Today i started preparing all the tiny parts to be added after painting. The very fragile nicely detailed undercarriage was extremely carefully detached from the sprue and attached to a stirring stick . The front pair of exhausts were solid on the end so i drilled these out and cleaned them up then fixed these and the rear pair to the stick . All the little bits and the main airframe were then primed in Halfords white .
Cheers everyone , I cant recommend this kit highly enough , the detail would put many a 1/48 kit to shame , just make sure youve got a good magnifier and some fine tweezers!!!
Time for paint on this one now . I started with the underside grey ( in this case fs36320 dark ghost grey) then when cured i masked up the underside and applied the top colour ( fs 36231 dark gull grey) . The masking was very tricky as not only is it so small but the three pylons on each wing made it more difficult . Anyways its done and ive taken off the masking and it worked very well . The distinction between the two greys is almost imperceptible at a distance but it is on the real thing as well. Ive just got the nose cone to do now then its on to the undercarriage and missiles.
Got the decals on , some of which were really tiny! The control surfaces were highlighted then I gave it a coat of satin varnish as i wanted to get the slightly shiny finish seen on most modern aircraft, but it looked too shiny so I gave it a quick misting of matt to dull it down a bit . Next up is unmask the canopy and get the undercarriage and sidewinders fitted .
Undercarriage now done and the Missile rails and sidewinders have been fitted . The sidewinders were quite a bugger to paint and decal , the red and yellow decal stripes not wanting to play ball and taking a lot of persuading to wrap around the tiny diameter of the missile .
Finally got some time in the shed so i managed to get this over the line. There were only a few tiny things to do but it seems to have taken ages . I was not really happy with the thickness of the kit supplied outrigger doors , so off they came and were replaced with some very thin half round strip. I also spent a long time making the tiny ’apparent wind indicator ‘ that sits prominently on the nose just in front of the windscreen from the thinnest stretched sprue i could manage. Last to be done was a wash on the undercarriage , the blade aerial and the sealant line round the rear canopy and it was finished .There were a few bits left over - I didnt bother using the supplied drop tanks as I felt they would have hidden the nicely detailed jet nozzles and the supplied laser designator is only used if bombed up ( which the spanish ones rarely ( if ever ) are .)This has been a fantastic little kit , superbly detailed ,great fit , I cant recommend it highly enough , just make sure youve got a good magnifier!! Heres a few pics to finish the thread , ill put the rest on a completed thread , thanks for looking , cheers tony