F-117A • Nighthawk

[Brett M]

I have no doubt you’ll be able to fix the shape of the ruddervators with ease! Awesome work.

[F`s are my favs]

Of course, everything is a testfit only:

 

 

I used something like a piece of palstic as a jig and a piece of 240 grit sandpaper over a perfectly flat piece of acrylic, to flatten the tops of the inner facets...

 

 

 

Then I made the leading/trailing edges decently sharp, not quite much. And that's how they look like now. Actually I can't make the tops with a perfect romboid shape but that's how far I can go. Btw the bevels near the rotating surfaces are also slightly ''enlarged'' and smoothened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[F`s are my favs]

 

PS: it looks like the seamlines have gaps here and there but that's because of of the trasnparent glue which is almsot polished... all the facets are sanded with 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper.  The leading/trailing edges are nicely straight:

 

 

 

 

 

[Uilleann]

That is one area that every kit gets wrong (likely due to mold limitations I guess?) is the sharpness of the facet edges.  They're never as crisp as the prototype.  Well done, looks great!

[F`s are my favs]

Next up: MLGs. So because I'll use the GTR tire set for F-15, the tires can't fit in the standard bays, and thus I can't make the pylons on hinges. The tires from the oleos would need a little rotation towards the centerline of the plane to fit properly but working the white metal pylons would be quite... So, I'll go the easy way - the whole pylons will be mounted on strong magnets in the bays, and then they should fit loose inside for an in-flight config, just about the same as my 1/32 F-15E. That's a closeup of the magnets:

 

 

 

I used some supports which would be enough to keep the pylons perfectly aligned when in place, as well as sturdy enough to keep the plane stable when the gear is down. These addons will be basically invisible through the tiny rear MLG doors. The magnets are more than enough to not let the pylons fell down as well.

 

 

 

Btw the bays are totally modified and they are not ready yet.

The doors from the inside. It's a bit hard to explain what's going on but I think I found the easiest and most effective way to make hinges for this type of doors.

 

 

 

 

And the pylons just freshly polished.

 

 

[F`s are my favs]

All white.

btw guys, congrats and happy 50% successful completion of the crewed Dragon demo-2 mission to the ISS! This ship looks out of this world!

 

So firstly, here are the rims. I used the original ones from the kit because they had the right number of holes... but they were quite small (the holes), and I had to enlarge them. There is one rim done (left) and one still with the small holes (right):

 

 

w/ the GTR brake disks/systems *for F-15.

 

 

And here both rims are with enlarged holes:

 

 

And here is all painted up white and lacquered (and adjusted to fit in the bays). Just that. Still plenty of elements and colors to be added...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spyrosjzmichos]

Very nice Milan!

Always enjoy following your work!

[Kahunaminor]

That right there is some freaky deaky magnetic work!

Liking it, liking it a lot.

[Uilleann]

Hey Milan - just wanted to check in.  Any further progress on your '117?  I was just up at our local museum, and visited ours on display here.  #799 is still undergoing a lot of restoration work, and it isn't all 100% to my liking if I'm being perfectly honest.  But regardless it's cool to see her up close and real!  Got a peek in the cockpit today in fact.  Hope all is well in your world!

 

Brian~

[F`s are my favs]

Hi & thx for the message. Yeah, it's been a long time since the last update. All is fine with me... and, indeed, I'm in a quarantine right now  ...the C-virus... but I'm doing it just fine. One week to go. So, right now I'm doing the pilot figure from time to time. Other than that, I postponed the '117 for a while because I started to do something compleeeetely different - a very special model for a friend of mine (a huge model entirely from 3D printed parts). It's my first time doing something like this... so I basically ''deviated the hobby'' for a while  . But I believe I could continue with this model soon. Actually, now I remember that I always kept doing this and that throughout the months, just didn't update the topic. The intakes are prepped for glueing to the fuselage (I synched the distance between the aux intake doors and the intake walls, when they open), some minor fixes of the exhausts (the added plates got ''worn'' with the time due to the glue that softened the added thin plastic sheets, so I filled and sanded them smooth), and now the pilot figure with the seats should be prepped during the quarantine. Once I finish ''the 3D model'' I'll continue here for sure. Yet I keep watching documentary movies and reading magazines about the Nighthawk to keep the mojo on. Stealth Warplanes being the latest one ( https://books.google.bg/books/about/Stealth_Warplanes.html?id=wwZFAgAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y ) ... and still keep reading it.  Meanwhile, those news/sightings about the real flying Nighthawks... just make me so so happy...

[Eagle Driver]

UPDAAAATEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[F`s are my favs]

...of course I forgot the last weekend... So, over the course of the recent years, I did only a few minor improvements from time to time and I took some pix... 1) the flat areas of the exhausts went trough a "flattening" procedure... the added thin layers of stock plastic sheets shrinked over the time, ever so slightly, but they need to be perfectly flat. So here are those exhaust areas after the sanding, at least now I'm sure they will stay flat:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[F`s are my favs]

2) The flaperons and the ailerons can move now  - for a parked and in-flight position respectively. I remember I also thinned and sharpened the facets of their sides, but both parts for each aileron/flaperon are not glued yet. It would be very nice to make them drop down in this position for a parked display:

 

 

Here is another image of the real plane where I pointed out which exactly facets I added on the model:

So, about the hinges - it was quite the adventure.  I don't remember when I did these upgrades ... maybe last summer or summer'2020... but it was hot.... So this is a "piece" of (almost)molten plastic from the stock rods, then added on "key" locations but without overdoing it, then pressed and flattened, then I drilled "half" channels on each side so they can form a perfect centered channel when glued together...

 

 

While here are the hinges that will be fixed to the wing sides:

 

 

[F`s are my favs]

One of the dozens of test fits:

 

 

 

And here are the modified facets. The top flaperon is done, the bottom one is the original piece as it was:

 

 

 

And here are the ailerons - in reversed order - the top piece is the original one, while the bottom ailerons are done:

 

 

 

 

I got to make them almost rasor sharp and perfectly straight once glued and assembled, but it would be much easier than doing all the rough sharpening/modifying procedures afterwards...

 

 

[F`s are my favs]

And 3) the pilot figure with the seat are just about ready. Here is the seat before:

 

 

It went through some modifications as well I don't have pics with daylight though... sorry about the nighttime pics - I just took some with a white flashlight:

 

 

 

 

This one went out a little bit blurred... but I couldnt resist to make a quick test fit with the cockpit:
 

So I managed to "jazz up" the pilot suit with the right markings for "X" squadron... I forgot it right now, but I remember that I got a few reference pics and tried to do a "mix" of tiny decal pieces, totally DIY. Some badges included three pieces of decals on top of each other.  I remember that. There are plenty of things to do yet.