Second Strike: Viper GBII June 2012-Dec 2012

Dang Caspar!  Another beautiul build!

I was wondering if anybody out there had the Italeri 1/72 F-16C/D "Night Falcon" in their stash?  My dobie puppy ate my instructions, so I was hoping somebody could scan them, and email them to me.  I finished up the ejection seats on it the other day, but I'm on hold till I have some directions.

Travis, I originally said I wanted to do a "Lonestar Gunfighter", but I don't think this kit is even close to that, so I will most likely use the kit "Night Falcon" decals instead.

Cheers,

Greg

Ok, box of finished parts

and the coat of light grey underneath

Cheers

Hey everyone,

School has started for me, so I haven't had as much time to model as I would like.  Still, I'm following everyone's great progress, and taking small forward steps on my projects as time allows.  

For my builds, I decided to go with Steel Beach's covered AOA probes, HUD, and ejection seat set on the -A, and True Details' ACES ejections seats for the -D.  I build my kits with the canopies closed and I don't spend a lot of time on the office or worry too much about the accuracy of the panels, but I thought these sets might add some visual detail to the cockpits.  

The TD seats look great.  The detail on them is pretty sweet.  The moldings and details are crisp, and there wasn't any evidence of any bubbles in the casting at all.  On the other hand, the SB set left a lot to be desired.  The seat and the HUD were dimpled with bubble holes.  The seat details were mushy, and the the resin was flaky in spots.  The surfaces were rough and sloppy (for lack of a better term).  All four pieces had to have the surfaces sanded smooth and the pin holes filled.  The HUD was too tall to fit under the closed canopy, so I had to sand it a bit to fit, but I'm not complaining about that.  

Anyway, here's what the seats look like so far.  They TD seat still need the ejection handles and canopy breakers added.  I'm waiting to add those until the last possible moment, to avoid breaking them off.  All seats still need a flat coat, but otherwise they're pretty much done.

I had originally planned to have the -D's intake open, but after a pathetic attempt at eliminating the interior seams and gaps, I've decided to make an intake cover.  I'm gonna experiment with some materials to see which looks best.

Anyway, I'll post more pix as soon as I make some more progress.  Thanks for lookin'!

-O

I am back in business thanks to Helo34/John.  Thanks again!

O, very nice looking seats.  True Details is the best for the money, in my opinion.

Cheers,

Greg

Painting is all complete. I'll get to the decaling on the weekend.

Top view;

and bottom;

Cheers

Your, right Prof D. These Tammy 1/32 sure build up nice! I'm thinking of an F-15 but I'd sure like to see them expand their 1/32 range.

Cheers

Fly-n-hi

STFD637 or Medicman71...are you guys still around?

oortiz10

Hey everyone,

School has started for me, so I haven't had as much time to model as I would like.  Still, I'm following everyone's great progress, and taking small forward steps on my projects as time allows.  

For my builds, I decided to go with Steel Beach's covered AOA probes, HUD, and ejection seat set on the -A, and True Details' ACES ejections seats for the -D.  I build my kits with the canopies closed and I don't spend a lot of time on the office or worry too much about the accuracy of the panels, but I thought these sets might add some visual detail to the cockpits.  

The TD seats look great.  The detail on them is pretty sweet.  The moldings and details are crisp, and there wasn't any evidence of any bubbles in the casting at all.  On the other hand, the SB set left a lot to be desired.  The seat and the HUD were dimpled with bubble holes.  The seat details were mushy, and the the resin was flaky in spots.  The surfaces were rough and sloppy (for lack of a better term).  All four pieces had to have the surfaces sanded smooth and the pin holes filled.  The HUD was too tall to fit under the closed canopy, so I had to sand it a bit to fit, but I'm not complaining about that.  

Anyway, here's what the seats look like so far.  They TD seat still need the ejection handles and canopy breakers added.  I'm waiting to add those until the last possible moment, to avoid breaking them off.  All seats still need a flat coat, but otherwise they're pretty much done.

I had originally planned to have the -D's intake open, but after a pathetic attempt at eliminating the interior seams and gaps, I've decided to make an intake cover.  I'm gonna experiment with some materials to see which looks best.

Anyway, I'll post more pix as soon as I make some more progress.  Thanks for lookin'!

-O

I have the Aires set for mine and I have the Steel Beach cover set as well. I'm debating on which to use. May paint up the SB one and see how it looks.

And is it cool if we join the GB?  Proffesor and I asked last week on page 6 but I think you guys overlooked it.

 I have the Aires set for mine and I have the Steel Beach cover set as well. I'm debating on which to use. May paint up the SB one and see how it looks.

I'm calling this Viper done! This has been a fun build, Tammy again delivers the goods in these large kits. I wish they'd release more jets in their 1/32 range, I'd love an F-104 or an F-8 from them in this scale. Anyway this kit was thoroughly enjoyable.

Cheers

Nice job Casper!

Great job Casper, I really like the weathering. Looks well used.

Cheers

Tony

professordeath

Yep. The weathering is spot on.

Thanks guys! I wanted the plane to look used but not too far gone. I've been having really good results with the Tamiya Black panel line wash. I put it on the riveting and the panel lines as if i was airbrushing for pre-shading. I then use a cue tip, dry brush or slightly damp thick paper towel and remove the excess with some enamel thinner always brushing fore to aft in the direction the air currents would pass over the fuselage. I am pretty happy with the result.

Cheers

Awesome Viper Casper!!! Great work!!!!

Alrighty, Medicman gave me the thumbs up to join so here goes.

Its the Tamiya 1/48 F-16C Block 32.  I'll be building this one up OOB with the Tamiya PE detail set (which is still OOB as far as I'm concerned since the parts are in the instructions).  It will have the Arkansas ANG colors as depicted on the side of the box.  

The instructions call for the 3 tone scheme but reference pics show her with the 2 tone colors: Arkansas ANG F-16.  So I'll do the 2 tone scheme.

I started this with another Viper about a year ago.  The plan was to build them together.  But I got ahead on the other plane and put this one in the closet.  I had finished the cockpit and glued the fuselage together and that was it:

I decided to not follow the directions and glued the intake together top to bottom instead of front to back.  This made it easier to deal with the seams.  Then I brush painted heavy layers of Tamiya gloss white in there:

I ended up finishing the GBU-12s, AIM-9Ms and the AIM-120Cs ahead of everything else.  Usually I do that stuff near the end.  The LGBs have clear seeker heads.  This made for a cool look I thought:

Here's the vertical stab all glossed up and ready to go:

Here's more of the stuff that will be hangin' underneath.  In addition to the GBU-12s, AIM-9Ms and AIM-120Cs there will be two 370 gallon tanks, a LITENING II targeting pod and an AN/ALQ-184 ECM pod.

The LITENING II pod so far:

Wow. Looking great already Fly-n-hi. Can't wait to see more.

Medicman71

Wow. Looking great already Fly-n-hi. Can't wait to see more.

Here's where I'm at with the exhaust:  I cut the part that carries the flame holder at the base.  This will allow me to paint the interior of that part much easier:

I cut it so that when the flame holder is placed back into it there won't be a visible seam line:

I painted the inside of the exhaust with Mr. Color 316 which is an "off white" color.  It has just a hint of cream in it.  Then I airbrushed very thinned black paint in streaks followed by a brushing with Tamiya Soot weathering powder.  I painted the flame holder Alclad II Jet Exhaust and detailed it with the Tamiya burnt red, silver and blue weathering powders:

Here's the burner can.  The first thing I did was prime the outside with Tamiya primer and then brush Tamiya flat white on the inside followed by pastel weathering:

Then I sprayed some Alclad II Gloss Black Base (which is great stuff, BTW!):

Then some Alclad II Stainless Steel:

Then I masked it...

...and sprayed some Alclad II Steel between the petals, masked it a little more, and sprayed some Alclad II Gunmetal.  I also sprayed Alclad II Aluminum around the ring that attaches to the fuselage shroud (to match the fusealge part):

Am I the only one building a viper?  I feel like I'm hogging the tread!

Anyway, I got alot done on the AN/ALQ-184 and the LITENING II pods:

Here's the LITENING II pod all masked off.  This was alot of fun

Here they are with the details painted on:

And glossed up and decaled:

I'm moving along pretty quickly with this one.  I've had some time off from work so that helps,

I've got most of the exterior stuff filled and sanded.  So I put on some Tamiya primer.  Here she is with all the parts loosely attached:

Since its a Block 32 airframe I added the reinforcement plates (the "scab" plates) from the Tamiya F-16 PE detail set.  I didn't take a pic before they were painted and now they blend in.  Sorry:

The plates on the nose were very difficult to bend to the correct shape.  So I cut out some of my own from an aluminum can.  The were alot easier to bend:

These are just pics of the primed model:

I'm starting to get lonely in here!

That's the HB A-10 for the Ground Attack GB, right?  I'm curious to see how that kit goes together.  Do you plan on going OOB or are you going to add some AM?

Sorry. Been busy at work this week. Here's a pic of the almost finished ejection seat of my Viper.

I swore off pre-shading because I feel like post-shading gives the same effect except with a better base coat.  So I pre-shaded this one.:

I was bored and I ran out of the Mr Color Light Ghost Grey so I figured what the heck.  While I'm waiting for the paint to arrive I'll pre-shade it.

Yeah.  40% off a Tamiya Viper would be nice.  I had a chance to get one for $18 with a 40% coupon and I didn't do it!  I thought "I've got 2 already.  I don't need another one."  

Got the wheels, tires and landing gear bits done: