I haven't been posting much for a few months so I thought I'd make up for it with this quick build I started last week. I didn't intend to do a build thread so I didn't take any photos early on, so you'll just have to make do with these 
First off the box:
As usual with Imai models they were intended as toys, so always have inappropriate working parts, eg the Spectrum Passenger jet with missiles! This is no exception, with spring loaded missiles - well actually the missile pods themselves being fired out of the front of the engines, chunky big wheels and an opening rear bulkhead which gave access to a compartment to store a miniature Mobile and Straker's car!
Sigh! So here is a sprue shot showing the bits I'm NOT using:
and here is the instruction sheet that gives an idea how poor this kit really is:
The first thing that is immediately obvious is that there is no cokpit detail and no Captain Carlin to fly it! So I started looking around to see what I had that would allow me to scratch build a cockpit. I came upon one of the remainders of this kit in my stash from which last year I stole the missile fins for the Alien Dropship pod torpedoes:
My first though was that I coulb rob this of the pilot seat and instrument panel and then I had a closer look at the cockpit:
Hmm that looks an interesting size... so I measure it up and bugger me if it didn't fit the cockpit glass and the cockput bulge in the fuselage almost perfectly!! It did mean chopping it up quite drastically, but I had bought 4 of these kits for ยฃ5 each last year just to get the missile fins! I've already given 2 of them away as they are a great little starter kit, very simple but looks fantastic:
(scuse the flash washing everything out!)
so I wasn't all that worried about doing some drastic surgery. I found a resin figure in the spares box, also left over from the Aliens Dropship build, who had a suitable helmet and close enough jacket and with some careful painting this was the result:
which is close enough to this
considering the scale.
So what of the rest of the kit? well the fairing on the underside is totally mis-shapen. The kit has it with a rectangular cross section whereas the original has a rhomboid shape and the front section has a metallic grille:
So this has had to be completely rebuilt! In addition the rocket pods in the kit were designed to be spring loaded and were a terrible shape:
Instead, I've replaced them with the front part of rocket pods from a 1:32 scale Hawker Hunter... the one that acts as my avatar (and which STILL isn't finished
) and you can see the result in that photo. The nose cone also needed work - in the original, it had a grille inside whereas the kit only has a sort of cross-like pattern engraved in the plastic. So this had some brass mesh added:
and so did the front part of the underside fairing:
Here you can also see the colour that will be used as the base colour. Its Ford Oyster Gold Metallic paint from Halfords. I'll try to put some panel variation in to give it more interest.
Finally, here is where I am as of this evening:
I've drilled out the cannon barrels that stick out. The panel "lines" are the usual trenches that Imai uses, but I'm not going to do anything about that.
You can see from the previosu pics that I've started spraying the nose cone. The very front appears to be dark silver. I started with some Mettalic Grey, but I think it needs to be darker,so next I'll add some Gun Metal. I've left the nose off so I can insert the cockpit later and save having to mask the windows.
First off the box:
As usual with Imai models they were intended as toys, so always have inappropriate working parts, eg the Spectrum Passenger jet with missiles! This is no exception, with spring loaded missiles - well actually the missile pods themselves being fired out of the front of the engines, chunky big wheels and an opening rear bulkhead which gave access to a compartment to store a miniature Mobile and Straker's car!
Sigh! So here is a sprue shot showing the bits I'm NOT using:
and here is the instruction sheet that gives an idea how poor this kit really is:
The first thing that is immediately obvious is that there is no cokpit detail and no Captain Carlin to fly it! So I started looking around to see what I had that would allow me to scratch build a cockpit. I came upon one of the remainders of this kit in my stash from which last year I stole the missile fins for the Alien Dropship pod torpedoes:
My first though was that I coulb rob this of the pilot seat and instrument panel and then I had a closer look at the cockpit:
Hmm that looks an interesting size... so I measure it up and bugger me if it didn't fit the cockpit glass and the cockput bulge in the fuselage almost perfectly!! It did mean chopping it up quite drastically, but I had bought 4 of these kits for ยฃ5 each last year just to get the missile fins! I've already given 2 of them away as they are a great little starter kit, very simple but looks fantastic:
(scuse the flash washing everything out!)
so I wasn't all that worried about doing some drastic surgery. I found a resin figure in the spares box, also left over from the Aliens Dropship build, who had a suitable helmet and close enough jacket and with some careful painting this was the result:
which is close enough to this
considering the scale.
So what of the rest of the kit? well the fairing on the underside is totally mis-shapen. The kit has it with a rectangular cross section whereas the original has a rhomboid shape and the front section has a metallic grille:
So this has had to be completely rebuilt! In addition the rocket pods in the kit were designed to be spring loaded and were a terrible shape:
Instead, I've replaced them with the front part of rocket pods from a 1:32 scale Hawker Hunter... the one that acts as my avatar (and which STILL isn't finished
) and you can see the result in that photo. The nose cone also needed work - in the original, it had a grille inside whereas the kit only has a sort of cross-like pattern engraved in the plastic. So this had some brass mesh added:and so did the front part of the underside fairing:
Here you can also see the colour that will be used as the base colour. Its Ford Oyster Gold Metallic paint from Halfords. I'll try to put some panel variation in to give it more interest.
Finally, here is where I am as of this evening:
I've drilled out the cannon barrels that stick out. The panel "lines" are the usual trenches that Imai uses, but I'm not going to do anything about that.
You can see from the previosu pics that I've started spraying the nose cone. The very front appears to be dark silver. I started with some Mettalic Grey, but I think it needs to be darker,so next I'll add some Gun Metal. I've left the nose off so I can insert the cockpit later and save having to mask the windows.
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