Ar 555

In order to fit the seats in, I had to remove a small lip at the top of this piece

As is typical on all of my projects, I like to work dumb instead of smart. I got too excited and didn’t add any counterweight before gluing the two airframe pieces together. I think I will be cutting into the flat section within the landing gear bay and using that as an access point to add the weight

Masked and ready to be painted. I will start with the bays before painting the rest

Some details in the bays. I’m hoping it’ll look better after some weathering

Just some basic rust and oil stain weathering. I may add some metal chipping, but not at this point

I used xf-23 and some simple marbling for the belly. I will go back over everything again with diluted flat white to even everything out a bit more.

This is such a simple kit in terms of parts, so it’s very weird at this stage to have so few parts to paint

Upper camo is done. I used Tamiya xf-63 for the base gray, and then xf-18 for the pattern. I’m pretty happy with it for my first freehand scheme like this. I was originally planning on a darker base with a brighter blue so it would pop a bit more, but that kind of would defeat the point of camouflage I guess

Everything else has been sanded and is ready for a base coat

Ended up with some overspray, so I’ll have to go over that again.

Turrets need to be painted, and then a round of gloss for all

This build has been all about making it harder than it needs to be

Glossed and ready for decals. The engines don’t have the dictated red around the intakes yet, but that will be done quickly before applying decals on that portion of the aircraft.

Bottom decals done

Top decals almost done

Weathered and panel lined. Final matt coat, and then assembly

Bay doors need to have some edges painted and the engines need some paint work

Last few bits, the back of the nose bay light needs some green to match the interior of the bay, and then some finishing weathering and decals for the engines.

Aaand done!

47 24 June 2021, 13:48

Patryk S.
Following!

24 June 2021, 18:00

Robert Podkoński
Following too. This beast needs a lot of weight - I once have assembled it...

8 July 2021, 17:30

Treehugger
You could try drill a hole at the bottom and somehow, push in some nose wight into the hole somehow, and patch up the hole I am thinking. I like using wood glue for gluing together tiny balls of metal (iron?). Usually, it is a bit messy because the metal balls are so small.

8 July 2021, 19:18

Reaper_lead
I ended up just cutting through the seam with my x-acto knife. The glue was still soft enough that it cut fairly easily. It was a bit of a pain to glue back together again. The leading edge and trailing edges aren't quite lined up, so there'll be plenty of sanding

8 July 2021, 21:33

John Thomas
Very cool

18 October 2021, 23:34

Mike Kryza
I'm in too! 👍

26 October 2021, 06:54

Simon Nagorsnik
Looks great, nice pattern- still following👍

26 October 2021, 07:06

Spanjaard
very nice interior and lovely camo

26 October 2021, 08:03

Olivier
Good colour choice and very nice interior.

26 October 2021, 08:10

Mark
Sorry I'm late to the show! Looking really nice. 👍

31 October 2021, 16:56

Simon Nagorsnik
Nice progress, see how it goes on🙂

3 November 2021, 05:05

Reaper_lead
And done! Thank you everyone for your kind words. This is an awesome kit. Very simple, but fun to build, and definitely a gateway into bigger more complex builds for beginners, or a fun easy project for advanced modelers. The molding and detail in the plastic is fantastic, and never built aircraft are always fun to get a little creative when painting.

14 November 2021, 15:10