chuck540z3

Those prices are smoking good, even if you just kept the needles! As much as I have used and bragged about my Iwata CM-C+ over the past few years with it's tiny 0.18mm needle, my "go-to" airbrush these days is back to my older HP-CH workhorse with the regular 0.3 mm needle, now that I use MRP paints whenever I can. The MRP paints spray very well without thinning, assuming the orifice is big enough, but the CM-C+ struggles and often sputters with this paint after a few minutes. Right now this thin needle airbrush is restricted to Alclad or other extra-thinned paint where it excels, while the rest of my painting goes through the HP-CH. One other observation. Both of these airbrushes have a screw at the bottom to further fine-tune the pressure and paint flow. I never use it, so I recommend buying the cheaper version without them, since I don't find them helpful. Cheers, Chuck

No paint cup on those airbrushes Duane? Cheers, Chuck

Thanks Duane. I really appreciate your "heads Up" tips as we build this very cool kit at the same time- in very different directions! As far as the Kopecky LAU-129 launchers are concerned under the wing, I don't seem to have any real gaps with the pylons, probably because I cut the notch based upon what the pylon required rather than what the Kopecky resin indicated. They fit really well right now and under the wing behind the wingtip launchers, any gap from the side cannot be seen. No real update, other than I have applied a nice thin coat of Mr. Surfacer 1200 on everything to check for flaws (a few big ones) and mostly to get rid of that snow white plastic! Maybe I can photograph this build properly from now on with some level of color and contrast balance. Cheers, Chuck

7 and proud of it! All I really knew is that the leader was Guy Gibson. Cheers, Chuck

Thanks Niels and Guy! Niels, The Modern Viper Guide book that I have shows this light on page 21, not 107, which is GBU-24 bombs instead, so maybe there are two editions? The caption on that page says that the position lights have "recently been modified to be compatible with NVG (Night Vision Goggles)", so I'm guessing that some Vipers just have a round light instead? In any case, the light on page 21 isn't just the light blanked off at the front. The red lens is offset to the back of the housing so that 80% of the red color is still visible, with the rest blanked off like Guy's pic with dark grey. This blanked off area has the tiny InfraRed light at the front. Having said all that, the best solution that I see is to add a small half-moon dark decal to this area after painting, to get the "look" without worrying too much about how much of the lens still shows since it's in the middle. Same thing for the other InfraRed lights like the ones at the rear of the vertical stabilizer. A small cockpit decal that shows 4 tiny dots within the oval housing should do the trick. The 2 small IR lights at the rear of the intake navigation lights are already there in the plastic, so I'll just darken them with a wash. I'd love to just take a pic of the book and post it here, but that would be crossing a big copyright line with our friend Jake. Cheers, Chuck

April 11/24 Here is the problem that Niels has pointed out. Also, after looking at many pics I have of F-16’s, I couldn’t find one with these panels on any of them either. Although the lens is a bit too deep, the real fit culprit is the diameter, so I carefully sanded down the outside edge to get it to fit into the hole without removing the fastener detail, but also the depth quite a bit. These are position lights that are clearly red in Jake’s book (P 21), but the red color is almost at the surface. By making the lens thin and painting it red from behind, the red is shallow like it should be. There is also a tiny InfraRed Emitter light at the front of the light (left), which I will likely add later as a decal. Once the lights are cemented in and painted, you will only see red from the area covered with liquid mask on the right. Since I was on to lights, I decided to attack the little navigation lights on the wingtips as well, which are part of the launchers with rods holding them in place. As Pete mentioned earlier, the lenses are not tinted red and blue/green like those on the intake, but have a small bulb in each with those colors instead. To accomplish this, I usually just drill a small hole from behind, then place a dab of the corresponding paint color in the hole as a bulb replacement. Unfortunately with these lights that are almost directly on top of each other, a hole from the bottom interferes with the other light, so as a compromise I just drilled holes from above, filled them with paint, then sealed them with clear CA glue. Not very accurate if you want the bulb look, but a lot better than a painted lens. The Kopecky LAU-129 launchers need a notch cut out and holes drilled to fit the wingtip, so I used the kit parts as a guide for exact width and pin location. A view from the side, showing that the top light is always a bit offset to the rear. Not exactly the true bulb look, but this still looks better than painted lenses. More lights and more detailing options. The rear navigation light is red, but only at the very back with the side’s painted fuselage color. Here I painted just the insert that goes into the tail, which is slightly scratched from repeated insertion. I'll fix that later.... From the side, you won’t see any red when the tail is painted. But from the rear, like a fiber optic, you can clearly see red. Above that light is an oval recess for 4 more tiny InfraRed light emitters where Tamiya placed an outward oval instead, that many modelers just cut off. Here I dug a small recess and added outside fastener detail, where I will again add a small decal inside later to replicate the lights. The anti-collision strobe light for the top of the tail has a silver light housing for a white light bulb. After drilling a hole from behind to replicate this a bit, I just left a used drill bit in the hole and glued it in after trimming it for size. I then painted the insert silver so that you can see some of that from above, much like the rear navigation light. I had to be very careful about how deep I drilled the hole, because the lens at the top is tapered and very thin at the top. This about is about all I could do without risking ruining the part. Recall that I was looking for something to sort of replicate all those small “No Push” placards that are on the engine nozzle petals. What I found is a compromise of what I knew would work, but a bit too shiny for accuracy. Since you can’t read what the placard says on 80% of the P&W nozzles, even at 1/1 scale, I wasn’t too worried about 1/32 scale. I ruled out paint masks because you can’t fix flaws and paint bleed without making a mess, so I used some Aluminum ANYZ decal film that I’ve used many times before, but in other colors like black, red and yellow. While I was at it, I bought some new hose clamp film that will come in very handy with my next build, which is likely the 1/24 Airfix Spitfire Mk IX, if my new JetMads 1/32 AJ37 Viggin doesn’t call me to another jet! After carefully cutting the aluminum decal film, applying the “placards” and spraying a dull coat, this is what you get. Like I said, the placards are a bit too shiny and pronounced, but I think the overall look is still an improvement on overall accuracy. I’ll see if I can dull them up a bit without wrecking them, but at this stage I’m really getting tired of showing this nozzle time and time again, which is entirely self-induced! On to other things…. Cheers, Chuck

Thanks Niels! I notice that this panel is on the other side of the kit as well, so I assume that I should delete them both? Also, just down from this panel and hidden by the horizontal stab (of course!), is the position light on both sides, which most modelers paint silver from behind. In Jake's book (P. 21), however, they are mostly red. Anybody know or have a good pic from above? As for the adhesion of the metal stiffeners, I have already added CA glue to the small ones at the front, while the rear ones appear to be quite solid. It is my hope that when I spray Mr. Metal Primer (X-22?) on them, some of it will wick underneath, adding to the adhesion. Further coats of primer and paint should help as well. Cheers, Chuck

April 9/24 Lots of small updates, but mostly an introduction to 7 different after-market items you might not be aware of for this and the Block 50 kit. First some housekeeping, to remove that panel line around the AOA probe on both sides of the nose cone. While it’s usually stained this way due to the protective cap that's placed over the probe when parked, it isn’t a real panel line, so I want to remove it. Same thing holds true for the Tamiya F-15 kits. This kit has a removable nose cone to show off the radar stuff like the Block 50 kit, but it doesn’t have the radar screen anyway, so it should be glued into place instead. The nose cone join isn’t very strong as a result, so to reinforce the join I glued Part F-35 to the nose cone first, then a styrene spacer from scrap that was sanded down to size to fill the gap behind it. I used thick CA glue to weld it to the metal weight at the front, which gives you about 5 minutes to wiggle it around to get the best fit from all sides and angles with ordinary Tamiya ETC applied around the margin. The nose cone join was then sanded down where needed, with eroded fastener detail restored with the usual tools to do so, like a Mega Tool for the big fasteners. For the AOA probes I cut off, I’m using Master brass replacements which I’ve used a few times before on my other jets. I think they really “kick them up a notch”. The other side. These probes fit into small holes that I drilled, so I can leave them off until the end of the build. Another addition to this build is Kopecky horizontal stabilizers, which I heard about from our friend Marcel about 18 months ago, so I ordered a set for this future model. The Kopecky resin I’ve used so far is excellent and probably on par with ResKit, which is saying a lot! The service is excellent and their website is here: Kopecky Website This set comes with nice subtle rivet detail, but if you want almost no rivets, they now make a smoother version (32028). Although most of these stabilizers are quite smooth, there are a few where you can clearly see the rivets like on Page 30 of Jake’s book, so I’m happy to stick with these instead. As usual, trying to photograph this snow-white plastic is a real struggle, but next to this dark resin, it’s even tougher. As you probably know, those moon craters next to the stab axle on the kit parts are way too deep, while the Kopecky rivets are at the surface where they should be. The Kopecky stabs also have really nice recessed hollow internal detail that is missing from the kit. Even if you don’t care for the resin stabs, you should buy this kit for the super fine brass static wicks that come with it, also made by Master. The kit one in the middle sure looks crude and chunky when set next to them. As an added bonus, there’s enough wicks for the vertical stabilizer and the rear tips of the wings. The little resin wick holders fit the kit parts perfectly. While we’re looking at the vertical stab, that top panel line at the front should be filled and rivet detail added, while a static wick should be added, right behind the top light assembly that will be added later. Kopecky also makes really nice LAU-129 missiles rails, which thankfully come in a set of 4, because you’ll need all of them. And a really detailed center-line pylon, which comes in two parts, just like the real deal. This will be added at the end of the build, along with the landing gear cover piece it attaches to, Part C27. It looks so good from the bottom, I may not add the fuel tank, so that you can see all the work I did in the landing gear bay unobstructed. I have struggled for years to find a decent ACMI pod, because up until recently, the only resin ones available were poorly made and it’s hard to keep up with all the new versions that seem to come out every second year. Here’s the one on my subject, which I took in 2022. Thanks to 3D printing, we now have a few good options, like Phase Hanger Resin (1 ordered) and a new aftermarket supplier I found in the UK, Bandit Resin Factory. This supplier doesn’t have a full website yet, but they do have a Facebook presence, where you can see some of their products and contact the owner below, who will send you his catalogue. Bandit Resin Factory (Facebook) Apparently the ACMI pod above is a “Type E”, so I ordered 2 of them so that I had a spare for the stash. This is the nicest ACMI pod I’ve ever seen and it even comes with decals. Highly recommended! I also bought a travel pod that I’ve never seen before, which is also excellent with a door that opens. I didn’t open it yet, because I’m not likely to use it on this particular jet. As mentioned before, the front flaps on F-16’s rest a few degrees in the upward position when parked for some reason. So I decided to cement mine in permanently now, just in case I struggled with the fit and angle later. With a microbrush holding up the flaps while the glue dried, they seem to be roughly correct. Rear flaps were attached as well, but these ones can still move up and down. The next aftermarket parts I used were the CrossDelta external reinforcement plates that I showed earlier, which for Block 25 and Block 32 Vipers have the “lawnmower blades” to reinforce the vertical stabilizer base and the big 5-piece plate at the wing root to reinforce the fuel tanks. Tamiya includes a decal set to replicate these plates, but they are too thin and the rivet detail won’t show, unless you leave them unpainted white. I thought these CrossDelta plates would be metalized plastic, but they are actually made from real metal and are self adhesive. Tough to see on the white plastic, but this is where they belong based upon the instructions and Jake’s book (P. 23). Since they are super glossy and metal, I scuffed them up a bit with 1000# sandpaper to help with paint adhesion, which isn’t too rough to leave scratch marks. I will need to use a metal primer as well if I want the paint to stick. Not in the CrossDelta instructions or in Jake’s book, Block 25’s like my subject have a small reinforcement strap just below the canopy hinge on both sides, so I cut up one of the bigger plates to create 2 of them. Since they are so small, I wicked a little thin CA glue underneath them to hold them securely, then cleaned up the edges with CA glue remover. On the starboard side, the strap is just aft of the panel hinge. I also opened up that tiny vent on the side, which I should have done earlier from behind before the top fuselage Part B28 was cemented into place. One thing that’s a little surprising to me with F-16’s is that there’s a small gap at the base of the vertical stabilizer, unlike other jets. This small gap is perfect for the very tight fitting kit stabilizer, which is friction fit, so you don’t really need to glue it on, so it can be painted and decaled off the fuselage for ease of handling. Note that the small air duct on the base was cut off, which Block 25’s don’t have. Well that’s it for now, but I thought I would throw out a question that I’ve always wondered about. If F-16’s have 16 static wicks trailing all the control surfaces, why don’t other fighter jets like F-15’s and F-18’s have them as well? Hmmmm……. Cheers, Chuck

Wow, that's a very kind comment sir and I thank you. "By doing something til it works" it pretty accurate for me, because I often try things that don't work at all, like my first attempt at exhaust staining using bits of masking tape, which turned out quite bad. With the pressure from the air brush the tape was pushed against the exhaust, creating a bit of a mess, so it was back to the drawing board with something I knew worked before, which was bits of stiff styrene instead. I have often seen some of my relatively unique techniques used by others which makes me smile. What's the saying? "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" or something like that? Having said that, I use plenty of techniques in my builds that I learned from others, but I always try to recognize where I got my ideas from if they are special. Marcel's anti-skid walkways using a rough surface Rustoleum in a spray can and Pete's white latex paint dipped F-16 intakes come to mind, but there are many other techniques I can't think of right now. Although I don't use these methods any more, they really helped with some of my past models, so I try to give back to these forums whenever I can. The Viper Aggressor is coming along very nicely now, with most of the parts now used. I should have an update in a few days once I finalize a few assemblies that needed a tweak here and there. Cheers, Chuck

We ALL do that, so he's in good company. Great continuing work Pete. You are a Master. Cheers, Chuck

Thanks Neils. Your Viper Demo Team F-16 is still the benchmark for me, so I'm honored. That Viper is bad-ass gorgeous! Cheers, Chuck

Thanks Guy! I ordered some decal material that might work for those “No Push” stencils instead. I prefer decals to painting them, because if I don’t like them or screw up, I can just remove them. With paint, I’d have to repaint them all over again and I’m not doing that again! April 4/24 One of the interesting features of these PW100 engines is the color of the shroud around the engine just back of the nozzle, which I’ll just call the engine collar. The Pratt and Whitney collar is quite different than the GE110 collar, which is shallow and always dull titanium grey. The PW100 collar is fairly wide, irregularly shaped, shiny and is often blue, presumably due to heat. I say “often”, because it’s not always blue and the intensity of the blue color is all over the place. After looking at dozens of PW100 collars, here are some examples of what I'm talking about: Intense Blue and evenly colored, which is fairly rare. I think if I painted my model like this, it would look unrealistic, despite the fact it can be real. No blue at all. Again, sort of rare, but they exist. And a few examples of what I think is more common, which is more interesting to my eye. The blue is there, but it’s mottled due to weathering and other factors, like type of engine and maintenance. Note that some of the bands are not blue. Blue almost everywhere, but blotchy. I decided to paint the model engine collar right now for a bunch of reasons: - Since it’s metallic, I want a super smooth surface with no other paint underneath, like a regular primer or paint from adjacent areas. - This collar is situated in an area between the speed brakes that will be difficult to paint later - I just want to! The first step like I always do with Alclad metallic paint, is to start with a primer coat of Tamiya Gloss Black Lacquer from a rattle can decanted into a bottle. I’ve tried the relatively new LP line of Tamiya lacquers in a bottle like LP-1, but I don’t find it as glossy as good 'ol TS-14. The collar is predominantly a relatively shiny metallic color, so I started with Alclad Stainless Steel. Unlike the “High Shine” Alclad colors like Chrome, this one is tough and can be masked without lifting. To create a mottled look, I applied liquid mask with a sponge. Salt would work just as well, but it’s messy. I then sprayed Alclad Hotmetal Blue followed by more liquid mask and Alclad White Aluminum in an iterative sequence of light mist coats. 2 of the rings were masked off so that they would not pick up as much of the blue. Everything was then sealed with clear coat of Tamiya Semi-Gloss lacquer to knock down the shine a bit. The results. This is tough to photograph to see the real colors and relative shine. Parked on the model fuselage with the nozzle attached, it starts to look more natural and you can see that it's much shinier than the exhaust, as it should be. I used a screw at the top through the alignment holes to hold things in place, since this assembly isn’t glued in yet. The small gap between nozzle and collar will be much tighter with glue. Of course I had to show off the exhaust staining again. I’m pretty happy with how things turned out, because now I have the “blue look” of the collar, without it looking too pristine and unrealistic. With the engine collar now painted and sealed, I can then mask it off and assemble the entire engine as described earlier. It now just slides into place And is now securely glued to the fuselage. Last peek at the afterburner face before I fill this engine cavity with foam and mask it off. That’s it for now and thanks for your continued interest and “like” responses, which I appreciate very much. Cheers, Chuck

Gorgeous! Very realistic looking cockpit details and what I really like is the wiring. Straight Lines, just like they should be rather than twisted bundles like so many of us modelers do, because it's easier. Cheers, Chuck

Thanks Everyone! Much appreciated. Thanks Peter. Here's one more pic of them to see the exhaust staining better from the rear. The staining turned out a bit better than my current exhaust, but after 3 attempts, I'm done! Similar angle and lighting... Cheers, Chuck

March 31, 2024 Painting of the engine is done, but it was a real struggle because I’m so picky. Painting a jet engine, inside and out, is challenging because of all the metallic and ceramic colors and no two engines are the same- but there are some similarities that you try to replicate. It’s also very artistic, which can be both fun and frustrating. I want all of my engines to add to the model, rather than be a liability where “good enough” is never really good enough. Starting with the base (front) of the engine, I painting everything as close to what I could find for reference pics. This is a combination of dull metal and a whitish ceramic look, which I enhanced with white pastels. It’s a bit of a shame that you won’t see much of this later, when it’s buried deep inside the fuselage. The flame tube was painted black at first, then I shot flat white paint through it from front to back, using a crude zig-zag mask that created irregular dark shadows within. Painting the outside petals of the nozzle was the hardest part, because I wasn’t happy with my first two attempts and had to strip everything down and start all over again. With 3 small pieces of masking tape and 15 petals, that’s 45 bits of tape that had to be applied 3 times! As I’ve done before, I used an ordinary piece of paper rolled into a tube to hold the nozzle for painting. Not only does it hold the nozzle, but it also shows where you painted and where you haven't against the white background. I looked at countless Pratt and Whitney F-16 engine nozzles as a reference and used this one the most. Note that the petals have 1 straight edge where the petals overlap, rather than 2 curved ones, which appears to be more common. This Reskit nozzle seems to be the same. A more common pattern of a curve on both edges of the petals. The end result, after finally settling on Alclad Durluminum for the main petal color and Alclad Magnesium for the overlap. I tried a lot of other colors but these two seemed to be the closest to the real deal. If you look at the nozzles above, they are fairly smooth as Pete pointed out and all that tiny rivet detail is not very obvious. Instead of filling it all in, I opted to just live with it, because doing so would likely harm the other fine detail that I want to keep. Note that the nozzles are not spotless and there is some wear and discoloration here and there. As I did with my CF-104 build, I decided to use some “Metal Liner” wash to dirty them up a bit. I went with “Dark”, because the lighter washes didn’t really show up on the light surface. I decided to go light on the wash to give the nozzles some stain, but not too much to overpower the metallic look, especially for small 1/32 scale. Painting the insides of the nozzles was also a struggle, because I tried a few new ideas and they all crashed and burned. What you want is a combination of black and white soot that has a fairly distinctive repetitive pattern, depending on which part of the nozzle petal it’s on. Make some mistakes, like I did, and you get a combination of white and black in a grey mess, so I had to start all over again and go with something that I know works quite well on these PW100 engines. Here’s a pic of what I used on the engines of my F-15C Eagle Aggressor 6 years ago. Small thin strips of styrene, taped to the base of the nozzle along an axis that usually has less white soot than on either side, provide a partial mask when flat white paint is sprayed from the base of the nozzle outward, just like on a real engine. The results can be pretty impressive, as shown on this pic I’ve shown at least 100 times here before, because I’m so proud of these nozzles. Long before ResKit and others created fantastic looking nozzles using 3D printing technology, I made these out of a resin Two Mikes base and 11 Eduard and kit parts per petal. 30 petals combined with the 6 main parts of the nozzles equal 336 parts! They took me forever to assemble, but I think they were worth it. So I did the same thing again, using 0.4 X 2.5MM styrene strips, which fit each petal axis perfectly, they sprayed flat white paint from the rear outward. The results, and this time I was very happy with the ending. Added to the flame tube. If you squint you might be able to see the dark shadow I created in the tube with that paper mask. All engine parts combined so that you can barely see the front of the engine face. This is really hard to photograph without a special macro-flash. Engine painting done! Now I’m scratching my head wondering if I’m going to add all those tiny “No Push” and “No Step” placards to the petals and how the heck I’m going to do it? Maybe tiny strips of decal film? Stay tuned…… Cheers, Chuck