Mitsubishi F-2A - Build

Jos Jansen
I am in...

Slavo Hazucha
Tuning in, I'm slowly setting-up my shopping list for an F-2 and you've got a nice collection of extras there. The resin Cockpit & LG wells are quite a show, looking great - I'm curious to see how it all comes & fits together with the base model!

Alexander
Thanks Slavo, great to here!
I'm still deciding if I will weather the engine intake, apart from that I can probably begin the main assembly and prepare myself for another round of filling and sanding.

Michael Phillips
Count me in too!

I have built this kit as well, it is indeed very nice. You are off to a fantastic start, looking forward to seeing your progress!

Alexander
Thanks Roland and Michael! Your model Michael is kind of a benchmark regarding this kit, so I'm pleased to hear that you liked my efforts so far. You said on your project that the kit was great overall fit-wise, but did you still encounter any difficulties I should be aware of? Apart from the foreseeable (and partly done) work on and surrounding the intake area and the LERX.

I also figured I could make the engine exhaust before the main assembly, at least the inside. Colour weathering is almost applied, thus after sealing it it's time to move on to the oil wash.

Maciej Bellos
Joining the party!

Michael Phillips
Thanks Alexander, I appreciate the kind words! Really there is nothing else I can remember being an issue with this kit. I had a little trouble with the upper and lower fuselage join, but that may have been of my own doing.

Have you decided which paints you will use?

Alexander
Moved on quite a bit, finished the engine exhaust - now only the weathering of the outer portion is to be done. The inside is finished and sealed with a matt coat, I used AK's weathering pencil to replicate the "streaks" on the "inner" panels, as well es good old Tamiyas's weathering set.

The engine intake portion was also glued in several steps, together with the main landing gear bay. Because I removed the kit front landing gear bay and replaced it with the resin one, the letter caused some bending on the surrounding plastic parts even after sanding and pressuring the parts together. Also the joint between the intake section and the rest of the fuselage is certainly not a-ok - will have to look after priming if it needs some more care.

Weapons are also done colour-wise, on the cover picture you can see an AAM-3 with a blue-grey colour, which I assume stands for an inert/training missile like on the US-ones (makes sense given the circumstances, as this is an air combat meet). I saw pictures of ASM-2's with a similar appearance and decided to paint them likewise.

@Michael I assume you mean the colours for the fuselage? I decided to pick up RC 234 Aggressor Blue and RC 235 Intermediate Blue. Both do not look like I imagined but I planned to use any of my blue tones and mix them appropriately to the desired colour anyway, so I'll see how it goes.

Alexander
Was busy filling and sanding most of the time. I guess half of the issues are my fault, as the resin cockpit caused some bending (one reason why there are landing gear bays, but no cockpit for this actual kit?). Though the rest seems to be the kit makers fault, especially the joint on the radome which I couldn't fill in a completely satisfactory way. But I know that most of this will look much nicer when the thing is finished.

Priming, preshading and first colour are done, the second one is in the process. Tomorrow I will finish the second colour and do some touch up's, like especially smoothing out the colour edges.

Slavo Hazucha
Evolving very nicely! The blue/blue camo is an artwork... seems you got the colors quite right, good going 👍

Alexander
Thank you for your kind words Slavo! I feared the colour might be a bit too dark, was quite a challenge to get a result I was happy with. But in combination with the darker toned colour I also think that I got very near the real colours.

Alexander
Radome, refueling flap and other stuff painted now. Had to repaint parts of the cockpit are because of overspray. Still need to paint some very minor stuff, including some sensors and static dischargers. Also a few touch ups on the weaponry.
After that, one or two gloss coats and the plane is ready for the wash.

Maarten Henderieckx
mooi en proper aan het afwerken ik geloof dat het zo proper ook wel zal zijn als het afgewerkt is

Alexander
I had to use google translator but I guess thank you, Maarten. Although I did some minor and very basic weathering with oil paints.
She's finished now, final pics from the upcoming "foto-shooting" will follow some time this week in a seperate album.

Slavo Hazucha
Great preview - looking forward to the final shots - the F-2 & this camo is just a spectacular sight... definitely want to do one at some point! 👍

Alexander
Thank you Slavo, just remember not to use a resin cockpit if you don't want unnecessary bending of the fuselage - resin landing gears are tricky to implement as well.
But here she is now, not perfect but finished: Mitsubishi F-2A - Final Look | Album by DokAlex144 (1:48)