Advancement on the Alpha Jet
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So I'm a few weeks underway building the Alpha Jet (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.
Indeed, fit is challenging, Stan. You are doing a super job, though!
Doing my best, I hope I don't lose my patience ๐
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 ๐
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 ๐
Your progressing nicely on this one, Stan @stakke
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.
@tcinla
Tom, the Wingman kits are based on Kinetics plastic from a few years ago. Apparently it does share the bad fit of ESCI ๐
Tom @tcinla, I don't know if the old Kinetic kit is "related" tot the old ESCI ones. Wouldn't be surprised if it was.
Thanks for sharing this. Now I know why so few are built.
Lots of hard work on display here, Stan. Have you thought of posting your build over in one of the groups?
It has been mentioned to me but I'm still getting to know the site.