Alan P Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 On 3/9/2021 at 7:21 PM, WV908 said: The radome in the heritage conversion really is a dog - I've put literally hours of sanding in to get it to fit and get it circular too. The rear fuselage plug is really badly undersized, so with this and the above I think I'll build mine as an F2. We're really living the dream aren't we? On 3/9/2021 at 7:21 PM, WV908 said: You can guarantee that by the time I've made all the conversion pieces fit that Italeri will announce an F3... God I hope so I'll definitely finish this first though. I think there's still a place in the world for the Revell kit, if only to serve as a cheaper alternative. I'm so pleased with these seats, here's another photo! One for @WV908 I've battered this nose into submission and adapted part of the kit nose ring to make a properly angled fitting shoe for the resin nose. This is the bottom fwd fuselage plate - I had to remove some of the material at the back of the nose gear bay fitting as it was too short. I've gone for an unorthodox build order with the forward fuselage - rather than try to balance the heavy resin cockpit tubs before joining the fuselage halves, I'm taking advantage of the gaping holes I've cut to fit them in from the back. They slot in much better. I joined the halves together and fixed the nose gear bay in place. I won't need it for the nose gear but it forms the base for the cockpit tubs so it definitely needs to go in. The base part just slots in place and was secured with CA glue and accelerator. The fit is pretty good. A part needs to be cut from the rear fuselage base as well to fit the Sky Flash base plate. I must have mis-measured and cut a bit too far, so always remember to measure twice, cut once etc blah blah blah... So when I stopped sweating over that bit: The pilots are now posed and finished - a few cuts and lots of superglue and accelerator. In case you're wondering where the pilot's (on the left) fingers are, they're already attached to the control column to ensure a firm grip! The nav just woke up and is tightening his thigh straps due to the high-g turn the aircraft will be in... I think I'm suffering from delirium having been up since 2.30am this morning. Alan 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 Meanwhile, down the back end: Wing box is built and fixed at 45deg of sweep. You can hopefully see the sprues I've used for bracing the back end - the whole structure is just a big empty space held together by the thin edges of the plastic joins. You can hopefully see the bracing and also where I've cut out the APU exhaust on the right side beneath the wing fold gloves. The very eagle eyed will see the circular marking just behind the wheelwell where I've drilled the pilot hole for one of the the eventual acrylic rod supports. The other rod will go through the wheelwell (you can see the pilot hole and marking for that in the pic above this one) There will be some tube epoxied into the inside fuselage so the acrylic rods can just slot in. The aircraft should end up posed at a steep bank angle of >60deg with a slight nose-up attitude. Should look dramatic I hope! The white tube at the tailerons is an attempt to make them more secure - the Revell assembly is notoriously flimsy: I cut off the attachment points and moved the pivot forward about 6mm to its correct point. They'll need a bit of work to fit the extended tailpipe section but that's a very minor fix. This also gives better proportion to the rear section - the wrong pivot points of the kit push the leading edge of the tailerons too far forward and squashes that section of the kit - along with the too-long nose gear it's one of the characteristic wrong bits of the otherwise good Revell shape. Anyway, good catchup with progress so far. I painted the base colours of the cockpit and crew so the detail and relief painting of the cockpit will be the next job. Cheers again Alan 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 Crikey Alan you are going to have to get some matchsticks to keep your eyes open before much longer. There are some cracking mods and corrections going on here, great work. Would it be worth adding some tabs to help secure the rear fuselage joint too? Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 4 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said: Would it be worth adding some tabs to help secure the rear fuselage joint too? Really good call, I'll be doing that then 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 16, 2021 Author Share Posted March 16, 2021 Just in that stage of the build where you have to paint about three million different bits in the cockpit...here's the progress so far. None of this is finished yet, just updating so you don't think I've given up Cockpit tubs painted and washed TV tabs in progress - I lost part of the frame (left side in the picture) so made a new tube from lead wire, it's not painted yet. Cables, connectors and gubbins painted at the rear - all this was in the BlackBox casting, pretty good! Test fit successful - the fuselage halves are already glued together and the cockpit tubs slide in without any hassle. Very glad to see everything fits snugly, including the cockpit sidewall/sill parts. The kit famously has no sills provided, as it's intended to be constructed with the canopy closed like many Revell 1/32 kits of this vintage. As usual it was the human elements that took up the most time - the PJ Productions figures are superb and paint up well despite my remodelling attempts. The heads still need a bit of work. White helmet for the pilot, green for the nav. It's all a bit snug with the aftermarket stuff and extra details, but everything fits, honest! Still on target for a decent build - I've ordered some carbon fibre rod as the acrylic rods are quite thick and will need some big holes drilling in the side of the aeroplane, which I'm not keen to do. The carbon fibre rods are only 5mm thick and should be the equivalent of a 14mm acrylic rod, meaning I might get away with just one if strategically placed! All the best, Alan 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 17, 2021 Author Share Posted March 17, 2021 Feeling a bit bleah after the covid jab but managed to do a bit of work on the F3: Cockpits and pilots finished. So pleased with these I'm going to show a couple more... The pilot's head angle will make a lot more sense once the aircraft is mounted in its dynamic pose! The nav is keeping a lookout on the blind side of the turn now he's awake... Nav's console with some nice stripy decals from Airscale. Really pleased with this instrument console - I know the displays were monochrome on the real aircraft but this is a model 😉 Again some really nice stripe decals from the Airscale Modern NATO Fighter Cockpit Placard set. EDIT: gah! I need to make a gear lever, there isn't one in the kit or the cockpit set, unless I've lost it... I took some liberties again with the TV tab displays...need to restore the lost light sensor, unless they were known to go missing from time to time... Cables finished with a Mig Dark Wash and other details tidied up. Really happy with the finished pit, it's taken ages but really looks the part. I hope it will be visible once the canopy goes on! Cheers Alan 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plasticbasher Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 This build gets better and better- the aircrew look superb and you have every right to be happy with them. Cockpit is also excellent... my stock of superlatives is running dry! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 17, 2021 Author Share Posted March 17, 2021 1 hour ago, Plasticbasher said: This build gets better and better- the aircrew look superb and you have every right to be happy with them. Cockpit is also excellent... my stock of superlatives is running dry! Thanks very much for that, very kind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phone Phixer Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 Lovely work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 Great work on the cockpit. I like the crew’s realistically dirty ‘ white ‘ gloves, mine ( which were actually a very pale cream colour ) stayed clean for about two weekends on an ATC gliding school. John PS I hope you’ve recovered from the after effects of your jab. I had no reaction from either of mine, so I guess I was lucky. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paramedic Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 Now that looks great! Excellent job on the cockpit and crew. Looks like a fun build of a very good-looking bird! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 18, 2021 Author Share Posted March 18, 2021 6 hours ago, Biggles87 said: I like the crew’s realistically dirty ‘ white ‘ gloves, mine ( which were actually a very pale cream colour ) stayed clean for about two weekends on an ATC gliding school. Ha ha! Yeah, those gloves are grey at best 🤣 no vaccine related malaise today, feeling fine, thanks for asking 👍 2 hours ago, Paramedic said: Now that looks great! Excellent job on the cockpit and crew. Looks like a fun build of a very good-looking bird! Thank you very much, it's been a lot of work but still fun so far 👍 I have a few of these high workload conversions/projects sitting in the loft gathering dust, so it's good to see one of them taking shape at least! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 The cockpit details look fantastic Alan, great work and the crew look fabulous too, great painting and remodelling fella. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 21, 2021 Author Share Posted March 21, 2021 On 3/18/2021 at 4:00 PM, bigbadbadge said: The cockpit details look fantastic Alan, great work and the crew look fabulous too, great painting and remodelling fella. Chris Thanks again Chris, you're like a one-man cheerleading team on this site Took @bigbadbadge Chris's advice and built up some tabs around the fuselage join line. Also built up some laminates of plastic card where the display mount rod will be going, with a laminated seat for it on the other side. This rather silly part will be used to provide some internal bracing - I cut a little notch out of the left edge for the APU exhaust It fits here, where the APU hole was drilled earlier... There's the exhaust duct roughly built from plastic card. When it's painted it'll look okay. I've done this before! Note the complete absence of panels lines on this part of the kit, another notable issue with the Revell kit! Moving on to the tail: Fitted the mighty fin to the upper fuselage before assembling. On every one of these I've built, this is the best way to get a solid fit for the fin - it needs some proper pressure to seat it properly and you just can't apply that sort of pressure to the rear fuselage as it's just a hollow box. This way the fin is solid, straight and fits correctly to the spine without leaving a horrendous semi-circular step to make good later Also note: no forward facing RWR receiver as this was relocated to the wing glove leading edges on the F3. Final prep before gluing the rear fuselage together... Added some more bracing across the wheelwells to strengthen the wing box as that's going to be a stress spot due to the heavy weight of the nose section with all that resin. The white rod is a pilot piece to check the alignment of the display pole mounting. All looks good so far! Cheers, Alan 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 21, 2021 Author Share Posted March 21, 2021 Okay I had a really good go at this in the afternoon... Forward fuselage is complete - nose is fixed with epoxy, sanded and puttied into position and both completed cockpits mounted through the open back of the assembly. The mid-fuselage plug is attached with the always reliable Everbuild CA glue, can't recommend it more highly. Stuff sticks like crazy! Nose section is now ready for mating to the aft end... This went together okay, very glad for the reinforcements or the front end would probably warp the assembly due to the weight difference. The stabiliser reinforcement braces the back end. The tailpipes will still fit thanks to the rear extension plug. Align the parts, add CA glue aaaaand... We have an F3! The rear extension plug needed a LOT of shaping and sanding to fit properly. Also had to cut through the thrust reverser section on both sides to align the upper joins properly. The upper spine plug fit almost perfectly without major surgery, which was a bonus! You can see the plastic card shim I had to use to level up the intakes with the fuselage plug. Also spot the heavy sanding marks where I've smoothed the ridges and excess CA. Last job is to cut back the GR.1 wing gloves in prep for the replacement F3 versions. Very happy with how this has turned out so far - certainly looks like an F3 now! Cheers Alan 9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troffa Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 Really awesome work Alan, and certainly looking like the jets I worked on for a decade-as far as I can remember these days anyway, and if your hard work scratchbuilding this beauty results in a new product from Italeri or similar than all the better! 🙂 Getting the colour coded connectors on the back of the TV TABS did it for me. Closely following your excellent build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 Good to see the rear section come together and then altogether, great job Alan Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 21, 2021 Author Share Posted March 21, 2021 1 hour ago, Troffa said: Really awesome work Alan, and certainly looking like the jets I worked on for a decade-as far as I can remember these days anyway, and if your hard work scratchbuilding this beauty results in a new product from Italeri or similar than all the better! 🙂 Getting the colour coded connectors on the back of the TV TABS did it for me. Closely following your excellent build. That is brilliant to hear, I did the TV tabs from memory, so I'm glad it rang a few bells for you as well! I would be very glad if Italeri produced an F3 of the same standard as their GR4. It's going to be pricey, but I'll definitely put my hand in my pocket for that. 1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said: Good to see the rear section come together and then altogether, great job Alan Chris Thanks Chris, I found some more photos which didn't upload earlier for some reason... The intakes are on - left the shock ramps in the lowered position because it's a lot of work to cover up the gaping empty hole left by the kit. I also added some very basic trunking using plain plastic card strips. Also you can see I've protected the cockpits and pilots from dust and damage by adding an old Tornado canopy from a long ago previous build - it's what I've used to mask the cockpit for the past three Revell Tornados I've built. Stabilisers with attached pivots at the right angle and correct position. Suddenly looks like a Tornado with the stabs on. Can't tell you how chuffed I am to get to this point. Should be pretty smooth sailing from here on, a lot of puttying and sanding ahead but that's going to be simple enough. The big headaches with the conversion construction are over Thanks again for the excellent comments, Alan 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Looks very promising! Especially realistic forward fuselage... and this cockpit are fantastic! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 53 minutes ago, exdraken said: Looks very promising! Especially realistic forward fuselage... and this cockpit are fantastic! Thank you very much, that means a lot coming from you 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James G Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Great work Al, the pilots and cockpit look the business! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan P Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 22 minutes ago, James G said: Great work Al, the pilots and cockpit look the business! Thanks James, as you know I've had lots of practice on this kit! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Wow - I've not checked in for a while and I'm glad I stopped by Lots of fantastic progress here - the cockpit and pilots look splendid and although the nose and inserts appear to have put up a fight, it does look as if the worst is behind you now. Great modelling skills on display here! Tom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg B Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Lots of work there mate, starting to look like an F.3. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Definitely looking like an F-3. The fuselage looks nice and straight despite the number of inserts, I’m sure I would end up with a banana shape! John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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