Kinetic 1/48 Super Etendard COMPLETE

[mnrun]

After finishing up the F-100C last week, I took a few days off, then got started with Kinetic's SuperE. I bought some Eduard photoetch to gussy it up a little bit, as well. So here's what the weekend yielded:

Got the cockpit mostly done, which I'm also mostly happy with. I still have to build the HUD, but that's going to have to wait as it's fairly fragile PE. There's a little PE handle that floats about the throttle quadrant (glued to a sidewall) that makes it look like there's a handle for the throttle...it looks better than it sounds

It's mostly flat black, with some dry brushing and a wash. I've got some color PE seatbelts, but as usual, they're not great. So I need to figure out what I'm going to do about those.







The nose gear well. Thanks for the ejector pin marks, Kinetic!



Doing some test fitting and getting PE bent properly.








The main gear well, with the paneling replaced with PE. Looks pretty good, I think.



I had a bit of a screwup getting the main gear well test fit into the fuselage. When I first tried it, it seemed like there was no way it was going to fit...As in, not even close. So out came the Dremel to do a little surgery...but then when I was test fitting the intake trunking I found out that the (very) tight fit helps to deform the fuselage halves enough to get the gear well into place, more or less perfectly. At least, it would be perfect if I hadn't already removed ~1/8" of material to make it fit in the unstressed state. Oops!

No pics of that, because I was aggravated.

[TRM]

Love the looks of that office...well done so far! As it the PE work in the well...keep up the great work!

[Leon]

The office is looking good!

[nicely11b]

Like these other guys said, I really like the look of that cockpit. Wheel wells look to be coming along nicely as well.

[mnrun]

Thanks folks! I haven't had a chance to get any work done on it in the meantime; hopefully this weekend.

[wbill76]

Sometimes the kit designers are too clever and we find a 'problem' before we find the 'fix'! Sounds like you've got it under control either way, looking good.

[shawngehling]

WOW, That's a kit within itself...
Nice job.

[thug626]

Now that's the way to beat EP marks in to submission. That nose well is going to look slick when it's done!

[mnrun]

Well it's been a while since I updated this, mostly because I haven't had a ton of time to work in the last couple of weeks. But I figured I'll give an update on what's been going on with the SuperE.

I got the fuselage closed up, which involved a fair amount of swearing, but it all went together OK in the end. The filling and sanding you see below is in a more advanced state now and is mostly done. I did drill out the holes in the airbrakes; the kit parts were OK but were missing that detail. Eduard's PE set had some beauties to build up for these, but since I've never seen a pic of a SuE parked on the tarmac with the airbrakes extended, it would have been way too much work.


The wings are pretty much finshed; here I've got a PE spoiler in place for some test fitting and I was worried about the leading edge seam, hence the primer.


I'm planning on building it with the wingtips folded up. The kit parts just had barren plastic on the exposed surfaces; luckily Eduard's PE set saved the day.




The main gear. Ugh; those PE wiring looms. Well, brake lines, I guess, not wiring. Still.


Nose gear. It looked pretty good out of the box, but the PE helps.


OK Kinetic, you can admit it. You phoned it in here.


OK here's what I don't understand, in the age of CAD: the HUD and front canopy, as designed out of the box, occupy the same space. If it were the Kinetic canopy and, I don't know, an Aires HUD replacement, I could understand. But this is just stock parts. How do you not catch things like this, Kinetic? Anyway, chiseled away about 3/32" to make it all fit. No big deal.


Also the front canopy and the fuselage don't exactly mate well. Sigh. First world problems, I guess.

Getting pretty close to having this guy ready to paint, which I'm looking forward to.

[Leon]

Nice progress and PE work!

[thug626]

Though while not a "shake-n-bake" build you certainly seem to be taming the styrene beast. Keep up the solid work.

[mnrun]

I got quite a bit done yesterday but only took a couple of pics:

Started painting the landing gear...here's the first coat of aluminum on the gear and gear doors. Exciting!


The fit of the front windscreen to the fuselage is really bad.


I've decided to go closed canopy, and since I never found a good replacement for the color PE seatbelts, on they went. After a wash and a matte varnish, they look OK. I'll get a pic of the seat later. Other than that, this thing's pretty close to getting paint. Just need to polish down some seams, etc, and it'll be off to priming!

[wbill76]

Looks like you're whipping this one into shape slowly but surely, bring on the paint!

[mnrun]

Small update...
As I mentioned, I ended up going with the color PE seatbelts. I think they look pretty good, all things considered. They'll always look a little stiff, but it's better than nothing.



Here's a shot of it all dressed up in black! Going out of town in a couple of days; we'll see what I can get accomplished before then.

[mnrun]

The last week hasn't seen a ton of progress since I've been out of town, but in the last couple of days I've managed to get most of the painting done. Now I'm getting the gloss coat down in preparation for the decals:




Tonight I'll finish up the gloss and let it cure overnight...then tomorrow I'll venture back into decal hell.

[Leon]

Paint is looking good!

[nicely11b]

Paint looks like it's going down well. You'll have this one wrapped up before too long.

[thug626]

White plastic to make the windshield to fuselage join work? That must have been horrid looking before you tamed it. Well played.
The colors you have laid down look great!

[mnrun]

Finally finished her up; on to the next thing:

[Leon]

Great finish!

[jpc1968]

Great job

[thug626]

Beautiful finish my good man

[wing_nut]

Holy craplakistan that's just pretty

[mnrun]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

[S e r z h]

Very good model! I enjoyed and building and painting!

[deafpanzer]

STUNNING!!!

[mnrun]

Thanks folks!

[dupes]

Not fair, man - you can't go from "WIP" to "awesomely weathered" without a description anywhere in between!!