Subject: Re: My first build submission
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Christopher Yee" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2011 12:57:25 -0700

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
ARC Air - Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.arcair.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Christopher Yee 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 1:30 AM
  Subject: My first build submission

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  Gallery Article Template

  "Hasegawa "Blue Angels" Eggplanes" 

  by "Christopher Yee"
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  Greetings all. I am an Aussie expat living and working in Singapore presently, whose favorite vice is our common ground, plastic aircraft modeling. It keeps me out of trouble and takes my mind off being home sick!

  A fan of ARC, I've finally mustered up the courage to post my first submission here amongst all the talent I've bared witness to. 

  I've recently become a fan of the Hasegawa Eggplane series, which i find is a welcome relief in between the usual heavy research, scratch building, construction, paint & decaling of a regular kit with the end goal of making it as true to life as possible and warrant it a bona fide piece of 3D miniature artwork. 

  Always in awe of the U.S. Navy's "Blue Angel" precision flying team, I wanted to pay kudos to them with a bit of a comical touch at the same time. Thankfully Hasegawa allows me to do just that. Note for those purists out there that I have intentionally left out the number '7' ship being the twin seater normally used for onboard filming and special guest flights. Maybe as an addition at a later date I may do some scratch building and create a twin seater Eggplane... let's see...

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  Construction:

  Obviously this is an OOB build as I purposely wanted to steer clear of any scratch building or super detailing to give myself a break as mentioned above. Only wanted to keep in mind of making it as "realistic as possible" (seems an irony as these are after-all comic and unrealistic in their appearance) so I removed all the sidewinder missiles from their wing mounted racks before I filled, sanded and primed the lil' critters... I also wanted to try and replicate the unique gold UV polarized pilot visors. Achieved this using Tamiya chrome silver paint marker under a gloss clear yellow X-24 finish. In hindsight I think maybe an X-31 Titanium Gold with a clear coat would have been a better choice, but OK the finish I used over accentuates the visors in a typical comical way that goes hand in hand with the subject media.

  One would think the repetitive nature of this build made for easy going, but I must admit that doing the same ol' thing 6 times became a little laborious and I had to keep focussed and not get too complacent otherwise a mistake on any ship would screw the whole display up, especially in the identical placement of the decals.  

  "Future" is a wonderful thing and a couple of coats of Future blessed the "Angels" with it's self leveling properties and gave a protective coat over the decals along with a beautiful clear sheen which the light catches nicely accentuating the Egg curves. 

  Using brass rod gave me the flexibility to work the display the way I wanted it to. Solo & opposing solo ships '5' & '6', can be rotated to change the display from two birds "breaking formation" to their famous solo crosses as you will see in one of my progress pics.

  The finishing touch is an authentic Blue Angels patch that I sourced from a local disposal store here which has a nice selection of squadron patches across the board.

  Hope you get a glimpse of the fun I had doing this build and enjoy the finished result. Till next time... Cheers!

  "Christopher Yee"

        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 07.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 07.jpg Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 08.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 08.jpg Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 09.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 09.jpg Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 10.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 10.jpg 

  Photos and text © by "Christopher Yee"