Stealth GB

academy 1/72. pretty small, i dont know why Im bothering with all this you cant see it anyway!

Sweet Matt! Looking good! I'm sorry - but remind me the make and scale you're doing? Now if I don't miss my guess, the "spurs" you're refferring to on the top of the ACES II seat are actually pitot tubes that the seat uses to orient itself and deploy the chute upon ejection. If you do a search for the seat on Google or some such site, I think you'll probably have some luck finding some good shots that represent that feature.

well I've got some cockpit shots for you all. I made up some seatbelts out of thin brass, put ejection spurs on the seat (If thats what they're called thats what they look like anyway...) with a rbf tag on it. made video screens from transparency paper i printed out at the officein black and dark green... oh and added a couple little boxes and wires, probably add more after I get it in the fuselage and see how it sits... All this because I wasn't happy with the decaled panel LOL...
for all the time i put in it, maybe I should've just gotten the resin. Nah!
oh btw no I havent forgotten the stick, just havent put it in yet

Interesting stuff about the nighthaks here, I'm looking forward to seeing some of them finished with the detail it sounds like some are going to get. I've just put the fuselage on my SR71 together and there are a few gaps and scratches that happened in the box I'll have to fix but I havn't run into anything to bad yet, at least no problems I didn't cause (I glued the pilot instrument panel on in the wrong spot) not to worried about that though because I didn't give the cockpit much detail, I'm doing it canopy down and the windows are very small so It wont be obvious and the detail I did give it should look ok.

Let me mention a couplke od things here to try and clarify what I mentioned earlier! :) The cockpit is for the *most* part completely black. Things like the ejection seat are pretty much all black - with a few exceptions. Stuff like the O2 bottle, some wiring and cables, the ejection handles and the seat cushions are all their respective "natural" colors still. The cusions for example are olive drab, but the seat framework is black.

The canopy glass is treated with Indium Tin Oxide - the same material that gives the F-16 and F-22 canopys their gold hues. It's also the stuff that makes touch screen computer monitors work. And will, you're exactly right - the pilots head and similar things poking up above the canopy sill did indeed have a greater return than the rest of the aircraft hence the use of the oxide. I'm curious to know if anyone has had any success in modeling a scale screen that covers the front FLIR and targeting pod just below the front glass?? You can see a little of it here along with the irridecent coloring of the canopy:





an image showing the cockpit PRE install of the full color moving map displays:


And this is the *ONLY* photo I've ever seen with regards to the F-117A's current cockpit layout. There are some black and white shots of the test aircraft in Dayton I think, but they are nothing like the instrumentation in the production craft:


And a shot of the IRADS system components up close:

I found a pretty good site with some hi-res photos of the nighthawk if anyone is interested. I'm having trouble finding a good shot of the cockpit from above, since there isnt a store in town with any reference books and I dont want to order from squadron for just one book. anyway, heres the site http://www.aleinn.com/black_projects/f117_photos.html

so I emailed the photographer of those shots and he got back to me this morning. "Thanks for the nice words. No, I didn't get any shots into the cockpit except for the ones from the ground. Once I took out my long lens they immediately began to close the canopy, which they did within thirty minutes. The armed security force also were very sensitive about me taking shots of the rear engine exhaust area, at one point motioning me to get back with a gun barrel.
Attached are a couple of shots that might help your effort. Send me a shot of your completed model when you are done.
Thanks again,
Andre'"
the shots sent are just the same ones as on the page. but still really useful. what a nice guy!
Later

QUOTE: Originally posted by Audiophile121 matt-alberta: It never ceases to amaze me, how people get their cockpits painted in such detail. How do you do that? Can you share any tips with me to help me do the same sort of thing to my cockpits? Man, I wish I could paint details like that!!

it's deceptively simple... first, paint it white. then, thin out some black and try to let it run around the dials and stuff. then wipe off the black that inevitably gets on your nice white buttons and whatnot as good as you can, and try to pick out some more of the white again. repeat until youre happy with it. seems to work pretty well for 1/72 pits anyway, since its more about the impression, if you know what i mean.

Very informational posts, Brian. Many thanks -- I had no idea that the cockpit was all "blacked out" but could only follow the directions. I already painted the seat olive drab! Perhaps I could just paint it flat black again. Which is possible because I finally located my air compressor after it was hidden away somewhere for the storm! I have regained my airbrushing capabilities! Did you know that they had to specialize the windshield because the RCS of the pilot's helmet was greater than the plane's? I think that's pretty neat.

matt-alberta: It never ceases to amaze me, how people get their cockpits painted in such detail. How do you do that? Can you share any tips with me to help me do the same sort of thing to my cockpits? Man, I wish I could paint details like that!!

I've been bogged down with papers, essays, and the like .. ugh ... homework bites! Some evenings are open, but I paint in my back yard and the mosquitos make it so that I can only paint in the daytime so evenings are out. This weekend is free, though, so I plan on cramming some work into the weekend, weather permitting. Personally, I look forward to late fall and winter with my modeling -- the days are longer and the temperature doesn't get that bad here in central Florida.

... so approximately how light is the gray on the Nighthawk's cockpit floor?

For those who already haven't done so, the F-117A Walk Around book by Squadron is full of detailed photos and is definately worth the purchase if you want to be accurate. I think I'm building mine out of the box, but I might add a few scratch built extras if they seem easy enough.

The statis of my kit is that I have assembled the ejection seat (and had some fit problems mentioned previously) and I airbrushed a grey primer coat over all of those sections that will be painted white later. I have about five other kits going right now that I need to finish before winter finally hits, so my F-117 will be taking a back seat for the moment.

I'm curious to see what everyone has gotten done so far on their builds - pics anyone?? :)

yeah but i sort of decided not to go with the AM stuff for this one, i sort of decided to do it out of the box, and whatever i can scrape up myself. I like the small size since they dont take up too much space, although i do have a few 48th kits to do as well.

HA! And GLOSS white at that! Such a major pain in the tail!! The Tamiya kit has decals for the main panel as well, though it also has some great raised detail that would dry brush very nicely if that's your thing. Have you looked into any of the aftermarket photo etched kits for your plane? They would likely give you razor sharp details and still hold true to your scale.

For my own part, I don't care for much in the 1:72 size unless there isn't any other option for my subject, but I know there are plenty of good kits out there and lots and lots of aftermarket goodies to be had. Check out ebay and Great Models for some ideas.

Brian~

thanks again uilieann for the colour info. so has anyone else started building yet? I'm just getting into it, painting the seat and cockpit. too bad about the instruments being decals in the academy 1/72. Im also trying to decide whether or not to have the bomb doors open. I REALLY dont like painting white....
anyways, later!

Here are a few links to some auctions on eBay that some may want to follow:

$20 Tamiya kit (usually $52+)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50302&item=5920979628&rd=1

$10.51 Tamiya kit (may go for dirt cheap!)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1191&item=5921003426&rd=1

You could probably get away with a very dark grey, to add a little visusl interest to things in there, but I'd be careful and avoid going too light. interestingly, the floor of the cockpit tub and the back wall arev all fairly light grey in color. Although much of the upper surfaces are covered in black swtch plates, wire bundles, electronics, hydraulics etc. The main panel is also black - as is the dash above it.

wow fast reply! thanks, cuz i was THIS close to going grey on it! thanks again!

Black. It is an ACES II seat but they didn't want any part of the cockpit to be overly visible from the ground or another passing aircraft, so they tried to 'black out' as much of it as they could - including going so far as to put glare shields sometimes called "elephant ears" to shield the glow from the displays from reaching outside the canopy. Even the pilots helmets are black or dark grey. Sounds kinda over the top to me...but that's the story I've seen anyway.

just wondering if anyone knows what colour the ejector seat is in a f-117 stealth? is it an ACES II seat? cause i have a pic of that but none of the seat in the actual aircraft so I'm not sure. Thanks for any help!
oh and I finished the Habu I was making at about the same time this GB thread came up. If youre interested, the pics of the finished bird are here http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27327

Also, for anyone with cable and the Discovery Wings channel, there's been a special on the last day or so on Stealth tech. I immagine it will replay for another day or two. check it out or record it if you can.

Hey Will, sorry to have missed the question a few posts back - no, I don't remember where I picked up all those photos...but I'll keep my eyes open. Glad to hear the P.E. made it off to you safe and sound.

Bri~

Just another quick heads up - if anyone's interested in doing the Tamiya kit, or is generally looking for parts, keep your eyes open and pointed at ebay. Currently, theres a Tamiya 1:48 kit by itself for $20, and another of the same kit including the BB cockpit upgrade and the Eduard P.E. detail set as well going for $40. The kit alone retails for $52 now, let alone the cost of the upgrade kits.

I got both of my last kits on ebay for $20 each. Not too bad really! :) Hopefully, this will help some folks out. Sorry, i don't have a link handy just now, but do a search for F-117A and you'll get two pages of results. Haven't done a search for "stealth" yet, but I imagine it'd be similar.

I am doing the Academy F-117, but haven't played with the cockpit yet. I've just assembled the bombs and a bit of the undercarriage so far. Thanks for the heads-up, though, maybe I can work an angle with that and get it to not look as weird as it sounds like it'll end up looking.

The Tamiya kit will have a similar problem in the tub if you use aftermarket seat kits. (At least I've found it to be this way) Some careful sanding and trimming seems to help there though. I've not seen the Academy kit in person however, and I can't speak as to the best way to remedy it's fit troubles.

For anyone building the Academy 1/48 F-117, the ejection seat doesn't seem to sit properly. It bumps up against the control stick base in the cockpit tub and only touches the cockpit in the back. Has anyone else noticed this? Is that right... I don't think I have ever build an aircraft where the ejection seat doesn't sit flat in the tub.

Just had an idea on how to maybe paint the exterior of the F-117:

Apply a dark metallizer (Model Masters Gunmetal is the one I'm thinking of), seal it, apply a one or two light coats of flat black over the lacquer, then seal that.

That would allow for it to be black and would also give it the strange metallic character that it has. Or at least theoretically, it would ...

Feedback?

I got the PE kit in the mail yesterday. Yesterday was the first day that the postal service regained functionability around here, because of the hurricane - I got like four packages in the mail yesterday. Was happy to see that one in the pile. It probably arrived a while ago and was simply not delivered until then.

I begun last night with my Academy 1/48 kit, but the power went out again so I went to bed having only cemented the bombs together and the engine slats into place. Today, with power back and my airbrush once more available, I will be painting!

Brian - Do you remember any of where/how you attained those pics of the cockpit interior? I'd certainly like to look them up and check them out!

I think I'm gonna end up putting the plane together this weekend. i don't want to start painting until I get some feedback, as I'm not really certain how to paing and weather an apparently all-black aircraft.

I'll all for having as many people in this GB as possible and I'm happy to say that any night fighter can be classified as stealth for this GB taking into consideration the timeline of radar and when it actually was advanced enough to consistantly pick up everything that tried to get through. But if anyone knows, Could a single BF110 nightfigther get picked up on radar back in the 40's?

DAMN! And I had a TON of reference photos of the cockpit etc too. All except for the fact that my blasted hard drive decided to go belly up and I LOST IT ALL!!!!! AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

In lighter news - how's the mail service? Did you get your PE kit yet? It should be close if not there already...

Brian~

My family and my house is fine for those concerned but this isn't a personal forum so I'll try to stay to the point while giving an update as well. The storm knocked out power for virtually all of central Florida about two seconds after I posted my last blurb on this thread. We've maintained running water the whole time and are still without electricity, but we just got phone service back tonight, so I come to you thanks to my gargantuan extra-car-battery-to-power-converter-to-laptop-computer-to-phone-line rig. People not even a mile away have been restored to full power so we should be up and running by tomorrow, but for now, we're getting creative. Go crudeness!

I opened my box today and checked out the pieces and the instructions some more ... been a while since I've looked at it. The instructions are so simple for this kit (Academy 1/48 F-117A), quite possibly too simple.

See Spot.
See Spot run.
Run, Spot, run.

Instructions are so ridiculously crude compared to the rest of the aircraft I've done, which have all been Revell-Monogram up until this one. I find that I'll have to do some picture-questing to learn how I should do the interior of the cockpit and such. I've got a whole book on this plane but they don't give any well-detailed pictures or illustrations of the cockpit or the weapons bays; it's basically just a history of how it came to be.

Does anybody have any scanned (detailed) illustrations of F-117 interior? Or know of a website that in any way depicts the instrument panel details in one of these suckers? I'm gonna check the library tomorrow - maybe it's open and I can return my book that was due the day the hurricane hit and everything went dark - and scavenge for anything I can find on the F-117. In the meantime could somebody help me out? I'm so bored without any power! I need something to do!!