S-3 Viking and Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdall turret

I'm still not happy with the join at the wing root so I've filled it again;

Instead of using Mr Surfacer 1000 I've gone for the 500 grade stuff as it's thicker so *hopefully* the join will disappear when sanded down.The E-50 has been touched up here and there and I've decided on utilising the old modelling cliche of having rusty metal panels. These will be the four covers over the engine air intakes so I sprayed them black prior to applying various rust colours;

And that is that for another year! I started a few projects but most of them have ended in disaster for one reason or another (Airfix C-47), proved troublesome (Dragon Fokker E.V/ D.VIII) or I just became bored with them and they have ended up on the Shelf-Of-Doom.
I did actually finish two models this year, the Trumpeter E-25 and Revell Leopard I;

At this point I WOULD like to say I won't be buying any more kits as this year alone I received around 30+ for review plus all the ones I bought but you KNOW that will never happen.
Thank you to everybody who has taken an interest in my work and ramblings for the past twelve months, it is very much appreciated that so many people look in and hopefully I've been able to provide some hints and tips to you.
2017 will still see me trying to finish stuff started this year, the E-50, S-3 Viking and Fokker E.V/ D.VIII plus currently being looked at is the Revell 1/32 Hawker Hunter FGA9 and Tamiya 1/32 Mosquito FB VI. Quite where I'm going to store them (if I finish them of course) is anybody's guess but what the hell :o)
Happy new year people!

Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdal turret

Many of my projects tend to stall due to one reason or another, usually boredom but the main reason with this one was the camo scheme as I did'nt really know where to go with it after it was done so it went onto the Shelf-Of-Doom.
I did'nt want to repaint it totally so I decided on a winter scheme but in a splinter pattern to match the vehicles camouflage. The crosses used were rub down ones from Archer then carefully masked so that the tape would'nt pull them up.
I wanted the white to be on the hull and turret sides only so a pattern was thought out and masked off. Then hairspray was applied to the model and when dry Tamiya XF-2 White with a drop or two of grey thrown in was sprayed on. After that the masking tape was removed then the white was attacked with warm water and an old tooth brush to portray a worn finish. It needs some touching up in places as the tape removed some of the base colours plus where the hairspray pooled some areas are too regular and need respraying, other than that I'm quite pleased with the results so far;

S-3 Viking

Further to the mini-disaster with the port wing breaking away from the fuselage, the joint has been filled, sanded, sprayed with primer, filled again, sanded and finally resprayed with primer;

And after all that there is STILL a bloody visible line in the joint so another rethink is required about carrying on with it. The plan at the moment is to spray the overall grey top coat but when dry mask off the wings where they join the fuselage and spray them in a slightly different shade....either that or drown the bloody thing in black primer!

S-3 Viking

After a bit of swearing and throwing my toys out of the pram the wing was eventually fixed back into place, this time using cyano glue and left overnight to set. There was a bit of a step between the wing and fuselage so this was sanded back and the wing joint filled with Milliput which was smoothed out using a soft brush and water;

This will be left to cure for a couple of days, the area will be polished to get any scratches out and  resprayed with primer to check for any gaps that may have been missed then MAYBE I can start painting the thing.

S-3 Viking

Well that was'nt supposed to bloody happen;

I was priming the model with Games Workshop Chaos Black and while handling the model the port wing came loose...so much for using epoxy resin glue for strength!
I pulled the wing off completely, cleaned off the epoxy resin and stuck it back on but this time using superglue and I now have a nice gap to fill both sides;

This is made even more awkward as the engine pylon is in the way so this should be fun. I was going to do it tonight but it's best I step away from the bench for awhile.

S-3 Viking

By the Power of Greyskull the thing is built! The various blade aerials found on the machine will be added after painting as they will only get knocked off when the model is handled plus the pile of bits to the side will be painted seperately and added later;

The model will now be washed down with warm water and detergent to get rid of any greasy paw prints and dust. When dry the the side windows will be masked and the model will receive a coat of primer spray.
This is the part of the show I'm dreading to be honest as previous attempts at painting an aeroplane have resulted in disaster for various reasons so we'll see what happens.
If you hear a loud bang then you'll know what happened :o)

S-3 Viking

Time to get this thing nearer the finishing post so the bang seats were fixed into place and the canopy glued on;

The actual fit of the canopy is'nt brilliant and it had a tendency to pull in at the bottom either side so small shims of plastic strip were glued to the cockpit bulkhead and painted in the cockpit colour. The canopy was glued into place using GS Hypo cement (Jewellers use the stuff) as superglue will fog clear transparencies unless coated beforehand with Johnsons Kleer or similar.
By the way the canopy part does actually have a tint but to me it's not dark enough so the inside of the canopy got a coat of Tamiya X-19 Smoke as the tint is pretty strong on the S-3.

Rather than use model filler and creating yet more dust on clean up I used black Milliput for the gaps and smoothed it out with water (this is an old tip by the way and I take no credit for it).

Once dry I maybe able to finally get some paint on it after a clean down. Exciting times! :o)

S-3 Viking

Wow more progress! Today was spent fitting the engine pods to the wings, spraying the canopy interior with Tamiya X-19 Smoke (the real aircraft had quite a heavy tint) and making better fairings for the windscreen wipers.
The engine pylons had the locating peg cut down substantially as the indents in the Wolfpack wings are very shallow, this applies to the stores pylons too. Also the curve underneath must be shallower than the kit wing as there was a huge gap between the pylon and wing;

To save destroying any surface detail I stuffed Milliput into the gaps;

The Milliput was then smoothed out using a brush and water and left to set;

The windscreen wiper fairings in the kit are a bit of a funny shape and after gluing them to the fuselage forward of the canopy I decided I did'nt like them. I found alternatives in the shape of 1/72 Mk82 bombs from an old Airfix A-7 Corsair that were in the spares box so a flat was filed on one side of two bombs then the noses were cut off and glued into place on the Viking after removing the kit ones;

Far better! New wiper blades will be made from scratch and added after painting. You may notice a hole next to the left fairing and this is for a navigation light that will be glued in after painting.
As I said above the canopy got some extra tint and this will be fitted when I glue in the overhead instrument panel.