This is one of my favourite aircraft, so I am glad I got past the problems to finish it. Action resumes in my workbench thread around here:
http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=471&start=1050
This is a pretty accurate colour representation of the finished model. I am afraid other shots have been washed out a bit. The photo posting size limitation takes care of some of the weaknesses in the finish!
This is a good-sized model, almost 16" long with the nose probe. It is typical of Italeri mid-1980s production. Quite reasonable detail (e.g. undercarriage), decals not as stiff as they look (and used to be), but many shortcuts taken. It certainly looks like a Hustler, and the only 1/72 game in town, so you can't complain too much. There are many earlier American brands to varying scales.
The refuelling receptacle decals are my own addition. I used mostly the kit decals, with some aircraft specifics from Microscale to represent the Bendix Trophy Winner from 1962.
Italeri provide some useful detail in all the crew stations, but no way to realistically pose the hatches open. So I made each hatch a 3D affair with some stainless steel pin and fuse wire work in the back end to pose the hatches open.
Above you can see a sill added to the top of the windscreen, and the throttles added to the pilot's left-hand console.
Above you can see some of the kit cockpit detail. Those are not decals! Embossed IPs have been painted and drybrushed.
I did try to use Alclad, but failed to get a good result on this attempt. So this model is pained in a combination of Testors 1146 Silver and Humbrol 27002 polished aluminium with some mixing and shading here and there. Incidentally the engine pods were mostly painted 12 years ago, and touched up for the finish. Post-shading with thinned Tamiya X19 Smoke, and many airbrushed coats of Pledge finished the job.
That area-ruling makes the Hustler a sexy beast from any angle!
I added a couple of missing struts to support the u/c doors, since there is no positive location.
In my opinion the Italeri treatment of the big fuel pod is a bit dubious, since the embedded inner pod is not really obvious; it looks more like a meaty pylon.
The kit provides the option of mounting only the smaller pod, which would avoid this criticism.
I can't apologise for the photo-heavy post; this aeroplane is too good looking, so I am actually doing you a favour!
You can't imagine how pleased I am to see this finished!
Cheers,
David
