amurray

I am trying to sand the halves of two resin wingtip tanks. The four pieces came attached to resin pour blocks. I sawed off the resin pour blocks resulting in a rough surface. I then taped sandpaper to my glass work surface and sanded each of the four pieces, sanding each while holding it upright. The goal was to have a flat surface on each respective half to mate to its corresponding half. I was relatively successful with one tank (2 halves). The other though is slightly higher in the center than on the edges and one edge is lower than the edge on the opposite side of the tank. I can't get them right. I am evidently exerting some subtle extra pressure in some places than others or am holding the pieces at an imperceptible (to me) angle with the result being mating surfaces that are not flush. How does one produce flush (flat) surfaces in such cases? Thanks, Art

Harold, PM sent. Art

The Trumpeter MiG-21F-13 has a nice set made even better (spectacular even) by the Eduard MiG-21F-13 etched brass detail set. See: http://www.largescaleplanes.com/articles/article.php?aid=2044

Very well done interesting scheme! Good paint job and your added parts make it better. Thanks for sharing.

I have a hacksaw at the ready!

That is a beauty! From your build description I was not prepared for how good the finished model looks. Wonderful paint job to boot. Does this company make any other kits?

I love the Hunter and have this kit and the Flightpath detail sets in my stash. Following this one closely. Good work!

You don't have yours yet? Ordered mine yesterday from Sprue brothers for only 27.95.

Kev, I did prime the tail sections and then sanded the primer off to find a few imperfections. After I put filler underneath the tail section I'll prime it and start putting all the sub-assemblies in place. The markings (painted and decals) will be the next hard thing to tackle. Sorry it has taken me so long but a number of things have gotten in the way of my model building (13 surgeries in 36 months with 7 of them on my left hand). Plus, I'm among the slowest builders of models anyway. "The [contemplated] perfect is the enemy of the good." Thanks for hanging in and following.

I glued two pieces of Evergreen plastic onto the vertical stabilizers for the tabs. A piece of Evergreen strip drilled out serves as the tail formation light housing. I attached the tail, glued it and will fair it in next. The top is a near perfect fit, the undersides have gaps but they are even gaps and will fill nicely.

Very well done! Thanks for sharing.

Brilliant! I am envious of your ability to envision this project in not only choosing an interesting subject but in having a mental image of the pieces of various kits needed. Your workmanship is excellent. Also, as a longtime modeler, I appreciate your use of whatever materials are available such as your plastic pen.

I installed the inserts and then cut out a piece of .010 plastic sheet for the heat shield and shaped it to fit around the tailpipe and inside the inserts above the tailpipe. It is a difficult shape to reproduce as the photo shows. (Does it also show a ghost from our political past? Spooky!) "TRICKY DICK" himself??? Makes sense. He was a CA Congressman at the time and Lockheed was in CA. Note how razor thin are the flying surfaces.

Striking paint job! Love the detail also!

I cut out a piece of Evergreen plastic tube to form the distinctive curved section of the tail above the tailpipe. I cut out 2 inserts that will be glued to each side and then filled to complete the shape above the tailpipe. (The dog hair has no use. It is Freckles' contribution to the project!) Next I formed two pieces that will be immediately fore and aft of the horizontal part of the tail. These were cut out of the same plastic card as the horizontal tail so the fit would be flush. Leveling the tail was going to be a challenge until I purchased an acrylic model-building stand from a fellow club member. The stand is heavy enough to support the largest models and can be easily adjusted so that one can make exact measurements. After marking the center of the fuselage and the three pieces I glued the fore and aft pieces to the built-up tail area. I did not glue the horizontal piece because I next had to glue the two vertical stabilizers to the horizontal tail. Milliput SuperFine White faired in the rough work around the tail followed by a lot of sanding and Red Glazing Putty. I rough sanded all this to get a feel for where I was. I glued a piece of "I" channel to the inside of each vertical stabilizer. The horizontal stabilizer will fit into each "I" channel. Where the aileron meets the "I" channel I removed the top part of the "I" to make it a [ so the ailerons would have room to travel. Also the rudder control cables will be inside the remaining channel. The moment of truth arrived when I glued the vertical pieces to the horizontal stabilizer. With the help of a 90 degree X-Acto Precision Edge the fit was perfect. I removed the horizontal/vertical structure and started refining the tail structure with more Milliput and Red Glazing putty. To fair the structure back into the fuselage towards the front I staggered 4 pieces of .010 plastic in a stack, liberally soaked them with liquid glue and as they became very soft shaped them as best as possible with the flat side of a #11 X-Acto blade. Red Glazing Putty then filled in the remaining holes. I have used this method before and find it works very well. Now for the test fit! Now all the hard work is starting to take a recognizable shape!

I have to sit down and take in all this.......................................for about three years!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL!!!

Gives new meaning to "a bird in flight." Looks like its flapping its wings. It looks worse in person.

I too started this kit recently and stopped dead in my tracks. My wings were so warped they looked like a cross section of waves on the ocean. They are not warped in one direction but two! Some guys today gave me so good ideas on dealing with the warped parts.

Having built this kit myself I have great appreciation for the wonderful job you've done!

Lots of things interfering with my working on this. Sorry! Re-Scribing the Wing Root Panel Lines I won't make any photos of the before and after of my panel line corrections at the wing root because others have done a better job of it, specifically see Jean-Luc Formery's excellent description of the necessary panel line corrections along with his build article at: http://aeroscale.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=162203&ord=&page=1 But I would like to share my method of re-scribing panel lines. I've long used label tape to mark the locations of new panel lines and as a guide to scribing new lines. Label tape is flexible enough to follow contours but rigid enough to maintain the integrity of the edges of the tape while scribing. Label tape has one drawback - its adhesive will sometimes give way and the tape will pop loose. Not a problem unless one is right in the middle of scribing a new line. To solve this problem I first lay down a layer of yellow Tamiya modeling tape. I try to lay it down so its edge is where I wish to scribe the new line but it doesn't have to be exact. I then lay the label tape over the Tamiya tape exactly where I wish to scribe the new line. the label tape adheres to the Tamiya tape better than it does to the plastic. If the Tamiya tape peeks out from under the label tape it won't matter as the scriber I use will cut the Tamiya tape easily. Why not use double-sided cellophane tape under the label tape instead of Tamiya tape? The double-sided tape is too thick to cut as easily as the Tamiya tape if it must be cut. I have used various scribers. The perfect scriber is my Holy Grail. I recently bought a set of UMM-USA scribers from UMM-USA at a local hobby show. They are unique and do an outstanding job. But a word of warning: They are awkward to handle and are EXTREMELY sharp. Tail Update The built up fairing for the tail looks very rough at this point. (Understatement, huh?) I'll next putty it, sand it and form the curve on the rear of the tail. I'll then fit the horizontal stabilizer to the fairing. The next set of photos of it should look a lot better.

Very, very nice model! Appreciate the detailed photos and excellent build commentary.

That is too cool for words! Good work on an interesting subject.

Kev, Thanks for the tips. I'll try the Gunze Mr. Metal if I can find them. I've found most metallizer paints (Alclad. Model Master SNJ, etc.) to be too thin to brush paint. They just "slide" off the part, leaving a slight translucent coverage with the bulk of the paint settling on the larger part's surface. The acrylic paints don't adhere well when brush painting, especially the metallic colors. They are too thick and thinning seems to cause them to do the same as the metallizer paints. The enamel paints I find to be too thick. They adhere but are too thick on the surface of the part. Thinning the enamels is a hit or miss proposition for me. My best results have come from the old Floquil Railroad colors but still struggle with them. As with everyone else in the hobby, I'm looking for the ultimate "perfect solution" to various construction difficulties. Thanks again. Art

This has been an exceptional build! I still am amazed at your detail painting of features molded to the surface of parts. How much do you thin paint when doing brush detail work?