Ryan

Thanks for sharing your design progress, looks very nice! Ryan

Glad you like it, more coming soon.

Didn't immediately notice the lowered G-string on the babe silhouette....nice touch. I thought if I had a nickle for every time I came home from work and the misses was in that exact pose........ Just waiting.

Welcome aboard Mark, glad to have you!

Thanks, I have pondered weather or not to get them. The charm of the white resin is quite alluring, it would be nice not to paint them. On the inside of your intake set is there a clear line to mask for the grey portion of the intake? Look's like i'll be getting the Eduard exterior and cockpit set, that hell hole cover is a work of fiction in the box. Ryan

Thanks Mike, yes the box decals will be used. Harvey, glad your still with me! Ryan

Evening builders, got some shots of the cleaned up SH engines....quite nice! The units are a (3) piece affair molded in a slightly tough resin. I like the way it sands, it seems a bit more dense than other resins and the toughness give you an extras swipe or two before you taken off too much! The AB part is poured from the flame holder so there is some flash to remove to expose the holders...no big deal to block sand away. The extreme end to the GE engine is well molded and Is visible through the holders. image by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr image by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr image by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr This last pic illustrates the massive upgrade the SH set provides over the kit exhaust.....just no contest! The SH unit looks like it could dilate and produce thrust! image by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Ryan

Looks good man....still waiting on mine!

Maybe reduce that pin that is on the yoke to allow the rim and tire to be inserted easier with less bending.

Glue Strut and clean it up. Glue up wheel and hub and clean it up. Insert Wheel into yoke, and glue it in, by trying to bend the strut. Paint whole thing at once. (Brush paint rubber with Vallejo Dark Rubber, leaves no brush strokes and dries flat) Or Clean wheel up glue it to one side of the yoke, the add the other side and clean up the strut...still paint it as one unit. Ryan

Coming along, how is the quality of the intakes?

Wow 3 pages and not a plastic part snipped! Let's change that right now! Ok I will start at the noisy end and get the rear ready for the Sierra cans. First up was gluing the Jig in place that holds the exhaust nozzles at the correct angle onto the lower wing part. Sierra makes this easy by incorporating a locating pin on the jig that locates the part exactly where it needs to be. So easy. image by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr image by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr image by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr Next the upper fuselage was assembled and the lower tabs modified to allow the new engines to fit. I removed about 1-11/16" from the inboard side of the tabs. image by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr That's it for now, more soon. Ryan

Here is some inspiration. (its not my model) image by The 3rd Placer, on Flickr

Good man

One caution in doing that trick is you may end up with too much dihedral, so just watch closely. Ryan

Ye old 72nd scale trick....... HTH

Good idea Tony, or take a gander at the 1/48 resin offerings.

I won't be, just wasn't sure who had made a set for this kit. Ryan

Glue the tops of the wings to the fuselage sides first, then glue the bottom wing to the finished fuselage wing assembly. You'll get a tighter joint that way. And welcome to the forum. Ryan

Yeah man just found your build and signed up.

BBetty, the pit was from Super Bug...now I remember. http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/thread/1305054324/Trumpeter+F-18+E,F,G,+1-32+scale

signed up, nice mods so far. Ryan

Thanks Gary, I'm OK with the black, just harder to make out the details and shapes on the sidewalls.

Yes there is a aftermarket pit. Cant think of the name right now...it's not a big name producer like Aires etc. The glare shield is too egg shaded also, but I'm OK with the ht. of it. Once you start sanding down the hump it doesn't look as bad. Yes your right about those missing panels up above the CRT displays. I'm suspect of the angle of the side panels also, it just looks off, but in Jake's book you can sort of see the panels are ramped on the sidewall side. So far I have bought the Aires seat and Quick Boost stick for it, still thinking about intakes and exhaust. For now the pit looks like it's all up to the builder! This is a great thread let's keep it going.

Yes the kit has some missing detail, I guess all kits do! To my eye the cockpit looks to tall in relation to the sidewall. In other words if you dry fit the pit in the side walls loo too tall. Also the IP panel could be pushed back a little to get it under the glare shield. Speaking of the IP panel, it has different, refined detail as opposed to the tub. The tub looks more like a toy than the IP panel does. Then there is the out of scale joy stick! Good points are the hell hole cover, it looks like it could be block sanded from below to add screen detail etc. Overall the kit looks like like it will be a fun blank canvas to detail.