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Czech model F-80 C Finished


ericg

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I have been working on this kit for a few days and thought I would put it on here as another WIP. I was waiting until I got to close the fuselage before I did, just so that there was a bit of momentum with the build.

 

The kit exhaust is terrible! it is closed at one end and sits too far inside the fuselage. The real thing actually juts out a bit. Looking through my stash, I whipped up a copy of a Panther exhaust which suited this build very nicely.

 

Kit on the left, better one on the right. (I would have used Harold's exhaust but it was out of stock at the Aussie supplier, and I needed it yesterday!

 

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The new exhaust needed some trimming to fit but it is a vast improvement

 

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Onto the the cockpit. I have had this kit in the stash for a year and it came with the wonderful AMS pit. (Top job Harold)

 

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The kit comes with an excellent pre-painted photo etch panel, which works very well with the AMS pit.

 

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The seat: Will benefit from some placards once I have finished the exterior

 

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Almost button up time. To minimise the weight of the model, I ground approx 10% of the weight of each fuselage half from the area aft of the main undercarriage line (the kit plastic is quite thick). The benefit of this is that I was able to add only a small piece of lead to the inside of the nose cone. I taped the model together and test fitted it and added only enough weight until the model was able to tip itself back onto its nose wheel from being pushed down onto its tail. Once the wheels are flattened to add the weight effect, this will further push the pivot point aft, helping out a bit more.

 

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Edited by ericg
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The intakes....The instructions call for a method totally opposite to what you see here. Basically, I sawed through the piece that joins both intakes and then glued each intake together as seperate units, which makes the construction of each very simple and easy to make smooth.

 

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The young fella is learning pretty quick.

 

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3 days progress!

 

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I like it. Good work and your handling the probs like a pro. I have this kit and the t-33 I'd like to build. Good luck and your young helper can learn a lot.....Harv :popcorn:

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Hi Eric, looking good as usual. Before you get to the painting stage you might want to move the wing refueling points further inboard by about 1cm to the other side of the adjacent panel line. In their current incorrect position (as originally moulded) they interfere with the large USAF marking on the top wing surface.

 

Regards

 

Mike

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  • 3 months later...

So I usually get to a certain stage with my models and then put them aside for one reason or another, usually because I lose interest of just need a fresh set of eyes on the Work in Progress.

 

I put down the Meteor for a while and decided to re-visit this model, as it wouldn't need too much work to start getting it ready for paint. As it was going to be a bare metal paintjob, the underlying surface has to be absolutely shmick, as any imperfections will stand out from a mile away. A few hours of checking panel lines, rescribing and fixing flaws had this ready for the alclad paint.

 

I gave the primed model a good once over with 1500 grit sandpaper, followed by a polish with black foam similar in texture to the stuff that Aires uses to pack some of their resin parts in. This gave the model a super smooth surface. I also noticed that by polishing the model with the foam it had built up a number of fine particles on the surface that had been attracted there though static electricity. Once I blew these particles away, the model was ready for paint and I reckon that the alclad adhesion to the surface of the model has been the best yet (maybe the static electricity had something to do with it?)

 

I am trying a different approach to doing bare metal, similar to how I did the cowling on this model, but with a twist....

 

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I haven't gone down the traditional path of applying a gloss black coat first and have not preshaded the model.

 

Anyway, I layed down a coat of Alclad Aluminium. 12-15 PSI, Wet action on the trigger and light misting coats did the trick.

 

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Once this was dry after 10 minutes, I wet sanded the first coat with 4000 grit Micromesh.

 

Next up, I have mottled Alclad Polished aluminium all over the model to texture the panels.

 

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After 5 minutes I then got out the dremel and started polishing the paint using the cloth wheel at 6000 rpm. I have polished each panel in a different direction to its neighbour to break up the textures in the alclad. May seem like a crazy Idea but it works and the alclad loves being polished.

 

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Two Korean War warriors looking forward to the Display cabinet.

 

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