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1/32 ERA-3B Skywarrior - 3D printed / scratchbuilt


Starfighter

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The fuselage looks like a Whale again - time for a beer! 

 

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Now comes the interesting yet annoying part - adding surface detail. That's when a model comes to life. The firt panels were scribed and raised details were added. My Silhouette Protrait was very helpful to cut scribing templates and raised details.

 

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Some of the raised details will be replaced with plastic sheet whilst some will remain vinyl, such as the strengthening plates at the tail extension. 

 

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I will now cut holes into the fuselage again to add some NACA ducts and vents. Then, I will add the closed camera bulges. 

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Nice work Ben!  It was disheartening to the whale in pieces.  But as any good scratch builder knows doing things twice, or more, is part of the deal, you clearly have the right attitude. 
 

I’m sure you’re happy to have the filling as sanding behind you, for a while anyway.

 

Cheers,

Timmy!

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Cheers everyone! :) A few beers more and I started adding the NACA ducts and vents to the fuselage which meant cutting more holes...

 

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As usual, the parts were 3D printed. 

 

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Drilling the window for the ECM evaluator's compartment was a bit more difficult than initially expected. The very brittle resin was shattered when I drilled the hole; not a huge problem though. Body filler, Magic Sculp and a stainless steel ring cut from a tube to obtain a perfectly circular and neat window frame and a bit of sanding. 

 

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This might or might not be a good time to point out that, although ERA-3s may never have flown from carriers, they were still tactical airplanes and, unless you know something I don't,  held to the Navy policy of aircrew parachutes remaining in the airplane and not shuttled back and forth between flights.   You might want to check on that because it appears the seats you've printed have cushions rather than parachute packs in the seat backs.

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Well, the seats were designed according to photos of real seats and the parachute packs they were fitted with looked pretty much like the ones I have made. More details will be added of course... I am in close contact with a former ERA-3B EWO who was also the ERA-3B NATOPS Officer and he did not complain about the seats so far. 

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