Who's up for another work in progress thread?!

My next project is decided by it being one of the larger boxes on the shelves in the shed. It will make room for more new kits than others!

If you've seen my other builds you'll know I like to build models with a provenance, and a story behind them. For this reason I bought this kit several years ago, the box art declaring it could be built to show the aircraft involved in the shooting down of the Boeing 747 serving as KAL007 in 1983. A slightly morbid subject, but an incident that was extremely significant to my adolescent brain in the 80s. It turns out that the aircraft was actually a Flagon A, so I can't build the subject I wished to. Just goes to show that box art should not be trusted as a reference.

Box art.

I'll be using the Loon Models radome correction, a rather large chunk of resin.

And the superb (as ever) NeoMega cockpit set.


Not a huge amount done yet, although the main flying surfaces are mostly built.


I'm going to arm it with four missiles and two cannon pods. Here's the start of the latter. The barrels are rather crude, and I initially tried to drill the plastic out, but after a 1mm drill bit slipped under my thumb nail I swiftly abandoned that idea amongst dripping blood and copious swearing. Instead I'm going to fit some short sections of aluminium tube. You can see various elements of the process here.

The start of the instrument panel and cockpit walls. Base colour on and instruments filled in white awaiting the delivery of the Airscale decals.



More soon, thanks for looking!

I was just wondering the other day when you were going to grace us with another project.

Also, another interesting choice of subject aircraft. Always kinda reminded me of a leggo F-104. Looking forward to watching.

Yes, yes, we are ready for a new model making thread!

Lol at the drill-under-nail mishap.

I've been watching some model builds on YouTube lately. The techniques are really interesting and I'm looking forward to some updates here!

Done some work on the seat, basically blocking in the basic colours of the frame, cushions and various buckles and studs.. This will then be sealed under Johnson's Klear, so I can add a wash of black oil paint, and then add some shadows and highlights to the belts, cushions and the headbox drogue cover.











EDIT: Looking at the last one I can see a few edges that need tidying up!

nice

That seat casting is amazing.

Isn't it just?! One piece...

Thanks for the steps in painting it. Very cool!

Hi gang,
Here's the finished seat. Two shots with and without flash. It doesn't look as dirty and scruffy to the naked eye.






I've also completed the cockpit. This is the starboard sidewall.


And assembled.






Work in progress in the instrument panel.


One of the weaknesses of this kit is the four airbrakes at the rear of the fuselage. They are designed to be positioned open, which you'd never see on an unpowered aircraft on the ground. When installed closed they have terrible fit, needing lots of filler. There no way my scribing skills are up to reinstating the join, so I've tried something else. You'll see a lot of Flagons with the airbrakes slightly proud of the fuselage even when retracted. I've decided to use this as a way of fixing them.

Draw the shape with Tamiya flexible tape.


Then fill in with Mr. Surfacer 1000.

This is the raw effect after removing the tape, needing a tidy up.



And after polishing back with a fine sanding sponge.




I'll keep going until all four are very thin and barely raised from the surrounding fuselage. I won't know how well this works until the paint is on.

More soon, thanks for looking.

Clever solution.

I'm amazed by the difference between Seat in progress and final.

OMG, picture one of the seat would have been my final product.

LOL!

The replacement nose is on, needed a little fettling but it was straightforward fix for the incorrect profile. It's getting really long now.




And will get even longer when I fit the Master Models pitot. A lovely addon, one which will add some real finesse to this area.




The instrument panel is fitted and I've got the replacement canopy mechanisn and forward decking fitted. Very nice fit for aftermarket parts.




I've also received a replacement for the exhaust area. Not great fit, but will be hammered in to place! Here you can also see a problem with the elevator locating point. When dry fitting it imparts way too much anhedral. I thought about modifying the stabilisers, but settled on moving the locating point upwards slightly. I think it's too low anyway, so two fixes for the price of one!



Thanks for looking in, more soon.

A lot of work. Good going

A lot of great work! Yes, keep going.

I'm impressed by the amount of "fixing" the kit's errors and problems.

I'm also relieved that the crappy appearance of a lot of the airplanes I built back in the day wasn't completely my fault.

Paint is all finished, and I'm on to the decalling.







The image under the cockpit was applied to celebrate the (quoting from decal sheet) "the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory Day"



I had an idea that this chap is posed under the aircraft, looking at the special marking, as if posing for one of those Soviet propaganda photos. Just need a 1/48 photographer now!




On the home straight now, but the decals provide full stencilling, and I'm losing the will!

Beautiful chrome effect.

Doing justice to a beautiful aircraft.

Hi Gang,
I finally got round to taking some shots of the finished Flagon. Thanks again for following the build.