1. The flag has to fly over the tail and must match both sides
2. The Zeus statue must be mirror imaged while the words are not
3. The lightning flashes must be painted in interim and starting at the same spot on both sides
4. The small lightning bolts and the starts that needed replication are not on the same spot
The dorsal fin was first sprayed blue on the edge as it si the base for the white stripes.
The tail lines have to match the body lines for the flag of Greece
The orange lightning bolt was added with white, followed by yellow and then by orange.
The the Zeus outer glow was marked out with the airbrush. At this stage nobody told me that the blue patch is only good for one flight as the pictures I received were all with the blue patch.
Then the tail stripes are matched onto the models. I ensured that the tail fin, although, will not be glued but will stay as a tight fit.
The white and blue went back and forth until I am happy that the folds and lightning bolts are lined up properly.
The greys were marked out and the first lightning too. Care is taken to replicate it to scale and stay within the boundaries of the lightning bolts/ As you can see by now that I have masked and sprayed on the Zeus name on both sides.
I applied the highlights of the figures. I decided to do this as the plane is much darker than the actual plane and is subjected to scrutiny. So I took care as not to overdo it.
Comparing to the original to make sure that I have almost everything as close as possible.
The whole right hand side is completed. Now I have to repeat it on the left hand side.
When the left is finally also completed, I had to add in the stars and blue patch.
Then I started to paint in the star of Verginia.
Then the tail fin is glossed over and prepared for sanding. HAF also notified me that the frontal blue patch is only for the first flight and it was subsequently removed. So I had to remask and respary the area with the lightning bold that is orange and redo the Zeus letter Z.
The completed tail was placed in the hot 34 deg Celsius sun for 2 hours to cure the Gunze Clear UV Cut gloss lacquer.
Testing the paint without flash photography
Testing the paint with flash photography. Quite happy with the reflectivity of the paint.
I went on to do up the tail fins, the undercarriage, the pilot and the canopy. Thereafter completed the project and readied it for Moson Model Show, which I was very badly punished by the Czech and Italian racist judges that gave me and Jerry Huang a Highly Commended, and US Master Modeller Desmond Lee who was Moson's guest demonstrator nothing just to make sure that Asians do not win any medals at the show.
The Zeus finally was welcomed back home at the 36th Athens Hellas IPMS. It landed with good acceptance and was placed 1st in the Jet Category, Gold in the Masters Category and Best Hellenic Theme Aircraft category.
In gratitude to the high support of Zeus by the Hellenic Air Force and Greek modellers, I had a small discussion with my wife and decided to donate the model to be a permanent display at the Hellenic Air Force Academy Headquarters in Athens. As the real aircraft has walked into history after being painted back in camouflage and returned to service, I hope the display of the model at the Academy HQ will bring back fond memories for most cadets and officers of the Academy.
I also met up with the designer of the Zeus III who has signed a nice autograph on the Military Tattoo Poster of the Zeus III Demo and calling me FRIEND.
And Dimitris Santapoulous gave me the Demo Patch and two mugs as a souvenir as a respect of our gift to Greece and acknowledgement of his work.
Proud moment for me with the designer of the actual aircraft and owner of Miliprint who made these beautiful Tee Shirts of the beautiful plane. I had bought 3 pieces to support him. One for me, one for a good friend in Singapore, Larry and one for the Taiwanese hero who created the Asia's largest model competition and winner of 2016 Best of Show at Moson, Fan Cheng Bin.
Proud moment for me to with one of the 2 Brigadier General Dimitrios Koutsourakis of the Hellenic Air Force and I made good my promise to donate the Zeus III who was in the running for the Best of Show at Athens to the Hellenic Air Force Academy Headquarters in Athens.
At the Best Of Show competition table with IPMS Hellas President, retired Hellenic Air Force, Stavros Soulis. Here we see the Zeus with 3 awards to its name. A very happy moment for me to have come up on top of almost 600 aircraft model entries of which many are world class. It was a duel to the finish and I am glad to have so many who loved it and I dared not garner all glory for myself. I felt that the Zeus III is a part of the history of the Greek people and it belonged there where thousands will see it in the years ahead rather than to sit in my model display at home.
My wife, celebrating our 25 years of marriage with the prizes from the generous people of Greece!