HOLMES Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Brilliant detailed work...you amaze ME with your exacting personal touches to the model.. Look forward to more of your progress.. HOLMES. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Youngtiger1 Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Wow, dude! your eye to detail is super. I'm loving you notes. Now, how are you writing on these photographs? I can see they are digital but the writing is a regular pen. Anyway,.......awesome........super.......just plan ol' cool Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TaiidanTomcat Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Guy, your attention to the vents and small details is amazing. And I have said it many times before, the amount of time and effort you take to document your work is a project in itself. Thanks for sharing your techniques so well with us Absolutely, thank you! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
geedubelyer Posted January 31, 2009 Author Share Posted January 31, 2009 Hi POMPEO, AS and HOLMES, great to see you all. Thanks for your enthusiastic comments, much appreciated. I'm glad you all approve so far Mike, nice to see you, thanks for stopping by. The notes are added to the images using Bamboo Fun by Wacom It's my eldests' toy but he lets me use it from time to time Hello Taiidan Tomcat, glad you enjoy the updates. I hope some of this proves useful. I thought I'd bring you guys up to speed on the progress of the fins. I'm probably about 30% of the way through with the additional detail. This side is complete.... Now I've got to repeat the process for the other side of this fin and the remainder of the left fin. Here's a painful close-up of the scratch built strengthening plates added to the top of the fins. I'm sure that the aftermarket stuff would be more accurate and much neater but I'm an idiot,..what can I say. Hopefully, things will look better under a coat of colour with decals and weathering added. If all else fails I could build a black tailed bird. That would disguise any unseemliness adequately. Cheers for now all. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rom Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 those stiffeners look great! well done! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rraab Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Geez, Guy... well here's to being an "idiot", then! Seriously, you really nailed it with those tail stiffeners (as well as all the other detail you've been adding). The Cross Delta set , although very thorough and "comprehensive" lacks some of the three dimensional detail so visible in this scale...the Steel Beach set is very nice, also, but requires assembly and rivetting - so I'd say you got the best elements of both in your scratched version! As for the [future] paint job, personally I hope you stick with "dirty line jet"- while weathering can cover up 'mistakes', it also accentuates the kind of refinements and extra detail you're adding. I'm sure whatever you decide it'll be yet another stunner! Looking forward to the next "installment"! - Rob Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Eastern Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Hiya, Guy! Don't you be so hard to yourself, all your updates look superb! :huh: Very nice progress so far! Happy modeling! Alexander. :lol: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pete "Pig" Fleischmann Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Here's a painful close-up of the scratch built strengthening plates added to the top of the fins. I'm sure that the aftermarket stuff would be more accurate and much neater but I'm an idiot,..what can I say. Hopefully, things will look better under a coat of colour with decals and weathering added. If all else fails I could build a black tailed bird. That would disguise any unseemliness adequately. :) Guy! HUH? I think this looks fantastic! Really super job mate-I know, we are our worst critic, aren't we? But from where I sit..I gotta' tell you I'm pretty darned impressed! Regards, Pig Quote Link to post Share on other sites
r0t0rdr1ver Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Beautiful! Absolutely...Beautiful! :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
geedubelyer Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 (edited) Hi guys, Rom, Rob, Alexander, Pig and rOtOrdr1ver, you guys have made my day, thanks I was n't sure about the fin strengtheners but if you all think they're o.k then that's good enough for me. In fact, I was so encouraged by your comments I did some more to the Tomcat today. Here's a pic of the ventral fins. Check out those ejector pin marks....... :o .....and what are those holes adjacent to the sprue attachment points? Each fin has a NACA duct on the left face which I wanted to open up. In order to fasil...facill....do this I cut the fin in two. This allowed me to hollow out the opening and create a recess in the tail part to suggest some depth.. Here's a look at how the fin fits into the provided recess. Pictures of the real deal are subtely different. The rectangular opening is hollow on the actual aircraft and the fins don't appear to leave a gap in the way Tamiya have depicted them. With a little trial and error I came up with this. I don't know how accurate the mesh in the hole is but it fills a gap. The assembled fin looks like this...... Now I've got to add the towing bracket at the rear of each ventral fin. Although Tamiya has these as a rectangular extension *I think I'm going to try to put them in the down position just to add some visual interest. The DACO book has plenty of close-ups of that area. For those who are planning on watching Pittsburg and Arizona later, enjoy the game. Cheers, *EDIT: After some expert advice over in Jet Modelling I've changed my mind about the towing brackets. I'm now going to fix them in the stowed position. Edited February 4, 2009 by geedubelyer Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rom Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 brillant!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HOLMES Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 EXCELLENT and AWESOME as ever .. HOLMES Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Eastern Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 SUPERB! (As always, though) Cheers! Alexander. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Marcel111 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Guy, I'm still looking at the stiffener plates... nicely done indeed. Certainly no need for aftermarket, doubt that there's anything better out there. Marcel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Zactoman Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 I'm sure that the aftermarket stuff would be more accurate and much neater but I'm an idiot,..what can I say. :)I guess that makes me a slobbering fool then.Wow Guy, you just keep raising the bar! Brilliant stuff... Thanks once again for the inspiration Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 (edited) Not much more to add, other than that you do some real quality work all over the airframe, not to mention that your build seem to be moving forward at a steady pace! As for me, this last week has given me no time for modelling so I am still stuck in the forward wheel well. Hi Anders, I think re-scribing is a personal choice. Many modellers employ this technique to get the best out of their models and I enjoy looking at the end results. I choose not to over-do the panel lines but only because I prefer that style. There is n't a right or wrong is there? It's all about what the individual likes best....nice work on your front wheel bay BTW. :P Agreed, there are indeed different ways to achieve the same results and considering the method one choose to use for painting and weathering recessed lines may be the best way to go. As for me I am still undecided, but there is still a long road ahead before I have come that far... ;) Cheers, Anders Edited February 2, 2009 by Anders_Isaksson Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Youngtiger1 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Mike, nice to see you, thanks for stopping by. The notes are added to the images using Bamboo Fun by Wacom It's my eldests' toy but he lets me use it from time to time Guy, you are genius. Now, that you mention it, I have seen that before but I never would have thought of using it to edit photos for modeling purposes. Also, looking at your tail stiffeners....you did awesome. I have the CD and SS after-market and looking at these and your photos they look the same to me brother. Now, what I want to know next is "how did you cut those vertical tail fins?" Those things are very thin. I would have sure messed that part up if I was doing it. So.... :P ;) Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
geedubelyer Posted March 3, 2009 Author Share Posted March 3, 2009 (edited) Hello everyone, Thanks for all of the encouraging words. Apologies for the lack of updates but things are moving along slowly. A big thankyou to SteveB and the crew for getting things back on track. Man, I miss this place when there's a hiccup. :D I guess the one silver lining is that I spend more time at the bench and less time slobbering over other members' builds on the forums so progress is a little speedier. {snip-snip}Now, what I want to know next is "how did you cut those vertical tail fins?" Those things are very thin. I would have sure messed that part up if I was doing it. So.... Mike Hi Mike, I pre-drilled the NACA duct openings before using a blade to gently thin the plastic back. This gives a nice thin edge to the opening and allows for a greater feeling of depth into the intake. I used an etched saw blade to seperate the two halves of the strake. HTH.Attention has turned to the belly of the beast. I would like to at least start to assemble some components but I still need to attend to some little details before I can move on. The first items on the agenda are the flare dispensers. I quite liked the look of the Tamiya parts until I put them next to reference pics. The comparison suggested that the detail was too exaggerated next to the actual bird. The Eduard etched parts look better but did n't line up with the holes in the kit parts once all of the raised detail was removed. One answer was to remove the kit parts completely. As you can see, the etched part is suitably flat and looks good but the bare opening behind the part is n't so appropriate. The real deal has tubes which are loaded with the charges so to replicate this I drilled some holes into plastic stock. Once they are painted in a dark gunmetal colour the effect should be more accurate looking. (Fingers crossed...) Moving forward along the underside the next items for attention are the Sparrow troughs. Tamiya has made provision for the fitting of the kit missiles so the fin slots are somewhat crude.... Here is an idea to alter the way they look. Take a suitable object and hack a chunk out of it! In this case I'm making use of a couple of (*edit)Flanker missiles from the Trumpeter Su-27. I considered using the Tomcat Sparrows but of course they were too small in diameter. The AA-11s are just right. What I chose to do was replace both forward fin slots with an in-fill piece . The forward fin slot appears much thinner than the kit offering plus there are a couple of devices to include to busy up the area a bit. This is how they turned out. Another small and invisible detail is to the rear fin slots. I took the time to add the internal walls just to fill in the holes a bit otherwise you can see right up inside the jet. You might have noticed a bit of re-scribing plus, the hinges added to the engine access doors. I opened up the oval vent (seen just above the rear fin slot in the above piccie) and inspired by Janmans' work on his 1/72nd scale Tomcat, I've started on the A/C fans....more on them soon. See you all for the next installment..... :) Edited March 4, 2009 by geedubelyer Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rom Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Hello guy! these slots look really good!! ;) well done!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jack-Swiss Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 ditto... everything there looks really great!!!!!! Cheers ;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Anders_Isaksson Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Great to see your latest progress! Your reworked details really makes a difference in this area. How did you make those hinges for the engine hatches? I have obtained a PE set for generic piano style hinges that I hope can be of use, but still haven't had time to try it out. Cheers, Anders Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aggressor Supporter Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 For a second there I thought you were modifying the Archer missile to be carried by the Tomcat! Now that would be something. :lol: Nice improvisation work there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Eastern Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Oh, Guy! Wow! Finally, after so long delay and testing of our patience we are granted with so smashing updates! :lol: Very nice progress and as always - benchmark job! Happy modeling! Alexander. :lol: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
geedubelyer Posted March 4, 2009 Author Share Posted March 4, 2009 (edited) Hi guys, good to see everyone. Rom, Jack-swiss many thanks for your kind words, I appreciate you stopping by. Great to see your latest progress!How did you make those hinges for the engine hatches? I have obtained a PE set for generic piano style hinges that I hope can be of use, but still haven't had time to try it out. Cheers, Anders Hi Anders, the hinge is a strip of stretched sprue glued into place and then scribed. I firstly added vertical lines along the length of the hinge and then scribed horizontal lines alternating between the top of the line and then the bottom of the hinge line sort of like this -|_|-|_|-|_|-|_|-|_|-|_|-|_|-|_|......sort of! For a second there I thought you were modifying the Archer missile to be carried by the Tomcat! Now that would be something. Nice improvisation work there.Ha!,cheers AS.....no, no WHIFFS for me :wub: . The Phoenix is a big enough missile but this Tomcat will be almost clean.Alexander, glad you like the update and thanks. (I've corrected the previous post ) Here's a quick peek at the ECS fan construction. To start with I'll need a handy sized cylinder. Now what to use...? Hmm,.....how about another missile from the Flanker? Yep,...that'll do! A couple of passes with the saw blade and presto ..... Two handy ECS fan vents. The ends of the tubes benefit from a bit of shaping. These small files and a bit of emery paper made short work of that. Now we'll need the fan. A chose a piece of brass tube that fits neatly inside the mouth of the plastic tube, sharpened the edge of the brass and used it as a "cookie cutter" to make some suitable circles out of metal foil. There are other methods but this is quite easy to do. Next, I punched out a disc of plasticard for the fan blade hub... and shaped it with a circular bit. With the centre glued in place I cut out the blades of the fan and then plopped the whole assembly inside the tubes... The "Q" tip handle spacer gives the correct depth. I added a square of mesh from the covering of a car audio speaker to finish the job off. I may have to box the whole affair in yet. It depends what can be seen once the body is buttoned up. See y'all next time. Edited March 4, 2009 by geedubelyer Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zebra Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 That looks great! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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