konbini

Hi again, Apologies pictures in this post as the previous post incurred an internal server error report while trying to post pictures. Konbini

Hi everyone, It’s update time. I installed the nosewheel gear into the front half of the intakes and mated it to the back half on the fuselage. I used a bit of acrylic based putty, a bit of sanding, spot painting, and some more sanding to get the joint to settle down the best I can. With all the major sub assemblies complete into the one airframe I decided to get down to the main job of painting. In the end I went with the adversary “ghost” scheme introduced in 2019. The masking was by Advanced Modeling Products. The material is vinyl like and

Thanks for your kind words! Many thanks! ! The battery is from the undercarriage PE set from Eduard, specifically the f-16c/n one in my case. Hope this helps ! Konbini

Good day again, Another update. First of all after mating the top and bottom halves of the fuselage with the back end of the intake/gear bay, I stuck on stiffener plates onto the top. I used slower drying CA to help give me a few seconds to position the parts. After the parts are on and secure, I use a diamond file to smooth out rough edges. Next up, the exhausts. I find this area to be more difficult to replicate accurately especially the weathering. I gave the insides a coating of a combined mix of Mr. Color off-white and flesh. The exhaust outsid

Gotcha. I was under the impression I was missing something there, all good cleared up now. I better pick up my act as well, there are so many talented builders and fabulous builds.

Picked the kit up this week. Following this build with keen interest. Looks like my stash queue just went out the window, again. Thanks for all of your/your team's hard work on this. Konbini

The same with Eduard PE I hand painted areas where it may look off. This time I went with Tamiya's sky grey and other parts left in mr surfacer grey shade. Just to clarify, do you mean in a comp judges will take points off for poor color matching work or the fact that I used Quinta parts? Many thanks for the comments 😄 Konbini

My apologies, the pictures will have to be in this post. Imgur seems to be unhappy with arc or vice versa promting the internal server error message when I tried to post a reply with pictures. I'll try again. Konbini

Konbini I'm sure something will come along again that will wow the modelling community. Constantly amazed. Another update: Time for another episode of How I Made My Eyes Sore. Main landing gear bays. Text only, there is a server problem with this particular post. Pictures in next message. Like my first viper build, I again thought about how I would go about it. And again I went with the kit parts for this supplemented by scratch made detail, wire, and Eduard bay details. The MLG bays did take a while to detail up. I decided this round to, instead

Nicely done! Im looking at getting myself a set as well. I will spend eons deciding where in the queue it should go. Looking fwd to the coming progress.

Many thanks! Very much helped by having Quinta's goodies. Always room for more viper 🙂 Thanks! If Im going all out on a build I want to have any advantage I can get. Glad I am able to help in that area. I too was originally skeptical and thought I'd be 100% using PE belts but nothings gained from not trying, so I tried, and it didnt spontaneously combust so that's a win 😄. Ahh. The Hud. *Swears a few times. On the Eduard instructions it calls for the trimming of my hud unit parts to fit the PE bits. Once trimmed there aint going back. I agonized over using kit

Hi there! I've started on a new build whilst I wait on a few items and decals to come out for the f-22. In the meantime time for another viper, because, why not? I've learned quite a bit from my first viper build (F-16CJ misawa) and would like to see how this build compares. Originally I thought about doing a OOB build but the aftermarket and tinkering syndrome got the best of me. Looks like another long drawn out battle. Starters: Kit: Tamiya 1/48 F-16C/N There are lots of extras in here for the extras collection. I wish I can use them all. Decals: Bulls

From my limited experience, for small parts that are conforming or need to be bent I used a slower drying CA as recommended by Alexander. The non fogging gel type tends to be slower. The vinyl is elastic”bouncy” so I anchor the parts to where I want them to go with pinpricks of the glue and with the few seconds of time I have I manipulate/hold down the parts as necessary with tweezers. Yes the parts are fragile (I learned the hard way) so gentle grip with the tweezers. konbini

Good morning afternoon or evening wherever you may be, I progressed a bit in the build. I'm taking a leisurely pace with the F-22 whilst waiting for the Caracal sheets to come out. The germs floating around certainly threw a spanner into pretty much the plans of everyone I know including myself. Hats off to Caracal amidst this trainwreck of a year. Closing off the airplane and after the glue dried, I spent a long time CA gluing/styrene gluing and sanding the edges of pretty much every surface to get them sharp, and razor sharp where applicable. The leading edge color b

Many thanks Carlos, I get a lot of advice and tips from here. If I can contribute just a tiny amount and it helps someone Im very happy. More to come, I'm an extremely slow builder.

Preordered mines from hobbyeasy. 🤩

Many thanks Carlos! We keep on learning from each other here. To my knowledge, 3 companies have dealt with adding detail to the f-22 sill area. WolfPack, Aires, and Eduard. In terms of the spacing of the "brackets" only eduard resembles the real thing, but lacks any 3D detail. I took a quarter round rod of 0.75mm size (Ideally, a 0.5mm right triangle rod and 0.5mm quarter round is most ideal, but I wasn't able to source them) and sanded down the sides of a rod to get the profile I wanted (ie. triangular, or smaller quarter round roughly 0.5mm thick), and using a fresh

There was an error with the server so some pictures would have to go here. Apologies for that. After this I put together the intakes and crammed everything into the bottom fuselage half. There was some natural warp in the wing roots of the bottom half so it was a bit of a wrestling match between the fuselage, me, and glue. The tiny location tabs have a way of creeping out of its holes which would render any efforts later to mate the top fuselage half pointless. I eventually balanced the wing roots on two Mr. surfacer bottles and set styrene cement bottles on top of the weapons bay

Yet another small update, First a test fit of cockpit tub and fuselage top, no surprises, they're both kit part based so no fit issues. I sprayed the coaming and sill area Tamiya rubber black and will weather appropriately later. Next up I spent a long time detailing the main landing gear bays. I tried to match as best I could with the reference photos I could find on primeportal. These are a bit more visible than other aircraft as the bays are slightly canted outwards exposing them to view. After th

Thanks! Close up work now while I still can 🤣 Thanks Steve, Kind words! Thanks Steve! I thought the Eduard bits were fabulous but limitations of PE means every button and switch cannot be 3d. The 48 scale cockpits are naturally bigger and I fiddled with the idea of makinf it more 3d in my last build and it worked out quite well. Thanks! I believe so yes- based on the info I read and suggested by fellow members.

Hello again, Many thanks for the kind comments. I have made some progress. I have finished off the main and side weapons bays, and installed the aim-120s. I also started on the cockpit sill latch detail which I modified from eduard parts with tiny styrene bits. Next I'll be working on the inner exhausts, and wheel bays. Hopefully soon I'll be able to close the fuselage halves together. In the meantime stay safe everyone. Konbini

Thanks! It took probably a bit longer than I would have liked and for a while I thought it would be a perm resident of the shelf of doom.

At last I thinned my stash a tiny bit and actually completed a build and started on another. However all that work will be out the window now 🤣. I hope the missus wont notice any additions. But seriously this is amazing work and the passion really shows. Im looking forward to my copies once I can get my hands on them.

Thanks Jmel for your kind words! Many thanks Matthew! As lovely as the box bird is I know about a gazillion other modellers would have made either one. I wanted to do a PACAF bird so I took up some advice on my progress page and managed to find a special 14FS bird from Reid Publishing.

Many thanks! My eyes are tired 🤣 Update: I added two oxygen bottles behind the ejection seat and added extra detail to the cockpit rear bulkhead. Konbini