FA-37 Talon From the movie 'Stealth' 1/24th Scale


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Costing me a fortune in grit paper but who cares...


Mmmmmmmmmm...Smooth!
The coat of epoxy well and truly cured, it did show up a slight out of whack symmetry betwixt left and right or port and starboard if you wanna nitpick...
Simply put, the curve on the nose, top of the cockpit and rear hump down to the edge was about a millimeter uneven.
The port was not quite wide enough from the center line out but since it's easier to add material rather than take away, a fair dab of auto putty (two part quick cure polyester type) and a brisk rub down cured that.
An allover rub down...
the model....
not me...
and time or a second coat of resin.







Just one thing to mention first. A change to the fitting for the top and bottom fuselage ont the nose end.
Decided that it was a bit too thin to deal with so that got sliced off and a lap join installed so the underside now looks a bit like this...

Right, that done and over with, on with the show

Ok, once cured and another attack with the emery cloth, fine grade wet and dry, a good going over with filler primer (left to harden overnight) and we be almost about ready to start getting some kind of surface detail on this beggar!
First though, some points to consider. Though it may appear so, this beastie is far from smooth.
Panel lines yeah but more than a few lapped panels as well that mean you have steps as well as the lines.
Take the pic below and look at the nose to canopy area...

See what i mean?
So, a straight forward scribe, rub and done is not going to cut it here...at least not as far as i'm concerned.

But we have to start somewhere so...
Canopy Calamities Of A Sort.
Right, the canopy frame is the first bit i will deal with and there's a lot of pics as this general technique for want of a better word, will form the basis of some of the panel work as well.

It's sort of a modified 'how i got the step join between the top and bottom parts' gig but anyways, here we go.

First, a bit more cutting in and shaping for the intake sorta thing that sits to the rear of the canopy and a quick burst of primer.
Then it's out with the dividers, ruler, plans and pencil to mark in the outline of the canopy where it meets the glass.



Along that line, a strip of 1mm masking tape was laid.

Then taking up some 4mm masking tape and laid on, covering half the width of the 1mm tape and continuing round untill the tape is four layers thick.



Simple enough deal and now, slap on the putty. The two part auto repair easy sand filler type.

Set the timer for 20 mins, go have a cuppa, come back with emery cloth at the ready and end up with...

A slightly aching pair of arms and most of the filler smoothed down untill you can start to see the tape.
A licking over with some fine grade putty just to sort any pits and defects, allow to cure then fine grade wet and dry time.
Working slowly untill you can tell the wet and dry is scuffing the tape.



So finally, find the end and remove the tape nice and careful.



Ok, nice enough. Last job, get the fine tweezers and fine the end of the 1mm tape and carfully peel away since half of it is buried in the putty and you don't wanna break any putty off.
So now the reason for the 1mm tape is it makes a nice and sharp line cut-in in the canopy edge, it will help later when fitting the clear canopy i assure you

So then, a wee wipe down to remove the dust and some ordinary primer liberally applied.





Sharp and clean, so leaving the primer to fully cure and we'll be into the real fun part.
But that's for the next update so untill that time, go easy troops and troopettes!!

HOLD UP!
Just before ya go...
Just incase anyone wants some referance and can't be bothered to run through thier DVD copy of the film, you'll find a 11Meg zip file with 337 screen caps i took, by clicking here.
I was going to remove it but what the hell, it can stay for the duration of this WIP tale.


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