Starfighter

VF-33 all they way! You could slightly reduce the size of the scan and cut masks in order to paint correctly sized markings.

It doesn't get any better than this. Just plain stunning.

Brilliant, Eric!

Great choice, Derek .- and Karl's build certainly is a big inspiration! The Skyknight is on my to do list as well!

Could indeed be caused by Z-axis wobble. Whilst the Z-axis upgrade my not be "cheap", it's very reasonably priced and definitely worth the price. It makes the Photon way more versatile and enables you to print more precise and bigger parts! You are welcome! Indeed, one of the best investments I have made so far. Makes your printing life much easier, quicker and less dirty. Thanks Derek! Your post sounds very intriguing - I'd love to see and read more about that! There are indeed more "esoteric" Navy subjects out there. I've got a few ideas in my mind as well...

Printing results are better when parts are angled in 99% of all cases. Details are more crisp and suction is reduced when a part is angled. When printing, one should forget any thought about "waste of material" when it comes to printing angle and supports. The photo below shows the difference between a detailed part printed flat on the left and printed at an angle on the right - the difference is obvious. The part on the left would have been even more crisp with a slightly lower exposure time.

Great model - I'm not into USAAF aircraft but the execution and markings are just stunning. I love it!

Absolutely beautiful, Alain - a very interesting subject, built to the highest standard!

I have spent most of the last evening preparing and assembling the engines, drilled the fixing holes and inserted the fixing pins. This enabled me to temporarily fit the engines to the wings which really gives that “Skywarrior” look to the model. The model also gets more and more difficult to handle due to its sheer size. I need to plan carefully what to do next in order not to make my life more difficult than necessary (which is one of my specialities...). The idea is to complete the engines before putting them aside, then to paint the cockpit floor before starting to design the landing gear. A freshly printed tail rudder is currently curing by the way.

No seat belts in the Eduard set btw? That's pretty ridiculous. Can't understand why Academy included them in the first place - they could just have added it to the PE fret included in the kit.

Hi Thierry, thanks for your kind comment! If you need the FMV parts and MSR/SAiP pod, just drop me a message and I will print a set for you. The ground handling wheels are not for sale at the moment as I would have to slightly revise the files first to make sure they fit without any modification. It's only the axle height of the rear wheels but it has to be done... I can upload the "+" type padeyes, no problem. I have printed them myself for my diorama and did not think about uploading them; the problem is that there is no drill to make correctly sized holes - I think the padeyes have a diameter of 6,4mm in 1/35th scale and I doubt there is a 6,4mm drill available... it was no problem in my case as my carrier deck was CNC machined.

Cheers mate! I have used the AH-1W PE parts for the pedals and seat belts as nothing else was available when I started the model. No idea about the dedicated AH-1Z sets to be honest, but the Eduard cockpit masks are totally useless as perfect masks are included in the kit... Correct seat belts are included in one of the AH-4Z crew sets from Legend as well if I remember correctly.

Here's a quick look at the first and probably only model I have finished in 2020, Academy's excellent 1/35th scale AH-1Z Viper. Probably the best kit I have ever built - excellent surface detail (raised rivets!!), perfect fit. The cockpit is a bit of a letdown detail wise, but nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of effort. Clear parts are a bit of a disappointment as well. The model was published in issue 6/2020 of German magazine ModellFan, so I can just post a minimum of photos at the moment. I am working on a little diorama which I'll show you once it's finished. Just a quick summary of the materials used: Blade fold & blade fold rack by Legend Productions, some PE from Eduard's AH-1W set, Master Model gun, Flying Leathernecks decals, Werner's Wings stencils. MSR/SAIP pod, ground handling wheels, Sidewinder seeker head cover and FMV pods on the tail boom designed & printed by myself. If you have comments, critique or questions, please do not hesitate!

Brilliant job on those rivets, Pete. It's an absolute must for a large scale UH/SH-60. I still think it's an absolute disaster one has to do this kind of work on a kit developed in 2019 - Academy shows how it's done. Keep those updates coming, please! I am desperately waiting for the naval versions...

Depends on your budget and what you'd like to do with the printer, Thomas. I am happy with my upgraded Photon; the Photon S and Elegoo Mars are a bit more expensive and seem to work very well, too. All of them are rather small, so if you want to print large parts, you need to chuck your 3D models into small pieces in order to print them. I think Elegoo will bring a slightly bigger affordable printer onto the market within this year, but I have forgotten the name. All of them are resin printers. I also have an FDM printer, namely a Creality CR-10S. I use it to print very large parts without too many details; one has to play around with settings a lot in order to get decent results with such a budget FDM printer and that's not my strong point. But if it works, you can print parts using ABS or HIPS both of which have pretty much the same characteristics as normal plastic kit parts.