F-117A • Nighthawk

[F`s are my favs]

A few angles of the cockpit (99% assembled) without the canopy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[F`s are my favs]

And the NLG - here is a vid of the retraction

 

 

I think I could have gone a little bit crazier with the wiring, but I'm happy with this as well.  

 

 

And extended, for the parked display mode:

 

 

And with the door closed - no magnets required, it fits flawlessly, just a pressfit, and it is not even sanded flush with the fuselage yet... 


 

Next up - the MLG bays/wiring/assembly...

Edited February 6, 2023 by F`s are my favs

[Squizzy 78]

That landing gear is next level! Amazing work going on here! 
I’m looking forward to seeing this Nighthawk finished. 

[themongoose]

And i loved the high speed ratchet sound at the very end of the vid! Impressive what you’ve done with all the rotation and movement in this! As a matter of fact have an extra exclamation point! !

[F`s are my favs]

Here is the MLG - of course this time the retraction is everything but realistic... so here are just pics in both parked/in-flight modes: 

 

 

 

 

And a view of the wheel wells - quite modified to fit the larger resin tires, and I didin't add even a single wire/cable as nothing will be visible of the inside sides of the walls. This is before the mods:

 

 

and after:

 

 

 

These open areas are covered by the faceted sides of the fuselage.   Now on to da Bombs.  Cheerz.

Edited February 13, 2023 by F`s are my favs

[F`s are my favs]

The bomb bays are done. It is not worth adding wires/cables/etc as they will not be visible at all... but I couldn't resist. So I added only a few + some subtle weathering. But first, the opening/closing of the doors:

So, there are 5 quite large and strong magnets along the centerline - where the wall that devides the bay into two meets the bay doors. They will play the role of hinges... combined with the small pieces of metal wire integrated into the edges of the doors - to provide enough force to keep the doors up when open. I couldnt figure out a way to do it with real hinges, so I had to improvize... but it works. And I had to add a couple of protruding ''self-leveling'' pins that drop just by gravity. They are with the width of the ''empty'' space between the doors - just to keep them stand symmetrically while open. When the doors are closed - I just turn the model upside down and the pins drop down in their holes by themselves, and the doors fit flush.

 

 

Just another angle:

Here they are hanging on the magnets - the pins are noticeable, but they will not be once everything is glued to the fuselage, as there is enough thickness of the fuselage to ''hide'' the pins... The bay doors are awesome in quality otherwise - perfectly straight, stiff, and with plenty of details.... btw I did some rivetting as well, and magnets on the opposite edges to keep them attached to the fuselage when closed.

 

 

 

 

The hydraulics... made them moveable too  

 

And painting + testfit:

 

 

 

You can see on that latter pic how I ended up doing the ''airflow disturber'' screens along the front edges of the bays - quite the simplest way - just metal rods that slide in tubes, and drop/retract by gravity. The movement needed quite some testfitting and trimming, but I skipped the ''detailing'' here as that front wall of the bays wouldn't be visible.

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by F`s are my favs

[F`s are my favs]

And ready - just some subtle weathering and wiring. A few with the trapezes retracted:

 

 

 

 

And extended...

 

 

 

 

Now on to the launchers/rails + the bombs.

 

The rails will be definitely visible, so I plan to jazz them all up justice, with all the tiny decals, colors, wires, knobs, etc... they got to look like tiny models by themselves...

Cheers for now.

Edited September 8, 2023 by F`s are my favs

[Troy Molitor]

.  Lovely efforts going on here.  Thanks for sharing your update with us.    

[Squizzy 78]

Just awesome work, I’m glad to see that this build is still moving forward! 

[F`s are my favs]

Thank u too, Troy!
 

 

43 minutes ago, Squizzy 78 said:

Just awesome work, I’m glad to see that this build is still moving forward! 

Squizzy, thx, and yep, quite many things going on recently with me, but I always keep building this and that when I can. I just had a few free days at home and managed to complete the weathering and prep the bays for pics, etc. Btw yesterday, I did a pre-final assembly check of all the parts, and I can say the model is just about ready for final assembly. Because of the moveable flaps, a slightly complex procedure in the gluing of the fuselage will be needed. I'll keep you updated.

[red Dog]

Crazy stuff here

[F`s are my favs]

The fuselage is glued.... finally.
A few pics inside, for the memorabilia. 

 

 

 

 

And... I can't miss to say it - big gluing business here.  Quite the contraptions indeed. The leading edges are perfectly straight now and I hope they will stay that way. At least on a macro level. A little bit of sanding gotta straighten them even more. 

 

 

 

 

[F`s are my favs]

So about 24h later, it appears solid as rock. I think it is enough to remove the guides, yet I went all along the edges with CA glue for just in case. For the main markings of the airframe (80-788) I'll use the beautiful DN Models masks, and for the canopy edges too. They fit nice.

 

 

 

 

And here are quite zoomed silhouettes with the wheels/doors down. I'm happy with the symmetry. 

 

 

[F`s are my favs]

Some small, yet perfectly visible upgrades of the surface...

 

1) The covers of most antenna provisions are not flush with the rest of the surface, and have to be. So, after a little bit of scraping, sanding and engraving - here are the front antennas before and after:

 

 

 

I wonder if they can get filled up during all the priming, painting and what have you, but I'll go over the edges after each layer if needed.
 

2) So, next up - these two hex-shaped (GPS antennas I think?!) objects were way too too much inside the surface. It's not stealthy anyway.  I went through a lot of pix, and they seem to me flush with the surface, and yet from a distinctively different material/surface. I ended up filling them with stock plastic sheet... took me a while to do the right hex shape for a proper match. Here is the difference - one is OOB as it was, and the other is already filled; then both complete and sanded.

 

 

 

3) These little knives or airflow pieces (or maybe with antennas inside?) on both outer sides of the exhaust plates, that I have no idea what they are and I never stumbled upon on related information - so the original pieces were way way out of scale...

 

I made them out of PE stripes, and are still a bit larger for my liking, but are 100 times better than the original pieces - here is a comparison and a testfit:

 

 

 

And with that, the surface treatment is almost ready. Aaaalmost. I will attach the ruddervators after some subtle oil canning effects...

[F`s are my favs]

I will not add a single rivet or such kind of indentation, but I plan on doing some oil canning of the plastic surface. It worked very very very nicely with the Strike Eagle, in this scale, so I'm going ahead. A few pics before the starting of the editing of the underside. I compared with reference pics and tried to copy the pattern with a pencil first. Surely, I'll skip the composite materials will the oil canning effect.