chaos07

Thanks Chuck, One of the few benefits of working as slowly as I do is that it's easy to take the time to work on the small details and avoid costly mistakes. A lesson well learned as I once would rush my builds.

Great work so far - looking forward to more!

NICE!

Greetings, A minor update, but a bit of work to get here for this week. On the export Block 50/52+ aircraft, the traditional wedge-shaped cooling vent is replaced with an open-style vent with six prominent openings and visible trunking or fins internally. The Grand Models CFT set had some PE to create this vent, but only the outer opening. Fortunately, this panel is proud of the surface like a doubler, so adapting the PE was much easier than recessing the part. After cleaning up the PE by filing the edges with a diamond file and slightly rounding the edges over with 400 grit wet or dry sandpaper, some profiling was needed. I used my Hasegawa scribing tool, which has a larger diameter handle, that is consistent across the length. I rolled this tool across the panel along the axis of flight to give it a slight bow to conform to the fuselage. After attempting to profile the part by rolling the tool across the part on my cutting mat did not work, a small tray that had some silicone poured into it was used, and that provided the right amount of flex to do the job. With some firm pressure, a half-dozen passes across the part formed it into the correct shape. Then the PE part was located per references found on the net, and the Modern VIper Guide which has been so helpful so far. After being taped into place, a Sharpie was used to color in the openings to leave behind the area that needed to be removed. With these marks in place, an opening of approximately 3.4mm x 8mm was decided on, which will allow for the small box to be built inside to house the fins or vanes for this vent. This opening, if kept square would make my next job much easier, so layout was critical in my mind. The Infini cutting mat B has a grid laid out in 1mm squares. Some Tamiya tape was laid out, and a 3mm x 8mm area was removed so I could lay this on the fuselage and allow for proper positioning ensuring the correct area would be removed. Putting it back after would be problematic, and would complicate the attachment of the PE as well. I was able to index the forward edge of this opening to the panel line just ahead of it on the avionics bay with a 3mm parallel front edge. This ensured that it remained square to the waterline of the aircraft. A second tape layout template was made and then applied to a length of Dymo tape, which was then cut out to the same dimensions. Aligning the openings made this alignment much easier. In my experience, Dymo tape either sticks like its life depends on it, or it does not stick at all. Especially across curves. My thoughts were that the underlying tape would allow for easier removal, and the Dymo tape would serve as a better scribing guide rather than taping down a flexible guide which would be moved several times. A thing Tamiya scribing tool, .015mm was then used to scribe the outline fairly deep, then the tape was removed (with considerable effort - this time it really stuck in place), and the panel was finished freehand. Minimal clean-up was needed with a file, and we had a square opening for the internal portion of the vent. VMS thin black CA worked like a champ to attach the PE. A tape hinge ensured that it was in perfect alignment with the opening and made the initial glue-up a breeze. A small amount was applied with a micro brush to the middle of the perimeter of the part and then pushed into place. After holding it for a couple of minutes, more was wicked around the inner perimeter (inside) and outer perimeter with a CA applicator (the glue looper if memory serves). After a bit, some VMS Debonder and some pointed cotton buds made short work of cleanup. Note the black CA filling in a sink mark below the aft portion of the canopy - and the errant line on the hinged panel has been repaired with clear CA, but still shows the brown panel liner. Inside a basic box was built up. The underside was sanded flat, and marginally square to the opening sides. A couple of thin runners of .030 evergreen were laid down across the length of the vent, and then two sections of .010 were glued in place to make the sides of the internal structure. Below I also have the .005 evergreen strips which will define the internal structure dry fit to verify they will look the part. Later this week they will be glued in one by one with CA from behind (aft side) to hide the glue lines. Once glued in, the added length will be cut back flush with the "box" sides. All this fits nicely inside without interfering with the cockpit tub or the lower fuselage. And the view with the same temp slats in place. Looks the part to my eye! With the macro photos, it does appear that one side of the opening is more round than the other, as installed it is to the rear. In-person, this is not so obvious. Had this been more prominent before it was glued down, I would have reversed it making the aft edge the "square" side, where the internal structure meets the outer openings. This should be the last of the fiddly bits to do before the fuselage is ready to come together permanently. Thanks for checking in!

Spectacular result with the paint. I remember seeing these as a kid and always liked the "lizard" scheme on the F-16. I've got some Uprise Decals in the stash - it's great to hear/see how awesome they are!

Nope, just a small opening that will allow for a few drops or a few more. The AH has many features as the CM-C+ I know you use, but nothing to get in the way for tight spots, and for small detail work I think this will be perfect. These should get a bit of a workout or trial in the next week or two. I'll certainly let folks know how it goes on this end. The .8mm or so wide line I'm painting on the glass of that SNIPER pod is half done, and the touchups and remainder will be done with one of these I hope. I imagine 10-20 drops of paint will fit without it being too full to use, depending on the dropper/pipette of course. I think these are being discontinued since they are on closeout - I do not recall the wording on the Iwata site. They came in at $71 and $56 respectively. They both share common nozzles, needles, etc with other brushes, so spares should not be an issue. I'll grab a new nozzle for each one day for the hamfisted day down the road. https://www.iwata-airbrush.com/closeout-products.html Duane

Great work on the lights Chuck. The drill bit in the strobe is genius. I'll definitely be using some of your techniques in the future. As a side note, I spent too much time altering the fit of the Kopecky LAU-129s to fit perfectly flush with the two underwing pylons, only to find a gap present on the leading and trailing edges bracketing the step that fits the launch rail. Not sure if you plan to have those on your build, but I'll have some re-work to do for mine.

A very minor update for the past couple of weeks. I had Family in for a week and a half and some more this coming week, time at the bench will be limited for a few more days. The large gap at the joint between the intake and fuselage is sorted and will need some time to cure. To fill this area, and minimize sanding - I layered on some regular Tamiya Thin cement with a paintbrush. Every 3-4 days I've added a couple of swipes with the thin cement and let it cure. I've seen others have issues with too much thin cement in play at once, with some nasty results. WIth the above distractions in play, it seemed like a perfect time to handle that issue. The last layer of cement went on just before the below pics, and I think by the weekend it should be ready for some clean up for the final paint when the time comes. I think this side will need a little cleanup, whereas the other side looks darn near perfect. Both will get a light sanding either way. Lastly, while surfing the net - looking for things that I really do not need, I found these . . . A Highline HP-AH and Highline HP-AR in .2 and .3 mm nozzles respecively. They are on clearance on the Iwata site. I've started the painting of the red sealant on the Sniper ATP pod windows with the tiny red stripes, and even in the CM-B brush in .18, with its super small 1.5ml paint cup - I wanted something smaller. Previously the AH/AP brushes passed my internet feed, and being new to the hobby again, their usefulness was tough to discern. But now that usage of an airbrush is well within my grasp, this seems to make some tasks a little easier. A pure luxury, but one that given the closeout pricing, is now in the arsenal. Hopefully the unrestricted view of the area being painted, along with the ability to use just a few drops of paint, and quickly and easily clean the brush out, will make some fine detail work a bit easier. Neither has had any paint through them by my hand, but having both delivered to the door with spare needles for less than one of these would go for at retail price, it was worth the gamble. The AH has the MAC valve and should provide some good options for detail work and some weathering tasks with ink, etc. The AP should work well for metallics or other paint that has trouble with the smaller needle sizes - or at least that's what that guy I saw in the mirror earlier told me just before buying them. As always, thanks for checking in. Hopefully some progress in the coming weeks. Cheers.

Nice work. Your skills certainly enhance the aftermarket and take it to a much higher level!

Your paintwork is incredible. The variations in the tones and colors (as previously mentioned by Martinnfb) is very well laid down. Exceptional work so far!

Coming along nicely!

Chuck, One of the best parts of a jet model these days, especially with aftermarket parts, is to look up the tail feathers! So much detail, and it makes a huge difference in my opinion. I think the ResKit nozzle is the 220/220E because it has split bolts at the end of the turkey feathers where they connect to the inner nozzle. On the 229 this is a single bolt and carbon petals. Jake's book on page 143 highlights this difference. The internals for the ResKit parts look to be the 220/220E as well when you reference page 141 vs. page 142 for the 229. I studied these pages entirely too much when I was working on a SUFA build trying to sort out the differences. I like your approach to the attachment of the nozzle. Mine was a bit more complex (only because that's what I thought would be the easy way), but yours will be easy to install in the end. It looks like sanding the can flush and trimming the lip on the inner parts doesn't affect the fit of the convergent(?) portion of the nozzle to the hot section. My path was to assemble the ResKit parts as a unit, and slide it in at the end - but I'm missing the entire forward section to allow the display. On a side note - - there is some detail that the kit is short on with the arrestor hook. Some easy work (a couple of holes and some light grinding on the hook end) could spice up this part fairly easily, even though it is mostly tucked between the ventral fins. I grabbed some detailed shots of an A model near me - and I do not think the hook has changed. The attachment point and the hook could use a little attention - happy to PM or post here if you want. Awesome progress.

Impressive as always. For not being a fan of squirting paint - it sure looks like you have a handle on it! Awesome results and build.

Impressive build! I have one of these in the stash, and as Pete mentions above - I'll certainly refer to your build for pointers along the way

Clipped wing spits - nothing beats them. Great progress. Looking forward to more!

Progress thus fuar is impressive! I like the tonal variation and chipping thus far, any weathering will only make this so much better! Awesome work.

These scratch builds are something else. Watching the process is impressive, to say the least, and your results are far from disappointing. Looking forward to another custom build!

Wow - now that's a phenomenal outcome! Loving the decals.

It seems like there is a never ending supply of subjects these days with unique paint - there is a half dozen I’d love to do - time shall tell though.

Chuck, Thanks for the comments! Yes, I was tracking the radome and the AOA "panel line". The brass replacements for the AOA probes are in hand and the recessed line will go away, allowing me to work on some weathering as you describe to show the demarcation between the cover and the radome. There is a Blizzard Agressor, Viper Demo Team build, and an Israeli Barak in the future too, and each each jet is different in many ways. Hunting around to source out all the little details makes the process that much more fun. Duane

Still pushing the rope uphill this week, and some progress was made. First, the intake lip was painted in a slightly darker shade of gray that seemed to match many reference photos I've found of the subject jet. I believe the lip of the intake, and a few other areas are covered in an anti-abrasion coating which weathers similarly to the radome. As the jet flies more, the darker it gets. In photos showing this jet freshly painted, these areas are slightly lighter than the Light Ghost Gray, and in the most recent photos I've found from late 2023 to early 2024 they are slightly darker. This is a mixture of MRP Aircraft Gray and MRP Light Mod Eagle Gray to give a slightly different hue and darker appearance. In the color card in the background, I've painted several colors from the MRP/SMS line to use as a reference as the project moves forward. The color demarcation is curved with the leading edge of the intake, so it was masked and painted before installation as doing so later on would be very tough to pull off. You can see where the top portion of the splitter is cut out to allow the installation of the reinforcement strut just before the intake gets glued to the lower fuselage. The same color as the intake lip is applied to the ECS inlets, though a slightly lighter shade to match references. On this scheme, the majority of the underside is Light Ghost Gray, I opted to paint the intake before installation. After painting the inside of the intake, I did not want to try and get into all the recesses after the fuselage was all buttoned up. Since the Haze Gray of the Raven is limited to the underside starting on the nose gear door, and a small portion wrapping around just behind the nose, this will save some considerable hassle later on. Provided I'm careful, this area will only receive some light touch-ups with the installation of the gear door and some antennas. The Navigation lights were also attached now. On the kit parts, these lights are keyed and have a small stud that fits into the intake, but on the aftermarket extended light housing, there was no such locating hole. Since the diameter of this hole was early as big as the fairing is wide, drilling this out was not in the cards. The lights were sanded flat on the underside, then glued in place with some JB weld. This stuff sticks to anything and cleans up exceptionally well with some IPA on a cotton bud or micro brush. It was a bit finicky to get the lights aligned and taped down for the overnight dry time, but in the end, I managed to get them aligned fairly well. In the future I would mount the lights before installing the fairings to the intakes, that may have been a bit easier, but if everything was easy, we wouldn't build models. I realize now after looking at these photos the lights were not masked correctly. The forward edge has a small painted section which I did not mask off. I'll address this in the future, and should not be an issue. The intake seems to have shrunk in width at some point here . . . . before painting the assembly fit perfectly on the lower fuselage, but now I have a small gap behind the ECS intake almost back to the forward edge of the main landing gear well. Right now the triangular section at the front of the splitter has glue, and the two tabs on the top and bottom of the intake trunk have glue and are curing. It seems I can push the intake sides over a touch and close the gap, but that will be addressed once the glue is fully cured. I'll have to think on this a bit to minimize damage and re-work along that joint. The brass tube was blackened with some blackening solution since it will be partially visible once the kit is finished and mounted on the acrylic rod. The fit is fairly tight in the styrene disks it slides into as well as the fit of the rod. This seemed to be the best method to darken the brass to prevent any paint buildup causing problems later on. Then to allow the installation of the main gear bay, and the aft portion of the intake trunk/engine bay some more JB weld was applied to fully secure the brass tube to the fuselage. This is now rock solid and is permanently affixed. The aft bulkhead was painted black to ensure that the white plastic will not be visible in the end. Right now I intend to install the ResKit parts minus the aft turbine section - I would have to drill a slightly larger hole than 1/2 inch in this part, and what detail is left would not be visible so I will not install it, and just leave the forward section open. The black will make sure that the forward area blends into "nothing", making alignment tasks much easier at the end when this section gets installed. Next, more work was done on the Sniper Pod. The glass was installed, and what a pain that was. As mentioned in an earlier post, the resin parts that Eduard provides were slightly small across the width, and I felt that clear styrene would look better. Below the glass is installed with some Gator Glue and the glue line is quite visible - though still wet. The seam between the longer sections of glass did not come out as well as I had hoped but is as good as I can get it. This is the 4th iteration of making these parts and was the best. On the real deal, this join is very visible, but to me, this still seems a bit too obvious but will be the final configuration. The forward edge of the glass will get painted gray, and the red/orange sealant will also be painted. Once the gator glue dried, a coating of MRP Gloss was sprayed over the styrene glass to ensure that the dark gray stripe at the front and the eventual red sealant will not work its way inside. My thoughts were that if the edge was sealed up with clear, the paint will not make its way inside. We shall see. My phone doesn't do justice to the glass, it looks pretty decent in person. At some point, I need to learn to use my DSLR camera for these shots. Lastly, to prepare to close up the fuselage the chaff/flare buckets were cut open to allow the Kopecky flare buckets to be installed. Straight forward, and it only took a few minutes to file the edges flat after drilling out the perimeter and knocking out the centers. These will be installed at the very end after final paint and such and I'll ensure the configuration is correct for the two partially empty buckets The Chaff/Flare buckets offered by Jan have partial, full, and empty configurations allowing several options. Flares only will be how this jet is configured, so the red caps will be painted before installation. Anodized Aluminum is what is currently painted on these, but may not be the final color. I have time to sort out the final shade. That's all for this week - thanks for checking in!

Nice repair on the radome. This is coming along nicely!

Great progress Chuck. Great tutorial on the masking and sealing of the critical areas. This technique will be added to my toolbox. It looks way easier than wet tech wipes/kleenex and then tape over after it dries in place. Out of curiosity, given the complex digital scheme on this bird, will the canopy be painted on the jet when the time comes, or will you tackle that separately? I was debating how to tackle my build - mask as you have and paint separately, or "glue" the canopy in place with masking solution and paint in one go. Cheers.

Well done! Spectacular results. The digital camo came through quite well, and though I've heard this kit can be a bit of a bear to get together, it looks like you had few if any major issues to overcome.

Man, what a build. This thing is huge! Good luck slinging the gallons of paint needed to complete this model Awesome work so far! looking forward to seeing more.