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Revell Super Hornet with lessons learned


hpetiers

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hi  gentlemen., thanks for the encouragement. By the way the sawing into the fuselage turned out not as bloody as it looked, the whole construction was quite stiff so it was easily put together again. So all in all not undoable corrections, but most of them quite unnecessary really!

 

Speaking of unnecessary corrections, did some work on the model after the Easter holidays when I stumbled on the shape of the stabilizers.

top one is in the right position, with hole and locator pin aligned. Bottom one is aligned, based on the curved shapes of the stabilizer and fuselage. This way the whole stabilizer is at least 5 mm too far to the front! Other way around: mount the stab as indicated by Revell and you end up with a huge gap which must not be there...sigh!

Looking at photo's I can only conclude that te fuselage shape is not correct here. Nope not going to correct that! Thinking about adding some strip to the stab, let's see.

DSC08604.jpg

 

btw see where I indicated with a cross where I will add a plastic bar to hold the plane in the air, like it is doing a deck landing with landing gear and tail hook lowered. I do not trust that all-plastic landing gear for one centimeter!

 

Yet another one: the tips of the tails and of the stabs are not sharp, but end like they have been cut off. Stabilizer has been sanded sharper in the photo, tail is still blunt.

Come on Revell, this kind of inaccuracies is really unnecessary!

 

DSC08605.jpg

 

And yes I am still enjoying this build!

 

Edited by hpetiers
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2 hours ago, hpetiers said:

 

 

Speaking of unnecessary corrections, 

 

 

Now that's funny:D:D This whole kit has been one big correction!!! On my build, there's been a few things that are ok,  but it seems like everything gets sanded, scraped, whittled, shortened, cut, modified, corrected...you're doing fine, lots more work ahead. I have to say, I get the most satisfaction from finishing a kit that fights back, it'll be great when your done!!

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5 hours ago, hpetiers said:

hi  gentlemen., thanks for the encouragement. By the way the sawing into the fuselage turned out not as bloody as it looked, the whole construction was quite stiff so it was easily put together again. So all in all not undoable corrections, but most of them quite unnecessary really!

 

Speaking of unnecessary corrections, did some work on the model after the Easter holidays when I stumbled on the shape of the stabilizers.

top one is in the right position, with hole and locator pin aligned. Bottom one is aligned, based on the curved shapes of the stabilizer and fuselage. This way the whole stabilizer is at least 5 mm too far to the front! Other way around: mount the stab as indicated by Revell and you end up with a huge gap which must not be there...sigh!

Looking at photo's I can only conclude that te fuselage shape is not correct here. Nope not going to correct that! Thinking about adding some strip to the stab, let's see.

DSC08604.jpg

 

btw see where I indicated with a cross where I will add a plastic bar to hold the plane in the air, like it is doing a deck landing with landing gear and tail hook lowered. I do not trust that all-plastic landing gear for one centimeter!

 

Yet another one: the tips of the tails and of the stabs are not sharp, but end like they have been cut off. Stabilizer has been sanded sharper in the photo, tail is still blunt.

Come on Revell, this kind of inaccuracies is really unnecessary!

 

DSC08605.jpg

 

And yes I am still enjoying this build!

 

 

So, let me ask you this question, if you could go back to day one, would you choose this kit or the trumpeter? If they both were equal cost and both sitting there for you to chose one?

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12 hours ago, Iain (32SIG) said:

Some great work going on here - and all done with a very positive attitude...

 

I love threads like this - will have to follow along now!  :)

 

Iain

Hi Iain, i have waited long enough for this kit to come, that is probably why i want it to succeed so badly. So far all corrections have been unnecessary, revell should have done a better job of course, but they are solvable.

so 1to1scale, i Cannot judge the trumpeter kit since i have only read about its issues but never actually built it, it is the cost that won me over so far.

i foresee a future in which the revell kit does not sell well due to its poor buildability for the larger community, resulting in an even lower selling price. In that case i will buy a second revell kit...of course based on what i know at this moment. So no i am completely committed to making this one and the hopefully future F version a success, which is also a good reason to log the progress of my doings.

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11 hours ago, dmthamade said:

 

Now that's funny:D:D This whole kit has been one big correction!!! On my build, there's been a few things that are ok,  but it seems like everything gets sanded, scraped, whittled, shortened, cut, modified, corrected...you're doing fine, lots more work ahead. I have to say, I get the most satisfaction from finishing a kit that fights back, it'll be great when your done!!

Hi dmthamade, pls inspire us with a photo of your end result if you want, looks like you had fun with this one too!

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10 hours ago, hpetiers said:

Hi dmthamade, pls inspire us with a photo of your end result if you want, looks like you had fun with this one too!

 

Oh, I'm still doing battle with this one!! Will be for a while!! Doing a build thread in the Multi engine GB. 

I've been getting ideas from yours and MarkM, starting to run low on #11 blades and wet/dry sandpaper.

 

Don

Edited by dmthamade
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today I completed a bit of a milestone: finished the intakes so that the fuselage can be built up further. I have no idea how one would be able to paint the intakes after they have been assembled.

DSC08607.jpg

 

all seams filled!

DSC08608.jpg

 

after the paint has dried, I masked the intakes and the wheel bays:

DSC08609.jpg

 

like dmthamade already posted, also here I had to scrape the lower wing gutters wider with a chisel:

DSC08611.jpg

 

so these are the parts that need to go together, I have primed the surfaces that will be closed in later: 

DSC08610.jpg

 

mounted the splitter plates of the LERX separately from the lower wing, this eases cleanup considerably:

DSC08612.jpg

 

and then, with sweaty hands, mounted the lower wings to the fuselage:

DSC08613.jpg

 

also here the parts need to lign up where the wings and the intakes meet:

DSC08614.jpg

 

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hi Chris, that is why I think a forum like this is so useful: no need to go through the same learning curve if you can share tips. thanks for your encouragenemt!

 

hi Don, I am not sure but like you (i think) I have the Afterburner Decals set for the Tomcatters and the Gunslingers. the Tomcatters were a nobrainer until I realized that there is no decals for the lining on the fuel tank. Luckily I can still go on for a while until I need to make up my mind.

 

I am quite sure you also experienced some fit issues for the forward and upper fuselage. If you fit the upper part on the lower one, and try to align 1 wing root...

DSC08616.jpg

 

...then you end up with an upper fuselage around 2 mm too narrow:

DSC08617.jpg

 

of course you can pull the upper part outward, but then the part gets quite a bit distorted. On top of that you will note that between the forward fuselage and the LERX extensions there will be quite a gap. I came to the conclusion that the lower fuselage is 2 mm too wide...Now what? You guessed it: out comes the saw again!

DSC08618.jpg

 

basically cut the whole inner structure in half to make the assembly flexible enough to push inward.

DSC08619.jpg

DSC08620.jpg

DSC08621.jpg

 

then after pushing the top inwards, I strengthened the whole with a styrene strip:

DSC08623.jpg

 

after which I decided to mount the forward fuselage. see here no gap!

DSC08624.jpg

DSC08626.jpg

 

no gap between the inlets anymore:

DSC08627.jpg

 

also strengthened the rest and added a hole for my stand:

DSC08625.jpg

 

after a considerable amount of sanding the lower LERX part to make it fit:

DSC08629.jpg

 

now the upper and lower parts fit without stress:

DSC08628.jpg

 

and can be glued together

DSC08630.jpg

 

make sure that the LERX lower surface lines up with the upper surface of the lower fuselage:

DSC08631.jpg

 

now the upper fuselage can be mounted....thought for some time I might not get away with this, but it looks like I did!

 

 

 

Edited by hpetiers
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