loftycomfort Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 The landing gears are resin with metal rods cast inside. They should give sufficient strength because the fuselage and wings are quite light. Terry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loftycomfort Posted February 16, 2015 Author Share Posted February 16, 2015 So I've made pretty good progress on the canopy over the long weekend. The kit comes with two vacuform canopies. Thickness was good, although the level of clarity was only so-so. I used Tamiya tape as guide, then scored around the edges to cut the parts out. Then I scratch built the canopy frames with plastic stock. Now the internal frames are painted. Here it is, the windscreen is glued, and the canopy is just posed. I still need to blend the windscreen into the fuselage. Terry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 Sweet work, Lofty! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rom Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 very sweet!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kagemusha Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Very jealous, great work! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kellyF15 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 This looks great!! I will be following this one for sure.... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loftycomfort Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 After assembly the nose, the instructions has you gluing together the fuselage halves. That's probably a bad idea because there are a couple of vents that need to be installed, and with halved unglued it'd be a much easier task. Resin kits tend to have a lower parts count and simpler constructions than plastic kits. Take this 1/32 Su-7 kit as an example, the construction steps is almost like that of a 1/72 kit scaled up. There might be more efforts involved in prepping each part, but once done, the actual assembling of parts is simple and fast. What this means is if you look at the timeline of a resin build, you'll see a lot of slow stretches where you just slog through the parts preparation, then suddenly you have a major component built in no time. This update is a good example of this. A bit over a week ago, the build was still just a bunch of loose parts, then suddenly BOOM and I have the fuselage assembled. Here are halves with the exhaust tube already glued on. Notice the plastic tabs I added on the edges to help parts alignment due to the lack of locating pins. The cross section of the nose is a bit oval shaped, which would create big steps when mated to the fuselage. I used a plastic stick as a spreader inside the nose to ensure better parts alignment. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic before I epoxy glued everything together. And BAM! there it is, the fuselage is glued. Oh excuse me, is my BIG resin stick making your blush? LOL. Now it's elbow grease time to sand the seams. Terry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crazy Snap Captain Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Dude... That's massive!!! Awesome work so far! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
karl h Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 love it! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wayfarer 30 Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Awesome work! I cannot wait to see this continue. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loftycomfort Posted March 9, 2015 Author Share Posted March 9, 2015 The massive steps and gaps on the fuselage were filled and sanded multiple times to get a smooth finish. Lost panel lines were rescribed too. Phew that was a lot of work. Top: bottom: I have started working on the wings. These are marvels of resin casting - each wing was cast as a whole including wing fences and pylons. The only separate parts were the flaps and gear wells. Quite a bit of preparation work was needed, including filling and sanding the casting seams, fixing the chipped wing fences, and installing wing tip nav lights. Here I glued a piece of clear plastic on the wing tip: With a course grit sanding stick, I aggressively shaped it to the general shape of a nav light: Then scaling down to progressively finer grit sanding sticks and polish the surface, then finished it with Tamiya polishing compound: Next I will start working on installing the main gear wells. Terry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loftycomfort Posted March 14, 2015 Author Share Posted March 14, 2015 The wing cutouts were removed and the gear wells were installed. This was a pretty easy step. Here you can also see the pins I inserted at the wing joints for extra strength. The wings are hollow so they needed some spreader bars to ensure an ok fit with the fuselage. I whipped up a batch of epoxy glue, and attached the wings to the fuselage. No drama there. Now it finally looks like a Fitter. Check out the material distribution here. The nose is solid with a bunch of ballast, exhaust is quite heavy, wings and fuselage are hollow, wing tips are solid and far behind the rear gears. The vert fin, stabs and flaps are all solid resin. I hope this thing won't be a tail sitter when finished. Terry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Marcel111 Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Beautiful work Terry... and very gutsy stuff with the canopy. Marcel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
janman Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 Lovely work! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loftycomfort Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 It's March break here so I am taking a few days off to look after my daughter, and to work on the Fitter. The vertical fin is now glued. It's just two big chunks of resin (front and rear) CA glued together, then the whole thing is epoxy glued to the fuselage. I also added a pin for strength, but you can't see it here. The gap is pretty bad. I'm still working on them with putty and flooding them with Mr. Surfacer 500. I also glued on the two ducts on the fuselage top. Unfortunately I messed up the direction, doh. Too late to fix them now. Terry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loftycomfort Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 (edited) Here's how the Fitter currently looks. Airframe construction is completed - all the fins and stabs, scoops and vents, and wing pylons are assembled and glued. Still not yet built are the undercarriage, ordnance, and a couple of pitot tubes. My next task is to build the landing gears, then mask and prime the parts. Terry Edited March 23, 2015 by loftycomfort Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dragan_mig31 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Looks awesome! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rom Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Great! What a beast! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aigore Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 That's a big brute! nicely done! :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loftycomfort Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 (edited) Thank you guys. From a design and looks perspective, this thing is a brute. Its simplistic design is a complete opposite to say, a Flanker, which epitomizes grace, beauty, and power. Anyways, the build continues. Now I am working on the nose gear. Here is the gear with the brass tube already cast in. I also drilled a hole in the main axle and inserted a silver pin (from a paperclip) to add strength. And also painting the wheels and tires: Even with the radome completely filled with fishing weights (and some extra added behind the cockpit), this thing just barely sits on its gears. Just to be safe, I added even more weights in the canopy bulk head, which I will close off with a plastic plate later. Now you understand why the nose gear needs all those strengthening pins - to support the weights. More updates to come later. Terry Edited March 25, 2015 by loftycomfort Quote Link to post Share on other sites
chukw Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Good gravy, what a build! You're a brave man, Terry- carry on! :D Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kagemusha Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 Wonderful, looks a really great kit. Pity the $ - £ exchange rate is so high... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loftycomfort Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Wonderful, looks a really great kit. Pity the $ - £ exchange rate is so high... :bandhead2:/> Tell me about it! He also has a new 1/32 Su-22UM two-seater that I really like, but since the Canadian dollar's value has nose dived since last year, it's hard to justify the US$260 cost now. When I bought this kit early last year, the Canadian dollar was almost parity with USD so it was a lot more affordable. Not anymore. Terry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loftycomfort Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 I test fitted the landing gears on and... it's official, it DOES sit on its legs, if only barely. It was a good decision to fill the canopy bulk head with weights, because without them, the thing was tethering on its rear gears. Of course, I'm not completely out of the woods yet. The free fall bombs are solid resin, and they are hung on the outer pylons which sit far behind the rear gears. I think it might be prudent to install the two drop tanks side by side underneath the fuselage (they look strange hung together like that, but is actually accurate according to the ref pics), then the bombs on the inner pylons which align with the rear gears. This way it should guarantee nose sitting. Terry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Marcel111 Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Looking good! Marcel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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