Phear the Bones. Another F-4B conversion.

[MDuv]

Hi gents.

Have been doing some progress on the thin wing butchery.

Underwing this time.

 

First I removed all the bulged stuff between the airbrake and gear door, and sanded flat the area in front of the gear door and inner rear of the airbrake.

Then I designed a big one piece (flat) plate that fitted the hole in the wing:

 

Success at try #6 ! 

The big panel, once spearated into actual panels, ensure everything will work together.
 

With this preliminary step complete, I can now work the individual panels. For this I used a scan of the bulged parts then made it fit inside the area delimited by the big panel.

Some were easier than other : Take #2, #7 and ...#9. Note that the main gear door shape is not corrected yet, this version is a drop fit.

 

Now that the outer shapes are done, a plastic card sheet is cut for a final test.

The previous test cuts are out of mylar sheet, wich are very easy to cut, very rigid, and cheap. Perfect for prototyping.

 

 

The cut is intentionnaly not going through the plastic, to keep the assembly together, a little bending help is needed the separate the outer form from the sheet.

 

Assembly test : 

 

 

Then the doors are getting separated from the airbrake and lips assembly : 

 

 

I think i'll go with airbrake closed, so It will ease assembly to keep the lips and ab in one piece.

 

Then its time to equip the inside...
Fo this I got a little help in references from tamiya's 1/48 B Phantom: Scanned the parts, upscaled them to 1/32, and designed the inner doors.

As you can see, it's going to be a sandwich type assembly.

 

Note, on this version of the main door, the front shape is corrected.

it's cutting right now, so stay tuned.

Cheers

 

Mathieu

 

 

 

 

 

-edit:

Looks promising out of the cutter.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by MDuv

[Starfighter]

Superb!! 

[red Dog]

Late to the party but was pretty impressed with what I read and saw so far

Great stuff? I'm bookmarking for my future Sundowner project

[easixpedro]

Holy smokes that's good work!  You're nailing it--and fixing all the things I didn't.  Love it!  It'll look smashing once it all comes together.

-Peter

[Avenger2614]

Man, you're making this look easy!! This is seriously great work. Any chance you'd consider popping out extra parts to sell as. . .a finally fully-comprehensive 1/32 F-4B conversion? I mean, all of this work just before the new 1/32 Phantoms coming out, but we'll need something to get extra mileage out of the mass of Tamiya F-4s were going to have sitting around. 

[MDuv]

1 hour ago, Avenger2614 said:

Man, you're making this look easy!! This is seriously great work. Any chance you'd consider popping out extra parts to sell as. . .a finally fully-comprehensive 1/32 F-4B conversion? I mean, all of this work just before the new 1/32 Phantoms coming out, but we'll need something to get extra mileage out of the mass of Tamiya F-4s were going to have sitting around. 

Hi thank you !

Even better, you will soon be able to download the files from the cutter forum for free!

All you need is a silhouette machine to cut them. 

Yeah the new phantom model is on every discussion, but things will be serious when we see an assembled test model.

And even then, the ton of Tamiya boxing released will still need care and love. 
Cheers.

Mathieu

Edited September 14, 2021 by MDuv

[MDuv]

8 hours ago, Starfighter said:

Superb!! 

Thank you mister Focan ! Butcher and photograph, you have chosen wisely your avatar !

cheers 

 

4 hours ago, red Dog said:

Late to the party but was pretty impressed with what I read and saw so far

Great stuff? I'm bookmarking for my future Sundowner project

hi Red Dog, thank you sir.

You will even be able to download the files soon if you want to give it a try. Cheers

 

3 hours ago, easixpedro said:

Holy smokes that's good work!  You're nailing it--and fixing all the things I didn't.  Love it!  It'll look smashing once it all comes together.

-Peter

Hi Peter! 
Thank you! The way is easier when all the crash point have been flagged in advance by some adventurer modeler in front. Very fan of your work and attached stories! Keep them coming. Cheers

[Anthony in NZ]

Once again, another splendid update!  Just wonderful, you sir are very talented!

 

Cheers Anthony

[scvrobeson]

How did you do the raised rivets on the plotter? Not sure I've seen that done before.

 

 

 

Matt 

[Gene K]

On 9/14/2021 at 12:35 PM, MDuv said:

You will even be able to download the files soon if you want to give it a try.

Really looking forward to the files. I'll be downscaling one set by .44444..

 

Gene K

[MDuv]

On 9/16/2021 at 1:56 AM, scvrobeson said:

How did you do the raised rivets on the plotter? Not sure I've seen that done before.

 

 

 

Matt 

Hi Matt,

No they are not raised, the effect is quite the same as if they had been punched with a needle. a hole in the center, and a recess on the perimeter.
In some case its usable like that, but here I finally did not retained this solution. more in the next post.

Cheers.
Mathieu

 

20 hours ago, Gene K said:

Really looking forward to the files. I'll be downscaling one set by .44444..

 

Gene K

Hi, I'm not sure what scale you want to reach as my counter is blocked at 1/32 and above , but keep me posted on how it went.
Cheers.
Mathieu

[MDuv]

Hi

Small update on the sandwich assembly.

First job was to assemble the mylar sheet, with CA glue, just to see if everything works togheter.

It was mostly OK, I just tweaked the inner flap part. enlarged the holes, just to have them not interfere with the upper sheet.

Then it was time to cut real plastic and try it for good.

I did not send the rivet pattern to the cutter for this one. as I wanted to have them positive.

So once the parts were cleared and cleaned, I runned the riveter on the other side of the sheet, to have them appearing on the outer face.

 

MLG door.

 

Airbrake, a pity i wont use them

 

 

Doors all completed :

 

And a comparison, kit parts, proto parts, final parts.

Kinda happy with how it turned out.

 

 

I have just dropped the files overs at ScaleModelPaintMasks.com

Here is the link: Thin wing conversion

Would you want to give it a try, I wish you a lot of fun.

Cheers.

Mathieu

 

[Starfighter]

Thank you so much Mathieu, that's totally awesome! Stupid question and I hope I'm not asking too much - would it be possible to get the original drawings as well? Wi would love to ask a friend of mine to cut the parts on his CNC mill... 

[Gene K]

6 hours ago, MDuv said:

Hi, I'm not sure what scale you want to reach as my counter is blocked at 1/32 and above , but keep me posted on how it went.

 

Teeny tiny off-topic  1/72. I scaled down and cut your file this morning, and should work well after some adjustment for the panel line differences between the Tamiya and the FineMolds kit I'll be using. Thanks.

 

Gene K

[MikeMaben]

Hi Mathieu, which tool did you use for the rivets ?

Thanks