phantomakias Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 Hello everybody! I'm new in the forum,i come from Greece,and my name is Michael (Michalis in Greek) Last year i started the Lavi Project The IAI Lavi is one of my favourite misfortuned aircrafts (such as Avro canada CF-105,TSR-2,XB-70,A-12,F-108 Rapier,YF-23,F-20 and many more) Unfortunately there is no company releasing this awesome aircraft (with serious terms) in the "right" scale......1/48 The so called kit of Attic models is good ....for nothing at least the copy that came to me,having a banana shaped fuselage :bandhead2: So................i decided to build it on my own (for second time,first time was way wrong in shape) I turn myself to cannibal and annihilate an F-16C (hasegawa)that it happened to lay at the back of my bench. During the whole project my "dremel" was on fire. So after removing the Lerx and airbrakes all the way from nose to tail the fuselage looked like this. As you might see in the photos i stuffed the hollowed fuselage with many parts of plastic sprues and other things and fill and level with a great ammount of epoxy putty. Then i used a self adhesive plastic sheet (normaly used to cover books and notebooks inn school) . That i did in order to have a surface where i could scrib the lines of the fuselage because scribbing on epoxy putty is not a good idea. Yet neither this technique worked out properly in the end Searchin in my spare box i found a cockpit (i think it was from a Starfighter) and many other parts to build a good looking (i hope) lavi cockpit. The main panel is from an F-15C,the area behind the seat from an F-18,the seat is resin Mk-10 and the cover of main panel is from F-18 also.From the poor Hornet came the canopy too :D Everything was rearranged to fit right and also look right and Lavish Next came the wings.According to the plans i had , i measured the angles of leading and trailing edge and using the main wing of an F-4 (heavily slaughtered) i managed to build them fast and right. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantomakias Posted November 2, 2012 Author Share Posted November 2, 2012 The canards came from F-4 also (poor Phantom!!!) and the vertical stabilator is of course from the F-16 but it have been changed in shape and angle to fit a Lavi . From the F-16 i "borrowed" too the vertical fins ,and with add of plastic sheet and epoxy putty i rearrange them too. As you can see there is a huge amount of putty used all over the project ,which means of course, i had to .....how you call it in english....rub? Anyway there was many days of rubbing the putty and leveling the parts together. During that procedure i found out that there was no possibility to scrib the lines and the panels. Every try was lead in breaking putty,so i gave up. Finaly i decided i 've had enough of rubbing and passed on the camo. That came up from my head although i could use the Israeli falcon pattern or something from what if drawings. But the colors was standard. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantomakias Posted November 2, 2012 Author Share Posted November 2, 2012 I used Humbrol colors (103,120,118) for the top and gunze H307 for the undersides. The decals are from the Italeri's Barak and i choose the 101st sqn. The weapons too are from the italeri/Kinetik kit. I used 2X SPICE,2X AIM-120C,2X Python 4,1X SNIPER and 2X fueltanks but this time from Rafale I also put an IFF in front of the wind shield Landing gears are from F-15 with some rearrangements,wheels from F-16 (resin)and covers are made from plasticard. So...here it is finished ,hope you like it! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantomakias Posted November 2, 2012 Author Share Posted November 2, 2012 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantomakias Posted November 2, 2012 Author Share Posted November 2, 2012 Of course it is a What if project.That's why there are no technical or historical data. I love What if generally and special the HAFif (Hellenique Air Force if) I have built many of them (and i'm still building new ones) and soon i will share some of them (or all of them) with you in the whatif section. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dsahling Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 Looks great to me!!!! Nice work on putting together what looks like a really complicated project. As for putty and panel lines, yes it is nearly impossible. I try to use putty only in areas where I wouldn't need to scribe like wing joints. However, heres a little secret of mine, use CA glue either by itself or over putty, let if fully cure for a day or so and then sand it. What you will notice is that stuff dries nearly rock hard, and can be quite a pain to sand. However, it is much easier to then scribe panel lines through and most likely wont chip like putty will. Dan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nikosmeta Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 Good job Michalis Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Deino Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 Verrrrry nice !!!! Already posted this is the jet-tread but here it fits better ... BY the way a friend of mine is currently scratching a Lavi in 1/32 ... http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=13162&st=0 to http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=13162&st=315 or (after sign in) at the German FF: http://www.flugzeugforum.de/iai-lavi-1-32-a-38305-77.html Cheers, Deino Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.