Putting it together
This is going to be a wheels-up Alpha Jet and will be intalled at a base when finished.
I first glued the two fuselage pieces together, then inserted the cockpit tub underneath and glued it in place, followed by the under fuselage part and the characteristic central carrying pod underneath, which I believe is the smoke generator.
The wings are a two piece affair each and were assembled as well. Here is the result:
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The bulbous mini nosed was lost somewhere (I think my little son, QC2, is responsible...).
No worries, as this kit contains all parts to build all versions; so I glued the pointy nose on, planning to file it down. The air intakes, consisting of two parts each, were attached too. Sone careful fitting will definitely pay off here!
The fit of the wings to the fuselage presented large gaps, so, they were attached with liquefied styrene, that oozed out of the gaps, acting as filler. The rear stabilizers were glued on too, as well as the gear doors, the finlets and the cockpit consoles.
To glue the gear doors shut, I had already glued suitable pieces of styrene from the inside, so the doors would have a steady area to adhere to, apart from the fuselage borders. I have learned this trick the hard way, when som doors went into the assembled AND painted fuselage, never to be found again...
After curing, the whole model was given an initial coarse sanding to even things. Here are the results:
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1. Coarse sanded
2. Consoles added
3. Finlets added
4. Beautiful Alpha Jet silhouette!
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1. Smoke generator
2. Bulbed nose!
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More to come!
Cheers, Aerobatic GB!
