Whats Lying on your Workbench MK IV

[wm cheng]

Well, I had a little time so I thought I'd get back to basics to enjoy the hobby again and build one straight out of the box!  I love the shape of the J-20S but there weren't much choice in 1/72, knowing it was not a great kit, I thought I'd close it would be a perfect candidate for the OOB.  Unfortunately, the anal side of me saw all the injector pin marks all over the place, I'd either sand (which I hate) or cover them up (the lazy choice!).  There's so little photographic reference for this bird out there that I felt I was freed to make up some "business" in the opened internal bays. 

There was no internal support and the fuselages flattened out into a pancake, so I had to add some internal support to get the cross section up to snuff - so much for the straight forward build!

The engine nozzles were pretty bare, luckily I had some leftover (FineMolds F-4J) burner cans that fit pretty well inside for a little more detailing.

The landing gears were such a poor/simplified representation that I ended up getting carried away with detailing them up and decided to learn how to add some small lead wires.

There wasn't any fan face in the intakes, so I took the lazy way and had it disappear into darkness - so hard to see that far back anyways

Finally able to start to close her up.  There's going to be a lot of filling and sanding on this one unfortunately before I can get to the more fun painting stages.

 

Edited 5 hours ago by wm cheng

[505thAirborne]

I kind of like the J-20 design, big, chunky with that borrowed F-22 design. Does the kit come with a pilot?

Honestly, I always think of the VF-31A Valkyrie when I see this fighter jet. 

[derex3592]

@wm cheng - "I'm going to go back to basics and build something easy and straight out of the box!" .......

Also @wm cheng ..... See above pics... 😂 😂😂

 

Looks awesome man!  Can't wait to see more! 

[wm cheng]

Unfortunately, the DreamModel 1/72 J-20S (only dual seat model so far - and anything but a dream!) doesn't come with any pilots @505thAirborne.  Luckily, I have a pair of excellent pilots from my FineMolds F-4J that I didn't use because I wanted to show off the cockpit - I don't think I'm going to sweat the wrong survival gear or helmet in 1/72 scale (at least that's what I will tell myself to let me sleep.😛  Had to shave down their butts and back to get them to fit though.

Strangely, it comes with a nice set of 3D printed seats though as the box is filled with trees for the single seater (and only includes one seat in styrene) and only the top fuselage was different to accommodate the longer tandem canopy.  The grey helmets convey the PAAF more than the actual gear on them.

The plastic really sucks, its soft and brittle at the same time!  The tiny pegs for the canards broke just test fitting them into holes way too small for them, but the way they need to be installed prior to closing the fuselage up means I had to cut them anyways to change the build order so I can sand and paint.  The entire thing is not engineered to ease painting in logical steps.

I liked that the dual tandem seating of the 2-seater fills out the forward fuselage aesthetically over the single seater J-20.

Hey @derex3592, it WAS my original intention for a fast, quick build; "no good intention goes unpunished..." BUT, the ANAL me won out again.... 😛  If I had closed her all up to put in flight mode like I had intended when I bought the kit, I could have succeeded.  Unfortunately, when I was researching for images online, I came across this one and it really sold me on trying to get it all splayed out like this (reminded me a bit of Yukikaze)