Hewy Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 Very impressive Alan, great job, I've got the academy f22 in the stash (big old bird) and I've been slowly collecting bits and bobs for it, how you paint this just may convince me to build it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 A different idea having the aircraft in the air with the U/C down. I really like all the detail work that you have put into the engines, U/C and their bays. With the amount of work that would have been needed in the weapons bay I can see why you went with a detail set. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 On 5/24/2019 at 7:23 AM, Jabba said: A different idea having the aircraft in the air with the U/C down. I really like all the detail work that you have put into the engines, U/C and their bays. With the amount of work that would have been needed in the weapons bay I can see why you went with a detail set. Thanks mate! On the other hand, if I hadn't got the detail set I could have saved myself a lot of work Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasonb13 Posted May 30, 2019 Share Posted May 30, 2019 Looks stunning Alan! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted May 31, 2019 Author Share Posted May 31, 2019 On 5/30/2019 at 8:53 PM, Jasonb13 said: Looks stunning Alan! Thanks very much, Jason 👍 The interior bays ready for installation. These were tough to paint but came out looking the biz! Also finished the STOVL nozzle - just needs a wash which will come right at the end of assembly: I broke with the instructions at this point after some exhaustive dry-fitting. KH would have you install the engine, intakes and fan in the lower rear fuselage half before fitting the nose section and upper half. I elected to fit the fan section to the nose part to ensure a clean fit. It was then easy to fit the upper and lower halves of the fan together with the nose section. It ended up a very good fit. I then fitted the engine and intake assembly to the upper half so that the intake seams were eliminated. You can see I also painted the fuselage in front of the intake mouth with Hataka Have Glass Grey. It's a pretty good match, and I may well use it for the overall paintjob although the metallic sheen looks a bit too sparkly. It's good for an undercoat in any case. The front section is now complete - the fit is pretty good so far! I've also fitted the weapons bays and wheelwells to the lower half, so should complete the fuselage tomorrow. So far, so good! Thanks for the supportive comments so far, it's really helpful. 👊 Alan 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLC1966 Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 On 4/24/2019 at 1:37 PM, Paul Bradley said: A little inspiration for you: I have more reference photos from my visit to the Yuma airshow in February - PM if you are interested. You need to ask ? Get some more up please !! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted June 1, 2019 Author Share Posted June 1, 2019 Nice to have a free Saturday, but I wasted it doing the fourteen million gear and bay doors on this infernal machine! First the good news - the fuselage is assembled and it's a good fit. I needed to shave a sliver off the bottom fuselage right behind the lift fan exhaust (funny how these things always fit before you apply the glue, but hey!) Also, if you're making this kit, I'd recommend removing the locator pins from the upper fuselage half around the intakes, they just don't match up with the holes on the bottom half. So I moved on to death by doors and hatches. This bit wasn't fun. Virtually every part needed: Clean up of flash and the multiple sprue attachments Filling or covering of ejector pin marks, at least three per part (I used litho plate fascias for the above parts as there were FOUR ejector pin circles in a curved, hard to reach location) Sink marks in the "show side" of any part with interior moulded detail PE details, usually the tiny locking pin anchor (although I admit, doing those was satisfying!) There's no doubt the PE adds some intricate detail, but the locking anchor points are somewhat overscale. Each bracket is bent into a U-shape with a piece of thin brass rod attached through the holes. They may or may not be mounted on an additional PE block or mounting. The weapons bay doors needed additional hacking as one of the hinges on each half was inexplicably moulded at a completely different angle to all the others, so I needed to cut the hinge off, shave the mounting to the correct angle, then glue the hinge back on. (It worked!) Again, you can see the ejector pin marks and additional PE detailing with Eduard locking pins and brass rod for the hinges. I'll never complain about a few gear doors on a kit ever again! Hopefully move on to the flying & control surfaces tomorrow if I get a chance. Also, I have to finish the pilot figure so I can get the canopy installed - I have a few ideas how to make that look good! Cheers, Alan 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 Definitely looking the biz. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 Very nice details Alan, it's looking great 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted June 5, 2019 Author Share Posted June 5, 2019 On 6/3/2019 at 7:00 PM, helios16v said: Definitely looking the biz. On 6/5/2019 at 6:20 AM, Hewy said: Very nice details Alan, it's looking great Thanks very much, guys! Today I finished the pilot and cockpit ready for sealing up. The visor is this stuff, perfect for a modern subject! looks great for HUDs and sensor optics, shame it's not flexible enough to do a whole canopy! Also tinted the canopy and provided some interior framing: The tint is a mix of Tamiya clear gloss Orange, Yellow, Gold Leaf and Clear, approximate mix ratio 35:10:5:50. That mixture was cut 50:50 with Tamiya thinner and sprayed in light coats at about 13psi. The trick is not to overdo it! All those pesky doors were painted in white primer: The two at top left open to allow the STOVL nozzle to rotate to 90deg, so I've painted them Gunze Mr Metal Color Iron and buffed to a shine. More coming up... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted June 5, 2019 Author Share Posted June 5, 2019 I moved on to the flying surfaces. And this is where the kit gets really awkward. This is the right stabilator. Looks nice, doesn't it? Sadly, this is how Kitty Hawk have designed it... They could have moulded it in two halves, but no. This kind of unnecessary engineering is all well and good if the parts fit together without any fuss. Unfortunately: There isn't one angle of this flippin' part that fits. To add insult to injury, the locator pins in the smaller part don't even match the holes in the larger part. Somebody at KH thought it would be better for the modeller to have to fill and sand an origami shape on the bottom of each stabilizer and then rescribe all the rivet detail. I know there are worse things to get annoyed about, but this was one of the many "Kitty Hawk, WHY?!" things about this kit that ensure I'll never really enjoy building it. Luckily the main wing parts fit together nicely. The wing-to-fuselage join looks pretty benign as well. There's one more comedy blooper with the wing mouldings which I'll show you next time! Alan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 Canopy tint looks great. I did a very similar mix for a Prowler canopy a while back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted June 5, 2019 Author Share Posted June 5, 2019 1 hour ago, helios16v said: Canopy tint looks great. I did a very similar mix for a Prowler canopy a while back. I might well have copied yours then, I got the tip from an online build of the Monogram Prowler 😂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helios16v Posted June 5, 2019 Share Posted June 5, 2019 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Alan P said: I might well have copied yours then, I got the tip from an online build of the Monogram Prowler 😂 Wasn't mine, mine is still in the box unstarted (expect for testing out the canopy "tinting". We were probably looking at the same build for the hints. Edited June 5, 2019 by helios16v 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 On 6/5/2019 at 8:42 PM, Alan P said: There's one more comedy blooper with the wing mouldings which I'll show you next time! Here's the update: So, KH - where's the locator pegs, then? 🤔 Amateur hour down at Kitty Hawk CAD Central! And here's another totally unnecessary and pointless construction choice: Why, Kitty Hawk? WHY? The join lines don't correspond with any part of the structure. Complete waste of time and another pointless seam joint to make good. It really isn't helping one's enthusiasm, I can see why so many of these kits get shelved... ...but not this one! To achieve the right look for the pose I'm doing, the stabilators need to be deflected downwards. There is no provision in the kit for this, so I created a plug on each side from Milliput and then faired it all in with Mr White Putty. Cheers, Alan 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffreyK Posted June 9, 2019 Share Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) It's speculation, but to me this looks like the work of a tooling shop not used to sophisticated model kit production. My guess is the Kitty Hawk kit designer had put the split lines for the stabs onto/next to existing surface features (and a split like this is necessary as the part would be too thick at the base for a solid one-piece moulding but too thin at the edge for a 100% split along the edge), but at the tool shop (not at Kitty Hawk) they discovered that the split location chosen by the designer is still not good enough for trouble free plastic injection (too thick/too thin..) and thus a tool designer not experienced with model kits just moved the splits to optimise the parts for injection moulding. But as your work is concerned, great stuff! Looking forward to seeing the finished article. Jeffrey Edited June 9, 2019 by JeffreyK 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 On 6/9/2019 at 12:38 PM, JeffreyK said: It's speculation, but to me this looks like the work of a tooling shop not used to sophisticated model kit production. My guess is the Kitty Hawk kit designer had put the split lines for the stabs onto/next to existing surface features (and a split like this is necessary as the part would be too thick at the base for a solid one-piece moulding but too thin at the edge for a 100% split along the edge), but at the tool shop they discovered that the split location chosen by the designer is still not good enough for trouble free plastic injection (too thick/too thin..) and thus a tool designer not experienced with model kits just moved the splits to optimise the parts for injection moulding. But as your work is concerned, great stuff! Looking forward to seeing the finished article. Jeffrey That sounds plausible. A one-piece fin moulding which slots into a solid or two-halves base section would have been better, but hey. Thanks Jeffrey! Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffreyK Posted June 9, 2019 Share Posted June 9, 2019 Just had a look at reviews of the Meng kit and it looks like they faced a similar problem with the stabs, but have managed a somewhat more elegant split then Kitty Hawk. Filling is still needed though. Cheers, j 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaminCam Posted June 9, 2019 Share Posted June 9, 2019 Hi Alan, just found this and all the work you've done on the detail is looking great, I'll definitely be "borrowing" a few ideas for mine! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 1 hour ago, SaminCam said: Hi Alan, just found this and all the work you've done on the detail is looking great, I'll definitely be "borrowing" a few ideas for mine! Likewise, starting with your paint technique! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted June 14, 2019 Share Posted June 14, 2019 This build is coming along in leaps and bounds. The detail that you have added is wonderful. I do agree with what you have said about the flying surfaces in that they should have been at least in two halves rather than the inserts, much lass sanding and detail loss. As for the wing joint, was one half designed by one person with someone else doing the other and then not talking to each other? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rickoshea52 Posted June 14, 2019 Share Posted June 14, 2019 On 09/06/2019 at 12:02, Alan P said: The join lines don't correspond with any part of the structure. So KH is where the Nimrod MRA4 wing designer got their next gig! 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 Been neglecting this a bit due to loads going on at work. The wing/body joins were not straightforward but got there in the end. Manufacturers have learned to mould blended wing/body shapes, but as JeffreyK said, the tooling company probably isn't up there with the best. I filed down the flaps to get them to be fully deflected down. The gap on the upper surface was filled with plastic card and then shaved and sanded down. Took a bit of fettling to get everything to line up, but I think we're there. I went over the detail painting in the weapons bays again to make it stand out. We're about ready for paint - this will make or break it! Alan 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted June 23, 2019 Share Posted June 23, 2019 Looking great! And not like the dog it is rumored to be.... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 38 minutes ago, exdraken said: Looking great! And not like the dog it is rumored to be.... Thanks very much! It's not so much a dog as not very well engineered. It makes a lot of the work unnecessarily challenging, although once overcome it really captures the form and look of the subject. Is it worth the effort? That all depends on how the paint turns out...🤔 Thanks, Alan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now