Time of death: 14:27, Sunday January 18, 2015. A few more hours, and it would have been me they called.
Well, as my thread over in the introductions forums stated, I've recently returned to the hobby after an extended absence; I won't go into details here, but if you care to read about the last seven years of my life, follow this link:
https://www.modelersalliance.com/forum/introduction-forum/149740-i-m-jumping-back-into-the-hobby-after-a-long-time
This kit. Oh boy, this kit. I got this from my father for Christmas 1998, which was in the middle of my most fervent building stage. I started it sometime in1999 only to be distracted by other, shinier things like WRC cars and so on. It's been shelved for well more than 12 years always waiting patiently for me to return and find the right moment(s) to build her.
Let's have a quick recap of what's happened between when I started this kit and today, when I finished it.
Three presidents Clinton, Dubya and Obama
September 11
The pursuant skirmish
The advent of the modern Internet
Michael Jackson was cool
Michael Jackson was a molestor
Michael Jackson was dead
Michael Jackson is cool again?!?!
Putin rose to power, French Canadians were confused as they'd always loved poutine.
The Euro was introduced
Social media. I'm looking at you Facebook.
Regan dies
The boxing day tsunami
They caught Hussein.
They caught Bun Laden
They still haven't left the sandbox.
So needless to say, I had to pick this kit as I was tired moving the box every time we bought a new house and I felt up for a challenge. This airframe 161272 was in. Service for a little more than eight months in this paint scheme, so needless to say reference photos were kind of scarce, so I decided that I would enjoy the build and not let it big me down too much. This worked for the most part until yesterday.
The decals were, um, challenging, but with the help of My good friend Scrodes, I had some Mr. Mark Softer come to the rescue, and really saved this kit from another 12 years of neglect.
I think the glazing came from another kit, I had to do all sorts of modifications to make the canopy and lights fit, it was terrible. I expected to sit down yesterday
for two hours, put on the pitot tubes and canopies and go upstairs for a beer shortly after. 6 harried hours later I emerged, more frustrated than ever.
This kit (Hasegawa 07080) was built mostly OOB, with the exception of Verlinden ejection seats, primed with Alclad primer, pre-shaded with black, sprayed with Testors enamels, Alclad Clear gloss and Finished with Testors dull cote. After all that, a generous wash with Vallejo acrylic washes.
Overall, with the exception of fitting the clear parts, this kit wasn't as bad as its reputation had made it out to be with one exception: there don't seem to be any locator pins anywhere. Dry fitting was an exercise in futility and gluing it required a level of faith I'm sure would challenge the Pope (also changed since this kit was started)
I won't go on any further, and I'm not as satisfied with this kit as many of my pre-hiatus efforts, but I'll now reward you with pictures of the final product.
Thanks!
Well, as my thread over in the introductions forums stated, I've recently returned to the hobby after an extended absence; I won't go into details here, but if you care to read about the last seven years of my life, follow this link:
https://www.modelersalliance.com/forum/introduction-forum/149740-i-m-jumping-back-into-the-hobby-after-a-long-time
This kit. Oh boy, this kit. I got this from my father for Christmas 1998, which was in the middle of my most fervent building stage. I started it sometime in1999 only to be distracted by other, shinier things like WRC cars and so on. It's been shelved for well more than 12 years always waiting patiently for me to return and find the right moment(s) to build her.
Let's have a quick recap of what's happened between when I started this kit and today, when I finished it.
Three presidents Clinton, Dubya and Obama
September 11
The pursuant skirmish
The advent of the modern Internet
Michael Jackson was cool
Michael Jackson was a molestor
Michael Jackson was dead
Michael Jackson is cool again?!?!
Putin rose to power, French Canadians were confused as they'd always loved poutine.
The Euro was introduced
Social media. I'm looking at you Facebook.
Regan dies
The boxing day tsunami
They caught Hussein.
They caught Bun Laden
They still haven't left the sandbox.
So needless to say, I had to pick this kit as I was tired moving the box every time we bought a new house and I felt up for a challenge. This airframe 161272 was in. Service for a little more than eight months in this paint scheme, so needless to say reference photos were kind of scarce, so I decided that I would enjoy the build and not let it big me down too much. This worked for the most part until yesterday.
The decals were, um, challenging, but with the help of My good friend Scrodes, I had some Mr. Mark Softer come to the rescue, and really saved this kit from another 12 years of neglect.
I think the glazing came from another kit, I had to do all sorts of modifications to make the canopy and lights fit, it was terrible. I expected to sit down yesterday
for two hours, put on the pitot tubes and canopies and go upstairs for a beer shortly after. 6 harried hours later I emerged, more frustrated than ever.
This kit (Hasegawa 07080) was built mostly OOB, with the exception of Verlinden ejection seats, primed with Alclad primer, pre-shaded with black, sprayed with Testors enamels, Alclad Clear gloss and Finished with Testors dull cote. After all that, a generous wash with Vallejo acrylic washes.
Overall, with the exception of fitting the clear parts, this kit wasn't as bad as its reputation had made it out to be with one exception: there don't seem to be any locator pins anywhere. Dry fitting was an exercise in futility and gluing it required a level of faith I'm sure would challenge the Pope (also changed since this kit was started)
I won't go on any further, and I'm not as satisfied with this kit as many of my pre-hiatus efforts, but I'll now reward you with pictures of the final product.
Thanks!
