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Well, I've got the rear and front fuselage halves done, now I just need to put them together. Right now, I'm kind of at a stopping point as far as working on the fuselage goes until I can get some decent putty, as I'm tired of the damn Squadron White crap and it's incessant shrinking and cracking. Today I got both side weapons pylons and the LANTIRN pod assembled, but I haven't taken pics of those yet.

Anyway, the rear fuselage assembly:

tomcat47.jpg

tomcat48.jpg

Note the two pieces of strip styrene I added as "guides" when I go to attach the front assembly:

tomcat49.jpg

Now onto the front assembly:

tomcat50.jpg

tomcat51.jpg

tomcat53.jpg

And a shot of the LANTIRN stick I added. I know the placement isn't perfect, but I'm hoping it'll do:

tomcat52.jpg

Thanks for looking, and rememeber, all feedback and criticisms are greatly appreciated, positive or negative :cheers:.

EDIT: I still need to add the reinforcement plate to the RIO step...I haven't forgotten that :).

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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Here's some pics of the weapons pylons and the LANTIRN pod I finished yesterday. I'm thinking the loadout on this will be (inert) AIM-54 on station 1A, AIM-9 on 1B, LANTIRN on 8A, ACMI pod on 8B, bomb racks on the belly and an AIM-7 way in the back. I've also decided I'm going to do a diorama with this one...but I'm not 100% sure of the scene yet...but I'm leaning toward a static display at an air show type thing, with the a/c roped off and people standing around looking at it.

Anyway, here's the pylons. First up, stations 1A and B:

Tomcat60.jpg

Stations 8A and B:

Tomcat57.jpg

The LANTIRN dry-fit to it's pylon:

Tomcat58.jpg

And a totally gratutitous and unnecessary shot of the workbench :thumbsup::

Tomcat59.jpg

Thanks for looking :cheers:

EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT

I need input on the reinforcement frame around the RIO step. I know it's a bit thick...I'll deal with that later. But does it look OK?

Tomcat62.jpg

Tomcat63.jpg

tomcat61.jpg

I need to get some opinions before I go and glue it down! Thanks :salute:!

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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TF,

Just to let you know. It was illegal to mix live and inert missiles on the same jet and we would never carry live missiles with a ACMI (TACTS) Pod.

Reddog :o

I know. I'm planning on doing all inert weapons, but I wasn't really clear on that part was I? My fault, I'm officially a doofus :)...

:)

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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The progress continues. I finally finished the other wing, and I also invested in some resin bang seats. I've also began the process of filling seams on the rear fuselage...meaning I'm going to have some re-scribing to do, as I've lost some of the panel line detail.

The wings:

tomcat64.jpg

tomcat65.jpg

The True Details seats with the kit handles added:

tomcat66.jpg

tomcat67.jpg

And some of the seam-filling I've been doing:

tomcat68.jpg

tomcat69.jpg

And, as always, thanks for looking :cheers:!

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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I started a computer programming class this past week, so my building time has (and will be for the forseeable future) been dramatically sliced. Anyway, for the past few workbench sessions, I have been trying to tackle the modification of the Phoenix pallets to hold the Steel Beach bomb racks (the temptation just to slather some CA on them and slap them on the pallets was almost overwhelming). I'm not exactly a professional at doing surgery on a kit, so I ended up slicing the first set of Phoenix pallets into oblivion. Thankfully, I had a set left over from a build that never got done, so I was a bit more patient, read the how-to on HS4Grandson's Tomcat GB thread and tried to turn out something halfway decent.

Two things...first, the racks are just dry-fit in there at the moment, I still have to sand them down some more so they are level, and secondly, not long after I took these pics, I sanded the filler down, and I just haven't gotten around to snapping any more pics yet:

I cut a little bit too much off the Phoenix racks, so I had to take a little piece of plasticard as a backer:

tomcat72.jpg

And the racks dry-fit

tomcat78.jpg

As always, thanks for looking :whistle:

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As a side note for future reference, the gap at the back where the ADU-703 and rail meet does not need to be filled. On the real thing there was a gap back there big enough you could get both your hands up inside to connect the cannon plugs for the bomb rack. As far as what was up inside there, it was an empty space, you could see all the way inside the ADU-703 and also the bottom of the jet. I'd say the gap was at least 8 inches.

Reddog :salute:

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Those seats look to be worth every penny! Nice work despite the scheduling problems

Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to painting the seats. Does anybody know (reddog? :D) what is the closest color match for that funky-looking green fabric behind the outer cushion?

Now onto today's progress. I finally got the front and rear fuselage joined and the gaps filled :nanner:! The whole process actually went very smoothly, including the filling and sanding, which I thought may turn out to be a challenge.

Here's some shots I took while the filler was drying:

Tomcat79.jpg

Tomcat81.jpg

Tomcat82.jpg

Tomcat83.jpg

Tomcat86.jpg

Thanks for looking :cheers:!

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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And an hour or so later, after the filler dried enough to get the sanding done:

Tomcat88.jpg

Tomcat89.jpg

Tomcat90.jpg

Tomcat91.jpg

Tomcat92.jpg

Tomcat93.jpg

I also just got done installing the radome, so that's drying as I type this. I'll have pics of that later.

Thanks for looking :wave:!

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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Does anybody know (reddog? :D) what is the closest color match for that funky-looking green fabric behind the outer cushion?

I recommend Model Masters Field Green FS 34097.

BTW, those things are (back rest one) parachute pan, housed the pilots/RIO's chute and the seat one(call a seat pan) housed survivial equipment and supplies.

HTH

Reddog :salute:

TF, your Tomcat looks great, can't wait to see her done. :wave::worship:

Edited by Reddog
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I recommend Model Masters Field Green FS 34097.

BTW, those things are (back rest one) parachute pan, housed the pilots/RIO's chute and the seat one(call a seat pan) housed survivial equipment and supplies.

HTH

Reddog :D

TF, your Tomcat looks great, can't wait to see her done. :wave::salute:

You, my friend, totally reek of AWESOMENESS :worship:!

Thanks :)

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You, my friend, totally reek of AWESOMENESS!

Thanks :D

My wife says I reek also........but it ain't of awesomeness. :worship:

I'm just helping out a fellow modeller and passing along my knowledge of what I learn while working on the Tomcat, that's all. :salute:

Reddog :wave:

Edited by Reddog
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