F-117N

[Rizon]

The F-117N was a concept by the Skunk Works to sell a stealth fighter to the US Navy. The Navy however found the concept unsuitable. But when Reading Ben Rich’s autobiography, one has to wonder if it did not have more to do with the Pentagon Politics that resulted in Kelly Johnson's unwritten 15th law.

 

I had this Revel F-117A lying around – the original release of the angled aircraft that was based on an interpretation of the first image released of the Stealth fighter. That kit is woefully inaccurate, basically being a bit “squashed” in the longitudinal direction and a few incorrect details. I was always wondering what I should do with that kit. Turning it into the Have Blue prototype is not realistically feasible, but one day I again stumbled upon the proposed naval version Lockheed proposed… Now there was a grain of an idea, as the different wings would possibly hide the incorrect sweep of the kit and re-working the tail end would also cover most of the other inaccuracies.

 

To see if this idea could work, I took a photo of the kit fuselage and overlaid a “highly accurate” blueprint I got of the internet and found that the conversion is quite feasible – even being reasonably to scale in 1/72. Most of the dominating features were in the correct place, and the rest could be chopped or beaten into place.

 

 

I am not attempting to make this model completely accurate, as the real thing was never built, there is no direct references available. Only the evolving concept drawings that were released. So a bit of artistic engineering interpretations will be used where appropriate.

End of last year, as we were preparing for the December summer holidays (I’m far south of the Sahara), I was contemplating what to build. As we usually spend the holidays on the in-law’s farm, the constraint I had to consider was it needed to be a project I could travel with. The initial stages of the conversion don’t involve fine detail, so it fit the bill. And I was keen for some plastic surgery / butchery.

 

First off marked the areas for trimming or correction. Eventually decided to leave the fuselage leading edge sweep as is. The tail end was cut off and repositioned further aft. While some panels on the top fuselage were corrected. All things white of course indicate modifications.

And subsequently the first parts for the main wings and stabs were cut and assembled. Apologies for the quality of the pictures – my work desk on the farm was a patio table that got moved around, depending on the requirements for sun, shelter from the sun, or shelter from thunderstorms.

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Rizon

[exdraken]

Nice!

But the Navy wanted the A-12 Avenger, no?

[SaminCam]

This is awesome, looking forward to more!

[Rizon]

This is quite a big aircraft actually, so I decided to also try incorporate a working wing fold mechanism. This is what I ended up with after a few prototypes. While at it, I also built hinges for the inboard flaps. Once the hinges and flaps were installed, along with a main spar and leading edge spar, the top surface of the wing was added. The top surface is also a 0.5 mm thick sheet, so the entire structure of the wing is effectively a thin walled structure.

 

 

 

 

 

I made rudimentary intake ducts from a paper-thin plastic sheet. For this I started by drawing the ducts in CAD and plotting out the developments. Then the shapes were cut from the plastic sheet, folded/rolled into shape, and finally installed.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Rizon

[Rizon]

41 minutes ago, exdraken said:

Nice!

But the Navy wanted the A-12 Avenger, no?

I am not certain if there was conflict of interest between these two - from the timeline (being the early 1990's) it could have been. Just read somewhere that the Pentagon severely reprimanded Lockheed after trying to sell the 1st generation Stealth Fighter to them while also expecting sales of the F-22 at the same time.

[Hole in the ground]

Yeah! I love the N and this looks like it’ll be some great kitbashing:)

[Pastor Rich]

Sweet!  Count on me to follow along!!

[Robert]

Some great scratchbuilding work you have done there.

 

Regards

Robert

[Rizon]

The canopy of the original kit is one of those horrendous areas when compared to the actual F-117. The Naval version was proposed with a frameless canopy, so I shaped a plug from balsa for vacu-forming. In the process I also tried to correct the sweep-back of the kit’s front cockpit section. The plug was coated with cyanoacrylate, carefully sanded down, added another layer, sanded, another layer, sanded and polished. Made a nice smooth master for the vacu-forming process. And as you can see, it took two tries to make a decent plug.

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I prefer to glue shin strips of styrene along the edges of vacu-formed canopies; in that way the cyno does not fog the canopy, or can easily be removed. Then when gluing the canopy on, I can use regular styrene glue and not run the risk of fogging.

 

One of the modifications Lockheed proposed on this variant was a bigger bomb bay resulting from a deeper fuselage. For this, I built a “canoe” that was then simply glued to the otherwise flat fuselage bottom. Note the sensor window at the leading edge of the “canoe”, a feature that appears on some of the released concept sketches.

 

 

 

The landing gear was supposed to be similar to that of the F-14. Not having any spares around, I constructed the rear from tubing and sheet plastic to somewhat represent the F-14 like landing gear. The wheels were 3D printed; seen here with a layer of white primer already applied to check for surface details.

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Rizon

[Agent K]

Wow! fascinating build so far, thanks for sharing.

[jalles]

Oddly enough, I'm working on an F-117N as well. It's interesting to see how you're tackling some of the same issues that I had. Although sadly, mine won't have folding wings or movable flaps, which look awesome by the way. I can't wait to see how yours turns out!

[Boozer]

This is awesome.  Well done!

[Rizon]

14 hours ago, jalles said:

Oddly enough, I'm working on an F-117N as well. It's interesting to see how you're tackling some of the same issues that I had. Although sadly, mine won't have folding wings or movable flaps, which look awesome by the way. I can't wait to see how yours turns out!

Cool! Which kit are you using if I may ask?

 

On the net I have stumbled upon two different conversions of the 1/144 scale Revel kit, which has the same wonky geometry. The conversions were a bit more basic than my current attempt, but very passable. Then I also once found a 1/72 F-117N that was built as a paper model.

[heloman1]

I like your reasoning behind the build and the way you have tackled it. The flap, intake and exhaust work is excellent. Maybe a toned down Sundowners tail flash?

 

Colin

[exdraken]

Congrats on that scratch odysee!

Not much left of the original kit, no!

[Biggles87]

Great work so far, the rest should be easy.  

 

John

[Rizon]

On 5/15/2020 at 10:53 AM, heloman1 said:

.... Maybe a toned down Sundowners tail flash?

That thought has crossed my mind!

 

However, at the moment I am more considering an Intruder Squadron. When the A-6 was retired, Lockheed would have the F-117N ready (approximately). And being more of a "Bomb Truck", I think an attack Squadron would be more appropriate. And one of the last A-6 Sqadrons were the "Nighthawks"..... Just sayin....

(Also in my time-line, the F-14 would not be retired so early, so the Sundowners would still fly the F-14.....)

Edited May 22, 2020 by Rizon

[jalles]

8 hours ago, Rizon said:

Cool! Which kit are you using if I may ask?

 

On the net I have stumbled upon two different conversions of the 1/144 scale Revel kit, which has the same wonky geometry. The conversions were a bit more basic than my current attempt, but very passable. Then I also once found a 1/72 F-117N that was built as a paper model.

I'm using the 1/72 Hasegawa "Grey Dragon" kit. Like yours, there's not much left, I'm only using about 75% of the top and the vertical stabilizers. The rest is 3D printed with some scratch built details in the weapons bay and wheel wells. I'll be using F-14 landing gear. Your scratch built landing gear are really nice. What type of 3D printer did you use for the wheels, the detail looks very good.

 

While I was doing research for this project I think I saw the same models you mentioned above. I think the geometry on mine is better, but not perfect either. I think the later concepts had more volume in the fuselage, mine seems a little flatter. I also went with the earlier V-shaped exhausts vs. the F-22 style.

 

So cool seeing someone else doing this, I'm really excited to see more of your build.

 

Jason

[Parabat]

VA-185 Nighthawks! Great shout, that would be a fitting squadron for this! 

[Aardvark]

Impressive!

 

B.R.

Serge

[Andrew D Jolly Rogers guy]

Man, this is enough to make me drool, this is fantastic!!

[Rizon]

The past week or so have been spent on cleaning up the model by closing, filling or covering holes, seams or joints that stem from the conversion. That is effectively done now, such that I can now proceed with adding smaller details and the last set of assemblies.

 

 

 

And then gave it a quick and light dusting with Tamiya white primer, just to check the effectiveness of my patching work. Surprisingly most of it turned out good. Though here and there some small amount of re-work is required, but that can be completed with the remainder of work to be done.

 

 

 

 

R

Edited May 24, 2020 by Rizon

[Andrew D Jolly Rogers guy]

Absolutely wonderful work, I'm very appreciative!!

Thinking to the future, for the paint shop, are you thinking black, or TPS tri-gray?  And how would you do the VA-squadron markings?  All lo-vis, or a slight splash of any color anywhere?

[Rizon]

On 5/15/2020 at 6:30 PM, jalles said:

.... What type of 3D printer did you use for the wheels, the detail looks very good.

 

I used a stock standard Ender 3, with a 0.35 mm nozzle. Those wheels are the limit of what the printer can do with the nozzle, but I did design the part's details with that nozzle in mind. Was the first time I 3D printed, so all in all, not bad for the first attempt, I think

[Rizon]

2 minutes ago, Andrew D Jolly Rogers guy said:

Absolutely wonderful work, I'm very appreciative!!

Thinking to the future, for the paint shop, are you thinking black, or TPS tri-gray?  And how would you do the VA-squadron markings?  All lo-vis, or a slight splash of any color anywhere?

Hold your horses! I'm still getting to that part! 😄

 

But since you insist: I'm thinking along the lines of "Have Glass" grey, or similar to what the F-35 wear. Gives a nice middle way between the All Black and Naval grey tones. Lets assume that the latter developments in paint technology have been applied to the F-117 in the mean time. So lets say this is a late service F-117N

 

As to the decals - I plan on using the kit decals, as they are in the more or less appropriate light grey to give the right contrast. As for the squadron markings - still up in the air, as I still need to check how they used the squadron colours previously....

 

R