Variable Geometry: the Swing Wing GB

Hey Aggie, I've been wondering when you'd start that Bone.  Three of them going now.  But guys, take your time!!  It ain't a race and we've got plenty of time in this GB.  Besides, you'll make me look bad if you both finish before me     I'm lucky if I get 2 evenings a week at the bench and I've already given up trying to keep pace with macattack... 

Hang in there with the fuselage.  Remember to weight the nose or it'll be a tail sitter.  Although without the bomb bay and landing gear bays installed, you'll have less weight in the rear half of the aircraft.  [edit:  and DUH!!!   If you're going to hang this from the ceiling, how can it be a tail sitter...  sorry, my bad]  There will also be challenges down the road mating the nose and tail to the center portion of the fuselage.  Every blog that I've read on this kit encountered fit issues there.  Expect trouble and dry fit.

Post pics; sparsely painted or not, we want to see your progress. 

Don

Don, I don't think that I have accomplished much more than you have thus far.  I just get sick of cleaning up the same parts so I start a new subassembly all the time.

Aggieman, post what you have done so far.  Inquiring minds want to know.

Kevin

Kevin, I'll get to it soon, I promise.

I found myself with a few minutes at the bench this morning, so I tackled the fuselage during that time and managed to secure it in a couple more spots.  Two more left - those joins are actually flush they just need some liquid cement applied and time to set.  There are ugly seams on this thing, and does anyone thing Monogram (I think Monogram did the original mold for this kit, but I stand to be corrected) overdid the panel lines?  I've seen a few B-1s up close and don't recall being aware of panel lines.

Aggieman

.... and does anyone thing Monogram (I think Monogram did the original mold for this kit, but I stand to be corrected) overdid the panel lines?  I've seen a few B-1s up close and don't recall being aware of panel lines.

Yes, my feeling also.  Photos of the B-1B show a smooth surface and panel lines a very subtle.  Definitely overdone on this kit.  But what can one do without a huge amount of work?  I'm certainly not going to do anything to highlight them after painting; maybe that will make the panel lines less obvious.

Don

pordoi

Aggieman:

.... and does anyone thing Monogram (I think Monogram did the original mold for this kit, but I stand to be corrected) overdid the panel lines?  I've seen a few B-1s up close and don't recall being aware of panel lines.

 

 

Yes, my feeling also.  Photos of the B-1B show a smooth surface and panel lines a very subtle.  Definitely overdone on this kit.  But what can one do without a huge amount of work?  I'm certainly not going to do anything to highlight them after painting; maybe that will make the panel lines less obvious.

 

Don

 

I will agree with both of you.  The good thing of the panel lines being overdone is easy rescribing after all the puttying and sanding needed to get the kit to look like a plane.

I added the vortex generators that I made from a sheet of Evergreen styrene.  After looking at the photos I may need to replace a few that I cut a little short or long.  I eyeballed there locations from studying photos of them on the internet.  I don't have the Daco book  for reference.  Besides...the internet never lies......

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I attached the rear radome.  It sits without gap to fill but there is a nice little ledge to smooth out as you can tell by the putty.  Its not too big of a step i just didn't want to sand off any more detail.

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I am heading out of town for the weekend.  You all have a nice holiday.

Pictures are here!

The pit

Some pretty awful seams

Squadron white putty applied

Finally told my wife tonight that I am building this as if it was my bird and I was going to "paint" nose art tribute to her.  She's a red-head, so I've been thinking that I would have some text of [?] redhead; I asked her what word she thought would be good for the [?] and she suggested "racy".  Intriguing thought.

Alright.  More progress and looking good.  I cringe every time I fill seams; looking at the putty I think "how am I ever going to make this look decent".   At least with this kit, a little heavy sanding night actually be beneficial to knock down those panel lines a bit.

I've been doing more grillin' and chillin' than buildin' this weekend.  But I do like your idea of the noseart.  My youngest daughter is a redhead and I planned to name a Trumpeter 1/32 P-38 after her.  Did a little work in PhotoShop and ame up with this:

This was my first attempt at printing custom decals, and I screwed it up royally.  In the end, I gave up and used some commercially available decals.  Someday, I'll try again after reading up a bit more on decal printing.  So I'm looking forward to seeing how you tackle printing your decals.

Edit:  7/5/2010

     With 95F temps this weekend, I did manage to get some bench time in the AC rather than sweating outside.  Assembled the PE in the bomb bays, put the wings, horizaontal stabilizers and tail together, assembled the rotary launchers, and scratch built two tactical munitions dispenser shells using the auxillary fuel tank.  These will eventually carry CBU-87 cluster bombs purchased from shull24.com after some more scratch building of the swing arm machinery.  No time for pics tonight, but I'll try to get some tomorrow evening. 

     Hope that everyone had a relaxing July 4th weekend.

Don

Hey all. For those people doing B-1's, there's a great article on it in the current issue of Combat Aircraft Magazine.

Aggieman: The "bone" is looking great! I really like the detail. I am really debating getting the 1/72 kit now!

Well I have been doing things now sane [person would be doing the last 2 weeks; yard work in the 100+* heat here in SWFL. It was something that needed to be done and unfortunately the summer is the best time for planting and redoing landscaping do to the regular rains!

Now that I am done.......and rehydrated (lost 7lbs of water wt. in 5 hours of work!) I am back at the Raven. I am working on the PE wind screen and canopy parts now. The bonus for me is I just picked up a Super Scale decal sheet for 4 different Ravens. Score! I was also able to get one of the small PE parts that fell into the fuelage void 2 weeks ago to come back out! I will post some update pics in the next couple days.

Keep up the good work!

Travis

STFD637

I am back at the Raven. I am working on the PE wind screen and canopy parts now. The bonus for me is I just picked up a Super Scale decal sheet for 4 different Ravens. Score! I was also able to get one of the small PE parts that fell into the fuelage void 2 weeks ago to come back out! I will post some update pics in the next couple days.

Good score on the decal sheet, Travis and kudos for resurrecting the PE part that you lost in the fuselage.  Looking forward to seing the photos.

Medicman:  Thanks for the heads up on the B1 article in Combat Aircraft.  Is this issue 11 volume 6 or 8?  Both seem to have reference to B1s.

As I posted above, I made some progress on the main wheel well and bomb bays of the B1 and while waiting for things to set on those pieces, assembled the wings and tail.  The Eduard set adds some panel detail to the main wheel well aand some meshwork to the bomb bay panels.  Easy stuff that did not even require folding; just line up and glue.  My kind of PE.  The rear bulkhead of the aft bomb bay is not accurate at all, and looks nothing like its real life counterpart.  The PE adds some features but the plumbing is still wrong.  In the end, very little will be visible once the TMD is installed, so I didn't fret over it too much.

The tail assembly and wings really highlight just how big this kit will be when completed.  The tail assembly is set next to a same scale P-47D to give some size comparison.  The infamous seams on the main wings are also apparent.  Just do not understand why the wings were molded this way as opposed to top and bottom halves that join on the leading and trailing edges.  Go figure, but this will likely need some filling with plastic strip, then putty, sandign and re-scribing.

The next challenge will involve some scratch work to build a rotary dispenser loaded with JDAMs and Tasctical Munitions Dispensers (TMDs) carrying Cluster bombs.  The TMDs are housed in a shell that mounts in the bomb bays...

I used the auxillary fuel tank in the kit and cut and drilled each half to create the TMD shells.

However, the real challenge will be to scratch the swing arm assemblies.  I'll post photos of those later.  Also a challenge will be to make the rotary dispenser supplied in the kit...

... look a bit like the real thing...

  I showed those pics to my wife; she laughed, shook her head and walked away.    We'll see.

Don

Goodness Gracious that thing is big! The tail is the size of a thunderbolt, thats crazy!

Well at least you have an ecouraging wife

raptordriver

Goodness Gracious that thing is big! The tail is the size of a thunderbolt, thats crazy!

Well at least you have an ecouraging wife

Yes, sir.  This is a big aircraft.  Still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it once it's completed.

Ah yes, my wife has all the confidence in the world in my technical modeling skills.  You could tell by the way she chuckled when she saw the rotary...

Don

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=4079&hl=vortex%20generators&st=840

Check out post #851

I know you can do it too Don!!!  Your B-1 is coming along nicely.

Nice job on the Pit there Aggieman.  The seams are bad everywhere so don't get discouraged.....yet

macattack80

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=4079&hl=vortex%20generators&st=840

Check out post #851

I know you can do it too Don!!!  Your B-1 is coming along nicely.

I knew that I saw an article where someone scratched a rotary.  His work is pretty impressive; we'll see if I can get close to that fine example.  Thanks for the link.   In case any other readers want to have a look, I think it's shown in post 852 in the link that macattack provided.

Don

SCORE!!!!!

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Superscale's B-1B set number 49-398.  Marking for the "Trilogy of Terror" and the "Banshee"

Hey there!  Cold war era decals.  Looks like you're locked in to a tri-color scheme, eh?  Nice find.  But note that there is an inaccurate tail number for 85-0075.  It should not be 60075.

Don

pordoi

But note that there is an inaccurate tail number for 85-0075.  It should not be 60075.

 

Don

 

 

I read a review on the decals just a few minutes ago.  Good looking out Don. 

I got some bench time this morning while it was still bearable in the garage.  I glued all the gear and bay doors in place and put the tail section together.  This afternoon, after getting home from seeing Predators and doing some cleaning around the house, I went back to the bench and test fit the Bone to get a sense of how to approach putting this swing-winger together and just how big this beast really will be.

It's a beast I tell you, a horrible, monstrous beast!  Two points if you can identify the source of that quote.

Then I got my wife to come out and hold the Bone up beneath a couple of other builds I have hanging, the old Monogram B-52 (72nd) and Monogram B-58 (48th).  The Bone will be the largest model I have displayed once I'm done (although the B-52 would be bigger if it was 48th.  The pictures show that my wife is too short to get the monster up to good height to compare sizes with these other builds.

Aggieman,

Good to hear that you got some time at the bench despite the heat in Texas.   I hope that it cools down for you. 

You are right.....this model is truely a beast.

Nice collection of birds hanging from the ceiling.  If we can just convince a company to kit a 1/48th scale Stratofortress....

Kevin

can i join this?

dunno what il do yet iv got a 1/72 and 1/32 f14 and a 1/72 tornado

eatthis

can i join this?

dunno what il do yet iv got a 1/72 and 1/32 f14 and a 1/72 tornado

Sure, there's plenty of time left.  I'll add you to the list on the front page.  Just let me know your choice of subjects when you decide. 

Welcome aboard!!

Don

Some nice looking aircraft you have there, Aggie.  The B-58 looks really nice. Great finish on that one; also the B-17 on the far right.  The Bone will be a great addition.  How was your fit of the nose and tail assemblies to the center fuselage?

Don

The fit of those two sub-assemblies seems like it will be okay but there will be filler needed.  I test fit it like this to determine if it matters the order that I put those two sub-assemblies on, and in my case it seems that the order will be paramount. 

I'll put the nose on first because leaving the tail open will allow me to spread the fuselage apart a bit, as the nose section does not want to just slide into place without a little extra effort on my part.  I even told my wife I might need her hands to assist in closing up the main fuselage section since the wings don't actually connect and seem prone to dis-lodging while closing everything up.

The B-58 is one of my favorites hanging out there.  The B-17 is lucky to still be there, as a few years ago, my then-14-yr old son had a hammer in his hand for some reason, he jumped without thinking and swung that hammer, and landed what should have been a kill shot on the Fort.  Wing popped off but it didn't fall from the ceiling, and there was some collateral damage to the B-24 haning along side (still haven't repaired that one).

My observations on this kit (Revell Bone 1/48) so far as thus:

1.  It's big

2.  It goes together with a lot of awful seams

Having said that, I haven't noticed that anyone has progressed to the point of the engine intakes, at least photographically on the site.  So when you get there, pay close attention to those parts.  When you get the intakes installed, you will notice a really bad seam down the middle of the intakes.  There are also seams along the exterior walls of the intakes.  All of these seams will be visible once the engines are installed even with the intake valves (I suppose that's what that piece is called).  I just got through filling all those seams and am letting all my seam-work cure before attacking it with the sanding stick.  Plus I can't really progress any further because my order for the gray underside paint has not yet arrived.  And it's still mighty hot out there.

Y'all are some brave brave men tackling those B1s. Those things are huge. Glad to see everyone moving along and that Aggieman is back in the fun. I've got a little work done on the Tornado but just had to take a break and paint something...

Yea, I know, not a Swing Wing. Oh well. I started this Revell 1/48 F15 back in March and have been letting it set because I wasn't ready to tackle the camo. Figured it was time to get in some more practice before painting the Tornado. Not a perfect match to the real one but with a little touchup it will be ok. Now, on to the Tornado...

There's no fans or intake trunks in this kit so I had to do something to fill in. I took the fans from another kit and copied them with some modeling clay and CA. First couple times around with the cheap CA didn't turn out very well. I had some Zap A Gap CA that was getting kinda thick so I tried it with some accelerator  and it worked OK. Had to put a little paint on the clay to keep the parts from sticking.While I was at it I made a few extras.

Here's another hi-tech tool for Don. Comes in handy at times. Got it on sale at Harbor Freight a few years ago for around $15. Needs a couple of mods that I never got around to. It doesn't have any support for the drop piece and the blade tends to push it down and leave a little extra material at the bottom of the cut but a file will knock it down. I'd like to make that support and and then could add a side gauge of some sort too. It spins a little fast for plastic but it works. Mainly just use it for tubing.

In the pic above you see a step drill to the right. That comes in handy too. Cuts both directions and makes round holes. So, cut a couple pieces of tubing, layout a plate to mount them and the fans to and punch out a couple discs to back them with.

Put them all together and this is what I got.

But, the fans were a little too far inboard and were barely visible so I made another set with slightly smaller tubing, two plates and with the fans further outboard.

Then I got the intakes together, seams filled and painted inside. Masked the front fuse sides so I could prime and shoot a little paint behind where the intakes will be. Then glued the intakes to the front fuse.

Had to do a lot of sanding and polishing on the inside of the canopy and windscreen. I guess they got scratched before packaging because they were still on the tree and in their own bag. There's still a couple scratches in the windscreen but I just couldn't sand enough to get rid of them. Hopefully the next kit will be better. Also got the vertical stab glued in but have to do a little filling around the edges.

And that's where it stands right now. I just had to shoot some paint. lol I have a car body to paint too. Chassis, interior and everything else is finished. Painting it Tamiya Lemon Yellow but the first time around when I shot the second coat I got an orange color shift on a couple edges. If it happens again I'm gonna Paint It Black...

Tony

The work you did on those intakes is fantastic!  Harbor Freight looks like a place I need to visit. 

The camo on the F-15 sure looks good too!

Wow, some more technical wizardry from Wingman.  Great job on the intakes.  And yes sir, looks like I'll have to join that tool-of-the-month club at Harbor Freight  .  What else do you have hiding in your tool room?

Don

Wingman: Great job on the Tornado! It is really coming along nicely! What is the color Grey (bluegray) on the f-15? It looks really nice.  Sometimes it is easier to walk away from those multi-color camo schemes and come back!

Well here is what I have been dealing with. I have a seam where the front fusilage and rear come together that will not go away! I have sanded and primed.....and sanded and primed....you get the point. I think I almost have it now though. I just hate to put good paint down only to see that ugly seam. I also had to move the holes for the pilon attatchment area over an inch to get it in the proper spot.  Her are some new pics:

Here you can see the seam behind the cockpit.

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Same seam...a little closer and after some filling and sanding.

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looking at the seam area from the front....the cockpit area has been painted interior black.

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Because I am positioning the cockpit open I painted the inside frames with interior black. The added brass blended in nicely.

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here are the Super Scale Decals that I picked up off Ebay! I will be making "Cherry Bomb" EF-111A out of  Heyford England.

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Well that's it. I hope to get this close to finished over the next few days I have off! many miles to go!

Travis

Nice camo on the F-15 Wingman.   Did you use a mask or free hand?  That is some great engineering on those intakes.  Great work.

I am sure you will be able to conquer the seam in the fuselage Tavis.  The Tornado looks great so far.  Keep up the good work.