This one is a bit tentative for me in this GB. I have had this Kinetic SuE in my stash for awhile, somewhat put off by the issue with the windscreen being slightly too narrow for the fuselage. I also have the Airfix/Heller Super Etendard and might do that one instead for this Group Build (probably in buttoned up and in flight, if so). Lots of build challenges there! As far as the Kinetic kit goes, I am also very motivated to do the French Camo or Tiger Meet versions as these look really good when appropriately weathered (and the reason I originally bought the kit. One way or another, there will be an Argentine Super Etendard with Exocet in this space.

So, you may be aware of the clear parts issue with this otherwise superb model. Most modelers shrug it off and stuff the gap with putty. Some fairly severe sanding takes down the gap and makes it disappear - with the consequence of sanding off some nice detail. I have studied the issue carefully and come up with a solution that works so far. I have added shims inside the fuselage

These shims conform very well to the kit parts to represent actual paneling that extends beneath the windscreen on the real thing (see photo). The strips of styrene (which I will be sanding and shaping more to make the whole thing seamless) act as shims to push out the sides of the windscreen significantly and make it conform flush with the fuselage for nearly half the length. Otherwise it reduces the step at the front (where I can't spread it out) to almost nothing. Once the windscreen is glued down later in the build, a few light passes of a sanding stick to the fuselage should fair it in smoothly - without eliminating the very fine rivets in the windscreen edge. Overall, this is a beautiful kit. Since I have the Eduard cockpit set, I should be able to make it look good inside and out. It is good to have the motivation to revisit this one. I am pleased to have gotten a satisfactory solution to the one glitch previously holding me back.

Colin, is there a vac replacement for that Heller canopy?
Your solution on the Kinetic canopy issue was simple and efective, like all brilliant ideas

Nice solution on the Kinetic clear parts issue, my friend @coling!
I have the Heller kit, too, migh make an ARMADA Super Etendard!

I will sure jump in, my friend @coling!
The "plan" is to finish the Victor first provided that I will resist the temptation to jump in immediately! 🙂 This GB is so motivating!

Wow, that was some amazing info, my friend @adrianstarling!

Here is some recent progress on the Kinetic Etendard, enhanced with Eduard colored etch. Actually the first thing to do before the etch was to paint the other bigger parts that would be closed up within the fuselage. The wheel wells and intakes are natural metal and I thought first of using Vallejo Model Air Aluminum. I won’t share pics of this as the results were terrible and I simply stripped all of this off to start again. I don’t know what your experiences are with that paint, but I found the aluminum ridiculously thin, fragile and almost devoid of pigment. It also never dried properly. Anyway, I went instead with the excellent Vallejo Metal Color acrylics, as shown.

The wells turned out fine, as did the intake trunking. I was already painting some undercarriage parts for the Buffalo, so I just did it all at the same time. This meant no leftover paint so was pretty efficient.

The next part was to fit the etch. This was an actually an extremely delicate and time-consuming task. I had noticed how close all of the plastic tub parts fit inside the fuselage when dry-fitting - no gaps or room for etch of the same dimesnions. I therefore anticipated correctly that I would have to trim the Eduard parts that would cover the plastic parts and increase their thickness. First off was the sidewalls, trimmed a full mm or more so that the edge of the tub would fit around the piece.

You can’t leave this because it would force the fuselage halves apart (complicating the windscreen fit too, obviously). To make sure everything would fit, I attached each trimmed etch part with a few drops of Gator glue first and then dry fitted the fuselage, re-trimming and re-positioning the etch as I went (a long trial and error process). This went well. When everything looked OK, I scraped of the Gator glue and substituted superglue. Thanks goodness I had an excellent Tamiya diamond file to trim the tiny etch pieces without damaging them.

IMHO, color etch has two challenges for the modeler, besides the tininess of each piece to be fitted. One is that the color glaze can easily flake off if the part is bent, overexposed to superglue or accidentally scraped. I avoided this with great care. The second problem is that the finish is very shiny, so may require modification to look better.

In fact, in normal lighting and hidden away inside the fuselage, the shininess is not a problem and the detail comes out beautifully. In some cases though, some extra work helps (see scotch tape mod below).

A note on how I handled the etch, including some incredibly small pieces for the IP. I rolled up some Tamiya tape into a cylinder about the diameter of a toothpick to pick up and position each part for gluing.

This works better than tweezers, usually, because there is no danger of launching the etch across the room with excess tweezer pressure. Getting everything in place when glued went well, with quite a bit of re-gluing when the tight fit squeezed off some bits.

Now the tape fix. I noticed that the radar scope looked odd when it didn’t reflect light to differentiate it from the panel around it, as its glass cover would dictate.

I decided to put a thin piece of plastic over it to make it pop out better. What could be thinner than scotch tape and also have its own adhesive? I’d never done this before but decided to try it. I put three layers of Scotch Tape (Brits call this Cello Tape, I think) on a piece of styrene card. I then punched our several pieces and lifted the tape off the disc with an Exacto knife. It took a few tries to get a cleanly punched disc of tape. It was easy to put this on the panel and burnish it down with a toothpick. Here are the results in strong light. In more normal light the effect is subtler but good.

Lastly, I test fitted the fuselage again. Good clearance and also an opportunity to see how the IP and consoles looked when in shadow in the pit. Looks good, I think.

So, this is a very different experience than with the Skyhawk cockpit. The etch is not really labor saving, so not so easy as it might seem. Nonetheless, you might find the detail is better than a carefully painted cockpit, especially in lower light.

Next up will be to assemble the intakes and burner cans for each model, do the nose weight and get them sealed up. BTW, I will do the SuE ejection seat later and fit it after the pit is closed up. it is too exposed and has too much harness and firing handle detail to sit there while I work on the rest o f the model. Too fragile. That’s it for now. Comments welcome.

Thanks, Spiros. Interest may be lagging in this one but c'est la vie. I am happy with the way it's going. In between my Luftwaffe builds, I have been getting on with both the SuE and the A-4. Before closing up the fuselage, I had to deal with the fit of the intake trunkings. They needed to fit flush with the inside edge of the fuselage to make the transition down the trunk look smooth. They didn't fit so well so I inserted some styrene bits as a shim to force the out more.

The end result was fine. I didn't take a pic before closing up the fuselage halves but i super-glued a pretty hefty fishing weight in the nose (exactly the same size as for the A-4). Luckily, there is still a space in front of the IP after the fuselage is closed up, so I can add more weight after the gear is on, if necessary (until I put the coaming on , at least).

So, the fuselage was glued together in stages, as it is a very tight fit to squeeze together with intakes. cockpit, wheel wells and jet pipe inside. Before sanding down the seams, I added the main wing section. As with my Heinkel, I did the top wing/fuselage fit first and then added the bottom wing - all to insure a good tight fit and correct anhedral.

I have assembled and sanded down the large wing tank and Exocet bodies which will be the two pieces of ordinance carried by the Armada SuE. So far, so good. After sanding the seams, I should be ready to paint the remainder of the wheel well and flap recesses in metal before painting the underside and separate flaps, slats and outer wing sections the underside white.

Thanks, Spiros.

I have done quite a bit of work on the SuE, although it may not be obvious. Sanding the fuselage and wing join seams was quite a chore, especially with the rather flat undersides. You have to be really careful around the nose cone too, which is integrate with the fuselage - it would be easy to distort, otherwise. The intakes were also more challenging than I anticipated as I had to figure out how to paint around the strakes they are mounted to. I also needed to make a system for painting the exterior color to a limited depth and protect the metallic trunking. For the first challenge, I brush painted flat black in the areas in deep shadow that the airbrush wouldn't reach.

For interior masking, I created balsa wood inserts to slide inside the intake and block the trunking. They are mounted on pins, so I can pull them out easily after painting the Dark Sea Grey topside color. I have painted all parts of the wheel wells and air-brake wells with metal coat as well as the interior of the gear doors. In the next couple of days, I will mask all of this with silly putty and paint the underside white, as well as the ordinance. I have already sanded the fuselage around the windscreen and the fit is near perfect now. After it is glued in, I will do a final sanding before painting.
What has been slowing me down most on this kit is the poor fit of little inserts, such as the bulges and antennas on the tail fin, flaps and slats and access doors. They often fit very poorly and I have had to do a lot of shimming, filling and sanding and then restoring detail with pin and scriber. It is definitely not a Hasegawa fit.
I have to keep stopping the build to consider how to approach each stage. The dropped flaps on the wings are really nice, but actually only authentic for a powered aircraft on landing or takeoff. I may drop them anyway and call it "undergoing maintenance" when it is parked. In any case the dropped flaps are a tight glue-less fit, so I will just pop them in for now as a friction fit and perhaps change them later after painting (it will still be safe and easy to do). I definitely want to fold the wingtips. I watched a video on Youtube of how easily they are folded by hand (almost like chunks of cardboard) so I am at ease with having them folded in the parked state (they also look cool this way).