Dragon

February 16/24
 
Not a lot of modeling progress, mostly because the ejection seat is a model on its own and takes a long time if you want it to look right.  With that in mind, I bought another Aires seat because the cockpit kit seat was broken and my repair of one of the corners just didn’t look right.  This is the so-called Type A seat and as you can see, other than different colored resin, it’s identical to the cockpit set seat.
 

 
Before I show anything new, its best that I review what you need to do to the seat in order for it to fit on the Aires cockpit set seat rail properly.  This is what you get with no instructions as to how to get the rail past that valve-like feature at the back.
 

 
After scratching my head for a bit, I realized that you cut off the valve, because the seat rail has a replacement valve, albeit bigger.  Further, in order for the seat to fit low enough, the bottom needs to be sanded down, completely eroding off the lower control as shown.  None of this in in the instructions.
 

 
The correct position of the seat rail has the valve assembly attach to the middle-rear of the Flight Control System Recorder, while the back plate lines up with the triangular seat supports.  This pic also shows that I used the kit air sensor pitots or “horns”, because they look good for scale and are much stronger than the photo-etch Aires version, which require the addition of a small rod for the pitot tubes.  These parts were cut off kit Part G9 and glued in place.
 

 
Modern Viper seats have black sheepskin seat cushions that replace the original olive drab version, so we modelers typically create this rough surface by various methods.  Thinned putty roughed up with a microbrush is a common way of doing this, but I find it looks a bit too chunky for scale, so I tried some True-Earth anti-skid acrylic paint instead.  I think this method nails the look.  Besides being used for actual anti-skid surfaces, it would look great for Navy ablative coating on bombs as well.
 

 
A close-up.  The paint dries very quickly and is ready for flat black paint in no time.
 

 
As mentioned above, I was dreading the seatbelts which are photo etch, which makes them stiff and hard to paint.  Further, how do you not paint all the tiny buckles?
 

 
A few of you above suggested assembling the seat belts, painting them, then scraping off the paint on the buckles with a knife.  That turned out to work very well, so here’s what I did overall:
 
1)     Paint the seats like I did the cockpit, using gloss black followed by grey enamel, then a sealing coat of X-22
2)     Add painted detail and decals according to references.
3)     Spray with dull coat to knock down the shine, especially the seat cushions
4)     Anneal the seat belts with a flame for about 30-40 seconds to soften them
5)     Assemble the belts according to instructions, which is very hard to do and makes the assembly of HGW cloth seat belts seem like child’s play.  Since the Aires instructions are useless, I used mostly photo references to figure out what they should look like.   Since they are metal and will scratch the paint on the seat, I assembled them and shaped them to my spare kit seat.  If I did this again, I’d shape the seat belts before painting the seat
6)     Paint the shaped belts with enamel paint, which can be removed with solvent as required.  To hold the belts for painting and retain their new shape, I stuck them to poster putty rather than masking tape which would force them to be flat
7)     Scrape the paint off the buckles with a #11 knife.  Be careful to not dig down too hard, or you will reveal the brass underneath
8)     Glue the belts to the seat.  I used extra thin CA glue which is very tricky to do cleanly, but holds the belts rock solid immediately
9)     Re-spray the seats with dull coat, to knock down the shine of CA glue residue
 
The finished seat, at a magnification much more than can be seen with the naked eye, so please excuse the bits of crap here and there.....
 

 

 
All of my reference pics show that the forward belts are a darker color than the rear belts and shoulder belts, so I painted them accordingly.
 

 
I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to Airscale and their fantastic 1/32 Modern Jet Cockpit Warnings and Labels decal set (AS32), which I’ve used on my last 3-4 jets.  Every warning label you can think of is on this sheet, including some seat labels.  They come off the backing paper readily in hot water and react very well to Microsol to soften them over curved edges, but you have to be careful to not overdo it.  Take your time and you can position them on almost every complex surface imaginable.  If you like to build modern jets, they are a must have.
 

 
When the seat is placed into the cockpit, it really makes everything come together with additional detail and color.
 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 
So that’s it for awhile Gents.  As mentioned earlier, I’ll be vacationing in the southern hemisphere for the next 6 weeks, so modeling is on hold once again.  No worries, because I always finish my models and have yet to have a model hit the proverbial SOD!
 
Cheers,
Chuck

It's time for two sneak previeuws....

 

Windscreen on his place...

 
Some painting....
 

Continuing my series of posts of photos from my visit to the RAF Museum in London in 2022, here is the first set of walkaround images. These are of the Hawker Typhoon Mk. Ib MN235, part of the "War in the Air 1918–1980" exhibit in Hangars 3, 4, and 5.
 
A few of the pictures are duplicates from my initial post of photos from this exhibit, apologies. Also, I did not have access to take any pictures of the cockpit, and unfortunately for this aircraft, I did not spend enough time focusing in on the details such as the landing gear, etc.
 
MN235 is the sole surviving complete Typhoon and was built in 1944 by the Gloster Aeroplane Co Ltd. Instead of seeing active service, it was allocated to the USA for flight evaluation, in response to a USAAF requirement to investigate the Typhoons' potential as a fighter-bomber and to increase its fuel capacity.
 
The aircraft was evaluated at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. Due to changing requirements, the Typhoon did not undertake the test program originally envisaged, and following a minor accident after only nine hours of flying was put into storage. This info and more about the history of this airframe was taken from: https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documents/collections/74-A-27-Typhoon-MN235.pdf
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
Thanks for looking and I have many more photos to share 

The build is looking great!

The build is looking great!

That was a quick and easy one, Fundekals went very well,
not much stencils on those competition paint job....
 

 

 
The mud time....

 
All cleaned up and ready for final touch-up and some more weathering ...

 

 
now back to my pilots.
 
Hope you like it and have fun,
Dan.

Some progress
Seat belts are from Eduard.
 

while I'm waiting for the quinta studio set, today I've made little progress, I've made the front section of the HUD
 

 

Vallejo in my opinion is the best for brush painting small details. 

Thanks Collin
Yes I know, this is my fourth Trumpy Razorback project. The unnecessary parts in the fuselage serve no purpose other than making it difficult for the fuselage halves to come together.

Here we go
First step is the cockpit as usual.
I used Eduard instrument panel.
Trumpy's rudder pedals are wrong. So I replaced them with Hasegawa 's part.
 

New project;
This is 1/32 Trumpeter P-47D 22 with the markings of "Kansas Tornado"
 

Hello guys, been a while..
 
My first resolution this year was to do my best not to start another kit and closing all those unfinish one(GB etc.),
and since that one was the last in line on my doom shelf, I asked Kevin to move it here.
 
Starting the paint job...  

 
The notice I based my color scheme where kind of wrong, had to interchange the two green.....

 
But end up nicely, first time full job with Gunze paint, I love it.

 
Time for cherry picking in those Fundekals sheet...

 
Found the right color for their upper suit

 
Painting figurines is realy not my cup of tea, but since I tend to use them more often in my models, 
I better start looking at tutorials... 

Still need some tuch up left and wash but will get there. 

 
A dence coat of clear was applied due to my last project..... dreaded silvering.....

 
Everything was fine, the weathering, the wash, till the flat coat....

 
so, next step, DECALS..yeah..
 
Thks for watching and have fun.
Dan.
 
 

Thanks Matt, surprising myself at whats coming up as well.  Then you speak to the appropiate(usually groundcrew) person, they go ...oh yeah, we did that all the time or, yes that's how it should be etc.... Hopefully this is getting it all in one place for future Brit Phantom builds.
 
So, back to the 'hot area' I really need to deal with this as its what has me on the brink of walking away LOL.
 
So the rod insert thing seems to do the trick, painfully slow but working.  Here is a couple of pics of where I have got to.  As you can see there are still a few 'rogue' washers and some with dodgy screw holes in the centre, but I will fix those.  The aim here is to get close and then let everything cure and sink for a few days then hopefully I can do all the fine tuning and finish this side
Then of course there is the other side

Note above also here there are extra washers/fasteners down the side panels too
 
Placed a reheat can in just to see how it looks overall


 

 
Yikes these huge pictures really show up all the imperfections etc!
Still obviously a bit to go here to make it look better, but time to breathe, step back and look at the big picture again

 
Might look at the Vari ramps while this area all cures
 
Cheers Anthony
 

Happy me - a Raptor and a Super plus some extras arrived right for my birthday, yeah.  I thought I can wait for a 32nd scale Raptor, but... I can't.  
 

 
On to the update - the NLG is ready and the two halves of the fuselage are glued. Yes! I did some mods as well, but first - here are the parts of the NLG, and how it looks assembled (open/close):
 

 

 

 

 
The motion is quite... rudimental... I simplified it even more than the MLG, so I didn't take a video. However, though, I need a joker for something.  While I was double/triple/etc.-checking the instructions upon gluing the fuselage halves, I found out these parts that I can't understand...
 

 
Is the yellow ''thing'' some kind of a cowling? ...like a forward extension of a reconnaissance pod that I assume is for the Italian S version - I didin't see it on any of my referrence pics (I think I'll choose airframe 63-13265 from 58 TFTW), so I didin'd add it, I'm asking just out of curiosity.
 
The red circle - I have no idea what it is. It does not appear on any of the pics whatsoever, and the instructions say ''for versions A/H''?!... I had no idea there was an H version... interesting... 
 
The pink circle - these two holes/provisions are like deep rectangular indentations in the plastic. They are quite deep but are covered with plastic (they are not holes) - What are they? - should there be some kind of a screen/mesh on the top, or are they some kind of intakes/vents, although not looking streamlined? They look too too small for chaff/flare dispensers. I can't find a good closeup pic of the real plane to see.
 
The blue circle - another mystery to me... Here is a pic of the C-version, where I believe I see the same part, but if it is an antenna indeed - it looks way way smaller than the the kit part - is it an ''extendable'' antenna perhaps?
 

 
Then this pic... I think it is of the G-version, where it looks like the same antenna and with the right lenght as the kit part, but... what is this huge white antenna right along the centerline?! I just wonder what is going on....  
 

 
And a pic of the interior of the fuselage right before assembly of the halves - I swaped the engine with the leftover parts from the Nighthawk's engine, cause this OOB J-79 is so much more beautiful and detailed.... and I might really be tempted at one point to make it as a separate display especially with all those cradles in the kit. I also added a few structural struts from stock sprue rods, for addition structural rigidity, as I expect there will be lots of pressing and forcing during the burnishing of the aluminum foil.
 


Next up - ''canopy parts''. Cheers and thx in advance if you can give me some clues on the questionable parts.

I continued with some initial surface preps - pls don't mind the dust and particles alike on some of the pics. The fuselage was ''assembled'' with paper tapes for several years, and there is residue after removing the paper tape... I'll wipe it off during the sanding. So, these are the formation lights on the intake sides. The holes were a bit offside, so I centralized them, and glued the provided transparent pieces, then additional filling with CA glue, and this is after sanding:
 

 

 
And from the tail side:
 

 
So far, I have no idea how I'm gonna proceed with these, regarding the aluminum foil... I guess I'll cover the entire circles, then cut the foil along the diameters... Yet, I'm feeling how I'm gonna cover these circles with clear gloss coat until they get flush with surface, if the thickness of the aluminum foild is more than the raised edges of the lights...
 
Then the gun bay doors are glued, and the little door at the junction of the rear fuselage/tail, on the bottom centerline. 
 

 

 
As far as I know, there will be need for rescribing/adding of new panels, etc., so I just glued these doors for now. Next up - on to the resin afterburner parts:
 

 
I have a small torch with just about the same diameter, so I couldn't resist to check the ''thickness'' of the nozzle feathers in the nighttime...
 

 

 

 
I did all the trials and testfits, and just left this nozzle for dessert.  But the afterburner is ready. The part with the flame holders needed a lot of extra care, while the small PE ring with the six rods was useless... while looking at the instructions, it looked like a support part for the resin flame holder rings, but they have four big pins that make the connection with the can. I kept the PE part for the fuel spray plugs of course. The only thing that can be barely visible between the turbine disk and the flame holders, in the real engine, are the thermocouple plugs, but that's mission impossible in this scale. Actually the thermocouples (PE part) and the rear engine (ball bearing) struts are barely visible, left alone the turbine blades. Another issue was the fit of the torch ignitor (resin part). It was just too long, and should be peeking between the outer and center rings. I did what I could. Not to mention that it's shape is not exactly right, but that wouldn't bother me, as I know almost none of this wil be noticeable after all. The afterburner can/liner is flawless though.
 

 

 

Got the upper turret frame drawn up this morning and got a print made, looks pretty good so far, I also made a file for a vacuum form pattern that I have to print, I'll be cutting the vac-form up into individual panes to put into the frame and then aluminum strips over both the printed frame and petg pieces.
Pat
 

Made some milestones in the last couple days,First, I managed to draw and print the Bombardier's clear nose, it came out almost perfect on the first shot. I have to try and get some slightly better ones later on but we're pretty much there...
 



 
 
Next was the throttle pedestal, I kept studying this assembly and thought that I could print it as one piece and it worked to my suprise !!!
Sometimes you get lucky... for now...
 
Pat
 
 

 
 

oh, I’m game for that!

F-16 50th birthday?  How are we not having a F-16 Group Build?

As many of you already know, F-16 is celebrating its 50th birthday. Here is the well known video that made the history. enjoy
 
 

I've just ordered the 1/32 Trumpeter Su-27 Flanker B. I see it has few (if any) weapons included and there is a Trumpeter kit for Russian missiles. But I want to do a Ukraine version, and there sems to be a lot of current news about British and US weapons being provided. I have a resin 3D printer and could make my own from diagrams. I am not a purist scale modeler in terms of an exact match to a single aircraft. I just think it is a great shaped and coloured machine (the blue-blue-grey smooth-edged camouflage). So, has anyone here added any of the "western" weapons to their Su-27 and do you have any recommendations, either for kitsets, or CAD files/drawings that would be appropriate?
 
This is my first entry to this forum. I've done a few 1/48 kits many years ago, and I also have done 1/8 display models of a tiger moth and a Pitts Special using wood and cloth construction. I also make 1/6 (approx) RC helicopters.

When I’m the hobby room by myself, I listen to Rush. When my wife in the hobby room with me, then it’s jazz, R&B, and easy listening. I love being in the room alone. 

An easy solution: get a Revell kit and use it as a conversion set for the Tamiya kit. This should give you everything required: stabs, slat wings, high-g drop tank, IP panels, late AIM-9, decals...