Hello everyone, long time no see! Thankfully I have not been fully idle.
I have been working a lot on certain parts. I have had some timesinks in my life, especially over the holidays but here is what I have been able to get done!
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Filling and sanding down every single rivet hole on the model. I won’t show pics of that here as it doesn’t show much of a difference. The process took a very long time as I had to sand and fill twice then prime the rivet lines to see that it was all good and fix any spots before sanding it down again and polishing the body. I then had to re-scribe all the missed panel lines and details. I also had to drill out some holes and missing pipe details. There was a surprising amount of missing or wrong details I had to correct but now the body is prepped and ready for detail, however, I will be working on other parts of the model before doing the body. Mainly the stub wings and landing gear.
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I started with the landing gear and after finding some reference pictures I kinda got a bit of dread. Sure the landing gear is mostly hidden but it is embarrassing how simplified and little detail this area of the model has. This is what the landing gear itself started as and what I have added, mainly the mount for the light, all the pipes and fittings, and lastly the brake lines and braces for them. The entire strut had to be replaced as it was just way too simplified for my preference.
The gear covers also needed a decent amount of work to complete:
The rear part of the covers still needs the mount that holds the push-rod that opens them
I could not find any good pictures of the plain landing gear bust since everything I have added is a different colour I think it will be easy to tell what I added/ modified.
All the wiring took me a while and like I said there are still pieces missing but I will have to put them on a little later in the build process.
Here is the front of the gear:
I modified the front gear as well, adding an aluminum rod to where the piston should sit, I still have to clean up the superglue with debonder but otherwise, I like the look. I also drilled out some missing features and moved the mounting loops for the front cover to the proper spot. I again can’t for the life of me find photos of the original bit it has not changed too much. One thing to note I might need to 3d print the landing gear for the front even though I do not want to. It honestly is kind of weak after the mod and I am not sure it could handle this heafty model.
Lastly, I added the stub wings with weapon mounts from reskit. I will need to modify the root of the wing as it doesn’t fit quite right and the shape is a bit off as well.
Thanks for watching. I will try my best to get photos as I go along to show the progress a bit better but I have been forgetting since I started filing my builds. Any C&C is welcome!