Hello all,

the work continues with the secondary air inlets that look like the gills on the fuselage flanks and can be opened, or closed. The form of the nine quadratic panels is not correct in the kit, plus they are half-heartedly depicted in quasi-opened position, which is on one side wrong for the parked aircraft and on the other looks completely unconvincing. So, they had to go. To replace them with photo-etched parts some tricky surgery was needed. Here’s how I went about it… also, there are few satisfying shots of the main fuselage coming together...

11 attached images. Click to enlarge.

This is a really inspiring build! It's really impressive seeing so much care and attention to detail going into it!

Yeah, the cockpit is amazing! I would have definitely needed a few beers to help get through the nozzles mind!

Hello again,

The fuselage of this beast has a lot of surface and all of it requires attention. Here are some of the bad seams now repaired, smoothened and re-riveted. Work began on the wings as well. As with the fuselage, the question is just how closely one wants to look and how much is one prepared to ignore... Note for example how the missile rack doesn't follow the lower curvature of the wing surface. I had to triple-check if it wasn't the part of another kit, or if didn't switch sides by mistake, but no... I had to fashion this matching curvature myself.

Cheers,

Aleks

17 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Yeah the fit in places on that model looked rather horrific. Glad you managed to beat that thing into shape.

Thanks a lot friends, I really appreciate it! 🙂

David, I am known for saying that we engineers can fix almost anything. I regulate my mechanical watches and trim my own hair and beard. If there is some online tutorial for your condition, I will be glad to fix ya too. 😉 Here's a thing: couple of years back my old iMac died, so I do a bit of research, open it up, first time in my life, take everything apart, find the graphics card and place it in my kitchen oven for 8 minutes on 200°C . Put it back together and turn it back on - that machine still runs to this day. True story, I even have the pics to back it up! The point being, we can do much more than what they tell us!

Anyhow, you are right, it's all about the patience. Patience needs to be trained and built-up. It is a magical property - nothing can replace it, but it can improve almost anything. You can never have enough of it and you can use it for anything in life. Oh, I'm just ramblin' now...
Cheers,
Aleks

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Here's another update with some work on flaps and wings. Inner flaps needed a lot of work, as the whole front section that is hidden in the wing when the flaps are retracted had to be scratch-built. Just understanding how the whole thing works from the photos was a feat. Outer flaps are thankfully separate in the kit, but again oversimplified. Static dischargers, quite prominent on all flying surfaces of this aircraft were also modeled, as well as the wing-tip position lights. Finally I fashioned fixed joints inside the inner wings that will allow me to attach the outer sections in the end, after painting and weathering...

20 attached images. Click to enlarge.