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I feel like an idiot


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I assembled and painted the exhaust nozzles on my Hasegawa 1:48 F-14, and I'm very happy with the way they turned out, BUT I have a slight issue. The tubes that fit inside the fuselage are numbered differently, one for the starboard side, one for the port side. Well, my problem is that I totally forgot to mark which was which, and they both look and fit ridiculously similarly. Is there any secret of figuring out which side is which? It's probably something really simple, which is why I feel like an idiot asking this, but oh well. Thanks in advance for the help!

:stupid:

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If you're referring to the nozzles, typically the left is closed and right is open.  The right engine is the last one shut down, so the hydraulic pumps are running to close the left engine nozzle as it spools down, but not for the right one.

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1 hour ago, ESzczesniak said:

If you're referring to the nozzles, typically the left is closed and right is open.  The right engine is the last one shut down, so the hydraulic pumps are running to close the left engine nozzle as it spools down, but not for the right one.

Actually, it technically has to do with the engine computer system. When one engine is shut down, the computer senses a "loss of power" and constricts the nozzle. Since the other engine is still running, that nozzle stays open. When that engine is shut down, the whole system is also shut down, so there's no response from the computer. It's probably more complicated than that, but that's what I've been told in simple terms.

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Yeah, I went and took another look at the sprue map included in the instructions, and the assembly of them, and they are the same. Somehow I misunderstood the instructions and/or read them wrong. Major brain fart on my part.

:stooges:

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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9 hours ago, Darren Roberts said:

Actually, it technically has to do with the engine computer system. When one engine is shut down, the computer senses a "loss of power" and constricts the nozzle. Since the other engine is still running, that nozzle stays open. When that engine is shut down, the whole system is also shut down, so there's no response from the computer. It's probably more complicated than that, but that's what I've been told in simple terms.

 

I've heard this explanation a couple of times now, and it is not what I was told back in the day by our Mech's. Now granted, I was an AT, but here is a pretty good explanation that matches up with what I was told back then:

 

http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-engine.htm

 

Looking forward seeing your VF-33 build completed, even if that paint scheme came after my time! I was a Starfighter from early 1985 to mid 1988. When I checked in, we had two Block 110's, and the rest were a mix of lower Blocks all the way down to 75. Before I left we added (and then lost) another block 110, and two shiny new block 140's. The old Batmobile came back from NARF after her round down mishap on the America (came in too low and tore both main mounts off) but she was wearing the low vis paint by then. I wish FCM would reprint their 1/144 VF-33 sheet in 1/48, as it seems to cover all of the variations of the star and lightning bolt scheme. I have a bunch of pics from the 85-86 time frame I need to scan and post somewhere.

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