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1/32 Trumpeter F-117A Nighthawk - in 45 Days!?!?


DoogsATX

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I've got hundreds of reference images Matt, if you'd like me to send them on, collected over literally decades of research on this aircraft.  A number of them aren't readily available on the web.  As for the door bumpers, I would think they could be grafted back on easily enough with some small styrene bits.  Research on this airframe has been something of a personal mission of mine for ages now.  I'm happy to send what I have on to anyone interested - just shot me a PM here and I can get them sent.

 

I'm hopeful others may be able to benefit from my searching and own mistakes in my build as well.  The removal of the weird "ram tape / patches" on the upper surfaces is correct of course.  But I would suggest checking each one against multiple references to verify if it a feature should be removed entirely, minimized in appearance, or left as is.

 

Cheers!

 

Brian~

 

PM sent - more references the merrier!

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Man...giving the entire underside a scrubdown and then quick rinse to get rid of 1) the rough surface and 2) the detritus from removing said rough surface) took far, far longer than I anticipated and ate up much of the bench time last night. 

LRM_EXPORT_20170224_091816-X3.jpg

 

I did, however, manage to get the initial cockpit elements (and intakes not pictured) primed up. Mix of Badger's stuff and MRP. 

 

LRM_EXPORT_20170224_092009-X3.jpg

 

I know the Quickboost isn't exactly the right seat and that ACES IIs have minor differences, and that it's a bit small in the cockpit. But I'm heavily leaning toward building this with the canopy down so I'm not going to sweat it. It's better than the kit seat. 

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I worked out a fix here for the oversized cockpit and the properly sized QB seat conundrum that seemed to work fairly well, and low cost too.  One point to remember, is that the rear bulkhead and cockpit should be overall painted a medium gray with a slight bluish cast.  The main IP, and switch/button clusters on the sidewalls were black, but the gray was seen between and around them. Such as this.

 

Great work on the black jet so far!  Love seeing any builds of this one...especially in a proper 1/32 size!   :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:

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More progress kind of in, around and all over. 

 

First up - the gear struts. Cleaning seams off metal gear is one thing, cleaning ejector pins though? Ugh. 

 

LRM_EXPORT_20170225_145505-X3.jpg

 

Next - getting a start on the instrument panel. I'm going about this one a bit backwards. I'm tackling the MFDs first, then will mask them and deal with the rest. I'm planning to place some cut-to-shape acetate film over them when I get to the far side to give them that nice glass-like appearance - so this is more for color matching than anything. 

 

LRM_EXPORT_20170227_013526-X3.jpg

 

Thanks to Brian I learned that the FLIR window didn't have any glass. This threw my optical wire plan into disarray, since the stuff is too flimsy to span the opening on its own. Enter some spare PE mesh that actually works quite well once painted. 

 

LRM_EXPORT_20170226_231843-X3.jpg

 

Deep down in there you can see the red-orange thing (technical term). Why Trumpeter molded this in instead of just making it an extra piece is beyond me. Has to be easily the silliest thing I've had to mask in some time. 

 

LRM_EXPORT_20170227_013724-X3.jpg

 

There's been a lot of other work going on, too - intakes and exhausts are building up, cockpit tub has received its base colors. But my plan to display the canopy down has run into the little complication of the canopy being too narrow to do the job. So I have to put some more effort into the cockpit than I was originally planning - and now I'm waiting until Wednesday or so for the Eduard interior PE set to show up. NOT FOR THE IP or consoles, but for a lot of the surrounding non-colored bits. 

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Excellent work Matt!  I've recently asked about the little red thingymabob myself on the Nighthawk FB group...but no replies so far.  I'm assuming is't something to do with calibration/indexing of the FLIR?  But none is present on the DLIR, so who knows.  At one point, I had the Eduard interior (cockpit) set myself, but ended up using the Aires update instead.  If I can find it, would you like me to send it your way?  I'm happy to look regardless.  I'm about 73.6749% certain I've got it floating around in my stack of goodies on the desk.  :)

 

If I might suggest a slight tweak to the FLIR and DLIR mesh (which looks cracking by the way!) I believe the mesh did have a metallic sheen to it as opposed to being flat black.  I might suggest a subtle buffed sheen such as Testor's metalizers or very dark alclad finish.  I've been trying to find an appropriate sized mesh screen myself, and it's not as easy as one would thing for this part.  Well done!

 

Your front panel is coming along nicely as well.  I used a theater gel to get the screens looking more prototypical...but if you're going to use the kit panel, you can go all out and light those suckers up!  I tried it a few years back and was surprised how well it turned out (in 1/48 even):

 

filters.jpg

 

F-117A-Office2.jpg

 

F-117A-Office1.jpg

 

F-117A-Office3.jpg

 

Now I know this is a relatively quick build...so that isn't likely the way to go.  But it was fun, and not terribly difficult, should you wish to do something similar in future.  :)  I just got a new desk put up down in the basement specifically for this build, so I'm hoping to make some forward progress myself in the near future.  You're definitely keeping me motivated.  Cheers Matt!

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I think once I get the acetate down on top of the screens, they'll look the part well enough. I hope. Fingers crossed.

 

As for the mesh...it's a tricky situation. I'm worried that putting anything extra on it will just make it *more* visible, which wouldn't really jive with the photography that's out there. But I might try putting some Uschi iron polishing powder on it. The iron one is similarish to graphite so it might be subtle enough. 

 

I really liked that optical mesh that I found...it's basically transparent...but without the glass it's just way too fragile to work with. 

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So last night was a test run for the acetate. Using my Silhouette Cameo and the magic that is Adobe Illustrator, I whipped up some vinyl masks for the MFDs. The side consoles and instrument panel then got a coat of Mr. Paint WWI Night Camo Black - which is an absolutely gorgeous "not quite" black with a hint of blue tones. I love it so much that it's probably going to become part of the foundation for the exterior paint. 

 

Masks were then removed from the MFDs and all is well! I'm happy that I darkened the side displays to RLM 75, since even they seem somewhat light (but this is backed up depending on the cockpit photo you go with). Really happy with the LCD green of the upper panel (MRP SEA Dark Green + Zinc Chromate Primer - who knew?) and the deep black of the center display. 

 

LRM_EXPORT_20170228_013717-X3.jpg

 

Have to go back and add some additional Dark Gull Gray to the very forward portions of the side consoles, and then it's on to detailing. 

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You know that point in a build where you're doing a whole bunch of things, but feel like you have nothing to show for it?

 

That's where the 117 is at. Installed DLIR mesh, cockpit and canopy PE elements, prepped control stick and throttle (using parts stolen from Academy Hornet), some light wiring work on the rear bulkhead, some light scratchwork inside the canopy frame. Further fuselage cleanup. Priming a lot of PE. 

 

There's a lot going on, but it doesn't look like I'm making any progress. 

 

IMG_20170303_014828-01-X3.jpg

 

Looking forward to when that changes, because it'll change suddenly. 

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