Fabster

Dear Tom, I apologize for the late reply but i was off the radar for the last couple weeks. I want to congratulate you for finishing this spectacular model and in perfect timing with the GB's duration. You've produced a work of art which is truly admirable and inspirational to all of us who have followed you through the process. I sincerely hope we will soon be able to enjoy another of your masterpieces in the making. With total admiration, Fabian.

Rainer, Like Cees said, this work of yours is coming along so nicely it really deserves to be finished. I am definitely not going to make it to the deadline either so we will keep seeing each other at the WIP section! hehe Take care and keep on with that beauty of a Viggen, Fabian

Oh man! the turrets and nose glassing look incredibly good, Tom and the beautiful metal barrels just add the cherry on top of the cake. What a wonderful job, my friend. Every new delivery its a real treat to look at. Thanks for sharing your magic with us. Fab

This is way too much to take, Tom. That's it! ...I'll quit modeling and start taking Crochet lessons instead, thanks to you and your awesome Halifax job.

Totally Agree!!!! Fab

Oh Boy! The bang seat looks incredibly good to me, fictional or not! Can you please give a little more explanation about what appears to be brass nuts and bolts and the riveting on the aluminum areas of the head rest and back of the seat? I know this is 1/32nd but the amount of detail you've put it makes it looks like 1/6th scale! it's sooo good. Awesome job so far! Fab

Excellent work on that engine, Tom. Looks nice and busy with all the extra plumbing and the neat weathering adds the final touch. I definitely agree with you on leaving the exhaust stacks uncovered. It looks sooo cool this way! Once the feathered prop is painted, the entire assembly will look terrific! What an inspiration, man! Fab

Thanks for the remainder, Craig and thank you all for your recent comments. Progress have been painfully slow lately though the project continues forward, nonetheless. The latest work done this past week focused primarily on the front end. I finally figured how to make the chin intake and the NACA intake below the nose area. Fairly simply done in the end by wrapping a thin strip of thin plasticard around a convex rectangle that follows the curvature of the engine fairing and the intake opening, if that makes sense. I have also turned the spinner out of automotive Bondo around a piece of brass tubbing that will also serve as the propeller shaft, running inside a slightly wider piece of tubbing that will hold it in position and allow it to spin. A "firewall" or sectional reinforcement will also hold the shaft at the right angle, as you can see. Hopefully, the accompanying pictures below will reinforce the idea of what I meant to explain! Greetings! FAB

Ha! what a solution! This is certainly thinking "out of the box" for sure! Amazing. With your permission, I will grab this idea and save it in the A1 Box of Tricks! Beautiful job, Tom.

And finally, the cockpit assembly as it looks once presented to the fuselage walls. Circuit breakers on the right side and map pouches on the left one. Thanks a lot everybody for checking in and keep cheering up this eternal project! WE will see it finished in time, I promise! Greetings, Fabian

Hello, friends Sorry for the lack of updates but here i am finally Back on Track! Thou i realize I most likely won't be able to finish this one on time even with the extension to this GB, I am fully committed to get it done for good and here's the next chapter on the cockpit job getting me so close to finish this part and prepare myself to start painting and detailing it before closing the fuselage. But first things first and after some more trials and errors, the new vacuuformed fuselages (ver. 3.0!) came out good enough to be used for the final bodyand after some measurements and re-measurements I trimmed out the opening for cockpit, nose wheel well and wing Then it was time to layout the side panels where rows of breakers for all different systems are located. I used triangular rod for dividers as this is the shape the actual panels have plus buttons created from fine round rods. The final effect looks a little crowded but I am confident once painted and with the fuselage closed, it will look less "overscaled" ? ....More to follow

Tom, The rear turret looks incredibly good. The masking job was excellent and the addition of the riveting detail rounded up the effect quite effectively. I am ordering some of these Archer rivets to try in my own project. As I've said it before, you are soooo close to completion you're keeping us "with the heat in our throats", haha. Hopefully the promised GB extension will suffice to let us see this beauty finished! Keep it up! Fab

Thank you guys for your continued support and good vibe. This project is still very much alive. It's just that I've been struggling with the new vacuuforming machine I've been developing but things are coming in the right direction, it seems. I hope to be able to report on it pretty soon. Cheers, Fab

Thanks for the support end words of encouragement, guys. Not much to report in images right now as the work have stalled for a little while since I've been busy fabricating an improved vacuuforming box with the help of my brother as well as creating new, more accurate masters for the fuselage and canopy because the previous copies we had made were not completely satisfactory in some areas. Hopefully the new vac box will overcome all previous issues and my final renditions will be usable so I can finally finish detailing the side walls/panels in the cockpit and be able to prepare myself for a painting session in a couple more weeks. Gulp! For now, I share with you some picts of the finished seat components: The cushion is made of a piece of styrene wrapped in medical tape. The seatbelts are from wine bottle lead foil and the buckles are from a generic Verlinden set. Not 100% accurate but they will do the job, I hope. Here is also a pict of the new masters next to the old, balsa wood original which started it all. These were casted from automotive Bondo, using one of the failed vaccu copies as "mold", then re-shaped and sanded to more correct form. Finally, a shot of the BONEYARD I now have of discarded fuselages! LOL I may still use these to create "desk models" in the future. Cheers to all, that I'll try to keep facing the wind~! Fab

Neat! the plumbing and extra detail in the bomb bays looks terrific, Tom. We were missing your craftsmanship for a long while already. It's good to see more progress done. Greetings, Fab