spacewolf Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 (edited) Hey Guys, It's been a while. What with moving again and a new job model time has been limited and while sorting out my stuff I pulled out an old love I started on way back in 2004. I had documented the build so i'm in the process of resizing the pics and loading them on photobucket. This is a scratch build in 1/24th scale and here is a profile shot. Cheers Vaughn Edited May 30, 2011 by spacewolf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Awesome Vaughn! I remember seeing a model of this design somewhere before. It's cool! Look forward to seeing where you go with it. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 It's been a while sense I started this project..2004 to be exact ! I'm not quite sure how I stumbled onto the fighter but Alex from Scihighmodels http://scihighmodels.com/index.html was a great help. He has become a good friend and was worked with me giving great advice and encouragement. Most of the ref. came from him as well as an invaluble set of the original comics. I had very little exposeure to Japanese Anime' or the wealth of concepts and idea's they had developed. The tiny kit Alex produced just wetted my desire for something just a 'bit' bigger ! Using a good set of drawings I first had to confirm the dimentions. After working for several days trying to find ref. I finally clued in and by simpley sizing a 1/48 pilot fig. to the drawings got what I needed. The drawings were scaled up to 1/24th and I then started searching for parts from other kits that would fit or come close to what I needed. The main wheels from an 1/24 FW-190 were close and a air filter from a desert Spitfire looked like it would work. I started construction though making the tail fin....Japanese starships have these rakish fins with elongated tips that give them a neat look. I laminated plastic, cut, carved and filed it to shape, then scribed the lines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 Awesome Vaughn! I remember seeing a model of this design somewhere before. It's cool! Look forward to seeing where you go with it. Kev Thanks Kev, hang on, this gets a bit crazy ! Cheers Vaughn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 The Japanese artists love fins and put them all over the place so I decided to try the tail cone to see if I could really do this. To make the thruster cone I cut a section from a rocket and using a pattern cut sections that were glued around the tube to give the proper shape I needed. If you followed my M-20 build, this was where I got the idea for making the spinner.... After puttying and sanding a coat of paint was sprayed on, imperfections fixed and another coat of paint. This was used as the master for a vacuformed part. I used 1/16th sheet and the deep draw of the process thinned it to 1/32 making a nice scale looking thickness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 The cone had to be cut along one side to get the master out so while the glue was drying I set out making the cowl. Discs were cut, stacked and hollowed out, then sanded to shape. Once the cone was ready it was mounted on a disc and glued onto the cowl. Next came the 'fun' part....the fins. Parts were cut from thin sheet and carefully glued in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 But wait !....even more 'fun' !... for whatever reason, the artist decided to draw rifling on the inside of the cone....so, on a roll after getting the fins done I cut thin curved strips from sheet and started gluing them in. A splash of paint and it looked ok so I figured I could build the rest of this ship. Little did I know the journey this would take me on. Stay tuned, more to come ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big matt Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Cool Vaughn! I am totally looking forward to this. You are a very bad influence, the lhs got a shipment of MaK stuff in and my buddy finished his resin Y wing kit. Very bad influence... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Av8fan Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 I remember that series from when I was a kid. Really looking forward to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 Cool Vaughn! I am totally looking forward to this. You are a very bad influence, the lhs got a shipment of MaK stuff in and my buddy finished his resin Y wing kit. Very bad influence... Come over to the Dark Side Matt...we have cookies ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 I remember that series from when I was a kid. Really looking forward to this. Welcome along I hope you enjoy the ride. Cheers Vaughn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 So, with the rear cone done it was on to the nose. The artist was obviously inspired by the FW 190 D9 but really did a neat twist on the design. To build it I started by cutting two discs and wrapping sheet around the edges. Another cone was pulled and made ready. The forward cowl was made by wrapping strip around a pill bottle and sanding to shape after it dried. Where the cowl flaps would be raised scoops were drawn so these were made by Vacuforming sheet over 1/8th square strip then cutting to size. A disc was added to both front and back for positioning, the cone was rifled and glued on then lines were drawn to position the fins. The scoops were positioned and glued. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 The forward cowl was glued in place and the join carefully filled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacewolf Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 Lastly the fins were cut from thin sheet and carefully glued in place...it was nerve wracking but man.. it looks awesome ! Stay tuned, more in a few days.. Vaughn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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