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Tamiya F-16 Aggressor, Kicked Up a Notch, Mar 28/24: ResKit Engine Installation


chuck540z3

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Thank you everyone!  While I don't respond to every post because I think it clutters the thread, every comment is very much appreciated- and thankfully we have the "Like" button to confirm same.  If anybody has a question, I'm always happy to respond, even if I don't have the answer.

 

As mentioned earlier, this build will be hit and mostly miss due to conflicts with home renovations and a move, which I'm dreading with a passion, but it can't be helped.  Don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of our nerdy hobby!  :P

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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December 15/22

 

A very small update to finish off the landing gear parts, other than some additional wiring, which I will do later.  When looking at the poor Airies instructions below, something I knew would be a challenge is the center hinge replacement for the main gear doors.  According to the instructions, which are for a Block 50 with bulged doors, the hinges can only go on one way.

 

n64sea.jpg

 

Which looks nothing like the real deal, or even the instructions.

 

ryRUky.jpg

 

A close-up shows the problem.  The hinge support should go down and behind that tab on Block 25/32 or 50 gear bays, not on top of it, so even cutting it shorter doesn’t solve the problem.  Further, the hinge should look blade-like where it attaches to the door, and not just something filling the recess.

 

dsbek1.jpg

 

I could cut off the support and glue another one on at the correct angle I suppose, but the resin just looks wrong, so the kit parts came to the rescue again, where the hinges were cut off Part P 8.

 

gg2TLw.jpg

 

Although not perfect, after some trimming, they fit quite well and are much more accurate than the Aires offering.

 

DTqFGE.jpg

 

As shown in the above instructions, Aires also supplies a resin hinge for the aft hinge, RP 2, which doesn’t look like anything on a real Viper (both the lightweight and heavyweight gear doors).  It just looks “made up” to me and way too big, so the single plastic tab on the door should be left as is with nothing glued onto it, which looks much more realistic.

 

oiD34P.jpg

 

The doors, actuators and hinges now fit the gear bay really well, although some of the small gaps will close once I commit to glue, which won’t be until the very end of the build.

 

e76pgw.jpg

 

M99dR7.jpg

 

After cleaning up some pin marks on the doors, the actuators and hinges were glued to the door, so that they will be a drop in fit later with no fiddling with alignment or lost parts.

 

2TAXSM.jpg

 

That’s about it for now.  Happy modeling.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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  • chuck540z3 changed the title to Tamiya F-16 Aggressor, Kicked Up a Notch, Dec 15/22: Further landing gear tweaks
3 hours ago, Greif8 said:

Excellent modifications Chuck.  Aires sure has some hit and miss products don't they?!

 

Ernest

 

Very good point Ernest.  While the Aires resin hinges are just wrong for both shape and fit, the rest of the main resin gear bay is surprisingly accurate.  While I've been fiddling with plastic and resin parts in the gear bay, I have also been pre-drilling holes for future wiring that I will add after painting.  Since I'll be adding the main gear near the end of the build as well, much of this wiring needs to be delayed until after that happens.  In any case, when trying to locate where these hydraulic and electrical lines should go, I have been very impressed with how accurate the main block of resin is when compared to reference pics, so locating contact locations has been a breeze.  While some have claimed that this Aires gear bay is a "drop-in fit", it can be to some degree since it isn't too small or too big like some Aires offerings, but you have to take extra time with it in order to get the resin and kit parts to mesh together accurately.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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4 hours ago, Greif8 said:

Excellent modifications Chuck.  Aires sure has some hit and miss products don't they?!

 

Ernest

I wasn’t aware there were fit issues with the Aires gear bay component on this kit, I used their gear bays (not the nose bay though) on my Sufa build while also using the Zacto seamless intake (which has a nose bay molded in) I found the bay fit to be very good, I doubt I used more than a simple smear of Vallejo putty on the seams….but I’m nowhere near Chucks level of perfection either so, there’s that as well 

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Great progress Chuck, I like you're attention to detail.  I have often thought of getting an F-16 so I am struggling not to want one after watching this.  I too have found good and not so good points with some Aires stuff, but in general I really quite like it as it saves a lot of time by saving me make all those extra little bits.  I dont mind making the few corrections where needed since the bulk of the hard work is done for me in places.

 

Inspiring work as always buddy

Cheers Anthony

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

December 28/22

 

With the Aires landing gear bays mostly figured out, it was time to turn my attention to the other “heavy lifting” of this build, which is the Aires resin cockpit set.  As usual and like the gear bay set, the instructions are terrible, so I searched around the ‘net to see how others tackled this beast, since it certainly isn’t straight forward.  Although I’m sure that there are examples of this kit installed in the Tamiya kit somewhere, I couldn’t find one In Progress thread that gave me some direction.  As such, I was totally on my own, so here’s what I did.

 

First a pic of the parts, which are extensive and very nicely detailed.  Typical Aires.

 

n85T7v.jpg

 

Among a few other diagrams that are for the small parts of the instrument panel and seat, this is all you get for instructions of how to install the big resin cockpit tub, Part 16.  Further, there’s 2 wires behind the seat that should be installed to resin parts RP 6, but there’s no other diagram telling you where the heck the other ends of the wire should go and they don’t seem to even exist in The Modern Viper Guide.  Also typical Aires!

 

zT8D6o.jpg

 

So as I always do when installing resin replacement parts, I check and see what the fit of the kit parts are, to give me some idea where everything should go unaltered.  Here’s the main kit cockpit part F 51, which fits on a big nose weight supplied with the kit.

 

XbvW5S.jpg

 

This part is secured with two screws at the front and the back.

 

QV8l52.jpg

 

And the top fuselage part B 28 fits over it.  Pretty straight forward.

 

txYJgr.jpg

 

With the resin block cut off the Aires cockpit tub at the right, the profile is similar, but also quite different.

 

ngjEk4.jpg

 

Somehow, that big chunk of resin needs to fit in there somehow.

 

MxiTxo.jpg

 

So as vaguely indicated by the instructions and common sense, I need to cut out the kit back sill in generally the same shape as the resin sill, which is hard to do without some kind of template.

 

vRp6bS.jpg

 

Before I do that, a check of the resin glare shield shows that is not only much more detailed that the kit part, it has integrated canopy latches on the side, rather than just a cut out that goes over the kit latches on the fuselage part B 28.  This difference needs to be addressed.

 

ZglHmy.jpg

 

 

The resin tub also has highly detailed side wall, that have integrated canopy latches already molded into them.

 

sSOFDR.jpg

 

This means that the kit latches should be removed, since they are a bit too big for scale anyway, and the side sills sanded down, to accommodate the resin side wall replacements.

 

ymNzZH.jpg

 

Nurse, we’re going in!  There’s no easy or risk-free way of cutting plastic like this, and the fact that this kit is currently discontinued makes it even more stressful since I can’t buy replacement parts, but as the saying goes, “No Guts, No Glory”!  On a tricky number of angular cuts like this, I like to use the tried and true drilled hole method, since you can control cutting with a #11 knife a lot more than with a Dremel tool cutter of some kind.

 

7OVI2h.jpg

 

After LOTS of trimming and dry fitting, I managed to get everything to more or less fit.  Whew!

 

 

05Z5x4.jpg

 

As expected, however, I got a little carried away with some of my cuts as I struggled to get the sucker into the fuselage in a hit and miss fashion, making a bit of a mess here and there.  The fix for that later.

 

7wrdtl.jpg

 

With the resin tub now fitting the upper fuselage, I then checked the fit to the lower fuselage, which required a few changes.  First, the little depression at the front that fits over the screw hole needed to be extended a few millimeters forward, then the middle screw receptacle needed to be cut off since there is no hole for it in the resin that wouldn’t show later.  Last, the rear receptacle needs to be cleaned out and opened up.

 

us7lZD.jpg

 

It fits pretty good now and with lots of CA glue when installed permanently, it should be pretty strong, even without any screws.

 

2OwP7o.jpg

 

That rear screw receptacle not only fits the resin, but it appears to be the perfect height as well, left unaltered.

 

HcgpMD.jpg

 

Back to kit plastic repairs.  Since I will be painting and detailing this cockpit before installation into the fuselage, I want it to be as good of a drop-in fit as possible when that time comes.  I could install the cockpit after painting and then use putty and other fillers to fill the ragged gaps, but they will leave a mess and be difficult to paint and touch-up cleanly.  My solution that I’ve done many times before, is to use CA glue in an iterative fashion with CA glue accelerator.  I check the fit of the resin to plastic, then remove the resin and apply a thin bead of CA glue to the gap, followed by accelerator to make it harden immediately, then check the fit again.  By doing this over and over with lots of sanding and trimming each time, I build up the gaps to mostly eliminate them, make the mating surfaces nice and smooth and also strengthen the plastic from behind, which has been weakened by all my drilling and cuts.  This takes a long time to do, but I think the extra work is worth it.  Very tough to photograph since the glue is clear on a snow-white background, but I think I’ve got the majority of the gaps now filled cleanly. 

 

6ga8VP.jpg

 

Dry fit with the other parts, the tub fits the kit plastic much cleaner now.  When the cockpit is installed permanently, the remaining gaps should be easy to fill with minimal putty.  Unfortunately, there’s still a bit of a gap at the front of the glare shield that will need to be filled.  Having said that, the kit plastic parts also leave a gap at this location, so it’s too bad the Aires resin didn’t correct this minor kit flaw.

 

XLht09.jpg

 

The glare shield is pushed forward as far as it will go within the recess of the tub.  This leaves a bit of a small “shelf” on either side which are not totally accurate for scale, but are real nonetheless with the square “box” on the right housing a gauge at the front of it.

 

68PdND.jpg

 

A closer look at the rear fit of the tub against the plastic.  Again hard to see with clear CA glue, but the gaps are mostly eliminated.

 

rxGGgQ.jpg

 

Since the resin raised lip replaces the kit one, the kit one will be sanded off while I add some styrene to fill the inside of the front, to eliminate the gap.

 

23Ylt3.jpg

 

There, the heavy lifting of the installation of the Aires landing gear bay and cockpit (with no instructions!) is now officially over with no casualties.  The rest of this build should be much easier and straight forward from now on, fingers crossed.

ltqjrU.jpg

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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  • chuck540z3 changed the title to Tamiya F-16 Aggressor, Kicked Up a Notch, Dec 28/22: Aires Cockpit Installation

BF16covgr3.jpgGreat work, Chuk! Do you have a magazine of F-16 by DACO publishing? It has many  photo of interior and other elements.

Unfortunately, I must build the cockpit for my F-16 myself. Nobody don't do cockpit's set for F-16A block 25 that I want to get. 

Edited by Memphis
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