RA-5C Vigilante - scratchprinted

[Dandiego]

Tailcone looks great Ben. I have nightmares about producing one for my build.

 

Dan

[KiwiZac]

51 minutes ago, Anthony in NZ said:

I can’t wait for Kerry to teach me this when I get my new computer 

And then I can send you Fletcher and Cresco drawings 

[Starfighter]

Another test print. 0,2mm is a good width for groove lines in 1/32nd scale and I am pretty sure my printer wouldn't be hable to handle thinner details anyway. Cockpit looks quite good; fit is very tight and the parts need some adjustment, but keep in mind that thing was designed by a total moron (=me) sitting on his couch or during ht ebreak at work... I am rather happy with the look so far. The intake design works as desired as well. I will now add more details to the cockpit and add all the surface detail before printing the next parts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thomas Lund]

That looks great. 

 

You really got me fired up with this. I had a thing I needed to do in Inventor, but now that it's done, I will proceed in 360 with my new project. What you do here really looks like it's much better than inventor... but it will require me to learn a new program, so let's see

[Starfighter]

Glad to hear it inspires you, that's the aim of showing the progress on this project!  I don't think Fusion is better than Inventor, but it requires less parameters which makes it more suited to this kind of work IMO. If you're used to Inventor, you will find some functionalities in Fusion annoying, but you'll get used to it. Ask me how I know!  

[Aigore]

Impressive, most impressive!

[blackbetty]

gorgeous, i love it! i wish i could get me to learn the software....

[Troy Molitor]

On 2/14/2022 at 5:13 AM, Aigore said:

Impressive, most impressive!

I can mention anything more than this statement.  

[vvwse4]

Hi Ben,

 

This is great!!

[denders]

Ben, if I may, which printer are you using? I'm intending on starting down a similar path, sometime this year. Other aircraft though, not a Vigi.

[Oldbaldguy]

Wow!  This is going to be easily the best Viggie extant, bar none.  Big question now is: What squadron colors does it get?  There are a plethora of options.

[Starfighter]

Cheers gentlemen! Dave, I use an Anycubic Photon Mono X which enables me to print pretty large parts in a good quality. 

 

The cockpit is nearing completion. I made a test print of the LH side side consoles and the inner sidewalls and testfitted them - doesn't look too bad. 

 

 

 

 

There is a lot more CAD work to do as well. The front and rear IPs are pretty much ready for a first test print:

 

 

 

 

The area behind the pilot's seat is super busy but good photos are very hard to come by. I did my best to replicate the radarscope fairing and the viewfinder based on photos and the works drawings I have on hand. The only missing element is the canopy actuator. With all the wires added, it should looks busy enough - and most of it will be hidden below the canopy anyway. 

 

 

 

 

[Hans]

Very impressive, Ben! That is a skill I would like to master myself one day.  

[Supersonic]

Ben ! It's not yet spring but for me already the cracker of the year !

That is the future . Printing ! And not waiting for decades what some strange

companies will offer us .

Stefan

[Starfighter]

I'm glad you guys like it! I've been doing some wannabe-engineering to add stability, ease assembly and to improve fit.

 

 

Adding surface detail is extremely tedious work but it adds life to the model. You may call me a rivet counter, but I am actually counting them - and I often then create adifferent number of rivets on the model. In my opinion, it is more important to capture the look of the surface detail instead of offering a correct number of rivets. Keep in mind, all the surface detail is not really to scale - like I said, it has to "look" right.