Pappy

Brilliant madness! But, IconAir Bomb Trollies' with Ordinance, tractors etc Ordinance an authoritative order. Similar: edict decree law injunction fiat command order rule ruling dictum dictate directive mandate enactment statute act canon regulation ukase pronunciamento 2. a religious rite. "his strict observance of religious ordinances was no doubt quickened by the remorse he felt" Ordnance Things that go boom! Pedant hat off, inspirational stuff cheers, Pappy

Thanks fellas, I will workt o a steady pace now that I havelearnt my lesson G'day Dennis, I was not and although that is welcome news, unfortunatley my deadline has not changed as I need to head off for a work trip and won't be back until after the deadline extension. I may yet make it though, fingeeez crossed, cheers, Pappy

G'day people, "Make plans and the universe laughs at you" or why you should not rush a kit to make a deadline! A weekend of ups and downs. Having stripped and cleaned my airbrush I was keen to get some painting down. After what seems like ages I managed to get the avionics bays masked up In hindsight I probably should have painted these after spraying the camo. It would have saved me a lot of time. I also masked up the hot sections at the back of the jet to protect the gloss black. Metallics seem to be notoriously frail when it comes to masking over them. I have had mixed success so this time I will spray them last. Masking finally done I was keen fire up the compressor when the fickle finger of fate stepped in and I managed to snap off the mass balance fairing on top of the right fin These things are made to test us. This was the second time and this time the carpet monster won the day. Luckily, since my boxing was originally a J.A.S.D.F kit, I had a spare fin. A few quick swipes with the trusty razor saw and the mass balance-ectomy was completed, the patient made a full recovery! I started applying the light blue which is a lacquer. When I first started applying this paint It was not going down right, drying in mid air and the paint was ending up quite powdery. This is usually a symptom of too much air pressure but the gun was struggling to get the paint out despite being already thinned for spraying. That is what prompted me to strip and clean my airbrush. Following the maintenance the paint went down like a dream, amazing how much gunk had built up inside. I still had to wet sand the kit to smooth out the powdery paint that was previously applied but now I had a nice smooth coat of light blue. Time for the dark blue and I managed to stuff this up as well. The blue is a custom mix using water based acrylics, of course I completely forgot this and added a few drops of lacquer thinners to the airbrush cup and the airbrush was having not of it. I didn't get too much paint on before I realised my clanger! Luckily an external fuel tanks copped the brunt so that will need to be stripped back but it could have been worse. A quick spray through with some water, field strip and then more GP thinners and I was back in business. I have now started to apply the acrylic blue with acrylic thinners Niice, cheers, Pappy

G'day Phil, Thanks very much mate but I am all sorted now, My build is here if interested cheers, Pappy

Great job Brad and the rigging looks very delicate as well. I built one of these a while ago but mine was in the later black scheme, but yours looks very attractive in the grey colours too, cheers, Pappy

Lovely job Josep and very nice to see a sub from smaller navies too, Pappy

I find stripping and cleaning my airbrush oddly gratifiying cheers, Pappy

I have stripped it down to basically the body itself, having removed the needle seat, trigger mechanism and air valve assembly as well as the nylon packing washer. I am soaking mine in a small jam jar using generic all purpose lacquer thinners. After thirty minutes I could see tiny little clouds of dissolved paint floating out of the guts so I think it is working. I usually strip and c,lean about every three months. Once done soaking I typically put it in an ultrasonic cleaner with some warm water for another 20 mins. Final part of the clean is to use those fine dental 'pliksters' to get into the smaller nooks and crannies. Once all that is done it is time for a few drops of airbrush lube (it was included with the gun) on some parts like the air valve and trigger mech. Next the final assembly and functional check. It is not unlike cleaning a gun really. I find that the acrylics really seem to gunk up the works, lacquers the least, cheers, Pappy

Cheers Craig, I knew it would really bother me if I didn't get the darlk blue close so it was worth the effort to get right. I was hoping to be a boit further along at this point but my airbrush is being somewhat recalcitrant so I have just stripped it. I was getting almost no paint flow and after checking that air was flowing and paint was correctly thinned I decided it must be a dirty gun. I will let the parts soak for 48 hours then re-assemble and see what happens, cheers, Pappy

Smashed it! Well done Loren, you are some kind of machine, what a great subject and a great build, congrats, Pappy

G'day Rich, Lovely work. If you are intending to portray the modified ACES seat you may want to paint the head box black. Check your refs, but the Oklahoma ANG bird you showed a pic of has the black headbox as well. I believe it was for NVG compatibility, cheers, Pappy

G'day people, Just a small update. I noticed that post MSIP F-15Cs have a GPS antenna added to the upper fuselage. I have added this feature to my kit as well using a some Heat-Stretched Sprue (HSS) Result! I have also attached the right vertical fin The fit is good but still a bit gappy at the back end. cheers, Pappy

Sounds like the best course of action! cheers, Pappy

G'day Nial, If not too late, maybe retrieve that canopy from the bin, why? 1. You can use it as a paint mask for the cockpit if not building canopy down on this and any future Revell Tornado builds 2. Now that you have a replacement canopy, you lose nothing by experimenting on the old canopy. Try the metho or IPO and see if it works, if yes, you now have a spare canopy and have gained some knowledge, if not, you have lost nothing 3. If you don't want it I would like it! cheers, Pappy

Hi Charlie, fiddly work to be sure but as you say it really looks the part when done G'day Dennis, I know what you mean , I am playing around with a test pallet but really getting close. The build is getting close to the pointy end as I will need to start masking in preparation to start the painting proper, cheers Pappy

G'day Loren, This is really progressing well. I feel your pain ref getting an accurate colour reference as the surviving examples are all different. I have the Squadron Signal book and it has colour pics of extant examples and one thing that struck me was that perhaps there was no standard, or at least that the specs changed as the war progressed. If the subscrontractors were making bits they would finish these items to the specs provided, which may have varied i.e ZC or some passivated finish. At the factory. they would assemble the aircraft using the provided sub-assemblies which may havebeen in difeerent colour finishes. I don't think that they were concerned that some modeller would be scratching their head nearly 80 years later! The other thing that many people don't know is that ZC is not an actual colour but a corrosion preventative treatment which has pigment added so that you can see it. The density (and hence colour) can vary between a pale yellow to a darker green. It is also highly carcinogenic as it contains hexavalent chrome. This may be another reason why restored (vice preserved) examples feature different colours. Obviously this is looking at the subject in hindsight and with a modern take on WH and Safety. I remember when I was at the Avalon air show many years ago. Chuck Yeager was the guest of honour and there was a dinner the night before the opening during which he spoke. Great stories, and if you are familiar with his book, many were recalled and some were expanded upon. He did mention however that safety had come a long way since his time in service. On one of his X-1 missions he was ready to launch and was in the X-1, the squibs that release it had been selected but did not fire. There was a risk that they could fire at any instant and that it would be too dangerous to land with the X-1 still attached. The decision was made that one of thecrew would strap on a parachute and oxy mask, venture into the unpressurised bomb bay and just smash hit the release shackle with a 50lb hammer. It was a different time... cheers, Pappy

Thanks Col, I am trying to not get too sidetracked by adding additional frippery (says the guy who added all the resiny goodness) at this stage so that I can keep focusing on the end state Hi Dennis, I agree it is much closer, but it is perhaps a little too purple, I think some grey might just about do it, as the tank was more of a coarse adjust, now I can zero in on something that looks closer. John Masters used a Vallejo 35277 in his build and it looks spot on, unfortunately that is a little hard to get currently and not my preferred paint. I am not saying it is not good paint, but I would like to stick with what I know at this point. G'day people, Just about done in the office now. I painted up the canopy and added the canopy furniture comprising the locking hooks, grab handles and stand-by compass to the canopy frame and canopy bow Those hooks are tiny! The fuselage got some PE love as well And to finish off today's update the 'zorsts were painted up and a gratuitous dry-fit just because cheers, Pappy

No worries Dennis. G'day people, I gave the hot end a spray of some gloss black today to prepare for the metallic shades to follow Nothing special just some bog stock Tamiya gloss black. It will take masking and so far has not reacted with metallics I have used previously I have been experimenting with different dark blues. The FS35109 (as specified by the decal sheet) I bought looks to de-saturated and grey. I have mixed up something which I think looks closer. Here is a tank with both shades applied for comparison with the newer shade on the right Finally, managed to get the windscreen attached The fit is good but more importantly it affords a level of protection to the delicate HUD details cheers, Pappy

Gotcha, It looks like they have been painted grey, F-15 seats are black, cheers, Pappy

I got mad skillz cheers, Pappy

G'day Brian, The seats are coming up nicely, were these from a previous project?, you mnetuoned thay had been sitting around for a while, cheers, Pappy

No pressure then.... Thanks Dennis, Several years back I was dragged by the other 'alf to a chain store called 'Spotlight' which is a type of craft store, Michael's would be a US equivalent. Rather than being a chore I decided to go wandering. Since it was close to Chrissy so there were lots of decorations around. I came across this clear 'prismatic' tinsel stuff. I bought a few packets and just used my miniature punch set to punch an appropriate sized disc. G'day people, Since we are talking about HUDs, here are some pics with the combiner lenses added and now with a scale reference! I have also managed to get the main canopy cleaned up after a polish to get rid of all the small scratches that were sustained after several cross country moves I presume The lid was dipped in floor polish after buffing, it came up a treat! The flaperons have also now been attached in their typical 'drooped' state that they adopt when hydraulic power is removed. I added the small corner fillets from scrap card first and a bead of filler was run along the seam to reduce the resulting gap but not completely eliminate it Finally the 'zorsts had their VEN actuators added and they have now been primed in preparation for metallic shades to follow (yes I am exhausted! ) cheers, Pappy

Cheers Dermo, but I think it is a pretty well known incident. The NASA FV15 also has my interest, looking forward to how this turns out. Did these birds have any ovious external mods (apart from when they were testing stuff) or were they just bog stock line jets? cheers, Pappy

G'day Dermo, Was this an attempt to make the damaged IAF F-15D that landed with one wing? - 'cos that would be a very cool entry into the GB! Pappy

G'day people, Well, now that most of the seam filling has been done I can get back to finishing the cockpit. I added a sun shield and scratch-built the gubbins on the LHS of the HUD as well as the HUD itself I also added the oxy hose and mike cable on the RHS console that was made from two different gauges of speaker wire. In addition to the canopy locking mechanism in Bay 5 thanks, Pappy