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IAI LAVI 1/48 -help?!


exdraken

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Hello everybody

 

don't really know myself what got me into buying this general shape of resin supposedly representing the best!"! availabl 1/48 model of IAI attempt to challenge the F-16s reign over Israel in the late 1980s  

I already learned quite some things, e.g. that it was not powered by a PW-100, but a smaller version (GE-404 sized), also intended for the IAI Super Phantom, the PW 1120...

all in all based on the F-16, but way smaller!!

 

- interesting-!!!

 

so, here it is,

not "extremely" detailed or symmetrical (port/ starboard) etc...

 

any good ideas on how to tackle it?

 

decals look good at least!

20171118_223216_1

 

 

20171118_223234_120171118_223615_1

 

so here is what I have got an d my best attempts to align the fuselage ;), and also fit the cockpit section into place 

20171118_223247_1

 

20171118_223947_1

F-16 style intake, also fits nearly perfectly :P

 

 

relatively nice PW-1120 with the characteristic sectioned petals

20171118_223434_1

 

 

so again, any ideas apart form the bin would be very welcome!

 

 

Best, 

Werner

 

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Are those fuselage gaps caused by internal bits being to wide to fit inside the fuselage? If so you may need to thin the resin in the interior of the fuselage and/or work on reshaping the internal bits to fit the fuselage. 

You may need to get some auto body filler if that's not the case. :idea:

If everything fits inside, but you still have the gaps, the fuselage halves may be bowed and you might try hot (not boiling) water then attach them to a length of board or something similar to get them to straighten out. It may take multiple applications, just be careful of your water temp. Someone will be along shortly, Im sure, to correct/expand on my post.

 

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On 17.12.2017 at 6:03 PM, Don McIntyre said:

Are those fuselage gaps caused by internal bits being to wide to fit inside the fuselage? If so you may need to thin the resin in the interior of the fuselage and/or work on reshaping the internal bits to fit the fuselage. 

You may need to get some auto body filler if that's not the case. :idea:

If everything fits inside, but you still have the gaps, the fuselage halves may be bowed and you might try hot (not boiling) water then attach them to a length of board or something similar to get them to straighten out. It may take multiple applications, just be careful of your water temp. Someone will be along shortly, Im sure, to correct/expand on my post.

 

thanks a lot for your valuable input!

 

I guess there is not too much distortion, but mainly bad moulding.... so filler (lots of it), and scratching will do the trick maybe!

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  • 2 weeks later...

:analintruder: Very nice kit, Werner!

I concur with what Don has suggested above; I'm rather new to the dunking of resin parts in hot (not boiling) water technique, but what I've learnt so far is exactly as Don advised: it's a lot better to heat the resin part gradually than it is to do it suddenly and fast. I've found out that while some resin will straighten out to their unwarped form, some other will still need persuasion, so to speak. Have some iced water always near for when you've straightened your part to the desired shape.

You may have to dunk a part several times in order to get it straightened to the correct shape. When the shape is almost there, you might use a hair dryer to heat the part instead of the hot water - that's if your sheila approves of. :rolleyes:

What's with that intake? If the overall shape is okay but the width (or height) differs, I found it better to cut parts in their middle section (or even transversally) to see if they fit, rather than filing or sanding them to fit.

Don't be afraid to try to straighten resin parts by dunking them in hot water, but watch out how hot the water is or how long you dunk your parts in it if the water's too hot.

Cheers, my mate

 

Unc2   

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Greetings from the US,

I have 2 of these kits and they are a REAL pain. There are numerous problems with them from not being true to scale and having numerous air holes in them. I have spent roughly 2 years on one of them just to get something to look close to the real thing.:rage: 

If you have some spare F-16 parts, you can come pretty close to getting the kit up to speed. That is what I did. My cockpit is from an F-16C and the weapons stores are from Hasagawa's weapons set. The landing gear bays need a ton of work. I used a spare NLG bay to get something close. The MLG bays will  need to be scratch built. There is little room to get anything in them the way they are.

 

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  • 5 years later...

Ciao a tutti, io devo iniziare a costruirlo in 1/32, utilizzerò bi base un F-16A Hasegawa, un kit biposto della wolfpack, seggiolini del tornado resinkit che sono molto simili, stich F-18 Hornet....Se avete consigli e soprattutto foto del velivolo sono ben felice....grazie manderò foto dei lavori!🙂

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A lot of natural air condition there...

I am pretty sure there was an article in SMI in ca. 1989 on building a Lavi with F-16 parts. Maybe it can be of help (unless the word "bin" gained some significance in the meantime...). I don't think it was by @Flankerman (Glenn Ashley, perhaps?), but maybe Ken has some recollections.

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7 hours ago, tempestfan said:

Yes, it's apparently an undead thread. But like you, I wonder what happened... @exdraken - did you persevere?

 

My kit is in the exact same conditions, but with some dust as back then. Seems your encouragement was not strong enough....Never started... this is also not a WIP thread.... but maybe one day!

 

 

And no, you can't build a Lavi from the F-16... or the much bigger J-10.

 

But you can scratch  build one, or take this resin parts as basis 😉

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11 hours ago, Antonio Mauro said:

Ho trovato un pazzo che lo ha fatto ed a preso come base di riferimento un F-16A in 1/32 Revell.....quando lo inizierò manderò i progressi!

Molto interesante, pero English please?

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59 minutes ago, exdraken said:

Molto interesante, pero English please?

With my limited knowledge of spanish...

" I have found a nutter who made one with a 1/32 Revell kit as a base. When I start making progress I'll show it " ?

This is Italian btw.

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