F`s are my favs

Gorgeousness at its finest... What else to say the 7th and 18th pics from top to bottom are my most fav ones!

Looks absolutely amazing !!

Basically the same journey with the side panels... The vertical side panels are done too and they are glued to these side panels. All is weathered good and I`m dealing with the closing/opening of the canopy... i.e the rear bulkhead of the cockpit. Hopefully it will be ready for pix soon.

It's a pretty good looking bird with those black glossy shades! Very GJ and keep on keeping on.

Tomcat, Afghanistan, OEF, 2002, Diamondbacks.... sounds like a very nice plan! :) And that's a wonderful start. Make it real good, keep us posted, and WELCOME! :)

hi Squizzy, it's awrsome to see another huge Nighthawk! nice IPs for start!

The main ip is done: - the amount of holes; - the rods to replace the switches/knobs; - and the ready thing...

btw here is a video of the FLIR testfitted and the tourette rotating.

well they are in a reversed order but I'm at the ip now. cheerio

again sry about the lack of spacing between the images. The nlg is ready and glued in the bay, which is then glued to the cockpit tub and then all will be glued to the lower fuselage cause its easy this way (for the making of the nlg bay door and the canopy moveable). So for the cockpit, i decided to make something for the first time as well - replacing the toggle switches and the knobs with plastic rods, then cut them, shape them, etc. I have now micro drills and can make tin almost invisible holes, so they will get in use nicely here. the side panels are the testbed and they are just about done... still plenty of detail to be made. Then i got started with the main ip. its painted and the decals are added. I have Micro Set and used it, it's perfect, the decals accepted amazingly the shape of the buttons, knobs etc. Pix in a sec.

guys sorry about the displaying of the pix. I'm trying to post from my phone for the first time... not easy but my pc is kind of broken.... from over a month now, and they still don't know what is going on with it. but i couldn't wait to update the build. So, I'll try to explain the pix above. first the Flir is done. i made it moveable via two gears with an accessing port through the nose wheel bay. kind of neat. i also choose the scared plastic method to imitate the screen, which is fitted after making a small recessed edge along the perifery of the provisioning. it's glued and the ram stripes are glued along the edges but i couldnt take pictures yet. I'm continuing with the cockpit...

I also have no words.... You are wicked evil! Amazing weathering over the foil... And those rivets....awesome!

Awesooooome! My favorite part - the side IPs. Very very GJ!

+1 ! Can't wait to see it primed....

@Barry, thx a lot. They really have nice meshes and yet I think they are a little bit on the coarse side. @Thunnus, thanks man! It's my 5th or 6th model with moveable parts... Actually this allows to make two or three models out of one because it transforms from a parked to flying display position and beyond. And each looks like a different model.

Actually no, I couldn't find that kind of tea bag (I think I know what you mean) while I was searching, but I certainly want to be something quite rigid. The tea bag might be too vulnerable to touch, etc. It's just too fragile. Cause it's almost imposible to avoid touching that area (let's say I will manage to avoid touching it with fingers) because the tiny holes might easily be clogged by dust particles and the only way to clean them is with a brush. The right romboid pattern could easily be compromized. I think the transparent plastic piece with the scared pattern gives a couple of advantages - one, the provisioning is entirely sealed and there is no way to get dust on the lense or inside, and two, it offers perfect visibility and the pattern disapears when viewed from distance.

It's FLIR time. I'm gonna make it moveable too (rotation on only 1 of the axis (up and down)) by using 2 gears and I'll tap out an accessing hole for the larger gear through the NLG bay. A bit later on that. Meanwhile I noticed that the entire tourette needs a little adjustment - it needs to be moved a bit higher. This is how it looks on the real plane - it just barely touches the screen and the upper frame: and that's how it looks in the model: ...Not to mention the screen of the sensor itself that is "halfway visible"... But I think that's an easy fix. There is plenty of space to move the tourette up a bit. The moving mechanism is just about ready too, so I started planning on the illusive screen mesh. Trust me, I went through 99% of all F-117 builds on the net and did not see a proper solution. The thing is, I was so confident that a PE screen mech will do the job, but it doesn't. I cut a couple other meshes respectively out of flour grading grit and a tea cup filter.... It was a hell of a cuting through these tiny stainless steel hairs. Nevertheless, here is what I came up with - from left to right - 1) is just a thin transparent piece of plastic scared accordingly to imitate the screen pattern and then tinted with black satin lacquer; 2) is a piece of the tea filter; 3) is the original clear plastic piece; 4) is a piece from a flour grading grit + paper tape on the back; and 5) is the PE screen: Here they are vice-versa but you get the idea.... I think that the simplest (1) method is the best: just clear plastic scared with the tip of the knife as fine as possible, then a little wash/filter to enhance the pattern. It provides the best transparency. Here on the pix above it's difficult to notice the pattern, but in a closeup view - it's fine. This is the PE mesh just overlaid - it's simply inadequate... the real plane does not have such squares in the front. Even if I put them diagonally to look as rombs, they are way too... out of scale : The stainless steel tea filter - although it has the closest pattern, it almost entirely blocks the view to the tourette... even the countours of the provisioning are not visible. I was a bit sad cause that was my best guess... ... and surprisingly 1) - the piece of plastic with the scares and the tinting: I think I can make it even better - by paying more attention on the making of more parallel lines and using gloss instead of satin lacquer to enhance the visibility. I think that's the right thing to go with. Up next - the rotation of the tourette.

That's how you do it! Well Done! Btw I would also sharpen a bit the zig-zag's trailing edges towards the sides of their perimeter (near the fuselage sides).

Awesome plane! I like more the black markings. Well , they both are very beautiful. . .

Low and slow... It's getting together very nicely!

Ooooh, that's goooorgeous!

Yeah :)) the next level will be to make the airflow deflectors extending along with the the opening of the doors...

By the way, just a quick note, the GTR wheels/tire set is intended for the F-15 kit and the size of the nose tire, respectively, is correct for the F-15. Whilst the F-117 really used the same landing gear of the F-15 but that was true only about the early version/prototype of the F-117 (Have Blue, Senior Trend). In some ways I believed that both planes had the same or very similar NLG... well, they are similar but not entirely. So the info on the pic from this Walkaround book ((c) to James Goodall) is really about the serial plane with the "normal" size tire, hence the difference of the diameters of the GTR's and the original kit tire of the NLG. Yet according to my references, the tires of the MLGs are spot on in diameter with the GTR's MLG tires (for F-15) and I'll use them. They are so much beautiful than the F-117's original kit tires. All right, I'm still on the bomb bay adventure....

It's not done yet, but the retraction of the trapezes finally is. I took a short video: ....extended - with and without the launch rails: And retracted in the bay, again with and without the launchers - they are just temporarily testfitted: