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Hi Mike, I probably will not have to glue them, but I think I will need to add some small wedges to get firmly stabilize them and get the masts close to the correct rake. Thank you for the nice words! Ernest

Great progress, Thai. Will you have a complete airframe to show at IPMS Houston or just the wings?

AFAIR the discoloration on Mike’s pics is caused by heat, NOT smoke.

Wow. I'm spechless! Your weathering technique is absolutely gorgeous! It's going to be a true masterpiece and pride of any collection!

Thanks Paolo, that's the main reason I stuck him in there. I've always been impressed with size of this bird.

There were things other than exhaust that came out of those openings. Radials being oilier than inlines, they blew a fair amount of smoke and heat. Spyro's portrayal could be considered somewhat exaggerated, but it 'could' have been the result of some prior damage in the engine/engine area. ...and then there's artistic license

I’ve now masked and painted radios and floor using Tamiya tire black, as well as misc wall details. I’m hoping to wrap this up tonight or tomorrow so I can get the fuselage halves zipped up. That may be a bit overly optimistic, as I still yet have to add all of the tiny Barracuda stenciling and placards, which I hope will add some real "zing". We’ll see.

yeah I was the other way around, trying to convert the A-37 into T-37 just to find out that they're completely different. I swear they look the same man

oops I pressed the wrong button. In the end you can see render of the fixed wingtip. Can't promise that I'll have the 5W and 5N for the show but I'm trying

Hi guys, a small update Thanks for TimNT's recommendation I fixed the horizontal tail and elevator to look more "square" on the tip. Disregard the wonky outer end of the elevator, I've been experimenting with a new resin and it's kinda shitty. A lot of people in the 3D printing community recommended the Sunlu ABS-like resin so I've been trying it out while I'm AWOL from this site. I don't really like it bth, so I'm doing so preliminary prints with it without the full detail to get a hang of it. Not ideal for scale model I'd say, using up the last bit of it then I'll do maintenance on my printers, change the FEPs, and reprint the whole thing in the original 8K resin which seems to be better. Anyway, some pics of the wing with most of the surface details on minus small bits here and there. I did correct the wingtip tho, it turned out too rounded on the leading edge side, not a hard fix. I'm waiting for the 8K resin to arrive then I'll print the whole thing for y'all to see, hope I can run it in time to show off at IPMS Houston's Model Mania the next Saturday. I'll give y'all update next week if it's a go or not so if you're in the area you can come and take a look of it in person.

yeah I'm not planning to do a conversion but a full kit

Completely stunning and gorgeous! I love your attention to the details that only an engineer would know, spot and look out for. Fascinating. I think this will be the definitive Lightning build when done, just superb to follow Cheers Anthony

I think a certain David Cyster may disagree https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/236471/ Having heard him give a talk about this flight, it is all the more impressive. Back to the model, though, great start.

Hahaha, I probably do already! Seriously though, this is totally unbelievable skills in action. I have read and re-read this update about 3 times and studied all your details. The level of detail going in is astonishing and I had no idea this was possible at such a level and on one of my all time favorite airframes....spectacular and humbling all at once! Now enough of the mushy stuff....cant have you feeling too big headed back to it.... Cheers Anthony

Wow!

How about Tamiya white primer straight from the can? Alain

So interesting! I have that kit! Alain

If you want to feel better about that, just check out any of my builds. Kev

Yeah, the tape impressed or left residue yet again, despite a nearly 7 day dry time. Thanks for the support guys around the WIP thing. I know we all like them, however, I'm not sure if I can keep embarrassing myself with this recent string of fails.

Tony…outstanding. I notice your parts don’t show any striations, just perfect surfaces. What determines that finish? The 8K resin, is that stronger than the 4K?

Gravity can be a blessing and a curse all at the same time - darn the luck - great work though on the first effort!

You'll be able to get it back on track, I'm sure of it Matt

Well, I knew it was going too well when I got to the decal stage of the 131 pod.... Disaster this evening. I finished applying the decals and had put a coat of Micro Sol on them to let them set.... Was admiring my work when all of sudden, slippery fingers showed himself and the pod, fully assembled and almost finished flew out of my hands and landed on the concrete floor and after a brief noise that sounded like several beetles being stepped on, I had instant AN/ALQ-131 kit. As I opened my eyes and looked down, I saw pieces of resin all over the floor... I immediately got down on my hands and knees (and at my age, that is saying something by itself!) and began to pick up the pieces. What you'll see below is my attempt at resurrecting the pod (unsuccessfully), the dust specs are from the damn floor. I could've repaired it but I don't have another set of decals to use.... Thank God Sprue Brothers has them in stock. When it gets here, I'll give it another go. Until then, I did have some success with the ECM pod pylon, a couple of shots of that toward the end.... I did replace the sway brace stabilizers with brass rod, plastic hex rod, and punched plastic dics. I broke the ones that came on the sway braces while test fitting the ECM pod to the pylon. The decal on the pylon is completely fictional (and home-made) but is based on images in Jake's book on the F-16C/D.

This build is still alive but moving along slowly. I had a health issue that blind sided me, and my build motivation has been lacking since. When I do find some motivation, I’ve been working on filling and sanding seams, sink marks, and uneven joints. I decided to just paint the cockpit and seat black based on info I had found on the web and from the AMS (B&B Resin Design) Sabre upgrade set. Once I get things cleaned up I'll add the resin nose correction. Hopefully, the drive to build returns, and I can get this build done. Thanks for looking in Mike

I posted the photos in the RFI folder, but I forgot to insert them here too, to complete this wip. I'll do it now, forgive the confusion... cheers, Paolo