Think Russian - Scratch building a Firefox in 1/300th scale
Final Construction stage
After sitting in my painting box for almost 2 years I decided to complete this. I haven't played a lot of modern airgaming in the last couple of years but with the release of C21 2nd edition, we become enthused again.
When I dug out the Firefox it was in a pretty sad shape with paint splatters on it and a broken wing and canard (these were caused by dropping it on a concrete floor! Hwever the plane need a lot of rework as I had made a lot of mistakes originally. However it was a good learning experience and it proves the value of proper research rather than rushing into something.
In need of some TLC
The model is looking in pretty bad shape after being in my painting box for a couple of years. Also I'm not happy with how it is turning out and have decided to try a different approach to building it (probably the reason why it was put to one side for a while).
Reshaping the fuselage
I decided that it would be easier to use thin plasticard to shape around the engines rather that green stuff. I filed down around the engines and glued 0.5mm pieces of plasticard onto the fuselage. I also replaced side pieces of the engine covers as the intakes were the wrong shape and too far back. Next the broken canard and wing were replaced.
Rebuilding around the engines
I also realised I got the rear of it quite wrong so I extended the plasticard out the rear of the body so I could cut the correct shape around the exhausts. Underneath I've extended the intakes further forward as the were too short as well. I also never noticed the intake starting under the fuselage before, so I added a couple of strips of plasticard for that.
Lots of filler
I filled all the gaps around the wings and engines with some putty (a bit hard to see in the pictures as the putty is white). I also added a very small piece of plasticard in the middle of the engine intakes.
Finishing off the engines
First I added some small pieces of 0.5mm plasticard around the back of the engine to give it the same shape as the rest for the fueslage and then filled it. Then I added a couple pieces of plastic tube (from a paint brush) to make the engine exhausts and added a small piece in between the two engines and sanded it into a rounded shape (i think its meant to be some sort of probe/sensor).
Painting the Firefox
This is the easy bit. I gave it a Matt black undercoat and it was finished! Actually I highlighted some parts with a grey/green and painted the engine exhausts gunmetal and the cockpit various shades of blue. The markings are fromm I-94 Enterprises.
The second photo shows the rear quarter of the model. Unfortunately the camera shows up a few blemishes that aren't obvious looking at it normally. You can also see the inside of the engines which I painted orange and yellow to add some colour to the model.