Grumman X-29

Cleaning up injector marks in the intake 

Since I’m apparently unable to just build a kit OOB, I carved out the intakes, which were molded closed 

You can see at the bottom of the intakes there is a step between the intake and the fuselage, the protruding piece will be removed, and I’ll add a piece of polystyrene to cover the rod for the canards 

Removed any protruding plastic and sanded the intakes smooth 

I drilled holes through the fuselage for the canards. The plan is to insert a brass tube, and use a brass rod to connect both canards and allow them to move 

Other builds have mentioned how well this kit fits together and they weren’t lying. This has been possibly the easiest kit to assemble, which is a nice break from assembling Amodel kits. 

Gluing the floor of the intakes in. This will cover up the canard control rod 

Intakes and cockpit are primed and painted with Xf-75 IJN Gray. 

In my infinite genius, I ordered an F-5E cockpit detail set thinking how different could it be from the F-5A. The answer is, they are different. I’m going to need to cut a sliver off the edges to make them fit 

It’s not the neatest work, but it’ll do 

I had to do quite a bit of trimming to get the instrument panel to fit.  

I couldn’t help mocking it all closed 

Halves are sealed 

The cockpit rear light need some painting, depending on how much the closed canopy shows 

The channel to connect the two canards is glued in 

Next steps:
Connect the canards and instal the canopy  

I decided to go darker for the cockpit rear instead of matching the rest of the interior. Some clear coat, and the cockpit is all ready to be sealed up 

I’m trying to go easy on the seam line sanding. Perhaps just a little bit of cleaning up since some sections are flat 

Remaining parts are primed. 

Canopy is attached. I’m really happy with the result 

Steel base coat down. 

The metallic base coat definitely helps produce a nice white, but I very much sprayed too thick of a coat since none of the sheen from the base coat comes through 

I used mig ammo satin white  

I am interested to see what the contrast will look like between gloss covered areas and Matt ones 

Gear bays are painted. The zinc chromatic yellow doesn’t fully match the true color of the main gear bay, but I think it will do just fine 

Some minor details are left before a clear coat. The wheels need a coat of rubber. The fuselage needs anti-collision lights painted on, and the landing gear needs some details. 

The left intake will need a tiny bit of correction, but otherwise the intakes came out surprisingly well 

DECAL TIME! I struggled quite a bit with the larger decals on this side. I’m not super thrilled with this result, but it will do since I won’t be looking at this side often 

This side came out much better 

Some more mistakes with the decals. I will be masking and painting the anti-glare area 

Lesson learned, don’t let decals set if you plan on removing them later. I’ll need to sand down this area and re-paint it. This is either going to work out great, or ruin the whole model. ?‍♂️ 

Sanded the remains of the anti glare shield decal off and re-painted the base satin-white color 

Canards and landing gear are attached. The interior sides of the gear bay doors need to be painted, and then this project will be done. I’m not super thrilled about how the anti-glare shield turned out, but I think I’m not in the mood to re-do it 

Gear bay doors are painted 

Doors are ready for a final dullcoat before final rollout