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I am attempting to redefine or re-scribe the panel lines which run through the seams. When you use Mr. Surfacer and sand off - I occassionally sand too much off including the fine lines

Yes, Mr. Surfacer is like a very thin puttly or filler. It has the consistency of really thick paint - I would guess its really fine particles of filler suspended in some solution. Its great for filling in really tiny hairline seams. I have two types (I think there are more grades out there) there is a 500 for the coarse (gap filling) stuff and a much finer 1000 for the hairline cracks ad seams. I brush it on with a thin paint brush which is then cleaned with Mr. Color thinner. For small jobs, it better than putty since you can control exactly where it goes, and can run into the really fine seams.

Here are the arm halves glued together - the grey is Mr. Surfacer 500 again - well will see weither this will be enough to smooth over both sides, becareful to try to align them so the hieghts match - this will save lots of sanding later on to even both halves out. Notice that there are a few areas where I have run the Mr. Surfacer across the direction of the seam - I've noticed a few slight sink depressions in those area and should be filled in. You really only have to concentrate on this lower surface, the other side will be mostly obsured by the top of the fuselage (lazy tip #2 ) Well, thats it for tonight, I"ll let everything dry overnight. A lot of sanding awaits me for the next few steps - the most boring and tedious part for me But it has to be done - if you skimp on this stage - you'll pay for it when you start painting - believe you me, I have had many dissapointments when I try to take short cuts during the sanding stage.

Onto the next steps, I've decided to fill in these injector pin depressions now, since it would be difficult to sand them later when the halves are glued together.

Ah! look, when you glue those little cranked arrow bits or mini-forward canards (correct my nomenclature if you will David) they hide even more (if any sins) of those dreaded intake connections.

Here you can see the rounded over edges and the bit of baffling I added in the opening with the wing fully swept back.

Since therew is so much gap when the wings are fully swept back - you really can see right into the cavity of the fuselage. Again, I broke out my ribbed styrene sheet and cut little "fences" and glued then in place - being careful not to obstruct the swing extent and gear mechanism of the wings. Ah, the ribbed sheet make it look like some kind of retracting baffle system. (Hey David, what's on the real F-14 or F-111 - is there anything that seals up this opening when the wings extend fully?)

Come ON ( don't fear monger)!! that was the worst side, this side is even better. This is nothing , you should build some old Revel or AMT/ERTL kits, they've got seams that you could launch missles through! This kit really is up to Hasegawa standards so far, this portion is the worst fit of the kit thus far, but I haven't even had to break out the putty yet, all I've been using is Mr. Surfacer 500 so far. Mind you, on the bigger seams I've put a few coats on (after each coat dries).

Here's that "dreaded" intake area on the chest plate. Hmm... not so bad (I think Valkyrie's exaggerating just a bit ) don't be scared off, it not really that bad. I didn't build any of it up or perform any type of modification, I just dabbed a few coats of Mr. Surfacer 500 at the two ends - I could of used a bit of putty, but the areas are so small that needs filling.

Of course I had to re-scribe the panel line details that were lost when I rounded over the edges (I used the Hasegawa Tri-tool microsaws for this job - they are tiny photo-etched saws - you can buy them from HLJ) They are invaluable in recovering lost panel lines especially around seams and filled joints.

Here's the after shot, after I sanded down the edges and smoothed out the contours (sorry for the fuzzy photo - the camera had a hard time focusing so close)

I've decided to sand these areas down, to give an airfoil profile to them so that they would appear thinner in the end. (Here is the before shot)

When its fully swept forward - you hardly see anything at all.

Here's the forward section in the worst case with the wings fully swept back - you can see the little styrene card and the Mr. Surfacer around the edges that is now sanded smooth.

This area always bugged me - those really "thick" squared off edges don't look very realistic or "aircraft-like". Plus this gap seems rather large considering that the wings are fully swept back.

Another test fit with the wings in place, you can see how little sanding and filling was really required, there isn't a lot that is exposed (and this is the worst case when the wings are fully swept forward)

I've sanded down the areas I filled in with the styrene sheets and the little injection pin depressions. All I have used so far is Mr. Surfacer 500, there was nothing significant yet that required putty.

Hi all, got another 2-3 hours in tonight - yipee! I ran out of my old Microscale liquid masking film, so I am tring this new stuff from Japan (if its Japanese it must be better? ) made by the same Mr. Surfacer people. Its a bit thick - anyone know of a thinner for this stuff?

Hey thanks Gerwalker for the tip - I didn't know the paint marker was corrosive to plastic, I will have to watch out for that (you see, you learn something everyday) Thanks, I would like to learn tips from all of you (feel free to interrupt the thread - it shouldn't be me preaching - its a conversation, I'd like to get something out of it too ) I am hoping to get in a day (or maybe a day and a half) this weekend (at work now )

Odd, that the intakes on the chest plates are a different piece. e very careful to align them properly when you are glue these parts, they need to line up from the outside, if you let them seat tightly from underneath, the are a tad too high from the outside. This is a poor fit area for Hasegawa - I'm a bit surprised. Everything is drying for now.

Here's a clearer shot with the Mr. Surfacer500 on.

I've cut some stryrene triangles and fitted them in as well as the little portion just ahead of the pins that pivot the swing gears (they can be seen just a little bit with the wings fully swept. I'd thought that with these little pieces of plastic in place, I'd only have to fill in the cracks around them and sand them smoother (the laziness in me talking )

I've temporarily pieced together the wing and swing mechanism to see what portion of the interior slots are exposed when the wing goes through its sweep. As you can see its not a lot. Valkyrie was right, this time Hasegawa did not provide the plastic inserts to fill in that negative space so we would have to make one up. But as you can see from the pencil lines, its not a big area to cover. I'd also fill in those two injector pin depressions - yu can see a dab of Mr. Surfacer in each.

I'd thought I would skip ahead a few steps to fit everything together to see just what injector pin holes or crevasses need to be filled and in what order. I don't get why Hasegawa chose to make the wing in these pieces - I'd just like the old method where they were in two halves, nice easy edge seam that can be sanded away. Now with these panels - its just more work. I noticed that this wing root panel is a bit thick, I would sand down the thickness of it a bit to lay flat/ in plane with the surrounding surface.

Cockpit bye, bye (for the time being...)