Jinxter13 Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Ok I'm in where do I find admission to the rest of the build.....and when does the next class start. Ye gods with all that PE and resin...better thee than me Chuck. However that office is worth the price of admission alone. Excellent and outstanding seem to fall short of an adequate description B) . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Santtu Pikkarainen Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 What a GREAT pit! Wonderfull work Chuck, if I only had half of your skills.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Molecular Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 fantastic work. i always look for ways to add realism through some DIY additions/scratch built items and your build are always full of ideas. keep'em coming :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jmel Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 I can hear Jake groaning already, but hey- I like the contrasting look! Nope, not me. That's a very common situation. Great work, chuck! Jake Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted May 7, 2013 Author Share Posted May 7, 2013 (edited) Thank you everyone for your kind words! One point (OK, excuse) I'd like to make is that what I see with my eyes- even with magnifying glasses on- looks so much better than what you see in these close up pics on your computer screen. With strong overhead lighting the shines that should not be there come through, rough textures are highlighted and tiny paint flaws are magnified. I could shoot the pics a few inches further away to avoid much of this, but I know what I like to see in other builds, so I try to show the same gory detail, good and bad. I think it makes me try to be a better modeler, because I hate to show sloppy work. I fooled around with the cockpit fit into the fuselage last night and, while the cockpit itself is still a "drop-in", with the IP now installed it is a tight and awkward fit up front, requiring some fuselage surgery in order to get the IP to tuck up under the glare shield as it should. Trying to hold the resin cockpit, IP, glare shield and two fuselage halves together at the same time for dry fitting is a real challenge, especially when the mating surfaces of the fuselage are so crappy to begin with. Meanwhile I've got the gun and front gear well to deal with at the same time underneath. I'll sure be glad when I get all this crap put together! THEN, I can deal with the new canopy and front windscreen, which I just know will be a ton of work to get looking right with all the Eduard and Cutting Edge bits I have to glue on. The new windscreen is narrower than the kit one (and super thin), so will it still fit over the Cutting Edge glare shield which was made for the kit part instead? I guess I'll find out soon enough! This is all hard work and a bit frustrating at times, but I enjoy the challenge. Edited May 7, 2013 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tomcat-Lover Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 It really looks good chuck Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rom Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 Hi Chuck! I missed the start of this new build... Anyway, I'll stick around and watch ;^) Your cockpit is superb! Rom Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tripio Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Hello Chuck, any news about your Hog? Hope everything is OK. Regards,Laz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Hello Chuck, any news about your Hog? Hope everything is OK. Regards,Laz Yes Laz, everything is fine. Like many Canadian modelers, I back off on my favorite hobby once the weather turns nice and I have many things to do outdoors. As we often say up here, "We have two seasons: Winter and July", so we need to enjoy our short summers while they last! I've also been busy doing a write-up for Fine Scale Modeler on my recent Mustang build (to be published maybe in the fall?) and posting my builds on a few other modeling sites, to enjoy the other parts of our hobby that don't involve gluing small pieces of plastic together. As well, I'll be going to the Western Canadian Regional Model Contest next Saturday with my Mustang, but this year I'm not counting on anything. I've found that model contests and my builds just don't mix- but that's another story! ;) It's raining hard right now and is supposed to be crappy all weekend, so I'll get back at the Hog and hopefully post some pics soon. I've hit some fairly major obstacles with the gun and front gear bay, but I have a few "workarounds" that I think you guys might be interested in. Thanks for your interest and stay tuned. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
billb Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Looks good! Check your references on the yellow handles at the front of the seat though. All the pics I found have a blanking plate that stops you being able to see straight through the handhold (& assumedly getting things caught through it) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted May 25, 2013 Author Share Posted May 25, 2013 Looks good! Check your references on the yellow handles at the front of the seat though. All the pics I found have a blanking plate that stops you being able to see straight through the handhold (& assumedly getting things caught through it) Thanks for that feedback Sir! It would appear in your first pic, the "blanking plates" have been rotated forward, allowing a clear view through the handle on the left hand side. I'll bet you are right though, so it's any easy "fix" to add same, which I will do. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nimrod77 Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Oh Chuck, I meant to ask before. What kind of paints did you use in your cockpit? Thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites
billb Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 the handles are rotated up in the first pic, plates are fixed. bit of white glue mixed with black paint worked for me. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted May 25, 2013 Author Share Posted May 25, 2013 the handles are rotated up in the first pic, plates are fixed. bit of white glue mixed with black paint worked for me. Gotcha. I have just the fix with some brownish vinyl used as a mask. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Devilleader501 Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Wow chuck you move quick. I must say this has to be the best office spaces I have seen yet. Your attention to detail is something to be jelouse of. Looking forward to the rest of this build. I also apolagize for my last comment on your P-51. It was not my intention to try and get you to change anything. Just something I noticed and wanted to comment on. Outstanding progress so far. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted May 26, 2013 Author Share Posted May 26, 2013 I also apologize for my last comment on your P-51. It was not my intention to try and get you to change anything. Just something I noticed and wanted to comment on. Outstanding progress so far. No sweat Josh- I don't really remember what you said. I'm getting a thicker and thicker skin through time, so I'm sure I didn't even notice a critique of any kind. Having said that, if folks see a problem like Billb pointed out earlier, please speak up! I know squat about A-10's, other than what I see in pics, so I appreciate the feedback. The front gear modifications continue, which are HUGE! I just hope it will all be worth it.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 (edited) OK, enough excuses, here's a bit of an update. One more excuse, however, is that this portion of the build is very hard to photograph with strong white color in the gear well and dark shadows. The pics still tell the story, I think. I was all fired up to detail the big gun and drop one of the Verlinden doors supplied with their kit, but alas we have a big problem. Where the gun shell drum goes, so does the rear of the nice CE cockpit I just painted up, so unless I cut the resin cockpit at the rear, I'm hosed. The detail within the rear of the cockpit is deep where the jettison canister goes, so this part will be cut up a bit, if not destroyed. As they say in poker, you have to know when to hold them and when to fold them. I'm folding! No exposed gun- or any gun- on this build I'm afraid. Since I can't detail the gun underneath, I thought I would pay extra special attention to the gear wells, in this case the front one. The kit parts for this area are, like the rest of the kit, pretty sad. This is the only detail on the starboard side of the front gear well. To top everything off, it's all wrong. That gear door thingie (or whatever it really is) in the middle should be raised about 1/4 inch at 1/32 scale. Fortunately, all that CA goob I added to the front of the fuselage to reinforce the plastic before grinding down the nose and the tabs on the sides that were ground down will not be visible when I'm done. Trust me! Believe it or not, that gibbled rib on the right hand side is molded that way. The port side is equally bad. That front glob on the left is supposed to be a windshield washer reservoir and it should be shaped like a cylinder. Further, the plumbing into it should be coming from the starboard side, not the flat "roof, which doesn't really exist. The Eduard PE part was added to the rear of the well on the right, but that's like _issing in the ocean for impact if that's all I add. The two E/W pipes have problems in the middle too. Both of them should go completely across the gear well with the rear (top) one going only half way. This part is connected to the gear door and Eduard has a few trim bits for this part, but if you attach them where the instruction show, the door arm will be attached too far to the outside. Note the huge pin marks which also need work. What these parts need is plastic surgery- and lot's of it. Nurse, we're going in! The Eduard PE exterior set has 6 small fuselage ribs that should be installed at the rear of the gear well. The instructions ask you to cut off the tiny little kit ribs and glue on the PE parts in their place. However, this will create very fragile ribs that will get knocked off for sure, so I decided to cut very thin slots into the kit ribs for the PE parts to slide into, making them much stronger when glued.... Here are the PE brass parts installed with CA glue, but there is nothing for the front ribs which are much bigger, so I made up 4 1/2 of them out of thin styrene. Normally the short styrene one on the right would be flush with that gizmo in the middle which should be raised, but there's no way I'm making a new "gizmo", especially when I don't even know what it is! I did however, add 2 hydraulic fluid accumulators shaped out of spare sprue (not the Trumpeter crap!) at the front and a little hydraulic connector in the middle of the rear styrene rib... Another angle... Since the front reservoir tank was crappy and the gear door assembly was in the wrong place, I removed them with a knife. Not pretty. I also stole the cap from one of my wife's eyebrow pencils, which is about the right size and is made out of aluminum to replace the windshield washer tank. It is chrome in color, so I sanded off the shine to create the more natural aluminum look. Perfect!- and Shhhhhhhh! She may yet find out it's missing! Sooo, after several hours of work repositioning parts, adding hydraulic lines and painting everything white, I added some dark wash to make the detail "pop" a bit more than usual, because deep in the gear well cavity, you need to overdo it a bit to see anything. Here's a close-up of the port side of the gear well. I filled the depressions with putty then added circular holes to the weight plates at the front according to pics. Note how the gear door arm now has a chance of fitting (not cut to length yet) to the Eduard PE parts now. To get the aluminum reservoir cylinder to fit snugly to the front plate, I heated it with a lighter then pushed it into the plastic slightly. Yes, it should be in front of the plate rather than buried a little within it, but I needed some clearance with all the CA glue I jammed into the front fuselage. You will never notice, especially underneath the jet. There are 4 circular connectors of some kind on the rear of the tank which are painted blue, with no wires or plumbing coming out of them. Edited May 27, 2013 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 (edited) The starboard side. Note the hydraulic canisters at the front, with the rear one painted blue on the bottom with a hose connector. I made suspension clamps to hold them in place out of thin spare nickel metal. Now some views with the gear well dry fitted to the front fuselage. Tough to see much detail and even harder to photograph.... Looking at these pics, I don't think they captured what I see with my eyes, but cameras don't lie. They are, however, aided by lighting that will never be witnessed again! Thank for your continued interest in this beast of a kit. Edited May 27, 2013 by chuck540z3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
caudleryan Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Excuse me while I go to the hospital to have my jaw re-attached. Just that little bit of work(did I just say little?!?!?)helped make the wheel bay pop with detail. Always a pleasure to watch your models come together. I look forward to seeing some more progress. RYAN. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zaxos345 Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Truly magnificent work so far Chuck!! Hard but amazing!!! John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JesniF-16 Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 That looks PHENOMENAL Chuck :thumbsup:/>:worship:/>:thumbsup:/> I didn't realize that the CMK saws could cut such a fine line... Guess I'll be buying one of those soon! Once again masterful work! /Jesse Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 Thanks guys. As mentioned earlier, this part of the build doesn't photograph very well due to the tight spaces, white color and dark shadows fighting each other in the camera's light meter. When I get the gear legs completed, I'll try to take better pics with them installed. I didn't realize that the CMK saws could cut such a fine line... Guess I'll be buying one of those soon! /Jesse I didn't realize they worked so well either. I've had this thing kicking around for several months, but never used it until now. Using the finer teeth shown on the pic towards the cut groove, you can do some fairly delicate work if you take it easy and saw down slowly. I'm now a big fan and I'll be using this tool a lot more often. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GEH737 Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Add as much lead as you can to the nose area - this is a very tail heavy model. If you can, leaving the air refueling door off till later will also give you some access. This is really coming along nicely :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chuck540z3 Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 Add as much lead as you can to the nose area - this is a very tail heavy model. If you can, leaving the air refueling door off till later will also give you some access. Thanks for the tip- and I have just the right thing which I was going to show in my next update. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Skinny_Mike Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Inspiring work Chuck. Really looks fantastic! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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