F-117 Nighthawk ... update 7JUL ...

Cool, good luck on it. I'll be tuned in for updates.

How is the kit itself just on first glance? I've been thinking about getting the Tamiya one but it costs a fortune (for me atleast) so if the Revell one is decent I'll just go that route.

Thanks,

David

Hey, thanks for following this one, David. As luck, well, weather, turns out ... things got a little cruddy down here in Houston today, so I'm starting this one up this afternoon.

At first glance, this kit seems nice enough. I haven't heard any big complaints about it. That's one reason that I went w/ this kit over the Tamiya .... that, and the price I got it for. Decent recessed detail and simple enough straight OOB. However, the cockpit is a little blunt and lacking, but if you built it OOB w/ the canopy closed you wouldn't notice. The only other thing I've noticed is that the "clear" sprue is actually a bright clear yellow. I don't know if this is really all that accurate, but then again, I haven't really done all THAT much research on it yet. Just the basics, really. All the AM kits that I've come across for this bird are for the Tam kit, but as w/ anything ... you can always get them to fit another kit ... just might take a little persuasion.

Thanks again for following ... I'll have an update posted as soon as I get ... well, something done!

Thanks for the info, I saw this review on the Academy kit and if you scroll down to the section on kit modifications it says:

The clear parts are molded in orange-clear plastic. Altough this is quite acceptable for the canopy, it has a side effect. You will have orange landing lights and orange FLIR/DLIR screens. I drilled out the landing lights, painted inside with Testors chrome silver and I gradually added a drop of Humbrol gloss cote onto it. Humbrol glossclote shrinks when it dries, but after 3-4 applications and drying times, you will have a very nice looking landing light. The result seems quite convincing to me, and I will do this for my next models, too. Don't try to do it with Humbrol clearfix, it will have air bubbles when it dries. (I learned that the hard way, but I had replacement lights in hand, more on this later...). I didn't try it with an acrylic gloss, but I think that it will do. Humbrol's glosscote is very very good for this job, because it dries crystal clear, and it has a very high surface tension, so you can have a nice concave surface.

Heres the original link:

http://www.hyperscale.com/features/2001/f117kg_1.htm

David

Thanks for posting that link, Dave. I just got through looking through Google and through SQDN's walk-around book, and I didn't see any canopy that looked as bright yellow as what  I've got. Looks like I'll be cutting out the windows and replacing them .... yea.

Funny thing too ... since ALL the clear parts are molded in the bright yellow plastic, the landing and nav lights are yellow. EVERYTHING IS YELLOW!!!!

.... boo ....

How about a small update ..............

I'm beginning to learn the hardships of working w/ an AM resin kit that wasn't meant for this kit. Go figure, I know .... The CMK kit is proving to be not all that great. Some of the resin pieces (the bomb bay comes in 5 parts) doesn't fit all that well. However, all the rest of the parts are pretty solid, so I'm not all that worried about it.

Here I've had to trim out the kit's instrument panel in preparation for the resin cockpit and panel.

b/c the cockpit has color PE parts that I will add after priming and initially painting it, I moved on to getting the bomb bay and wheel bays ready for the interior paint color as well. Shots of cutting the bay doors out, etc, etc.

I was so careful to try to scribe out the bay doors so that I could use them when opened that I COMPLETELY missed the point ... the doors coming off the kit's mold would be WAY too thick. Note to self, don't model tired! IDIOT!!! So I went back w/ my dremel and had a ball. Next I went a outlined the bay openings on sheet styrene and cut new doors.

... and test fitting the new resin bomb bay ...

Almost ready to get the bomb bay in. The fit of the bay isn't bad, but it just loosely sits inside the open fuselage. I've already made a sheet styrene shim to cover up the holes. I also plan to glue in some styrene braces to hold the bay in place. The new wheel bays look like they might need the same, but it should be pretty straight forward.

Other changes that I have in mind are:
- cutting out the molded intake screens and replacing them with actual screen mesh.
- adding in GBU bombs to the racks
- vac-u-forming a clear canopy to replace this weird yellow one (?)
- And here's the big MAYBE list ...
- wiring for cockpit LED/ fiberoptic lighting
- "  "  " landing lights
- "  "  " possibly some lights in the wheel and bomb bays to aid in seeing the detail in a mirrored base.
... I have thought about doing the blinking nav lights but I don't know how much I can really spend on those special timers/ curcuits. I'd really like to put a magnetic-type switch but again, I don't know how much one of those things costs or works.

I guess before I get too involved with the building, I should try and map this thing out just to see if I want to do it or not.

Here's a cople of schematics from http://dynamicscalemodeling.com/ on a F-117 they built. I OBVIOUSLY wouldn't be going this far ...

Ahhhh ..... here's to dreaming .....

.... As always .... any/ all C&C welcome.

Looking good so far!!! That AM kit does seem to be sort of a pain to implement though. And I think the light idea would be really cool if you could pull it off. I know I couldn't so good luck with it. I'll be tuned for another update.

David

Looking very good so far, the lighting and AM parts will really dress up this kit. 

Lots of WOW factors.  Keep us posted.

Regards,  Rick

Daywalker

Looking very good so far, the lighting and AM parts will really dress up this kit. 

Thanks DW .... and you're spot on about dressing up this kit. Built OOB, this one would have much going for it ... pretty easy chessy. But the CMK resin kit hits the highlights right were it needs it.

Looks pretty good so far! Here's my two cents on the matter:

Get a glass base!! You're putting all those details under there, why not show them off?

Hang a bomb on one side, leave the other side empty. One side can show the teeth, the other shows the detail.

Leave the glass as it is. The real canopies have some sort of gold tint to aid in RADAR dispersion.

Keep up the good work, I can't wait for more updates!

Thanks Max,

I've got a friend that's going to hook me up w/ vac-u-forming, so I think what I might do in the case of the canopy is to make a couple of clear vac-u-form copies, then build the kit canopy as is as well as a clear- CLEAR canopy, and a clear canopy w/ a little tint to it and see which on looks best.

This is the kit canopy .... too yellow IMO compared to the pics below.

Wow, that is really yellow. I hadn't realized it was that yellow!. That sounds like a great idea to go with the vacuformed canopy. How do you plan to tint it though?

Thanks,

David

I don't think that they make a clear yellow, but I could be wrong. Clear orange wouldn't work either, so I'll probably end up using Future lightly tinted w/ yellow food coloring. That's probably going to be my best bet.

Hobby Lobby has in their model RR section thin sheets of colored styrene/ PVC/ acetate (I don't know what it is. But I'm sur ethey have some yellow. I might look and see how yellow that is and if its not to bad I might try teaming that w/ the vac-u-formed canopies.

I just don't understand the clear yellow sprue they made for this kit .... its just plain stupid. They even call for clear-yellow anti-collison lights/ BEACONS to be placed on the top and bottom of the fuselage!?!?! HELL - O!!!!! They're RED!!!! They do the same thing for the nav lights on the wing tips! WTF!?!?!

Oh, well ... that just means more work for me ....

Didn't get anything done on her today .... spent most of the day trying to plan out how/ if I'm going to wire this thing for LEDs and blinking LEDs ....

I am faced with the same issues with my Revell 1/72 scale F-22 Raptor. It also has the yellow sprue of parts that includes landing lights and the HUD. The yellow is just awful I think. I won't use the HUD as I am including a Eduard detail set and this was provided and the landing lights? Yellow? Ugh! I don't even want to use the canopy as most of the photos I now see show a smoke tinted canopy.....

I feel your pain, Jim ... I think that you're best bet is to vac-u-form couple of canopies. I don't have a VUF set-up, but I'm going to mail the kit canopy to a friend who's going to do it for me.

For the landing lights .... two suggestions .... 1) You could slowly build up layers of Future until you get a "dried bulb", but this will take lots of time and patience. ... or ... 2) Carefully heat the end of a piece of clear sprue until a bulb forms. Then lightly sand the bulb w/ fine sand paper to remove any burnt residue. Then just snip it off and glue in place. This is the method that I will probably go with.

I hadn't even heard of that second technique before. Let us know how it turns out.

David

So, I think I got a little carried away in thinking about lighting this one up. My original intentions were to model this A/C out on the tarmac, all shut-down, canopy open, "remove before flight" tags, etc, etc .... and then I went all out and lit the whole thing up!?!? Something just didn't add up.

So, I took out all the wiring, and started to close things up. I've gotten a little more done than what's pictured, I just haven't had the time to load my newest pictures up.

Been away from the bench awhile, but here's what I've got so far ....

Landing gear was cut up and re-worked w/ brass & alum rod.

Flaps were cut in half, split, and reattached w/ tubing to look "at rest".

Main gear primed, painted and attached to lower fuse half. Normally, I wouldn't do this, but there's no way to attached the upper and lower wings w/o the main wheel bays .... just the way the kit is. No biggie though. I still have a little plumbing to do and the wash, but that's it. In hind-sight, however, I should have just finished the gears before attaching them. Oh well.

Took a break from the A/C and assembled the GBU-10 bombs (2x). They come from a Hasegawa modern smart bomb kit. Straight from the box, except I cut the guidance nose off and reattached it at an angle that you would see if the A/C was just sitting there.

Those are pretty much the pics I have for right now. Like I said, I have more, but I need to load them. I'm also minus my paint booth and AB at the moment, so I feel a little stalled. Might just go ahead and hand paint the cockpit, just to keep rolling.

Anyway. Hope you guys enjoy the update, and as always .... any and all C&C welcome.

Very impressive work so far.  Keep us posted.

Darwin, O.F. 

Thanks, Darwin ....

What's another hour of sleep ... decided to load a few more pictures to bring this page up to speed.

I got bored a bit back and decided to cut out the air intakes IOT add in a more realistic screen. Being bored was NO excuse for the amount of work that this ended up being ...

I also cut screens to use over the FLIR and DLIR openings. The kit has some "glass" (the same nasty yellow color ....) and I sure wasn't going to use that. All in all I think it turned out ok ...

V-tail, or the "ruddervaders", was assembled, puttied, and sanded. Didn't take too much putty. Fit was pretty nice. Only issue for fit was getting everything to line up JUST right on the fuselage .... and even that didn't come out PERFECT. Just didn't want to go ...

And and little plumbing work on the front gear ....

Enjoy ... and as always, C&C welcome ....

I wished I had a vac-form buddy, but oh well....

As far as those landing lights, I have been experimenting with clear sprue. I rounded the end of a cut piece, then cut it from the sprue. I then thinned and flattened the back side, coated with Future, then painted the back silver. My first attempt came out pretty good, but it was tedious.

Not to get off the F-117, sorry to see you give up on the lighting project. That would have been interesting to see.......

You can build a VUF pretty cheaply, especially if you're only going to make one to do something the size of canopies and other small parts.

For the landing lights ... I think you went a little more in depth than I do, but that's ok .... you only have to do 3x anyway.

As for the lighting .... yeah, it was kind of a drag to dump it, but I think it, in the end, would have thrown off the look of a "shut-down" A/C just sitting there. No big deal though ... I'll be using the LEDs else-where.

I like it.  The plumbing on the gear is great.

JOHN

Thanks John ... appreciate that.

And here's just a quickie-update for this evening ....

I had planned on doing the gear/ bomb bay washes w/ oils since it would be going on to a white paint job, but I didn't have any mineral spirits and frankly, I didn't feel like going out and buying some. So, I made due w/ my acylics ... I know, not the greatest for washes, but I think it came out pretty nice ...

The first wash on the front gear ...

... and w/ a little more plumbing ...

Main gear ... right washed, left not washed just to show the difference.

First wash of the bomb bay, and then the finished (w/ wash at least) over-head ...

And lastly, just a quick mock-up ....

Enjoy .... and as always .... all C&C welcome.

lookng great on that woblin goblin the other nickname it had for you that didnt know     but anyways its lookin awesome

tomcat4evr

lookng great on that woblin goblin the other nickname it had for you that didnt know     but anyways its lookin awesome

Hey, thanks!  ... Woblin Goblin .... never heard that before .....

... but it might make for a nice name for the A/C .... painted right there on the bay door. Hmmm .....

modelchasm:- does this kit come with the B-61 nuclear bombs?

cheers, chris

Hey Chris ...

Sorry, but this Revell/ Monogram kit doesn't even come w/ an open bomb bay! So, no bombs .... at all. I cut the bay doors so I could open them and I'm using the GBU-10's from a Hasegawa "Modern US Smart Bombs" kit.

I think the Tamiya kit does come w/ open bays, but I don't know if it comes w/ ordinance or not.

Sorry.

Work's been going a little slow on this one. I gave up trying to scratch the bomb cradles for the bomb bay and ended up buying the Promodeler version in order to get a few parts I needed/ wanted. Later in the future, I'll probably build this one as well, but in a in-flight configuration.

Let's see ... from the last update, I think I left off w/ the bomb bay. I've gotten a lot more pieces primed, but not necessarily finished.

Here are the bay doors ....

... and the gear doors ...

All things F-117 getting primed ...

Here's a little work on the inst panel and the cockpit ....

And the not-quite-finished bomb cradles ....

Sorry for the delays in updates .... but we're hoping to get this one wrapped up soon. As always .... all C&C welcome! Enjoy!!

modelchasm

Hey Chris ...

Sorry, but this Revell/ Monogram kit doesn't even come w/ an open bomb bay! So, no bombs .... at all. I cut the bay doors so I could open them and I'm using the GBU-10's from a Hasegawa "Modern US Smart Bombs" kit.

I think the Tamiya kit does come w/ open bays, but I don't know if it comes w/ ordinance or not.

Sorry.

The ProModeler kit of the F-117 has open Bomb Bays and bombs as well as the Italeri F-117 also has open bomb bays as well.