AREA 88: "The Upside Down Bomb" (Kfir)
I like 1+1 boxes...
The sprues look quite clean and well detailed.
Let’s start at the bottom. Main pieces cut, wheel doors in place and the engine LED is wired.
A bit of “aircraft grey” for the cockpit and “dark iron” for the tail.
Luckily the electronics still fit. Feels strange drilling into the top of a plane...
Major pieces assembled, and lights work... winning!
Got the small (C2) canards on, but the holes were much too big for the slots, so a shin was required.
Welcome Shin and Mickey...
The cockpit is a bit snug, but luckily I have an extreme weight loss program... who needs legs?
The canopies both cracked during application, so I'll try to sand them smooth again. I'm glad this is an upside down build...
After a bit of putty and sanding, the underside is painted "Israeli eggshell blue" - it's a homebrew mix, so hopefully close enough.
Masking almost everything...
And the first layer of camouflage is on. FS34227... or something close enough.
Second layer of camouflage is on... starting to look like a proper Kfir now, innit?
Taping up some masks for the triangles.
And... we have black and yellow recognition triangles. Man that’s yellow!
They look fairly different with a panel wash.
Since the bottom is up this time, I took more care to get the panel wash done well... I think it works.
Dry fit the chase to get the placement right...
Decals on... and we’re done!
Comments
25 April 2019, 14:28
Greg BakerI don't want these two upside down Kfirs to get left behind in the project, so let's get started.
25 April 2019, 14:32
Kerry COXYet an other adventure to watch. !
👍. Afterburner s glowing on the shelf. 🙂 👍
Mmmmmmm. This pop corn is GOOD. ! 😉
26 April 2019, 02:03
Matthew AI should think our Antipodean friend would be used to being upside down
26 April 2019, 11:48
Greg BakerAs always, two steps forward, one step back. I got Shin and Mickey painted up and seated in the cockpits, and then I found out that all the reviews of this kit that say the canopies can crack weren't lying. BOTH canopies cracked, under very little force since I was forewarned. I'm starting to be very glad this is an upside down presentation. I will sand and buff out the canopies as clearly as I'm able... just promise me not to look too closely. 🙂
30 April 2019, 15:41
Greg BakerI'm happy now that these have got some paint on them. I did my best to match the Hasegawa 1/72 callouts for colour. So "Israeli Eggshell Blue" (FS35622) on the bottom mixed from 5ml of Tamiya XF-2 and 7 drops of X-23 and 3 drops of X-25. Then FS33531 (XF-57) on the top with FS34227 for the first layer of camouflage (XF-71:1 + XF-21:1 + XF-2:1). Seems to have worked.
9 May 2019, 16:10
Greg BakerIt's funny. I'm fighting my instincts and trying to remember that these two will be displayed inverted. It seems unnatural somehow. I have to remember to spend more time on the underside than I might otherwise, and let things slide on top. It's also the first time I had the wires in the way of a camouflage paint job. Normally they're on the bottom and a single coat of paint is enough. They were a bit annoying and getting in my way.
9 May 2019, 23:14
Greg BakerThanks Lode. Problem solving and pushing our own limits is all part of the enjoyment of the hobby, isn't it? I didn't have the proper decals for the black/yellow recognition triangles on these two, so I had to do some careful masking. Whenever it got tedious I just thought about you masking 1/700 PE coffee mugs and soldier onward. 🙂
12 May 2019, 23:30
Matthew ACan't find your plane at the airbase because it's painted in desert/jungle camo -then why not stick some massive yellow triangles on it because the enemy will never spot that
13 May 2019, 08:21
Greg BakerThanks Lode. I like being unpredictable in my builds. 😉
Besides the cracked canopies, I'm quite happy how these two ended up. The decals went on like a breeze and really give them the final pop.
16 May 2019, 23:50
Nathan DempseyGreg, whatever it is you do between laying original colors down and the picture I see now really makes your colors come to life.
17 May 2019, 00:46
Greg BakerThanks Nathan. The jump between pics 16 and 17 really is the panel wash. I use Tamiya's panel washes (black, grey, brown) not just on the panels, but basically on the whole surface and then spend a lot of time wiping it back off. I'm still trying to get a handle on the process myself, but it usually drops the colour uniformly by a tone. I also use one of those microfiber cloths to give the whole models a quick rub before applying the wash. That "sands" down the paint a bit and takes out the shinier high spots. It's not a miracle cure for painting mishaps, but can even it out a bit.
17 May 2019, 01:17
Slavo HazuchaVery nice, they even have blue-tone canopies! Do you have a supersize version of Tamyia mark fit or are they really that small?😉
17 May 2019, 06:25
Greg BakerHeh... I knew my novelty over-sized set of Tamiya products was going come in handy...😉
17 May 2019, 06:42
