Finn Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 No 1/32 scale nuke either as they did drop a bunch of practice ones in the early years. Bombs and rocket pods are about the only option, or just a MN-1A on the centreline pylon. Jari chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircommando130 Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Yikes! That's an extremely bad day! Happy New Year and cheers!! Ron chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted December 31, 2020 Author Share Posted December 31, 2020 (edited) December 31/20 Happy New Year! Let’s hope 2021 is a LOT better than 2020, which isn’t saying much! A quick update as you get your hair done with sparkles for tonight’s big party plans. No party plans? Me either, so let’s do a quick modeling update instead! As indicated a few times above, I have been concerned about the fact that when you close up the main fuselage halves, all landing gear is hanging down and exposed to damage, because it is integrated into the gear bays. I have faced this problem on many builds before and always found a way to alter the parts a bit, allowing me to attach the landing gear at the end like usual. This allows me to focus on the gear as separate assemblies and prevents inevitable damage as they hang out and get caught on everything. I read in a few builds of this kit that it can’t be done without strength problems later, which motivates me even more to find a way! First, here is what the main gear, part B20, looks like before clean-up. I’ve experienced a lot of seam lines on landing gear before, but this is crazy and will take a long time to clean up, while having those outside actuators already attached to the gear is just asking for breakage if the gear is installed early as instructed. All the more reason to find a way to attach them at the end of the build, rather than half way through. Here is why they are installed early. Gear Part B20 is locked into place with cross member A6, which in turn is locked into place with front bulkhead A21 and rear bulkhead A20 using interlocking tabs. With the fuselage halves glued together, you can't remove A6. After thinking about things for a while, I found a solution that will not affect the strength or the integrity of the assembly. By cutting a slot at the top of bulkhead A21, I can insert cross member A6 and B20 later. So here is how it looks with the front fuselage part C9 left off- and how I will leave it until the end of the build with the gear bay painted. Since landing gear doors will cover much of this, I'm not going crazy with wiring and other details. The open hole on the right will be masked off along with the gear bay before painting. At the end, I will add the landing gear and cross member. I can even glue the front of the cross member from behind. Followed by fuselage part C9, which I will make sure is a clean drop in and tight fit, likely using some styrene as backing, so that I won’t have glue marks on a painted surface. Only downside is that while the panel line on the far right exists, it doesn’t through the arrow shaped tip in the middle. Since it is very small and on the bottom, I may or may not try to fix it later. Yeah, I know, I probably will anyway…. The front landing gear is a much different problem, because the gear is attached at the very bottom of the assembly and is quite thin and fragile. Cutting the gear leg and inserting a pin would work, but it has a high chance of being crooked and you will lose length with the cut. Then a lightbulb popped on in my head. Here is the far gear well wall, Part C2 before modification. Rather than cut a vertical slot as I did with the main gear, I cut a short horizontal one, being very careful to not cut into the hole for the gear leg which has a backing. This allows the gear leg to swing into the hole later, with a styrene block to fill the gap. Again, the strength and integrity of the assembly has not been compromised and with the block so small (painted of course), on a vertical wall and on the bottom, you will never see it later without a flashlight. So here is how it will look before final assembly. The gear leg just swings into place and even clicks into the hole. Cool! With small styrene block inserted, which will be painted. The fit is so tight, I may not even glue it. If I did this again, I would have made the slot slightly smaller, because it ultimately didn’t need to be quite as long. So there you have it, with 2 small slots cut, I can build this model without landing gear getting in the way after all, which will make assembly a LOT easier! Happy New Year again boys. After being stalled on the cockpit for so long, this build is finally gaining some momentum. Cheers, Chuck Edited January 1, 2021 by chuck540z3 chrish, MikeA, spyrosjzmichos and 30 others 27 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircommando130 Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Awesome work Chuck! You have a safe and Happy New Year! I still have a few hours to go! Gonna share a bag of pork rinds with my 2 dogs later for our New Years party! LOL! Looking forward to more progress on that 104! Cheers...Ron chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocat Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Neat and clean solutions. I really like them. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vvwse4 Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Happy New Year for you too, great to see you hammering away on the zipper! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrewH Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Fantastic solutions Chuck! Well done! chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ax365 Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 (edited) Brilliant remedies. Happy New Year, Chuck. Edited January 1, 2021 by ax365 chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Just a little bit about the nose gear, when after flying the 104 sits a bit nose high as the fuel bladders are no longer full, especially the forward one so the nose oleo is extended more that normal. After a gun mission i would plant myself with a couple of empty 20mm ammo can just behind the nose gear, open the panel to retrieve the empty casings and links while the a/c was being refueled. I could feel the a/c slowly coming down on my head as the fuel was pumped in but usually finished before the fueling was done. Before anyone comments about other things being done at the same time while refueling was taking place, Baden was 15min flying time from the Warsaw Pact border so there were different rules even in peacetime compared to bases across the pond (Atlantic ocean). Jari chuck540z3, alaninaustria, themongoose and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alaninaustria Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Great solution Chuck! Cheers Alan chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowbird3a Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 On 12/29/2020 at 9:51 AM, chuck540z3 said: Bingo! This reminded me of the pic you showed earlier of the fuel tank below, which is also yellow. This is "703", being restored at the Canadian Starfighter museum in Winnipeg. With grey, black boxes and some yellow, this will look really interesting! I also found this pic in that Facebook link you pointed out of "703". It should have the older more detailed maple leaf if it has "RCAF", or "CAF" with the modern maple leaf. I guess most people wouldn't notice or care anyway. With this info in mind, onward! Cheers, Chuck Chuck, that is the correct roundel, as it is the interim leaf used during the RCAF time. That '104 was restored with meticulous attention to detail. Tony chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted January 3, 2021 Author Share Posted January 3, 2021 (edited) 12 hours ago, Snowbird3a said: Chuck, that is the correct roundel, as it is the interim leaf used during the RCAF time. That '104 was restored with meticulous attention to detail. Tony Thanks for that input Tony, I stand corrected! Pics of "RCAF" and a small emblem at the same time are fairly rare, although they obviously do exist now that I've looked around some more. I note at the museum they have a pic of this bird flying with the small emblem AND a pic of it with the larger emblem. I wonder why they chose to paint it this way, since it's so "atypical"? For those who might be interested and from what I have seen so far, these are more typical. In the early 60's RCAF had the more detailed maple leaf. Note this is one serial number after the Winnipeg Starfighter, assuming the serial is accurate. In 1968 when the forces were merged, there was a small maple leaf, but "CAF" instead, but this was for a very short time. Followed by the larger maple leaf, which is likely what I will be doing. Note no gun and the German insignia, so obviously in Germany. So pretty.... In the late 70's, it looks like this one has the gun. And last, no "CAF" on the sides replaced with "Armed Forces", although CAF still survived on the lower wings. Cheers, Chuck Edited January 3, 2021 by chuck540z3 Troy Molitor, F`s are my favs, Daniel460 and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlbertD Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 That's some fine engineering Chuck. Those gear parts look like they were molded in 1972. These days we expect and pay for better. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 Here is one with small maple leaf and old numbering system while the one behind it has the larger maple leaf and new numbers on the tail: also note the control surface positions. Jari Greg W, J.J. and chuck540z3 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunticus Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 14 hours ago, chuck540z3 said: Followed by the larger maple leaf, which is likely what I will be doing. Note no gun and the German insignia, so obviously in Germany. So pretty.... Chuck, I think this is a photo of a model? Snowbird3a and chuck540z3 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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