Unfortunately (mostly because my camera needs repairs) there won't be very many pictures of these builds as they are in progress. Probably have to save most of those pictures for the completed jobs.
I am also lumping them together then, to save space.
The 144 scale U23 is nearing completion today as it is. I estimate that it's about 90-95% finished with what steps I have covered thus far.
It wasn't a very easy build, despite my expectations.
First off, it says "Revell" but the sprue sheet is stamped "ICM", thus suggesting to me that it is a re-boxing. That part is no big deal. But the sprue is not numbered. Meaning I have to look at the manual to ID the parts. I wrote the numbers in sharpie near each piece to compensate for the lack of guideposts.
Next up, the hull paint. Messed it up like twice, on my way into three times, so it stays as it is.
The first step was to glue the hull halves together, along with their retaining rings. Then I painted the light grey upper and dark grey lower in the wrong shades. That wasted time while re-primed and repainted in lighter shades.
Then I was tooling about the 'net' one day and I found a few historical shots of U23 under construction, and I noticed that the guide I was using to paint with was mistaken. The dark grey really does come up the saddletanks, all the way, on each side. As with U99.
But I am not repainting it anymore, it stays as it is. U99 hasn't started yet, so I will get the paint the right way on that one. But I think I will go easy on the rusting and wearing effects on U99, just to save some time.
Then I painted, built, and touched up several smaller sub-assemblies, because they were easy enough to do and I needed to restore my motivation after goofing the main paintjob and wasting a lot of time on it. I also really went crazy on rusting it, and when I tried a wash, too much of my fixup paint came off. More touchup. It actually looks a lot better for it now, so I guess it wasn't a total disaster.
So as of this writing, the hull is built the tower is built but not permanently fixed in place yet. U23 needs some jumping wires and flags with poles. I can skip the step with the net cutter on the upper hull forward, as U23 did not have it in place. U9, U20 and the U type II standard all included them, but not the one I picked. I like it when the book says a step is "optional".
U99. Hull and parts primed. No more progress to report.
I am also lumping them together then, to save space.
The 144 scale U23 is nearing completion today as it is. I estimate that it's about 90-95% finished with what steps I have covered thus far.
It wasn't a very easy build, despite my expectations.
First off, it says "Revell" but the sprue sheet is stamped "ICM", thus suggesting to me that it is a re-boxing. That part is no big deal. But the sprue is not numbered. Meaning I have to look at the manual to ID the parts. I wrote the numbers in sharpie near each piece to compensate for the lack of guideposts.
Next up, the hull paint. Messed it up like twice, on my way into three times, so it stays as it is.
The first step was to glue the hull halves together, along with their retaining rings. Then I painted the light grey upper and dark grey lower in the wrong shades. That wasted time while re-primed and repainted in lighter shades.
Then I was tooling about the 'net' one day and I found a few historical shots of U23 under construction, and I noticed that the guide I was using to paint with was mistaken. The dark grey really does come up the saddletanks, all the way, on each side. As with U99.
But I am not repainting it anymore, it stays as it is. U99 hasn't started yet, so I will get the paint the right way on that one. But I think I will go easy on the rusting and wearing effects on U99, just to save some time.
Then I painted, built, and touched up several smaller sub-assemblies, because they were easy enough to do and I needed to restore my motivation after goofing the main paintjob and wasting a lot of time on it. I also really went crazy on rusting it, and when I tried a wash, too much of my fixup paint came off. More touchup. It actually looks a lot better for it now, so I guess it wasn't a total disaster.
So as of this writing, the hull is built the tower is built but not permanently fixed in place yet. U23 needs some jumping wires and flags with poles. I can skip the step with the net cutter on the upper hull forward, as U23 did not have it in place. U9, U20 and the U type II standard all included them, but not the one I picked. I like it when the book says a step is "optional".
U99. Hull and parts primed. No more progress to report.
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