Hi Folks! Thanks to everyone for following along. Its time for an update on this build.
After letting the decals sit overnight, I sprayed a layer of Tamiya clear and then followed this up with a panel line wash using Ammo’s Medium Gray PLW, thinner with Ammo’s odorless thinner. I’m still having issues working with these washes and I am not thrilled with the outcome. Some of the panels look great and others not so much. Unfortunately the better ones all seem to be on the bottom and the worst ones are on the spine. I’ll just need to keep working with them. :idonno Once these were dry, I gave the model a topcoat using Ammo’s Gloss Varnish and set this aside to cure overnight. The next step was to spray the Flat Black anti-glare panel on the nose. So after masking the panel I sprayed on a layer of Lifecolor Flat Black. Immediately after I pulled off the Tamiya tape and was left with a pretty ragged line on one side of the flat black. On closer inspection, the gloss coat on that side pulled off with the masking tape in jagged sheets. I am not sure what happened there. Not wanting to damage the top coat any further I touched up the damage by brush, which didn’t really blend in as well as usual. Bummer.
Well, the paint peeling, and the disappointment in the wash really sapped my desire to finish this build. But I persevered. Next step was to get the landing gear on. The gear themselves went on with little fuss. I used the Wolfpack resin wheels for the mains and the kit wheel for the nose. These all went together fine and pretty simply. The included masks for the wheels were again very helpful. The real trouble was the doors. First off the nose gear door is typically closed when sitting on the ground, but there is no way to support it in the closed position so I just left it open. The Main Gear doors have 2 linkages that hold the door to the MLG leg. This is where the short run nature of this kit became troublesome. The instructions are vague as to where to attach these two tiny pieces of plastic and there are no locating marks on the gear or the parts. In an attempt to make things easy, I just left them off. The doors are a little flimsy but I will leave this sitting in the cabinet, so it should be fine. (In the end I did knock them off 3 times during the remaining work!)
Moving on, all the fiddly bits were installed and the lights painted and then I worked on finishing the cockpit. First up I painted the seats. These are the Wolfpack resin seats. The represent an early seat used in the T-38 and the F-5. They were painted in a variety or acrylics. I looked for references on what color the belts should be and there are a few different colors so I went with a dark green and a khaki just for a little variety.
And installed.
Next up is the canopies. I wanted to show the canopies open on this build because that’s just my typical approach. This turned into a nightmare. A 2 day nightmare! The canopies sit on some rather complex assemblies that were each represented by two plastic parts. Again, the instructions were not clear and the mounting points for the pieces on the clear parts are non-existent. The forward mount points didn’t fit in the fuselage either. I eventually got it all to work, but it was a headache, and I know the front canopy is at the wrong angle, but its on and I am not touching it! Next time I will just leave the canopy closed.
BTW – the clear parts were a little thick and not super clear. The did clean up after a dip in some future and look fine although the camera angle above does not make it seem that way. And a rarity on a modern aircraft, there was no seam to polish out! Exciting!
Last step was the pitot tube. I read online that the pitot tube has a fit issue that I found to be true. I had to drill out the mounting point on the nose a bit and after installing touched up the paint. This is supposed to have a red spiral strip on it which is supplied as a decal, but I could not get it to work and at that point I was pretty much at the end of my rope with this one. I installed the plastic pitot tube, touched up the paint and painted the tip in chrome silver. That pitot tube needs to be replaced with some brass. Its just asking to get broken. In the future, I would probably make one out of some brass tube and get the fit right before the paint, but live and learn.
With that, I am calling this one done. Overall not a bad kit, it looks like a T-38. It does have some challenges but overall nothing that can’t be overcome.
Thanks everyone for watching, and I think this may be the first time I have finished a campaign early! Now lets see if I can get that YF-23 knocked out in time too!
Mike