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Here's a shot with the tailcones fitted into place.

Thanks Gerwalker, great info - I might try that Tenax stuff sometime.

Good save!! I found the canopy decals to be an excellent fit though Sometimes the MicroSET/SOL has a tendency to allow you to stretch the decal out of shape and its is what dessolves the decal. I used a lot of water, and no MicroSET or MicroSOL - without these chemicals, you can play with a decal for hours without anything happening to them - you might loose the glue in the process though . Don't use this stuff unless you have too - the Hasegawa decals are really excellent quality and normally don't require any of this stuff. There are no details to telegraph through on the canopy anyways - its just flat. Yes, I find using the canopy to be easier than trying to mask a cockput that has already been detailed and painted with the pilot in. I am always afraid the tape will pull something out of the cockpit. Hey LTSO, if you can show me a good way of masking the cockpit - then I would love to learn, since it is preferable to leave the canopy till the very end.

Hmm, I guess I would be treated like a kid too (at age 34) - I use testors glue too!! Although, I have been looking at some of those other types of glues now. I've used CA (crazy) type glues, liquid cement, white, and epoxies, but there are two other types that I may want to explore. One is this Tenax stuff, some kind of chemical solvent, and the other seems to be Methyl Hydrate (?) - I think they bond acrylic display cases with this stuff. My main reason thus far for staying away was that I feel I have been breathing in enough bad stuff that I don't need some other solvent in my lungs. I was hoping that I could find something that bonds as quickly as CA, but stronger and easier to clean up leaving no white film or residue. If anyone has ever used these glues, I would love to hear your experiences.

Here you see it from the other side - the side you are supposed to see when they are mounted on the plane. The clear lens appears darker, since I have brushed on a layer of Tamiya smoke to tint the lenses - I will brush another layer on tommorrow when this coat dries. I like the lenses darker tint since it will match my YF-19 nose lenses more that way - they sometimes appear black in the animation. I also painted the interor of the holes on the fuselage in flat black in preparation for these lenses.

Ahh, a very cool detail I noticed while looking at my reference material in the TIA books. I noticed that all the clear forward sensor lenses had a slot molded into them. When I checked the reference materials, there seemed to be a red sensor at the end of these lenses. If you put some red paint at the end of a pin, and brushed the pin into this slot - it convincingly simulates the head of a sensor unit underneath the sculpted glass lens when viewed from the exterior (hmm, did that make sense?)

Here's a dry fit of the landing gears - no real purpose - just curious and impatient

Here's a shot from above with the semi-gloss clear coat applied. I like the sheen now, it ties together the decals with the paint finish better and its still not totally flat. I will weather it with the flat clear coat tommorrow hitting all the leading edges and masking some panel lines to "wear" it further slightly - it should introduce any colours, just a shift in the clear coat sheen. By making certain areas flatter - it will lighten those area slightly.

This lower view shows the opening under the fuselage where the legs would be tucked in and the corrugated sheet styrene I placed into that area to prevent us from seeing into the body of the aircraft.

Well, I wouldn't use that much of either - it wrinkles too much. I would use MicroSET first (sometimes its enough - and sometimes I don't need it at all - I don't use any of these solutions at all some of the time) only when I think there will be trouble. The Hasegawa decals are about as good as you can get from a kit manufacturer - so the problems are minimal. That being said, I do brush some on to the area to be applied, sometimes diluted with water, then slide the decal on, and brush some more on especially around the edges. I then blot and press down with a damp paper towel or cloth to get the decal to lay down flat against the surface details and telegraph as much detail underneath through. Because I blotted the decal, its kind of dry now, so I would "paint" some microSET on the edges again and let dry. If there is still a problem with the details telegraphing through from underneath or conforming to some wierd shapes, then I would selectively brush MicroSOL on just those affected areas, not the whole decal (it would wrinkle too much). Of course the MicroSOL works best while still damp. Okay, I didn't do much today - was out for most of the day. I did do a test fit of the tail afterburner cones - this shot shows the weathering done to them.

Wow! Great work Myerjessee!! Excellent work on the decals - all those large pieces can be tricky - but it seems as though you pulled it off, it looks great. You'd have no problems with the YF-21 yellow stripes Can't believe this is your second model - it looks great - can't wait to see more. Keep it up! I sense a modelling renaissance comming on... this is fantastic. p.s. I really love the green for the wheel wells and airbrakes - it adds an air of authenticity.

Wow! Congrats, lets see what you've entered!!

Here's a shot of where I am now. There's a slight post-shading done in black over the yellow decals - where the panel lines are, and the intake bluge area to give it a little shading and tie it into the overall plane a bit more. There is also a bit on the grey portions right where the legs join onto the back. Overall its still quite a bright scheme and a bit too contrasting for my taste, but its a demonstrator right I think the overall thing will tone down a bit when I clear coat it in a semi-gloss and start to accent certain areas in a flat clear coat. Flat finishes always tend to lighten things. I will wait till all the clear coats are done before I attempt to remove the canopy masking and apply the forward sensor lens and nav lights.

Inside the vectoring fins.

The backs of the vectoring fins.

A close up of the charring and oil wash left overs of the afterburning section - this detail, I really only do it for me, its pretty hard to see once the fins are in place unless you are looking right into the tailcones with a strong light

Here's a before shot of the tail cones and intakes. I plan on giving these areas a shot of black to age and burn them. The intakes gets a shot of black inside to further make it look deeper than they are - I painted them black and sprayed grey over them before, but I sprayed too much grey, and you can see the inside of them in grey. So I tightly controlled a spray inside in flat black and gradually lightened it out to the grey of the exterior of the intakes. This gives the illusion that they fall off to blackness before you see the engine fans.

A shot of a bunch of parts left over before they go on the plane.

I decide to dab those little dots with red for a bit of interest and decided that instead of the decals for the dark double hexes and the twin vents, the dark oil wash actually gave them more depth than the decals. I also did a little wash to recover the panel lines where the yellow stripe had covered over them - I think these little details are really important in the end for realism.

Here's a shot further along, you see the weathering which seems a bit excessive for a demonstrator is much toned down next to these bright decals now. Those little black and light grey graphics on the front of the leg/engine bulges are also difficult to apply. I used a lot of MicroSET and SOL here, since again, the decal has to curve in two directions, luckily the MicroSET made the decal stretch slightly. Becareful here too if you are using the decals - they also don't conform to the scribed lines exactly, they are a bit larger again. I don't know, but someone different must of been in charge of this kit - too many things just don't fit exactly as we have come to expect from Hasegawa - mind you, its still leaps and bounds ahead of the old ARII or IMAI kits.

Here's a close up shot - sorry I moved the camera at the last second so its a bit blurry, but you get the idea. USE LOTS OF WATER - get it exactly where you want it before using MicoSET, it really weakens these decals and there's alot of fiddling to do. Oh, one suggestion though, I didn't even bother with the grey decals for the forward section of the intakes. I actually didn't even know that the decals were provided, but since the part separated right on the colour change - it would be better to just paint this part. Now, in hindsight, its a really good idea since you have to paint the interior anyways, and to wrap the decal around the leading edge would be a nightmare

Well, here is a shot of just the larger yellow pieces I started out with. Yes, the yellow intake stripes are a pain in the @$$ and its a bit of a toss up to which way to go. I thought that if I totally screw up, then I would fall back and mask and paint the yellow markings on. So I tried it first. The problem is around the little extra side bulge area, there are some surfaces that bend in more than one direction, and you know what happens when you try to bend a piece of paper in two directions - you get bulges, thats what happens here. Also, the pieces are slightly long at both ends, so after you get them down, take a really sharp exacto to lightly trim along the edge at the ends. What I found helpful was that I would slice the pattern into two pieces once it was on the plane in roughly the right position, I separated it at the intake to the little side bulges. This allows the two pieces to be slightly repositioned with the two pieces to slightly over lap if necessary. The problem with painting it, alside from a masking nightmare (lots of little inside corners) is matching the yellow on such a dark blue base. I think that once you mask it, you need to prime it back to a neutral grey before mixing the proper yellow - plus the yellow of the decal changes as its being applied to the blue model - there also is a lot of red in this particular yellow. So masking and painting is difficult too, especially when you see the painted yellow so close to the decal yellow. Of course you could decide to mask all the yellow portions so the yellows all match Good luck!! Actually I would like to see someone attempt that!

Thanks all, I'm back to decalling today, didn't get to do much over the weekend - just painted the little yellow fin (then realized that there was already a decal made for it - arghh ). Becareful with the MicroSET - even too much of this affects these thin decals - and the air intake yellow patterns are a bit tricky - but I'll post pictures later today. Brewtal: I don't ever really need to mask the pilots, I just spray them a base colour - white for Valkyrie pilots and orange in this case, then I hand paint with a fine brush the raised details such as his harness, helmut, gloves ect... I then do a oil wash of dark grey to pick out the crevices and creases in his flightsuit. The wash has a way of "neaten" up your hand painted details, since it fills in the areas with a dark grey outline. I might neaten up further with a Gundam Marker to define the harnesses or details on the pilot. You're right, masking this tiny thing would be crazy Myersjessee: A tip for spraying masked areas, do a dryer spray, so the paint is almost dry on contact (not so diluted with thinner helps too) and build up in very light coats, especially around the masking edge. Lastly, always spray "away" from the edge of the masking tape, never into the edge of the tape - this will prevent seepage. And with all this advice, I still occasionally get overspray too <_< IIymij: Yes, the lines on this kit are indeed very fine, as with most Hasegawa kits. However, when you spray primer, I would actually suggest primer over grey paint, since true primer is very thin stuff. I used the pre-mixed for airbrush primer by Alclad - this stuff goes on smooth and thin and I concentrate on the problem areas. For the VF-1, I don't really prime since its white on white plastic. But this YF-21 is blue plastic, and I need a primer to see the effects of all the seam filled areas. I just tried to keep the coats thin and even - build up in layers.

Great question recon, I never really thought about it till now. Well, I do hold it in my hands for half of it. I usually hold it in my hands for the top half, because I can hold it at different angles to get the optimum spray angle to achieve a smooth coat and the top is more important than the bottom, since its the side you always see. You always have more control with your hands. Now, when its time to spray the underside, I usually jam a toothbrush handle up the intake or the tail pipe (which is still open since I haven't glued the engine afterburner cans in yet) and hold it by the toothbrush. With the YF-21, I jambed two up there and held it like chopsticks while I airbrushed the underside. I determined that the plane will rest on the forward conards (on the underside by the intakes) while the rear section is propped up by the toothbrushes, so I would airbrush the conards first, and it should dry by the time I finish with the rest of the plane - at least enough to me to set the model down to dry.

I am aware that rubbing alcohol works as well, but there were concerns that when thinning glossy Tamiya paints, the just alcohol method didn't produce the same glass like finish the Tamiya specific thinner would yield. Since one of these bottles last me for years, I wasn't so concerned about save a few dollars over the course of a few years if it might put any of my models in jeapardy - its just not worth it for the piece of mind. I've had experience in my youth with cheap alternatives, only to find out something yellowed over time or cracked or something like that years after the fact. For the amount of time and effort I put into these things - a few bucks is nothing next to my hourly rates I say cheap out on the cleaners or solvents and rags (the backstage stuff) but put the best quality up front on the model where it will be seen (IMHO). I mean, how much would it cost or would you save to make the little extra frustrations worth it?