Doak VZ-4

It's a new year and I'm on to a new aircraft (hopefully one of many). Anigrand has always been a reputable Co., IMHO, so I thought I start out with something relatively easy. So I'm starting out with their Doak VZ-4.

The Doak Model 16 was the world's first aircraft to demonstrate the tilting duct VTOL concept. In 1956, the concept led to U.S. Army interesting, and bought a prototype, desiganted VZ-4DA. The configuration was the tilting duct blower where located at each wing tip, pointing vertical for take off & landing, and rotated to the horizontal for forward flight. Engine exhaust was deflected at the fuselage rear for pitch control. To limit the development costs, it used many old parts, such as the landing gear from the Cessna 182, seats from the F-51, duct actuators from T-33 electric flap motors, and the rudder mechanism from other Doak aircraft. The first flight was performed in 1958. After a year of tests, US Army accepted the VZ-4 and passed it to NASA for further tests. In 1961, Doak ended his business and sold all the patent rights and engineering files to Douglas Aircraft. Although Douglas had ideas to improve the VZ-4, but without proposed well to the Army. VZ-4 remained in NASA until 1972. Then it was transferred to the US Army Transportation Command Museum.

On to the model -> 

Parts for the Doak VZ - from Anigrand.

After opening the box and looking at the parts, the only think that seems to be missing is the control stick. No big deal as that can easily be made up form scratch. The cockpit only has the seat, the control stick and the instrument panel. After the parts were washed, I gave the parts a shot of primer. There was no paint call out for the interior of the plane, so I just gave it a coat of zinc chromate green. A typical interior color back then. After that I then joined thw two halves of the fuselage together. In retrospect I should have jioned the two small wings at this point so I could pin the wing to the fuselage half. I didn't do that. So now I will have to think of another way to attach the wings. 
But since I did attach the fuselage halves together there was a bit of a gap. Even with sanding the edges to get them flat, there were gaps.

As a bit of a sidebar since all my models are either in 1/144 or 1/72, I've been watching quite a few of the painting tutorials dealing with miniatures (since a pilot in a 1/72 craft is definitel miniature). :)  These painters are definitely top notch dealing with small details, light source, etc.  Also with all the robots they do it can transfer over to the instrumentation of the aircraft.

While looking at these miniature tutorials I kept seeing this product call Liquid Green Stuff. Green Stuff is like a two part epoxy type material. You mix even parts yellow and blue material, and when it's completely green (hence the name) it's ready to use. The Liquid Green stuff is already premixed to a tooth paste like consistency. My only problem with it is the manufacturer. It's made my Games Workshop (GW). They seem to keep a strangle hold on their products. You can only buy them from a GW store or the GW website. I ordered it from their website and also picked up a few washes as well. When it arrived it seemed too dry, according to tutorials. A few drops of water and some mixing got it to the toothpaste texture. I was warned in a video that it shrinks a little - and it did. So after two layers dried, it sanded super smooth. Now I'm ready to move to the next step.
More later.