Stealth GB

Ok, sorry to pinch the second post. But can i enter with Tamiyas 1:48 F-117A? Its the one without the hummer, its also a crossover from the Night Hunting GB. Hopefully thats allowed. I will be a late start though.

That's OK and welcome aboard. The list will go up in about a week in preparation for Jan 1

Cheers

Hi everyone,

     I have added the build list in the first post.

Cheers

I just gotta wait till X-mas so I can get my gift money and go buy the kit.

Yeah me to! I'm waiting on the Testors SR-71 kit I ordered in September. Mt True Details wheels and cockpit sets arrived months ago and they sure look sweet.

Cheers

Well I ordered my Predator. I also ordered two books. One is called "Birds of Prey" and it's all about UAV's. The other is called USAF Spec Ops Aircraft. Those will be great additions. Now just waiting for it to get here.

Well it's 2011 in Australia so I consider the build all systems go!

Good luck everybody and good modelling over the next year in this and other GBs!

Cheers

Casper,

Happy New Year to you and the rest of the members in the Stealth GB!

I've started the F 35 and will try to post a work in progress report and some pictures within the next week.

I got my Predator in the mail earlier this week. Should start soon too.

Medicman71

I got my Predator in the mail earlier this week. Should start soon too.

I'm not sure when I'm going to see my Blackbird hopefully soon...

hi, can I join with a cross over, and a new build ?

Ho-229 crossover.. and an XB-35, as a new

Sure P38 welcome aboard and please grab the badge.

Cheers

Hmmmmmm....sure is quiet in my build......

Good news is my 1/48 SR-71 arrived into my local hobby store. Pickup this week. Not sure where it's gonna go when I finish it, it's almost 70cm (28 in for my US friends) in length. It's nearly 5 times the length of my Zero at the same scale. That's one big bird!

Cheers

Drool.........

This kit has to be seen to be believed! It's wingspan at 1/48 will be about twice the width of my 1/48 Zero! Oh well, this won't be started for a while, I have 3 planes to start and finish but I'll post anything I may play with between now and then!

Cheers

Hey guys, can I crossover with an F-19 that I will be building for the Red Storm Rising build?

beav

Hey guys, can I crossover with an F-19 that I will be building for the Red Storm Rising build?

Yep all good, anything that looks almost like a space craft gets my vote!

You're on the front page, feel free to grab the badge. BTW what's the scale and kit?

Cheers

I'll be doing the venerable old 1/48 Testors-boxed kit.  It was MISB from ebay, too good to pass up!

OOhhhh, Testors SR-71. Ive been eyeing that one at the LHS. But im reluctant to get anything from testors after seeing dad struggle with one he got (im thinking it was a B-2 but i could be mistaken) It was so badly warped he ended up taking it back and getting a refund. Even the pit deck was warped. But it doesnt stop me drooling every time i see it standing there at the LHS.

Casper the Chihuahua

Drool.........

This kit has to be seen to be believed! It's wingspan at 1/48 will be about twice the width of my 1/48 Zero! Oh well, this won't be started for a while, I have 3 planes to start and finish but I'll post anything I may play with between now and then!

Cheers

Don't feel bad Casper. I have my Predator but I have the Osprey that i'm building (see the WIP thread) and I have to start my F-14A for another GB (or two.....or is it three ). I see that you have the true details cockpit for it. I have one for my Tomcat.

Ok time to get some WIP into this build!

Glad I forked out for the TD cockpit set, the kit set is hardly more than a slab of plastic with a token attempt at some controls. The instrument panels are hardly any better

Just to show the size of this kit this is the kit cockpit tub in place on the fuselage base;

Ok at this point I need to work out if I want to make the SR-71A or the SR-71B training version with the raised rear canopy.

Cheers

Well after a fun afternoon sawing, sanding and cutting off resin casting blocks I started dry fitting all of the resin components to test fit. Y'know I love resin but often it can be a ^&@#%$@* to work with!

And the instructions that are provided usually leave a lot to be desired. So far, hands down the best AM product instructions have to be Eduard. The worst would be Verlinden (on the F-104G set the instructions had almost no diagrams and was a set of verbal instructions) True Details fars a little better but only just.

There was no way the 4 window sills were going to get in with the 2 cockpit tubs. I had to perform surgery on the outside of each cockpit sill and cut them out and scrape inside and trim each resin sill to get them to conform to a shape that would allow for the tubs.

So the sills are now Superglued in and I have the tubs just sitting inside to test. It's not perfect but better than what it was. On all of the reference pics I have for the sidewalls, these sills shouldn't mess with the side instrument panels but this is the best I could achieve. Now some major milliputting and repair work to seal the sides of the pit. and BTW I decided to go with the A version.

Cheers

Alright guys, since everyone else is being so slow with starting, I'll post some pics of the kit prebuild.  For being as old (or older) than I am, I'm impressed.  The molding is clean with no flash, and few seam lines or pin marks on visible parts.  Oddly its been made in black plastic, but thats nothing grey primer can't solve.

That last one appears to have washed out, but I promise all my other pics won't be as terrible...I need a new camera...

The best part of this kit is the 'historical info' section, the little stealth technology whats-its they add in all over the place.  This thing even has technical specifications, pretty good for an aircraft which probably never existed.  Oddly its got the same GE F404 engines the original F117As had, and similar armament.

I'll add in a few of the fun bits from the instructions.  Sensitive information redacted of course.

UNCLASSIFIED

/////////////////////// XX "Helpful Hints" XX \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

(U) The F-19 model has several building options and you should become familiar with them. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 2 Types of canopies are included-one for training flights, the other for "hot" secret missions.  The Testor 1/48 scale F-19 Stealth fighter is based upon years of extensive research.  All specifications were obtained from unrestricted public sources.  Because it is a model only commonly known stealth concepts are shown.  No critical full scale internal componesnts are depicted and no classified systems are disclosed.

///////////////////////XX END XX\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

UNCLASSIFIED

Hey beav, well that's two Testor's kits up and running now. They sure liked their black sprues but as you said light gray primer and it's not really an issue.

Good to hear flashing is down to a minimum, lots on the SR-71 kit.

Cheers

Sorry to hear that about your flash issues.  I'm frankly quite surprised that the exterior surfaces are clean of any defects on the major top and bottom wing halfs.  Unfortunately a lot of filler is going to be need for a clean fit between them, but; its always something you know.  I've got some paint drying on the cockpit tub; and I'm debating adding in some walls to the cockpit so that you cannot see into the fuselage.   

Ok got the tubs painted;

Gave the instrument panel a coat of white and then Future. When they are dry I'll coat on black and then use a lightly thinned at the tip toothpick to pick out the dial details. I read somewhere it's a bit more effective than dry brushing.

Cheers

Well, my F-19 is the first airplane that I've built since...uh...counting...seven years ago?  The last one was a 1/144 Hustler; so this is considerably bigger.  I think I'm going to keep it simple since it will probably end up as an in-flight model.  

Casper, I cannot hope to compete with your awesome interior finish, thats fantastic!  I think the most I'll do is stick with the added ejection handles and some light painting the old-school drybrush style, though I'm tempted to retry it like yours.  I'm hitting a wall since I don't have any modelling grade sandpaper on hand and I don't want to use my files.  The great part about having a knife edged fuselage is that the joint is extremely easy to do; but the aft end did not want to stick.  I got it eventually but with a lot of random thumbprints which will need to be sanded off...

Instrument panels done, a little bit of Future on the dials but a bit hard to see in this photo.

Should be able to get the cockpit together soon.

Cheers

Got the tubs into the top half of the fuselage.

Nice thing about this kit is there is plenty of room for the replacement resin tubs. Also the seams are underneath and should sand nicely. That means no invisible gap on the top running down the centre like most other kits. So the camera windows underneath are glued and drying. Some prelim fuselage joining tomorrow.

Cheers

Time to add some detail to the landing gear. It's a bit sparse and the front wheel is meant to have 2 landing lights. These are part of the black sprue (????!!&&^$#$&) Go figure!

I used an unused round piece of clear plastic and some left over clear sprue to simulate the lights. The main one may be a bit large but I kinda like it;

Looks ok with some extra bits of wiring and PE and looks better with some paint;

The forward part of the fuselage has been drying today after being attached. Some gaps up to 1mm in places.

Will break out the tape and putty.

Cheers