Derek B Posted December 29, 2022 Share Posted December 29, 2022 On 12/28/2022 at 8:16 AM, Memphis said: Great 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. I must get this book! Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis Posted December 29, 2022 Share Posted December 29, 2022 6 hours ago, Derek B said: I must get this book! I have only pdf-scan. I found it more fifteen years ago, but I don't remember where. In this time I didn't have possible pay for order in foreign stores. Derek B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark64 Posted December 29, 2022 Share Posted December 29, 2022 Chuck You are one of my favorite modeler. you are so gifted. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted December 29, 2022 Author Share Posted December 29, 2022 14 minutes ago, shark64 said: Chuck You are one of my favorite modeler. you are so gifted. Back at ya Oliver! That Sikorsky H34 is a work of art. Cheers, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KEB Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 Outstanding! I have enjoyed your builds. Have you Built a 1/32 F-15c "Kicked up a notch"? chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Fleischmann Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 “the fact that this kit is currently discontinued makes it even more stressful since I can’t buy replacement parts” Actually Chuck, if you needed a new upper-forward fuselage, the block 32 and 50 kits are exactly the same, so you could get one…it’d just be grey. cheers P chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 On 12/31/2022 at 8:24 AM, KEB said: Outstanding! I have enjoyed your builds. Have you Built a 1/32 F-15c "Kicked up a notch"? Thanks and yup, check out the first pic in this thread. On 12/31/2022 at 11:15 AM, Pete Fleischmann said: “the fact that this kit is currently discontinued makes it even more stressful since I can’t buy replacement parts” Actually Chuck, if you needed a new upper-forward fuselage, the block 32 and 50 kits are exactly the same, so you could get one…it’d just be grey. cheers P Of course, thanks Pete. I just wish that all the parts were grey, since this white plastic is hard to check for flaws and even harder to photograph. Cheers, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-10LOADER Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 Excellent progress so far Chuck. Steve chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted January 7, 2023 Author Share Posted January 7, 2023 (edited) January 7/23 Happy New Year everyone! I have a brief update to the cockpit area, and then a bit of a mini announcement. The Aires resin seat looks fantastic like the rest of the cockpit tub, with lots of fine detail that appears to be very accurate, according to the Modern Viper Guide by Jake Melampy that I’m using like a bible for this build. I’ve used Jake’s books for my F-4E, F-15C and A-10C builds and they are invaluable with pics of just about every angle and descriptions of just about all the parts, so if I describe anything technical like the “FLCS recorder” below, consider it from this book. The resin seat slides into a seat rail just like the real deal, which allows you to paint the parts separately and slide the seat into position at the end of the build, should you choose to do it that way. For this build, I plan on installing both the seat and rail as one unit when the model is finished. The problem with doing this, is that there is a valve assembly at the rear of the FLCS recorder which gets in the way, so I was really scratching my head as to what to do with it. As usual, the Aires “instructions” mention or show nothing about this, other than the seat slides onto the rail. After gazing at the parts for about 10 minutes, it finally dawned on me what to do: Cut the valve off! By cutting off the valve, the seat not only slides onto the rail cleanly, but the rail has a valve replacement already molded onto it, which matches pics of the real deal. This idea might have come to me sooner if the original valve was the same size as the rail replacement, but it’s only about half the size. Note that when cutting the seat off its casting block, I left a bit of the block to avoid cutting off some sort of control arm at the bottom of it. More on that below. On the other side of the seat, part of the front of it had broken off and the missing part was completely gone. Kit parts to the rescue again, but this pic also shows how much better the resin seat is than the kit one. I cut off this portion from the kit seat and glued in on. While this part is slightly bigger than the resin part on the other side of the seat, viewed from above you will never notice. Dry fitting the seat into the cockpit tub, it became apparent that it was too high, so the lower control arm and part of the bottom of the seat had to go, which you will never see installed anyway, which begs the question: Why did Aires mold the valve assembly on the side of the seat and the control arm on the bottom, if they are both in the way of a good fit? The answer must be that by molding it that way, it allows the modeler to leave the seat out of the model for whatever reason, keeping detail that would be present on a real seat not installed in the cockpit. If so, it would be nice if Aires let us know that in the instructions, wouldn’t it? By eroding resin off the bottom of the seat, it allows for a clean fit to the cockpit floor at the front, where the seat should touch it, but not be held up by it. Pics of the real deal show that this contact should be slightly forward from the pics below, but this is pretty close while keeping the rear of the seat touching against the rear of the tub as it should. I still have lots of small parts to add to the ACES II seat, like the ejection handle and pitot tube “horns” that are on either side of the head rest, but I’m going to leave them off for a while, hence the mini “announcement”: This build is now on hold for at least 9 months and maybe a year. As mentioned above, my wife and I are renovating our home and we need to move out to a condo fairly soon while the work is done, so rather than play with small pieces of plastic, I really need to start packing, now. Even when we are settled in our condo, it will be spring then summer, when I rarely model as I enjoy the outdoors during our short summers. Further, as I have found out the hard way recently, I had the garage at the condo painted before I move in, and some of the condo residents complained about the odors. These odors were from anemic Acrylic Latex paint! Since I always paint with a paint booth in my garage, I can’t imagine the complaints I’ll receive if I use my usual concoctions of lacquer paint and lacquer thinner to clean my airbrushes! Welcome to condo living and living in close proximity to strangers I guess and no, I’m not interested in giving acrylics a try. I still need to clean my equipment with lacquer thinner and I’m hooked on the paint properties of synthetic lacquers like Tamiya and MRP. This build and modeling in general, will have to take a back seat to "life getting in the way", as they say. I’ll still be hanging around these forums in the meantime of course, especially this forum as I try to model vicariously through you guys and maybe help out now and then when I can. Cheers, Chuck Edited January 7, 2023 by chuck540z3 TankBuster, LSP_Kevin, chukw and 25 others 28 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 Best of luck with the renovations and the move into the condo. Hopefully everything goes smoothly for you. I'm sure the F-16 will be waiting patiently for you when you return to it. Matt chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaxos345 Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 Awesome build as always!! Wish the best with everything Chuck!! John chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 Awesome work and clever solutions as usual Chuck! Good luck with your move and renovation of your home. I hope that your neighbors in the condo will not turn out too bad. Look forward to your return when you move back into your home. Ernest chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nighthawk Calling 1 Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 All the best with the renovation to the house, when the snow returns so will you and your F16. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 Well Chuck - that must be some renovation! I'll miss your updates. This last one is a doozy. What a cockpit! Best of luck with the upheaval. chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcel111 Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 Beautiful work al round, especially on the cockpit! Wow! With respect to the Aires wheel bay, it seems to fit perfectly into the Academy kits but not so much into the Tamiya kits, at least that has been my experience. You may also want to check the sit of the F-16 with main gear on, I've hear it said that the stance of the airplane when using the Aires wheel bay on the Tamiya kit is no longer correct, with the airplane sitting too heavy at the back. Looking at my NSAWC F-16A, I think this may in fact be true. Also check that wings are perfectly level. Cheers, Marcel chuck540z3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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