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Tamiya F-15C Kicked Up A Notch- Dec 1/17: DONE!


chuck540z3

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The other side, which is not free-standing….

 

 

Cockpitdone10.jpg

 

 

So all I need is that darn instrument panel and I should be able to put all this stuff together.

 

 

 

Cockpitdone11.jpg

 

 

 

When reviewing references I note that there is an emergency canopy jettison pull handle on the left side of the cockpit that is missing from both the kit and aftermarket resin parts.  This handle looks to me a lot like the emergency handles in the F-4, so I had a spare that I modified and gave some of Peter's decal film a try on the top.  With care and lots of Microsol to shrink the square decal over the oval head, it turned out pretty good.  Good luck getting fine black lines like that with a Sharpie, although the spacing is a bit tight compared to the real deal.

 

 

 

Cockpitdone13.jpg

 

 

 

That's it for now guys.  Hopefully that new IP will arrive soon!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Love the cockpit! Amazed at the length you are going to, but seeing it together I can understand your reasons.

 

Thanks for taking the extra time to detail and document your process to painting a resin cockpit, this thread is one that I will read and re-read time and again.

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Thank you everyone.  I really appreciate each and every one of the kind comments.

 

 

Chuck, amazing work. You do such a crisp job and then set it off with flawless photography. Loving seeing this one come together.

Jim

 

 

Thanks Jim.   About 4 or 5 years ago when I first started WIP threads, I was really frustrated by how my photography didn't live up to my modeling, because the pics were a bit blurry, the colors were all wrong, the lighting was off and the composition of the pics, if you could call it that, didn't really exist.   Since that time I have invested in better and better camera equipment, a small photo-booth and through much trial and error, my pics have improved immensely.  So much so, that now my modeling doesn't live up to my photography!  You can now see every little flaw now, especially when most pics are close-ups that are the equivalent of 1-2 inches away.  However, it has made me go back and re-do some things that I might otherwise have missed, but I don't re-do every "flaw".  For instance, the last pic above of the emergency pull handle has a little bump on the top where the decal crimped as it reacted to Microsol decal solution as it draped over the curved top surface.  That little flaw is 6 to 7 times larger than it is in real life and I cannot see it with my eyes, even with my magnifier glasses which are about 1.75 X.  If I can't see it, it doesn't exist, so there's no use fixing it!

 

The number one tip I could offer to those who are trying to improve their modeling photography, is to use the highest f-stop (smallest aperture) your lens will allow.  This gives you the maximum depth of field to make everything clear from front to back of your subject., which is often times blurry in model phtography.  That's why you can see the thread detail in my blue fabric background above, because I use a Nikon Micro (Macro) 60 mm lens with an f-stop of 36, which is super high.  To use high f-stops, you will need to slow down your shutter speed, sometimes for seconds, so I always use a tripod and a timer, so that I don't shake the camera when I touch the shutter.  With this set-up, I can keep my ISO's nice and low as well for maximum resolution without graininess.  This is all easy to do with a DSLR, but with most point and shoot cameras, there are workarounds with the camera settings that will get you close.  Not exactly modeling tips per se, but I hope this is helpful to some.

 

Chuck

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Great stuff Chuck. That may well be the busiest yet neatest cockpit I've seen in a long while.

 

I wonder if those stripey jettison handles would lend themselves to being 3-D printed in black and yellow plastic?

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superb Chuck :)

 

you just gave me a hugely rewarding experience - to see these jet decals in action on a build of this quality is immensly satisfying for me - thank you

 

your cockpit and seat are looking stunning, I can't wait to see it all come together

 

Peter

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