Fvdm

It's been a few months, but finally there's some progress. Not a lot, but slowly, I'm getting there.
 
This is the forward part of the engine painted. Part of the details is on top of the engine, while another part is on the inside of the wing.
 

 

 
I also added a Master angle-of-attack probe to the forward part of the fuselage and made the reinforcements around the FLIR housing. By adding the seat and the canopy to the cockpit, a lot of detail will be hidden, so I'm thinking of scratching a crane next to the jet, with the seat attached to it; a bit like this:
 

 
I also started detailing the nose landing gear. The first thing I did was cutting it in two horizontally, so to get it at an angle, making the kit a little more dynamic. I need to add a lot of detail still, though.
 

 
So, the next step is to close up the fuselage, after which painting isn't too far along. And to get a bit of confidence, I did a quick build of an AMX to feel different shades of grey working...
 

 
So, I'm getting there. I hope to post more progress soon.
 
Nic
 
 
 

Back to the matter at hand...
 

 

 

 

 

 
Inside about done...
 
Kent

Aaaah those louvres:
 
Point mark a row of hole centres across the pre-moulded louvres.
Use the holes centres as a guide and drill a row of holes of 0.6 mm diameter through the marked louvre.
Carefully cut through the walls of the drilled holes, using a seam scraper or straight edged scalpel blade.
Carefully cut or scrape along the edges of the slit to open out the cooling slot.
From inside the panel, use a curved scalpel blade, scrape away the rear of the cooling slot to reduce its thickness to make it more realistic.
Carry out this procedure to create then ten open louvres.
If necessary, apply liquid cent around the edges of the created slot, to blend any minor surface imperfections.
 
Mike
 

For anyone who has not had the pleasure?? to work on a big Trumpeter kit - you should try it if only once.  The title of that brilliant western "The Good, the bad and the ugly" sums up this F-14A kit, and it can also be applied to their A-7E kit.  The photo below kind of illustrates the amount of extra work involved in just getting everything to fit and stay in place:
 

 
The strange thing is..... I'm enjoying it.
 

 

 
The two small compartments for the chaff/flare boxes proved to be tricky and some time was required test fitting the top and bottom fuselage parts.  Lots of sanding and cutting finally allowed two seemingly innocuous recesses to fit with the fuselage halves being able to close.
 
 

 
The main wheel wells required some surgery and strengthening to locate correctly inside the lower fuselage.
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
Keep sniffing that glue!
 
 

Afternoon gentlemen
 
..thanks for the vote of confidence on the RLM66 colour - I will stick with this one

 
Some Fw190 bobbins for your entertainment..


 
..I painted the layers of PE for the instrument panel – there is a backplate (not shown), a layer with just the bezel surrounds and the blanked instrument in black, and the detail layer in RLM66..


 
The lower panel has some colour coding (thanks Roger) for the instruments that are on their way and should be here next week..


 



 
..also made the ‘Ausgleichsgefäss’ that sits under the main panel from many punched discs (the 3D print didn’t really work..)


 



 
..and the artificial horizon, now just awaiting instruments & placard decals…


 



 
..while waiting I have been readying all the PE I will need for the gear wells and a load of other bits – using lots of pictures like this to map it all out..


 
Notice the dimples and the raised ribbed panel next to them..


 



 
..after many hours of work, here you can see the mainspar, wheelwell roof and some of the wing ribs printed out, stuck to litho and being test fitted..


 



 



 
..I wanted to start with the roof as these won’t be PE anyway, the drawings are just to give me working templates..


 
..here printed, stuck to a sheet of Perspex and all the centres of all the dimples being marked..


 



 
..and my first ever use of my new mini Proxxon milling machine to machine the depressions..


 



 
..added the sidewalls and some filler to fair them in as the pressing is curved at the sides and primed to make sure all was well..


 



 
..starting to work annealed litho into the female mould… the completed one you can see at the front is the first version I did in a video episode on my Patreon build after which I realised I had made the depressions too big (& therefore the dimples..)


 



 
..re-adding a template so I can see the panel outline and start cutting it to shape..


 



 
..and the completed parts…


 



 
..the ribbed panel was approached in a similar way, just reversed so instead of dimples it makes raised strengthening ribs..


 
..sticking templates down to mark out where the ribs go..


 



 
..ribs added and a wash of thin CA..


 



 
..cleaned up, rounded edges and primed..


 



 
..litho being worked into shape..


 



 
..and the finished panels with the rivets etc added..


 



 
..a day’s work…


 



 
..and checking for fit..


 



 



 
..happy with how they turned out, and don’t forget, if you want to see how parts like this are made and join me in the ups and downs of this build, please join my Patreon


 
TTFN

Peter

Definitely dragging on this one, but now that it's REALLY getting hot out (95+), more inside time. 
 
Ready to close the fuselage at this point, not much else I can see to do for the interior. I skipped all of the parts behind the rear bulkhead, as they won't be seen. Rebuilt the throttle, which will barely be visible. Added Airscale gauges to rear cockpit, again barely visible. In fact, most everything for the backseater gets hidden by the turret. Oh well, at least I know it's there!
 
Starting work on the engine and support frame. Again, skipping parts that won't be visible with no panels open. More to come on that. 
 
Thanks for looking. 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

Conducted a few tests today.  First was figuring out if the Mr Hobby lacquer colors that I purchased for the Shiden Kai would allow hairspray chipping.  On my paint mule, I sprayed a base coat of Tamiya AS-12 Silver.  Over the tail, put on a layer of MIG Scratches Effects liquid and forward of that I sprayed MIG Heavy Chipping Effects.  Once those dried, I sprayed the tail with the Mr Hobby Kawanishi Cockpit color and then the Mr Hobby Kawanishi Dark Green forward of that.  Just to compare the different greens that I had on hand, I also sprayed Mr Hobby Aqueous H-59 IJN Gloss Green and Tamiya XF-11 IJN Green.

 
Using a stiff paint brush dipped in water, I was able to created chips on the Mr Hobby lacquer colors fairly easily.  But I didn't quite like the way the Mr Hobby Dark Green sprayed.  For one, it was dead flat, which I'd prefer not to deal with over the whole aircraft.  Someone also question the accuracy of this particular color.  I'm no expert and doing some internet research and finding some articles on Shiden Kai colors by Nick Millman didn't clarify matters conclusively.  So... I'm decided on which green I'll be using to paint the exterior of the aircraft.  But at least I can move forward on the painting of the cockpit.

 
I conducted another test with the Galaxy Tools riveter.  Compared it with the RB Productions Rivet-R and Rivet-R Mini, all of the tools set at 0.75mm spacing.

 
Ignoring the crookedness of the lines, all of the rivets looked about the same, which is a good thing.  From top to bottom are: Galaxy Standard, Galaxy Mini, Rivet-R and Rivet-R Mini. I also confirmed that the Galaxy Standard and Mini wheels in the 0.75 spacing are exact matches.  I can re-trace the rivet line I made with the  Galaxy Mini with the Galaxy Standard and riveter will put the points exactly in the rivet holes along the entire length of the line.  The Rivet-R and Rivet-R Mini aren't exact matches.  By carefully placing a point on the Rivet-R wheel into the hole made by the Rivet-R Mini and running it along the rivet line, you are making new holes by the time you get to the halfway point.  Seems like a minor point but having exact matches eliminates at least one of the headaches I've been experiencing when riveting.

I've started work on an OV-10A representing those based at Sembach Air Base, Germany in the 1980's (and at Patrick AFB, and maybe Osan (?)).  These airplanes had previously been based in Thailand during the war in SEA, so the airplane will have a lot in common with my previous Pave Nail OV-10A project.  I'll skip some things that were already covered in that build topic.  As with the Pave Nail project I decided to build it with the cargo door open.  External load will be one 230 gallon centerline fuel tank, two LAU-68 rocket pods w/ rockets, two B37K bomb racks with BDU-33 practice bombs and two guns in the right sponson only.  This airplane will also be equipped with the ALR-46 RHAW gear.
 
 
First some of the 3D printed parts:
 

 
 
Column one shows the radio rack, O2 bottles, and hydraulic pump.
Column two shows the inlet covers, B37K racks, (?) antennas for the right boom (I think ILS?).
Column three shows the ALR-46 gear, gear handles, and emergency jettison button.
 
The bomb racks have been a real bear to print, in fact after I took the above photo I gave up on printing the racks with sway braces attached, and instead have printed bombs with the sway braces built in.  These then fit into simple notches in the racks.

 
 
This gives the braces enough support to print properly.  I also made the airplane sway braces part of the rack, mainly because the carpet monster ate one of them, but also so they would sit properly on the flat top of the rack.  The BDU-33 should be slightly bluer, oh well.
 
As mentioned in the Pave Nail build the USAF OV-10A did not have a bulkhead behind the aft seat, and the aft cockpit itself is modified to remove the side consoles.  The Eduard photoetch set has the instructions and replacement parts for this modification.  In addition I added a rear wall to the cockpit floor where it meets the cargo bay floor, leaving small opening for wiring.  I'm using the AMS Resin seats, so the alignment bit on the floor needs to be cut off.
 

 
 
 
The seats will look sharp.  I'm also using the AMS Resin 230 gallon tank, here shown with one of the Euro One colors applied.
 

 
 
The cargo bay is shown here partly assembled.  I'm using yellow zinc chromate color.  I used green zinc chromate on the Pave Nail build.  The hydraulic pump is painted and installed.  5 mm is cut off the rear end of the ceiling to make room for the pump.  The floor is plywood color with two painted on aluminum slide strips running lengthwise and yellow zinc color on the edges.  The ceiling has the O2 bottles painted and installed.  I used chrome tape to make the bottle straps.  Radio rack is shown in position - the radios will be added soon.  The cargo bay side walls are made from thin styrene sheet.
 

 
 
Closing up the fuselage halves is a bit tricky without the bulkhead since this means the ceiling doesn't have a solid connection at the front - just a butt joint on the sides.

I've come to believe that this is actually the right time to use panel line wash - before painting.  Putting it under the final color coat provides a much more subtle effect, and the strength of the effect can be adjusted based on how much paint you apply over it.

Using the wash is a very good tip. But what to do before painting? Do you clear the model with a cottonbud to clear everything or do you spray over the wash? 

I usually use a scriber down the major panel lines to clean the wash out, but leave the rest as is. It's thin enough, that paint build-up is minimal.  Depending on the cover color, the dark accents often show through, much like pre-shading.
 
Example on my A-10C.  First coat of paint with no subsequent dark wash.
 

 

 
 
Cheers,
Chuck

This is the cockpit "module", almost completely assembled and ready to install into the fuselage.  The one small holdup is the one fit that I didn't pre-check three times, and a word to the wise if you are planning on building this kit.  The interface between the tabs on the top of the ammo magazine and the recesses on the bottoms of the MGs is too tight, and does not let the MGs sit level.  Since these protrude out of the cowl their alignment is obviously critical.  This would have been easier to solve if I had known about it before getting to this stage.  Going to fix it tomorrow when I'm fresh (another lesson I've learned).
 

 

 

 

They look fantastic! Awesome paintjob.

Started making a little more progress on the G-14 since my other builds are waiting for items stuck in the postal system.
The resin exhaust pipes have been painted.

Thanks very much guys.   No building today but just for S&G's I dry-fitted one of the nacelles to the wing.   Perfect fit, no need for any putty and if I was inclined, I could probably skip gluing it and it would lock firmly in place.   Wheelwells are an area that most kit makers skimp on.   To their credit, Tamiya did a fantastic job.   Between the PE ribs and the smaller detail parts, they are pretty much 75% of the real thing, which says a great deal about the quality of this kit.  Many other manufacturers give you a rectangular box with nothing but a few semi-defined shapes molded in place.  I've still got some additional bits to add but I really like they way they look.   If I get close enough, I think I can catch a wiff of avgas and motor oil!  
 
 
 
Notice how the gear door retraction springs anchor to the rear wing spar.   The gap aft of the spar is per the real thing.  
 
And a view of the upper surface.  Just note - this is the un-detailed engine that will have the cowling panels glued in place. The other engine has the additional parts added to it.   I'm glad I opted to leave one engine exposed, it would be a shame to cover all this great detail.
 
That's it for tonight, thanks for looking! 

I see what you mean. It probably appears that way because the rudders are incorrectly molded identical so they have the trim tab “arm” on the same side and all the little details as well.  Very confusing during assembly. Plus I don’t think I laid them out in the right orientation with the horizontal stab for the pic...

Very nice build and a joy to follow. When i look at the pictures off the tails one question comes to mind.
 
Are the decals in the right place? When i look at the rudders it seems like the left tail is upside down. The right tail has the decals above the rounded edge of the rudder and the left tail has the decals at the rounded part of the rudder. I hope that you see what I mean.

I’m declaring myself as happy with the paintwork as I can be. Any more Airbrush touching up and I’d be masking the touched up areas to touch up others, going round in circles. I’m dealing with the tiny touch ups by brush as I spot them. So I hit it with a gloss coat and had a go at the decals bit.
My only complaint is that the black on the wing decals doesn’t match the black that I used to base coat. I guess that was too much to hope
for, and that it’ll not be too noticeable under another gloss coat, weathering layer, and final flat finish.
So here’s where I’m at.
 

Hello everyone!
First off, a very big thank you to Ben Schumacher aka Starfighter for designing and 3D printing the tail fin sensors and to Colin Robinson aka crobinsonh for providing the extremely rare Zotz decals F-4EJ resin conversion parts.
It's people like you that make me appreciate this hobby even more! 
 
I used a razor saw to cut off the kit's plastic sections and superglued the conversion parts in place.
The tail fin sensors required a bit of blending and for this I used Milliput epoxy. 
 

 

 

 

 
It has been mentioned several times before but I've also had similar issues with the transparencies.
Because of the way Tamiya has moulded the sprue gates, the clear canopies end up having fracture marks on one side.
I filled in those sections with superglue and sanded everything smooth till clarity was restored.
The marks that have remained will be covered with thin strips of masking paper to simulate the canopy insulation strips.
 

 

 
I also added more detail on the weapons pylons in the form of rivets and wiring.
 

 
This concludes the construction stage and I can finally move on to painting! 
A few more pics of the main airframe and subassemblies.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bendix-Scintilla DF18LN magneto, used on the Corsair (there also is a Bosch magneto that seems less common) is a complicated little bugger.  And it is hard to find good pictures or drawings.  I did find this though:
 

 
This comes from a R-2800 "operators Manual" I found at Aircorps Library.  This provided alot of good scaling at least for the side view.  I also found a magneto on E-bay with some good photos like this:
 
  
 
This plus other photos of R-2800's gave me enough to go on.  So a ten-times size (10/18 to be sure) layout, and just short of a hundred little plastic parts later I got this:
 

 
Mounted on the engine, and wired up:
 

 

 
I am so glad to be done with that infernal .025 gold painted solder. 
 
Next is the propeller governor.  I have found some material on Aircorps Library on this too, but there will still be guesswork.  After it is installed, I really have to decide what to do next.  There are many options, including the back sections of the engine - something I have never done before, and something that requires guesswork as well.
 
Stay tuned!
 
 
 

Thanks to members help, I was able to tone down my flat finish by spraying TS-80 Tamiya Flat clear coat 
and planning to add a little sheene with an old T-shirt and wool......
 

 
I know it's kind of hard to see the difference but trust me, it's way better than it was....
 
Was done with the paint, and time for the metal part.... and tape......lol.

 

 

 
Running out of Model Master Magnesium metalizer, had to improvised with other finish...
 

 
And it end up very close.... 

 

 

 
Getting closer to the finish line for this one....Yeah.

 
And few touch-up on accessories.

 
Will try to finnish it by next week and show it in RFI soon.....
 
Hope you still like it and have fun..
Dan.
 
 

Oh, go on then, Gold Star for Derek!
 
Yes - with my fresh supply of 1.5mm clear HIPS sheet I thought I'd take a break from sanding/cutting/reinforcing big chunks of ABS and have a play with a glazing - to see if this particular cunning plan was going to work.
 
I'll let you guys be the judge by the end of this post.
 
The quality of clear parts can make, or break, a model and so I usually spend a lot of time on a project trying to get these as good as I can get them.
 
I try to use the most suitable material for any given purpose. The fuselage windows I'm going to do as a single strip each side - so wanted a clear, non-yellowing, plastic that would easily conform to the single curve of the fuselage - and gould be glued to the ABS fuselage prints with solvent. So - 0.25mm UV Stabilised PETG sheet will be used.
 
For the cockpit windows I wanted something absolutely flat and distortion free - and something I could use wet and dry followed by polishing with Novus Plastic Polish. PETG doesn't like sanding/polishing at all - but HIPS does - and at 1.5 mm thick substantial enough for shaping and to hold it's flat shape on fitment.
 
Add to that the trick of 'edging' the clear part with a permanent marker that I've been using for years to make neat edges, as well as create the impression of thinner 'glass', I thought I might have the tools to make a go of these.
 
Tonight I cut the first window:
 

 
An oversize section was laid over the window aperture and the edges marked on the surface with a new scalpel blade.
 
The section was then trimmed back using Tamiya side-cutters to within about 1mm - then the edges taken back with the T-Bar sander - bit by bit, with lots of trial and error - as well as corner rounding, until it fitted absobl**dy perfectly - even if I do say so myself!
 
Here it is just press fitted in position - took about an hour - but hopefully looks OK!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Final bonding will be with a little solvent touched into the corners and into the joint - followed by a polish.
 
So, I think there's another challenge sorted, perhaps...
 
Iain

I have progress to show you, actually quite a bit.  The spark plug wire harness is finished with all 36 wires routed, painted, ready to go.  With that, the forward row inter ear deflectors were installed.  And, this was the time when the forward and back row cylinders and crank case halves were bonded together, and the front reduction gear housing was bonded in place as well.  I managed to make every mistake in the book along the way, perhaps the worst of which was to paint a 5 foot length of .025 inch silver solder (for the spark plug wires) primer plus gold before hand.  I thought I'd be sly and pre-paint so I would not have to reach into inaccessible places to paint wires after installation.  Well - as I should have known, the paint flaked off after making bends and curves, or sliding on clamps.  So not only did it make a mess of flakes, but I had to go in and paint inside those inaccessible places anyway.  In the process, I managed to break off a cylinder, requiring a delicate re-attachment in place with lots of stuff already attached to said cylinder.  While joining the two cylinder rows, I accidentally allowed a free end of spark plug wire from the back row to get into the joint.  I discovered this after the epoxy was already dry (or nearly), so I had to extricate the solder wire, breaking the wire about mid-length, and applying about a half hour of careful pressure to get the two crank case halves to seat properly.  They are almost seated; not quite.  That spark plug wire repair was also exceedingly delicate.  There were other mis-steps and gaffs I will not bore you with - but suffice it to say that prior to this work, I was hand wringing about it, and was not sure why.  Now I know.
 
So here is the result of my pressure packed work:
 

 
Note the two unattached wires for the magneto. 
 
A bottom view showing the scavenge oil stuff:
 
 
 
A front view showing every one of those 36 wires:
 

 
Honestly, I do not know how people do this in smaller scales.  Notably absent in that photo is the P & W emblem - Fundekal has STILL not replenished their supply of decals. 
 
A rear view, showing the 18 exhaust manifold points that I will tackle one day:
 
 
 
Pretty busy engine.  Next on the agenda are the magneto, and the prop governor - both mounting onto the top of the reduction gear casing:
 
 
 
Next post those primed flats will have components on them.  Til then stay safe and healthy.  
 
   

Phew, that was a tough one...
 
Been working on the passenger seats trying to get them to look like the real seats of a DH.89
 

 

 

 

 
And no, I haven't been painting the 'sunrise' pattern on the seats...
 

 
After much 'brooding' I came up with the solution of printing the pattern and seam's on clear decal paper.
There's even is a little 'wrinkle' here and there. All in all I'm quite pleased with the result 
 
Kent

If someone is interested how I painted streaky camouflage - I made a video 
 
Thanks for watching