jenshb

Excellent and crisp work.

Did they get all the spiders, scorpions and rattlesnakes out of it though...?

That's the whole idea behind the CIE L*a*b system. Imagine colours as a three dimensional matrix, and you are allowed a deviation that has to fall within a sphere with a radius that is the given tolerance. The colour needs to be measured with an instrument that analyses the L (lightness), a (it's position on the red-green axis) and b (position on the blue-yellow axis). A delta E of less than 1.0 is not perceptible by human eyes. http://zschuessler.github.io/DeltaE/learn/ If a colour deviates somewhat on the a and b axis (making it slighly greener for example), it is also allowed some deviation on the L-axis, meaning it can be somewhat lighter or darker. If the a and b coordinates are "spot on", then it can vary more in lightness and still be within spec. As to what that spec would be for military aircraft I don't know.

I use a piece of square brass rod inserted in a square recess (square Evergreen tube) in the belly of the model. The square brass rod is similarly anchored in a thick base (2-3 cm thick to provide support for the brass rod).

Thank you for your interest guys. Not much to report - still gluing some bits together while working on other projects.

When I worked on instrument cluster programs for cars, a typical customer specification for painted and printed parts was a colour matched to RAL, and a tolerance of DeltaE of 1.0 in the CIE L*a*b system. This would result in a very slight, perceptible colour difference if seen side by side, but maybe not perceptible from car to car. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_difference Don't know what tolerance government agencies have to their paint specs though...

If it would make you sell enough to the UK to make it worthwhile, then why wouldn't they? If that arrangement only applies to sales to private customers, not businesses, I can see why they would stop doing that if they don't think it is worth the hassle.

If the VAT is charged on point of sale, surely, that should mean that the Royal Mail will not charge the VAT and slap their £8 handling fee on top of it - including the postage in the VAT calculation? Even if the point of sale adds a fee for the extra work involved (providing it is reasonable), wouldn't that make the overall purchase not much more expensive than ordering from abroad currently? From my own experience, I don't have any problem paying the VAT on the product, as I would be doing that of buying the same product locally if it was available, but the £8 fee to Royal Mail for the privelege - and their addition of including the postage in the cost is what annoys me the most.

When I was studying in Glasgow in the late 80s and early 90s, David Gill from the local IPMS Club took home the Best in Show at the UK IPMS Nationals with a very detailed and modified Komet from this kit.

A lot of work to almost "reverse engineer" this, but as a design engineer and Solidworks user myself I find it quite interesting.

Excellent presentation, and a very convincing impression of speed.

If not to mention the weathering Gazzas:)

Really good attention to detail and the weathering looks terriffic.

Since you have already created the 3D model, could you not get some of the forum members to 3D print parts for you?

Looks like Verde Mantis - the colour of the plastic, not the plane:) That looks like a Piaggio P.166.

That looks rather splendid! Jens

I forgot about Eduard with their BrassIn range , but, yes, they too must be taking a lot of Aires' customers. Aires also have an unfortunate reputation for be beautiful to look at, but require a lot of work to fit to the kit as well as taking short cuts. Eduard BrassIn aren't immune to that either though...

Aires must certainly feel the competition breathing down their neck. Res-Kit are releasing floods of new jet exhaust nozzles as well as wheels, KA-Models and Metallic Details are also on the case. Cockpit sets must take quite a long time to develop and make, so I guess the return of investment on those is less than Quickboost type products?

Aires have released cockpit and wheel wells for the F-5 in 1:48 scale, so they certainly have done the research to create detailed sets. As to why they haven't decided to use that information to upscale only they know... Would the too shallow cockpit tub be obvious if one puts the resin pilot in the seat and closes the canopy?

The French Mirage 2000s flew CAP during the first Gulf War loaded with Matra Magic and Super 530D missiles (with a centreline tank), so definitely air-to-air only.

Thanks Brad. Six months to build one of Tamiya's greatest kits...:)

Admittedly, I have an unbroken track record of not finishing anything for any groupbuild, and I think one reason is biting over more than I can chew in the time allocated due to so many projects and so little time. This time I am looking at finishing a kit that shouldn't provide too many problems - Tamiya's superb F-16C. I have decals for a specially painted jet from 346 Sqn Hellenic Air Force - Iason. All photos I have seen of this aircraft shows it clean with only the centreline pylon, but no missiles or tanks. I am happy to take some artistic licence and put a couple of AMRAAMS and Sidewinders on it, and we can always assume the gun is loaded:) The kit has been started a while ago (planning to make an Israeli F-16D using the Isracast conversion), but only got as far as gluing the air intake parts, drop tanks, tailfin, leading edge slats and stabs and some pylons. The real aircraft is a Block 30, which means I need to add the brake chute container, and associated aerials as well as the ID spotlight on the starboard side of the nose. Undecided whether to build it wheels down or wheels up. Does this fall within the parameters of this groupbuild? Jens

I use Solidworks, and that program allows you to import images onto a sketch plane. You can change the opaqueness of the image and then use that as a base to trace or sketch lines, arcs and circles. In your case, you'd probably be looking at creating a spline and rotating that around an axis. If your program doesn't allow importing images for tracing, then you will need to create waypoints in your sketch that you calculate from drawings or photos using known dimensions.

It took quite a lot of work to get the Black Box cockpit integrated into the Hasegawa kit, and at times I was wondering if the master was even intended to fit the suggested kit... I am sure you will find a way to make the model shine Chuck.

Excellent writeup of things to watch out for when I get around to build mine. Doesn't looks like a quick build judging by the list....