Mr B Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 (edited) Nice progress...watch the intakes outboard skin.... a tad bit of problem when I did mine .....its best to test fit them with the full wing in place both top and rear pieces.....but overall its a great kitty..... don't forget the nose weight......tooo hth rgds mr b Edited March 27, 2013 by Mr B Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted March 27, 2013 Author Share Posted March 27, 2013 Nice progress...watch the intakes outboard skin.... a tad bit of problem when I did mine .....its best to test fit them with the full wing in place both top and rear pieces.....but overall its a great kitty..... don't forget the nose weight......tooo hth rgds mr b Nose weight? Uh - oh.... Did I miss that in the instructions? Or did they forget to mention that nasty little detail? Last night, after I installed the tail planes, it promptly sat on its tail. I then dry-fitted the seats (without their PE parts), without the canopy, and it sat on its nose - barely. I might be OK with this. Has anyone built this kit without nose weight? Has it worked out? I looked carefully at the instructions, and saw no mention of a weight being required. Pics to come soon. You'll see that my intake outer covers have gaps at their aft joins - will require putty. Thanks for your hints, Mr b. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 1, 2013 Author Share Posted April 1, 2013 More progress, after a huge Easter supper at the in-laws' house... Oink! The ham was good. I mentioned earlier that the instructions are strangely ordered. Here's an example. They would have you install the flaps before attaching the wing to the fuselage. Bizarre. Maybe that's why this is not for inexperienced modelers... Here I've started to attach the wings. I am using a technique I adopted for WW II fighters, where the upper wings often don't mate well with the fuselage if glued first to the lower one-piece wing. I've applied Tamiya extra-thin cement to the upper wing to fuselage join, and propped things in place with the AIM 9 and a glue tube. The centre section of the wing is already glued in place to the lower fuselage. Note also that there is a good-sized gap at the rear of the engine intake (on both sides). I will have to fill these. Here are the two wings in place, with props holding them to dry at the roots. These are the gaps on the fuselage side and top of the wing that need filling. Not too bad, but would have been worse if I had glued the wing tops in place before mating to the fuselage, as per the instructions. Another shot of the intake gaps. Not great, but should be easy to fill. The wings are nicely detailed, with the leading edge stall strips and the vortex generators, as well as the wing fences that will be installed much later on. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 1, 2013 Author Share Posted April 1, 2013 I hate to poke too much fun at the instructions, but this one makes me grin when I read it. Apparently, the wings have "flats" that can be up or down. The flap attachment points are reminiscent of the CF-18 attachment points - like the Hasegawa (1/48) and Academy (1/32) kits. I glued the attachment points in place first, and let them dry. Now the flaps themselves. A tweezer helps to hold one end in place so it sits tightly against the support. Left-hand trailing edge "flat" installed. And the little strip above it. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 1, 2013 Author Share Posted April 1, 2013 Now turning to the cockpit. Those PE belts are really quite complex! I printed out some reference pics from Hazer's Flightline, as well as some that "T" sent me from Cold Lake. More progress tomorrow. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 I hate to poke too much fun at the instructions, but this one makes me grin when I read it. Apparently, the wings have "flats" that can be up or down. LOL yeah when you get a wing flat you have to land at the nearest Canadian Tires to have it patch up :P Great progress ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 1, 2013 Author Share Posted April 1, 2013 LOL yeah when you get a wing flat you have to land at the nearest Canadian Tires to have it patch up :P/> Great progress ALF It's a good thing my son works there - he gets an employee discount on FLAT repair! You missed out on a good weekend here. For once the weather was decent. Hope you enjoyed your long weekend! ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 1, 2013 Author Share Posted April 1, 2013 The cockpit always seems to be the place the most work goes into. These PE seatbelts are quite complex. It's starting to look like a completed cockpit. I have started dry-fitting the canopy, and applying the assorted bits and pieces to finish the exterior as well. The PE HUD is quite demanding as well - tiny pieces, soft metal, and easy to stain the clear parts with the CA glue. I have applied PE parts to the fuselage, and am attaching the various antennae and probes all over. I am happy to report that this is not a tail sitter; with the canopy bits in place it will be quite solid on its nose gear. I had some anxious days there hoping it would work out. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 (edited) Nice work chum. Last photo looks like your build has a missile going up the intake! Edited April 2, 2013 by AX 365 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Nice work chum. Last photo looks like your build has a missile going up the intake! LOL took me a while to see it but so funny Great progress ALF You should try the putty qtip and nail polish remover technique on those intake seams "Clicky" really works magic Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rodney Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Your progress is looking good. Good luck with those gaps around the intakes and wing root. I hate working on those areas. Rodney Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 Nice work chum. Last photo looks like your build has a missile going up the intake! It's an illusion... it missed by about 4 (scale) feet, and hit the guy behind me! ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 LOL took me a while to see it but so funny Great progress ALF You should try the putty qtip and nail polish remover technique on those intake seams "Clicky" really works magic Neo That's exactly the technique I used - I hate sanding! Here's what it looks like before primer application (BTW, I did the detonating cord on the canopy interiors with black permanent marker tracing along the raised plastic grooves inside the canopy): I will be closing up the canopy on this one, to minimize the risk of damage in shipping (Canada Post) to Cold Lake. Therefore, I have to finish up the cockpits first. The canopies have white linings. Hmmm. I fretted over this for a day or two, and decided that I would avoid too much masking and painting. How? First, here's the problem: How to reproduce those super-clean and thin white trim lines, you ask? With a method I have used on other builds. I went out and bought some white and black electrical tape at Canadian Tire tonight. I will apply the white tape to the inside of the canopy, and allow it to slightly surpass the outer frame marks on the transparent parts. I will then apply black electrical tape over top of it (on the inside), but shorter, so that it makes the black inner frame, with the white poking out and visible on the outside. It should make for a nice clean line. I will then mask the outside of the canopy, and paint with it glued in place. Here is another shot of the filled gaps, and the canopy with the tape. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 Have I mentioned I hate masking? Here is the progress on the taping to make the white demarcations, and for the black inner canopy framing. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mr B Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Nice progress.......as for the canopy.....lining.....micron tape does wonders.........just cut out long strips....paint it white and tape it on......and trime it with a sharp scaple.....you will be done........i use this as i always am unable to get masking right on those linings....... great tip on the detcord with the marker......might use that next time happy building rgds mr b Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Nice work on the canopy, ALF. Great tip for the det-cord highlight. When does she go to the paint booth? Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 6, 2013 Author Share Posted April 6, 2013 Mr B I hadn't considered using the white tape on the outside for the main canopy exterior white segment. Too late for this one; I have already masked and painted a coat of Tamiya light grey primer. Pictures soon. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 7, 2013 Author Share Posted April 7, 2013 I finished up the detail bits prior to painting the primer. Now here is a bit of a mystery... In the instructions, they show what appear to be wing fences, made out of PE, on the tops and bottoms of the wingtip areas. This part of the instructions is for the underwing parts; the left side of the same page shows different PE part numbers for the wing upper edges, left and right. So, I dutifully glued together the bits of PE, and installed them on the wingtips. They looked pretty cool, but also a bit off... based on my many hours sitting in the simulators that we built at CAE for the NFTC program. The Hawk's wings were visible in the simulator visual system screens, which had a very wide field of view (+/- 150 degrees either side of the nose, leaving a small gap at the tail only). I check reference pics, and the NFTC Hawk does NOT have this kind of wing fence. I have absolutely no idea why the kit says to install these, without a clear clue that it might exist only on certain Hawk 100 variants. Hmmm. Anyway, I chopped off the PE parts and smoothed the surface, so that it now looks clean again. I masked off the canopy, which took a long time. I also ended up chopping off the little nibs that help to locate the canopy when it is glued in the open position; they were slightly larger than the clear plastic gaps, but not necessary when glued closed. You can also see that I filled in the gaps with the Q-tip and nail polish remover method for smoothing the putty with no sanding required. I then sprayed some Tamiya light grey primer on it, with this result. I masked off the canopy bow after the light grey primer was sprayed, so it will remain light grey. The remainder of the canopy frame will end up being the dark blue. This all got done Friday, and I was hoping to spray the blue Saturday. Unfortunately, winter is still present in full force here, and it is quite chilly to open the garage doors up and spray at the moment. Things had melted somewhat, but it has taken a turn for the colder in the last 5 days or so. We're getting another 5 cm of snow today, 2 tomorrow, 5 more Tuesday... Temperature -10C, wind chill -22C... on the 7th of April!!! I hate the climate here. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 This all got done Friday, and I was hoping to spray the blue Saturday. Unfortunately, winter is still present in full force here, and it is quite chilly to open the garage doors up and spray at the moment. Things had melted somewhat, but it has taken a turn for the colder in the last 5 days or so. We're getting another 5 cm of snow today, 2 tomorrow, 5 more Tuesday... Temperature -10C, wind chill -22C... on the 7th of April!!! I hate the climate here. ALF Nice progress chum. As for these last two photos...ICK! SNOW! If it makes you feel any better, the weatherman here in YOW is calling for 10-15 cms of snow on Friday. He drinks so I don't know how much I trust him though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 10, 2013 Author Share Posted April 10, 2013 Nice progress chum. As for these last two photos...ICK! SNOW! If it makes you feel any better, the weatherman here in YOW is calling for 10-15 cms of snow on Friday. He drinks so I don't know how much I trust him though. He drinks to be able to deal with all the blame he's been taking for this "pseudo-spring" (extended winter) we've been having. Thanks for trying to make me feel better, although 10-15 cm of snow in YOW can sometimes become 25-30 here, with temperatures 10 degrees C colder... Argh! I got some blue painted yesterday, but it needs some touching up. I'll let the blue cure for a few days, then zap it again. Don't want a repeat of the fiasco I had with my big Starfighter. With such a dark blue, it is really necessary to get it right, because any differences in density of colour really show. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 I got some blue painted yesterday, but it needs some touching up. I'll let the blue cure for a few days, then zap it again. Don't want a repeat of the fiasco I had with my big Starfighter. With such a dark blue, it is really necessary to get it right, because any differences in density of colour really show. ALF So...did the blue go on okay or are we singing the blues again? I think we need a photo. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ALF18 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 No problems with the blue, Mike - it went rather well, considering that my confidence for painting gloss dark colours is about as solid as Carey Price's ability to stop pucks these days. A first coat, using Humbrol Acrylic 15 midnight blue. It is a pretty close match for Insignia Blue. Note that there were some areas that were rather lightly covered, that need to be resprayed. Max and I needed a dose of coffee to continue, especially given the snow and cold weather... also the extra courseload I picked up at the last minute, due to a colleague being sidelined at the last minute. It's getting better. Starting to apply the Future. Time to finish up the AIM 9. The upper one is from my spares box; I used it to see where the different coloured bands go. Yellow for the warhead, and brown for the rocket motor. In this case, the AIM 9 is inert, so the two bands are blue. I used decals from the Academy Hornet kit for the blue bands, and a silver metallic pen for the silver bands. The seeker head is done with magic marker. Missile rails installed, some touchups done, and some detail painting and final assembly of wheels and doors happening. Decals soon. ALF Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Neo Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Sweet she looks great! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dmthamade Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Great progress, ALF. I like your idea for the det cord. Question, if the world went really bad, would these aircraft be put into the fight in any capacity? Don Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AX 365 Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Jeez...sounds like you're busier than a one armed man trying to hang wallpaper. Looking really good, ALF. The colour and the glossy sheen are really close. It's amazing how the gloss coat seems to darken the colour slightly. I noted that on my Corsair build a while ago and the Future has had the same effect on your Hawk. I like it. Now...how about some perspective. What size coffee cup has Max got his head stuck in? Further...is he a double double kind of dog?! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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