Hoops

Keep in mind that folks are showing up at TPS from all kinds of different backgrounds. Helo pilots that have never flown a multi engine aircraft before. Fighter pilots that are multi engine, but it's all centerline thrust, multi engine pilots that have flown props their entire career. They have to get exposed to all different kinds of aircraft.

The US Army doesn't have it's own test pilot school, but sends all of it's students to the Navy TPS. The "buy in" is that the Army provides part of the fleet to train the students on. Now a days that is some King Airs and helicopters, and apparently previously the OV-1. The goal is to get the students in lots of different types of aircraft so that they can learn to build a test plan and evaluate the characteristics for lots of scenarios. At least a few years ago the Navy had a contract with a privately owned B-25 that would come in a couple of times a year for the students to fly.

I just found this build a few years later, still looks excellent. I have the same decal sheet in plans to build the same aicraft and hope mines turns out as well. Cheers! Hoops

Micro Flat dull coat from Microscale was used to seal everything up and the masking was removed. Strobe lights and the wing root position lights were painted with silver, a small black line was painted around the edge of the landing light in the port wing root. After it had dried, Tamiya clear blue and clear red was painted over the silver on the wing root position lights. CA was used to glue the ejection seats into position, and the canopy was attached with PVA glue. The external stores were added and that's how the kit stands for now. 20250220_151417 by J2Hoops, on Flickr 20250220_151409 by J2Hoops, on Flickr 20250220_151445 by J2Hoops, on Flickr The exhausts need to be completed, and there are a couple of other little minor touchups that need to be done, but the kit is very close to being complete. Cheers and thanks! Hoops

Good Morning, Here is an update, clear coat applied with Future floor wax, decals applied (Syh@rt Decals 915, the original issue) and Tamiya panel line accent was used. Dark grey for the fuselage panel lines, black for the landing gear, and light grey for the MICA missiles. 20250219_201617 by J2Hoops, on Flickr 20250219_201638 by J2Hoops, on Flickr 20250219_201718 by J2Hoops, on Flickr This is the first time I've used Syh@rt Decals, and I have to say that I was not super thrilled about this set. My issues are as follows: 1. The decals were somewhat thick, not Hasegawa kit decals thick, but they didn't settle down into the panel lines no matter how much Micro Sol I used. I wound up running my Xacto blade down the panel lines afterwards and then applied the wash. They weren't bad, but they weren't great either. 2. The light grey on the stencil sheet was too dark, almost the same color as the paint, being completely lost against the background. The light grey used on the unit marking sheet was significantly lighter and showed up well. I just wished the stencil sheet was the same. 3. My stencil sheet had some elements that were printed a little out of register 4. The orange color that was used for the formation lights is way to bright That being said, the decal set is still probably the best that is available now, and I think it is unlikely that it will be eclipsed by another manufacturer.

I commend your patience, dedication and perseverance. Your Typhoon is a great build, and you should be proud of it Dima! Cheers, Hoops

Very nice build, and a great looking camouflage scheme. Congratulations!

One thing to watch out for is those F-15Ds purchased under the "Peace Fox III" program in 1992, which are the two seaters with side numbers in the 700 series. US F-15 production had already shifted to the F-15E by 1992, and no more F-15Ds were being built for the US Air Force. As a result, the Peace Fox III D models for Israel are a slight mix of "E" and "D" details that would require you to do some of the updates to the Hasegawa kit to accurately represent. -Round ESM antennas on both tail stings -F-15E style engine vents on the top of the nacelle humps -No notch in the underside engine petals -Tail hook stands proud of the underside There will be some other details that probably need to be updated on the Hasegawa kit in general, but I am a 1/72 scale builder so I don't know what all the details of the 1/48 kit. Cheers, Hoops

Yes.

Man, the Su-17/22 Engine thing is something that I think I have a handle on, but I could be wrong. On the side of the Modeslvit Su-17M4 kit I have at home it has a picture of a Hungarian Su-22M3 as future release #72080. I think that the Hungarian Su-22M3s had the R-29 engines, and hence the bulged rear fuselage. Please, somebody correct me if I'm wrong on the Hungarian engines. As the kit is a future release, whether the fuselage will represent a R-29 powered aircraft will have to wait until we get more details. Cheers, Hoops

Yeah, they're there on the preview images on some other websites, but not present in ResKit's images on their own website. I was confused at first, but came to the conclusion they they are not included. If somebody has purchased a set that includes them, I'd gladly be proven wrong. Hoops

Thanks Dima, I didn't mention it in any of the above posts, but I did thin the trailing edge of the flaperons by sanding them, if that is what you mean. Additionally, I did remove the secondary bulges on the inside of the wingtip pylons which can be seen on the second post above, which matches up with the ResKit corrected versions. The angled panel lines on the front really should be perpendicular to the directions of flight, but I decided against changing those. Is there something else that I am missing on the missile rails? I did look at the ResKit pylons when I was starting this build, but the sets in 1/72 do not include resin wingtip rails, only decals for the wingtip rails. The 1/48 scale sets do, but not in 1/72. At first I wasn't quite sure, as that seems like it would be the most useful addition to the set, but after looking at the instructions, the pictures on the website and watching their unboxing videos on Youtube, there is no sign of the wingtip rails in either 72-0436 or 72-0437. As a result, with the weapons load that I had planned, I decided that the ResKit pylon sets were not a good value for me. A nice video, thanks for sharing. I think that I'm past the point of return for most of the things he has done on his if I haven't already. I was working a lot of other behind the scenes things the last week for future projects and didn't do a lot of modelling on the Rafale B. A lot of the work was getting up to speed on my 3D printer, learning to use the slicer effectively and fit checking parts that I've designed in CAD. 20250206_131533 by J2Hoops, on Flickr Here you can see the walkway stencils included in the .svg file linked above, MICA missiles from the Modelsvit Mirage 2000D, and the ResKit Wheels set, 72-0032, which are also a significant improvement over the kit items. 20250206_133914 by J2Hoops, on Flickr Masks removed, I think that the nonskid might be a bit too light now, but once clearcoated and weathered the difference will probably be toned down. I'm back at work, so about another week and I'll be able to do some work on my Rafale. Thanks for looking, Hoops

Thank you for the kind words @dimaADA @cpoud117 @drake122 and @Vultures1 I'd love to hear what other things you've noted that could stand to be improved on the Hobby Boss kit, even if it might be too late for me. THat way the information is out there for anyone else that is so inclined to make the improvements to their build as well. I just got back from my latest work trip last night, so in the next few days I plan on doing the detail painting on the kit in preparation for clear coating and decals. Thank you for all following along! Cheers, Hoops

@LanceB Yeah, I hear you man. Going way back to my officer candidate days where I fired both a M-2 and a Mk 19 as part of a familiarization day on the range, the Mk 19 and associated ammunition was significantly larger than the M2. It would be really difficult to fit something like that in the same pod dimensions. Happy modelling, Hoops

@LanceB, I'm no pro by any means concerning the FN pods, but I have seen no indication that there is a 40mm grenade launcher version of the pod. Data points that support my hypothesis is include that 1) FN does not manufacture any sort of Automatic 40mm grenade launcher, and that 2) 40mm grenade launchers seem to have fallen out favor for airborne applications post Vietnam. This is not definitive, but I don't think such a thing is manufactured. Hoops