XF-108 Rapier

Forgot to take a photo of the main body before primer and filler. The 3D printed resin leaves a lot of fine ridges which need to be smoothed out. On the wing it looked like a contour map of very fine ridges which the Mr. Surfacer gets rid of pretty well, but there are also some more straight thicker ridges that will need a bit more work and a bit of re-scribing I imagine. The resin is also softer than the Anigrand resin that I'm used to, but there is more detail than Anigrand. Will see how I feel about 3D at the end of this. 

A shot of untouched panels where the fine ridges might be visible in the photo 

Most of the fine contour ridges get filled in by the Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 spray. A bit of sanding once it hardens off should give a nice result.
 

You can see how much filling and smoothing is involved with the 3D printing on the RHS. The LHS has been sanded and primed and re-scribed, anything 3D bigger will involve a lot of work. 

 

I do like the ALCLAD Exhaust Manifold effect on the engine exhaust as it gives a 'sooty' look, though, that will change if it gets any clear coat on it. 

Assembled the major parts, did have to re-create my own tail plane since the kit one has gone missing, I'm sure it will turn up as I put the final clear coat on !! 

Since I'm doing the plane 'wheels down', I'm using the folded minor lower fins which fold straight once the wheels go back up. The unused 'wheels up' fins are in the foreground. 

3D printed glass canopy no-so glass like, but the 'Looks like Glass' works wonders on the small portion at the rear of the canopy that I dipped in the stuff to see what would happen. 

Almost finished, have to seal and try a grey panel wash as black would be too much I think. 

Well that's this one finished. Should go well with in the white collection(TSR-2, AVRO Arrow and a Valkyrie) 

Still haven't glued down the canopy which is why it's crooked. 

 

 

 

 

Didn't quite remove all of the 3D printing lines(bottom wing flap) 

 

 

Thats the end of this one.