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Hi guys. For those of you who might be interested...here's the next build on my list. Its the 1/48 Hasegawa F-22A Raptor.
This kit has received alot of bad press because of the out-of-scale panel detail. Because of this many people won't buy it. This doesn't bother me at all. I think this kit looks fantastic and I can say, having built the Academy F-22, that this kit seems way better. Plus, I got it for $24 with S&H! Can't beat that! Anyway, here's the first update. I'm going to install an Aires resin cockpit: This requires a little bit of surgery to the upper fuselage part. All that is needed is to carve out the molded IP coaming and add some shims to the rear sides. I forgot to get a pic of the original IP coaming, though. Thankfully, this has been one of the less labor intensive surgeries I've done: Here's how it looks with the cockpit loosely installed: More to come...
This kit has received alot of bad press because of the out-of-scale panel detail. Because of this many people won't buy it. This doesn't bother me at all. I think this kit looks fantastic and I can say, having built the Academy F-22, that this kit seems way better. Plus, I got it for $24 with S&H! Can't beat that!
Anyway, here's the first update. I'm going to install an Aires resin cockpit:
This requires a little bit of surgery to the upper fuselage part. All that is needed is to carve out the molded IP coaming and add some shims to the rear sides. I forgot to get a pic of the original IP coaming, though. Thankfully, this has been one of the less labor intensive surgeries I've done: Here's how it looks with the cockpit loosely installed: More to come...
This requires a little bit of surgery to the upper fuselage part. All that is needed is to carve out the molded IP coaming and add some shims to the rear sides. I forgot to get a pic of the original IP coaming, though. Thankfully, this has been one of the less labor intensive surgeries I've done:
Here's how it looks with the cockpit loosely installed: More to come...
Here's how it looks with the cockpit loosely installed:
More to come...
[URL=http://picasion.com/]
Definitely looking forward to this one. =] I've heard all the same and have been dying to do one eventually one of these days...but with a lot of reluctance. I hope you can put that to ease.
On the bench:
Tamiya F4U-1 Kenneth Walsh
bvallot Definitely looking forward to this one. =] I've heard all the same and have been dying to do one eventually one of these days...but with a lot of reluctance. I hope you can put that to ease.
The only AM replacement that might be the most beneficial would be some resin wheels...which I did get. The kit wheels are kinda sterile. And maybe the resin exhaust if you plan on displaying it with the vectoring nozzles open. Although I did get the PE details for the exhaust area.
Speaking of resin wheels I'm using the Brassin wheels/tires to replace the boring kit wheels/tires. These are really nice and have very good detail:
I'm looking forward to watching this WIP progress!
Chris
Yup, me too...this one'e on my hit list.
______________________________________________________________________________
On the Bench: Nothing on the go ATM
YESSSSSSSSS! I've been dying for someone on here to do a WIP for the raptor. If it's going to be anything like your other builds, I'm in for a treat. I have this kit in my stash but I'm holding off until I'm confident I'll do it justice. I will be watching closely
-Derek
Thanks guys! I will try not to disappoint!
I should mention that I'm going to build this F-22 with the weapons bays closed. I am doing this because I think the F-22 has way better lines when the bay doors are closed. After all, this is a stealth fighter, right? Plus, you really don't ever see the F-22s parked on the ramp with all the doors open and missiles hanging out. One benefit is that it will save alot of work. Another benefit is that I will have six spare AIM-120C AMRAAMs and two spare AIM-9Xs.
And yes, I am going to try some weathering. I've come across some pics of F-22s that are surprisingly dirty.
Before I glued the doors in place I had to install the weapons bays:
In the pic above you can see that I've also attached the guide/reinforcement pieces that align and join the upper and lower fuselage halves. What I did was I attached 1 or 2 of the parts at a time. As the glue dried I dry fitted the upper fuselage half to the lower fuselage half to assure that the alignment parts were seated perfectly. This worked out very well. Here are the doors glued in place: The doors did not fit perfectly into their spaces. I had to use a bit of filler to get rid of some gaps. I used Aves Apoxie Sculpt to do this. After applying the Aves I wiped away the excess with a cotton swab dipped in Alcohol. Otherwise the doors are reasonably flush with the outer skin.
In the pic above you can see that I've also attached the guide/reinforcement pieces that align and join the upper and lower fuselage halves. What I did was I attached 1 or 2 of the parts at a time. As the glue dried I dry fitted the upper fuselage half to the lower fuselage half to assure that the alignment parts were seated perfectly. This worked out very well.
Here are the doors glued in place:
The doors did not fit perfectly into their spaces. I had to use a bit of filler to get rid of some gaps. I used Aves Apoxie Sculpt to do this. After applying the Aves I wiped away the excess with a cotton swab dipped in Alcohol. Otherwise the doors are reasonably flush with the outer skin.
Fly-n-hi Speaking of resin wheels I'm using the Brassin wheels/tires to replace the boring kit wheels/tires. These are really nice and have very good detail:
Looking forward to seeing this one, Fly. Are the Eduard wheels and tires separate pieces, or are you just that good at painting them? If they're separate, I'm definitely gonna start buying them instead of trying to paint them......
Devil Dawg
On The Bench: Tamiya 1/32nd Mitsubishi A6M5 Model 52 Zeke For Japanese Group Build
Build one at a time? Hah! That'll be the day!!
Devil Dawg Looking forward to seeing this one, Fly. Are the Eduard wheels and tires separate pieces, or are you just that good at painting them? If they're separate, I'm definitely gonna start buying them instead of trying to paint them......
I start off by painting them Mr.Color Tire Black (C137). Then I paint the treads something close to Dark Gull Grey (C317) to make them look dirty. Then I cut out my own circular masks using a drafting circle template and a sharp #11 blade. I have US and Metric templates to cover as many sizes as possible. Then I paint the wheels white. Lately I've been using Mr. Color C316 which has a slight off-white color instead of plain gloss white (C1)...but these wheels were painted with regular C1 white. I'm not sure why I did that but I don't feel like re-doing them.
And, of course, I'll give them a wash once I have the wheel wells painted.
Here's a small unexciting update.
I've assembled the vertical stabilizers. Hasegawa's offering here is way better than Academy's. The stabs are very thin and much more accurate than the thick Academy stabs. But the way they chose to separate these two parts makes it a little tricky to sand seamless. Here you can sort of see the parts:
Here they are attached, filled with Mr Surfacer and sanded seamlessly: Unfortunately, I did sand out just a little of the raised detail. This may not really be an issue, though, because of the way these parts will be painted. There will be a light grey "outline" on the parts and the edge of the grey almost exactly follows the raised detail that was lost. It shouldn't be a problem.
Here they are attached, filled with Mr Surfacer and sanded seamlessly:
Unfortunately, I did sand out just a little of the raised detail. This may not really be an issue, though, because of the way these parts will be painted. There will be a light grey "outline" on the parts and the edge of the grey almost exactly follows the raised detail that was lost. It shouldn't be a problem.
I was playing around and dry fitting the canopy to the fuselage part. I couldn't believe how precise the fit was! This is the tightest fitting canopy I've ever seen on a model. When I rub my finger across it I can't feel any seams! It almost makes me want to pose her with the canopy closed since this happens so rarely!
Looks great,I did this on a few years ago,a great kit with no build issues at all.Have fun and looking forward to more.
Should have left that loaded missile bay open,it looks real impressive
Tojo72 Looks great,I did this on a few years ago,a great kit with no build issues at all.Have fun and looking forward to more. Should have left that loaded missile bay open,it looks real impressive
Here's the Academy F-22 that I build about 3 years ago. I think I can do alot better today:
Nice work in there indeed,very nice.The Hasegawa kit goes together like butter for sure!!
That canopy does look nice! I don't think i've ever had a kit where the canopy cleanly fitted before.
Nice Academy build too.
I'm not much into to modern stuff, but I look foward to this one.....and how are you going to improve on that Academy Raptor which looks perfect to me.....
Joe
"Can you fly this plane and land it?...Surely you can't be serious....I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"
lawdog114 I'm not much into to modern stuff, but I look foward to this one.....and how are you going to improve on that Academy Raptor which looks perfect to me..... Joe
I think I've gotten alot better at weathering and detailing my models over the past year or two. I feel like my Academy F-22 is just a bit sterile. Don't get me wrong, though. I'm happy with the it turned out. I believe I did a good job performing all the basics like filling seams, painting, etc. And at the time that was really about the best I could have done. I just feel like the stuff I'm making today is a bit more interesting to look at.
Fly-n-hi lawdog114 Thanks alot, Joe! I'll make you a deal...you make something modern and I'll make something from WWII. We'll get out of our comfort zones.
lawdog114
Hummmmmmmmmmm.......ok deal ....how modern do I have to go? Something in current service or can it be retired, like the Tomcat?
lawdog114 Hummmmmmmmmmm.......ok deal ....how modern do I have to go? Something in current service or can it be retired, like the Tomcat? Joe
Ok, are you guys ready for the million dollar update? This might be the new standard when it comes to these Hasegawa F-22 intakes.
I've figured out how to deal with these very oddly shaped intakes. You see, since they have such a large bend in them and since the white part of the intakes starts fairly far back inside those intakes it will be quite challenging to paint them.
So here's what I did. I assembled the intakes and used Mr. Surfacer 500 along the seams to fill them. Then I glued a piece of foam backed sanding pad to a small dowel rod and sanded out the seam. This isn't the million dollar tip, btw. Here's what I'm talking about:
I didn't actually take any pics of the intake assemble and clean up but I think you get the idea. Ok, here's the million dollar tip: I used my razor saw and cut off the front end of the intake. These pics show the painted intakes already. Again, I forgot and only took pics after it was all done. Although you can see some of the Mr. Surfacer in the pic below. After cutting of the forward part of the intakes I used the "dump & pour" method of painting them. I sealed off the back ends of the intakes with tape, poured some Behr High Gloss Interior/Exterior paint in them and then poured out the paint...and removed the tape, of course. Actually, I didn't really pour it in. I used some small squirt bottles that I bought at Hobby Lobby. Here's a good shot of how the Behr paint turned out: The Behr enamel paint is great because it holds up pretty well to sanding if you have any flaws in the paint. Alot of people use latex paint but it rolls up if you try to sand it. Now its important to note that I cut the forward part of the intakes using the outside lines as a guide (I don't have any good pics of this yet but I'll edit this update when I do). This is important for two reasons. First, that's just about where the white part of the paint starts and second the intake isn't getting bigger or smaller at this location. This means that when you re attach these parts they will have the same surface area (or profile, if you wish) to attach to. Don't forget, you loose just a little bit of plastic from the saw. If the parts were getting wider or narrower then there would end up being a very slight step at the join. Does this make sense? Here's how they look loosely assembled: Here's how they look loosely inserted in the fuselage. And yes, they fit just about as well as they did before they were cut: It takes a little bit of guts to cut the parts but I think its gonna end up working out great. Obviously, I still need to sand and fill the joins where the intakes meet the fuselage parts. But this should be a piece of cake. And even if I have to mask the white parts I can do that before I attach the forward intake part to the main part. When looking into the intakes you can only see a very small section of the compressor fan. This pic below shows about how much of the fan will be visible. In fact, if you look at the pic above you sort of see what I'm talking about. And this may be too generous. I think less will be visible that what I'm showing here: Normally I might dry to dry brush some silver or use the Tamiya Weathering Compounds to detail the fans but in this case I'm not gonna bother with it. Even when using a flashlight you can barely see them. Stay tuned...
I didn't actually take any pics of the intake assemble and clean up but I think you get the idea.
Ok, here's the million dollar tip: I used my razor saw and cut off the front end of the intake. These pics show the painted intakes already. Again, I forgot and only took pics after it was all done. Although you can see some of the Mr. Surfacer in the pic below.
After cutting of the forward part of the intakes I used the "dump & pour" method of painting them. I sealed off the back ends of the intakes with tape, poured some Behr High Gloss Interior/Exterior paint in them and then poured out the paint...and removed the tape, of course. Actually, I didn't really pour it in. I used some small squirt bottles that I bought at Hobby Lobby. Here's a good shot of how the Behr paint turned out: The Behr enamel paint is great because it holds up pretty well to sanding if you have any flaws in the paint. Alot of people use latex paint but it rolls up if you try to sand it. Now its important to note that I cut the forward part of the intakes using the outside lines as a guide (I don't have any good pics of this yet but I'll edit this update when I do). This is important for two reasons. First, that's just about where the white part of the paint starts and second the intake isn't getting bigger or smaller at this location. This means that when you re attach these parts they will have the same surface area (or profile, if you wish) to attach to. Don't forget, you loose just a little bit of plastic from the saw. If the parts were getting wider or narrower then there would end up being a very slight step at the join. Does this make sense? Here's how they look loosely assembled: Here's how they look loosely inserted in the fuselage. And yes, they fit just about as well as they did before they were cut: It takes a little bit of guts to cut the parts but I think its gonna end up working out great. Obviously, I still need to sand and fill the joins where the intakes meet the fuselage parts. But this should be a piece of cake. And even if I have to mask the white parts I can do that before I attach the forward intake part to the main part. When looking into the intakes you can only see a very small section of the compressor fan. This pic below shows about how much of the fan will be visible. In fact, if you look at the pic above you sort of see what I'm talking about. And this may be too generous. I think less will be visible that what I'm showing here: Normally I might dry to dry brush some silver or use the Tamiya Weathering Compounds to detail the fans but in this case I'm not gonna bother with it. Even when using a flashlight you can barely see them. Stay tuned...
After cutting of the forward part of the intakes I used the "dump & pour" method of painting them. I sealed off the back ends of the intakes with tape, poured some Behr High Gloss Interior/Exterior paint in them and then poured out the paint...and removed the tape, of course. Actually, I didn't really pour it in. I used some small squirt bottles that I bought at Hobby Lobby.
Here's a good shot of how the Behr paint turned out:
The Behr enamel paint is great because it holds up pretty well to sanding if you have any flaws in the paint. Alot of people use latex paint but it rolls up if you try to sand it. Now its important to note that I cut the forward part of the intakes using the outside lines as a guide (I don't have any good pics of this yet but I'll edit this update when I do). This is important for two reasons. First, that's just about where the white part of the paint starts and second the intake isn't getting bigger or smaller at this location. This means that when you re attach these parts they will have the same surface area (or profile, if you wish) to attach to. Don't forget, you loose just a little bit of plastic from the saw. If the parts were getting wider or narrower then there would end up being a very slight step at the join. Does this make sense? Here's how they look loosely assembled: Here's how they look loosely inserted in the fuselage. And yes, they fit just about as well as they did before they were cut: It takes a little bit of guts to cut the parts but I think its gonna end up working out great. Obviously, I still need to sand and fill the joins where the intakes meet the fuselage parts. But this should be a piece of cake. And even if I have to mask the white parts I can do that before I attach the forward intake part to the main part. When looking into the intakes you can only see a very small section of the compressor fan. This pic below shows about how much of the fan will be visible. In fact, if you look at the pic above you sort of see what I'm talking about. And this may be too generous. I think less will be visible that what I'm showing here: Normally I might dry to dry brush some silver or use the Tamiya Weathering Compounds to detail the fans but in this case I'm not gonna bother with it. Even when using a flashlight you can barely see them. Stay tuned...
The Behr enamel paint is great because it holds up pretty well to sanding if you have any flaws in the paint. Alot of people use latex paint but it rolls up if you try to sand it.
Now its important to note that I cut the forward part of the intakes using the outside lines as a guide (I don't have any good pics of this yet but I'll edit this update when I do). This is important for two reasons. First, that's just about where the white part of the paint starts and second the intake isn't getting bigger or smaller at this location. This means that when you re attach these parts they will have the same surface area (or profile, if you wish) to attach to. Don't forget, you loose just a little bit of plastic from the saw. If the parts were getting wider or narrower then there would end up being a very slight step at the join. Does this make sense?
Here's how they look loosely assembled:
Here's how they look loosely inserted in the fuselage. And yes, they fit just about as well as they did before they were cut: It takes a little bit of guts to cut the parts but I think its gonna end up working out great. Obviously, I still need to sand and fill the joins where the intakes meet the fuselage parts. But this should be a piece of cake. And even if I have to mask the white parts I can do that before I attach the forward intake part to the main part. When looking into the intakes you can only see a very small section of the compressor fan. This pic below shows about how much of the fan will be visible. In fact, if you look at the pic above you sort of see what I'm talking about. And this may be too generous. I think less will be visible that what I'm showing here: Normally I might dry to dry brush some silver or use the Tamiya Weathering Compounds to detail the fans but in this case I'm not gonna bother with it. Even when using a flashlight you can barely see them. Stay tuned...
Here's how they look loosely inserted in the fuselage. And yes, they fit just about as well as they did before they were cut:
It takes a little bit of guts to cut the parts but I think its gonna end up working out great. Obviously, I still need to sand and fill the joins where the intakes meet the fuselage parts. But this should be a piece of cake. And even if I have to mask the white parts I can do that before I attach the forward intake part to the main part. When looking into the intakes you can only see a very small section of the compressor fan. This pic below shows about how much of the fan will be visible. In fact, if you look at the pic above you sort of see what I'm talking about. And this may be too generous. I think less will be visible that what I'm showing here: Normally I might dry to dry brush some silver or use the Tamiya Weathering Compounds to detail the fans but in this case I'm not gonna bother with it. Even when using a flashlight you can barely see them. Stay tuned...
It takes a little bit of guts to cut the parts but I think its gonna end up working out great. Obviously, I still need to sand and fill the joins where the intakes meet the fuselage parts. But this should be a piece of cake. And even if I have to mask the white parts I can do that before I attach the forward intake part to the main part.
When looking into the intakes you can only see a very small section of the compressor fan. This pic below shows about how much of the fan will be visible. In fact, if you look at the pic above you sort of see what I'm talking about. And this may be too generous. I think less will be visible that what I'm showing here:
Normally I might dry to dry brush some silver or use the Tamiya Weathering Compounds to detail the fans but in this case I'm not gonna bother with it. Even when using a flashlight you can barely see them. Stay tuned...
Normally I might dry to dry brush some silver or use the Tamiya Weathering Compounds to detail the fans but in this case I'm not gonna bother with it. Even when using a flashlight you can barely see them.
Stay tuned...
Looking great Fly. I don't waste paint on stuff that can't be seen either. Its counterproductive. Hey...and nice going, I'm intrigued now so you have me perusing varous jet builds. I'm seriously considering a Phantom. I might grab the Revell kit at Hobby Lobby with a 40%-er. Any thoughts or better suggestions?
.
lawdog114 Looking great Fly. I don't waste paint on stuff that can't be seen either. Its counterproductive. Hey...and nice going, I'm intrigued now so you have me perusing varous jet builds. I'm seriously considering a Phantom. I might grab the Revell kit at Hobby Lobby with a 40%-er. Any thoughts or better suggestions? Joe .
They aren't really cheap, though. The best deal I found was $44 on eBay. But just the weapons set that is included with the kit is probably worth $20. And the decal sheet has something like 300 decals on it! Plus, there's already alot of AM stuff for it if that's your thing.
Alrighty...maybe I'll check that one out. I saw a Monogram Phantom on E-bay going for like 5 bones. Now that can't be a good sign....LOL. I do have a 1/48 Hasegawa VF-84 F-14 A in my stash, which was supposed to be a commission build eons ago, but the guy bailed out, so I'm sort of stuck with it. Maybe I'll dive into that. i have heard that is one challenging kit....eh what the heck.
lawdog114 Alrighty...maybe I'll check that one out. I saw a Monogram Phantom on E-bay going for like 5 bones. Now that can't be a good sign....LOL. I do have a 1/48 Hasegawa VF-84 F-14 A in my stash, which was supposed to be a commission build eons ago, but the guy bailed out, so I'm sort of stuck with it. Maybe I'll dive into that. i have heard that is one challenging kit....eh what the heck. Joe
Here's the VF-84 I built about 3 or 4 years ago:
I've assembled the exhaust parts and painted the turbines. I painted the turbines Alclad II Burnt Iron and weathered them with some Tamiya Weathering Compound Sand color:
I used the same technique to smooth out the insides of the exhaust as I did with the intakes. I used Mr Surfacer 500 and sanded it out with the sanding pad/dowel tool that I made: This pic shows the smooth seams a little better: You may have noticed that I scribed some lines into the backs of the exhausts. I'm not sure what they are but they are present in the reference pics I've seen. Here's how it looks so far loosely fitted in the fuselage: This is an area that might benefit from AM resin. As you can see the turbines are fairly plain. But, I will be posing the trust vectoring nozzles in the closed position so we may not be able to see much inside of there anyway.
I used the same technique to smooth out the insides of the exhaust as I did with the intakes. I used Mr Surfacer 500 and sanded it out with the sanding pad/dowel tool that I made:
This pic shows the smooth seams a little better: You may have noticed that I scribed some lines into the backs of the exhausts. I'm not sure what they are but they are present in the reference pics I've seen. Here's how it looks so far loosely fitted in the fuselage: This is an area that might benefit from AM resin. As you can see the turbines are fairly plain. But, I will be posing the trust vectoring nozzles in the closed position so we may not be able to see much inside of there anyway.
This pic shows the smooth seams a little better:
You may have noticed that I scribed some lines into the backs of the exhausts. I'm not sure what they are but they are present in the reference pics I've seen. Here's how it looks so far loosely fitted in the fuselage: This is an area that might benefit from AM resin. As you can see the turbines are fairly plain. But, I will be posing the trust vectoring nozzles in the closed position so we may not be able to see much inside of there anyway.
You may have noticed that I scribed some lines into the backs of the exhausts. I'm not sure what they are but they are present in the reference pics I've seen.
Here's how it looks so far loosely fitted in the fuselage:
This is an area that might benefit from AM resin. As you can see the turbines are fairly plain. But, I will be posing the trust vectoring nozzles in the closed position so we may not be able to see much inside of there anyway.
I've discovered, after dry fitting the Aires cockpit, that this part needed to be trimmed down a bit:
Looking good!
So on the intakes, you cut off the front part, painted the insides white, then reassembled them back the way they were, if that's how I understand it?
"Whaddya mean 'Who's flying the plane?!' Nobody's flying the plane!"
Jim Barton Looking good! So on the intakes, you cut off the front part, painted the insides white, then reassembled them back the way they were, if that's how I understand it?
That is correct. Although I haven't reattached them yet. I need to paint the front part before I do that.
I have a better pic of where exactly I cut the intakes. I'll post it when I upload it to Photobucket.
Looking good, I got the Italeri 1/48 kit in the stash that I won't get started till after the group builds I am in are completed. I am dreading doing the nose correction on it but hey I scored it for 12.00 sealed up still. I will be keeping tabs on this thread as a reference.
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