Marcel111 Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Great subject. The cutting thus far is really surgical! Cheers, Marcel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nillus Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Simply awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandiego Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 My kind of build! Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Sweet engineering Eric. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r0t0rdr1ver Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 WOW! Looking good Eric! Can't wait for the conversion to come out, looks like it will be well worth the wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony C Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 3 pages in and the conversions still not available! Not good enough, I want one now In fact the quality looks that good, I want it yesterday... otis252 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg Posted July 27, 2017 Author Share Posted July 27, 2017 3 pages in and the conversions still not available! Not good enough, I want one now In fact the quality looks that good, I want it yesterday... You will just have to wait!From the quality of the pre-production parts it is obvious that he wants them to go to the market as perfect as possible. Tim is contributing to this thread, so I am sure he will pass on more details as they come to hand. Eric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 (edited) More work. It was now time to cut the kit up for the major join in the fuselage. Upon first inspection, the join looked a little complicated, but it was relatively straight forward. Here is how I did it. I drew a straight line on the centreline of the fuselage. Using dymo tape I then scribed the panel line that exists at the front edge of the main gear bay across to the centreline. This was deepend as per previous methods. I then marked out a line on the side of the fuselage ready for cutting Once the part was cut out of the fuselage and some minor locating lugs inside it were removed, the new part was slid into place. The topside, once again, a perfect fit. There is a large rebate engineered into this part, both top and bottom to allow for a large amount of strength in this join. The new tail fillet. Notice that the rudder on the kit has a straight bottom edge, whereas the new part is kinked where it will meet the rudder. The new part fitted, with a suitable modification made to the kit rudder. The small locating lug on the bottom of the rudder is accommodated in the new part which has a hole that locks into it. The tail fillet also requires some modification of the rear lip of the fuselage Dry fitted. Edited July 28, 2017 by ericg Gazzas, LSP_Kevin, BloorwestSiR and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfighter Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 Looking great so far, Eric! I've always liked the F3, so I am really looking forward to seeing how this one is going to turn out! stusbke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 Terrific work, mate! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyrosjzmichos Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 Great work Eric! How do you make such clean cuts? Any specific saw you're using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 Great work Eric! How do you make such clean cuts? Any specific saw you're using? I use this saw: http://www.umm-usa.com/catalog/tools_JLC.html spyrosjzmichos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 More work. It was now time for the final plug to be fitted to the tail. Once again this part has been nicely designed and is quite strong. The cut needed to be along the first panel line aft of the airbrake wells. Once I worked out where the cut needed to be made, I was left with working out how to mark it out. the fuselage is slanted and also curved, so normal dymo tape or straight edge wasn't going to work. I found that by placing a shim under one half, I was able to make the fuselage perpendicular to my workbench. This then allowed me to position a pencil at the correct height and rotate the pencil around the fuselage to give a line in the correct position. I then very carefully cut along the pencil line and separated each part. The front side of the part fits into the fuselage exactly, and accommodates the undersides of the air brake wells. Now the major parts of the conversion are complete. There are still many more small things to address, including modifying the cockpit, extension of the leading edges of the wing roots, sidewinder rails etc etc. blackbetty, Shawn M, CODY and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark M Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wunwinglow Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 (edited) You will find the bulkhead with the engine fans will beef up the assembly even more. To be honest, the kit parts twanging all over the place was the most challenging part of this project, nothing seemed to stay put! Looking good so far Eric!! Edited July 28, 2017 by wunwinglow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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