Tamiya F-15C Kicked Up A Notch- Dec 1/17: DONE!

[Joel_W]

Chuck

Nothing, not even the smallest detail escapes your critical eye. Meticulous work as always

Keep 'em coming

Peter

 

Bro,

  I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that Chuck has excellent eyesight and a critical eye, while you're almost as blind as me, as we cruise to 70 years old.   

 

Joel

[A-10LOADER]

Beautiful work Chuck !! My OCD is loving your OCD, that's what will make this Eagle really shine when completed.

 

Steve

 

P.S. Wanna finish a very large Tomcat for me ?? 

[Guest Peterpools]

JA

You left out the skill and patience.

Bro

[Squizzy 78]

Amazing work Chuck. Once again your showing us what can be achieved with an older model, (and a lot of skill.)

[Lucio Martino]

"I have no more parts"

 

It was about six year ago that I read this sentence. Times fly. That day, browsing ARC Forums, I found your Hornet. I was very impressed by your skills. But in my over thirty years of love for our hobby I never thought of ending a build with these words.

 

How many of us can say the same?

 

Since that moment, checking your in-progress work has become one of the sweetest moment of my evenings.

 

Of all your build, the one I like the best is your Phantom. There was a special kind of magic. Something ever un-matched by any other in-progress work in any other forum. Maybe it was so because a Phantom is always a Phantom. Maybe it was so because of the interaction with Scott Wilson.

 

The build that I like the less is your Thunderbolt. It has been an amazing effort. I learned a lot. But, at the same time, it was an exercise in willpower. No joy. Often I thougth you would lose your enthusiasm and leave the hobby.

 

And then the Eagle. Well, for me, your Eagle build is another fabulous journey. Once again, nobody shares our hobby like you do. Your pictures, and your posts are always very well written.

 

So, please keep us posted. Does not matter if you not have a big update. At this point your are family. It will always a pleasure to take a look at your work (and at your travels). It is always a pleasure to read your posts.

 

(Apologies for my English)

[Joel_W]

Lucio,

     You're going to really like it here. Believe me I know, as it took my brother years to convince me to up my building scale from 1/48th to 1/32nd and change modeling sites. Best move I've ever made in modeling by far.

 

    As for Chuck's work, it's IPMS world class, and yet he's just one of the guys here. Just can't get any better then that.

 

Joel

[chuck540z3]

"I have no more parts"

 

It was about six year ago that I read this sentence. Times fly. That day, browsing ARC Forums, I found your Hornet. I was very impressed by your skills. But in my over thirty years of love for our hobby I never thought of ending a build with these words.

 

How many of us can say the same?

 

Since that moment, checking your in-progress work has become one of the sweetest moment of my evenings.

 

Of all your build, the one I like the best is your Phantom. There was a special kind of magic. Something ever un-matched by any other in-progress work in any other forum. Maybe it was so because a Phantom is always a Phantom. Maybe it was so because of the interaction with Scott Wilson.

 

The build that I like the less is your Thunderbolt. It has been an amazing effort. I learned a lot. But, at the same time, it was an exercise in willpower. No joy. Often I thougth you would lose your enthusiasm and leave the hobby.

 

And then the Eagle. Well, for me, your Eagle build is another fabulous journey. Once again, nobody shares our hobby like you do. Your pictures, and your posts are always very well written.

 

So, please keep us posted. Does not matter if you not have a big update. At this point your are family. It will always a pleasure to take a look at your work (and at your travels). It is always a pleasure to read your posts.

 

(Apologies for my English)

 

 

Hi Lucio!  Your words are way too kind.  Thank you.  This is one of the many reasons I create these WIP threads, knowing that I can sometimes help or entertain other fellow modellers, as they have helped and entertained me.  I'm not sure which build you think was my Thunderbolt, because I've never made one.  Lately I have tried to do a jet followed by a prop and then back to a jet as follows:

 

Tamiya F-4E.  I agree, this is likely my best effort so far, especially with Scott Wilson's many tips and photographs that helped me to get this build to the next level:

 

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=44604&hl=chuck540z3

 

This was followed by my Tamiya P-51D:

 

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=44551&hl=chuck540z3

 

Back to a jet, I fought this Trumpeter A-10C tooth and nail for over 20 months:

 

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=53300&hl=chuck540z3

 

Another prop, the Trumpeter P-38L, which was also a struggle, especially due to some user error with some melt-down of the wrong adhesive.  This may be the build you think might have been the Thunderbolt, but all was well at the end of the build and it has done very well at model contests and 10 pages of a FSM special issue magazine:

 

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=60267&hl=chuck540z3

 

And now I am 14 months into this F-15C Eagle Aggressor.  What is rare about this build is that although the build has not been easy by any stretch, I have no major flaws that I know of.  All of the above builds have at least one area of the build I'm not proud of, but you really can't see any of them unless you know where to look.  These flaws still bug me nonetheless, so it would be nice to complete at least one model without flaws that I hope nobody notices.  It isn't perfect by any stretch, but it's pretty good overall so far, if I do say so myself.  It's also possible that it might supersede the F-4E for build quality and accuracy when I'm done.  Time will tell.

 

Current progress is a big step forward from my last post, with the front fuselage attached and not much else to assemble other than stuff that hangs from the fuselage and wings.  I will be painting soon, which is my favorite part of modeling!  Stay tuned in a few days.

 

 

Lucio,

     You're going to really like it here. Believe me I know, as it took my brother years to convince me to up my building scale from 1/48th to 1/32nd and change modeling sites. Best move I've ever made in modeling by far.

 

    As for Chuck's work, it's IPMS world class, and yet he's just one of the guys here. Just can't get any better then that.

 

Joel

 

 

As always Joel, you are too kind, but also very accurate.  I am proud to say that I am,  "just one of the guys here", which is a big honor.  The modeling talent here is second to none and I learn a new trick from others almost every day.

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Wasn't the A-10 known as the Thunderbolt II at some stage?

 

Kev

[Shaka HI]

Yes!

[chuck540z3]

May 9/17

 

With the rear of this beast taken care of, it's now time to complete the front, which means adding the 2 main front fuselage parts.  Before I did, I painted some interior parts black for ease of painting later.  The rear of the cockpit should be black (shine will be toned down with dullcoat later) and I don't want to see any interior detail behind the Secondary Heat Exchanger grill behind the cockpit or the Air Cycle Air Conditioning System (ACACS) intake between the fuselage and the engine intakes.

 

 

 

 

With the top portion dry fitted to the lower fuselage, the ACACS intake is too narrow and too sloped.

 

 

 

 

The fix is simple if you trim back the upper lip about 1/16†and taper the end of it.  More on that blue paint later.

 

NOTE!:  Assemble the upper fuselage and front fuselage at the same time.  You need to flex the front fuselage forward and down to get the top part to slide into place.  If you glue the front fuselage and let it dry, then try to add the top part later (like the instructions call for), you will likely have a lot of fit problems.  With the glue still wet, this movement is easy. 

 

 

 

 

The speed brake is not going to be movable on my model, because the detail underneath is fairly boring and I like the clean look.  The brake part sits a bit too high, so I sanded it down, but the front hinges sink into the recess.  The hinges should be flush with the surrounding surfaces and that little plate at the front should be deleted according to many pics in Jake's book.

 

 

 

 

This upper part is famous for being too narrow on either side, so many use putty to close the gap.  While this works, there should be a panel line here, so you're better off using CA glue and re-scribing the line before the glue gets too hard.  I did the same on the speed brake hinges, to get them to sit flush and delete the front plate.  Rivet detail was then applied like the rest of the upper fuselage.

 

 

 

 

Like many jet models, painting inside of the intakes is almost impossible once assembled, due to air turbulence in a closed space.  Painting this area now is easy.  Note the front fuselage fit is nice and tight now with a thin panel line vs. the larger gap that existed before.

 

 

 

 

I don't want the front intake ramps to move either, so I glued them into place after a lot of dry fitting.

 

 

 

 

The other side.  I still need to attend to filling a large gap at the bottom of the hinge, which I'll do later.

 

 

 

 

I really wish all the antennae and the AOA probes were separate parts, because they are always in the way and easily broken.  They are also hard to paint separately.

 

 

 

 

The solution is to cut them off, drill a small hole and add a brass replacement, in this case a Master F-4 AOA probe which looks almost identical to the F-15.  Thankfully I had a few spares, because the F-4 only has one on the starboard side.

 

Note how I masked off the canopy, using more Tamiya flexible vinyl tape.  I left a very subtle gap between the tape and the edge of the canopy frame (also vinyl tape), so that the edges of the tape are painted, rather than looking white and unnatural.

 

 

[chuck540z3]

Here is why my pics look a little different from earlier posts. My little photo-booth that is 15 inches wide needed to be stretched out to accommodate the full length of the model. This sucker is HUGE! As with all my builds at this stage, this is when I use my little box with foam pipe insulation to cover the top of the 4 walls and a micro-fiber towel to provide a soft cradle so that nothing gets scratched as I move the model around to add more parts, paint and decal. This is also why I went to great lengths to modify the nose gear so that I didn't have to attach it to the front fuselage near the beginning of the build, as per instructions.

 

 

 

 

It also allows me to flip the model over and not damage the fragile vertical stabilizers….

 

 

 

 

Or the fragile intake ramps, with the cockpit holding them off the box.

 

 

 

 

Obviously I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel for this long build, which is 14 months and counting, but I still have a LOT to do! Besides complex painting and decaling, I still need to make up (and modify) the wing pylons, fuel tanks, LAU-128 missile rails, AIM-9X missile, ACMI probe, an ELTA 8222 ECM Pod and a detailed M61 Vulcan brass gun, which is very time consuming- but fun. Stay tuned…..

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited May 11, 2017 by chuck540z3

[Shaka HI]

Ahhh, I actually noticed that your photo's did look different!

 

Geesh Chuck, even your masking is neat!

 

I feel that this build is picking up speed...but Summer is coming -- I think you should cancel your vacation to Maui (if i remember correctly, you vaca here during the Summer months) and continue with this build!

[dodgem37]

Cheers!  Well done, Chuck.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[ClumsyDude]

Jeez you're a pro Chuck ... awesome stuff.

 

Jim

[Guest Peterpools]

Chuck

Brilliant update and the details are wonderfully explained and photgraphed. I do take an amazing amount of notes on your techniques, knowing I will be able to apply and use them on my builds now and down the road - much appreciated.

Keep 'em coming

Peter