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A few upgrades. These coverings on top of the intakes are to cover the big horizontal seamlines. They were possible for application only on the top side, so the little edges on both sides are still visible when the ramps are down, but overall the big long top seams disappeared, and it`s way better than before:

 

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The hood with the HUD:

 

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Canopy hinges:

 

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The sealing for the CFTs:

 

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Vertical stabilizers - glued:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

As usual, this is perfection in plastic!  One thing you might want to check on is the two tabs on the back of the canopy. If memory serves me right they are seperate panels with 2 screws each and dont always sit perfectly flush.

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Thx alot kelly, and kike! Kelly, if i understand justly - the two tops of the hinges that exit the canopy frame and enter into the bulkhead (fuselage) - then i plan to edit them. There are still some quite visible gaps there and i plan to cover them the same way as the top hinges of the intake ramps. And i`ll try to add 2 "rivets" there too. :thumbsup:

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The antennas. First i sharpened the GTR antennas and 1 antenna from the kit also got in use, after some little edits:

 

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Mounted. Btw here the plane is already cleaned with a sponge, soapy water and towels:

 

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The hook:

 

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and the tiny little liners on the tips of the rails of the 2nd pylon are done as well. They became slightly larger than these of the first pylon, but i hope the difference will not be noticeable when they are on their places away from each other.
 

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So that`s it. About a year and a half later - it`s time for paint. :) For this, this will be my approach:

1) A very thin tansparent coat of Surfacer1200;

2) A coat of ALC105 polished aluminium, which will act as a primer;

3) Preshading with a transparent coat of black;

4) A heavier yet transparent coat of FS36118;

5) Subtle filtering with FS36118 of different shades;

 

Wish me luck :) The goal is to achieve these type of metallic surface effects:

 

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After the silver coat you can easily spot the oil canning effect! it looks so good!! one question, is it the pic quality or the paint is a bit grainy? if yes, I imagine you are gonna sand it smooth, aren't you?

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It`s the Surfacer indeed :) I sprayed the Aluminium quite sparsely for a greater coverage, when i noticed that a full bottle of Aluminium will barely last to cover the entire plane. Didn`t expect that. And so these grainy/darker spots are so matte, they are actually the texture of the Surfacer. Otherwise everything is very smooth and even glossy at some areas. I "polished" it after the Surfacer and after the Aluminium only with a soft cotton cloth and with very small tension, and it was enough. So far the surfaces have plenty of very fine "details" - the almost invisible rivets/very thin panel lines/etc., which can be felt only at touching and i don`t want to fill or sand them out. First the main paint, then the washes, and after that i plan to sand/polish everything smooth with 1000 sandpaper. Which hopefully will seal the rivets and they will look only like dots with the wash inside. ;) 

 

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Wow, looking good!  I also was wondering about the grain of the paint but trust you know what you're doing, as evidenced by the rest of this amazing build!  I spent  7 years in the F-15E community and all I can say is this is the most accurate build I have seen of the Strike Eagle in any scale.  Love the fin braces for the AIM-9's on the missile rails!  If you are going to that level of detail, don't forget to add the arming wires to any air to ground ordnance (other than JDAM).  I've yet to see anyone do that for a 1/32 jet!

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Thank you Falconxlvi! :thumbsup:

About the arming wires for the bombs - only the GBU28s will be mounted, and at some later stage i could probably make the AGM130s which are like a completely different aircraft each, so i will no wonder if they have wires as well. I watched quite a good amount of pics and couldn`t notice any wires nearby the mounting points. Perhaps i don`t know what to look for. I`ll check the reference pics again. Whilst for the MERs - hm, i know that there are penty of wires but honestly i don`t know their purpose, now i realize that they are probably "arming wires". Gotta check these out again. ;)

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Milan,

Your GBU-28's will have 2 arming wires for each bomb. One will go to the rear airfoil group (tailfin assy.) and the other will go to the thermal battery device located on the CCG .

AGM-130's do not have arming wires, they have an umbilical cable (electrical connector) that attaches the bomb to the pylon, just like a Maverick missile.

 

Steve

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7 hours ago, my favs are F`s said:

Steve, a big thank you! That`s a great starting point for me. I`ll have to find more insight into this.

 

Just Google "GBU-28 arming wire locations."

 

Steve

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The attachments + the paints. Sry about the angle of the bottles - the first one is ALC103 Dark Aluminium, and the other is ALC101 Aluminium. Their effect fill be almost invisible... but still some 3-5% of the shine should appear after all. At least that`s the goal. 

 

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At nightlight:

 

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