Turning Japanese - 1/48 Hasegawa F-2A in the Cabinet

Well, it's as done as its going to be. As usual I'm not entirely happy with the result but it looks good in the cabinet so it'll have to do.

Typically just before I typed this I found a web site, linked from the IPMS USA site of all places,  with quite a few shots of this actual jet, and it was quite a bit more weathered than I'd thought. For those building any of these jets have a look here

Some details:

Kit: 1/48 Hasegawa F-2A

Decals: Afterburner Decals

Wheels: Royale resin

Wheelwell: Aires

PE: Eduard

Seat: Quickboost

Pitot & AOA probes: Master Model

AS-2 Missiles: Hasegawa JASDF Weapons Set

Paint: Dark Blue  - AS-6 for Dark Blue, Light Blue is a mix of Tamiya Dark Blue, Skyblue and Gunze Intermediate Blue

Clear: Tamiya Gloss with Mr Color Thinners

Flat: Dullcoate.

Wash: Promodeller dark.

Complete Build thread is Here

Thanks for looking.

Oh so Close - F-2A Update

Thanks to Scott at Afterburner Decals and David progress is being made. She's oh so close now.

This weeks dramas involved the clear parts. Removing the masking is always exciting, you know you're just about done . Unfortunately  I always seems to have issues with tape or something damaging the Future, especially when it's been taped up for a while. And this was no different.

I found a nasty scratch on the right hand side of the front glass. I tried "filling" the hole with future by polishing and then re-coating the entire glazing by applying the Future with a soft brush. Although the scratch was still there I was happy with the repair.

After a couple of hours I decided to apply another coat...... Bad Move. everything went milky... I knew I should walked away :mad:

So I decided to carefully remove the future with IPA and cotton buds. After this I used various Micro mesh buds to polish out the scratch, which was a lot deeper than I thought. Then I used the Tamiya Polishing compounds to clean up the plastic some more. Finally I polished the plastic with CRC 5.56 (like WD 40). I'm now happy enough :)

I had similar issue the following night with the rear glazing. I used the same approach with the same results.

next was the tanks and missiles. The tanks were attached with Gator Glue and fitted fine. The missiles are depicted as exercise (or Airshow) rounds, unfortunately I didn't have any decals for hem. I put some black strips on them to simulate some the markings I had on my reference photos. They were then attached with Gator glue and left to dry overnight.

The replacement serials were applied but the tail hasn't been dullcoated as yet.

Only a final dullcoate left and the rest of the fiddly bits.

I'm not going to weather this one much, as the I'd think these anniversary jets would be clean-ish. hopefully I'll be done this weekend.