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F-117A • Nighthawk


F`s are my favs

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some edits of the cockpit: the IP cowling has PE stripes along the edges because they need to be straight and sharp; there is a small mod at the very front of the cowling too. Then all is painted with the main colors, no weathering, riveting, detailing or whatsoever so far; just the basic colors. The rear bulkhead is finally glued and now I can start with the opening/closing mechanism of the canopy. A couple of pics before:

 

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And after the painting:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi guys :) I'm on the adventure with the intake suction relief doors. Of course I made them moveable, with hinges and magnets. Here is a short video:

 

 

And a couple of pix:

 

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They sit perfectly flush and yet there will be more sanding and flattening to be done during the oil canning effects. Here is the hinge mechanism with the magnet form the inner side:

 

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Those are the intake trunks. I first traced the opening onto the upper walls, if you can see the subtle scraping. Now I'll have to open the holes and "connect them" with the fuselage so the relief doors can open freely.

 

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On 2/14/2020 at 10:04 PM, Eagle Driver said:

F-117: Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father.

 

Tesla Cybertruck: He told me enough! He told me you bombed him over Baghdad /or Serbia depending on the DVD region/. You killed my father!

 

F-117: No Cybertruck. Search your circuits... I am your father.

 

Tesla Cybertruck: NoooooOOOooOOOoo

 

Disclaimer for the next episode: Comanche Helicopter is the mother.

 

Genius, the only thing I would change is this:

 

F-117: No Cybertruck. Search your facets... I am your father.

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The intakes went through some pretty substantial modifications. I cut off basically the entire top walls to make sufficient provisioning for the doors when down (open), and walled off the  voids up to the edges of the doors to make smooth transition to the engines. And the compressors had a flat blank wall behind the struts so I had to get rid of it to make better depth effect. The stator struts are also thined down slightly.

 

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The next up is in the PE screen mesh - if I replace the plastic parts with just this thin and fragile PE, just 1 touch and it will bend. So, I will still use the PE substitute but with a thick  piece of transarent acryllic underneath as well. :) It was quite an adventure of adjustments but they are all done now.

 

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Nope I won't. The tricky part will be how to glue the painted pe over the acrylic :), as perfect as possible, without time for adjustment, etc. I plan to go along the outer edges very very gently with super glue only to fix it, then with clear glue for transparent parts which does not make fog effects, thoroughly from the inner sides, plus somehow underneath the brace strut in the middle of the mesh. Or I'm also thinking about two-component resin glue only and some counterweight to keep the mesh sit flat over the acrylic for a longer time... Still don't know . But anyway, it should be painted and weathered beforehand. It's actually painted now. Pix in a bit...

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May I suggest you use “Future” to secure the mesh screens to the acrylic?  It dries clear, gives you some working time to adjust the PE without marring the acrylic and has sufficient cohesive force when dry to hold the PE mesh in place. You can either fix the acrylic in place, mask the area during painting and add the painted screens after or you mask the intakes, paint the airframe and can add the screen/acrylic combination after painting if you like.

 

Regards,

Edited by Kahunaminor
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10x Kahuna, the Future or the substitute that I have (Revell Contacta Clear and a couple of gloss acryllic lacquers) could very easily make a mess. The goal is to keep the mesh screen as "pristine" as possible because the transaprent acryic pieces underneath offer a very nice shine through the holes. It would be more than enough to secure the PE screens only along the edges and from the wider middle strut. The thing is that I'm really concerned about the outcome but if anything goes wrong - the original plastic parts will be used of course :) which mesh patterns are also quite good indeed. So, here are the painted PE screens and one sitting flush over the acrylic part with the nice shines at a certain angle:

 

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The intake trunks and the engine faces are also painted. I was also curious about the color... believe me, I checked all my reff. pics and a couple of magazines, and I can't find a picture of the intakes. I was very curious of whether they are painted black because of stealth, some bare metallic finish or white gloss because it's typical for the US jets. Nevertheless, there are many pics that show a distant view at the engine faces through the relief doors, and they can't be seen because everything is black... without a doubt this could be achieved with flat black on the intakes. And perhaps the intake faces could only be partially/barely seen if lit with a torch through the doors for example. So that's why I painted the itnakes black. The  compressor parts of the engines will of course be covered from the inner sides.

 

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The acrylic plates are glued, all went nicely. I did some test fits with the painted screens on and the intakes and the engines inside, and.... well... :) I ended up painting the transparent acrylic parts black from the insides. Otherwise, they were too too transparent and in a combination with the glare, they looked just not normal... for example the engines faces were clearly visible. But now they are just nice. There is still a nice gare at certain angle but it does make a very nice effect like on some pictures of the real plane. At other angles - just pitch black, even darker than the matte black paint on the PE screens. Here is just a test fit with one mesh just sitting barely on its place and it is just the acrylic part on the other side, both are already painted black from inside. 

 

Cheers guys! Stay home and make models! 

 

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