Collect-Aire 1/48 XF-103 Thunderwarrior

[LorenSharp]

FIrst up Collect-Aire's XF-103 Thunderwarrior. There will be some modifications, I'm going to attempt to scratch build the weapons bays and improve the engine along with making the other openings look like they should have had it gone into production.

Also going to try and go for a natural metal finish. (Crossing fingers)This may take a while 

[Col.]

Sounds as if you're going to have fun with this cool project  

[LorenSharp]

1 minute ago, Col. said:

Sounds as if you're going to have fun with this cool project  

I like to think of it as a hair reduction diet  Project. Nothing says "What have I gotten myself into" like cutting and modifying old resin.But I am a little whacked, so let the good times roll

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Oooooooh Niiiiice ! 

[exdraken]

Wow, great! A Collect Air kit!

At First I thought it must be you @trickyrich 

 

[Col.]

37 minutes ago, exdraken said:

Wow, great! A Collect Air kit!

At First I thought it must be you @trickyrich 

 

Who knows Werner, @trickyrich may enter the Mythical Draken for this one

[Aardvark]

XF-103 !!!

😍😍😍😍😍

I have only vacu in 72nd scale in my collection.

 As for my,  on this time, best build 

Collect-Aire 1/48 XF-103 Thunderceptor,

on the Internet is here:

https://www.dishmodels.ru/gshow.htm?p=12140

The best and most complete collection of information on this aircraft is here:

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/republic-xf-103-interceptor.4304/

 

B.R.

Serge

[trickyrich]

OMG!!!!  😍

 

I have been hunting for one of these for ages, only the price of the last one I saw put me off.

 

This is a really nice model, needs some work but can easily be turned out to be a stunner!

 

I an SOOOOOo jealous, will be following with envious eyes!

[Shorty84]

Cool, great subject and a rare kit.

 

Cheers

Markus

[LorenSharp]

Ahh the bell has sounded for this little yuletide/early2021 clambake. Release the hounds and let us begin!

Typical of Collect-Aires offerings , the inevitable micro holes/bubbles. Not as bad as I've seen on some but a pain none the less.

And a little bit of warpage just for good measure. Sounds like a job for my trusty 3M white glazing compound. Best investment I ever made.

[LorenSharp]

Slather a thin coat on, let dry for a little bit , sand like a madman and.... voila! a whit powdery mess on everything, but no pin holes!

After getting the bulk of the glazing off finer grades of emery cloth/ sandpaper since this will be a natural finish I'm going to 3000 grit until parts ore complete then work down to 9000-12000 level.

As an aside I wanted to thank @Aardvark for the 103 links I had the link to the Russian build thats what inspired  me to see what I could do with this. I doubt that I'll be able to replicate all the rivets that the builder did, I have a hard time just being able to scribe a straight line on a

model. Plastic and Vac plastic I have down, resin will be OTJ as usual. So we shall see what I can come up with.

[LorenSharp]

Most of the rivet lines cleaned up, now.... surgery.

Want to display with missile bays open. So lets see if I can cut some resin like the big boys do and not release some digits in the process.

I First I located where the doors are supposed to be. only the forwards AIM-4 Bays are actually etched in. The AIM-47 bay I went by the mock-up images the get an idea of where it went.

Some masking tape to protect the rest of the fuselage from my hacking and slashing(maybe)

I did consider adding the lower tiny Tim Rocket bay but after snapping the spine of the Larger bay off  I figured it was best not to press my luck. As it was I STILL managed to cut a gouge scribing the outlines before using my razor saw.

One steep molehill for man, one giant leap for me!

I know there will be more.

[LorenSharp]

When it comes to the Nozzle at the rear, the kit feathers seem woefully inadequate. but by the same token, the Anigrand 72nd scale kit was a box, Yuck! I will deviate a little bit from accuracy a tad and give the girl a powerplant befitting her stature. Besides this aircraft never got out of the mockup stage so who knows what the real nozzle would have looked like had it gone into service. I digress,

these are the kit parts.

And this is what I came up with, a stylized F-18/F-16 rig scaled up to the size of a Mig-25

I've spent the last week or so before the build started to design and print out updated parts. some of which are still printing as we speak.

Hopefully they are a little bit better

[Col.]

Very nice start. The exhaust in particular is a quantum leap in quality over what's provided in the kit

[LorenSharp]

Little bit of an update and a correction, mores parts finished printing during the overnight. still more  printing for a few more days. If the prints don't mess up first. Part of the first batch dealt with the ejection capsule system.

The kits parts were basic and not very detailed. Along with the nose and main wheels. So I redid the wheels ,the drogue chute/oxygen system and made extension rails for the capsule. After seeing the chutes attached to the capsule I may go back and change some things. but a fair start.

Created a new seat as well. Now the seat looks like it belongs in a jet and not a biplane.

Lastly, the interior ribbing for the rocket bays and here come the correction, the -103 like many of the interceptors of the day used 2.75" (70mm) FFAM Mighty Mouse missiles In air to air use, not very accurate, and had to be fired in massive salvos  case in point, 2 F-89's were unable to bring down an runaway Navy  drone after expending a total of 208 missiles. Like trying to fire a shotgun long distance and hoping you might hit something.. Air to ground was much better which is where I confused them with the "Tiny Tim " rockets used in the WWII and Korea by the Navy and Marines. They were also a much bigger missile. 

I did go against my better judgment and added the FFAM bay, and of course resin being resin and fragile snapped some of te fuselage where I had cut the original bays out. Luckily they were clean breaks and went back together with out much fuss. Scratch built new bulkheads instead of printed them. The FFAM pack and new instrument cluster I'll have done by this afternoon.. IN the meantime I'll work on add ing more detail bits to the cockpit areas and the missile and gear bays.

[Col.]

Nice printing work

[LorenSharp]

Thanks Col. Slowly getting getting it figured out, my biggest hurdle was the habit of making the detail too fine and nothing but a blob would be the final result. Once I figured out how small I could go then I stay just above the line.

[Shorty84]

Hi Loren,

 

great start, your homeprinted improvements are really impressive  Which printer do you use, looks like an SLA?

Seems the kit has quite a few airbubbles. That's the worst when working with resin kits: You fill them, sand everything smooth only for new bubbles to appear. Extremely annoying, especially if one wants to do an NMF paintjob.

 

Can't wait for your next update!

 

Cheers

Markus

[LorenSharp]

2 minutes ago, Shorty84 said:

Hi Loren,

 

great start, your homeprinted improvements are really impressive  Which printer do you use, looks like an SLA?

Seems the kit has quite a few airbubbles. That's the worst when working with resin kits: You fill them, sand everything smooth only for new bubbles to appear. Extremely annoying, especially if one wants to do an NMF paintjob.

 

Can't wait for your next update!

 

Cheers

Markus

Thanks Markus, I'm using an Elegoo Mars that I got back in the Spring. Aside from user errors in printing, it's worked flawlessly. Just changed out the LCD screen at the 500hr mark which I was very impressed with. I figured it would have died much sooner.

[LorenSharp]

Further along in the world of resin and more resin. The kit instrument panel wasn't entirely accurate and a little small. Although not as small as my first test shot. when taking my measurements I measured just one side of the cockpit area with the intention of doubling that and having the correct width. made sure I had everything wrote down so I wouldn't forget it( I have a mind like a steel trap.... that rusted shut.) everything was running tickity-boo plugiged in my numbers for the final print size,print finished.... panel was a tad small. then I realized I forgot to double the measurement grumble, grumble and a few expletives' later started the print again. this time correct.

I'll use parts of the original panel to make the panel for the capsule.

from there made a new rear bulkhead parachute pack(more on that in a bit) and the Mighty mouse rocket pack.

 

[LorenSharp]

Fixed up a little it of detail for the missle doors and  AIM-4 and AIM-47 missiles.

A new seamless intake and a new parachute pack.

Now about the parachute pack, the first iteration I didn't like the way it looked so I redid it. Came out looking ok so glued everything together. stuck it in the cockpit cavity.... not quite right.  length and width ok, but the parachute pack and oxygen bottle were too large. In real life the capuse wouldn't have been able to leave the aircraft, at least not in one piece. 

[LorenSharp]

Working on the gear wells new bracing and added extra detail to the wells with bits of strip and rod.

Now I can finally start painting and gluing.... I hope. More to come.

[Col.]

Impressive   Work of this quality just goes to prove that 3D printing has a great future in our hobby

[LorenSharp]

Finishing up the wheel well  with some cabling and a dark wash to bring out the deatil.

and small well behind the cockpit for the ejection system.

Now since the fuselage is split with a front and rear the join will be very weak, especially considering the weight of the resin. So drilling matching holes for both sides I'll cut short sections of brass rod for strength.

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[LorenSharp]

Installing the cockpit glass after much trimming and shaving and a coating of PFM. I've decided  try jewelers cement because it dries clear so to hold the glass in place a bit of tape while the glue sets.

now the beginning of the fun part, wells, and rocket bays glued in and nose weights added. BB's and kids modeling clay to hold in place.

Let that dry then time to join the front and back together.

no matter how close yo try to get the mating to go there are the usual gaps that won't adjust any closer and from here I'll use a little MIlliput to fill because it dries rock hard and will add a touch of extra strength.

I let that dry overnight and sanded down smooth. Now to add a light coating of automotive glazing to finish it out. once this dries I'll sand down with finer grades until as smooth as possible then I'll re-scribe and see if I can add some riveting here and there before giving Black Lacquer coat.

Now to attack the finishing up of the cockpit and the ejection capsule.