Today's conundrum - How do do I assemble the cockpit of the Maintrack 'Have Blue' from these bits? Update - It's getting worse

[John R]

For those who have not heard of it 'Have Blue' was the technology demonstrator for the Lockheed Stealth fighter.

You sre supplied with 5 assorted pieces of plastic from which you are supposed to assemble the cockpit as shown in the diagram above. The trouble is that they are all different shapes and none seems to match those shown in the diagram. I would have expected the two to be the same size and shape and thus suitable for the cockpit sides.

Is there anybody out there who has built one?

Have Blue cockpit bits

John

[Bozothenutter]

F=front

S=rear

B=back

Writing done on phone, so apologies 😉

[Mattlow]

S=side

R=rear

[Bozothenutter]

16 minutes ago, Mattlow said:

S=side

R=rear

Must be REALLY  tired!

[John R]

After posting and spending some time using the pieces as parts of a jigsaw I came to the same conclusion except that one of the sides is a couple of mm shorter than the other...

There is more trouble as the supplied ejection seat is far too tall so another has been taken from an F-5 kit but even this needs some adjustment

I am going to fit a floor put the seat in position by trial and error and try to build a cockpit around it

[Bozothenutter]

21 minutes ago, John R said:

After posting and spending some time using the pieces as parts of a jigsaw I came to the same conclusion except that one of the sides is a couple of mm shorter than the other...

There is more trouble as the supplied ejection seat is far too tall so another has been taken from an F-5 kit but even this needs some adjustment

I am going to fit a floor put the seat in position by trial and error and try to build a cockpit around it

It's only styrene sheet  you don't HAVE to use the supplied parts, just cut your own.

[John R]

That is the plan

[e8n2]

16 hours ago, John R said:

For those who have not heard of it 'Have Blue' was the technology demonstrator for the Lockheed Stealth fighter.

You sre supplied with 5 assorted pieces of plastic from which you are supposed to assemble the cockpit as shown in the diagram above. The trouble is that they are all different shapes and none seems to match those shown in the diagram. I would have expected the two to be the same size and shape and thus suitable for the cockpit sides.

Is there anybody out there who has built one?

Have Blue cockpit bits

John

If the canopy has a windshield has a frame right down the middle and is similar to what was on the F-102, F-106, YF-12A, and SR-71, then the triangular piece at the front should be painted flat black and would be attached to the center frame of the windshield.  That is to prevent glare from the two side pieces really messing up the pilot's view forward.

Later,

Dave

[John R]

Interesting. I had thought that it was to represent the cover and the top portion the instrument panel but I hadn't got as far as offering it up to see what the fit was like.

There is a picture in this thread that does not seem to show it in the position you suggested but it may not have been fitted at this stage

 

[Bozothenutter]

Just a brainfart, not knowing what scale you have, would an aftermarket F-117 cockpit be an option?

Blue was smaller  but the cockpit couldn't have been THAT much smaller could it?

Details etc would be wrong of course....

[CT7567]

3 hours ago, Bozothenutter said:

Just a brainfart, not knowing what scale you have, would an aftermarket F-117 cockpit be an option?

Blue was smaller  but the cockpit couldn't have been THAT much smaller could it?

Details etc would be wrong of course....

Other than a general configuration (seat, stick, panel, side throttle & consoles), it's doubtful Have Blue's cockpit had too much resemblance to the production F-117.  Remember this was a technology demonstrator, not a true prototype.  Seat in the demonstrators was the Stencel, vs. ACES II for the production fighter.  The XSTs also lacked any mission equipment (FLIR/DLIR, etc) so the instrument panel wouldn't have had the F-117's MFD screen.  Sadly both XSTs were lost and buried in Area 51 so unless the Skunk Works declassifies some more vintage photos we'll never know exactly what they looked like.

[Bozothenutter]

2 minutes ago, CT7567 said:

Other than a general configuration (seat, stick, panel, side throttle & consoles), it's doubtful Have Blue's cockpit had too much resemblance to the production F-117.  Remember this was a technology demonstrator, not a true prototype.  Seat in the demonstrators was the Stencel, vs. ACES II for the production fighter.  The XSTs also lacked any mission equipment (FLIR/DLIR, etc) so the instrument panel wouldn't have had the F-117's MFD screen.  Sadly both XSTs were lost and buried in Area 51 so unless the Skunk Works declassifies some more vintage photos we'll never know exactly what they looked like.

That's what I said, the details would be wrong...

But an unused cockpit from somebody that used a resin one would be a good start. 

[CT7567]

21 minutes ago, Bozothenutter said:

That's what I said, the details would be wrong...

But an unused cockpit from somebody that used a resin one would be a good start. 

No worries, I guess we just differ in our definitions of "details" - my point was the 117 pit is different enough that you wouldn't really gain much using one for this purpose.

[spruecutter96]

You're a MUCH braver man than I, John. Good luck in your build. Didn't someone nick-name this the "Hopeless Diamond"? My memory on the project is more than a little hazy. 

 

Chris. 

[DougC]

4 hours ago, CT7567 said:

 Sadly both XSTs were lost and buried in Area 51 so unless the Skunk Works declassifies some more vintage photos we'll never know exactly what they looked like.

So if nobody knows what they look like, who's going to call you out for putting whatever you like in the cockpit? 😎

[CT7567]

29 minutes ago, DougC said:

So if nobody knows what they look like, who's going to call you out for putting whatever you like in the cockpit? 😎

I'm assuming this was (mostly) tongue-in-cheek, but like much of what we do there's always some degree of extrapolation invoved - hence the qualifier 'exactly' in my original post.  There are no public photos of Have Blue's cockpit, but it's a safe assumption it didn't have a wicker seat pan or a flower vase on the dashboard 😄

[John R]

The other thing to consider is that detailed cockpits have never been high on my list of priorities. You can seldom see much if the canopy is closed so I leave the details whose fingers are more deft than mine. It takes all my time and limited patience to get the exterior about right.

In this case my concern was getting the seat at the right height and in the right position before I put the upper surface on. There is also a problem with doing that. The supplied seat is too tall to fit the space available and another had to be found and tweaked

 

[John R]

Thread creep - this is turning into a WIP.

Well I made a rudimentary cockpit from bits of sheet sheet (just a black hole) and then I tried to get the canopy to fit...but it doesn't. The top rear section is curved when it should be flat.

Where do I go from here? It's too thin to sand flat. Try to cut a vee in the top and insert a flat piece of sheet? Cut off the rear section and replace it with flat clear sheet and hope to join it with the front section?  Try to make a whole new canopy from flat pieces of clear sheet or try to make a whole new canopy?

None of these is appealing. Shelf of doom anyone?

John

[tempestfan]

Have you thought about "simply" bending a piece of clear sheet to the required shape?