Chek Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Great work Chuck. That Mylar film adds a whole extra dimension of interactivity to what are normally quite plain details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squizzy 78 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Chuck, amazing work on the cockpit! I'm currently working on an f-15 e, which actually is mostly the same parts as the tamiya f-15 c, so I'm very interested in seeing this beast come together. Great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 That! is one helluva nice cockpit. Great job, Chuck! Sincerely, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KitmodellerNZ Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 This is amazing work! I am totally in awe of the work you are putting into this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Wow, Chuck, that cockpit looks the business! Incredibly realistic, you've done a great job with both the PE and the painting. Super stuff! Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomcat14 Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Fantastic work Chuck, That cockpit looks simply amazing. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 goodness me that is something special I have that proud, warm feeling like watching the birth of my first child seeing these modern cockpit sets 'in action' so to speak, and staggeringly effective use made of them as raw material I must say thank you Chuck for showcasing them so well - your cockpit looks absolutely stunning and some great tips I am going to shamelessly steal as well love it... Peter Shaka HI 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasta 14 addict Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 This cockpit is just stunning.... Greetz Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theseeker Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Marvelous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chukw Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 So this is what you've been up to! Brilliant, as ever, my friend- cheers! Thanks for the tip on the Great Planes debonder- that's on my shopping list and will hopefully be available at the LHS. I'm taking notes on all your mix-and-match techniques, as I'm faced with a lot of that on my current build. Your posts are always an interesting and informative read, as well as candy for this modeler's eyes. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sax003 Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Amazing work! I love the way that HUD turned out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcel111 Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Stunning work on the cockpit! About the best jet cockpit I can remember seeing, it just looks real. Cheers, Marcel airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm In Toronto Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 "Kicked Up A Notch" - Naaaaah, Blasted into orbit!! Outstanding Chuck, Norm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 goodness me that is something special I have that proud, warm feeling like watching the birth of my first child seeing these modern cockpit sets 'in action' so to speak, and staggeringly effective use made of them as raw material I must say thank you Chuck for showcasing them so well - your cockpit looks absolutely stunning and some great tips I am going to shamelessly steal as well love it... Peter Thanks to you Peter for supplying me with these awesome products. I'll never have to draw tiny black lines on a yellow background again! Thanks Guys! I'm not ashamed to admit I love the odd “attaboy†once in awhile, so your kind comments are very much appreciated, even if I don't respond to every one. Before I stick the cockpit and other bits into the front fuselage, I thought I would check out the front landing gear which according to the instructions, must be made up and screwed into the front gear well before the fuselage is glued together. Thankfully the landing gear parts are mostly metal, because this big-ass bird will be heavy when finished. It will take a lot of work to clean up the metal parts and remove seam lines from the plastic additions, but hey, that's modeling! Here's a pic of what most of the landing gear parts look like before any clean-up. This pic shows why I didn't spend much time with plumbing and wiring detail in the front gear well. F-15's have the front gear door closed when parked and with the landing gear in the way, you'd see none of it! This pic also shows why the front gear leg must be installed early, because it is attached with a screw through a hole in the leg that will be buried in the front fuselage. Here's a close-up of the front gear leg, which has the squared off wheel fork that is used on the F-15E, but not the earlier F-15C's. This fork should be smooth and rounded instead. I hate installing landing gear early in a build and I will do whatever it takes to modify the kit to allow installation near the end of the build instead. I couldn't do this with my last Trumpeter P-38L build and the landing gear was always in the way, subject to breakage and paint damage. It was a real pain, but unavoidable. Looking at how the leg attaches to the gear well with a screw, I decided to cut a slot in the metal hole where the screw is inserted with my Dremel tool and cut-off wheel, leaving a U-shaped channel in its place instead. With the new channel created, the front gear can now easily be glued into place at the end of the build, just like the main landing gear legs. With a long gluing surface and the weight of the model on the join, I will not have to worry about damage with normal handling. I tilted the gear well to show how solid it is just sitting there with gravity. With the fitment out of the way, I then filed and sanded the metal gear leg to remove seam lines, injector marks and polish the oleo. With a coat of Future to seal the oleo from the atmosphere, it won't corrode and turn dark later. The front fork was also smoothed and rounded to look more like an F-15C fork than one for an F-15E, which this later kit was derived from, hence the common parts and incorrect panel lines I'll deal with later. The kit wheels and tires are also made for an F-15, which are much wider than an F-15C. Fortunately there are resin F-15C wheels/tires from “Parts-R-Parts†that I bought as replacements. Unfortunately, the resin casting block at the bottom is not restricted to just the flat bottom, so about 1/3 of the tire tread is filled with resin that lacks tread detail. The tire on the right has the resin cut off. To smooth off the tire and add back tread detail, I used my Dremel tool again as a lathe, which fit perfectly in the rear of the wheel. As the tire turned in the “latheâ€, the tire was first sanded smooth on the bottom to remove irregularities, and then I used my chisel scribing tool to carve tread grooves back into the tire that the resin block had filled. It didn't come out perfect, but with flat black paint and pastels, I doubt that I will notice any imperfections later. Note how thin this tire is, which is about 2/3's the width of the kit rubber tire. That will be it for updates for a few weeks I suspect. I want to do a good job of the landing gear and there's a lot of work ahead before I have anything worth showing. Cheers for now, Chuck Shaka HI, airea, jgrease and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Awesomesouce !!!.........Harv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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