My West German Alpha Jets

They're finished! First off, this is what I was striving for; Norm 72:

This photo shows the centerline 27mm Mauser gun pod that German Alpha Jets almost always carried. The two outboard wing hard points were wet and so generally had drop tanks (the Alpha Jet had very short legs. A range of only about 380mi/610km loaded). The two inboard hard points were reserved for ordnance, generally SNEB rocket pods or CBU's of one variety or another. The total payload capability was 5500lb/2500kg. 

 

And here are mine. On the first one, I gave the upper surfaces a Gelboliv base coat and then painted the areas of Basalt Grey over the top of it:

(Sorry for my hand in there, but I needed a background to get the camera to focus for a closeup)

The flash makes the Basalt Grey appear much bluer than it really is. I think it turned out quite well. You can see the silvery grey canopy in the first photo. As an aside, I have to say that decals that small are a damned pain in the ass!

For the second one, I reversed the process just to see if there was any appreciable difference. I used Basalt Grey as the base coat and painted Gelboliv areas over it:

I really can't say that it looks any different to me. I didn't use the flash on this one either, so it doesn't look blue!

I thought that since I already have a metal wire sticking up from the base, why not use the excuse to add a tree to the stand. I painted the bottom bit of the wire as a tree trunk and glued a green foilage cluster around the wire:

Bingo! One tree! These are my first two Cold War fixed-wing aircraft. I think they came out quite well. Now two more German ones and two Belgians.

Ok, that's it for this time. More next weekend!