FB-23, yep I am at it again

[Dandiego]

I have been refining the paint work. 

 

I have cleaned up all of the camo edges and have added a black walkway stripe along with a light gray border along the flying surfaces. 

 

The control surfaces have been painted and will be added next. I will be fading the paint on the top surface and will be adding drawn in panel lines top and bottom.

 

Next will be the engine nozzles and exhaust area. The F-23 had heat absorbing/diffusing tiles in the exhaust area. I will be trying to replicate this feature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan

Edited July 31, 2023 by Dandiego

[Rainer Hoffmann]

Dan, you are getting really good at the 3D stuff. And your choice of subject is, let's say, exquisit ...

 

Keep on the great work!

 

Cheers

Rainer

[Dandiego]

So today I am working on the engine exhaust area.

 

I have painted and installed the interior exhaust portions.

 

 

I have had a problem with the nozzles themselves. As printed, in one piece they will not slide into place they are too big. So I have cut them into 2 pieces. This allows the units to be fit into place and then glued back together.

 

 

 

Still lots to do before I can call this area done.

 

Dan

[Dandiego]

I have been trying to represent the heat dissipating tiles that were use on the F-23. I assume that the FB-23 would use something similar. First step was to apply a gloss black base coat, followed by a bright aluminum. After this I cut out small tape squares and applied them in a random pattern.

 

 

Then I spayed on a slightly darker shade, I clear coated this and then repeated the whole process with more tape squares  and another even darker shade.

 

 

When I removed the tape squares I had a good random pattern but it had too much contrast. So I over sprayed with a very light mist of the darkest color.

 

 

This is very close to what I am trying to achieve. So I will stop before I screw it up. Still some touch ups needed on the surrounding paint.

 

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

[Dandiego]

Last day or so has been spent refining the paint and adding drawn in panel lines. Here is the finished paint work ready for a gloss coat. Although I have done some paint fading on all top surfaces, it is barely noticeable. Better that than going overboard, I guess.

 

 

 

 

 

Dan

Edited August 4, 2023 by Dandiego

[LSP_Kevin]

Looks great, Dan! I can't believe how fast you've been able to pull this all together.

 

Kev

[Dandiego]

21 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Looks great, Dan! I can't believe how fast you've been able to pull this all together.

 

Kev

 

Well Kev most of the big stuff is done, but still lots to do.

 

Need to vacform the canopies. Add detail to all of the landing gear and weapons bays. Also adding the flaps and slats will have to wait. Put one side on and immediately knocked them off

 

 

And........design and build the landing gear for this baby. It is heavy. I would guess 4 pounds. Might need to get real creative. 

 

Will also need to cobble together decals. Probably a mixture of F-15 and F-16 markings. Anyone out there have any extras?

 

Dan

Edited August 4, 2023 by Dandiego

[geedubelyer]

Love the hot area of the exhausts Dan, that's a terrific result.

She's really taking shape beautifully. 

[Dandiego]

Decals and tanks,

 

After putting on a gloss coat, Aquagloss, I have started with a few decals. These are cobbled together from whatever I have that looks like they might work.

 

 

 

 

And I saw in an illustration on-line a picture of an F-23 carrying drop tanks. Looked cool. So........I have printed some tanks. These are patterned after some F-15 600 gallon tanks. They seem to work.

 

 

 

Dan

Edited August 7, 2023 by Dandiego

[Dandiego]

Tanks, sanded. This the first version of the pylons. Too short.

 

 

So I re-designed the pylons to be longer. But they were too long to print. So I printed them in 2 pieces. In order to have a strong joint I used the chaff/flare pods that came with an old F-4 kit. May not be right but it solves the problem by connecting the 2 parts of the pylon with a solid piece of plastic.

 

 

I am doing everything possible to postpone working on the canopies, can you tell?

 

Dan

Edited August 7, 2023 by Dandiego

[Dandiego]

Tanks have been painted.

 

 

And some progress on the bay doors. Left to right, Nose gear doors, forward weapons bay and aft bay.

 

 

Dan

[Dandiego]

Stop thinking, start doing.

 

Ok, I purchased a vacform box off of the internet about 2 years ago. Hadn't used it, until today. And I purchased some 30 thou clear PETG a while back as well.

 

So just to see how it worked, I took the front canopy and windscreen, and set them on the vac stage raised up about a 1/4 of an inch. I loaded the clear sheet in the vac holder and heated it up with a heat gun. When sufficiently soft I turned on my little shop vac and pushed it down onto the stage. Everything work as advertised. However I probably didn't get the plastic hot enough. So I got a good result but not a complete pull. Anyway here are the 2 parts. A good first run. Hope to get better in the next day or so.

 

The 30 thou plastic gives a nice solid piece. Not too thin. I have found that a light sanding of the canopy followed by a couple of dips in Future should result in an acceptable part.

 

I have also added more decals in the last couple of days.

 

 

 

 

Dan  

Edited August 14, 2023 by Dandiego

[tomprobert]

This is shaping up to be one incredible model, Dan. 

[Dandiego]

So a little more completed.

 

I have been working on the aft bay. Both the interior sidewall detail and the door. OK, what does it look like inside? Anybodys guess.

 

So I have used pictures of a B-1 Bomb bay as a guide.

 

The large white pieces are sheet plastic, grey parts are printed.

 

 

 

And the interior of the doors.

 

 

The small grey hinges look too small so I am reprinting 2 larger sizes. One set at 150% another at 175%.

 

 

 

I have sprayed on the AV with decal for the rest. This bird is stationed at Aviano in Italy.

 

 

And a little work on the front IP and cowling.

 

 

 

Orangecon is only 6 week away and I would like to finish by then. The only real fly in the ointment is that I will be moving in the next month. So we will see how everything works out.

 

Dan

 

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Dandiego

[themongoose]

On 8/4/2023 at 7:48 PM, Dandiego said:

 

Well Kev most of the big stuff is done, but still lots to do.

 

Need to vacform the canopies. Add detail to all of the landing gear and weapons bays. Also adding the flaps and slats will have to wait. Put one side on and immediately knocked them off

 

 

And........design and build the landing gear for this baby. It is heavy. I would guess 4 pounds. Might need to get real creative. 

 

Will also need to cobble together decals. Probably a mixture of F-15 and F-16 markings. Anyone out there have any extras?

 

Dan

Yep probably have some of both. Will look when i get home tonight! 

• sharp sharp design and paint work my man! Love your build