Anthony in NZ Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Absolutely awesome mate!! The T Bird looks much nicer in my humble opinion. This will be a show stopper for sure. I mastered the 400gal tank not the 300's. Cheers Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 (edited) Cheers Anthony. Have been stealing one or two ideas from your Kahu build as well. Bummer I don't need the 400 gallon for this one. Edited May 23, 2021 by Talon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) Cockpit progress. Left one is front and right one rear. Started roughing out the OA-4M side consoles based on the NATOPS diagrams. Lot to do yet. Mound rudder pedals sit on is not correct, but won't really be seen, so will leave alone. The sticks are at the same angle, but the angle of the photo makes them look different. Rudder being cleaned up and rescribed. The area at the top was removed from the bottom of the Hot Dog antenna part and glued to the rudder. Added a small sliver of card at the back to make it meet the rear of the existing rudder. Exhaust mod time. The kit exhaust is way too shallow, so found some K&S brass tube a close diameter, and cut it to the correct length. Thinned the rear end to scale for the exhaust and started cleaning up the fuselage exhaust part. Unfortunately, this should be round, but is moulded oval. Will need modifying and so will the rear fuselage to match. I'll find a rear engine face from the spares that will work for the opposite end. The two hatches on the starboard side of the nose are in the wrong place. I have roughed out the proper location in pencil, which shows where they should be compared to the ones moulded in the kit. I've also filled the intake under the refuelling probe with CA and sanded smooth. Edited March 13, 2015 by Talon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) The Fisher 300 gallon tanks arrived yesterday. At first glance they looked like a nice addition with nice raised weld seams and a nicely detailed fuel cap. After closer inspection, these may prove problematic to use and I'm disappointed in the tanks now. There are a number of slots moulded around the tail of the tank. Unfortunately, those moulded on the left side of the cone are too far to the rear and do not line up with the ones on the right side of the tank, which are in the correct position. Additionally, the slots that run nose to tail are not aligned and the forward slot veers off to the left at the front. If that is not bad enough, the slots do not have the same spacing top to bottom with those on the right being closer together than those on the left. Not just out by a little, this difference is immediately noticeable. Undecided on whether to fix or go back to using the kit drop tanks, which don't have this issue. Very disappointed now and can't recommend this set, especially at the price being asked. Edited January 18, 2015 by Talon Starfighter and PBoilermaker 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthumbs Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Hi Talon, You're off to a great start on the Skyhawk...you obviously know your subject well, given all the attention to detail. Those 20mm cannon are real gems...right down to the tiny holes in the muzzle - some real "nano-tech" from Profimodeller! Interesting about the symmetry issue with the Fisher tanks. Could it be you just got a bad set? Although I've not dealt with them personally, Fisher have a good reputation for quality and customer service. Oddly enough, I'm using Hasegawa's A-4 Skyhawk tanks on my Intruder build (both aircraft used the same Aero-1D 300 gallon tanks). They are much more accurate than the Trumpeter offerings, at least in profile. As you might know, the Hasegawa tanks do suffer from a "roundness" issue though (sounds like me after the holidays!) - that is, they lack a circular cross section. My solution was to add a narrow elliptical spacer between the two tank halves, creating the proper symmetry. It's a lot of work for a silly gas bag, but in the end I was happy with the outcome. Perhaps you've seen it already, but here's a link to an excellent article on Aero fuel tanks... http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2011/07/douglas-low-drag-external-fuel-tanks.html Again, tremendous work so far the Scooter...I'm eager to follow your progress! Regards, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 If it's a bad set then they would have to have more than one set of moulds. These are very well cast, and there is no way those slots can be out, as they are, identically across both tanks. I plan to do a set of BSU-86/B fins for the Snakeye using SolidWorks 3D, so I'll look at doing a replacement tailcone for the Aero tanks at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy 1 VX 4 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Harold AMS does some Snakeyes I believe also Master Casters http://masterdetails.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=28&category_id=22&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Aware of Harold's Snakeyes As per earlier post I have a set, but they are the earlier pattern tail fins. No one does BSU-86/B in any scale. I've been talking with Harold about them already, hence why I am thinking of mastering a set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy 1 VX 4 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Must of looked over it or Forgot it was mentioned Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 here is some intake plugs for you http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/sba32001.htm Cheers For an unknown reason, there is a slight profile difference between the air intakes of the single and two seat kits... This means you cannot use the resin FODs as such and indeed making them yourself is surely not more difficult! Thierry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Hi, This is a very nice project! I scribed most of my OA-4M and the wings are really time consuming to get all those oval panel correctly done and adding the long hinges under them is neither easy. Scratchbuilding the pit is not a bad option as I may confirm that modifying the Blackbox one is not easy... you'll have to scratchbuild a lot of small bits here and there as the pit is indeed vaguely similar to a TA-4J one whereas this Marines bird had far more busy IPs and coamings. Afaik, the NATOPS is invaluable to do such modifications. With regard to the Aires set, you'll see quickly that using it will be far from easy ! The size and position of the wells has been tailored to the Trumpeter kit which is noticeably different with regard to such areas... I scratched my head a long time to find a solution and never found a perfect one that would not ask for very heavy modification of the under wing part! The warload is often a problem as such birds did not carry a lot of things. I got two Fisher zuni pods, one MER and six small exercice bombs for mine. I'll look at this closely for sure! Cheers Thierry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Thanks for the info on the intakes. Doesn't surprise me there were differences between the two kits. Have plenty of images of the blanks from our A-4Ks when I was working on them, so won't be hard to scratchbuild some. Yes, I have to say I'm not looking forward to doing the oval panels on the wings. I'm basing my warload on an image from Airliners.net showing the Snakeye sitting waiting to be fitted http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Marines/Douglas-OA-4M-Skyhawk/0683598/L/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) Would be good to see pics of your build too Thierry, to see how you have done yours. Edited January 18, 2015 by Talon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Ive delt with Paul and FM&P on many, many occasions. He is a very nice guy, and values his reputation for quality and customer service. If these are off, and off that badly to be unusable, PLEASE do contact Paul. I have e-mailed Paul many times, and he always responds promptly to address whatever my concern is. I have also called him on many occasions, and spoken to him directly. I would HIGHLY recommend contacting Paul on this so he can address it not only for you, but for those following who by the set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thierry laurent Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I'll try to reach this box to take some pictures of the modifications I made. I put it aside because of a lack of information but I got what I need in the meanwhile. I should consider putting it back on the bench but I still have to find a solution for the LG wells... With regard to the oval panels, one of the Verlinden large scribing templates has one that corresponds exactly to the scaled ones but obviously you have to scribe more or less fifty of them and keeping them on the same lines is not easy...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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