Scale Aviation Modeller International – September 2019

did my best, and they certainly
gave a representative look of a
complicated modern aircraft
seatbelt arrangement. The
cockpit interior was initially
primed in black and layered in
grey colour over that. I ind this
helps to give a bit of depth and
shadow to the paintwork. No
need to weather this one too
much, NASA cockpits are quite
tidy. The kit is supplied with
raised details in the cockpit
that you can paint yourself,
but also a full set of cockpit
panel and instrument decals is
available. I applied the decals
over the raised details and used
Micro Sol to shrink the decals
onto the raised details. After all
the decals were added they were
coated with a light spray of
Matt from an artist brand spray
can. Some light weathering was
then applied around the cockpit
using some lat Aluminium dry
brushing, and some Tamiya
panel line washes, applied
delicately in places I wanted it.
The fuselage halves contain
only the landing gear wheel
wells and cockpit, so this
was a pretty quick afair. The
nose wheel housing required
a little sanding to allow the

fuselage halves to meet. The

cockpit I secured with Blue-Tac

instead of glue. This allowed

me to move it a bit if required.

I decided the fuselage halves

would secure it suiciently, and

the Blu-Tac would therefore

act as a bit of a counterweight

to avoid it ‘tail sitting’. As I

intended to build the model

with the canopies opened, the

cockpit area now needed to

be masked of, and this took

about an hour or so to do.

The it of the fuselage

halves was good, except

for underneath the cockpit

area. I was not able to close

this gap in a couple of spots.

So, while the rest of the

fuselage required just sanding

seams and polishing, this

area received a lot of illing,

sanding, polishing, and a

little rescribing. The engine

intakes also needed quite a bit

of smoothing and sanding,

but they look nice once done.

Following that I painted the

exhaust sections of the aircraft.

These were irst painted in

Tamiya Gloss Black, followed

by Vallejo Metal Colour Steel.

The nozzles had some extra

treatment with Vallejo Metal

Colour Burnt Iron, with a Black

and Brown Tamiya panel line

wash, plus a little blue and

light grey pastel highlights.

All the exhaust parts were

then sealed in with a light

coat of Tamiya Smoke.

PAINTING

Finally, it was time to begin

painting the livery. After a rub

down with Isopropyl Alcohol,

I began this task with a coat of

Tamiya Fine White Primer from

the spray can. This provided a

T-38C TALON (NASA)

MANUFACTURER: Tr umpeter

SCALE: 1/

KIT TYPE: Injection moulded plastic

KIT NUMBER: 02878

KIT DETAILS

SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER 2019

1/

19