This is my first submission
and it took me sometime to gather the necessary courage to show the
world how "clumsy" I am.
I've been practicing
modelling for 3 years now and still on the learning curve (this is my
12th model), but as this site has provided me with so much
information and enjoynment, I think its time to start sharing my
enthusiasm for military aviaton and this hobby.
This build is part of my
"F-4 named aircraft project" that started with an old
academy "Wildcat" and is currently AGONIZING through
a Revell "Phantom" (more on this one shortly, I HOPE!).
I choose the
"Skyray" for this type strikes me as some kind of a paradox:
it's futuristic design and speed record holder curriculum being haunted
by it's extremely short operacional life (1956-64).
The aircraft represents a
"Death Dealers" US Marines machine from 1958 and was built
straight of the box using the kit's decal sheet.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I used Tamiya aerosols for
the upper and lower fuselage halves, and matt black, Semi-gloss black,
aluminium and gun metal acrylics for the rest (all Tamiya).
For the weathering I used
some tempera paints on the panel wash. This child-friendly, mostly
school used product is highly safe, since being water soluble it
runs smoothly over the panels and is easily removable if something goes
wrong.The rest of the staining was done with grinded HB pencils and a
cotton swab.
As in most my
kits, there is allways a major "boo-boo". In this case, the
control surfaces on the upper wings should be painted in the same insignia
white as the lower fuselage. Right! A pitty, since I
"discovered" it just as I was setting my last decal!
Speaking of decals, the red
danger markings around the engine intakes gave me some serious headache
to conform to the intake lips. I had to cut and peel some of the decal
away and touched it up using a permanent red marker pen. Thankfully, the
"Future" layer I applied after evened the tones and really
looks good!
The only major
problem during the construction was fitting and blending the engine intakes to
the fuselage which required some filling and sanding. Other than that, it just
snapped together.
And so it ends!
Thank you for your patience and yes! I will take care with the photo background
next time so it doesn't interfere with the outline perception of the model!
See you next time!
JGV
from Portugal
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