global defender- independence day resurgence

[maverick626]

So i tried to find any model kit from the hybrid fighter from the movie , and had no luck ( not even to get the toy version , anyone knows where to purchase any one of those? or the alien rifle) so i tried to scratchbuild it , collected a few reference pictures from internet and began to do some eyeballed measures to get a 1/144 pattern , to cut out in syntra , as the base shape for the fight



i tried a different brand of modelling epoxy putty , that helped some gap filling , but i also tried to use some polyester resin with aerosil to achieve a gel-like texture to help the gap filling part of the build and reduce the sanding..


I Managed to get me the blue ray and got some extra reference pictures and realized that i did wrong the alien engines , so i glued a piece of extra syntra to correct the shape and sand it down, also extended the neck and angled down the cockpit

 

[maverick626]

Used the new putty to fill the neck elongation, and smothen the transition for the engine humps in the rear , sanded the jelly resin that was filling gaps , rinse and repeat , then i added the cockpit and mocked up a control panel to and began working on the canopy frame , did some tiny origami with some evergreen styrene sheets to get that mockup and try to eyeball the proper shape for the neck hump in the final model

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at the moment i´m happy with the air intakes , i focus on filling gaps and try my best attempt at neuro-surgery level to cut away the frame and tiny windows for the canopy , as i have little to no idea on how to do a good translucent cast with resin to use as glass in a cockpit, when i have what i consider a decent shape i just covered with masking latex the transparent pieces of , rather squared , canopy and begin basecoating and painting the fighter , some chrome and translucent green for the engines and gray for the hull

 

[maverick626]

In my bits and pieces bin i located a large canopy that had a decent angle so i just scrapped the messerschmit wannabe canopy of my model , and added the proper looking transparent bubble , with some putty to mold the frame structure , used some U canals to add some detailing along the airframe like those antennaes that you can see in some pictures , and mocked up some cannons out of sectioned U canals and the front piece of some shuriken rifle from wh40k eldar miniatures , sanded into a square shape

I scribbed some of the panel lines that i could identify from the reference pictures , but for the wings i freestyled the flaps and gave up on the wing roots as most of the shots obscured that section or werent clear enough to distinguish the panels in a sea of gray , i painted some panel lines with panel linning paint , but i got some weird capilar effect that i´ve never before had , so the paint kinda spread around , note to self: never again use old ass enamel humbrols even if it looks like its the best looking color....
So in the end and given that it lacks enough details to be realistical looking i tried to add accents to some shapes , as with some wh40k models and tried to hide some crimes ,



So , how can i improve my skills guys?

p.s. i don know how to delete the attached pictures so if any mod can help to get rid of those...