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F-23A in 1/48


F`s are my favs

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A little up. The cockpit is not the point at these pics as it`s not ready yet. But the nose landing gear is ready with the lowering and the retraction. And the main paint (white) is laid down too. Here is with the door closed - it fits flush as it was oob, just perfect:

 

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2 MLD sensors at the nose, just glued and still not flushed with the surface. I`ll have to wait them dry well, cause they are transparent pieces from some clear sprues, while the black is indeed a bunch of black chips from black sprues, melted in CA glue, and they slightly softened the transparent pieces. But hopefully they will be solid again:

 

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And, with the gear down:

 

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This time i used the simplest and easiest way for retraction. The entire gear is actually just 1 piece. And there are 2 magnets at the base of the main pylon. Respectively the cockpit tub is almost entirely removed to allow the "diagonal" strut of the gear to fit in the void space right behind the seat. Quite some plastic from the rear of the seat was removed as well, but it`s not visible. Furthermore there will be cables, a pilot figure and a tinted canopy over the cockpit, so i`ll not turn so many attention to the comsmetic touches in the cockpit. Just a couple of base colors...

 

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Merry Xmas, all the best to all of us!

 

Now on the big little update :) The nozzles area is done. First, the afterburner chambers were majorly edited. I changed the rings with 2 left from my F-15C in 1/48. Here are they on the right, and check out how tiny are the oob ones deep inside the afterburners chambers:

 

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The transition of the duct ends from rounded to squared was done with paper tape, which later absorbed very well the wash and the weathering:

 

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The nozzles - i used the oob pieces:

 

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and tried to make them 3-D by using a Raptor`s nozzle in 1/72 as a refference:

 

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They are just about roughly done, but i`m very happy with the result. Here is a testfit:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nose section: major reshapement. :) There is an extention of about one entire centimeter from the conjuntion with the wings. First plastic rods from the inside, then wrapping "molten" (soften) plastic rods from the outside, then an overwhelming sanding;

Next, there was a smooth recessed curve right infront of the wind shield. Now the area from the wind shield to the tip of the nose is in a straight forward direction;

Next, the very tip of the nose and the adjacent 2 edges on both port and starboard sides are fitted with PE pieces, so the edges and the tip could stay as sharp as possible after the sanding;

Next, the front one/fifth of the hood is cut down to the frame... like the hood of the Raptor`s I.Panel... which after a testfit with the canopy turned out invisible... nevertheless...;

Next, the slots for the Pitot tubes are filled and saned flush. As far as i know there should have been some kind of tiny holes in the surface all around the front nose area, which serve for the measurings;

Next, the contact surfaces of the 2 halves of the nose section were sanded flat, so to go through the 1st step of the straightening of the nose edges that run from the tip to the conjunction with the wings. On the prototype - there is a huge curve, but on the A version - there should be a straight line like on the Raptor. So here it is after all these mods:

 

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PS: the cockpit is still not ready for pics. Indeed it`s ready, but i prefer to avoid the in-depth pics :) There is very minimal amount of details, cause the canopy will always be closed and i`ll try to dim it in a golden hue like on the Raptor....

 

Everything is smooth and covered in a thin layer of Surfacer to check for imperfections. There are plenty of things to tuch up, but overall it`s good. The "holes" nearby the side edges will be filled later. And the extension turned out pretty precise so far. 

 

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