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Academy 1/32 F-16 Intake(s)


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Since Academy themselves have released the Sufa as a kit, would it make sense to incorporate this bulge in the master, and those that don't need the bulge can remove it by sanding? Would be a lot easier than having to add it. In any case, this is a great addition to the kit and something sorely needed. Especially now that the Tamiya P&W powered F-16 kit is discontinued and loose sprues are no longer available.

Jens

Well,

Hope that Chris takes this recom for the intake he's making.

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Well,

Hope that Chris takes this recom for the intake he's making.

Oh boy, from Chirs pictures, he's way too far for that.... If Academy didn't bother why should he.

I presume Chris intented market was their first kit, the CG, CJ, unless he have other vision that we don't know,

then we'll have to put more monkey grease ourselves to get an accurate one for the Sufa.

MTC. :coolio:/>

Dan.

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Oh boy, from Chirs pictures, he's way too far for that.... If Academy didn't bother why should he.

MTC. :coolio:/>/>

Dan.

Well, pursuing that argument, if Academy didn't bother to get the shapes correct on their intake, why should he? In any case, it's not a dealbreaker for me - it would be nice to have that feature included, but having an accurately shaped intake is my main concern. I'm hoping this becomes a success, and that we may see a dedicated Sufa intake with the bumps and faired in intakes too?

Jens

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Well, pursuing that argument, if Academy didn't bother to get the shapes correct on their intake, why should he? In any case, it's not a dealbreaker for me - it would be nice to have that feature included, but having an accurately shaped intake is my main concern. I'm hoping this becomes a success, and that we may see a dedicated Sufa intake with the bumps and faired in intakes too?

Jens

Jens, I agree with you, it would be nice to have an exact one for the Sufa but, what I'm saying and I'm no specialist,

but presuming ounce your master mold is done, you don't want to fool around modifying unless necessary because of a major flaw... I wouldn't

Hey, maybe the Zactoman found a way for a second modified mold..... B)/>

Dan.

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The frontal cross sections are identical.

So the Acad and Zactoman small mouth intakes have identical frontal cross sections? If I remember corrctly, one of the main flaws in the Acad kit was that the small mouth intake was not wide enough. If true, that's too bad.

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So the Acad and Zactoman small mouth intakes have identical frontal cross sections? If I remember corrctly, one of the main flaws in the Acad kit was that the small mouth intake was not wide enough. If true, that's too bad.

Nobody will ever see this issue!! Chris, I will buy a few small mouth and big mouth as well :woot.gif:

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So the Acad and Zactoman small mouth intakes have identical frontal cross sections? If I remember corrctly, one of the main flaws in the Acad kit was that the small mouth intake was not wide enough. If true, that's too bad.

I changed my post here because I found out you are correct, by mm but never-t he-less correct. To me if I can squeeze it and it fits it works, but I did more checking and when I am wrong I am wrong.

That is why I stick to Phantoms and Eagles.

Gary

Edited by ghatherly
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I don’t know where you get that info about cross section, but you are starting a discussion about nothing of fact. Don’t mean to be blunt but there is no other way to put it.

The Academy and the Tamiya are interchangeable at the intake opening and where they attache to the lower for all practical purposes. They just at ache at different locations. Tamiya goes to the Wheel well and Academy has the short section before the wheel well. I know as I have had both in my hands to check the fit of each. The only problem with the Academy is they left he the spacing to small between the fuselage and the intake and did not include any details for the auxiliary intakes on the sides of those walls. Hope this helps clear up the issue

Gary

Gary

My intention was not to criticize Zactoman's product or to spread disinformation. I apologized if it seemed that. I am coming at it as a potential customer who has held off on purchasing a Sufa because of the intake issue.

The frontal cross section of both Academy's large mouth and small mouth intake was brought up by Vodnik in his review of original F-16CG/CJ kit shortly after it was released.

http://www.vodnik.net/pages/F-16CG_CJ/V-intakes.jpg

Mike from Sierra Hotel Models also voiced a similar assessment of the Academy intakes on another forum.

Maybe their assessment is incorrect or it is a minor issue that is barely noticeable. I was merely asking if one issue with the Academy intake, which I thought was well known, was addressed so I could balance the cost of the product with its value.

I will look forward to seeing it on a mock up of the model.

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Wow, I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted! Sorry about that...

I had some problems casting but have worked out the kinks.

Instructions are about finished.

I should be ready to release in a few days (assuming my packaging/boxes arrives soon).

I'm still thinking about price. The more problems I have the more I want to charge, but I still want to keep it cheap enough to be an attractive product.

Any notes on how it will work with the kit wheel bays or the aires ones?

The nose gear well is the stock Academy well and is built in to the part. The remaining Academy gear parts will work with my part.

I chose to keep the well stock to keep cost down. Molds of detailed wheel wells tend to fail quickly and I'm already dealing with a seamless intake which is difficult enough to mold.

Adding the Aires well would require major surgery.

I intended for my part to be a drop fit but somehow the lugs on the rear tube part interfered with the D-shaped platforms on the top of the kit rear well part. I instruct that the D-shaped platforms be removed which allows my part to fit.

I don't know if the Aires rear well part will fit my part. If it is the same thickness as the kit rear parts then it should.

Chris, would this also be compatible with Tamiya's F-16?

No.

I'm not sure why you would want to use it on the Tamiya kit.

I used elements of both the Tamiya and Academy intakes to make my master pattern. As I previously mentioned, I had to make some compromises. AFAIK the Tamiya kit is very accurate.

The Tamiya kit has the intake part extend all the way back to the rear gear well. The Academy intake ends at the panel line forward of the rear gear well. The cross section here is much different between the 2 kits.

The intersecting area on the top of the intakes is completely different.

My part incorporates the Academy front gear well so the Tamiya gear parts won't work.

The Academy kit has finer panel lines and rivets which I tried to match, so my surface detail won't match the Tamiya kit either.

Here are some comparison pics (Academy top, Zactomodels middle, Tamiya bottom):

F-16_small_7_zpsa0aea5cf.jpg

F-16_small_6_zps5d019be3.jpg

Will you be doing the fan faces and what about exhaust nozzles?

No fan faces. The kit part will work with my intake, looks pretty good and is so far back that it should be good enough regardless. Exhausts?...

It would require a couple of mods for the Sufa. The Sufa doesn't have a RAM duct on the sides above the intake. Also, if the nosewheel well is cast with the intake, the roof of the well should have a depression and the bottom of the intake throat should have a corresponding bulge to accommodate the wider nosewheel of the Sufa/Block 52+.

I'm undecided on doing a separate Sufa set.

For one thing I lack any references showing the differences. I've only seen 1 pic of the intake bump and that was on a wide-mouth.

Aires didn't even incorporate the depression in their dedicated Sufa wheel wells: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Rev4/3301-3400/rev3332-Aires-2129/00.shtm

As Dan mentioned, I'm way too far along to incorporate the bump at this point. That doesn't mean I can't do another set in the future.

Looks great, one suggestion though. Please cast it in white!

The only white resin I've found that is suitable costs about 50% more than the beige resin I use so it will be beige.

Besides, as it is cast in 2 parts there is still a seam to deal with.

I assembled a set, did a mediocre fill on the seam and tried my first attempt at the "Pig" white latex pour. Wow! It was easy and the results were impressive!

I'm going to put together a tutorial about filling and sanding the seam and doing the latex pour. I will post it here as well as on my website. I just need to figure out how to get some better pictures inside the intake!

F-16_small_8_zps38e40bd6.jpg

I seem to remember the frontal cross section was also not wide enough. Is this fixed also?

The Academy part is about 1.5 mm narrower than the Tamiya kit. Failing to obtain actual dimensions I trusted the Tamiya part.

F-16_small_5_zps83b6ce4f.jpg

:cheers:

Edited by Zactoman
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I'm undecided on doing a separate Sufa set.

For one thing I lack any references showing the differences. I've only seen 1 pic of the intake bump and that was on a wide-mouth.

Aires didn't even incorporate the depression in their dedicated Sufa wheel wells: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Rev4/3301-3400/rev3332-Aires-2129/00.shtm

As Dan mentioned, I'm way too far along to incorporate the bump at this point. That doesn't mean I can't do another set in the future.

I think the only ones with the wider nosewheel and intake bump are the P&W powered Block 52+ (and F-16I) and the GE powered F-16F Block 60. Here are some other pictures of the intake bump on a few Block 52+.

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/331160/4079-poland-air-force-general-dynamics-f-16d-fighting-falcon/

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/274460/4081-poland-air-force-lockheed-martin-f-16d-jastrzb/

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/246811//

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/RSAF_F-16D_Block_52%2B_Fighting_Falcon_with_Conformal_Fuel_Tanks_04.jpg

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/8465/1061868.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XpDF8.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83/davidbey/24.jpg

There are some pictures over at Z5 also.

http://www.zone-five.net/showthread.php?t=15667&page=5

Edited by Dave Williams
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The Academy part is about 1.5 mm narrower than the Tamiya kit. Failing to obtain actual dimensions I trusted the Tamiya part.

F-16_small_5_zps83b6ce4f.jpg

:cheers:/>

Ok, I can live with that. It looks really good. I'm thinking the adaptation of the Acad Sufa parts should not be a big hurdle. But I would like to see someone do a test fit.

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I'm undecided on doing a separate Sufa set.

For one thing I lack any references showing the differences. I've only seen 1 pic of the intake bump and that was on a wide-mouth.

Aires didn't even incorporate the depression in their dedicated Sufa wheel wells: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Rev4/3301-3400/rev3332-Aires-2129/00.shtm

As Dan mentioned, I'm way too far along to incorporate the bump at this point. That doesn't mean I can't do another set in the future.

I intend to buy one for my Sufa kit, regardless. It's already miles ahead of what Academy supplies anyways....

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I grafted Tamiya's MCID Intake on the Academy fuselage....wasn't very easy!!!

:worship:

Beautiful build. Thanks for posting!

I think the only ones with the wider nosewheel and intake bump are the P&W powered Block 52+ (and F-16I) and the GE powered F-16F Block 60. Here are some other pictures of the intake bump on a few Block 52+.

Thanks for the links Dave!

I'll look into it and post more info later.

:cheers:

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