Gates Learjet 35A - RVHP 1/72

[skidbuggy]

Most impressive!

Alex

[Hajo L.]

Awesome!

Could you give us some insight about the original aircraft? It looks pretty cool with the camo and the shark mouth!

HAJO

[Scalephantomphixer]

...Could you give us some insight about the original aircraft? It looks pretty cool with the camo and the shark mouth!...

Phoenix Air

and many more pictures on airliners.net.

Have a look as well at the walkaround section of this very website

Edited May 4, 2011 by Scalephantomphixer

[Rafael Winter]

Hello Pierre,

It's really good to hear from you again.

nice build as well..

cheers my friend

Rafael Winter

Edited May 4, 2011 by Rafael Winter

[Scalephantomphixer]

After a first layer of Mr.Surfacer I draw the fuel panels on the wing tanks.

Scribing the line is easy: just follow the round template.

Creation of the wing / tank assembly with brass sheet that I cut, soldered and filed into the right shape.

[Scalephantomphixer]

I worked with a 0.3mm thick brass sheet, cut out the shape and soldered the pin. The entire assembly is the filed until the correct profile is achieved.

From a different perspective: you can note the extreme thin trailing edge, on which I will att static dischargers at the end of the build.

[Scalephantomphixer]

Here is how I built the winglets: everything is filed, a real trainee job! Holding the tiny part is actually the most difficult problem. I put it on a leather strap so it moves less.

Then comes a slight polish. Not too much, since the paint needs some crevices to adhere.

A small hole to the wing tank will receive the pin. Et voilà: beautiful fine winglets 

[Scalephantomphixer]

I received new LEDs. I can't wait to install them 

This is how the LEDs are packed: in stripes. The arrow points to the place were I must add a new LED. You can also read the address I bought them from.

Once out of the blister, the LED is quite tiny.

No room for the shivers. Later on I changed those two LEDs for even smaller ones, but brighter. Which is just fine for taxi lights.

[Scalephantomphixer]

Today comes the modification of the landing gear struts.

First I drill a hole to receive the main strut:

I used a small milling bit that works well with resin. The hole went all across the wing, so I had to close the opposite end.

Here is a temporary picture of the new strut. Beside it the kit part that I considered to be too weak to carry the weight of the plane.

[Scalephantomphixer]

Turing a few parts for the landing gear.

Side by side the main parts. My reference is the original kit part.

Filling the opposite end of the strut hole in the wing.

A layer of Mr.Surfacer and the problem is solved. Here is the lower side with the gear strut, The fit is just perfect and the assembly quite solid.

[Scalephantomphixer]

Slow progress on the wing surface. The putty shrinks and day after day new sink marks appear.

Sanding with 6000, low light, spot shallow spots, fill, dry, go to start! (see the puddles of putty at the tip of the arrows)

[Scalephantomphixer]

Preparing for the windows. I made a test on a spare frame to check that the resine cures correctly and can be sanded into a shiny polished surface.

There is too much resin on purpose to allow for the later sanding. Then came the filing and sanding from coarse grits to finer ones, finishing the job with polishing compound. The result is ok.

On the inside I glue a small plastic strip to close that end of the frames.

Here is my resin, to be mixed in a 2 to 1 proportion.

[Scalephantomphixer]

I nearly forgot to paint the inside of the frames.

I added shades from the inside with Bare Metal Foil..

Preparation of the resin mixture. I pour the right quantify into 2 separate cups. Only then I mix both parts into a third clean plastic cup.

I fill the windows with a small disposable syringe. The air bubbles can simply be blown out.

The surface tension builds a hump which I will later sand into shape.

Close-up of the hump.

Both sides of the body go into a dust-proof storage for drying during a couple of days.

[Scalephantomphixer]

D+1. The resin is still flexible enough for me to cut away the excess runs.

I made a cut around the windows and peeled off the excess resin. Amazingly it does not glue to the body.

The arrows show the peeled areas. The windows do not appear to be ligned up straight, it is only an optical illusion due to differences in quantities of "window resin". Some stains of grey paint have appeared from the freshly paint frames, they will be sanded away.

[Scalephantomphixer]

D+3

Filing away the excess and finishing with finer and finer grits.

Close-up of the windows: to the left a gross window, untouched, to the right a window awaiting the final polishing.with 12'000 grit paper.

I like the result: a few micro bubbles, some leftovers of grey paint, hardly visible once the body will be mated.

The body parts on the workbench, with my home-built sanding sticks.

[Scalephantomphixer]

Drilling the holes for plugs to strengthen the tail assembly.

The vertical stabilizer comes first, then the horizontal stabiliser.

The engines will get similar mounting plugs.

The engines must stay removable for the paint job. To have a flat mating surface I added two brass foils to each side. Here they still need to be shaped.

[Scalephantomphixer]

My workplace with the spray booth for the engines.

A light dark wash adds to the depth of the intake.

I cut away the excess brass from the pylon foils.

Finally filing and sanding will produce two perfectly mating surfaces.

[Scalephantomphixer]

A home-made scriber to mark the line to cut.

Curved excess brass with the starboard engine.

The mating surface is now perfect and the engine stays removable until the end of the paint job.

[Scalephantomphixer]

A few "no comment" pictures just for your eyes :D

[Scalephantomphixer]

Some more soldering.

A microscopic LED is about to meet some heat .

After I drilled up a hole into the stabiliser the tail NAV light can be put into place. I added also a fibre optic for the engine strobe.

Tiny ? Did I say Tiny ?

[HOLMES]

FANTASTIC work as always...MARVELOUS to sit and watch your scratchbuilding....

{still pondering over the watches too !}

HOLMES

[Scalephantomphixer]

The fibre optic strobe does not work well. The transmitted light is not strong and visible enough.

I will replace the FO with a traditional LED. The flash will be generated by a little electronic circuit inside the body of the plane.

[Scalephantomphixer]

I removed the FO and drill a wider hole for the electrical wires.

After the soldering "lux fuit".

I glue the LED with CA. The tail NAV light receives a new glass house, made with a transparent left-over from the scrap box.

Here is the schema of my circuit.

[Scalephantomphixer]

Some more improvements: I cut out the moving control surfaces.

The trailing edge is filed sharp.

A few panel lines disappeared during the filing. First I mark them with transparent papier for symmetry.

Then the lines are scribed back.

See the new tail NAV housing? I sanded it into its final shape. Polishing restores the full transparency.

Pre-assembly.

Another shot from the light box. I round-shaped the strobe by simply sanding the LED's plastic.

[Scalephantomphixer]

The horizontal stabiliser with its deflected control surfaces.

Ok folks, now you are up to date with my project, started on February 17, 2011. So far the estimated building time is about 200 hours.

From now on the updates resume their normal pace. Stay tuned and watch out for more. In the meantime visit my blog Greutert on Wordpress(even better: subscibe to the news).

See'ya soon

Edited May 5, 2011 by Scalephantomphixer