Panda Models B-1B Test Program

[Titan]

A bit late in starting this but hopefully if everything goes to plan it should be finished before time.



Sprue and decal shots to follow shortly.

Regards
Mark

[Titan]

Ok here are the sprue, decal and build instructions.





Nice detail although a bit soft in places looks ok though.


Decent decals, nowt wrong there and the canopy looks ok but hard to tell if it will fit ok without any sanding down untill it is time to fit it to th cockpit.





Good instruction but are unclear as to what colour to paint the cruise missile as the number given for the colour is not shown in the paint guide, still it should be easy enough to find out.

I will probably start this tomorrow I should think.

Regards
Mark

[Ian]

That looks to be a nice kit. I'd go with white for the cruise missile.

[JamesPerrin]

Looks very interesting. What's the surface detail like, sorry on a dongle and it's downgraded all the images?

[Titan]

Surface detail I would say to be excellent James, how they can get such fine lines in this scale where other manufacturers struggle in 1/72 is beyond me and this was moulded in 2003.
Anyway I took some macro shots so you can judge for yourself.













The bomb bay lacks detail as do the wheel wells but at this scale I don't think that really matters as if you really wanted you could build it wheels up with the bay closed

The undercarriage detail is a bit pants though and I will take some detailed shots of those when I come to them.
I worry not about such things as this like most of my builds will be built OOB.

Regards
Mark

[MerlinJones]

It was the panel lines that impressed me and, having painted it an overall grey, I wasn't impressed. It looked too 'flat'. (When I did this, I hadn't progressed as far as washes).
Mine was built to be in-flight.

Oh, by the way...look after the canopy! I lost mine for over a year and a half!

Regards,
Bruce

[Titan]

Thanks Bruce, the canopy has just been dipped and will go into a bag when cured and then into the box until needed.
I was thinking about the fine lines because I know I am going to need more than one coat of white when it comes to spraying on top of the grey plastic.



Just taken the various cockpit pieces off the sprues and will prime them before painting in an overall colour of Aircraft grey.
The wing mechanism has also been glued together.





I will probably paint the wings before inserting them into the fuselage as it makes it so much cleaner and easier to do.

Regards
Mark

[Dirkpitt289]

It looks like this kit has some nice detail. The panel lines look nice, not to deep.

[Titan]

The panel lines are very good Dirk but may be too fine for a couple of coats of paint.
The overall colour for this aircarft is white which will have to be sprayed onto grey plastic, the primer that I use is going to be a tad thick for such lines so I will spray straight onto the plastic and see what it looks like after one coat to judge better.









The fit around the fuselage halves seems a bit out so I will have to cut a few of the locating lugs away for a better fit but overall I would think that the filling side of things should be minimal, we shall see.

Regards
Mark

[Dirkpitt289]

I don't know if its available to you where you are but Mr Surfacer primer is very thin. I use it from time to time depending on the application.

[img]http://recca_22.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/mrsurfacer.jpg[/img]

[Martin R]

I second Dirk's suggestion. If you can get Mr Surfacer, it's pretty good. Leaves a lovely smooth semi-gloss surface for further painting and - as Dirk suggests - it goes on pretty d*mn thin.

regards,

Martin

[Titan]

Thanks guys, I have used Mr surfacer before and it is very good but unfortunately I have non at the moment and it would mean delaying the build until some arrived as I don't have an LMS near to me.
I have just bought a can of my prefered Hycote white primer which I couldn't get hold off a few months ago and started to use halfords white primer instead which is slightly too thick for the thin lines on this kit.
I will see how it sprays when I use it on the wings although the can will be left in some tepid water for a few minutes to aid spraying.

Regards
Mark

[Titan]

After warming the can is some luke warm water the results are very good and I just need to go over the finish with some fine grade micromesh to smooth out the surface but this is what I will go with and can now carry on with the rest of the build.





Once the wing are dry from the wetted micromesh they will get a coat of klear to protect the surface for when they are inserted into the fuselage.

Regards
Mark

[TimJ]

Nice finish on the paintwork.

[Titan]

Thanks Tim.

More progress to add.

I have added the swing wings, glued the cockpit seats etc and also the fuselage halves together.
The nose cone and rear cone have also been glued together and added to the fuselage.
Unfortunately I will have to add Mr dissolved putty around all of the seam joins on the fuselage as well as the rear and front nose cones so that I can sand the bejesus out of it to get a nice flat surface all around when it comes to spraying the white over the surface.
I will obviously have to then scribe over some of the lines as some are going to be lost with all that sanding but hopefully not too much.









I will mask the windscreen and then glue it into position, fill and then sand to blend it in.

Regards
Mark