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

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

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.

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!

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.

Lots of WOW factors.  Keep us posted.

Regards,  Rick

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

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

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.

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 ....

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

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!

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