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Stan Forier
4 articles

Advancement on the Alpha Jet

April 24, 2023 · in Aviation · · 11 · 402
This article is part of a series:
  1. 1/48 Wingman Models Alpha Jet Belgian Air Force
  2. Advancement on the Alpha Jet
  3. Done! Alpha Jet 1/48 Wingman Models

So I'm a few weeks underway building the (see previous post) and it has been... well a bit challenging.
The kit is clearly old and that shows in two domains. First and foremost, the fit is not very good. A lot of parts and joints need filling and/or sanding, even several times to get a good result. Especially when assembling the cockpit and joining the two fuselage halves, some force was needed, partially due to use of the resin cockpit.
The fit of the air intakes is just plain bad. They're supposed to be flush with the fuselage but that is hardly the case. Quite some rounds of filling and sanding are needed, I hope the result will be ok, I'll know when the primer is on. Same goes for the bottom part of the main gear bay.
Second thing is the mould alignment for this kit wasn't 100%. There is some flash but the irritating thing is that small parts like landing gear struts and such have a big seam because of it, one which you can't sand away because the part will get too thin. If there's one thing I really, really annoys me when modeling is misalignment seams... grrrrrrrr!

I did add some extra detail in the main gear bay but there is so much wiring and stuff in it irl, it was hard to choose what to add.

The fit of the canopies wasn't very good either, the fuselage is a little to wide for them so I had to use a wooden spacer when glueing some parts to get the canopy to conform better. Second part of the solution is building the plane with an open cockpit but that was already the plan from the start.
Next steps are more dry fitting and adjusting the exhausts, filling seams on the bottom of the fuselage, adding lights and masking them and after that the primer goes on.

Reader reactions:
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11 responses

  1. Indeed, fit is challenging, Stan. You are doing a super job, though!

  2. Stan, must admit your description of all your (hard) labour is quite discouraging. No wonder why we see so few of these kits build. Still, keep it up! I might start building mine soon just to keep up your spirit πŸ˜‰

    • I'm keeping the end-result in mind. My aim is to build a collection of most types of aircraft ever in Belgian service so I HAVE to do an Alpha Jet. And besides, it's pure nostalgia for me, they we're flying over my head as a kid a lot πŸ™‚

  3. Your progressing nicely on this one, Stan @stakke

  4. I think this model is a repop of the old ESCI kit, which I recall was an ill-fitting PITA. So you're doing well to get it to this level.

  5. Thanks for sharing this. Now I know why so few are built.

  6. Lots of hard work on display here, Stan. Have you thought of posting your build over in one of the groups?

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