Global Scale Modeller

Hi all!

After many, many months away from the bench, time to return!

For professional reasons I had to spend the last 8 months in Portugal and I had to leave all modelling stuff in Ireland. While working in Portugal, I've met an ex-pilot from the Portuguese Air Force, now a captain in civil aviation. As I found out he flew T-33's while in Portuguese Air Force, I remembered that I had this kit on my stash. He was kind enough to provide me with loads of reference photos, so it became obvious I have to build a T-33 in Portuguese Air Force scheme.

The kit is a 1:72 scale T-33 Shooting Star from TanModels. This kit is a rebox from Platz Models, with a few extras. The kit, while having an amazing 10 options of different schemes, doesn't include any Portuguese Air Force scheme. However, I was lucky enough to find a local model shop in Portugal that actually had the decals scheme for the T-33 in 1:72 scale for the Portuguese Air Force!

So, the game is on! I haven't completed a model kit since a year and this will be my very first jet fighter ever. I hope I can come up with something decent.

The Aircraft
"The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is a subsonic American jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then designated T-33A. It was used by the U.S. Navy initially as TO-2, then TV-2, and after 1962, T-33B. The last operator of the T-33, the Bolivian Air Force, retired the type in July 2017, after 44 years of service." (wikipedia)

The Kit
As said before, this is a TanModel 1:72 scale. The kit is a rebox from Platz Models kit, that includes besides the usual sprues, an extensive decal sheet with 10 different schemes (printed by Cartograph) and a canopy mask. This kit was already reviewed by Paul, so you can see everything that's in box. (













The Decals


The decals are from Santa Cruz Decalques, a Portuguese company that close its doors a few years ago. However, a local hobby shop managed to get hold of the rights for the decal sheets and holds the rest of the decal sheets that are still available for sale. These are 2 different decal sheet that represent 2 different schemes, a normal one and a special scheme for the 38th anniversary and 65000 Flight Hours for the Portuguese Air Force.



Both liveries have their appeal, and for the moment I haven't decide which scheme I'll be using. Even if the Special Commemorative scheme seems more exclusive, the regular scheme is exactly spot on as the jet my good friend was flying... I guess will be a work in progress, and I'll decide during the build.


As always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, feel free to comment!

Cheers!!!

Love these 50's jets, good luck with the build mate

Update #1

So, started with this little kit, as always, cockpit first.

There wasn't many details on the cockpit to be honest. Seats are "spartan", and there's no decals for both instruments panel. I tried to improve it a bit, and in fairness, not really happy with final outcome.

Tried to detail paint the instruments panel as best as I could, but on this scale, it's not easy!
Seatbelts and harness were improvised from Tamiya Masking tape and painted once in place...

As I said, not really impressed with the final result, but most of it will be hiding under the canopy, so I can live with that.

In the meanwhile, I was sorting out other bits and bobs, all primed and painted at the moment...


Fuselage quarters (quarters?! Yes, quarters!) and wings sorted and ready for assembly


Finally, wingtip tanks were assembled and I'm still struggling to get those panel lines properly re-scribbed...


Tomorrow, I should be able to assemble the cockpit into the fuselage front halves and button up it.
I need as well to paint some parts of the engine, and as soon as paint cures, should be ok to assemble the jet engine as well

As always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, fell free to comment

Cheers

Update #2

It has been some productive days and the little T33 is moving along nicely!

Cockpit was assembled in to the front fuselage halves and these are ready to be assembled

Instructions call for 3 grams of weight to be added in the nose, I reckon I might have a bit too much and ended up with around 6 grams; I just hope this isn't too much and the landing gear can hold with the total weight..

Front fuselage quarters were closed and jet intake glued in place with zero fitment issues!



Engine as also painted and assembled. Even though I know will be hiding inside fuselage, I want to see how it would look and added it to the model.


Finally, just checked the wings and wing roots fitment.



It seems fitment is excellent, might need just a tiny bit of filler...

Hopefully today I'll manage to glue jet engine in place, sort out wings and rear fuselage quarters!

As always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, fell free to comment!!

Cheers!

Update #3

The T33 building is moving slowly and it's almost time for the main decision...

Engine assembled into the fuselage

Enjoying that back view!!


The rear fuselage quarters were glued and attached to the rest of the fuselage. It needed a bit of filler, but nothing major.



Canopy masked and glued in place


And it's primed!



I just noticed that I haven't mentioned materials used on this build!
So far, everything glued in place with Tamiya Cement and Tamiya Extra Thin; canopy was glued with Micro Kristal Klear.
Cockpit and Fuselage primed with Ultimate Grey Primer.
Cockpit painted with a mix of Tamiya Paints (XF1, XF7, XF52, XF54 and XF62)
Landing Gear bays painted with Tamiya XF27
Engine and Landing Gear painted with a mix of Tamiya XF1, XF56 and Revel Aqua Color 36190
Cockpit and Landing Gear bays clear-coated with Alclad Aqua Gloss
Filler used was Deluxe Perfect Plastic Putty
Everything sanded with the always reliable Ultimate Sanders

I'll leave the primer to cure overnight while I sleep over the inevitable decision that needs to taken: which livery will I go for!

The normal one?


Or the special livery for the 38th Anniversary for the Portuguese Air Force (and 65000 hours flown on the T33)?


Decisions, decisions...

As always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, fell free to comment!!

Cheers

Nice work so far Ric, looking good.

As for which livery, I think they both would look pretty good. I like the overall grey with the half black wingtip tanks on the military version, but the display version looks equally good with the blue and red flashes? I guess it just comes down to whether you want a full military version or a display jet, though the grey military version would create less of a masking challenge when it comes to painting the model?

Kev

AirCadet424 wrote: Sun Mar 29, 2020 12:02 pm Nice work so far Ric, looking good.

As for which livery, I think they both would look pretty good. I like the overall grey with the half black wingtip tanks on the military version, but the display version looks equally good with the blue and red flashes? I guess it just comes down to whether you want a full military version or a display jet, though the grey military version would create less of a masking challenge when it comes to painting the model?

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

I think I might bite the bullet and have a go with the display version... Yes, masking will be a challenge, I just hope I'll manage without screwing up everything!!!

Kevthemodeller wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 7:09 am Love these 50's jets, good luck with the build mate

Cheers!!!
I just hope I won't screw up this!!

RicRodrigues wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 5:52 pm I just hope I won't screw up this!!

Just take your time, pay attention to what you're doing and think positive Ric, and I'm sure it'll come out great.

Good luck, I'll be following.

Kev.

Update #4

At this stage, I had to decide which livery I would go for...
After much consideration, I decided to go for the display version, White base color with Blue and Red stripes!
Much more challenging livery, but I think if I managed to get this right, it will look awesome!

So first thing, I give it a try with a bit of pre-shading, just to see if it would be visible after the base color...


Then, the white base color... I always have trouble laying white color smoothly and uniform, so even for this step I had to hold my breath and take it easy! After four layers of Tamiya X1 White, pre-shading just vanished, but I'm happy with the base color.


Jumping then to the stripes... First, the red stripes. After a long afternoon spent just for masking (Tamiya Masking tape used), stripes were painted with Tamiya X7. Masking tape was then removed, it's almost perfect, just a few spots that weren't properly masked and some red spray can be seen...



My plan is to get the Blue stripes painted, and then touch up once all paint job is done.

Now, for the Blue stripes, I've just noticed from reference photos this tiny stripe running on the top of fuselage from the canopy to the tail...



Still trying to figure it out how to paint this one, but I guess there's no way around... I have to carefully mask it and paint it!!!

So, I can see another afternoon session of intense and detailed masking ahead!!!

As always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, fell free to comment!!
Cheers

Some very nice masking there. I think I'd try and cut out my own mask, still all very tricky good luck mate, I'm sure your figure it out

Update #5

Dreading this last step of masking that included the Blue Stripes, especially the tiny stripe running along the top of the fuselage...
For that tiny stripe on top of the fuselage, there was no way around except careful and precise masking. So I jumped on it and I can't be happier how that work came out!!!

So after all masked, painted and masks removed, here's the final result!!






I'm particularly happy how that dreadful tiny stripe on top of fuselage came out! I guess it's all about the small pleasures on small details!!

Now, there's a bit of overspray on areas that weren't properly masked, I'll do the necessary touch ups before moving on to the clear coat and decals.

As always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, fell free to comment!!
Cheers

Kevthemodeller wrote: Thu Apr 02, 2020 8:36 am Some very nice masking there. I think I'd try and cut out my own mask, still all very tricky good luck mate, I'm sure your figure it out

Thanks mate!!!
Some careful and precise masking using Tamiya Curves Masking Tape and regular Tamiya masking tape helped me out to pull this one!!!

RicRodrigues wrote: Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:51 pm Some careful and precise masking using Tamiya Curves Masking Tape and regular Tamiya masking tape helped me out to pull this one!!!

More superb masking mate

Update #6

And at Update #6, disaster!

After finishing the paint job, time to clear coat. As always, I used the most trusted Alclad Aqua Gloss for the clear coat before decals. Clear coated laid down, nice and smooth: 2/3 layers one day and after 24h, another 2/3 layers. Left for cure for another 24h before starting decaling.

Yesterday, I started with the under wings decals, just to check the quality of the aftermarket decals.

Decals are really thick and hard to conform to recessed panel lines, even with a generous amount of Micro Set and Micro Sol. Still, I could live with that.
Today, as I was ready to continue with decals, I noticed the clear coat cracked all over the model!!



I'm still puzzled with what could led to this... I tried to google for some answers, but nothing specific... Paint not cured? Alclad Aqua Gloss coat too thick? Paint too thick? Paint not cured? Alclad Aqua Gloss out of shelf life (it's the last bits of the bottle that I bought approx 4years ago)?

Anyway, I think there's no other way around... To save this build, I started carefully sanding all the clear coat on the model... In some areas, sanding took me almost to the primer layer....
At the moment, this is how it stands



My plan is to try to touch up all the areas with paint and see if this will not be very noticeable.
That bottle of Alclad Aqua Gloss found its way to the bin and has been already replaced by a new one!

As always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, fell free to comment!!
Cheers

I blame the Aquagloss, just to piss off the Future haters such as WP
Some good work going on here

Twokidsnosleep wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 1:30 am I blame the Aquagloss, just to piss off the Future haters such as WP
Some good work going on here

And who said you like a quiet life

Update #7

After a couple of months on the shelf of doom, finally I've decided to finish it.

The problem with the clear coat was clearly due to an out of shelf life Aqua Gloss, I've tried to sand the cracked areas and touch up the paint job, but I was not happy with the result. So the only option was to remove the clear coat, paint and primer and start all over again.

For removal of the paint I gave it a try to VMS Clean Slate. What a wonder!
After a bath of 30minutes and some scrubbing with an old toothbrush, all the clear coat, paint and primer was gone, and indeed I had a clean slate to start again.


Unfortunately, underwings decals with serial number and Portuguese AF had to be sacrificed during this process, but as these areas won't be visible, I can leave with that.

For the repainting, I followed same steps as before: Ultimate Grey Primer, Tamiya X1 White for the base color, Tamiya X4 Blue and X7 Red for the stripes and X1 Black for the wingtip tanks.


After a clear coat with a brand new Alclad Aqua Gloss, decals were applied using Micro Sol and Micro Set. As mentioned before, decals were really thick and hard to conform, especially on the recessed panel lines. After a final coat of Aqua Gloss, a quick wash with Ultimate Dark Dirt Wash to bring out the panel lines and final assembly.


Final Reveal photos here !!

It was a nice kit, but problems with thick decals and especially with the "out of date" Aqua Gloss clear coat really took away my mojo. In the end, it's not my finest model by far, but I'm pleased with final result and I can live with that.

As always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, fell free to comment!!
Cheers!!!

Great save, superb build mate

Kevthemodeller wrote: Tue Dec 01, 2020 8:23 am Great save, superb build mate

Cheers, mate!!!!