No plans to include Greg and his A-4E Skyhawk in this build. Besides, he's one of the few survivors of this terrifying arial combat tactic...
Anyway, I've been rolling along, almost too busy to snap some pics along the way.
I should have known that naming the project "Bloody Screw" was going to cause problems. It seems a name like that demands a blood sacrifice, so I made mine while drilling open the air intake vents. They're tiny, I have a very sharp knife and large gorilla sized hands... you know the story.
They look pretty good once they were glued in place and putty/sanded into submission. The fit on this kit is a bit rough, but for $2 I expected that. It does come with sufficient armament, though I'm not sure that is the proper way to store munitions.
Since this is an "in-flight" project, I actually need pilot figures (for the first time ever!). Unfortunately, since this kit doesn't even have a hole for the cockpit, I had to look elsewhere. 1/144 pilots seem to be pretty scarce, but luckily my Lindberg B-1A Bomber comes equipped with two of them. Of course I'll need them for that project... so...
Enter the magic silicone cloning chamber! Now I have a whole family. Because this is a 1-week build I took a short cut and instead of making a two-part mold, I just dunked them into a 1-part mold and cut the hell out of it to extract them (and their friends). It was a battlefield solution, and for 1/144 pilots it worked well enough, but it probably wasn't what I'd do for anything larger.
A bit of paint and we're ready for action. Since this is closed (thick) canopy, I deliberately chose the less well formed volunteers. We'll save the pretty ones for in front of a crowd.
Now, finally for some paint. I've had limited success at undercoat painting at 1/72 scale, so maybe it'll work better at 1/144? Probably not, but what the hell, every project is an attempt to get better, right?
I think it turned out alright. I was trying to make the undercoat subtle. I've seen way too many that are over done. It was a challenge because I was only painting the grey underside for the first coat, but the black was still showing through on the sides where it will be covered by the cammo later. That made the black I was covering a little darker by association. Hopefully once both coats of surface paint are on, it'll work. Fingers crossed.
