T-2C Buckeye - 'Bicentennial'

Remove serious ejector pins 

More of these... Doesn't have to be super smooth, as it will hide behind the side consoles (that need their room though) 

Detail of the PUR parts is nice 

Pre-fitting....looks good 

I won't have SpecialHobby surprise me again during the build no more....  

Test fitting as far as I can go 

Pre-painted PE for the cockpit 

Soooo many multipart control surfaces.... that need soooooo much cleaning up afterwards. Makes them a bit too crude as well. 

And this is the weird shit you gotta put up with from a SpecialHobby kit. :-/
Good thing I dry-fitted all the way to the windshield.... 

 

... turns out you gotta leave this slit in front of the cockpit tub for that strange vertical pane under the front of the windshield to slide into ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Current progress of the Buckeye...
It's slow... make sure it fits, glueing bit by bit, filling and sanding, drying, rinse and repeat 

All masked and gathered and prepared for primer 

Two updates in one: the Buckeye got its white coat and it's parked on the platform I'm working on 🙂 

All masked up 

Added some colour 🙂 

Still a lot of stencilling decals to go, and then all the finishing touches like the gear doors and the canopy, but it's getting there 🙂 

One of the most satisfying moments of a build, I think most modellers will agree.... 😉 

Of course this arse didn't think well enough about the right position of these aft hinges on the nose gear doors ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #correctio 

The finished bird 🙂 

The Buckeye with its successor -the T-45C Goshawk- in the background