zaxos345

Amazing stuff!!!!! 
 
John

No words...... 
 
John
 
 

I am so jealous of your skills!!!!!!!
I really enjoy to read your posts!!!!
 
John

hey guys
 
bit more done...
 
..I felt bad when Jay asked about detailing the engine as I had done such a rudimentary job on it, so even though very little can be seen, I added what I could..
 

 
the fuselage formers were bulked out with hard foam and all the template outlines blacked out with a sharpie so I can see the sanding thresholds later.. also added some card formers to help shape the exhaust area around the nose..
 

 

 
I made up a 3D part to lock all the features of the wings together with the spars and dihedral on the outer wing panels and made up ribs from 2mm card..
 

 
 

 
..and the wings & airframe start to take shape - it looks like an air racer without the last few ribs and the wingtips..
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
TTFN
Peter

Awesome as always Chuck!!!!
 
John

I am so jealous of your skills!!!!!!!
I really enjoy to read your posts!!!!
 
John

I am so jealous of your skills!!!!!!!
I really enjoy to read your posts!!!!
 
John

Awesome as always Chuck!!!!
 
John

March 31, 2024
 
Painting of the engine is done, but it was a real struggle because I’m so picky.  Painting a jet engine, inside and out, is challenging because of all the metallic and ceramic colors and no two engines are the same- but there are some similarities that you try to replicate.  It’s also very artistic, which can be both fun and frustrating.  I want all of my engines to add to the model, rather than be a liability where “good enough” is never really good enough.
 
Starting with the base (front) of the engine, I painting everything as close to what I could find for reference pics.  This is a combination of dull metal and a whitish ceramic look, which I enhanced with white pastels.  It’s a bit of a shame that you won’t see much of this later, when it’s buried deep inside the fuselage.
 

 
The flame tube was painted black at first, then I shot flat white paint through it from front to back, using a crude zig-zag mask that created irregular dark shadows within.
 

 
Painting the outside petals of the nozzle was the hardest part, because I wasn’t happy with my first two attempts and had to strip everything down and start all over again.  With 3 small pieces of masking tape and 15 petals, that’s 45 bits of tape that had to be applied 3 times!  As I’ve done before, I used an ordinary piece of paper rolled into a tube to hold the nozzle for painting.  Not only does it hold the nozzle, but it also shows where you painted and where you haven't against the white background.
 

 
I looked at countless Pratt and Whitney F-16 engine nozzles as a reference and used this one the most.  Note that the petals have 1 straight edge where the petals overlap, rather than 2 curved ones, which appears to be more common.  This Reskit nozzle seems to be the same.
 

 
A more common pattern of a curve on both edges of the petals.
 

 
The end result, after finally settling on Alclad Durluminum for the main petal color and Alclad Magnesium for the overlap.  I tried a lot of other colors but these two seemed to be the closest to the real deal.  If you look at the nozzles above, they are fairly smooth as Pete pointed out and all that tiny rivet detail is not very obvious.  Instead of filling it all in, I opted to just live with it, because doing so would likely harm the other fine detail that I want to keep.
 

 
Note that the nozzles are not spotless and there is some wear and discoloration here and there.  As I did with my CF-104 build, I decided to use some “Metal Liner” wash to dirty them up a bit.
 

 
I went with “Dark”, because the lighter washes didn’t really show up on the light surface.
 

 
I decided to go light on the wash to give the nozzles some stain, but not too much to overpower the metallic look, especially for small 1/32 scale.
 

 
Painting the insides of the nozzles was also a struggle, because I tried a few new ideas and they all crashed and burned.  What you want is a combination of black and white soot that has a fairly distinctive repetitive pattern, depending on which part of the nozzle petal it’s on.  Make some mistakes, like I did, and you get a combination of white and black in a grey mess, so I had to start all over again and go with something that I know works quite well on these PW100 engines.  Here’s a pic of what I used on the engines of my F-15C Eagle Aggressor 6 years ago.  Small thin strips of styrene, taped to the base of the nozzle along an axis that usually has less white soot than on either side, provide a partial mask when flat white paint is sprayed from the base of the nozzle outward, just like on a real engine.
 

 
The results can be pretty impressive, as shown on this pic I’ve shown at least 100 times here before, because I’m so proud of these nozzles.  Long before ResKit and others created fantastic looking nozzles using 3D printing technology, I made these out of a resin Two Mikes base and 11 Eduard and kit parts per petal.  30 petals combined with the 6 main parts of the nozzles equal 336 parts!  They took me forever to assemble, but I think they were worth it.
 

 
So I did the same thing again, using 0.4 X 2.5MM styrene strips, which fit each petal axis perfectly, they sprayed flat white paint from the rear outward.
 

 
The results, and this time I was very happy with the ending.
 

 

 
Added to the flame tube.  If you squint you might be able to see the dark shadow I created in the tube with that paper mask.
 

 
All engine parts combined so that you can barely see the front of the engine face.  This is really hard to photograph without a special macro-flash.

 
Engine painting done!  Now I’m scratching my head wondering if I’m going to add all those tiny “No Push” and “No Step” placards to the petals and how the heck I’m going to do it?  Maybe tiny strips of decal film?  Stay tuned……
 

 
Cheers,
Chuck

Thanks all. Sorry for the delay - work and such has a knack for interfering with fun stuff. In the interim, I completed the cockpit and integrated it with the fuselage halves. The Zoukei Mura kit has a bunch of additional interior detail that, when the fuselage is buttoned up, one will be able to barely see through the radio compartment access door. I did a fair amount of detailing in there, but really much of it will not be visible. At least it was fun.
 
With the fuselage put together, the empennage was installed and the engine glued to the front. The guns were also glued in (I would have preferred to get aftermarket brass guns, but I'm ok with the result). Mounting the engine in this kit requires great care, but the fit is excellent. With that done, I could then proceed to add wire harnesses and various flexible piping using different thicknesses of lead wire. This was a tedious process, and I only got about a third of the cabling done in a couple of hours. I'm happy with the result, but much more is needed before the engine can be considered completed. 
 

 

 

 

I wish I could ‘ cheat ‘ as well as that.
 
John

Wouldn't say that's cheating Peter, immaculate work and you have definitely mastered 3D printing by the looks of it!
 
Regards. Andy 

Thank you folks - very kind
 
I went to make a basic cockpit tub from 3D and once printed I needed to make some adjustments...
 
while I was at it, I got a bit carried away..
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
still lots to do, but a great canvas, even if it is cheating a bit
 
TTFN
Peter

THAT….is NOT cheating Peter, it’s bloody marvellous. If I had your knowledge and ability with 3D drawing and printing it would open up so many options. And let’s face it, it’s definitely the future for our hobby. 

Outstanding!!!!!!!!! 
Speechlesssss!!!!! 
Out of this planet!!!!! 
Etc..... 
 
John

Another work of art!!!!!!!
 
John

Hello everyone!
Back with another update.
With the painting done I moved on to applying the EagleCals decals.
These were applied directly on the paint without any gloss varnish.
The decals behaved pretty well although some of the roundels did wrinkle in some areas.
Not sure what caused this as this happened both on the flat top surface of the wing as well as on the fuselage sides.
But with a generous application of decal solution, rolling over with a cotton bud and heat from a hair dryer I was able to take care of these.
In hindsight, I should have gone over the recessed panel lines with a scriber as some seemed too shallow under the decals.
After leaving to dry for two days, the decals were sealed with gloss varnish and all details were highlighted with a black wash.
Finally, the whole model was sprayed with matt varnish.
 




















 
Fun fact, I did some online research on the meaning of Daddy Rabbit's impressive collection of mission symbols and here's what I found:
 
Swastikas: 2 air combat kills Top aircraft silhouettes: 20 aircraft destroyed on the ground (strafing)  Bombs: 50 bombing missions Trains: 5 locomotives destroyed Tanks: 4 tanks destroyed Brooms: 8 fighter sweeps Top hats: 15 fighter escorts Rabbits: 9 wag missions (assessing bomb damage under strict orders to not engage any enemy or target of opportunity)
 
Next step, weathering!
My favourite part of any project!!! 
 
 

..teaser...
 

 

 
..the primer was fine when applied over clean fine sanded surfaces and this model has had a LOT of masking so it needed to be
 
getting some stainless steel flying wires etched and a mask for the serial - once thats done it's glamour shot time
 
Now where did I put those Sea Fury drawings...
 
Peter

Thanks Bevan!
 
March 21/24
 
Another quick update while a few things are still clear in my old mind. 
 
Whether to delete one of the front flap “fingers” has bugged me since I made my post above last night.  While I always strive to make my models as accurate as possible, sometimes the effort isn’t worth the reward and in some cases, altering things can look worse, so you wish you hadn’t bothered.
 
One thing that I wanted to do was to leave off the front flaps until after painting, so that I could easily mask off and paint a few small things like the RHAW “beer cans”.  If I just glued them on permanently now, however, filling in the gap for the third finger would be fairly easy and I could re-scribe the panel lines.  I came very close to doing so….
 

 
Before I did that, I thankfully flipped the model over to see what exists for detail underneath.  Here there is a lot more detail and none of it would be easy to fill and recreate, because the kit parts are made so that the flaps can be either raised or lowered, leaving a big gap.  The real wing doesn’t look like this at all and is almost identical to the top.  If it did, I would just fill it, but since it would be a real PITA to modify the kit wing, I’m going to punt and Fuhgeddaboutit!
 

 
For years I have been a bit intimidated by all the F-16 Block variants and what specific details they should all have, including the reinforcement plates that many of them have.  Apparently Block 50 and up variants don’t have them, because they are internal.
 
I have the super thin stick-on set that came with the kit in the upper right, but I also have the thicker Cross Delta set on the left, which thankfully comes with accurate instructions as shown below.  This indicates that I should be using the large fuel tank plate which is actually made from 5 parts (1), the “lawnmower blades” around the front of the vertical stabilizer (2), and a fairly big panel around the nose radar blisters (7), which are RAM panels (Radar Absorbant Material).  Surprisingly to me, the more modern Block 40/42 Vipers have a lot more reinforcement plates as shown.
 

 
My subject, 84-1220, nor 86-1229 have the front plates, which are RAM panels, so it looks like I’m good with using just #1 and #2.
 

 

 
While digging around for reference photos, I stumbled upon pics of a THIRD F-16 Aggressor painted in the digital Ghost Scheme.  It’s another Block 25, 84-1301, and since none of the pics are mine, you can see it here at Jet Photos:
 
F-16 "Ghost" Aggressor, 84-1301
 
Pretty cool.
 
Cheers,
Chuck

Thanks Guys!
 
 
Thanks Mike, it's great to see you follow along again.  Sorry to hear about your friend.  That's brutal.
 
Thankfully after lots of CT Scans and the like, I don't have anything sinister going on, but without going into too much detail, I do have lots of scar tissue due to multiple stomach surgeries after an ordinary appendix removal 3 years ago.  Just bad luck I guess, so we'll see what the future holds for more trips.  I liked your "work smarter, not harder" comment, which I used again at the end of this update.
 
 
March 21/24
 
First a little housekeeping.  I showed above that there are 3 blue hydraulic lines that stick out a bit at the front of the main landing gear, so I tried to create something that was close.  It turns out I have a pic of them, so here they are below.
 

 
 
Duane (chaos07) pointed out above some slight depressions near the canopy hinge, so here’s a pic of the one on the left.  It has since been filled, along with the one on the right.  Thanks Duane!
 

 
The kit parts share many with the Block 50 kit, so some of them need to be modified.  Although the blister removal on the wing roots is in the instructions, here they are again, since they are easily missed.
 

 

 
Here’s a tip that helped me a lot.  The instructions have you join the upper fuselage Part B28 to the rear upper fuselage Part A1 in Step 19 first, then glue the entire upper assembly to the lower fuselage in Step 20.  While this kit is generally excellent, gluing such large mating surfaces all at once is asking for trouble in my mind.  Instead, I glued the rear Part A1 to the lower fuselage first, got things sorted out, allowing the glue to dry and cleaned up, then glued the front Part B-28 to the rest later.  This procedure allowed me to glue all the complicated fitments in a reasonable amount of time without being rushed.  Gluing one big upper assembly to the lower assembly as instructed, would have been very hard to do cleanly.
 

 
I find masking off cockpits and landing gear to be a real PITA, partly because its hard to do cleanly, but also because it must be done right if you want a successful outcome.  There are no real shortcuts, but I have developed a procedure that I’m sure a lot of you guys use as well.  Note that this model is now sitting on the same cardboard box I’ve used for at least 6 different models, using pipe insulation as a soft platform.  The yellow paint is from my Harvard/Texan build 4 years ago, followed by my Special Hobby Tempest Mk V, Italeri CF-104 and my last build of the big 1/24 Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat, which all sat on this same box for much of their assembly and painting.  More on that in a bit.
 

 
I used a small block of foam to fill the cockpit cavity, then ordinary masking tape for the rest, followed by a liberal coat of liquid mask.  The mask holds everything together strongly and covers small edges that tape won’t adhere to.
 

 
When the liquid mask has dried, I apply a few pieces of masking tape, since the liquid mask is tacky and you don’t want it to stick to anything and come off.
 

 
The landing gear bays were a lot harder to do, but I did have the advantage of having a central beam to attach masking materials to, since Part C27 will not be installed until the end of the build, right after the landing gear is installed.
 

 
Again, the voids were filled with custom cut little pieces of foam, followed by masking tape.
 

 
Everything was then toughened up with liquid mask, in this case “Mr Masking Sol neo”, made by Mr. Hobby in Japan.  This is the very best liquid mask I have found, because it’s easy to apply but more importantly, easy to remove as well.  You can’t say that about Micro Mask, which can be almost impossible to remove from small cavities after it dries.
 

 
Again, cover tape to keep the gear bays from sticking to stuff, like my fingers, arms and elbows as I handle the model.
 

 
As much as my cardboard modeling box has served me well for a long time, it was time to “upgrade to a new model”.
 

 
This was created with a small acrylic storage container that was 6 ½” X 12”, cut down to 2 ½” high, then foam pipe insulation was added to the top, for a total cost of about $3.  While I see that many of you use all sorts of contraptions to hold your models, I like this simple box a lot better.  There are no pressure points to rub paint, I don’t have to adjust anything and I can carry my model around safely to and from my paint booth without fear of it falling off something.  I just cover the box with a microfiber towel and paint away.
 

 
You can flip the model around from top to bottom with ease, because there’s always a position somewhere that fits.
 

 
One thing I’ve noticed in my pics above is that the leading edge flaps are usually up a bit when parked.  According to Jake’s book, this is normal for parked Vipers, which are up about 2 degrees, so I will be gluing the flaps accordingly.  Right now they are just dry fit.
 

 
The other thing I found in Jake’s book and pointed out by Pete Fleischmann earlier, is that Block 25/30/32 jets have only 2 “fingers” that connect the flaps to the wing at the most inboard position.  This kit has 3 fingers, just like the Block 50 kit, so it’s obviously a holdover not easily cut off like the blisters.  If I filled the outboard finger it would be more accurate, but I’m not sure if this is “working smarter or harder”, since I kind of like the look of it, even if it’s wrong.  I’ll think about it.  Any thoughts?
 

 
One thing that I did add was the so-called “ECS Exhaust”, which was basically missing from this kit.  What prompted me to look for it, was because there was a small depression at this location, that I thought might be a flaw of the plastic.  Checking my Block 50 kit, it’s much more pronounced, although quite small.  There’s a great picture of it on Page 65 of Jake’s book with a half shroud forward from the hole in the fuselage, so I fashioned something similar out of styrene.
 

 
So that’s about it for now.  I still have lots to do and then there’s that super complicated paint job!  I sure hope it turns out OK.
 

 
Cheers,
Chuck
 

Awesome Andreas!!!! 
 
Kohn

Awesome Andreas!!!! 
 
Kohn

Interior mostly painted and weathered. I kept weathering to a minimum. That was hard. …
Kelik 3D printed instruments are a joy to use and fit perfectly. 
Andreas

I am using AM open cowl flaps and I found some room for slight improvement by adding flap mechanism cables made from stretched sprue:
 


 

Out of this planet work!!!!!! 
Peter, jaw dropping built!!!! Totally speechless!!!! 
 
John