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F-15E --- 1/32 --- Tamiya


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I just started with the bays on the starboard side cause i was thinking about a little deviation from the plan... To equip the bays - the two halves of the fuselage should be glued first; Before gluing them - all the bays have to be open first; To open the forward big bay on the starboard side - the radome have to be done because of its "strange" hinge mechanism. And here is the second big door freshly cut, sanded and adjusted with 4 pins from the inner side. Now it has 2 edges perfectly aligned with the fuselage and 2 edges with rather large gaps that need filling. So the fit is perfect, but still not exactly. :)

 

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And a question about that D35 strut part: what is its direction of movement in the real plane? Does it swings upright from the right side (on the picture) and thus attaches vertically somewhere near/behind the radar plate? Or maybe it swings from the opposite side deeper into the radome? Or maybe it is a completely detachable part and does not stay in the radome at all? I went through a lot of movies and still... Interesting.

 

TU

 

 

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Edited by F`s are my favs
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And a question about that D35 strut part: what is its direction of movement in the real plane? Does it swings upright from the right side (on the picture) and thus attaches vertically somewhere near/behind the radar plate?

 

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Looking good (and complicated) Milan!  You are a glutton for punishment.

 

Too bad you don't have "The Modern Eagle Guide", because there are some excellent pics of the nose cone and radar unit on pages 18-21.  Since I do, I can tell you that it appears that the "prop rod" (D35) is not attached permanently to either attachment point, so it doesn't swing anywhere.  It, along with a hinge lock bracket, are attached to keep the radom in the open position when servicing, so they are loose and stored in the bulkhead when not it use.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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:) Kinda upgraded the dish with long stripes of electrical tape. And the oob piece with the outer grit is quite much thinned from both sides...

 

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... and how they look test fitted on top of each other:

 

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The gimbal is installed, while the hinge for the radome went through some major changes since it can`t be glued/screwed to the door:

 

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Here is the movement of the hinge when the radome should be closed:

 

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and with the radome opened:

 

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:) Have a good day!

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm just cutting the rearmost door on the starboard side and I'll take some more pics of "the filling of the edges". In brief - it's a very thin stretched plastic sprue. But the key is in the cutting of the door... I use just the tip of the knife to follow the panel lines, while where there are no panel lines - just a straight guide for the first few passes to make a deeper groove. Then it's literally hundreds of passes along the same line (around 3 hours of cutting one door) until some white lines start to appear on the other side of the door. And the plastick is so thick... But eventually it works. Probably sawing should save more time, but I don't have so small saw and I'm sure that it would be impossible to cut flawlessly straight lines... A couple of pics in a minute....

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Thx! I hope so :) I`m feeling like i`m doing my first model... this scale is completely different.

So, here is the door right after the cutting:

 

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It looks pretty clean, but an hour ago... it was quite messy. Cause when the white lines appear on the opposite side of the door - this means that door door is basically barely holding but it`s still in its original place. So i take advantage of that and sanded flush all the four edges, which otherwise look and feel like volcano craters :) And then just a few light cuts along the light lines on the opposite side, and the door is open. Then i use a small flat piece of sandpaper onto a flat surface where is sand all the four edges of the door, just slightly, to make them perfect, but no changing the shape cause they are cut perfectly. Then a little bit of sanding of the edges of the frame on the starboard. And here is how it looks testfited with a piece of paper tape:

 

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I also take advantage of the nighttime, when the light shows where is the best fit:

 

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First 4 small "pins" are glued on the opposite side, precisely adjusted to support the door at the correct depth, float... neutral buoyancy... can`t find the word... just to fit flawlessly by itself. The upper 2 pins, along the piano hinges, will also support the entering of the door`s edge when opened.

 

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Then, the filling of the gaps... These are the stretched sprue rods, slightly thicker than the gaps so when they touch the frames, i should sand them nearly to their diameters.

 

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Glued with a normal melting glue and with CA glue...

 

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 ...and with Surfacer. They are already pretty good married to the door, but just to fill the tiny little gaps.

 

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Now i let them to dry thoroughly and then a lot of fine sanding and testfitting to adjust the proper fit in the frame. Then hinges, magnets, textures, rivets... :) quite a lot. I`ll take pictures. ;)

Edited by F`s are my favs
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A big update, finally :) Can`t believe, i was pretty unsure and i hesitated whether to do it or not, but i`m very very happy with the result. The doors are ready. Here is the rearmost starboard door viewed from inside - the edges are sanded for the best fit, and the hinges are added:

 

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After that - framing, magnets and a thin Surfacer coat, and it`s pretty much ready for painting:

 

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and...

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...about the next (middle) door on the starboard - i decided not to open it, cause i can not figure it out how to anchor the hinges when open... that middle door on that side is touching the other two doors and thus there is no space for the hinges... actually there is, but it won`t be stable cause it will be on both hinges. Another plausible choice was to connect that recently made rearmost door with the middle door, and to open together as one giant long door, but probably this will turn even less stable cause the two hinges will be quite away from each other. So, i`m leaving it like that, which on the other hand, brings some differentiation as well. Okey okey, here it is, all is testfited, but the sight is...  :)

 

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And closed:
 
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