DoogsATX Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 That's looking really good Matt. How's the kit so far? Kev So far so good - maybe not as smooth as the OV-10 seems to be, though. The cockpit fits really well, the fuselage halves line up nicely, and as of last night I can confirm the engine doors fit very nicely when closed. But there are areas where the kit seems rough around the edges. Lots of micro-flash to clean up on things like locator holes, a few ejector pins in visible places (like inside the intakes, etc). As long as everything keeps fitting nicely, I'm inclined to overlook these little things. Out2gtcha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Matt Super work on the front office and the Viper is looking real good Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Ideed! I found some of the micro-flash on some of my parts too Matt. Im with you, and tend to overlook things like that if the overall shape and fit of the kit is accurate, and nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogsATX Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Lots of progress! Intakes installed! Engine access doors installed! Exhaust housing and tail boom installed! Fuselage closed! The fuselage goes together very well, absolutely zero problems. Same with the intakes (aside from those nasty internal nits mentioned above). The engine doors close up nicely, too, which is a relief. The biggest issue, fit-wise, is definitely the exhaust housing. I found significant interference with the rear engine compartment bulkheads, so I ripped them out. After that, carefully applied pressure and solvent welding got everything properly situated. There's a small bell hump on the tail that sits a bit lower than the spine. I need to verify that it should sit level with it, and then do some building up and sanding down. The rest of the tail boom was a great fit with the fuselage. This assembly is wildly out of order with the Kitty Hawk manual, which has you add all kinds of bits before getting to the major airframe pieces. Yeah, screw that. The only allowances I made were for the PE mesh screens that went into hollow openings. Knowing my luck, I'd somehow end up dropping them inside after closing the fuselage, so they went in first. More to come! Anthony in NZ, Girlscanplay2, Uilleann and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Matt terrific progress on the Viper .. sure is looking good. Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 It is indeed looking lovely. I too found similar patterns in the KH instructions for the OV-10. Per the KH instructions, landing gear, flaps trim actuators, gear doors and spoilers were all to be added prior to gluing on the wings.................I took the same approach and left all that stuff off till the major air-frame stuff got put together. Looking really nice now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogsATX Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Got a lot of cleanup done on the Zulu last night, and started messing around with the skids (I want to mount them early so I know how much weight we're talking about adding up front). It immediately became obvious that these will be the hardest part of the build. The skid struts are separate parts, meaning there are eight points that need to be glued in place. And there is wobbliness, which will make alignment interesting. Right now, I'm thinking about gluing the struts to the skids, THEN installing them into the chopper so I can fight the alignment fight from just four glue points (and using epoxy to give myself some working time). Unless anybody has a better idea! Uilleann and Girlscanplay2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Matt Terrific progress and you're right on the money, asthe skids seem to be the most demanding part of the build Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogsATX Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 So I got the struts glued to the skids last night. Found that pre-positioning everything on the chopper was the best way - the struts have a pretty positive fit to the skids - or rather - they absolutely will not fit anywhere else except where they fit, so you don't have to worry that much about alignment. Touch-n-flow around the edges of them locked everything down nicely. Now I'll only have to worry about the fuselage connections when it comes to alignment. Also decided maybe I should test fit the clear bits - and they fit very well indeed! Other than that, starting to add lots of small bits to the fuselage. At this rate I should be looking at paint inside a week. Girlscanplay2 and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Looking great Matt. Seems KH has been doing a great job lately on fit. All of that glazing reminds me of their OV-10 glass. Same/same, great fit all the way around. Glad all that glass fit well, as it could have made the rest of the model sub-par with ill fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogsATX Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 The Zulu continues to progress. First up - the M197 20mm cannon. The Master brass is infinitely more detailed than the kit representation, but infinitely more fiddly. Getting the final "triangle" over the cannon tips took more dexterity than any rigging I've ever done on any biplane. Rather than risk my luck, I immediately glued the thing into the chin turret. As for the rest of the ship, more PE screens (including a challenging one just above/behind the canopy), more little bits. I got started on the rotors as well, and had a scare when I glued one down upside down. Thankfully I realized it pretty fast and was able to pry everything apart before the glue really set. Aside from the exhaust housing and fussy-ish skid assembly, I think the other real challenge point of this kit is going to be the rotor actuators. These are small and fragile bits that glue into the rotor bases near the head, and then slot into holes in the fuselage base. And by fragile, I mean one snapped clean in half just in the act of getting it off the sprue tree. Definitely a situation where a metal replacement would be ideal. Girlscanplay2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogsATX Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 The time came to throw a bit of paint last night. Have to get the sensor ball and its housing painted before I can get the assembly together and onto the Viper's nose. This is Gunze 338 Light Gray, which, I forget the exact FS#, but I believe is actually Light Ghost Gray. I also got a bit carried away with the primer...which is good since it showed me some areas that still need cleanup attention (like some previously invisible sink marks in the rotor cuffs). Dragon and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Very clean work Matt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
322SqnNL Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Great work getting back into it, may eventually build one myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somnas Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Just found out this kit was released and since it's a kit I've been waiting for a long time I'm really glad to have found this exceptional build thread! /Erik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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