EricF

Hi everyone, I have work on the fin. I made the trailing edge as thin as possible, I modified the position of the rudder actuator. The CME are made from the one furnished in the Fisher kit. Just for comparison, we have the non corrected fin of the F-8E on the left Bye Eric

Thank you very much

First of all thank you very much for all the followers. Today three pictures of the nose mounted ECM fairing Cheers Eric

The nose camera bulge is installed. The window is in plexi as well.

Very interresting input Timmy about the genesis of this kit! Thanks for sharing. You are absolutely right when you say building a kit to suit our modeler vision. I have an exemple: the Mig 21 MF from Trumpeter which wrong in shapes around everywhere. In the end with an extended nose and a good finish we obtain a beautiful result. I think specially about the romanian one I built several month ago. Sometimes we think that we are right in correcting something and months later we discover that we did a missinterpretation of a picture. I agree with your point of view. Do not hesitate to bring your feedback if you see that I am wrong somewhere. Greetings from France Eric

Yep! Mine had been initially tortured by dipping it in boiling water to take benefit of shape memory of the resin. Next, I repeated the process several times until recovering the flat belly in forcing on it. The resin is very flexible and depth enough that avoids any risk of brake. Then after, I sanded down the belly on a sheet of sand paper on a flat surface. It worth working patiently on this kit because this airplane is really fabulous. Eric

David, I agree with you and I mesure how it had been difficult for Paul to make the master. I discover every day that reproducing to scale all the different volumes and their intersections is by far a difficult task, especially for the flat surfaces on each side of the fuselage. Nevertheless, I am really involved in this build in regards to Paul's great job in this kit. Concerning the nose wheel well, I have discovered that Fisher's one has better dimensions than the Aires. Aires wheel well is a bit larger to fit the Trumpeter kit. Since I dimesionned my Stations 3 and 4 windows according to it, they look too small now on my model. Honestly I discovered this issue yesterday when I made the stiffener plate :-))) Anyway, it is too late now. The perfection does not exist and it is only a hobby. ;-) So, I recommend to use the Fisher wheel well instead of the Aires and it will be easier to install. It is the same for the air intake which looks too big on the Trumpeter kit. Again according to me, Fisher intake looks good compared to the real thing. Thanks for your sharing and comments David. Eric

Small update with the stiffener plate between the camera bay and the front wheel well.

Thanks for your support and positive comment. Finally...phew ... I have reached my objective in remodeling the shape of the forward fuselage. I have been working for four days on it but in the end it worth the energy and patience used to it. I sprayed 5 times primer with the sanding work coming with. The most difficult had been to reproduce the flat surface starting from the camera bay to the nose. The shape of the air intake looks better now. Honnestly this build is far to be an easy one but the is the cost for an unique aircraft model. I keep working hard on it because I'm waiting for the Kinetic Mirage 2000 that probably would be my next project after this RF-8. I return to my work bench preparing the next update, stay tuned. Cheers Eric

Just to have an idea of the work in progress for correcting the issues

After night of rest I took again on the general lines and I discovered that there is an issue on the shape of the air duct. It is too flat as shown compare to the pics of the real thing. So, more filling sessions to come ......

Hi! I spent the past three days working on the fuselage to reach this level of finishing after several hours of primer spraying and sanding. Working on a short run kit is very very demanding but in the end the satisfaction is there. I still have some minor imperfections to correct but nothing difficult. I will scribe the panel lines on the final coat of primer to get the same depth as the aft part of the fuselage otherwise we may have seen the difference. A lot of work is still needed on this model but I would say that the most challenging one is behind now. See you soon for updates Cheers Eric

Hi David, You're right. Everything comes from the Aires Nose Weel weel which is a bit larger than the Fisher's one. I don't know what is the impact on the real fuselage to the scale width since the Aires part is adapted to the Trumpeter kit. Eric

Hi fellows modelers, I reached an important step in my build today. I sprayed a first coat of primer on the underside of the fuselage to highlight the defaults following an long phase of several adjustments. It is not perfect yet but I am happy of this first result. It could had been worse.

Absolutely superb as always ! Eric