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Triak Starfighter Build, Part 2

As with any airplane model, you start with the insides. Here I used the wheel well turned upside down for the seat bucket. Then added details to the side walls as needed. In looking back at this build after I put the fuselage together, I completely forgot to include a block of aluminum tapped for the 1/4 20 screw mounts. I would up just super gluing a mount into a huge hole I drilled on the bottom. Completely crude, but it can be photo shopped out.

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I fixed the engine nacelles to the air intakes from the Tomcat model with simple wood screws inside. Then covered the screw heads with air intake pieces from the F-104 model. As with any scratch built model, I’m always taking greeblies and trying them in different ways until I find what looks right for each section of the model. At the time I started, I only had the purple nacelle cover so I made the other one as if the cover were removed. Then I found the red one in my parts box. Too late. I like the detail on display with the cover removed.

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Cockpit halves cemented together and then I start detailing the top of the nose and behind the pilot’s seat.

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I used yellow clear pieces here, but it will all get painted blue-gray when I’m done. Actually, these will probably be black.

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I need to cut out some sheet styrene for the back of the air intakes. I already decided to include a car radiator to cover the back of the fuselage. Why? Because what famous Star Wars ship didn’t have a radiator?

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I also used some engine parts from a large scale car model for the back end. 

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Nice shot of the radiator.

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Time to fill the major gaps with modelling putty. This was a big, multi-night task. Lots of sanding.

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I won’t know if the sanding job is good until I primer. But It should suffice for a beat up fighter plane.

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Back cover plates on and some other details added. I really like the shocks here. 

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For some reason, I’m putting lots of car parts on this fighter. It seems to work so far.

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Little by little, more greeblies find their way onto the model. This is actually one of my favorite parts of modeling. Detailing.

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More details added to the top and back of the fighter. I also added some strakes above and below where the engines are mounted. A few more details and then it will be time to do the panel scoring.

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