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Alex last won the day on June 3 2021
Alex had the most liked content!
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In Boston, but thinking of Ukraine...
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: Zvezda 767-300 (KLM)
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patricksparks reacted to a post in a topic: Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
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Shoggz reacted to a post in a topic: Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
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Beautiful! I just bought a copy of this kit, along with decals to do it up in Quantas livery.
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: Boeing 747-436 ‘British Airways’
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: Boeing 747-436 ‘British Airways’
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LSP_Kevin reacted to a post in a topic: Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
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Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
Alex replied to Alex's topic in Non-LSP Works
I haven't lost the plot on this one; just been real busy with travel for work. I did manage to build the ejection seats. For the Tamiya Viper I'm using the kit parts, augmented with belts from the Kelik cockpit set. For the Kinetic kit, I've used an Eduard resin seat. I probably could have just as easily gone with the Kinetic parts, but the Eduard seat came in a bundle with their resin wheels, which I definitely wanted to use. In the below photos the Eduard seat is on the right, Tamiya on the left. These have not yet been flat-coated, so pardon any distracting shininess... The Eduard part definitely has more and more finely cast detail, but the biggest difference between the two is on the back, which of course won't be visible... The Eduard kit provided two or three copies of all of the decals for their ejection seat, so by being careful not to screw any of them up I was able to use them to do both seats, which definitely adds to the look of the Tamiya kit parts. Maybe when I get back from this next trip I can finally get after the Kinetic landing gear... -
Memphis reacted to a post in a topic: Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
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scvrobeson reacted to a post in a topic: Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: Welsh Models 757 Iron Maiden
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Fanes reacted to a post in a topic: Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
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Wow - those wheels are an impressive bit of scratchbuilding indeed. Congrats on a great-looking model!
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: Talbot Lago T26C by Heller 1/24 Grand Prix racer
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: What do you all listen to while modeling?
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: What do you all listen to while modeling?
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: Revell 1/24 N-1 Starfighter
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patricksparks reacted to a post in a topic: Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
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LSP_Kevin reacted to a post in a topic: Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
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Fantastic - that silver base coat really pulls it all together!
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: Revell 1/24 N-1 Starfighter
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Alex reacted to a post in a topic: Revell 1/24 N-1 Starfighter
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Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
Alex replied to Alex's topic in Non-LSP Works
Looking at the white-on-white assembly of LG parts and bay, I decided that it would just never look good without some kind of wash to emphasize the detail. This despite the fact that the LG bays you see in photos of in-service Vipers tend to be pretty spotless, and certainly devoid of the kind of accumulated "grime in the corners" implied by a pinwash. That said, sometimes we need to do some things that are a bit unrealistic to elicit that "look" of realism in our models. So I proceeded to gloss coat everything and hit it with dark gray Vallejo acrylic wash. These are two shots of one side of the main LG dry fit. Not yet flat coated either. The photos look grayer/dirtier than the pieces do in actuality. The level of detail is not terrible here even in the less-detailed Tamiya kit, and in a non-magnified view it actually looks pretty nice. I will obviously wait to assemble all this for good until the fuselage paint is completed; at that point I'll glue it up, touch up any missing paint on the hoses and electrical lines, then flat-coat it. I've also assembled and cleaned up the pylons and external fuel tanks for the Tamiya kit. I'll be using all ResKit AM weapons, and I have not touched those yet. I'm also most of the way through building and painting both the Tamiya ejection seat and the Eduard AM seat I'll be using for the Kinetic Viper. Pics of those once they are complete. Next I think I will shift back to the Kinetic kit and do the whole LG thing over on that one. -
That sounds like the right way to do it.
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Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
Alex replied to Alex's topic in Non-LSP Works
These are all of the piece parts needed for the Tamiya LG, plus the very nice ResKit wheels/tires, cleaned up, detailed, and ready to paint. There are so many that I'm running out of clips, even having made more. So I think I'll go ahead and get these painted before starting on the Kinetic LG. Adding hydraulic/electrical lines to these things again emphasizes what a relatively tiny aircraft the F-16 is, at least compared to the Soviet jets I built last year. Working on these LG is like doing a 1:72 Flanker. -
+1 for sure. One of the most convincing wooden props I’ve seen at this scale.
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Those look great!
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Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
Alex replied to Alex's topic in Non-LSP Works
The Tamiya viper has lots of little pieces of the fuselage molded separately, obviously to minimize the parts changes needed to represent different variant of the airplane. But, none of these fit with the kind of precision that you see in, for example, their 1:32 warbirds. So lots of little bits of filler around the nose. Thankfully all slim enough gaps that Vallejo plastic putty is fine - no need to break out the CA. The radome also doesn't quite sit flush on the front of the fuselage - enough so that I wouldn't wait and install it after painting. So I'm putting it on now. I looked around the interwebs and got pretty consistent signal that no nose weight is needed on this kit, so I took a gamble and didn't add any (the front LG are not beefy). Note that I used turned brass pitots from Master. This is what it looks like with pretty much all of the (fairly extensive) surface fixing done. I'm going to bring the Kinetic kit to this same point and then shift to working on the landing gear. -
Viper 'Duel' Build: F-16A-MLU "UAF" / F-16C "NMANG" [1:48 Kinetic vs. Tamiya]
Alex replied to Alex's topic in Non-LSP Works
Working through the fuselage assembly process on the Kinetic kit, there's also a challenge to be found in getting the upper fuselage pieces to align cleanly, but perhaps less so that with the Tamiya design. Both kits demand careful attention and a multi-step gluing process to get these pieces aligned, and I probably did not do either one of them as well as I could have. I would devote more time and plan on re-shaping the insides of the pieces to improve fit if I was to build another one of these. In Kinetic's favor, there are certainly fewer, small gaps that need filling, for example in the join of the forward intake section, it's just these short gaps on the sides: Unlike the Tamiya kit, a couple very minor trims led the rear fuselage cone to fit perfectly flush. Kinetic molds these static wicks into the wings. Let's see how many I manage to break off... This little pitot probe was poorly molded, so I replaced it with aluminum tubing. In contrast, the equivalent part by Tamiya was nice enough to use as-is. One area where Kinetic clearly underperformed was the vertical stabilizer. This piece at the top (and the thing is obviously modular to support multiple variants in one kit) did not fit well and had no means of positive location. Required some filler. Overall, though, the design and fit of the main fuselage pieces was better in the Kinetic kit. Not terrible by any means for Tamiya, but Kinetic does better. -
Yes - I write the product number on top of the cap of every bottle of MRP (which are nice and white so easy to write on).
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Once. I had a half-finished 1:350 aircraft carrier that I wasn't terribly happy with, and I was moving house, and in the bin it went. I think I've finished every other kit I've started (although many of the early finished ones got binned during the move as just being below the level of the work I can now do, so why keep them).
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Geez. That's terrible. At least our postal system just overcharges us and then loses our mail....