Cheetah11 Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Hi Eric, I received my Italeri IIIE two days ago and could not resist starting to cut plastic as soon as I could. I wanted to see if I could use the fin of the Revell kit on the Italeri kit as I had done quite a bit of work on the Revell fin. The larger insert into the Italeri fuselage will make this difficult so I will detail the Italeri fin. What I did see by putting the two fins side by side is that the Revell rudder is longer as you corrected it on your build, but the surprise was the Revell rudder is more narrow by quite a bit. The drawings of the different color schemes in the Italeri instructions seem to bear this out. I looked at a number of photos and it would appear that the rudder dimensions of the E and C are in fact different. This was quite a surprise for me. I will measure both on the real aircraft within a couple of days and give you feedback. Some modelers asked about the pylons for the 1300l tanks and they are incorrect in the kit. I will try and confirm the correct dimensions. The pylon attachment point detail is correct on the underside of the wing for a Mir IIIE but the holes to be opened is correct only for a Mir IIIC. Other than the small errors pointed out in your build this kit is far better than the Revell kit and I am looking forward to completing it. Regards and happy modeling. Cheetah11 Harold and Whitey 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg Posted January 19, 2017 Author Share Posted January 19, 2017 The moment of truth arrived for the RPK-10's. Pulling the freshly cured resin tanks out of the 2 part moulds revealed that they were slightly oval in cross section due to the way that I had to hold the two sides of the mould together. The compression of the mould by the elastic bands was causing a 0.6mm difference when measuring the diameter of the of the tank top and bottom vs side to side. Not really noticeable unless you had a really good look at it. (worked out to be approx 20mm difference if it was a 1:1 scale tank) but I wanted to do better. I still want to do a 2 piece mould for the final production versions but more work will be required to avoid the problem. I reverted to my usual one part mould and produced 2 copies of the tank, which have now become left and right side masters. The aluminium/plastic master tank is on the right and 2 exact copies of it are in the dark grey resin. Italeri placed the holes for the inner pylons in the wrong spot, so please do not follow the instructions! As can be seen, I filled the wrong holes and have drilled new ones just over 2mm closer outboard, corresponding to the engraved panels where the pylons should be. I also took the opportunity to tweak the locating pins on my RPK pylons to give a more even load hence the filled hole and the now one moved to the rear of the wing. The new tanks fit well for things that started life as liquid in two bottles. The easy part of the masters is now out of the way. The difficult part of these tanks is getting everything to line up correctly. With them being quite long and having lots of stuff hanging off them at different angles, it was always going to be a challenge to work out how I was going to accomplish getting everything aligned. a small error in placement of the bomb racks will look really bad. Further complicating matters is the fact that the forward bomb racks are staggered, with the inner rack significantly forward of the outer rack. Looking through the excellent walkaround pics that were sent to me at the start of the project revealed that I had the length of the ALKAN release unit door only which meant that the rest of the measurements such as their exact positioning along the length of the tank were going to be a bit of guesswork. luckily, the pics were of sufficient quality and from many different angles that I was able to be pretty sure of where each unit will go. Step one was to work out where each bomb will sit relative to the circumference of the tank. Hopefully the rest will flow from that. I wrapped a bit of Tamiya tape around the tank and cut it so that it was the exact circumference of the part. Removing the tape and measuring its legnth, I was then able to mark its center point, followed by marking out where I determined that the bombs would sit. Repositioning the tape on the tank then gave me easy and even reference points to mark out on the part. I was then able to draw lines that ran the length of the tank. The tank was then paced in my drill press ready for some small holes to be drilled. I decided to place these holes in the location of the bomb sway braces to enable me to pin some bombs on the tank to make sure everything looked OK before proceeding further with cutting fairly large holes in the tank to locate the release units. I encountered a small issue where I was unable to place the tank in the vise properly due to the pylon getting in the way, so had to mount it a fair way from the drill bit to drill the rear holes. Due to the precision of the compound table that I am using, these holes were no problem at all. If you have the spare cash and are chasing an excellent drill press for modelling work, these Proxxon precision drill press/compound table combos are the way to go. The plan is starting to come together. I was keen to see how the four release units were going to interact with each other in each axis, so by placing long pieces of brass rod in each hole I was able to determine how accurate each unit was in relation to its neighbours. A 1/32 RPK-10 with four Academy MK-82s hanging off it. The great thing about these tanks is that it significantly increases the loudout options available to someone building the Italeri kit. Sean's jet had 2 MK-82's on the outer racks on each tank plus the large center line tank. Here it is mocked up for the camera! Still a large amount of work to do with both that RPK-10s and the centerline pylon, but we are getting there. alain11, Guyman1, Starfighter and 13 others 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanker459 Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Eric, Again more excellent work Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyman1 Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Hi Eric, Sorry mate took awhile to Answer you,yep a real museum I think really great work here mate. Been on the bench myself but in the process of a Reno so just doing what I can with my stuff I haven't packed I am scratch building a Ki 61 (Tei) Tony in 1/24 and a 1/20 Mk VIII RAAF Spit at the moment when I can I will start build posting some pictures and yeh we are in close proximity. Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Terrific work as always, mate. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Very nice work Eric ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheetah11 Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Hi Eric, I managed to measure the rudder of a Mirage IIIC and of a Mir IIIE and they are identical. I think the larger dragshute fairing gives the idea that the Mir IIIE rudder is longer and more narrow. The base of the rudder is 68 cm long and the height 108 cm. This makes the Revell kit rudder correct. The Italeri rudder is sort by about 2 mm so your correction seems spot on. The Italeri rudder is also wide by about 3 mm. The Italeri profile drawings are also correct if scaled to 32nd. Italeri seems to have scaled the 1300l tanks up from their 1/48 Mir IIIE and that would make them undersized. I will try and confirm this but will only be able to measure a 1300l tank next week. Your RPK-10's look excellent. Regards and happy modeling Cheetah11 MikeMaben 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 Eric Amazing work as always. Wonderful progress on the Mirage. Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 (edited) Another part of the RPK-10's that was requiring considerable thought in how to do it was the bomb release units. Not only the units themselves but all of the other parts that are required such as sway braces etc. Before any of this came the complex task of cutting 4 rectangular holes into each tank where the bomb release units are located inside. It was critical to get each one exactly right as the alignment of each bomb will be affected by how accurate these holes are. I set up my drill press with a milling bit and used the compound table to cut each hole, and then squared each one up with my micro chisel. The milling bit was then used to cut two semi circular holes in each bomb release unit door. The complex part was getting the angle at which the bit was entering the tank, as the bomb release units do not exit the tank perpendicular to its axis. I must admit that this was more arse than class in terms of getting this right over both the left and right side of the tank! All 4 doors were then scribed into the tank, referring to the walkaround pictures that I was supplied with for the length of each door. I am yet to determine where the hinge line will sit for the doors, so I scribed them slightly higher to allow me to play around with some raised hinges, and will fill the excess lines later once the hinges are fitted. This will allow me to visually line up each hinge with its neighbor, both along the length of the tank as well as side to side. It will be a bit easier this way. A factor that I have had to constantly include in the mastering of these tanks is that I wish to do a few copies for sale once I have finished them. This requires thinking a few steps ahead of the build process and always considering how each one will work in the silicone mould, ie: how the resin part will release from the mould, undercuts etc. For this reason, I made the holes reasonably shallow for the bomb release units to make them a bit easier to manufacture. Onto the accessories. I need eight bomb release units and accessories, so I made one set of masters and will make copies of those parts rather than making 8 sets of the parts! Alkan bomb release unit, sway braces and steady, all made from plastic card and metal. These parts are quite small and still require a little bit of tweaking. Mounted on the tank MK-82 fitted. These tanks will look pretty cool when finished! I might make a few extra units and mount them on different weapons, as they are press fit into the holes that I cut and should allow a variety of different loadouts to be fitted to the tanks depending on the day! Edited January 23, 2017 by ericg Harold, alain11, Marcel111 and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyrosjzmichos Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Very impressice work Eric! Loving it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Sweet scratch work Eric. Love the dedication to accuracy. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpk Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Any words I could use would see me banned. Guyman1 and Kagemusha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Eric Awesome work - nothing escapes your eye Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyman1 Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Just beautiful work Eric your attention to detail never fails those Mk 82,s will look incredible on the end model. Guy mpk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorbenD Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Full to the brim with admiration for the work going on here Eric - learning loads too - she's a doozy so far! Torben mpk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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