Ha'la'tha Resistance Fighter build - 3

With the engine cluster ready, I moved on to nose and fuselage.  Like all aircraft, to build the fuselage,  you pretty much have to build, paint and finish the cockpit first.  Gave this stuff a lot of thought too, and I decided a couple of things off the bat.  First, I'd go mostly with the Spitfire's cockpit main assemblies for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is convenience and fit.  Again, it meshes with the aesthetic of 'resistance' equipment.  Yeah, I know, what kind of "resistance" can build its own jet fighters, but hey, it's Tauron, known technology innovation source of the colonies.    The second decision was to put a pilot in it.  Cool thing about pilots, they're pretty much the same in almost every genre and doing the painting/detail work on them is old hat now.  It also will cover up quite a bit of empty space in the cockpit and allow for the viewer's imagination to fill in the gaps I won't with greeblies.   Besides, I have a few resin cockpit guys around that I picked up for different reasons. 

With that done, the first thing that had to be done was remove the wing roots.  They sit very far forward on the Spitfire and the wing tops are integral to the fuselage halves.  So they had to be chopped away, which I did with the razor saw.  (I really love this tool)  While I was at it, I cut off the wing bottoms from the fuselage under-carriage piece as well.  I might as well use as many "shaping" parts as I can while I build the thing.  With them trimmed down, did a quick check on the fit with the engine housing.  Yes, this part was running concurrent with the engine housing build. 

Then it was on to working up the cockpit.  This was mostly an "assemble as instructions indicate" exercise, with the exception of some repair work and the pilot seat.  One of the visible struts for the cockpit assembly broke on the sprue and needed to be fixed.  And, I plan to use a "jet fighter" pilot with ejection seat, so the seat assembly isn't necessary. I also added a couple of panels to the upper sides and put on the cockpit decals from the F4 assembly.  They're not really super detailed, but they add some interest and the appearance of extra instrumentation.  

The colors are mostly shades of grey with various washes.  Again, most of it's not going to be very visible, so it's got a cursory job.  Once this raw stuff was done, I moved on to the pilot.  I have a Russian Su-22 pilot with ejector seat and it's got about the right look for what I was going after.  I had to give some thought to the flight suit and decided that, given Tauron's description, a scrub-like camo would work.  As it is, I'm giving serious thought to a yellow/tan camo pattern to the plane as well, but we'll see.  I played around with various colors and settled on the light tan/yellow mottling look I have here.  

I've done better, but again, most of him won't be seen.   Did some test fitting into the fuselage and found an issue.   

The ejector seat is too wide at the head level for him to sit high enough to actually *see* over the nose of the aircraft without displacing the canopy.  Hmm.  So, I cut down the seat, and trimmed off the extra bits from the side.  With that done, I was able to get his head at a level more along where the Spitfire pilot's head would be.  

Then to tackle the landing gear.  I originally  had thought to put the gear a bit further back on the nose, and use the undernose scoop on the spitfire as a gunbay or missile pod.  Unfortunately, that doesn't work.  That'd put the landing gear directly under the pilot's seat, and there's no room in the fuselage for the wheel well.   I suppose, in retrospect, I could have done more modifications to the floor of the cockpit to make room, but at the time, and even now, I think I am more content with plan "b."

For the wings, the rear landing gear will use the F-4 wheel wells.  They'll be just fine where they are.  I then cut out the wheel well from the nose of the Phantom's fuselage and cut it into the lower nose assembly for the Spitfire.  This does have the effect of taking away the space that is on that scoop, and I'll have to come up with *some* kind of reason for that feature, but that's future-me's problem.  As it is, this works fine and it drops in to the fuselage well.  I even pretty much like the lines of it.  

That takes the nose fuselage close to being done.  I still want to do something to the top and have to figure out what I am going to do with the nose and those exhaust cutouts on the side.  The Vipers have these open spaces for mechanicals, so I'm seriously tempted to just fill them with piping and greeblies.  That would take away some of the "jet" lines, but then it also gives a bit of the "resistance fighter" aesthetic.  Still playing with that thought in my head.  

Next up, mating the two and starting the general detailing work.  Oh, and filling. Lots and lots and lots of filling.