themongoose

Stupendous! did you do this whole thing in 6 weeks?

Cool bird! Love these unique builds.

The detail work on the landing gear sets this apart. In the wide angle views on her legs i swear you can tell a difference .

Really looking good! Those main wheel bays will be sharp. I think the simple side panels in the cockpit make a world of difference. Looking forward to your next update.

Ust superb. I love the variation in the fuselage paint and what you did with the tail sections!

Approaching my first real accomplishment on this one. I followed crobinsonh and ericg builds and decided I wanted to make the fuselage changes so the cockpit looked right. Great guidelines in their builds. I had an idea that i think turned out cool and will save some time. when i cut the 2mm off the backside of the ammo panel I did it such that i got a perfect slice Next i took this piece and switched sides with it. That turned the rivet line around so that it would be facing aft. This replaced the 2mm wide piece of styrene. i cut 2mm out of the coming to move the whole cockpit forward. Really this seems to be Aires intent as the side panels don’t fit right unless you do this. Here’s the final result vs the look of the 1:1 Thunderbird getting the IP to sit down and not stand proud witha PITA! would still like it to be 1mm lower but I’m just throughthe floor of the cockpit on the edges and the top of the intake duct is really thinned out so this is the final position. I’ve tested out the canopy and it just barely fits ... but it fits.

Loved that fix of the wing root gap! Took some notes

“the basic technique is very easy but perfecting it ......... wow you are one pass of the mist coat away from making it look average, its a lot harder than it looks.” man I’m totally with you on this! I just did this B-2 and all my time faded with a mist coat across the top. Like your figure, sometimes it pops when adding flat and sometimes it lightens. Any experience with that on your practice bird? I’d love to get a kick start on what does it.

Wow stupendous. Loved the extra office shots. Can’t believe how much detail work you did here. The picture of the underside would look real if I couldn’t see fingers! lol

Hey Pascal you'll have fun at this for sure! I learned last year to make a canopy. I put quite a bit into my post but honestly alot came from a fellow hobbyist at our local club. Simple tools, I learned it's alot about watching the p[lastic and knowing when it droops just enough to indicate it's ready to form. In your case you will need to make a mold from the styrene part you have otherwise you will ruin it. Check out what I have here... and this one from BiggTim has alot in it... I'm sure others will chime in as well. Looking forward to seeing what you do :-)

That pilots looking good. Shadows in the creases and different tones on the uniform set it off.

SO I seem to have run across an interesting solution to the seemless intake challenge on my F-100. I have these shots of the Thunderbirds plane at Air Force museaum in Dayton OH. They show a something that looks like a stiffener plate, I'm sure it's not, maybe just a weld backing plate, but in trying to describe it that was the best I could come up with :-) Take a look here - Now here's what I came up with to duplicate it. I cut a 1.5mm strip out of some 0.005 sheet. I then tacked it to the top side of the intake duct and left just a tab sticking out to overlap with the lower intake duct. Snapped them together, added the Zacto intake with tape to see how it looks and I got this - What do you think?

Thanks Frank. I did just that and used old faithful, #11. Well I think this is the best it can be. I sanded the wing surface, and trimmed down the sides of the resin bits. Lost a tad of detail but probably not noticeable. I managed to save 2 hydraulic lines along the side wall so those will provide the extent of the detail on the wall.

Well I think this is the best it can be. I sanded the wing surface, and trimmed down the sides of the resin bits. Lost a tad of detail but probably not noticeable. I managed to save 2 hydraulic lines along the side wall so those will provide the extent of the detail on the wall.

Hey Eric, I’m following along and have started mine. I am having trouble fitting the wheel bays in the wings. Could you share what you did to get the wings to close up with the resin parts installed?