Wall

WhiteGlint
Not much to see yet. As usual I began with the cockpit.
As I had it partially assembled I decided to buy some cockpit PE, which arrived a few days ago.
I already glued the console with the throttle to the left cockpit wall, let's see how I can work with the PE there.

Here as well I am not sure if I can get the colours right as I need to mix with my Tamiya paints.
My biggest concern is the canopy, though. It's impossible for me to mask it with masking tape. I can barely see or feel the window frames under the tape to cut it at the right place. As it is more or less the same kit as my Shidenkai no Maki Zero, I feared this would come. I tried my luck with liquid mask this time, but that is messy at best, too. Should have ordered some canopy masks too...

Are there great differences with the windows of the different Zeros? Could I use, for example a Type 22 mask ond a Type 32?

Neil
👀

WhiteGlint
I began this little project together with my Mi-26.
Most parts of construction and painting are done. I didn't take many photos as there were not that many steps and parts.

For the body I used Tamiya Dark Grey, followed by some scratches with Nato Black and Gunmetal and Aluminium drybrushing.
The armor plates are done with Tamiya White and few drops of Deck Tan.
Magazine and blades received some heavy metal drybrushing and scratches.

Next will be gloss coat, decals and further weathering with washes.

Torsten
Nice progress, the chipping looks good, not to much 👍

Dietmar Bogatzki
Tag asseat (🙂)

WhiteGlint
Welcome. 🙂
I did some more work on this one.
Cockpit is done with Eduard PE. It's a bit of a shame because it will be almost impossible to see after the windows masks have been removed.
But I took some photos before banishing it inside the fuselage.

I think the most parts of the construction are. Cargo bay is painted and received a generous amount of blue-black wash.
While I was cleaning it, I realizied that most of my acrylics came off. This is why at some point I stopped cleaning the wash from the bay. It is far too dirty for my taste, but as the doors are closed it you won't see it. I tried to take a peek trough the windows, but it is impossible to see anything.
Maybe I shouldn't have done all that work with the cargo bay at all...?

As the fuselage is now glued together some clean up is necessary. There are some gaps and I am not sure I can fill them all perfectly (probably not).
I had to fight the windows and scrape off some plastic to glue it to the cockpit. It had to be bent to conform to the shape of the aircraft.
The fit's not perfect but I think it does the job...
Additionally, I tried some riveting as the kit itself is completely free of rivets. Well... not sure If I should continue with it. I tried to use some masking tape as a guide but that didn't work. It is probably not thick enough. Maybe some good pre-shading will make the surface look more interesting.

Next will be parts of the landing gear followed by the spraying equipment. I also need to get the colours right, not sure if I have the right ones at hand.
Maybe some mixing will be necessary. Until now I could not find any "more recent" pictures of the aircraft. I think it had to be scrapped like "Yellow 09" because it was radioactive as well.

Cuajete
Looking good so far 👍

Simon Nagorsnik
the eduard parts value the whole right, always a good decision 👍

WhiteGlint
Thank you, Cuajete and Simon. 🙂
Yes, Eduard PE is nice.

David Taylor
Pic 78 camo generators definitely working.

Neuling
👍

kengdad
Nice tree model!

Simon Nagorsnik
i like the ideas of unusual models always a nice change
at the moment I am planning a scrapyard vehicle like in mad max or death race!
i´ve seen some inspiring pictures in the last time

WhiteGlint
Haha, thanks!
Yeah, my first scale model tree 😄

I try some silly stuff like this from time to time. They are indeed a nice change of pace between "normal" projects.
Yes, I've seen some great Mad Max models here on SM too, should be fun.

WhiteGlint
Almost done.
I just realized that I forgot to paint the control surfaces of the tail in black. Sadly, I already glued them on the airframe, so some extensive masking will be necessary to protect the rest from overspray. I will use NATO Black because I think it is not too dark.

As stuff like that always happens to me, I damaged the large red decal on the left wing, even though I applied some clear coats over it.
In hindsight I maybe could have painted those with my airbrush, but I would not be able to get the same red as it is on the tail marking.

Before applying the last clear coats, I'll maybe try to hide it under some more oil streaks. Not sure yet.

Pictures of the finished aircraft will follow soon.

Slavo Hazucha
Oils are a great way to make previous mishaps appear as intentional artistic mastery... speaking from experience here 😉

You'll push it through the finish line & will look great (+ bonus points for cool topic). Looking forward to the reveal!

WhiteGlint
Because even looking at this model seems to break or rip something off, I'd better call it finished...
One landing gear door and one AIM-7 broke off, while I tried to handle this jet. Sometimes I think the super glue works better with everything else but painted plastic. Some of the decals still have a very visible shine to them but at this point the fear to make it worse is too big to keep tinkering with this kit.

Masking tape wouldn't do the job, as it began pulling of the decals when I tested it on the stabilizer. I damaged another two decals. 🙁
Hence I had to use the good old paintbrush to paint the black. While my brush skills really suck it wasn't that bad, the colour's dark enought that brush strokes are not that obvious (I think).

It was an interesting project and while I still lack a lot of skill and sometimes patience, it was still a lot of fun. 👍
This one's the first 1:48 scale modern aircraft I built and I begin to see the appeal of this scale for this kind of topics. Sadly this things are so huge I don't know where to display them. It is a bit easier with 1:72 scale jets or 1:48 WW2 planes.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen for your interest.
Now it's time to finish the Mirage tank and start with the Zero GB.

S M
Well done finishing this👍 Not everything went well, but next time will be better. The decals looked great, but some seemed maybe too thick and there was silvering on them. Some parts like the center fuselage seems good but the wings are obtrusive imo.

WhiteGlint
Thank you S M.
Yes, it is far from perfect and the silvering is quite heavy on some of them. A lot of room for improvements. 🙂

It is a similar problem with the decals on the Mirage tank. Maybe I should use more Mark Fit next time, I was generous with the clear coats but I could not remove the silvering with it. It worked on my Seafang, though.

Simon Nagorsnik
respect 😃 I'm thinking about making this one BAN74941

WhiteGlint
Thanks Simon. 🙂
I didn't build that one yet, but these kits are a lot of fun.

Jeramy Boileau
Wow awesome work! The box art does not due this kit justice!

Daniel Klink
Awesome threatening!!! 👍👍

WhiteGlint
Thanks Jeramy and Daniel. 🙂

Gary Kitchen
Stunning!

Neil
Absolutely! Agree with Gary... STUNNING indeed and most importantly it looks well cool! ?

WhiteGlint
Thank you very much, Simon, Vincent, Gary and Neil.

James C
A tricky paint scheme but you've done well. Looks awesome 👍

WhiteGlint
Thank you James. 🙂

S M
Cool idea to do with nephew 🙂

WhiteGlint
Yes, it was a lot of fun. No need to go for complete realism.
We did some changes on the base, looks much better now. I will upload some more pictures later.

Robert Podkoński
Fantastic, WhiteGlint! And pure fun 🙂

Roland Gunslinger
Very nice 👍 Love it 🙂

WhiteGlint
Thanks, mates. 🙂

Jan Peters
Great job on the Mig, I hope minecwill turn out as good as yours

Daniel
Evil looking mig, looks great 👍

Murad ÖZER
Lovely Duo WhiteGlint. 😎

as for the dusting of tamiya flat it's usually too high, either the amount of flat clear vs the thinner or the air pressure! first indication will always happen around T or L shaped (right angle) places like the wing roots and/or intakes where air gets turbulent and the overspray bounces off the model and mixes back into the spray from the airbrush resulting in it drying midair and landing as a particle instead of wet. pressure control, trigger control and direction of spray would be important in those places. simply treat the model as a real airplane and go from front to back if you can, otherwise always at an angle where the overspray can be free to fly off instead of being masked by the fuselage. a-10 and f-4 type low winged designs are especially notorious when it comes to this behavior.

if you have some SYNTHETIC thinner laying around, try applying a layer neat and see if that dissolves the dusty particles back into the paint. tho do not handle the model for a while afterwards if you go that route but since on it's gears it should be relatively easy.

this approach is my default goto if and when i am down to the abomination that is tamiya flat clear, usually prefer vallejo flat clear (non PU one) barely thinned with it's own ab thinner and shot almost dripping wet.

WhiteGlint
Thanks Roland, Jan, Daniel and Murad! 🙂
And naturally thanks to everyone leaving a like. It's hard to keep track of all your names.

The second MiG is a Zvezda kit I did two or three years ago. I wanted to place them together as comparison, to, hopefully, see some progress in my model building skills. Though, it is not a fair comparison as they are two different kits. In comparison to the Eduard kit the Zvezda MiG is lacking a lot of detail.

@Murad: I never really considered aerodynamics while airbrushing. I'll try to keep that in mind on future projects. An 1:48 F-4 is on my list as well so I need to remember that.
With synthetic thinner, do you mean lacquer thinner?
Or could I try some polishing?
I think I will give the Vallejo acrylics varnish a try in the future, too. The application of a wet coat sounds easier than several thin layers.
Still, some further experimentation with Tamiya is necessary. It's only the second time I used it and there are still some bottles to be emptied.
Thank you for your helpful advice! 👍

Murad ÖZER
no i meant synthetic, as in the stuff you thin household oil paints (for painting walls, not artistic oils).

as paint bases go lacquer>synthetic>ipa, water, everything else.
meaning lacquer (aka cellulosic) will eat everything in it's path.
synthetics won't do anything to lacquers but will eat everything else yet not as hot/agressive as a lacquer when it comes to chemical properties, hence the reason i advised synthetic thinners.

now if you want you can use mr levelling thinner or similar SCALE MODELLING SUPPLY but i did not call it on purpose just to be on the safe side (for me 😄) because if something's got lost in translation or down to feasibility of purchase, a true lacquer / hardware store cellulose might cause paint cracking or worse marr the plastic itself visibly - it's impossible to know for sure without trying on a spare piece painted exactly the way you painted your model.

as for tamiya flat clear, when the planets align it really works well, but more often than not i find it unreliable. i can always add a retarder but that seems to negate the flat base. ultimately the climate i live in is hot and humid which imho is a big enough factor especially with the flat coats, even enamels are problematic here.

Roland Gunslinger
Ahh, there it is ... Very nice👍

James C
Nice work, and another subject that's on my ever growing "to-do" list 😉👍

WhiteGlint
Thanks Roland and James.
Currently thinking about buying another Zero to join the Group Build. 😉