SPA Modeler

Looking good Stuart! Just curious... since the landing gear legs and doors can be attached after the fuselage has been assembled, what is the advantage of gluing them in before painting? Isn't it hard to reach the interior of the wheel wells/legs/doors with paint?

Thanks John.

That's an interesting question actually, I guess the only real advantage is from an assembly point of view, whereby sometimes it's easier to fit a complicated and poorly fitting undercarriage without worrying about spoiling the paint work.

With me it's less about the paint and more about the mojo - I tend to get as much as I can done before painting, as I've found that once I've painted and decalled the airframe, I tend to loose interest in all the ancillary stuff because to my mind the build's finished. I went through a long period of seriously waxing an waning mojo, to the extent that I almost gave the hobby up. Over the past few years I've been trying to identify what the causes for this are and this one was one of them - it was actually a youtube channel by a fellow brush painter that introduced me to the concept of building up and attaching the U/C first, before getting on with the paint. (the other real mojo killer for me is the load out, which I'm going to get done before any paint goes anywhere near this one).

From a painting point of view it doesn't make a lot of sense agreed, and I don't think I'd do this if I used an airbrush. To be fair, normally I would actually paint up the bay and door interiors etc. before attaching them, and maybe some of the the legs too - I don't know why I didn't on this build, I guess I was just enjoying the assembly too much... ...strange then that I thought to leave the airbrake doors off, so I can paint them before fitting???

It shouldn't be too much of a problem to paint up though, certainly much easier than some of the miniatures I've painted. They tend to give you a good idea of what's possible and what isn't and I'd recommend painting a few if you ever want to improve your brush work. I'm certainly not worried about getting these done.

I might actually paint the bays and the top of the legs a darker grey, and then blend in some lighter greys as they get further away from the bay.

Cheers!

Load outs are a mojo killer for you?! Say it isn’t so Stuart! Oh my! I love that part of the process. Especially on modern aircraft. Bombs, missiles, pods, drop tanks… All sorts of things that go boom, bang, brrrappp, whoosh, or buzzzz. I usually do ordinance load outs as one of the last steps and when that’s done, the sucker looks MEAN and ready to fly…

Stikpusher wrote:Load outs are a mojo killer for you?!

Only if I leave it until I've finished the rest of the model. If I do I tend to find it hard to work up the enthusiasm to get it done, as to my mind, the model is finished - which is why I've not yet completed either my F-14 or F-15 (and the Eagle only needs three tanks!). It's stupid I know, but it's how my mind works. I do indeed like a nice load out though, especially an asymmetric one! They do make a modern jet model come alive and look far more interesting. Going forward I'm going to try to get them done BEFORE I paint the rest of the kit, and hopefully spend a bit more time on it, which is what I'm doing on the Jaguar.

I was going to do an RAF Recce bird with the reconnaissance pod and two fuel tanks, however the only new decals I could get was for number 6 squadron, which was a strike squadron, so this one is going to be loaded for bear.

I'm going for a post Gulf War scheme, before the GR.3's came in with their grey paint. So this'll have the over-wing AIM-9Ls, one centre line fuel tank, four BL755 Cluster bombs on MERs, a AN/ALQ-101 ECM pod and a PHIMAT Chaff pod - hopefully it should look good.



This is what I'm going for - with added bombs! (I've just noticed that this is an early GR.3... never mind).



Cheers!

Stik - would the AIM-9Ls be white or grey/black?

Light Ghost Gray body with a dark metallic seeker head. Only the earliest 9L’s from around 1980 or so would have a white body.

Thanks Carlos!

Thanks for the explanation, Stuart. I don't think there is right way or wrong way but there are definitely advantages and disadvantages when it comes to order of painting. Depending on the situation, I've done it both ways.

Heh.. the Mirage I've been working on has me installing the nose gear strut prior to closing up the fuselage. The attachment pins are above the nose wheel well for better fit. Ive always had this fear of breaking them off during painting and dealing sessions. So far, it hasn't happened.... yet.

Well it had to happen sooner or later - I finally packed my bench up today for the last time in this house. Hopefully I can get it unpacked and going sometime in November.

In the meantime...