Italeri 1:72 JAS 39 Gripen SAAF Part 3

It has been over 6 months since I last posted.  Various reasons.  Not going to bore you.

Let’s continue where we left off.

The canopy had a bad centre seamline that had to be removed.

I started off with a medium grit sanding stick that has been used before and lightly sanded the canopy until the seamline was gone, taking care not to change the shape of the canopy.

I then used a fine grit sanding stick until it looked like this.

I then used a polishing stick and polished the canopy until it was clear.  You will hear a squeaking noise when the canopy is polished to a shine.

The canopies were masked with the old faithful Tamiya tape.  I stuck the Tamiya tape and then traced the outlines of the frame with a fine pencil.  Thereafter I cut the Tamiya tape with a new sharp blade being careful not to cut the canopy itself.

I think I mentioned before that this kit has some fit issues.  This could be clearly seen when the wings were added.  I stuck Tamiya tape on either side of the joints I had to fill.  I then used normal Tamiya filler (the grey one) to fill in the gaps.  Once the filler dried properly, I removed the Tamiya tape.  To remove the excess filler, I used nail polish remover that is ACETONE FREE with an ear bud.  I rubbed the filler gently until it started to give.  From there it is easy.  Be careful not to remove to much of the filler!

And this is the outcome:

In part 4 we start the painting process by pre-shading the model.

Thanks for looking.