I really like the "No Step" decals on the tailplanes

  Now I am not too sure about the decals for the ground mechanic (is that their correct title?), if it is in the right place or not.  The plans didn't have them on the door, however they look too close to the roundel so I am not too sure.  Will have to see if I can find a picture to find out.  However I have seen a picture of this plane on Airliners.net and this plane was on there.  According to Revell it is a two tone grey colour.  To me it looked like one grey all over... bugger.  I am planning on getting the HARM and Maverick on later on this week sometime.

Peace!

Dazz

Revell 1/144 F-18D and CF-188A WiP 3

  Sorry for the delay regarding these models, was hoping to have them done by now, but I had a leaky lightsocket and been trying to sort that out.  On the plus side I now have a metric-f**k-tonne of lead to use on my models for nose weight and it was free... woot!

  Right onto the CF-188A first, now I haven't done much with her, shes all masked up and ready to be painted.  I've primed the colourful parts white in hope that the paint will come out brighter.  I tried to make the paint up, to no avail... I might need to use Revell's paint for this one.  Well the picture is below.

  Now for the F-18D, had some fun with this model.   Wasn't too sure what load out to put on her, but I decided to use what's in the box.  That be the one tank, 2 AGM-65 Maverick, 2 AGM-88 HARM's and the two AIM-9 Sidewinders.  Should make it scary enough I reckon, why does the camera always show the bad bits in a model??

I have got to sort out that bottom part of the rudder, but I like the paint work on this one.  Still not too sure if the greys work or not, but I will find out when I get the decals on, also I'll let everyone else judge

The fuel tank decal, went on easy without any fuss at all.  Need to varnish this so it doesn't look so shiny on the decal.  But looking alright here I reckon.

 The two AGM-88 HARMs, the decals are actually two different ones I have nicked from the Revell Typhoon decals that where meant to be used on the Luftwaffe's Sidewinders (I made the RAF version if you wanted to know).

And the two AGM-65 Mavericks, the decals where nicked from the Revell A-10's decal sheet.  I wont be using 6 Mavericks on it now so used them on here to make it look more "busy".

AIM-9 Sidewinders, the decals where once again nicked from the Revell Typhoon kit.  Dont think they have come out too bad actually.

The two pod things, the bottom one is an LANTRIN (I'm assuming?) however the weird TV ariel one I have no clue what so ever as to what it is.  The picture has made my filling look really bad.   I'm hoping to get all of the annoying bits done first and have her decal'd up either Thursday or Friday.

  Peace!

  Dazz

Revell 1/144 F-16C extra shots

  Well I noticed that I have been getting a lot of traffic from Kampfgruppe 1/144 regarding the new F-16.  Now I am massively impressed with the model, not so much the decals tho.  Well I decided to put some more pictures up of said model to show how good it is.  Hope you all enjoy.

 There you go, hope you like them :)

  Peace!

  Dazz