F`s are my favs

10x And I'm getting better with the skills - the simulator helped a lot and now a year later, I'm even thinking about racing with other drones, and riskier freestyle. Nah... I just saw the trailer... OMG , at least I think I watched the right trailer...

Just took another few nighttime pics with the flashlight, of the glued vaines of the baffled exhausts, and the horizontal surfaces after the flattening. Still not weathered, just basic colors. This is the glare of course. I think I used a mix of Alclad II jet exhasut and a tiny bit of dark aluminum, but they look almost black indeed:

4) I got to make the bomb bays open-able as well, so I got to redo the entire "mechanism" (to make it moveable) for the air disturbing plates (I forgot their exact name as well) to drop down together with the opening of the doors. I remember I figured it out, but it's not ready yet - by connecting these air disturbers to the swivel joints of the piston part of the hydraulic actuators that open the doors. Originally they were part of the front bay walls: and "dismantled" Check out how close are located the pistons... I got to take advantage of it Here are the plates themselves... some modifications as well... Modified on the left-hand side and still the original set on the right: That's just about it... not quite much of a progress for a couple of years, but I'm happy with it. I'l keep you posted once I resume the hobby Btw I continued my other hobby and passion - the RC planes, but in a slightly different way - FPV drones. Enjoy a combo of my best flights from last year, and cheers!

And 3) the pilot figure with the seat are just about ready. Here is the seat before: It went through some modifications as well I don't have pics with daylight though... sorry about the nighttime pics - I just took some with a white flashlight: This one went out a little bit blurred... but I couldnt resist to make a quick test fit with the cockpit: So I managed to "jazz up" the pilot suit with the right markings for "X" squadron... I forgot it right now, but I remember that I got a few reference pics and tried to do a "mix" of tiny decal pieces, totally DIY. Some badges included three pieces of decals on top of each other. I remember that. There are plenty of things to do yet.

One of the dozens of test fits: And here are the modified facets. The top flaperon is done, the bottom one is the original piece as it was: And here are the ailerons - in reversed order - the top piece is the original one, while the bottom ailerons are done: I got to make them almost rasor sharp and perfectly straight once glued and assembled, but it would be much easier than doing all the rough sharpening/modifying procedures afterwards...

2) The flaperons and the ailerons can move now - for a parked and in-flight position respectively. I remember I also thinned and sharpened the facets of their sides, but both parts for each aileron/flaperon are not glued yet. It would be very nice to make them drop down in this position for a parked display: Here is another image of the real plane where I pointed out which exactly facets I added on the model: So, about the hinges - it was quite the adventure. I don't remember when I did these upgrades ... maybe last summer or summer'2020... but it was hot.... So this is a "piece" of (almost)molten plastic from the stock rods, then added on "key" locations but without overdoing it, then pressed and flattened, then I drilled "half" channels on each side so they can form a perfect centered channel when glued together... While here are the hinges that will be fixed to the wing sides:

...of course I forgot the last weekend... So, over the course of the recent years, I did only a few minor improvements from time to time and I took some pix... 1) the flat areas of the exhausts went trough a "flattening" procedure... the added thin layers of stock plastic sheets shrinked over the time, ever so slightly, but they need to be perfectly flat. So here are those exhaust areas after the sanding, at least now I'm sure they will stay flat:

@Eagle Driver, well, I just hope that the rumors for the F-22 in 1/32 are true ... if it really appears for the end of 2023, this would be... wonderful. I think I maybe have no other ''kit wishes'' than the F-22 in 1/32...

I guess new/tribute models of An-225 will appear. Many people will be inspired to make dioramas of some battle scenes in Kiyv/Kharkiv for example. It is also plausible the prices of the kits to change quite a lot... I heard the nickel price is skyrocketing right now, which means twice more expensive batteries... it's unreasonable to believe that this would not affect the plastics as well. If to produce a plastic kit is quite energy-costly, then I guess the future oil/gaz/energy embargos will play a major role as well. Also, the giant kit stash collections would become much more valuable ... I have only 4 unbuilt models . I believe the world will change for good, including our hobby!

That oil canning with the combination of the light is.... faaaan-tastic! Lovely!

Hi & thx for the message. Yeah, it's been a long time since the last update. All is fine with me... and, indeed, I'm in a quarantine right now ...the C-virus... but I'm doing it just fine. One week to go. So, right now I'm doing the pilot figure from time to time. Other than that, I postponed the '117 for a while because I started to do something compleeeetely different - a very special model for a friend of mine (a huge model entirely from 3D printed parts). It's my first time doing something like this... so I basically ''deviated the hobby'' for a while . But I believe I could continue with this model soon. Actually, now I remember that I always kept doing this and that throughout the months, just didn't update the topic. The intakes are prepped for glueing to the fuselage (I synched the distance between the aux intake doors and the intake walls, when they open), some minor fixes of the exhausts (the added plates got ''worn'' with the time due to the glue that softened the added thin plastic sheets, so I filled and sanded them smooth), and now the pilot figure with the seats should be prepped during the quarantine. Once I finish ''the 3D model'' I'll continue here for sure. Yet I keep watching documentary movies and reading magazines about the Nighthawk to keep the mojo on. Stealth Warplanes being the latest one ( https://books.google.bg/books/about/Stealth_Warplanes.html?id=wwZFAgAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y ) ... and still keep reading it. Meanwhile, those news/sightings about the real flying Nighthawks... just make me so so happy...

A very very beautiful Starfighter! Awesome subtle weathering and the rivets are... without a doubt, spot on!

Well, it really turned out better than I thought with the painting and the rivetting.... I'm even thinking about a more thorough consideration towards Alclad II for my model as well. A very very GJ with the weathering! These subtle nuances look so awesome, especially with the contrasting decals. It's really beautiful!

+1. It looks amazing! Just needs a little bit more weathering, at least to my taste. Some more scratches (silver and black/grey), some vertical streaks, a more contrasting panel wash, the decals also look very pristine..., especially on the portside near the cockpit. Hope you will do it justice with any further weathering, but it is a matter of personal preferences after all. It looks superb already!

What an adventure! . . . When I get to the part with the lenght of the stripes and the spacing of the rivets, I figured out what really ''rivet counting'' mean. But that's next level!

So far so awesome! I just noticed (in the second to last pic) that the nozzle itself is slightly angled downwards in comparison to the lenght of the engine/exhaust duct. Should it be like that? It could be just an illusion though.

I'd say go for both ways - a mix of coarse(r) sandpaper under the Alclad and drybrushing above it. It could be the same after all, but, it's an extra layer of flavor. The goal is to keep the final pattern of the scratches as uneven as possible. While for the riverts - the resin ones seem just fine and yet, a mix with the goold old riveter here and there might look even better. For this plane, ''different is better''.

Just a tip: make an easy stand out of foam or another common material. The plane should be easy for balancing because of its narrow and thin shape. Btw about the super detailing of the cockpit - I thought a lot about it and after seeing a couple of finished models - hmm... the cockpit of the Starfighter is so small that not everything will be nicely visible. That's why I only got a resin seat + pilot. The cockpit will be even mroe ''stuffed'' with them. But it would be very interesting to see how it will turn out the cockpit in your model. Do you plan to use a pilot figure as well? And do you already know the position of the canopy - open/close? Thx

Oh yes oh yes Hi Chuck! Very nice edneavour. Btw it will be a very important topic for me too, cause I have the same kit and I plan to start it after the Nighthawk, which will not be soon. Nevertheless, I prepped quite a bit of research on the Starfighter in the meantime. I'd like to make a conversion from the same No.2514 kit into an American C-version jet. So I also got the special metal foil adhesive from Microscale and I plan to cover the entire plane with kitchen aluminum foil - a couple of foil types maybe, plus a standard aluminum tape (already with adhesive layer on one side) from a hardware store. It would be my first ever approach to replicate such a surface with real metal foil. A friend of mine tried hardly to discourage me because ''the best'' way is by using Alclad II metalizers. The thing is, I already did several tests on Buster (F-22 in 1/72 ) and I gotta say, I liked pretty much the result. It is a very tedious and delicate adventure to deboss all the panel lines and rivets into the aluminum foil... but I think it's worth it. I would like to hear your opinion about that - what are your intentions about the making of the true metal surface?, or it's too early already. I'm very happy to see a build of this gorgeous plane and exactly by you! Have fun and happy building! I'll follow with interest.

Very Very Good! Lovely!

I just catched up. Very GJ with the decals and stencils! And the subtle weathering (before the real one) is superb.

wow, That's a kilo of stencils Very nice and sharp looking!

Looks Gorgeous!

Oh yes oh yes! That's the monster! Have a great fun building it, it's an amazing model!

Very well done! This accentuator relly nicely highlighted the details. Make it guuut!