Jos Jansen Difficult scheme, but very interesting!

Daniel take a seat and watch me screw up jos

Maciej Bellos Taking a seat!

Roland Revolvermann Following

Sergej I Oh wow... good luck painting this paint over paint over paint, then fading, then chipping... this looks more like a T-34 job . Following with utmost interest!

Nathan Dempsey The paint on this one is going to be awesome fun

Daniel Welcome mates, I do have a cunning plan featuring a lot of liquid mask but we'll see how this works out...might be fun or a total catastrophe^^ anyway, stay tuned

Konrad Limmer Cool count me in here!

Daniel well...the decal choice shows that they have taste - too bad that the rest in this box is just crap

Patrick Hagelstein

Donald Dickson II I have not done the Italeri Bug. I take it not that great?

Jos Jansen I love the Hornet Daniel, but I never build one...inspiring mate!

Daniel maybe its time to change that jos I would like to reserve a seat then

Daniel and yes Donald, you assume correctly, I built their growler spin-off and I think its my worst kit-experience so far...

Jos Jansen I started this year with a Canuck Hornet, a CF-18. He's on my shelf of doom now...want to finish that one!

Donald Dickson II I am more than happy with the Revell offering, so I will stick with that. LOL

Daniel Hi guys! Whats the white thingy? Rocket pod?

Holger Kranich Photo quality is unfortunately bad. But i dont think its a rocket pod.

Dietmar Kollmann Could be SUU-20 ?!

Treehugger Ah yes, it sort of look flat'ish now that I think about it.

Holger Kranich Dietmar is right!

https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/equip/suu-20.htm

Daniel awesome! I knew it looked familiar somehow...thanks a lot!

Daniel Just looked it up and FYI this is not just a dispenser, but indeed a rocket pod, as it contains four 2.75" rockets as well

Carsten Gurk I just received a pair of these as well - looks great, a nice build

Daniel Thank you guys, I am looking forward to seeing yours built
@Nathan: That is so awesome to have a good shop to go to, and a rarity nowadays, over here they all closed or went online-only. A shame, but I guess we have ourselves to blame in the end...

Jos Jansen Daniel, you have made a breathtaking Kfir ... such beautiful natural looking colors, fantastic ! What kind of matt coat did you use ...?

Daniel Thank you for the kind words Jos, I used mr.color gx super clear, after trying a lot of different flat coats and never being satisfied this one finally delivered

Jos Jansen Okay thx Daniel...I use a mix from Hataka, 1 part Matt Lacquer Clear Coat and 1 part Satin Lacquer Clear Coat...this give a superb natural look!

Daniel Sounds good and your results certainly speak for themselves Jos. I also did a flat-gloss mix for my j-11, which is pretty shiny in RL, but I'll further experiment for different aircraft. This one is very matt, probably more than the original, but I like that on a desert camo.

Neuling Very delicate build, looks very cool!

Daniel Thank you neuling, glad you like it!

Patrick Hagelstein Oh man! How I love that beat up bird in that cover picture.

Daniel beat up is what we aim for I think this will be fun!

Patrick Hagelstein Looking forward to it!

Michael Hickey Awesome!!

Jos Jansen Beautiful scheme on that Viper....good choice!

Sergej I Another Viper! Following

Maciej Bellos In!

Sergej I Really wondering how you will paint the small black digi-dots... but we will be there to cheer you for each and every one

Daniel these are chipped paint and I plan to try some new (for me) chipping techniques. We'll see. Your cheering will definitely help to pull this off

Nathan Dempsey Dont know how I missed this one earlier. Nice Viper!

Michael Phillips Awesome subject, count me in!

Daniel Thx! absolutely, its one of the most fun kits I've build so far

Slavo Hazucha Great amount of right judgement on the weathering Daniel, looks spot on. I also very much like the camo colors, particularly the brown has the correct 'orange' touch which is seen on the pics. Many times this color seems too desaturated on Israeli camo models, here it seems like on the actual photo

Clifford Keesler Excellent paint job Daniel.

Daniel Thank you very much slavo and clifford, thats the greatest compliment for a modeler if something looks like the photo! I agree, that brown color is not easy to replicate, all the praise goes to AK RC225, they nailed that one.
Today I used some of my trusty oil paints to get some color modulation going, a bit more dark/light variation+ some oil streaks

James C Gorgeous looking camouflage Daniel.

Jos Jansen Your colors are so spot-on, incredible and very impressive so far

Daniel Thanks for the kind words James and Jos, I can announce that I got the last clear coat down and now shes armed and fueled waiting to taxi

Daniel Thanks everyone for peeking in and all your motivating comments! Was a pleasure to build&to share!

Here she is:

Desert Delta - Rollout | Album by halohead (1:48)

Paul Moore Could you share your secret of the engine discoloration? Very nice!

Spanjaard very nice looking Flanker

Daniel Many thanks, Paul and spanjaard! The Engines were my main concern in this build, my first real "metal-work" and I really appreciate your positive feedback!

Not much of a secret in doing this I guess...you can really get artistic, because there are so many variations out there!
I used highly diluted paints over a silver base, first copper (revell enamel), than blue and afterwards black (acrylics). always keeping translucent layers and masking off areas that should differ in look. I made fast, perpendicular sweeping motions with the airbrush close to the plastic to get straight lines and no spiderwebbing.

In detail: I sprayed the first segment darker, laid a small metal grid over it as a mask and did the blue. I used liquid mask for the stripes on a blue-ish base in the second segment and darkened it (on the small doors I used liquid mask as well as a first step) The nozzles were made individually for better handling and masking and I tried to variate the coloration on different "panels" on them.
I began very bright and later blended most parts with thinned black to reduce contrast and get a smoky look. After being satisfied with it, I sealed everything with a thin clear lacquer gloss coat and masked everything up. After having the whole model painted I removed the tape and used a black wash and some white oils for the screws on the nozzle.
It is very important to use paints that don't peel off easily while unmasking and to reduce tape stickiness e.g. by first putting it on your sweaty arm
I tested that as a first step, otherwise you get a very nasty surprise while "unwrapping" the finished model

Paul Moore I have a flanker in my stache and I'll d definitely use your technique. Thank you for the detailed explanation.

Paul Moore One last question Daniel .... What colors did you use for the top and bottom of the aircraft? When I was looking for the right colors for the Chinese Air Force Flanker 35, there seemed to be some question about them. Did you just use your best guess or are you confident of the color selection? That's not questioning your selection, I just don't know. Thanks again. It's a beautiful model you've done!

Daniel Thanks a lot Paul! really glad to provide some inspiration
The top color is dark eggplant grey from ak's real colors range, I am pretty sure this is accurate for the newer J-11Bs as well as russian Su-35 or 34. The underside was a guess to match the reference photos, I used a mix of light ghost grey and light grey FS36495, I believe it was around 50/50.
But from the photos I can tell that there are still some shades and variations of these colors on the different jets, so there is also some freedom for the modeler

Daniel Many thanks Roland!

Spanjaard thanks for the detail info!

Daniel So I finished painting and I am doing the decaling now, which works really good, as expected from the cockpit. Stenciling is either hobby boss fantasy or from another J-11 version, doesnt match up with what I see on the references. Also many many mistakes in their decal numbers...So I am trying to match the higher visible ones to what I can identify on the few high res photos I have, the rest is just more or less random to make it look a bit more interesting. But I really like the look of the dark gray with all the red&yellow on it

Eelco Gregoire Very cool built Daniel

Slavo Hazucha Great progress Daniel - the formation stripes were a good decision IMO, the added contrast adds a highlight. I think you got all the colors in a very good range, looks as it should You´re almost there, some reasonable weathering and you´ll have one fine Flanker on the table!

HB decals are in my experience pleasure to work with, I even did not care to use the usual gloss prep in some areas and still walked away with it without silvering or other problems. I hope you had your fun with the squares over the intakes

They seem to put a variety of random patterns on stencils, in my kit, some looked like an attempt at cyrillic, some were just thin lines (great...), some dotted lines and some even strangely resembled hebrew letters... Trumpeter/Hobby Boss should really invest into a proof reader

Daniel Thanks guys! Yes, Slavo, same experience here with the stencils. I also got about 50 little chinese "No Steps" (or something like that) but would use exactly 4 of them if I followed the instructions I somehow expected HB to do better here, since this jet is from their home country…
Wheathering-wise I am going to hold myself back, because they all look like they are polished waxed and daily - some wash, some streaks and keeping the semi-gloss look

James C Looking spectacular Daniel.

Daniel Thx James!

Had kind of a last stretch sprint today and the result is here:

China Flanker completed | Album by halohead (1:48)

Spanjaard excellent job. fantastic colors in the cans. congrats

Daniel thank you very much spanjaard, glad you like it!

Jos Jansen I already changed the date...start GB October 1st

Daniel

Jos Jansen What a beautiful Cat ... my favorite US Navy Strike Fighter Squadron, just excellent build ... two thumbs up .. ...!!!

Nathan Dempsey Not sure how missed this earlier. Really nice work Daniel. That subtle paintwork looks just wonderful. I think I'll go stare at my D model waiting in its box...

Daniel Thanks a lot guys&girls Really appreciate your kind words!
@Nathan: Yes thats what I do with my hasegawa A from time to time, always thinking about how glorious it will be... one day ...and than starting something easier But once thats finished it will be time for the D, which is my fav cat version. And if l wait for the AMK release I guess I wont have to hurry

Nathan Dempsey There's a real D model Cat about 10 minutes away from me if you ever need a detail picture.

27.982167,-82.027051

Daniel Awesome! I may come back to you on that, but not in the near future really appreciate the offer Nathan
I just googled that thing standing next to it, pretty weird idea They should have added the turbines

Nathan Dempsey No problem Daniel. They have some fairly interesting displays for such a small museum...

Mark Norfolk I am very impressed with the plane, but also with your carrier deck: very realistic.

Daniel Thanks a lot Mark! In hindsight though, I should have kept the deck a bit cleaner - looked interesting on its own but maybe takes a bit too much attention away from the model… but I always have too much fun making things dirty

Michael Hickey Lovely pit.

Daniel Thx Michael, the cockpit really is the highlight of this oldtimer kit, a bit of a waste that I am not building it open, but I want to keep the slick hornet lines on this one

Michael Hickey

Daniel Base painting is done and the shading worked out quite well. Next is to mask+paint the walkways and lighten everything up a bit. including some salt masking

James C Looking awesome!
I also don't like displaying the canopy open for the same reason.

Slavo Hazucha Proper seasoning with salt & spices separates the master from the ordinary folk Upper fuselage job looks top notch, looking forward to watch this story towards the grand finale!

Daniel Well, I did not add too many spices, mainly prepared it in a nice salt crust Now I ll let it rest until tomorrow. Thx for the kind words James and Slavo!

Daniel Decals went on nicely, now its time for some subtle weathering

Daniel Quick heads up on the end of this project: Disaster struck. I really wanted to start weathering and after not getting the clear coat to dry properly after over a week with sun, hairdryer and so on I went on to the oven drying therapy (which in my defence already worked nicely 2 times) Something went terribly wrong, plastic went soft and she went all salvador dali. As you can imagine, maximum grief over here... RIP little hornet, victim to a stupid modeler so shortly before she was ready to begin her life on the happy hornet shelf!

Slavo Hazucha Sounds like two horror stories in one - the meltdown and a clear coat that does not dry in a week... What coat did you use so I can make a mile-wide circle around it in the future? In any case sorry to read this...

Daniel Was my first use of vallejo acrylic gloss varnish, but I've heard that it normally works just fine, so I dont know what happened and wouldnt necessarily blame it on vallejo. Maybe the thinning ratio and or the conditions (hot+high humidity last week)

Patrick Hagelstein ........ I was just to comment on a beautiful job when I read the previous comments... So sad to learn this puppy was cremated... Such a shame for that hard work, especially the whole rescribing...

Daniel So this Kit was a real PITA and took a lot of blood, sweat, tears and putty...but in the end there finally is a Growler on the shelf and I love the Lightning-markings, makes it look fast

Nathan Dempsey Looks great. I've heard this kit is a challenge too.

Holger Kranich Oh i can imagine, that this was not a fun build at all.

Daniel Thanks! Yeah a real grind this one… I dont mind challenging builds if the kit itsself is worth it and well researched (like those old monogram kits e.g.) but this one was just crap in so many aspects and not thought through to the end. But I am still happy I stuck to it and finished it

Stephan Ryll But looking very good very nice build

James C It's a bloody nice result for an otherwise horrible kit. Nice work mate.

Daniel Thank you for the kind words, Stephan and James

James C Outstanding work and a real eye catcher in that scheme!

Stephan Ryll Very nice and realistic build

Daniel Thank you James and Stephan!

Neuling Looks very good!

Helmut Fraundorfer Agreed, extremely nice build and paint Job. You did a great job sticking to the picture you had for reference. You even thought of the scribbles right underneath the front cockpit window. Great Job all over! Congrats!

Michael Phillips Very nice work Daniel, the weathering looks just right!

Tim Heimer Nice work!

Daniel thank you for your kind comments guys, really means a lot! I found a lot of reference photos for this machine and tried to stay close to the original in looks and loadout, so cool you noticed that!

Holger Kranich The vertical stabs look good! At first i thought they are from a Tomcat! LOL

Daniel Decals are on, tomorrow I will start with adding some dirt. Meanwhile I am fiddling with the jdam kit. The loadout will be: Centerline tank, 2 GBU-38 right, one GBU-32 and an AIM-9X on the left. And the ATFLIR of course.

Daniel Thanks Holger, they are not that far off, if one sanded the upper edge round…

Holger Kranich Good progress, Daniel!

Daniel Seems I am on the last stretch of this WIP, main wheathering is done, just waiting for the oils to dry for the matt coat. Maybe also add some little scratches&mini-streaks beforehand. Went for a heavier wheathering as normally seen on a CAG - but those do get dirty on deployment as well. I like the glossy colorful CAG look as well as the grimy war look, so this is a good opportunity to get the best of both worlds. I found pics where the anti-slip-coating was stripped off heavily on the right side and tried to replicate this to add something more unusual. This was done with sandpaper, where I peeled the upper surface with tweezers an d a sharp blade. So I guess these are the last pics here, next will be the rollout. Thx for stopping by!

Donald Dickson II Very nicely done!

Patrick Hagelstein Nice one on those anti slip panels!

Daniel thx, glad you like it!

James C That's a beauty Daniel. Very nice painting and weathering.

Richmond Very nice

Daniel Thanks guys, this was my first excursion into WWII, and quite an enjoyable one. I really should build a companion for her that's her age - or an adversary...but there are so many planes out there ... and so little time

Neuling I agree with James and Richmond!

Michael Hickey What a beautiful representation of a Cat in flight.

Holger Kranich I agree with Mike!

Kerry COX We are a creative fraternity don't you think. ?
Simply stunning.

James C Epically awesome!!!

Daniel Thanks guys, its really so awesome to share this hobby

Maciej Bellos In!

Daniel Sorry, Maciej, no build here, just took some pics of an older model

Daniel Glad you like it, thankyou!

Bryn Crandell Great looking Eagle. Loaded to the gills! Gretat setup and weathering is done well.

Donald Dickson II Love this kit. I used those same resin probe covers. They are awesome. Great job!

Daniel Yeah Donald, I wish all of their kits were as good and accurate as this one! Especially the nozzles are outstanding.
Sadly mine came with a load of flash, bent in all directions and really bad moulding, it took a lot of time to get everything cleaned up and neatly together. Should have taken some photos to shock you guys There were two sprues of the upper body in the box, guess it was added by QC since one of them was just FUBAR. The clear parts are pretty bad as well but I`ve heard most kits out there are in much better condition.
If they re-issue the kit they should really include a desert storm decal option, since the kit depicts an early model. Or an upgrade sprue, would have saved me some extra work Speaking of which, the probe covers are not resin, but scratch build from sheet and epoxy putty, I looked, but couldn't find those for a reasonable price. Thanks again mates for your positive feedback!

Donald Dickson II Wow! Nice job on the covers! I cant remember the brand of the ones I got. I'll have to look.

Florent Thouret veery nice job !!!!!!

Holger Kranich Daniel, thats a very good looking Eagle!

Donald Dickson II The packaging on the resin covers says Q.M.T. quick model details.

Jos Jansen Nice Daniel...

Wim van der Luijt cool! Nice and clean this build.......(That dome at the front always reminds me of the Alien movies)

Stephan Ryll very nice indeed

Daniel Haha, Wim, now that you say it...they should really do a machine with an alien artwork!

Neuling Beautiful!

Murad ÖZER killer!

Ronny Verlaek Nice nice nice

Konrad Limmer Amazing looking bird ! Very nice!

Clifford Keesler Awesome!