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1/32 EA-18G VAQ-132 Operation Odyssey Dawn


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Thx guys!

Care to share what changes to make the wing fit better?

-Anthony

Anthony, I didn't take pics of the relevant WIP and it is hard to explain in words. Make sure you dry fit the wings before glueing, if you do you'll see pretty easily what has to be done.

:cheers:

Marcel

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  • 2 weeks later...

The ALQ-99 is ready to be sent to Harold for casting. Harold will add those ribbed panels.

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I am also sending Harold the wingtip pods, he may choose to make these commercially available also. These may not be perfect but I think they are a substantial improvement on the kit renditions.

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The Trumpeter AGM-88's don't look right to my eye. I will therefore be using the Tamiya HARM bodies (from the F-16CJ kit) in conjunction with the Revell HARM wings (from the Tornado ECR kit); the Revell wings are nice and thin, the Tamiya wings have horribly thick leading and trailing edges.

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:cheers:/>

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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Thx Vincenzo, Crackerjazz, Joel!

No pics to show but I can tell you guys that the top and bottom fuselarge halves are glued together. That's no mean feat since the fit is pretty bad, I hope to show some pics of all the filling required once I get back home.

The other big news is that I received the custom VAQ-132 decals from Red Pegasus, they came out very nicely, can't wait for the decaling phase of this project!

:cheers:

Marcel

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thx Rom!

Here is how things stand right now:

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Fit has not always been the best, I had to insert some shims here and there--I'm a little anxious about seams cracking down the line because there is so much residual stress in the model, I had to really force the fuselarge halves together under heavy force.

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Since I'm showing these nose... these vents need to be filled up on the Growler...

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I sunk untold hours into the kit-supplied intakes but to no avail... eventually it was a case of going for resin intakes or stopping the project.

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This is the Rhino intake, the only game in town. They did fit very nicely. Also visible in this pic are the drilled out chaff/flare dispensers.

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Word from Harold is that the ALQ-99's are casting very nicely :yahoo:/>/>

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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Word from Harold is that the ALQ-99's are casting very nicely

Marcel

They are going to MAKE that model!

I hope it has some strong legs. Three of those, plus wing tip resin is going to be heavy.

Edited by Harold
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Word from Harold is that the ALQ-99's are casting very nicely

Marcel

They are going to MAKE that model!

I hope it has some strong legs. Three of those, plus wing tip resin is going to be heavy.

I ran into an issue after casting one with the ribs on each side. They are so thin they nearly disappear after casting.

However I think I have a solution. Marcel will get a few soon, I will and get his opinion.

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i can relate to the force you have to use to get the fuse together. i joined top and front first, then glued the middle fuselage part to the assembly, leaving a gap on the sides on the rear part. after a week of drying i forced the rear part together. i used all kinds of tape and clamps.

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Thx Karl, thx Terry!

i can relate to the force you have to use to get the fuse together. i joined top and front first, then glued the middle fuselage part to the assembly, leaving a gap on the sides on the rear part. after a week of drying i forced the rear part together. i used all kinds of tape and clamps.

I glued the back together first, let that dry and then progressively glued to the front... and I needed large clamps as I went along.

A little update on doing the blue and red lights underneath the wings. I bought some red and blue clear acetate from Ebay, although appropriately colored toothbrushes would have worked just as well.

Things looking really bad at this stage:

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And after a bunch of sanding (starting with 160 grade):

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Now all I need to do is mask appropriately.

But all in all, why spend time indoors when the weather is so nice:

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Yours truly enjoying some sun after a lunch break.

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A look down the valley onto the Vierwaldstaettersee. This is only about 50 minutes drive from Zurich.

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:cheers:

Marcel

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Thx Kike, Thx Rom!

All the flaps are on. The leading edge flaps fit very nicely. As is the case with most kits, this kit has a step that the leading edge flap can be retracted into in case the modeler wants to show the model with the flap fully retracted. Real aircraft never feature such steps so they need to be filled and sanded.

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With the main flaps things looked pretty straightforward at first. However, lining up all sections of the Fowler flaps properly across the entire length of the wing is difficult. While the outward lower flaperons can sink very slightly lower than the main flaps, everything else should be pretty lined up. The challenge is that if you line up the outside section of the slot correctly, the inside will be horribly wrong, with the two slots basically merging on the very inside of the flap, which would be obvious aerodynamic nonsense. I twisted and messed around with things and it looks so so.

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Another very visible boo-boo is that the inside of the upper slot doesn't conform properly to the wing. This is pretty easy to fix with plastic card.

Incidentally, I have built the Academy legacy Hornet and those flaps all match up perfectly.

Also visible on the pic above is the plastic card shim I needed to add to the starboard outside main flap, else there would have been a too large gap between the flaps. Last but not least, you can see what a mess I have made of the starboard vertical stabilizer/fuselarge joint. Wonder what that will look like after the first coat of paint :crying2:/>/>

:cheers:/>/>

Marcel

Edited by Marcel111
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