I'm a sick, sick, sick, sick man... 1/48 MiG-25RB

[Kasatka]

yep, but the question was.. ON the port INTAKE =) not on the nose =)

Bivaet =)

[parche]

Well, I’ve gone and done some of the major stuff on the Foxbat. First off, I completed the cut of the fuselage. Here you can see the chunk after it came out and the relative position of the cut.

I removed a 5/16 of an inch section from the fuselage. With sanding it down on the mating surfaces some more I should end up with just about the right length.

I also worked on the wings to get their leading edges finished. The RBs have straight wings, but if you are going to do a PD/PDS you would need to put a half degree “kink†in the angle of the leading edge.

Here you can see the wings:

I worked on the instrument panel for the cockpit. You can’t see the detail too well, but here it is:

I think it is close enough for government work (not that you’ll be able to see it too well when it is installed), and I’m happy. Painting and some more cleanup will help.

I worked on the horizontal tails, well, one of them at least. The kit ones are significantly larger than the actual item. In the pic you can see one pretty much finished while the other is its original shape. You can see the markings I made on it for guides.

I’ve also worked on the pods for the wingtips, and that pretty much rounds out the update for today.

Cheers,

Dave

[silvascoob]

Great stuff.

I've got a ringside seat for this build.

(and i can hear the Foxbat calling me from my stash )

[Sabre F-86]

Yeh, Im watching this build too. I just found my Mig kit after moving and its sittin there waiting for me to get off my butt. I think I'll have to dig out my airbrush and get started soon.

Sabre

[Kasatka]

Dave, well done!

Bear in mind, when you go to work on the exhaust that Eduard (if you use it) is not correct. Check yourself with the reference pictures

Sergey

[parche]

Thanks Sergey,

I had not intended to use any aftermarket. I am going to scratchbuild the exhausts, and the intakes...why, cause I'm a sick, sick, sick, sick man.

For some of the stuff, once I complete certain pieces, I intend to make casts of them for molds to make resin copies for later builds. Here's hoping that when the Trump Foxbat comes out a bunch of people will be willing to sell their Revell Foxbats to me cheap...

Cheers,

Dave

[MaRiO FDZ]

OH BOY... THis one's gonna be GOOD!!!

Keep up the good work, Dave!!

Take Care

[norbert]

Total rework B)

You will see, when you correct an inaccuratie, you will find the next one, It seems there's no end

So I'm prety sure I can follow this topic a veeeery long time

Thank you for sharing

Norbert

[parche]

No new pics, but I have been working on the internals of the air intakes. I have been making templates from card stock to determine the right shapes before I start cutting plastic. The front of the intake will have the inside detailed with thin plastic card while the deeper section of the intake is going to be cast in resin. Haven't decided on what to use for front of the engines. I'm thinking some leftover 1/72 F-14 engine faces would work to make the intakes seems a little deeper than they actually will be.

I have been marking up the vertical stabilizers in order to trim them to the right shape.

Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to throw up a pile of pics for the work I am doing.

Cheers,

Dave

[parche]

Well, the FOXBAT has definitely been giving me a lot of fun for a low price. While most would shy away from a kit that theoretically needs a lot of love, I have been thriving in the planning and “problem†solving. I’ll still hold the line that if you want to take the kit and simply fix the wings, you’ll end up with a decent (read: NOT PERFECT) FOXBAT for such an old kit. You can do the shortening of the kit without much trouble too. I have, however, decided to go hog wild on this particular bird. I have been going extra slow and saving drawings and measurements along the way. Certain parts have been designed so that I can cast them in resin for use in other FOXBATs also. So pardon the slow speed, but I think it’ll be worth it. If not for the finished product, at least some can probably find some entertainment as I fight along. I’m all for entertaining.

So, we’ll start with a shot of one of the vertical tails before I modified it to the correct shape. The black lines show the spots for cuts, and the red is all the material to be removed.

All of the vertical tail pieces have been trimmed, but I haven’t glued them together just yet.

The majority of the work recently has been on the intakes. To start with, Revell failed to include the openings on top of the intakes as anything more than a raised panel line. Here you can see a before and after of the area to be cut out. I’ll add plastic card and strip to recreate the proper opening.

The work outside the intakes has lead to the need to work inside the intakes (something I had already intended). Here you can see the patterns I have made so that I can cut plastic sheet to go inside the intakes.

I also decided to make a face for the engines from scratch to try to make something more realistic…and because I’m sick…whatever…

So far I am loving this build (further proof I am sick). All of the research has been fun, and the “engineering†has been great. Hopefully it all comes out well in the end.

Hope people have at least been finding the build entertaining.

Cheers,

Dave

[afterburner]

I love watching this build- it was such a big, bad jet. Love seeing the effort you are putting into this. Mine would have stopped at a rescribe. But watching this come to fruition is a joy. Nice work, sir!

[parche]

Thanks Afterburner,

Today I have been a sick, sick sanding man. I've been working the vertical tails back into streamlined shapes. I'm still tweaking the intake design, and I chucked my first go at a face for the engines. Need more thought; I had just tried my first idea without much consideration. I should cut some plastic for the intakes in the next day or two. Mulling over how much detail to throw at the wheel wells too. My head is spinning from looking at wheel well pics from so many odd angles. The wings are looking pretty sweet and I should get to rescribing them in between continuing the sanding on the tail.

I have been jumping around from project to project on this bird. Hopefully it isn't driving you too nuts. I have been taking copious notes so that maybe I can provide help/insights to others later.

Cheers,

Dave

[KursadA]

Dave,

What is your plan for the kit canopy/windshield? The kit canopy might be acceptable but the windshield framing is totally off. I have seen several examples of totally rescribed and accurized Revell Foxbats where the builder unfortunately chose to use the kit windshield as-is. I hope you will address the windshield issue in some way..

[parche]

Kursad,

Lets just say I have been avoiding thinking about that for the moment...I don't have a plan for it as yet. I know changes are needed, but I guess I should go ahead and buckle down and figure it out. I'd be interested to hear ideas if anyone has put some thought to it already.

Cheers,

Dave

[Chappie]

Bringing this back to the top. How's is it going? I want to do one of these. My two favorite Soviet aircraft are the MiG-25 and MiG-31.

Chappie

[parche]

Progress has been significantly slowed. My wife and I had our first child last week...a bouncing baby girl. We are just now getting into the swing of things with her. I haven't been able to do anything model-wise since the birth (been oddly interested in the baby more than the model ), but if I am lucky I may get a little done today. I did find myself doing a bunch of sketches while I was at the hospital with wife and child so that I could jump back into things with my head screwed on straight. Christmas standdown at work-school starts Tuesday of next week, so I would expect significant increase in output after that.

Cheers,

Dave

[OKB Krasnaya Zvezda]

Hey! Congratulations for that!!

[nimrod77]

Looking good mate,

I realy enjoy these build that make a silk purse out of a pigs ear.

Makes for interesting reading.

Keep those pics coming!!

Nimrod.

[modelmax]

Progress has been significantly slowed. My wife and I had our first child last week...a bouncing baby girl. We are just now getting into the swing of things with her. I haven't been able to do anything model-wise since the birth (been oddly interested in the baby more than the model B) ), but if I am lucky I may get a little done today. I did find myself doing a bunch of sketches while I was at the hospital with wife and child so that I could jump back into things with my head screwed on straight. Christmas standdown at work-school starts Tuesday of next week, so I would expect significant increase in output after that.

Cheers,

Dave

Hey ma'an Congrats on the baby. I just became a dad a month and a half ago...needless to say, all modeling activities came to a screeching halt for now. Nevertheless, I also expect to get something done over the x-mas holiday. I like your work, I'm a huge fan of soviet jets, and can't wait to get my mig-25 going. Be sure that I'll be using your post as a build guide.

keep up the great work ma'an.

regards,

Ernie A.

[Kasatka]

Dave, congratulations! All the best to your baby in the future!

[parche]

Alright, so we have the baby out of the hospital (had to go back after she was home with us for a few days because she wasn't feeding well) and school is on Christmas standdown. Last night I got back to doing some work for my own builds. I continued working on the intakes and decided to scrap my idea for them...well partially at least. I am going to rebuild the kit part that makes up the inboard wall of the intake. The kit part is oddly curved and makes the intake look much smaller than it actually is. So, with that change, I'll also have to modify the area where the intakes attach to the forward fuselage because the side there is curved too. Not a necessary evil to do all this work for a fair Foxbat, I just find myself being crazy into nitpicking this sucker to death.

I have firmly decided on doing an Indian RB for this build and I found a great site for pictures of them while in service and at their retirement. Take a look at:

Indian Foxbats

I would do one in the clean retirement scheme, but they lack the "Garuda" on the side in front of the intakes, so I'll do one in the operational scheme...not that there is a big difference...I am kind of wondering about the overall color however...almost seems like a Gunship Gray in some photos rather than the normal light grey seen on Foxbats.

Sorry no pics this time, but I should have some shortly...

Cheers,

Dave

[parche]

Got some work done over the last few days. I've burned up a bunch of brain cells working on the intake issue. I've fashioned part of an insert to place inside the intake. It has been a challenge to figure out how to deal with the problem, but I designed a piece that will work on either side of the plane. Here you can see the prototype piece in place sitting on top of a copy of the drawings that I made of the parts that were laminated together.

I still have to clean the piece up some and build up the interior so that it has the correct form, but I chose to make the outside first to ensure the piece would fit.

Here's another view of it...

To make this piece fit I'll have to cut away a chunk of the forward fuselage and replace it with a flat piece. The hatched area shows what will go...

Here is the piece on the inside part of the intake that will be thrown away and the white replacement piece cut from plastic sheet. Can you believe the crazy curve in the kit piece...

Finally, here is a shot of the rear fuselage where the intakes will join. The hatched area is more stuff that needs to be removed to allow the intake to fit. I was initially concerned about all the alignment parts that I'll have to remove for the intake, but I have just fashioned the insert so it will align the parts itself.

Oh, well, gotta get back to cleaning it up and fashioning the internals.

Cheers,

Dave

[parche]

So, more work as I force the Foxbat further down the tracks. I worked on the internals of the intake for a little while last night. Having made the rectangular intake already, I took triangular pieces of .015 inch sheet and formed them into the corners to give the transition from the intake to the circular face of the engine. Once painted up and shoved inside the model, I think the piece should look fairly realistic...obviously I had no dimensions or line drawings of the intakes...here's an inside shot of the intake. I still have some cleaning up to do before making a mold...

After that bit of work on the intake yesterday, I decided to shift gears and work on the exhausts for a little while today. I started by finding a lamp post in the house that had the diameter that I wanted for the exhausts. I heated some water and cut a piece of plastic shape to an appropriately sized rectangle. I used the water to heat the plastic and then wrapped it around the lamp post...results...poor...I dipped it again for longer and tried again...slightly better results. My wife recommended using her hair dryer... quite a while with the hair dryer produced OK results, but it was still moving to slow for me... I ended up laminating another sheet of plastic around the first while heating the whole assembly with a hair dryer....VIOLA...nice cylinder for my exhausts. I searched through the spares box and came away with a spare flameholder from a Hasegawa F-16 that should make a suitable piece for this build...I'll have to make a mold for it too....fun fun fun....I need to buy more mold rubber...After all that I started to build up the internal detail inside by cutting strips of plastic sheet and gluing them inside the cylinder...much, much more to go with the exhausts, but here is a shot of it so far inserted into the appropriate kit piece...

I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season. I am having great fun getting to know my daughter and building alot when she manages to sleep.

Cheers,

Dave

[parche]

In my continued disorganized manner, I have been spending some time today just doing random sanding of parts. Nothing truly exciting. I have committed myself to trying to finish my Tomcat build already and not focus so much on the Foxbat (like that will actually happen). Since the Tomcat is basically to paint right now, I'll probably continue to pound away on the Foxbat anyway.

I do have one question for Indian Air Force experts...anyone know the font that they use for the letter/number combos on the tails?

I'm gonna end up printing some of my own decals for the tail codes and the big red Garudas. The national insignia and other parts are gonna be stolen from other decal sheets.

Cheers,

Dave

[Kasatka]

Dave, I think you might be interested in this article, use some web-translator to help yourself with Russian

http://www.dishmodels.ru/gshow.htm?p=1748

There are few interesting schemes