MDuv

It was a real pleasure following along your work. You made it look simple and easy, and it was really inspiring. The finished beauty is a real stunner, and the dynamic situation make it even more attractive! I could only wish mine will be half as good as this one! can’t wait to see you back at the big prowler. Cheers. Mathieu

Hi, You are welcome. If by original drawings, you mean the vectore files used to create this. I fear there is none. I draw directly on silhouette. using a paper scan as reference. Mathieu Hi Gene, I m curious to see how it turns out ! I wish you luck and aligned planets to sort it out. Cheers. Hi Mike. This is a RB product Rivet-R runned on the outer face. 1.5mm pitch on this case. Cheers. Mathieu

Hi Small update on the sandwich assembly. First job was to assemble the mylar sheet, with CA glue, just to see if everything works togheter. It was mostly OK, I just tweaked the inner flap part. enlarged the holes, just to have them not interfere with the upper sheet. Then it was time to cut real plastic and try it for good. I did not send the rivet pattern to the cutter for this one. as I wanted to have them positive. So once the parts were cleared and cleaned, I runned the riveter on the other side of the sheet, to have them appearing on the outer face. MLG door. Airbrake, a pity i wont use them Doors all completed : And a comparison, kit parts, proto parts, final parts. Kinda happy with how it turned out. I have just dropped the files overs at ScaleModelPaintMasks.com Here is the link: Thin wing conversion Would you want to give it a try, I wish you a lot of fun. Cheers. Mathieu

Hi Matt, No they are not raised, the effect is quite the same as if they had been punched with a needle. a hole in the center, and a recess on the perimeter. In some case its usable like that, but here I finally did not retained this solution. more in the next post. Cheers. Mathieu Hi, I'm not sure what scale you want to reach as my counter is blocked at 1/32 and above , but keep me posted on how it went. Cheers. Mathieu

Looking very good. Congratulations Mathieu

Hi ! Very clever way of adding the static dischargers. I think I would have tryed to drill them, after having broken a lot of bits inside, I would have figured they are not aligned either. Your way is more destructive, but easier and more precise in the end. Btw, I'm in aww seing what you have done so far. Really amazing topic. cheers. Mathieu

Nice and clean paint job on the inner parts! That’s promising well for the rest of the build! Keep it coming. Cheers. Mathieu

Thank you mister Focan ! Butcher and photograph, you have chosen wisely your avatar ! cheers hi Red Dog, thank you sir. You will even be able to download the files soon if you want to give it a try. Cheers Hi Peter! Thank you! The way is easier when all the crash point have been flagged in advance by some adventurer modeler in front. Very fan of your work and attached stories! Keep them coming. Cheers

Hi thank you ! Even better, you will soon be able to download the files from the cutter forum for free! All you need is a silhouette machine to cut them. Yeah the new phantom model is on every discussion, but things will be serious when we see an assembled test model. And even then, the ton of Tamiya boxing released will still need care and love. Cheers. Mathieu

Hi gents. Have been doing some progress on the thin wing butchery. Underwing this time. First I removed all the bulged stuff between the airbrake and gear door, and sanded flat the area in front of the gear door and inner rear of the airbrake. Then I designed a big one piece (flat) plate that fitted the hole in the wing: Success at try #6 ! The big panel, once spearated into actual panels, ensure everything will work together. With this preliminary step complete, I can now work the individual panels. For this I used a scan of the bulged parts then made it fit inside the area delimited by the big panel. Some were easier than other : Take #2, #7 and ...#9. Note that the main gear door shape is not corrected yet, this version is a drop fit. Now that the outer shapes are done, a plastic card sheet is cut for a final test. The previous test cuts are out of mylar sheet, wich are very easy to cut, very rigid, and cheap. Perfect for prototyping. The cut is intentionnaly not going through the plastic, to keep the assembly together, a little bending help is needed the separate the outer form from the sheet. Assembly test : Then the doors are getting separated from the airbrake and lips assembly : I think i'll go with airbrake closed, so It will ease assembly to keep the lips and ab in one piece. Then its time to equip the inside... Fo this I got a little help in references from tamiya's 1/48 B Phantom: Scanned the parts, upscaled them to 1/32, and designed the inner doors. As you can see, it's going to be a sandwich type assembly. Note, on this version of the main door, the front shape is corrected. it's cutting right now, so stay tuned. Cheers Mathieu -edit: Looks promising out of the cutter.

Nice reference to your daughter! Will be following along your progress. Cheers Mathieu

Out of curiosity, are there any side by side comparison out in the net, showing what and where amk has got it wrong on the shape issues. asking for a friend who builds lower scales.. btw : 130usd seems to be way overpriced, as most Eu sellers will let it go at 85€, wich makes approx 100$, much more reasonable/affordable. cheers Mathieu

So the big magnet at the back of the engine assembly will allow removal of the airframe to be displayed on the mount ?

Hey! Your after market canopy parts does fit very well to your stock fuselage ! Nice catch !! kidding of course. Cockpit crafting gonna be a nice chapter to follow. Cheers Mathieu

I can feel the tension of the moment just looking at the pics. bloody well done!