Forgeworld Fighta-Bomma 1.0

- UPDATED 24 JUNE 2004 - I managed to acquire a cheap FW fighta-bomma from eBay ($55!) and so while I was already in process of making one from scratch, I decided to start making a proper orky airforce.

I've had it sitting around for a month or two, and now that the weather is nice, I decided to start cutting outside.

If you have time, check out the rest of the site too - including the ork army list, and the other conversions.

so 'ere we go!

	Here are all the bitz, in three zip-lock bags.
	The Forge World stuff, like most resins, needs a lot of work before assembly. The casting assembly leaves these tabs on a number of pieces, they will have to be cut off before we can proceed. Note again, that with this modeling medium, YOU MUST WORK WITH IT IN A WELL VENTALATED AREA, AND WEAR A MASK WHEN CUTTING OR SANDING. No joke here folks.
	More tabs!
	The end (post-dremel) product.
	And a dry fit. Looks good from this side - but the top has a ton of gaps.
	The front of the fuselage and the nose. Those tabs gotta go!
	And post-dremel.
	A dry fit. Not too shabby, but still gaps to fill.
	The tail section. More flashing and molding tabs to remove.
	post-dremel
	The top of the airframe has this odd piece, not only did I have to remove the tab on the back, but trim out the inside (not shown) channel in which it "locks" in place.
	I got the wings and tail riser mounted.
	And here's a good shot of the gaps on the top half. The bottom is perfectly flush - so go figure! I should have probably left the top piece off (notice how that is off center by about 2 mm), and I may remove the wings and try sanding down the bottom in order for the wings to fit a little tighter. Might be too late for that though!
	The wings wern't budging, and thanks in part to a good suggestion, I added a piece of .30 plasticard aross the entire surface area.This not only cover the gaps,
	But also made the top piece fit better. Not sure if I will rivit it on with surface rivits, or drill out rivit holes to match.
	Both top plates are now in place. As an example of how odd the spacing was, the plate on the right is .30 plasticard, the left .10! I also added some safety tread to the top of each.
	The next big challange was the top ridge - it was waaaay off center. I filed down the over side (bottom), but the under side was a problem.
	A piece of  .30 plasticard was added for filler, and sanded down to what I hope will be "flush". Green putty was applied to the remaining gaps, the excess you see will sand off.
	On the front, a little green puty filled in the small gaps on the nose cone.
	The other side.
	I installed the guages before I stuck in the nose, note that they are very poorly cast, but who's really going to see them?
	The front windscreen was sanded down and fitted to the main body.
	But in order for the rear one to fit, I needed to add two more 030 plasticard shims.
	And another one on the rear canopy as well.
	I had forgotten to drill a mounting hole for the stand, so went back and corrected that.
	Here's the bottom side pre-primer. Note the addition of the rokkit mounts and vectored engines.
	And the top view
	Stealing an idea from Nosher, instead of adding more plasticard, I simply drilled out the rivit holes on the molded on "high plates". These will make good repair plates in and of themselves.
	Here's the same plate, but with grandt line rivits in place. I purposely left a couple "loose"
	The pilot/seat combo was the first to get primed.
	And one of the first parts to get painted.
	Not a lot of him is visable, In fact his entire lower half is covered by the model.
	Primer on the airframe.
	I started off by painting the inside of the cockpit with codex gray.
	and than the bottom with fortress gray.
	Note the underside of the tail got the same fortress gray basecoat.
	A 50/50 black ink and water wash was next.
	And than a pretty heavy drybrush of bleached bone.
	The end result, without weathering.
	I extended bleached bone dags along the wing and tail surfaces.
	And than added regal, and storm blue patterns.
	Finally, ultramarine blue was used to fill in the majority of the surface area.
	Top view
	Bottom view. Note the ultramarine blue wraps around the engine supports.
	I'm NOT overly happy with the amount of visable paint strokes on the model. I need it soon, so I am going to soldier on with it, and see what it looks like weathered up. But this one might end up back in the paint shop at some time.
	I may even have to throw away my paints!
	And here it is in daylight. Except for the stand, I'm finished.