crackerjazz

Hey kike, John, SBARC, Steve, thanks for the kind words! Hi Angels One, thanks! That's true, unfortunately. It does have a lot of fitment issues (especially the older boxing) that will test your patience. But I guess ever since the Tamiya F-14 came out less and less Hasegawa Tomcats are being built. The Hase builds up to a nice Tomcat, though. Wasn't too happy with the RIO's right arm so I pulled him out again to do a little more correcting and fixed the shape of the apoxie-sculpt hand on the grab handle to make it look a bit more natural. It looks like something straight out of a horror movie hanging from the handle on its own. Smoothened up some rough spots on the arm and resculpted his left hand. The effort doesn't show on the photos but I spent a lot of time making his left thumb :) It's made from whittled-down styrene rod that took several tries to make it look natural. I'm not sure, though, if it looks more natural now but i had to stop at some point. I slave over the most petty details : ( I couldn't really capture the magic of the aircrew of the first Tomcat which had a more natural pose. Oh, forgot to mention -- those white alarm indicator thingamajigs I built last time -- I've painted them up! And lost them : (

Noooooo!!!!

Thanks, Steve! Hey, John thanks! I didn't test it out until I read your message. I broke out in a cold sweat reading that . Clearance is a bit tight but it does fit above the Aires IP coaming, thankfully. Whew!

Hey, John, thanks. I just hope my further thinning of the sides doesn't cause it to crack. Took a break from the sanding and made some more of those alarm indicator thingamajigs under the windshield frame. The frames that are glued in place are the initial ones I made which just had indentations for rivets --- the other frame has embossed rivet heads. I really like embossed ones better -- I'll reserve that frame for the plane in the foreground. Masking the inner side of the frame. Blue-tacked to test.

Hi Marko, thanks! it's a contour gauge.

Yeah, man, and half the year's over and my New Year's resolution to finish a build in months and not aeons has faded : ( Some progress on canopy 2. I repeatedly testfitted the older boxing canopy and the newer one and have come to the conclusion that there is indeed a difference between the two. Did my best to shave off some material to relieve the overhangs. The top one is the older canopy. Just look at the size of that overhang. The 2 other photos are from the newer boxing and was relatively easier to fix. I couldn't really totally fix the overhang on the older canopy so I'm thinking about using 5-minute epoxy to force the canopy flush to the sill. And I'll make sure to fillet those corners.

Wow, I thought the kit had it all --- I'm keenly following your build, John!

This one, too, hehe. Really appreciate the kind words. But I was getting cross-eyed and all trying to align the drawings. And my 3D touch must be fading --- I couldn't get some stuff right. Also I'm really worried about the parts -- being ant-sized -- if they'll actually pull through the printer with details intact. I'm just worried it will all come to nought. A little break should do some good. But thanks for the support, guys.

Hey, guys, really appreciate the kind comments! I ran out of steam on this one, heheh, but will hopefully get back to it. Just recuperating. The pull of the Tomcat is too strong...

Hi John, that is one sick cockpit! Ultra fine detailing and painting on the instrument panels and HUD - just beautiful work altogether! Got a question -- how'd you CA the canopy without worrying about fogging?

Thanks, Brian! I've removed the rails completely but strangely the canopy still wouldn't fit. I think it's the canopy's shape on this older 1980's kit (as opposed to the new 2000's boxing). I may just have to try sanding it. I'm also tempted to try pinching the canopy so it conforms to the sill then nail it in place but I'm worried it would just push the sill outwards, or if doesn't do that then the canopy might take the brunt and start developing those little silver stress lines (horror of horrors). Excellent stuff, John, thanks for the descriptions. And thanks for pointing out that rounded section of the canopy! I'm guilty of being a stickler for details, too -- I know. It prolongs the suffering : (

Beautiful save, John!!! I hope i can pull it off that nicely. Beautiful defoggers! What material are those lightning strips and what glue did you use? Using CA glue would be a messy affair.

Hey, Steve, thanks! I've been experimenting a bit with masking fluid. It peels off so nicely. I heard it's difficult to remove if you leave it on for too long, though, (like a couple of days), so I still resorted to masking tape. It looks like there are more hurdles coming up, the canopy "overhang" being one one of them. It shouldn't matter for a parked-Tomcat build but doesn't look good on an in-flight cat. How did you guys take care of this? I'm thinking about gluing on some alignment tabs inside but has anyone tried sanding the area down? I also noticed that the other canopy fits just a bit better -- it still has the overhang but not as bad as this one -- maybe Tamiya tried to fix it? This one's from the earlier boxing, if I'm not mistaken. Edit: wouldn't use the masking liquid anymore. I know it's supposed to be just liquid latex but it seems to have attacked the canopy's Future coating in some spots. It doesn't look like the future was lifted -- just marred the spot and made it somewhat blurry. Also, one thing I'd do differently with the other canopy is instead of spraying the outside with primer, I think it should be black first. Reason being that the canopy is thick and at an angle the gray primer shows. I wanted to start over for this canopy but there's no way I could remove the primer now.

Some progress on the figures of Tomcat 2. I lost a Hase pilot figure --- had to make do with the head with a visor and attached it to the Tamiya figure. Tried my best to sculpt an arm and the hand holding the grab handle out of apoxie sculpt (really envy other modelers' sculpting skills). Also had a bit of trouble fitting the figures into the Aires cockpit. Then I remembered Aigore's suggestion long ago to cut the legs off...

Hey, thanks, Steve. Same here, and the stainless steel Hasegawa PE is so difficult to cut. MFAF, thanks! Worked on the other canopy. Was experimenting with various materials for the lightning strip. First I tried brush strands which I painted and tried gluing on with CA but they just wouldn't stick and I was afraid of fogging up the canopy if I use more glue (which I read can happen even if the canopy was dipped into Future). Also tried paper but couldn't cut them into really thin strips. Finally I settled on painting them on.