Trojan Thunder Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 Made a start on my Whif. Are back stories required? If so I will conjure something up later. This is the excellent Academy B-50 kit. So much interior detail which is a waste as it is all hidden! I started with the cockpit, I made a couple of modifications (which won't be seen ), oh well I know they are there. I added some boxes and panels to a couple of bulkheads to show its role as intel gathering. The wings are also together, I noticed some ejector marks in the main wheel well so I decided add some frame work to cover them over, thought I did a nice job and then moved to the other well. Guess what? The ejector marks were not in the same places! Obviously some else did the tooling for the other wheel well, who would of thought! Anyway I added the same frame detail to the other well and added a couple of extra reinforcing patches to cover the sink marks. Turns out to the ejector marks are hidden when the wing halves go together anyway. I added some of the rear bulkheads and the spar assembly to one fuselage half. I am not goin to bother with any paint in there as the observation domes will be modified to some sort of antenna array. The tail was also assembled, I added a couple of bulges (reshaped bomb halves from the kit) to the top of the tail as antennas and blanked out the tail gunners position, A block a plastic stock has been glued in to allow me to shape it. I think I will have some sort of towed HF antenna deployed from the tail gunners area. Not sure what I will use yet! I am using a couple of domes from the Tasman EP-3 conversion set, I have shimmed the mane radome assembly with a 2mm piece of card, I did this before checking to make sure there would be enough ground clearance, after a test fit it is all good. Finally I taped the major parts together to make sure the new antennas were OK in their proposed positions and to get a feel of the size of it. Next I will be adding some paint to the cockpit so that I can button the fuselage up. Until next time... Ray Quote Link to post Share on other sites
illithid00 Posted December 2, 2008 Share Posted December 2, 2008 I like it! Backstories aren't required, but they're always fun to read. Can't wait to see more of this! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew Doppel Posted December 3, 2008 Share Posted December 3, 2008 Your imagination for these 'What if?'RAAF aircraft astounds me. I will follow with interest Ray. Good work so far. Regards Andrew Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted December 4, 2008 Author Share Posted December 4, 2008 Thanks guys, Andrew I need to keep the mind ticking over, starting to loose a few brain cells and the few I have left need to be in working order! :D Ray :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Daryl J. Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Are you leaving this as a twin engine? It has a certain charisma about it that way. Daryl J. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted December 6, 2008 Author Share Posted December 6, 2008 Hi Daryl, It will be 4 engines, or it would not be able to get into the air with its payload, I only attached one engine to check prop clearance for the lower radome. Ray Quote Link to post Share on other sites
a4s4eva Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 looking good Ray. Might have known you'd be in this group build. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Wow dude!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aggressor Supporter Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 Looking good there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjo Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Looking good there. It kinda looks cool with two engines. btw. kind of like the german greif. two big engines with contra rotating props! sorry im getting carried away. awesome project. cant wait to see it done. Benny Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted December 21, 2008 Author Share Posted December 21, 2008 Thanks all. I have made some progress, yet to take pictures, mainly fitting the engines to the wings, I have found this kit to suffer from sink marks which I did not expect from Academy. I am revising the antenna fit as well. I found some suitable lumps and bumps in the spares box. Pictures to follow soon Ray :( Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 (edited) Over the past day or so I have made a little more progress. The cockpit is finished, I'm not to good at painting/detailing them, fortunately you won't see much when it is in :D The fuselage was buttoned up, here is a picture of the cockpit installed. An overall shot of the fuselage together. I have added a couple of bulges to the sides of the fuselage and blanked in the tail gunners position. I am not sure how I am going to deal with the turrets yet, I can install them annd call it an armed recce bird or reshape them to be more electronic domes. Here are the wings with cowls fitted and puttied... I stuffed up a little here, pays to look at the assembly sequence in the instructions occassionally The inboard engines are both out of position by 2mm. I only discovered this when I went to install the flaps. The flaps have a bullet fairing on the trailing edge which alluded me to the error :D So to get over this I cut a 2mm slice out of the flaps to get the bulllet fairing to line up with the engine. I may fill the gap in the flap or just leave it and say it was a local mod to improve flap efficiency! So it is coming along, I will get some more assembly done today and add a few more bumps. Should be ready for paint over the weekend Edited January 8, 2009 by Trojan Thunder Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 sweet! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted March 3, 2009 Author Share Posted March 3, 2009 Time to drag this one from page 4 to page one of the GB :D I have made a little progress including adding a few more lumps and a IFR Probe. The payload is also being progressed and pictures will be posted soon. I am close to adding the bomb bay covers, I just need to figure out how much nose weight need to go in there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChernayaAkula Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Very nice! What about that Tiger in the background? :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted March 3, 2009 Author Share Posted March 3, 2009 Very nice! What about that Tiger in the background? The Tiger will be an Aussie Army one, no Whif I am afraid... though I do have a spare Cobra and Apache I don't know what to do with Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted April 2, 2009 Author Share Posted April 2, 2009 Update time! I have masked and glued the cockpit transparencies as well as the forward lower radome. I also decided to add the landing gear as I had better make sure there is enough ground clearance for that dome! only got the nose gear done so far. I came across the inherent weakness of the nose gear assembly and have added a reinforcing pin to the lower section to hopefully prevent a nose gear collapse. Hope to progress this a bit more in the next couple of days ;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted May 24, 2009 Author Share Posted May 24, 2009 Another update, I might even get it finished for the deadline! Some filling and priming done, the windscreen has been sanded back and will be remasked, still need to do a little polishing. I added half of one of the wing tanks to the rear bomb bay as more fuel storage due to loss of range from loosing both wing tanks. Payload test fit Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DDC Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Thats 100% pure awesome! Keep up the pace, only a few days left! Denzil Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HOLMES Posted May 24, 2009 Share Posted May 24, 2009 Getting there Trojan Thunder.. It is looking really fantastic.. HOLMES Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trojan Thunder Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 Woo Hoo! Finshed (eventually ) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HOLMES Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 Such a BEAUTY!!! GORGEOUS Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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