Dragon

More.
 

 

 

 

Finally done...kit is the old Hasegawa Sabre, which had some issues--not the least of which was a -40 wing which required some surgery to make the kit an accurate -30.  Details include Eduard PE and AMS cockpit details.  Decals are from MAV Decals--he very kindly increased some 1/48th decals to 1/32 so I could have more accurate markings.    Base is that AK Interactive concrete stuff--I really like it!
 
Anyway, enjoy!
 

 


 

Hi all
well this is my first posting on LSP 
Here is revell’s boxing of the kinetic Hawk T.2 
I started this back in may and finished at the end of September 
Built pretty much out of the box I did purchase resin replacement seats but they were to wide to fit into the cockpit tub 
so used the kit seats and photo etch belts instead 
Tamiya paints used throughout 
I thoroughly enjoyed this build despite some fit issues 
thanks for looking and enjoy 
 
 
 
 

Had that problem too…..decisions decisions hmmmmm which one….oh hell, bought them both 

This kit has been on the shelf of doom for awhile...but hey, I got inspired and am making progress.   This is the old Hasegawa kit.  Amazing how good a rep it had back in the day but it was NOT an easy build, even with a bunch of resin and PE added.
 

Covid 19, holidays and illness have hampered me somewhat of late, however, some progress has been made (ejection seat completed). 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Derek

OMG, I forgot about those parts!!!   Actually, I'm going to take a crack at installing the outer wings in the folded position.   No idea if it's going to work, that will be the last part of this build.   Two reasons, first just because it's something different and second, this beast is big!   Folded wings will save a decent amount of shelf space.    We'll see how it goes. 

Thanks for the feedback gents.    Work continues, although at a slow pace.   I wasn't happy with some of the wiring for the WSO's upper instrument panel, the material I used for wiring seemed a bit too thick in some areas.   I removed those sections and replaced with thinner diameter lead solder and for a few smaller lines, some fine copper wire.   I also added more details on the upper aft bulkhead of the WSO's cockpit.   These include the cast metal hook that protrudes vertically next to where the canopy jack will be installed.   This hook engages a "roller" on the aft canopy interior to assist with locking it in place.   Also added was the grey circular fixture on the aft bulkhead.   This was a flexible rubber mating surface for the aft canopy inflatable seal.  Lastly, I added a few more electrical lines and removed a couple that I wasn't happy with.   
 
All in all, I'm content with the way things look.  Certainly looks better than the barren areas that Tamiya provided.   I'll probably add a few extra bits but after that, the next area of focus will be the interior of the fixed canopy section between the pilot's and WSO's cockpits.   As always, if anyone has some decent references for this portion of the aircraft, please feel free to post them.
 
One self-criticism.  I'm not thrilled with the two-layer WSO's IP looks.  I used both the kit parts, in retrospect, I should have tossed the outer section and just added the Quinta bits to the backing portion.  The only redeeming part is that with the mid-canopy section in place, this area isn't quite as visible. 

 

 
This picture shows the aft canopy locking mount and air line connection a bit better. 

 

 

 
Thanks for passing by folks! 

How about SEAD as a theme?  Any aircraft equipped to or engaged in attacks on enemy anti-air defenses.  You could do anything from a B-17 or P-47 attacking German AAA positions during Operation Market Garden to a modern EA-18G, with loads of possibilities in between.

More underwing stuff being added.   Both drop tanks are installed (see previous post way back on my painting and detailing).   I grunged up the bottom of both of them with some Flory washes.   Also added one of the nose gear doors.   Used a bit of lead wire to replicate the power cable to the lights, still need to add the linkages that secure the door to the nose-gear.    
 

 

 

 
This picture really demonstrates what a beast the F-4 was.   I'm surprised it was able to fly with all this stuff hanging off the aircraft. 

 

 
That's it for now, thanks for all the feedback, see you next time! 

Decal work is 95% complete.   The Fundekals decals went on perfectly, they are thin, no overlap of film and tighten down nicely with Micro Sol/Set.    A bit disappointed with this set though, for some reason they neglected to provide the ejection seat warning triangles, so I was forced to go with the pretty crappy Tamiya decals.   Also noted that the "P" in the tail code was painted on via a stencil, with the gaps not being touched up, as such I had to cut the solid "P" decal apart to replicate the real thing.   Also noted a few errors in the instructions.  Not the end of the world but not what I've come to expect from Fundekals either.   
 
Anyway, the good news is that unlike the bottom that probably had a few hundred maintenance and warning markings, the folks who hastily repainted the upper surfaces in the SEA camouflage scheme (most of the painting was done by subcontractors at Clark AFB in the Philippines) had very few markings.   The only one's present were the aircraft data info and the ejection seat and rescue markings on the forward nose.    Works for me, after spending a multiple days on the bottom, I'm fine with only a few decals topsides.    After the decals had dried, I used some Flory wash on a few of the access panels.   I still need to hit the model with some Dullcoate but I'm pretty happy with my progress.    
 

 

 

 
Note the mix of very light grey and white codes.   This aircraft was transferred from the "Triple Nickel" 555th TFS (FY) to the 497th TFS (FP).   Apparently by the time of the transfer, the USAF had standardized on white codes  The reason for the mix of grey and white "last three" serial numbers is anyone's guess! 

 
Still need to add the hydraulic pressure gauge in that rectangular recess above the jet nozzle.   I plan on toning down some of the panel lines a bit.  That's the great thing about Flory's stuff, you can remove it quite easily. 

 
Note the stencil-style "P".   Surprised that Fundekals missed this but a very easy fix.   Note also that the vertical stabilizer is just resting in place.   It will be glued on at the very end of the build, so I can continue to easily turn the model over to access the bottom. 

 
I guess that's it for now, thanks for checking in! 
 
 
 

John here is another F-4C photo, note it doesn't have the IR sensor under the nose, the external tank looks white, AIM-9s, AIM-7s and a CBU-24 on the c/l MER:
 

 
Jari

Great work! 

Another brief update.    On the AIM-7's, I've decided to tone down the scratches on the fins.   I think I went a bit heavy on the weathering.   
 
Speaking of weathering, I'm plugging away on two of the dirtiest parts of the jet - the main landing gear assemblies.  Between grease from lubricating the various linkages, hydraulic drizzles, greasy handed mechanics and copious amounts of brake dust, these things got pretty nasty.   Even in peacetime, on operational jets, the gear was somewhat grubby but in war time, with a high mission tempo and the jets sitting out in 100-degree sun or tropical monsoon downpours, it was very unlikely that the hard-working wrenches would spend much time keeping the landing gear clean.    Here's a nicely maintained example but you can still see various bits of grime and brake dust on the wheel hub and tire itself.
 

 
Here is where I'm currently at.   

 
So I think I'm going to dial back a bit of weathering on the tie-down rings at minimum   The hubs will remain as is.   The brakes generate massive amounts of heat and soot, so I think this area will remain untouched, aside from a bit of clean up on the tires (brake dust is simply brick-colored pastels, brushed on).   I'll circle back with an update once they are cleaned up and installed. 
 
On an unrelated note - if anyone has some good, detailed pictures of the early AIM-9 rails that didn't have the "spacers" to move them further out from the pylons, please feel free to share.   The early jets had the rails fixed directly against the pylons, which prohibited any ordinance from being carried.   Later on, a mod was introduced to add spacers to move the rails outwards.    Here is a nice picture that shows the early mounting, courtesy of the Fundekals instructions.  Note that the rails were  also angled downwards a bit 

 
That's it for now, happy Friday folks. 
 

Thanks for sharing your pics with us!

Thanks for sharing your pics with us!

Thanks for sharing your pics with us!

Hello guys, one of the icons of the second war in my opinion...
 

 


 
 

For those on the Book of Face, they have a page set up and there's a ton of pics there. Also, I'll be at the 10:00 session on painting USN aircraft...look for the tall dork wearing a CU hat!
-Peter

LOTS of grand LSPs here!
 
Much more later as they even had to put at least 1 over flow table for the LSPs
 

Tamiya F-4C with a bit of scratch building, AIMS Mk 5 seats and Quinta IP's. 
 

 

Thanks Niels. Might have to get one.
 
Excuse my foot.
 

 

 
Dan

I've spent quite a bit of time on the nose. Getting the windscreen to fit well takes a while, plus adding the windscreen vent and radome latches is also a bit of work.
 
I've tried to replicate the sand-blasted appearance of the radome including the woven effect here and there. Also note that I had to paint the areas of the to be applied decals gray else the stenciling would turn out brown.
 
Cheers,
 
Marcel
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Ok, I am nearly done with bomb racks.   1 TER and 1 MER are pretty much complete. 
 
It's not perfect but it's a long way beyond the simplistic kit parts.   By my count, I've added 51 extra bits to this assembly, just a mix of thin lead wire and various diameters of styrene rod.     I remember when I was building full models with less than that number of parts! 

 

In looking at these pictures, I think I'll trim down the bolts sticking out of the sway braces.   Don't like the way they look.  I painted them with Testors Gunmetal but I'm not happy with the color either, so that will get changed.   And it looks like I need to do a bit of touchup paintwork.   Will it ever end???   
 
Here's the finished TER.

 
Here's how 3 of my M117's will look.   The resin set comes with optional fuze extenders, so I think I'll add those for a bit of visual interest.   This picture, although of an F-100, shows how filthy the weapons pylons got, also shows those roughly painted red numbers that seem to be present on many TER's, MER's and pylons, regardless of aircraft type.   

Regarding the fuze extenders, I'm unable to tell if those two raised rings on them are mating sections of pipe or are just bands to secure the thin arming wire that runs from the fuze itself back to the pylon.   Any ideas? 
 
So that's it for today.  No idea what my next step will be on this build.   I could distract myself with building up and painting the remaining M117's or go to work on the remaining steps needed for the underside.   We'll see.    

Update- I've spent the last few modeling sessions working on the TER / MER bomb racks.   As mentioned, my subject is going to have an MER on the centerline with 4-5 750 lb bombs and a TER on the port inner pylon with 1 or 2 similar weapons.   The Tamiya racks are "ok".   They seem to be properly dimensioned, which it sounds like the nice looking Brassin resin ones are not.  However, the details on them are pretty basic.    They also had the leading edges of each lower bomb rack vertical.   All the pictures I was able to find show these racks with a sloped aerodynamic fairing (although I'm not sure how aerodynamic you could possibly make these things).   See below for a good example on a TER.

 
I figured Mr. T screwed up his research and I'd have to scratch build this leading edge.   I completed my work just at the same time Jari / "Finn" came to my rescue with some great pictures that showed that racks with the vertical leading edge were actually somewhat common.  See one of his pictures below. 

 
If you are interested in this subject, you can check out the rest of the thread here:  
 
 
So I've got two racks with slanted edges and two with the vertical.   I'm not 100% happy with my work so I decided to build up the remaining two racks as well.   I came to the conclusion that I like the straight-edge TER better, so I started adding some extra details.

 

 
First off - this rack is very much a work in progress still.   I've got some touchup painting to do and I've still got to add some small dia styrene rod to replicate the bolts and pads on the sway braces.   Aside from that, here is what I added for details (this list will also apply to whatever MER I opt to go with):
 
Thinned out the inside of the aerodynamic nose housing.   It's aft portion is visible (barely), and the walls were much too thick.  I hollowed out the rear and bottom faces of each individual rack.   Nothing close to what the real thing looks like (on some of the racks, I didn't bother with the bottom faces because they would not be visible after I mount a bomb).    I also hollowed out the space between the vertical mounting strips between the top of the rack and the bottom of the TER body (if that makes any sense, see the picture just below that shows what I'm trying to describe). I hollowed out the two pylon attachment brackets on the top of the TER I thinned the sway braces, just note that I'll be cutting off that little rod of styrene on the bottom of some of these once I figure out if it's needed to assist with securing the resin M117's.   Tamiya doesn't include the firing cylinders or the electrical cord that runs from the body of the TER to the backside of each individual rack.  They do provide 2 of the 3 "nubs" on the TER body where the cable connects to, but they are in the wrong position, so I cut them off and replaced them with tiny sections of 1.2 mm plastic rod that I very carefully drilled out and glued in place. The firing cylinders consist of a couple of diameters of plastic rod, with the larger end drilled out.  I used fine lead wire for the cable itself.    I hollowed out the rear face of the rack and added a couple of tiny switches.    Here is the real thing (on an MER but a TER is identical in this area).  This picture (thanks again Jari) also shows the electrical cable / firing cylinders and the bolts on the sway braces that I still need to add.  I could have done a better job on this section, but my mantra is that if it won't be extremely visible on the finished model - which in this case it won't - I just do enough work to show the basics. 
 
 I hit the TER with a wash to bring out some of the details and dirty it up (these racks tended to get filthy in service).   I then added a few decals from the spares box.   Note that the red number on the nose of the TER was intentionally misaligned.   Whatever this number means, it seems that most of the time, it was sloppily applied in the field. Last I replicated the chipped paint on the nose of the TER.   This area got weathered heavily, see below:
On a side note - This great picture (thanks yet again Jari) nicely shows the difference between the camouflage light grey on the pylon and the gloss white of the TER.  Some folks have said that the underside camo was no different than flat white, but this picture shows otherwise. 
 
So that's it for my TER so far.   Just to see how it looks, I positioned one of my M117's that are still also a work in progress against the lower rack just to see how it looks.  That's a big bomb!   Speaking of - I've got a lot of work to do on these bombs, I know I have to clean up the gap between body and tail fin housing also have to add some decals, fuses, safety wires, etc.  

 

 
Finally - here are the other three racks still on the production line:

The TER is headed to the spares box, I'm not sure which MER I'll use.   Kind of leaning towards the one with the slanted leading edges but there is still some cleanup required on the scratchbuilt fairings.  We'll see.
 
Anyway - my apologies for the very long-winded post.   If anyone actually made it all the way through, thanks for stopping by!