F`s are my favs
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Everything posted by F`s are my favs
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All white. btw guys, congrats and happy 50% successful completion of the crewed Dragon demo-2 mission to the ISS! This ship looks out of this world! So firstly, here are the rims. I used the original ones from the kit because they had the right number of holes... but they were quite small (the holes), and I had to enlarge them. There is one rim done (left) and one still with the small holes (right): w/ the GTR brake disks/systems *for F-15. And here both rims are with enlarged holes: And here is all painted up white and lacquered (and adjusted to fit in the bays). Just that. Still plenty of elements and colors to be added...
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Next up: MLGs. So because I'll use the GTR tire set for F-15, the tires can't fit in the standard bays, and thus I can't make the pylons on hinges. The tires from the oleos would need a little rotation towards the centerline of the plane to fit properly but working the white metal pylons would be quite... So, I'll go the easy way - the whole pylons will be mounted on strong magnets in the bays, and then they should fit loose inside for an in-flight config, just about the same as my 1/32 F-15E. That's a closeup of the magnets: I used some supports which would be enough to keep the pylons perfectly aligned when in place, as well as sturdy enough to keep the plane stable when the gear is down. These addons will be basically invisible through the tiny rear MLG doors. The magnets are more than enough to not let the pylons fell down as well. Btw the bays are totally modified and they are not ready yet. The doors from the inside. It's a bit hard to explain what's going on but I think I found the easiest and most effective way to make hinges for this type of doors. And the pylons just freshly polished.
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PS: it looks like the seamlines have gaps here and there but that's because of of the trasnparent glue which is almsot polished... all the facets are sanded with 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper. The leading/trailing edges are nicely straight:
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Of course, everything is a testfit only: I used something like a piece of palstic as a jig and a piece of 240 grit sandpaper over a perfectly flat piece of acrylic, to flatten the tops of the inner facets... Then I made the leading/trailing edges decently sharp, not quite much. And that's how they look like now. Actually I can't make the tops with a perfect romboid shape but that's how far I can go. Btw the bevels near the rotating surfaces are also slightly ''enlarged'' and smoothened.
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Polish F-16 Block 52: Tiger Meet 2015
F`s are my favs replied to Uncarina's topic in Works in Progress
Can't recall another word other than Legit! Very nice vert. stabilizator and I can barely imagine what the rest would look like with such a thin over coat. -
Very nice looking! The subtle weathering is superb!
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The ruddervaters are partially done. For the hinge I used a shorter rod but a stainless steel one They are glued now and just barely sanded along the glue lines. But here is the issue - while I was watching those ruddervaters, they seemed to me way too thick. The F-15 rudders are 1/3rd thick in comparison. So, was it normal because the F-117 is not a supersonic jet or what!? I watched so many pics before and never payed too much attention to the ruddervaters for one reason or another. Then after studying the pics of the jet again and again, I think I figured it out. There is are facets with a promiment edge that runs along the entire ruddervator on both sides - okey - but this facet makes a smooth transition between the central edge and the facets of the leading/trailing edges on both sides. I don't know how to explain it but the kit parts are slightly wrong and because the angle of the facets is so shallow it is very niticeable at the top edges of the ruddervators. Here in red is the thing that should not be like that: Check out the real thing: The central edge is there - ok; the trailing/leading edge facets near the base of the ruddervaters are there - ok; but the end sides finish in a romboid shape. This will be quite an adventure to edit it but I think I know how to do it justice. And hopefully this will reduce the overall thickness of the ruddervators in their top areas too.
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Alrighty : ) The baffled outlets are done, thinned, painted, just about ready for gluing, but after a thorough thinking - it turned out that the reat area of the upper fuselage will become very fragile/delicate to touch if I add the vanes. The next pix are quite of a micro - the thickness of the vane is half a milimiter. And because I want to make the ruddervators moveable, I'd rather make them now when the rear part of the fuselage is still not so risky for action. And just a couple pics with the slotted areas over an artificial light... quite nice! But... ruddervators first
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KH T-6/Harvard Kicked Up A Notch: Apr 14/20: Finished!
F`s are my favs replied to chuck540z3's topic in Works in Progress
She looks amazing! I especially like the third picture with the shine and reflections. Very nice! -
10x for the tip Brian! I just did it yesterday by using a wire which is just about thinner than the plastic sheets. Here is how itthey looks now. I'll wait them to dry completely and then I'll have to smoothen/blend the trailing edges of the sheets: And here is a view from the inner side. The fuselage is flipped. With the red is the firstly added "thickness" while the white is the newly added space. And you can see the wire rods shining inbetween. Whilst for the initial thickening I used just two thin stripes from/with the width of the plastic sheets. Quite a sandwitch indeed.
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The vanes for the starboard side are done... this is all a test fit only. However... although I reduced the overall thickness of both exhausts quite significanlty, it's still not enough :| Here is the original plane again: and here I did some trials with 1 piece of plastic sheet just put over the current plates... you can see it on the right-hand side of the exhaust: and with two pieces stacked: Very difficult to find out the truth... should I add one more piece or two?! I think one is not enough, while two pieces are a little bit too much. I gotta think how to do it with one and a half indeed... I think this is the right thickness to add. Alright, the same journey again . . . Btw here are the vanes only:
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Half way in the making: this is the overall decrease of the width of the exhausts - done on the portside, still the original on the starboard side. It is a small change but a big difference, it's way better now. Then I prepped the part with the vanes. I cut off the original ones and "redistributed" new slots according to the pattern of the real plane. This is... I took a pic with the plastic part just put over the screen of my laptop then by syncing the image below by taking the lower lip of the exhaust as a reference. I also shortened the slots for the vanes - the original ones took the entire width of the plastic part. This is, still not done, but just a test fit with some plastic pieces that I'll later use as vanes. Here is the difference between the arrangement of the vanes on the original kit part still not edited, and the new one. It's something like 2-3 out of 11 vanes to stay on their initial places where they were... all others needed a "relocation". Happy to do it justice. Of course this is just a bare test fit. I'll try to thin down the trailing edges, equalize the lengths, cant them slightly towards the centerline. And hopefully some airfoil profile... but I'm not quite optimistic on that.
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Thx a lot! Now, on to the exhaust... It would take a lot of time for the black oil paint on the intakes to dry so now a little bit of modifications on the rear part of the plane. After a thorough examination... the first pic is the real plane, b&w, while on the second pic I tried to capture the same angle: and the opposite side: So, there will be quite a lot of editing here. At first glance: - the entire width of the exhaust is a little bit too too much. The upper lip is way thicker, it needs a lot of thinning but from the inner side, so the thickness of the exhausts will become even more; so I'll have to reduce it by cutting/displacing the lower platforms (a couple of mm, just a bit, but I have to). - the tiny guide vanes are not exactly tiny. They need a lot of thinning, they should be about about twice shorter, they are perfectly straight but need to be a little bit canted inwards, and they need an airfoil profile. Here is a closeup of the real deal, b&w again: And the original guide vanes. I think I could use them and reshape them instead of entirely replacing them with PE parts.
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Btw I used black oil paint for the acrylic parts so I think they are as dark as they could be. Thx Brian for the tip on the intake colors as well. While for your design of the intake screens - yep, I'm very well aware of it, I keep checking your F-117 topics from time to time indeed, for inspiration. Initially I thought about contacting you to ask whether you make them. I think it is a very nice approach but I'm doubtful about how rigid/solid those screens could be. The tiny little vanes or cones would be so small that ... I don't know, I can't even imagine. Because it's very important to be safe for handling and to "stay in shape" when touched ever so slightly.
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The acrylic plates are glued, all went nicely. I did some test fits with the painted screens on and the intakes and the engines inside, and.... well... I ended up painting the transparent acrylic parts black from the insides. Otherwise, they were too too transparent and in a combination with the glare, they looked just not normal... for example the engines faces were clearly visible. But now they are just nice. There is still a nice gare at certain angle but it does make a very nice effect like on some pictures of the real plane. At other angles - just pitch black, even darker than the matte black paint on the PE screens. Here is just a test fit with one mesh just sitting barely on its place and it is just the acrylic part on the other side, both are already painted black from inside. Cheers guys! Stay home and make models!
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10x Kahuna, the Future or the substitute that I have (Revell Contacta Clear and a couple of gloss acryllic lacquers) could very easily make a mess. The goal is to keep the mesh screen as "pristine" as possible because the transaprent acryic pieces underneath offer a very nice shine through the holes. It would be more than enough to secure the PE screens only along the edges and from the wider middle strut. The thing is that I'm really concerned about the outcome but if anything goes wrong - the original plastic parts will be used of course which mesh patterns are also quite good indeed. So, here are the painted PE screens and one sitting flush over the acrylic part with the nice shines at a certain angle: The intake trunks and the engine faces are also painted. I was also curious about the color... believe me, I checked all my reff. pics and a couple of magazines, and I can't find a picture of the intakes. I was very curious of whether they are painted black because of stealth, some bare metallic finish or white gloss because it's typical for the US jets. Nevertheless, there are many pics that show a distant view at the engine faces through the relief doors, and they can't be seen because everything is black... without a doubt this could be achieved with flat black on the intakes. And perhaps the intake faces could only be partially/barely seen if lit with a torch through the doors for example. So that's why I painted the itnakes black. The compressor parts of the engines will of course be covered from the inner sides.
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Nope I won't. The tricky part will be how to glue the painted pe over the acrylic :), as perfect as possible, without time for adjustment, etc. I plan to go along the outer edges very very gently with super glue only to fix it, then with clear glue for transparent parts which does not make fog effects, thoroughly from the inner sides, plus somehow underneath the brace strut in the middle of the mesh. Or I'm also thinking about two-component resin glue only and some counterweight to keep the mesh sit flat over the acrylic for a longer time... Still don't know . But anyway, it should be painted and weathered beforehand. It's actually painted now. Pix in a bit...
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The intakes went through some pretty substantial modifications. I cut off basically the entire top walls to make sufficient provisioning for the doors when down (open), and walled off the voids up to the edges of the doors to make smooth transition to the engines. And the compressors had a flat blank wall behind the struts so I had to get rid of it to make better depth effect. The stator struts are also thined down slightly. The next up is in the PE screen mesh - if I replace the plastic parts with just this thin and fragile PE, just 1 touch and it will bend. So, I will still use the PE substitute but with a thick piece of transarent acryllic underneath as well. It was quite an adventure of adjustments but they are all done now.
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First project on here (Kinetic 1/32 F/A-18C)
F`s are my favs replied to Crew Dog's topic in Works in Progress
Hi & Welcome! Very nice model and plane... The new Top Gun would be an inspiration! -
Hi guys I'm on the adventure with the intake suction relief doors. Of course I made them moveable, with hinges and magnets. Here is a short video: And a couple of pix: They sit perfectly flush and yet there will be more sanding and flattening to be done during the oil canning effects. Here is the hinge mechanism with the magnet form the inner side: Those are the intake trunks. I first traced the opening onto the upper walls, if you can see the subtle scraping. Now I'll have to open the holes and "connect them" with the fuselage so the relief doors can open freely.
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Some edits of the cockpit: the IP cowling has PE stripes along the edges because they need to be straight and sharp; there is a small mod at the very front of the cowling too. Then all is painted with the main colors, no weathering, riveting, detailing or whatsoever so far; just the basic colors. The rear bulkhead is finally glued and now I can start with the opening/closing mechanism of the canopy. A couple of pics before: And after the painting:
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hmm.. if you refer to those, I think no - they are the edged areas of the static parts of the ruddervators, angled differently and thus the wear is different too. But maybe it would be possible that the ropes of the chute scratched those areas in some cases... I have no edea.
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Hi & Thx! I can find good pix only of the closed bay, for example this one: and only one of the "empty" bay which at least shows its dimensions and shape, and where the mounting point for the parachute could be:
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Completed - Desert Storm Air to Air refuelling: KA-6D&A-7E
F`s are my favs replied to red Dog's topic in Works in Progress
Really a nice combo! Thumbs up ! -
Zvezda Star Destroyer - a new detailing project
F`s are my favs replied to The Madhatter's topic in Non-LSP Works
tremendous detailing! :)
