crackerjazz

This is what I've used on my PE parts and my problem is it's hard to pry them off when I want to remove them. http://www.lepage.ca/en/lepage-products/super-glue/super-glue-gel/lepage-ultra-gel-control.html

Hi Fefster, thanks! Yes the kit requires loads of patience. Great progress on your cat! Are those alignment tabs in the back? Hi, Janissary, Stalal, thanks for the kind words! I primed the nozzles with Tamiya light gray primer, and marked areas of the middle ring and the petals here and there with a sharpie marker, then hand-painted the whole thing with Alclad polished brass. I couldn't get an even color because of the hand-painting and the primer lifts in spots so I have to re-dab it. The sharpie black kind of mixes with the lacquer paint so I have to brush on and re-dab. I try not to get too much on but the Alclad is forgiving in that it kind of levels down thinly as it dries. For the insides of the nozzles I used acrlylic white and tried weathering one with soot and gray Tamiya weathering master powder. Still experimenting between that and straight black though.

Hi Aigore, Fefster, thanks for your kind words! Some progress with the nozzles.. and a little setback. Had to file some material from the nozzles of Tomcat 1 at the mating area. And had to do the same thing for Tomcat 2. This was worse. Had to file away lots. which will require rescribing. The nozzles will need rescribing and repainting. I'm wondering what other surprises are lurking around the corner. I know the canopy will need some sanding along the side where it joins the fuselage -- I'm not looking forward to that. Next time I build a Tomcat it will really be a Tamiya :(

Hi Tracy, sorry for the delay, I was having a little trouble matching/aligning some views for the front mount. And the pull of the Tomcat was too strong (was kind of working on that, too, to prevent burnout I was trying to match the rear view line drawing with the sideview and couldn't get them to match. The 4.46 deg. mentioned here threw me off. Until i found a portion of the blueprints showing the ferry position and overlayed the rear views on it. It's clearer to me now. The front mount can kneel lower that what's shown in the rear view. BTW, your question about the tongue brackets -- they'll be there when I separate the parts. They'll be really tiny, though -- hopefully they'll still be recognizeable.

Hi guys, thanks for following! :) I've been sanding down the seams on the forward fuselage. It's going good so far. There are more surprises, though. I'm testfitting the nozzles before I work on the cans. I may have to file away some material from the beaver tail for the nozzles to fit right: I sanded down this area around the nozzle where the 2 parts meet as it "balloons" a bit.

Hi guys, wow, thanks for the wealth of info! Am I glad I asked ! Hey, Tracy -- what an enviable career!

Hi, I'm currently trying to attach the horizontal stabs on my F-14s and wanted to ask if they're really canted slightly? In some blueprint front views they're depicted as horizontal but but angle downwards slightly on others. Some photos seem to show a huge droop but could really be an optical illusion due to the shape of the stabs. I waited for the stabs to move to a fairly flat position before taking a screenshot of this F-14 from the Final Countdown, and they do seem to droop slightly (?). I wanted to get some confirmation before gluing them on (actually I was going to make them movable but intended to put some alignment tabs to create the droop). Thanks in advance!

I got around to attaching the forward fuselage : ) i'll take care of the canopy later. It will take some work to putty and sand the seams. I guess I got really lucky on the previous Tomcat.

Thanks! :) Did the port side double struts anyway....couldn't help it :( Why couldn't they have just mirrored it on the real thing? Port side airfoil is also a bit longer. Tracy, I don't know how this would affect your molding -- if the double struts will be this small and fragile there probably is some sense in just mirroring them to get the benefit of the thicker starboard single strut -- maybe we can decide once everything's done. Pretty much done on the rear and getting ready to start on the front mount.

I got to meet Ret today -- fantastic fellow! Learned some tips and tricks from him, too! Hey, Real space needs some real space next year -- what a tiny spot at the table. That CM was montrous, though. I got so used to the size of my Dragon 1/48 that when I saw the 1/32 I was all over it -- Beautiful build! Remarkable work, too, on that shuttle MLP! Hi, Pete, we were looking for you! We were hoping to examine your LM! I saw Ricardo -- I was surprised to see him behind his own booth of Mig paints and modelling supplies. I was happy to discover that the CSM I saw at last year's event was still there. After getting inspiration from Ret's CSM I was ecstatic to be holding the very kit in my hands. Beautiful huge parts. Ret did warn me of the challenging seams. I was on the lookout for a 1/48 A7 as well and saw 2 kits -- a HobbyBoss A-7B and a Hasegawa A-7E. I wanted to grab both but ran out of dough so only the Hase got to go home with me. Beautiful kit! And, hey, that box art looked so familiar -- now I know where Trumpeter patterned theirs after, right down to that pilot looking over his shoulder :) Just saw on another thread that other ARCers were there, too!

Some progress on the main strut. I found some shots on the web for the shape of the 905 airfoil (without the pinched trailing edge).

Hey, Rocketdrvr, thanks for stopping by! Hi, Tracy, I modified the airfoil to a 905 and gave mirroring a try. What do you think about the "feet" - should I modify them back to a 905 - or would this be fine (less work, heheh). How do you feel about having the fittings mirror each other, though -- something like below. Or should I try to stay faithful to the double-strut design for the left side? Also, there are some parts that aren't really mirrored such as the base of the ball mount. The orientation of that part when installed is the same on either side and shouldn't really be mirrored. I could correct it but when the part is really tiny the difference is unnoticeable.

Copy that, Tracy. Will do.

Some progress on the gimbal...

Uh oh..... Calling Tracy, how do you wish to proceed...