Pegasus 1/72 BAe Experimental Aircraft Programme.

I bought this kit in the late 1980s after the EAP had first flown but before the Eurofighter was a reality. 

The kit contains a few basic parts in soft plastic on heavy runners, some white metal parts for the ejection seat and undercarriage, a very thick clear canopy and a basic decal sheet. There is a very basic instruction sheet with no diagramme but a brief description of how the construction should be tackled. The three-view scale drawing is an essential aid. 

The main fuselage parts removed, trimmed and ready for assembly. 

Forward fuselage stuck together, filled and rubbed down. I thought it would be easier to add the cockpit detail by sliding it in from the back rather than sticking it to one fuselage half before assembly. It turned out to be tricky but probably a good strategy. 

Undercarriage wells boxed in. I wasn't going for an accurate and detailed finish - I just wanted to avoid aview into a huge and empty fuselage. 

Cockpit components prepared and ready for installation. I assumed that the block of plastic supplied was for the instruments. I was right, but later found that the canopy wouldn't fit over it, so I had to file it down quite drastically. 

Cockpit assembled. Not very neatly detailed, I know, but I just wanted to create an impression of the instruments rather than an accurate miniature. The area behind the pilot's seat is something of a mystery: photos show that there is a bracing strut behind the bulkhead, plus test equipment present. However, I couldn't find any details of what is actually there, so I just stuck in a random few bits of plastic. 

Rear fuselage assembled. There were three parts to this - the base, plus two sides, and it was difficult to hold them together and match them to the forward fuselage. As a result the rear section ended up wider than the front. Also the rear end of the kit was a mess, so I added a plastic card blanking piece to attach the jetpipes to. 

Front and rear sections attached to each other and the huge gap filled with Milliput and rubbed down. 

Fin, jetpipes and air intake attached. The fin fitted very much where it touched and so needed a fair bit of fettling to get a secure joint. 

Wings attached and it's starting to look like a proper aeroplane! As with the fin, the wings fitted quite badly and took much filing to produce a decent joint. 

The mainwheel wells are a mess and there's nowhere to fix the undercarriage legs securely, so I cut a couple of pieces of plastic card to cover the wing-to-fuselage joints. I also made some blocks out of sprue and cut slots in them to hold the undercarriage legs. 

Canopy attached (for the second time - first time I forgot to put the ejection seat in). The part was a particularly bad fit, so I had to carry out some drastic filling and blending in. I have feeling it might not look very good once painted, but not to worry. 

Undercarriage attached, together with the doors. There was no nosewheel door supplied in the kit, and the instructions didn't mention having to make your own, But I did make my own, which just required a plain oblong of platic card and probably looks better than an equivalent kit part. The reference book I am using said the wheel well interiors are a "yellowish brown". Rather vague, so I mixed a shade that looks like the primer on the unpainted airframe when it was first rolled out. 

And now the airframe is pretty much complete, with the foreplanes attached (and probes aded to both of them and to the nose), plus an aerial and beacon on the dorsal spine. The Skyflash missiles need to be mounted too close to the undercarriage doors, so I'll attach them after painting. 

Overall coat of primer applied. I don't know how well the final paint will adhere to this plastic, so I'm taking no chances. 

Painted pale blue overall. On the real aircraft it's a very subtle shade of blue which looks white in strong light. I decanted a generous helping of gloss white into a mixing jar and added a touch of French Blue. Actually I did it twice - the first batch was with an older tin of white and it ended up too dark and rather lumpy, so I bought a new tin of white and added less blue. 

The kit decals are cracked, so I've decided to paint the basic design and use the "EAP" and serial from the decals. Here, I've painted the design on the tail and the white portion of the cheat line along the fuselage. Next I've masked ready for the rest of the dark blue areas. I'm not confident that the cheat line will look neat enough, but at least I've had a go. 

With the masking tape off, it's not as neat as I'd hoped but neither is it as disasterous as I'd feared (although the other side is worse). I've also knocked the dorsal blade aerial off (yet) again. So a fair bit of tidying up before the decals can go on. 

After much touching up and then much touching up of the touching up I think I am sufficiently satisfied with the painting. The next task is to sort out some markings from the spares box. Wierdly there are no ejection seat warnings on the full size aircraft but there is a rescue arrow underneath the LERX. 

I was wrong about the ejection seat warning markings - they are present but quite subtle. I managed to find sone suitable examples in my spares box. And so it's finished! This book by the prolific Bill Gunston was invaluable during the project.