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'Gaboon Viper' of VAL-4 - Bin Thuy - 1971-1972


karimb

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My only concern is that there's nothing to be concerned about - absolutely stunning build so far!!!

Can't wait until you start working on the ejection seats.

 

The OV-10 is one of my all time favourite aircraft - I still remember when they were flying

out of Sembach airbase (Germany) in pairs buzzing low level over our RC-model airfield,

the crews quite often waving at us. What a sound and sight !!

 

Lothar

 

 

Lothar!

Thanks for checking in!

I am sure the broncos must have been quite the sight flying low like they were designed to do!

Thanks for checking in and for the kind words!

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Another clinic being conducted by a master builder.

Karim, until I actually shake your hand in person, I refuse to believe that you're actually human. Your building skills are that amazing.

 

 

Ernie, that's alot of praise coming from a master!

I can't wait for the scheduling to reassign us Dallas so i can finally fly over and we can spend some time you, Tony and I!

This is really something i am looking forward to doing my friend!

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Wow, Karim.  Sorry I'm just catching up to this.  You know, one of the great things about this site is that it keeps you humble about your own skills, with real masters like you posting.  On the other hand, there's a lot of inspiration to continue to improve, and the techniques are truly impressive. I love that little jig you built for creating your wiring loom. I'm not a huge Bronco fan, but I will be watching this build with excitement. 

 

 

Bstarr3,

Thanks for the kind comments and for stopping by!

The jig was made up out of necessity to be honest, i have no third hand type helper clamps, and i found that keeping on holding to the ezline bundles while trying to knot loops down their length to be close to impossible so there sprung the idea of the jig!

You are very kind with your comments my friend and all my inspiration to be honest comes from the lovely talent which is our lovely LSP family!

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Ohhhhhh sweet, glad to see you back at it with another detailed build, Karim! Looking great so far my friend. 

 

Mike,

so good to have you checking in!

I hope you enjoy the upcoming build update my friend!

Thanks for leaving a word

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Hey guys!

Update coming straight out of Philadelphia on a layover!

Sorry i haven't had the chance to give you guys decently spaced updates as the time i am spending at the bench is punctuated by my flights, and it's a bit of time spent here and there working on subassemblies, but no paint still. Good news is my new compressor is on its way from my forwarder in NY to Doha, the whole 45lbs of it  :rolleyes: can't wait to be set up again and start playing around with colors and weathering. finally!

I thank everyone for the encouragement and kind words, those are keeping me going on this build. The deeper i dig into reference material the more and more i realize there is much left to be desired from this kit. The more i come to this conclusion the more i face the dilemma of either fixing and modifying things and getting them up to standard, or just turning a blind eye and moving on to other subassemblies. The seats were prime candidates for the fixing and modifying course of action. Since our last update i have managed to work on the footstep that extends from the starboard side of the lower fuselage. The kit itself comes with an opening where the step is supposed to be pushed into when retracted. The opening has a small 'panel' structure that attaches to the step that fairs everything in. There is also a front section of a fairing that is to aerodynamically blend in the step once it is in the retracted position. 

I simulated the step with brass rod measured to size and bent, and the panel is made out of styrene sheet cut to size and slipped over the step. The front part fairing of the step is styrene rod cut to size and sanded to shape to look like a fairing. 

Not having alot of desire to use my half dead compressor and to be honest, not being able to do detail painting with the airbush with such limited working times, i decided to move on and tackle a part of the build i wanted to get out of the way. The seats.

After having carefully read the NATOPS manual section on the Rockwell LW3B seats, and going through a myriad of photos of seats on display, and era photos, the errors in the KH kit seats become quite striking and obvious. The kit has the parapacks installed on the same sides which is wrong. The parapacks were installed left on the pilot seat and right on the observer seat. This alternate installation allowed for the seat center of mass to be left for the front seat and right for the back seat and made them tilt away from each other in the event of an ejection. The backplate and seat ejection mechanism lack all the detail and you don't have any deployment thruster, inertia reel gas generator and speed/altitude sensor striker to mention a few of the missing items. The molding quality of the kit parts is okay although some parts fit without any locating or positioning hints. You are given the catapult attachment bolt for both the front and back seat, and they are the same. The front seat is supposed to have two rods that attach from the top of the seat to the sides of the canopy once the seat is in situ. Seats also come with the canopy breaker molded in as a solid part when it should be just a frame, and should be paper thin to be in scale. I hacked and modified the seats until i was left with the bare bones and started rebuilding the seats from there. I used the Eduard photoetch fret for the seats and left out the PE colored belts as those to me are just plainly useless. As some of you know my go to harnesses are the HGW belts which are made of fabric material, second best is using leadsheet as the material takes on very well to being bent and creased, but more on that later. I used the Eduard pe canopy breaker for the top of the seat, added the missing details from different styrene rod sizes and added a sort of inverted pyramid i have seen in some photos to the top of the seat ejection assembly section. I haven't been able to work out what that is but it is there in the photos. To shape the 'pyramid' i chucked styrene rod in my dremmel and used it like a lathe, sanding away the rotating rod to shape with a file and then a sanding stick. I realise the seats and additions can't be a hundred percent accurate but they sure do look better than the kit iteration. I added some wiring from the deployment thruster, the seat separation latch still has to be added and attached to the cockpit, i also wired the inertial reel gas generator to the assembly. There is quite a bit more wiring to add to the seat to make it more accurate but i do not know how much more i want to push in that direction. Now the harness. The Eduard etch kit and the kit itself are missing the harness attachments that run from the back of the back padding to the back of the seat to attach to the parapack (my understanding) and the are quite visible, extending from below the backpadding over the shoulder part of the seat frame and back behind. I added those by using leadsheet cut to size. The harnesses were replicated using leadsheet cut to size, textured by rolling a round file over them. The buckles are adapted from the Eduard colored PE harness set, cut and cleaned and reused on the custom made belts. I think the results are miles ahead of what i could have achieved with the PE and they are much easier to drape in a realistic and believable way. The kit seat back padding is useless and would greatly benefit from an upgrade which i did by using Tamiya two part epoxy putty. I shaped the putty to size then simulated the creases and folds by shaping it with a toothpick. I finally textured the seat back cushion by stippling it with course sanding sticks which left a distinct texture like fabric. This will hopefully all show once some paint is laid down. The last step i have added to the kit seats at this point is adding a line of rivets to the seat frames as those are also very visible in the reference photos i have. At this point i kind of am calling the seats done on the "adding stuff" front, but this will be confirmed again once i get some paint on. There is still all the pullhandles to be added from the Eduard color pe fret. With the handles on i think we will have a seat that will look a bit more believable than what we started with.

Since i decided to dump the airbrushing side of things until the new compressor is in, i started fiddling with oils to weather the cockpit and added some pigment which i will blend in more once i have the airbrushing setup back up and running. I also added some random placards from Airscale to make the cockpit look a bit busier. There is alot of potential to get the cockpit area of the Bronco superdetailed and looking alive, and i have a couple of ideas up my sleeve... I am still undecided wether to have the cargo compartment door open or closed, more on that once i can manage to get the compartment weathered... any thoughts guys on wether open or closed?

The deeper i dig, the more i find there is stuff that needs to be done. At this point, the think i really am worried about at a later stage is aligning the tailbooms and the outer section of the wings since the inner sections which had no fitment pins were aligned best as the mk1 eyeball could do.... lets see.

Off to read Windsock's building the Albatros and sleep as i am leaving tomorrow morning very early on a flight back. I won't be able to get any real bench time in the next few days as i have to hop over to Greece to finish some paperwork during my two off days, then its back operating another flight to Philadelphia. Lets see if i can squeeze a couple hours at the bench in between those.

Your comments will be greatly appreciated on any modifications or changes or ideas related to the seats and the build altogether!!

Thanks for checking in, it really helps in keeping the interest and momentum going!

Stay safe and happy modeling!

Karim

 

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Below some photos of the seats through the stages of improvement, in random order. You will find the final items at the end of the photo run!

 

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PS: the seat lap belts are missing the release latch that goes on the belt locking mechanism. It is a minute part and since i am worried of those breaking off and disappearing into the ether i left them off for adding once the seats are painted and done!

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Love it!   Good man....................got the chute packs sided for the pilot and observer. Its an often missed detail.     ;)

 

 

Thanks my friend!

And i would have thought this was going to be a 'head scratching' free build... it's quite rewarding finding out the omissions and mistakes and getting them corrected.

Thanks for checking in Brian and for leaving a comment!

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Guest Peterpools

Karim my Friend

Absolutely blown away with the seats and the details you scratched out. Simply beautiful work. The seatback cushions and belts just grabbed my attention.even without paint ... they look just tremendous.

You must have brought the Philadelphia eagles good luch as they beat the Falcons in the playoffs.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

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