F-16C Block 52+ "Raven" Polish Air Force - First LSP

[chaos07]

A little plastic manipulation has occurred and some paint should be shot later today or tomorrow.  The 3D decals will be used for the cockpit, and the oxygen hoses have been sorted, or at least it appears it has.  Once the cockpit is painted and set, I'll work with the pilot figure and that will determine if my current plan will survive first contact.  

 

Initial layout for the instrument coaming.  The kit part lacks any fastener detail, and is missing cooling vents, and some panel lines.  

 

A little bobble on the execution of the vents, but under paint it may not look as bad.  Updated AoA indicators and wiring along with some minor scribing and fastener detail added.  A little glue clean up will occur before paint and a final polish on the plastic will occur as well.

 

 

Some minor work on the seat.  The Pitot tubes have been replaced with short bits of evergreen, and a length of lead wire along the seat underneath.  Very simplified from what it should look like, but I hope it at least provides the impression of the updated seat configuration.  Fabrication of springs and then elevating the pitot tubes away from the seat was a bit beyond my skillset presently.  In the future I'll likely build up the sub-components off of the seat, then put in place after completed which should provide more opportunities to boost up the accuracy.  

 

 

A quick mock-up of the driver to see if the current oxygen hose solution will look good enough.  I think it does.  Guitar string, which with pliers, is easy enough to bend, and will hold its shape nicely afterwards.  A little work will be done after the seat and pit are fully painted, then I'll get the hoses set, then paint the figure.  For now it looks like this method will work well enough.  A little coarse, but the diameter is about right, and this is much easier than winding two different diameter wires around another wire to fab up something from scratch.  Some lead or copper wire will be loosely wrapped around the hose for the intercom wire after the final shapes are bent and trimmed for the hose.  The more I mess with this figure, the more I don't like it detail-wise, but we shall see what the paint brings out.  Depending on what I can pull out of this lump of plastic - an alternative may be ordered.  Fingers crossed this one will make the cut list.

 

 

 

 

It was an interesting discussion at the local music store when I picked this up. 

 

 

The pit is prepped for the 3D decals.  A hole will be made to accommodate the oxygen hose on the right side, which I'll sort out once I get the decals ready to go down.  The angle of the gear handle for a raised position is purely a guess on my part.

 

 

As always, thanks for checking in!

 

[chaos07]

Not nearly as much time at the bench as desired, but some progress is being made. Working on the station 5R pylon and converting the adapter from the Eduard kit.  Not enough done there to show anything just yet.  

 

The Tamiya boxing for the KASL Pratt burner fits perfectly.  It was tough to keep it aligned and balanced while taking the photos, but the fit is near perfect.  The tab at the top will need to be thinned some to allow it to seat properly at the 12 o'clock position.  

 

 

A little work on the pit is underway.  The 3D decals are in place.  More decals and detail painting still in progress.  MRP Light Ghost Gray was a near-perfect match.  A drop of dark ghost gray got it as close as I could and with a clear coat over may blend them together.  After a wash goes down it is doubtful any difference in color will show.  In person the difference isn't noticeable as it is in the pictures below.

 

 

Tiny Decals - but what a difference they make.  These decals work quite well and just settle in nicely with little effort.  

 

 

Some Airscale and Anyz in the mix

 

 

 

 

Lastly, my spray booth is getting a facelift.  I have most of the ducting sorted out, but it may take a few days to get the old setup out and the new one in, but once done my workflow will be better.  The current setup doesn't capture enough of the fumes, and working inside the house with Lacquers - that just doesn't cut it.  I have the new booth in hand, but have it disassembled to get it powder coated or painted - bare metal reflects too much for my taste, and the white powder coating on the old booth was perfect for lighting and cleaned up easily.  

Edited Sunday at 10:44 PM by chaos07

[MikeMaben]

Wow, seat looks great Duane,  does the guitar string stay curved like that or did you have to anneal it

to get it to stay that way ?

[chaos07]

21 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Wow, seat looks great Duane,  does the guitar string stay curved like that or did you have to anneal it

to get it to stay that way ?

 

Mike,

 

This brand took the bend without any annealing, what you see above is just finger pressure.  I think a couple of pliers with fine jaws would allow for some more dynamic and smaller bends, on the surface for now, it does not seem that any treatment of the guitar string would be needed.  Who knows what other brands will do though - this is a first for me.

 

Duane

[Derek B]

Very nice Duane!

 

  

 

Derek