Vigilante

[thierry laurent]

40 minutes ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Early F-15 main wheels work pretty well.  I think mine are Scott’s GT Resin.  F-15 nosewheel might fit but it may be too small.   I’m also looking at trying to make F-15 intake trunks fit.  The engines are mounted aft of the main gear wells on a Viggie but I doubt if you can see that far back on the model so it all may come to naught.

Excellent idea. I will have a look.

[Dandiego]

More cockpit detailing. Almost ready for paint.

 

 

 

 

Bombs with fuses.

 

 

Dan

[Dandiego]

Cockpit 3d decals. These are made for an F-4 Phantom. I cut them up to fit and glued them with PVA. Side panels and cockpit tub have been painted and weathered.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Dan

[LSP_Kevin]

Terrific stuff, Dan!

 

Kev

[Dandiego]

After weeks of prep the final stages of the cockpit come together rather quickly.

 

Here is the finished pilots IP.

 

 

I have 2 extra Phantom seats. I am thinking of using parts from both of these to get a more detailed hybrid. Stay tuned.

 

 

Cockpit installed into fuselage.

 

 

 

 

And with the cockpit installed I have glued the cockpit section onto the main fuselage. Here it is sitting in my garage chair. I will let it set overnight.

 

 

Dan

 

 

 

[Jim Barry]

Looking good! I’ve been dying to get my fuselage made whole,  but I’m way behind on the cockpit and so I must wait…

[Dandiego]

Yes assembly is quite fast until you get to the cockpit. But now that it is done and the fuselage is in one piece the pace will pick up again.

 

Final surface prep and then a final white primer and onto scribing and riveting. 

 

Dan

[Dandiego]

Small progress.

 

I have been working on the pylons and bomb racks. Pylons have been scribed and riveted, Bomb racks have 2 wire pins that allow for a secure attachment to the pylon. Took a while to get this done as there are only a couple of pictures showing the racks with bombs. I wanted to get the placement right so that I matched the pictures. I will be adding more details in the future, re stenciling and sway braces. Mer's were originally from a Trumpeter A-7 kit.

 

 

 

Dan

Edited November 24, 2022 by Dandiego

[thierry laurent]

Hi Dan, 

 

Two tips for the Vigilante builders:

 

- I tried different processes to improve the surface of the parts. The best one I found is first to fully cover the large parts with a thin coat of car body putty and sand it before using primer. That way, with two coats of primer you get a totally smooth surface. This is probably a little more time consuming but you can put more or less putty where you want whereas primer is covering everything homogeneously. Moreover adherence of putty is better on the raw plastic.

- There are various decal sets offering stars and bars and Navy markings. However, Fantasy Printshop recently released various large sets of 1/32 US markings particularly useful for scratchbuilders.

 

https://www.fantasyprintshop.co.uk/product/usaac-ww2-stars-bars-fp715/

https://www.fantasyprintshop.co.uk/product/usaf-postwar-stars-bars-fp712/

https://www.fantasyprintshop.co.uk/product/euro-decals-lo-viz-insignia-and-data-ed-32114/

 

Highly recommended.