alxzinbox

Hey all! Completed the excellent Tamiya 1/72nd F-16, with a mishmash of colors+ decals from the Tamiya+ Academy sheets to represent a generic F-16. 3d printed weighted wheels, pitot, exhaust, AGM-65+ rails, Taxiway lights and Runway signboard. Taxiway marking were printed on a laser printer, and stuck+overcoated into place using a matte varnish. Runway created using cork sheets on XP foam. Thanks for watching! Cheers, Alex.

Haha good catch. the "GA" in the VT-EGA is a subtle nod to my home state of Goa (we have GA on our vehicle registration plates) The cockpit roof and the front gear bay doors both have GA on them. I custom printed the decals, and historical accuracy never features in my builds. The eyebrow windows were decals in the original build that got painted over during the cockpit repair. The GA above the cockpit and the eyebrow windows are on the decal sheet that's still being readied up for print within the next decade.

Fantastic build Tom! Good to see you're still modeling Did you rework the flaps? They look deployed. Here's my Indian Airlines build for a few years ago- I recently corrected the misaligned cockpit decal, with a fresh mask-and-paint job. Should get the cousins to pose together sometime

I revisited one of the first kits I built way back in 1994. It brought back so many memories, excitement and wonder of seeing one of the most detailed model aircraft I had seen till date. I built it (the original) without paint with the decals on bare plastic I still loved it. Fitting then to put the model on a pedestal given how personal it is to my journey. 3d printed the intake/ exhaust covers, Pitot, Pillar, info plaque, chain fence posts, tourists, pigeons and the bench. Painted with Vallejo Metal Color 'Duraluminum' with Tamiya Titanium Silver on wheelwells/ landing gear and lots and lots of Future/Pedge. The original build from 30 year ago!

Always a pleasure seeing a Tomcat. Looks great. The subtle shaded weathering and the metal colors are perfect! The kit is quite a detailed beast. Kudos on wrangling it to such a finish!

Using Glass on the Sea Star is such a clever way to simulate a flying model! Your work (and the tarmac base you photograph your models on) is spectacular

That is a really good idea. I do intend to give it a 2nd shot on a future project (it was holding up this project for way too long and staying rent free in my head) Do you have the Vampire up on RFI ? I got lucky in that the store wanted to get rid of it's non-sellers. But even at GBP16, it's awesome value. All their newer kits are an absolute joy to build. If you're going to do the Rescue Yellow, just make sure you prime with white and save yourself a LOT of pain 100%. I work in the movie VFX industry, and all realistic CG work includes a "HDRI" reflection to make it look like it's in the real world. That reflection is something that's missing in an indoor photoshoot. You get that for free outdoors with real models, so it's a no-brainer. You do need an open space though with maximum sky visibility.

1/144!!! Looks great in RCN colors. It's a coincidence I was checking out the AFV's site today and was thinking I should pick one up to compliment my 1/144th collection. I'd reckon the lack of detail in rear would be irrelevant as you can see precious little even in 72nd. It'd only make sense if you installed an LED to showcase the detailing done within.

haha.... very valid point. Maybe one in her group just happened to be a orthopaedic assistant, and for some reason had the full fracture casting kit as well as a foldable crutch in her backpack. Pumped full of adrenaline and morphine, she's probably dreamwalking to the helo. Thanks for the kind words! Thanks! I believe it's a relatively new tool, so goes together like a charm. I did assemble the kit rotor, and it was pretty good albeit basic. The only caution with the kit would be to taking your time to get a good fit of the clear canopy to the fuselage. Thank you! 3d printing is the next best thing after CAD model kits in our hobby. This build was a test bed of sorts to potentially start a line of detailed parts. Let's see where that leads. Blender is a beast for creating your 3d parts. You can really enhance kit parts by throwing together basic shapes (Cylinders, boxes and tubes) like you would in a scratch build. I've seen some youtubers use tinkerCAD as well, which seems to have a smoother learning curve to Blender. Thanks! I 3d modeled the items over the months using kit parts for dimensions and reference photos found here on Britmodeller and the rest of the internet. Thank you! The secret to a good yellow finish is a white primer and preshading in a light brown. You don't want any greys or blacks below your yellow.

So good! The chosen scheme ties contrasts nicely with the base and figures.

The weathering on the camo looks like you snatched and shrunk the aircraft right off an airfield. Love the chipping effects on the baremetal engine cowlings too

Build completed. She won't be flying anymore. Rotor prop blur just too damned hard.

Hey All, I found this kit in the clearance bin at a Canadian Tire- overlooked and unwanted, and most importantly for just C$10. I started on it way back in August 2023 as an quick weekend attempt to break out of a 3 year long modelling dry spell. The detailing devil crept in starting with a riveting pass. Having recently purchased a 3d printer, I took on the challenge of modeling and 3d printing out the landing gear, main rotor head, tail rotor, hydraulic winch, sand filter and other bits and bobs around the aircraft. The build thread can be found here. The success of the build is largely in part due to the wealth of reference photos here at britmodeller.com. I also received a lot of helpful suggestions and hints, and even some in-depth knowledge of Sea King operations from user Jonners in the build thread. Hugely appreciated! I initially planned on modelling the helicopter in flight with rotor blur, however main rotor droop was a problem that I was unable to solve despite multiple tries over as many months. I finally bit the bullet, downgraded plans and posed the helicopter on the ground. Decals were from the kit, along with PRINT SCALE decals for the 202 sqn logo, and ZE370 serial number from spares Spring has come early with gorgeous golden hour light, perfect for photography. The (real) grass is still dormant though I used AK's Hyper Thin Rigging line for the antenna rigging. This particular aircraft had sea grey on the port landing gear with a white hydraulic actuator, and white on the starboard landing gear. Painted with Tamiya X-8 Acrylics and weathered with oils. Preshading on the rivet lines was done in brown over a white primed plastic Scratch built rear view mirrors. Antennas on the bottom made using fishing line 3d printed tail rotor, and static discharge rods using fishing line. Ventilation grates on the tail boom were added using wire mesh inserted in cutouts in the plastic Figures posed from purchased pilot figures. Injured woman downloaded for free from cults3d.com Black caulking on the pontoons made using a fine tip marker. Red emergency release tabs on the windows were made using Enamel paints. 3d printed rotor head with cabling and cap. Handles on the air intake hatches made with copper wire. Handles above windows made using copper wire. The grey trim around the cockpit windows was painted with enamel grey that allowed for sharp outlines (using enamel thinner to wipe the imperfections away) 3d printed winch. Hook from kit part. Steel cable from fishing line 3d printed landing gear and wheels/ tires. The landing gear was installed in the un-weighted position due to the 'lofty' plans at the beginning of the build. However, they were glued in place and I was unable to switch to the weighted landing gear after grounding the build. 3d printed sand filter, and wire mesh for the grates installed after making appropriate holes in the plastic. Looks way better than the supplied kit decals. Some images of the 3d printed detail parts: Motion blur effect on the tail rotor tests R What a difference a riveting pass makes. Worth the extra effort. If you've made it this far, here's an image of the rotor blur tests I did: note the warpage in the rotors. It got progressively worse within a few hours. There was a sense of relief in completing this build, more than a sense of accomplishment and joy. Sitting unproductive on a project for months does that to you. Good thing is that the mojo is back, and I've got some other fun projects (albeit without the 3d printing) on the table now. Thanks for watching! Cheers, Alex.

Top notch! Loved all the detailed weathering

That's a great build! I had to bin mine due to the mating of the forward fuselage into the main fuselage. Your seam in that area is non-existent! The overall weathering is really good too.

WOW!! Your build looks REAL! very inspirational

Outstanding build, weathering and photography! Bet you were pushing the f-stop to the max

The main rotor blades are less successful, primarily due to the additional thickness of the motion lines. I initially added some upward bend to simulate the hover effect, but combined with the lifted armature of the rotor head, and the curing bend, it's now too much.... I struggled with the hydraulic lines on the rotor head and finally called it quits after the little i've done. I don't think I'd want to go thru that again on a 2nd attempt at the blades. Calling this done for now, and moving on to the diorama itself. Now to hunt from some beautiful rocks (easier said than done when you live on a former mud plain)

3d Printed and painted the blurred tail rotor. A few printing errors (no idea why) A lot of fiddling around with super-glue to get the small contact area to join perfectly and this is looking pretty cool in real life (the close-up macro lens does reduce the effect highlight a lot of flaws) Now on to tackling the challenge of the main rotor blades....

Made another variation of the rotor blade blur with more 'teeth' and on both sides of the blade The print for this is in progress at the moment with a few hours to go. I also redid the tail rotor blur to match the style of the main rotors. Creating supports for this will not be as straightfoward, but the end result atleast in 3d looks pretty sweet with some colors slapped on it for fun. Had to share! The next update should hopefully have the rotors installed on the aircraft! fingers crossed! Alex.

Stellar work so far Perdu! Those hydraulic lines complete the resin engine. Great job

I didn't come up with this idea myself. I'm heavily borrowing ideas from others on this site, as well as the possible original creator https://www.propblur.com/store/c1/PropBlur.comMain Got the Acetate sheets today. Will spend some time this weekend creating a jig that I can install on a power drill to airbrush the blades on. I hope simple masking will be sufficient for the blade tips and the lone yellow blade.

This could actually be the best solution. The cone shape would hold the lifted orientation of the blades, and airbrushing the transparency would be the easiest thing to do. The seam could be hidden inside one of the blades. Amazon has some 12"x12" sheets which will work perfectly for the scale. Thank you for the idea!! I tried this approach to rotor blur, I'm not the biggest fan of the comb shape though. This can however be printed in the more rigid grey primer. Will put some test prints down tonight. I wonder if the style will match that of the tail rotor

Hello Perdu, thank you for your reply I used acetate discs on my Bristol Beaufort rotors. I had considered it on the Sea King as well, but a disc wouldn't sit right with the 3d printed rotor head with the individual blade arms. My next attempt will be blades printed out in grey resin which is less prone to droopage, and while the shape will be very similar to the kit blades, I plan on adding some motion blur lines to trailing edge. Not sure how that'll look, but it's the only hope left for portraying a moving blade. Oh yes! the community here on Britmodeller is amazing as seen in this thread and a multitude of other threads. In fact a lot of my research was based off walk-arounds of the Sea King from the relevant section on this site.

That's so cool!! I'd never imagined that an actual pilot of the aircraft I'm modeling would reply in the comments. I'm honored! Thank you for reaching out!