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G'day people,

I recently acquired this kit and could not wait to start it.

I have been slowly gathering some aftermarket bits to stuff into the kit and I just needed the kit itself. Thankfully I was able to acquire a mint example for a reasonable price.

The kit is reasonably simple despite the daunting size, essentially, all the sub-assemblies are attached to either the top of bottom fuselage half, the only external items being the undercarriage and ordnance.

First job was to persuade the Aires resin cockpit to fit into the upper fuselage. Aires provides a cutting diagram which is actually rubbish, if followed, you will remove too much material and end up having to fill some large gaps.

I decided to make my own template by drawing around the rear of the cockpit bulkhead and transferring these dimensions to the kit' bulkhead, but first reduced the outline slightly as the final fit would be achieved by careful filing. I used a micro saw to saw around the front of the kit's instrument coaming which is moulded in place. I also used the moulded seams along the horizontal sections of the cockpit sill as a cutting guide.

After about an hour I ended up with this,

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I used a couple of Blu-tack sausagees to temp hold the cockpit tub in place while I tested the fit of the resin instrument coaming,

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Simples!

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
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not to stray too far from topic, but is the tamiya better than the pro modeler monogram? are you going to fill in the recessed panel lines on the Tamiya kit? The cockpit looks perfect, thank you for sharing with us!

I've personally have had the revell, academy, and tamiya kit; I vote for tamiya.

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not to stray too far from topic, but is the tamiya better than the pro modeler monogram? are you going to fill in the recessed panel lines on the Tamiya kit? The cockpit looks perfect, thank you for sharing with us!

I can't speak for the other kits, but the fit is great (as I expected it to be)and apart from the presence of the panel lines,it looks pretty spot on. I am undecided as to fill the panel lines. Recesssed lines is not correct for an operational bird. The real jet had self adhesive RAM applied over the panel edges. Up close, you could see all the applied layers, but when viewed from a distance (bearing in mind that looking at a 1/48 kit is like standing about 10m away)the tape layers would not be obvious. but filling in the panel lines seems like a lot of work. I may just go over them with a couple of applications of Mr Surfacer to tone them down a little.

Thank you Pappy for describing and showing how you got that Aires cockpit to fit. Very helpful.

Rick in Maine

My pleasure Rick in Maine,

Hopefully it will help you and others. The resin tub has two little recesses, one either side on the edges of the sill. These correspond to the two little locating pins on the underside of the kit sill. If all goes correctly, the locating pins should pop into the recesses on the tub and serv to anchor and locate the tub in the correct position. None of this is mentioned in the Aires instructions. Also, if you follow the Aires cutting guide, you will be removing these two little pins!

One other little thing I found, was that to get the front coaming to fit properly, I had to reduce the height of the instrument panel supports behind the front quarter panels by about 1mm. If you don't do this, the whole coaming will sit proud of the cockpit shelf and it will look odd. Mine is very slightly angled down at the front and i will blend this in with some Mr. Surfacer,

Cheers,

Pappy

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G'day people,

I have worked on the seat today.

The Tamiya seat is quite a nice rendition of the ACES II variant used, however the detail included in the Aires item is stunning. I have taken pics of both seats side by side for comparison purposes.

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I managed to break off the MOR handle and did not notice until later, I'll have to scratch up some sort of replacement, bugger!

The Tamiya item has the seat rails moulded integrally, to which some cockpit 'furniture' is attached. The Aires item is a separate unit allowing it to be installed after the cockpit tub painting has been completed. One thing to note however is that the Aires seat includes the guide rollers along the rear ede of the seat. This is great if you wish to depict the seat in a diorama,in the process of a seat change for example. If you intend t install the seat however, remove these roller guides otherwise you will not be able to fit the seat between the guide rails. Again, this is not explained in the Aires instructions.

And all tarted up!

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I also painted the white cockpit sill areas.

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To be honest, I had never noticed this detail until I started doing the research for this build.

Since I had the white in the airbrush, I also shot a coat over the main gear undercarriage doors

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These are normally closed on the ground except when undergoing maintenance, so these were attached to the lower fuselage half.

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cheers,

Pappy

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Very nice start to your Nighthawk, cant wait to see more!

G'day JMan, your wait is now over,

G'day people,

Today's installment continues with getting the Aires cockpit to play nice with the nose gear bay. The Aires resin tub is located directly above the nose wheel well (NWW) and unless both of these items are thinned, you will not be able to close the fuselage halves. I began by cutting off and sanding down the resin pour stub on the base of the cockpit tub.

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Note the hole drilled into the base. This is the locating hole for the nosegear unit which pokes through the NWW roof.

Next up, I sanded back the roof of the NWW roof until is was just about level

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I stopped when the roof began to separate!

The fit was checked constantly and and I am now able to close the fuselage halves. Satisfied the parts would fit, I was now able to start painting the tub. Again, for comparison purposes, I have taken pics of the stock cockpit alongside its resin counterpart,

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Bear in mind the stock cockpit has the kit rails moulded to the seat, so the rear bulkhead looks a little spartan without the seat fitted.

More tub shots,

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And dry fitted to the fuselage

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cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
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Just amazing how much more detail that Aires pit has. What's your painting/weathering process with it? It looks perfect!

G'day Nick,

Patience and careful painting will bring out the detail. My process is nothing amazing, I just paint, wash and dry-brush, that's it. I like to have reference pics around me of the cockpit when I paint and I will only paint by daylight. I find that fluorescent lighting is misleading with respect to colour. I have looked aat stuff I have painted at night and it looks different by day. Painting under a bright light means strong shadows,which can make it difficult to see what you are actually painting. Painting in daylight also means that there is plenty of ambient light reducing shadows.

A little bit of skill doesn't hurt either :P

Pappy

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Wow nice job on the office. That thing looks real. I am curious if you have figured out what your doing with the RAM panels yet. There has been quite the discussion over the F-35 builds about them.

I may just have to go out and get a Nighthawk after seeing this build. Great job so far cant wait to see more.

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G'day people,

The tub is in

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I glued a couple of pieces of sprue on either side of the tub to re-enforce the joint as I did not want the tub to work iteslf loose after the fuselage halves are joined. Next up, I worked on the Aires instrument panel. This was pretty easy to paint as only the 3 MFD's are moulded on the central part, the remaining detail is in the from of printed acetate instrument faces and PE overlays.

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The kit panel is actually pretty nice, here is a comparison shot

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The instrument coaming has two fold able glare shield panels.At least one is folded back prior to cockpit entry. They have a yellow/black caution on the underside, and this is a focal point in the cockpit. The Aires PE parts were carefully bent to shape after annealing over the gas ring of the stove (make sure to get the approval of a grown up!) and then painted. I am happy with the result.

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The joystick was also painted and weathered

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Test fitting the instrument panel

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And with the seat

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Note, if you attach the glare shield foldy bits, you cannot close the canopy! I have put these parts as well as the PE HUD frame aside and will be attaching these items after the jet is painted,

cheers,

Pappy

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