Airfix RA-5C Vigilante
The start does not look promising. Tamiya putty to the rescue...
Rear fuselage needs lots of work and putty
Inboard wall of intakes relaced and properly contoured (almost, inboard lip should actually be 2mm shorter at the top, I corrected that later) and cockpit tackled
New front office adding side and front panels and a rear bulkhead.
Scratch-built instrument panel coaming. Should be flatter, but good enough.
The result
Intake top deck has a weird S-curve that needs to be filled in. I prefer styrene for filling, because it won't shrink. Milliput would work, too.
Wings mated, pylon slots filled and sanded, leading edge and trailing edge flaps re-engraved
On to the usual filling & sanding orgy...with intermittent spray coats for checking results. I use whatever is in the airbrush, in this case RLM66 🙂
Wing leading edge roots should be flush with the inlet top deck. I chose not to correct this...
Corrected inlets with straight upper loft line came out great. Inlet lip should be a little more curved, to be done later....
Combined effort of Tamiya Putty, Mr. Surfacer, ModelMaster Primer and some color coats plus lots of sanding...
Evidenced by the effort, fit around the wing leading edge root is bad
Did I mention I love filling and sanding? 🙂
ModelMaster Primer coat to check for blemishes. Not too bad for the first round.
Very happy how the new intakes came out. Also the wings nicely blend in now.
Bad quality image, but good enough to show the corrected shape of the inlet (early small, curved type)
Ready for final painting. The thingies for stirring coffee combined with a blob of UHU Tac are great for holding small parts.
I made afterburner cans from aluminum foil rolled over a piece of corrugated plastic that was left over from a railroad building roof. The outer tube is paper soaked with propeller glue.
Base coat for USN gull grey over white is Tamiya X-2 white with a few drops of XF-18 PRU blue.
Surface quality turned out just fine. The part seams are gone and there's no evidence left of filler.
White and FS36440 is on, shading doesn't come out in the image, those full-spectrum white lamps I have on my bench don't go well with my Cybershot G...too much light!
Starts to look really pretty even before decaling
Next is metal leading edges and exhaust area, then gloss coat before decaling...
On display at club meeting, partially decalled. Need Liquid Decal Film before I can continue...
Nicely shows the resculpted intake lips. Radome is upside down. Landing gear doors and other small parts to be added when decaling is complete.
Two months later new decals have arrived, mostly complete now. Some detail painting to be done and then a clear coat...
I used the original canopy thoroughly futured over. Scratch-built interior with a resin seat from a Pavla set for the T-2C Buckeye (close enough)
Some minor NMF panels around the exhaust to be done. Original kit decals on the fin.
Added cameras with lenses made from discs (punch & die) that were milled down in the middle using a spherical bit. Small stencils came from an old Superscale decal set that needed a coat of Microscale liquid decal film to keep them in one piece.
Comments
1 23 September 2013, 18:34
Holger KranichNice start Burkhard!
And a Vigi is not often seen on the bench of a modeller!
But in my opinion, its a beautiful aircraft!
24 September 2013, 06:40
Burkhard DSlow but steady progress. Intake loft lines corrected, wings mated. Now filling and sanding. Upper wing seams are okay, but lower seams need a bit of work. Spray coat revealed that all the sink holes on the wings (all over the place) are now gone and the re-engraving the leading edge flaps turned out nicely, phew!
5 October 2013, 11:37
Marc SchimmlerIt's looking like an aircraft now .... quite surprising when you see where you started from ...
5 October 2013, 20:49
Burkhard DFilling and sanding largely done - it was quite an orgy. First coat of primer to check for blemishes, just a few areas left that need some rework. 🙂
17 October 2013, 20:13
Burkhard DPre-shading today, scratched intake ramps and afterburner cans are ready. 🙂
16 January 2014, 17:51
Burkhard DBasic livery is on, now on to the metal areas like the wing leading edge and the exhaust area.
4 May 2014, 14:09
Burkhard DIn the end, UHU-Tac worked as you suggested. Lower pressure and more thinner did the trick, even with the Aztek.
4 May 2014, 17:33
Bill GilmanExcellent work, Burkhard! There's nothing more rewarding in modelling than making an excellent model out of an old "unbuildable" kit. It looks really great! 👍
6 May 2014, 15:34
Burkhard DAlmost finished. Ran into trouble with the decals. Airfix decals turned out to be out of register, with color printed off the decal film. Superscale decals were so brittle they turned into a mosaic the very moment they got into contact with water. I took the kit to the club meeting nevertheless. One chap brought a bottle of Microscale Liquid Decal Film along, which solved almost all my issues except for two decals ruined in my first attempts. Thanks to ebay, replacements are in the mail - from the US. The upside of globalization! 🙂
Will have more images soon.
10 June 2014, 19:13
David LengyelLooks great so far. That's what I call a piece of sculpting right there.
10 June 2014, 19:28
Marc SchimmlerWhat is not visible here is what a beast of aircraft this machine is .... great work!
10 June 2014, 20:49
Holger KranichCongrats Burkhard! This was a long build but in the end it looks very rewarding!😄!!
11 June 2014, 06:25
Christian BruerReminds me my dad build one for 40 years ago. I sat next to him looking for his progress and try to learn something about modelmaking. Ah Burkhard, well done and as Dirk replied a seldom seen model. Cheers, Christian
11 June 2014, 08:38
Burkhard DChristian, it was the same for me. My first model, built with my dad about 40 years ago! Started my career. 🙂
11 June 2014, 09:04
