vesthepes Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 Great job on the vac canopy, my personal nightmare. Two thumbs up! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 14, 2017 Author Share Posted April 14, 2017 I came across a bit of a problem tonight and it's worth looking out for if you're building an HB kit. I went to join what is basically the escape capsule part of the cockpit fuselage to the main fuselage and found the fit wasn't great due to the bottom of the cockpit coming up against the top of the front landing gear bay. Not a problem I thought and used the Dremmel to sand away what turned out to be quite a bit of plastic from both the bottom of the cockpit and the top of the gear bay. I then discovered that plastic dust had found its way into the sealed cockpit!😤 Luckily the cockpit tub came away with relative ease and managed to get it cleaned up and back together. No harm done but time consuming and no further forward than yesterday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 2 hours ago, Muzz said: I came across a bit of a problem tonight and it's worth looking out for if you're building an HB kit. I went to join what is basically the escape capsule part of the cockpit fuselage to the main fuselage and found the fit wasn't great due to the bottom of the cockpit coming up against the top of the front landing gear bay. Not a problem I thought and used the Dremmel to sand away what turned out to be quite a bit of plastic from both the bottom of the cockpit and the top of the gear bay. I then discovered that plastic dust had found its way into the sealed cockpit!😤 Luckily the cockpit tub came away with relative ease and managed to get it cleaned up and back together. No harm done but time consuming and no further forward than yesterday! ..and should we be surprised with a fit issue like that and the HB model!!! I haven't test fitted anything to that stage yet, but thanks for the warning! It's very annoying when that happens and the dust bunnies arrive, there's no way you could have opened that Vac canopy to chase them out either without doing some damage! You were luckly to be able to remove the cockpit tub! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 Yes thankks for the heads up murray ,,that would be the next step for me! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 15, 2017 Author Share Posted April 15, 2017 I managed to get the cockpit section attached to the main fuselage today, fit wasn't too bad in the end and used some clamps to hold everything in place. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 18, 2017 Author Share Posted April 18, 2017 This where I'm now up to, getting big! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 yeap she's a big beasty for sure, gee you are very close to getting some colour on her!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 18, 2017 Author Share Posted April 18, 2017 I think I may have made a small error after following the kit instructions, I have added the canoe shaped fairings to the rear fuselage where the tailplanes join. The ones I have added have box shaped countermeasures pods attached and I have only noticed tonight there is also smooth fairings in the kit box. From checking photos the F appears to have the smooth fairing and I only managed to find a photo of an Australian example with the Countermeasures pods. I'm thinking I'm going to have to remove the fairings with the countermeasures pods and replace with the smooth fairings, is this correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 19, 2017 Share Posted April 19, 2017 I would rush to replace them! I have found one photo of a F model which has them flying along side an EF-111. The F-111C's originally had the smooth fairings as well but later in life (probably with the avionics upgrade), there are photos with these countermeasures pods fitted. Someone here will have the answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 19, 2017 Author Share Posted April 19, 2017 So the airframe is as complete as I want it to be before paint. I'm leaving the slats/flaps off for obvious reasons as well as the afterburners. These will be painted separately and added later. I'm also leaving the intakes off and will probably add them after the primer coat, they appear to be a good fit. After some thought I've decided to scrap my modifications to the exhaust trunking and instead will be adding FOD covers to the exhausts and intakes. The main reason for this was the work required to improve the intakes and at the end of which they still wouldn't be representative of the real thing. Next up, black primer coat! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted April 19, 2017 Share Posted April 19, 2017 great work Muzz! and timely as well! I understand you point on the intakes/ exhausts somehow....... BUT there ist still time to add different exhausts, or modify them for about 2 months!!! I still need to start mine!!! (what will be done tonight :)) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 I'm going down the path intake covers as well to help hide the empty intakes, May do the exhausts as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 24, 2017 Share Posted April 24, 2017 Looking good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 25, 2017 Author Share Posted April 25, 2017 Black primer on the main airframe and some more work required around the canopy. Found good photos on the reference thread of this GB (after spending ages searching the net😥) for positioning of the lumps and bumps under the front fuselage. The strike camera is just a solid bit of plastic so I've removed the centre section and will add some clear windows later. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted April 26, 2017 Share Posted April 26, 2017 She's looking very stealthy muzz, it looks like yours will be camo'd up soon ,i like the boomy bits your going to hang from the pylons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 26, 2017 Author Share Posted April 26, 2017 1 hour ago, Hewy said: She's looking very stealthy muzz, it looks like yours will be camo'd up soon ,i like the boomy bits your going to hang from the pylons I'm off for 4 days now so should have the camo at least part done by the weekend. The GBU-10's are OOB as they look pretty good and the GBU-24's are from the Hasegawa set, the kit GBU-24's aren't as good as the 10's for some reason. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted April 26, 2017 Share Posted April 26, 2017 Very nice bombs muzz , what paints are you going to do the camo in Glynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 26, 2017 Author Share Posted April 26, 2017 1 hour ago, Hewy said: Very nice bombs muzz , what paints are you going to do the camo in Glynn Mr Hobby Color is my paint of choice for this build, by luck I'd just ordered the colours for what was going to my next build but he now been cancelled! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 27, 2017 Share Posted April 27, 2017 Muzz you're making great progress, that little extra detail work is great! I've got the same colours sitting on my bench for the day....whenever it'll be to paint mine. The trick with these for a super smooth fine finish is plenty of Levelling Solution. I picked this tip up from Tony's amazing F-16 builds, you pop over and have a look if you haven't already. I'm sold on the stuff now. Even heavy dilution amounts (test it first!!!) give you amazingly smooth and even light coats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 27, 2017 Author Share Posted April 27, 2017 First camo colour on............. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 27, 2017 Author Share Posted April 27, 2017 6 hours ago, trickyrich said: I'm sold on the stuff now. Even heavy dilution amounts (test it first!!!) give you amazingly smooth and even light coats! You're preaching to the converted Rich!, I'm a long time user of Mr Hobby Color and have a big bottle of their thinners, the stuff works well with Tamiya paints too. I quite fancy trying MRP but the price has really put me off so far. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 27, 2017 Share Posted April 27, 2017 I've had to get a bigger bottle as well! She looks great with those first colours on!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 27, 2017 Share Posted April 27, 2017 (edited) 4 hours ago, Muzz said: You're preaching to the converted Rich!, I'm a long time user of Mr Hobby Color and have a big bottle of their thinners, the stuff works well with Tamiya paints too. I quite fancy trying MRP but the price has really put me off so far. I have used it for about ten years now and I am very happy with it. I will use it in my build as well. O, you can also use the Tamiya thinner (X-20A) for it. I have done that from the start and never had any problems. Cheers Edited April 27, 2017 by Arniec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted April 28, 2017 Author Share Posted April 28, 2017 Next camo colour on, the lighter of the two greens. Been weathered too, a bit more than intended but always lose a bit of the effect after glossing etc so hopefully that will dampen it down a bit. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 That looks great, including with the black in the camo. bob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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