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A-7E Corsair II - Hasegawa 1/48 (Twin build - Completed)


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Hey John, Joel, Peter, MFAF, thanks, I really appreciate the kind comments!  

 

I thought I'd spend some time on the Trumpeter.  I want to finish the cockpit so I could close up the fuselage halves and bring her to the same stage as the 2 smaller Corsairs.  I worked on the ejection seat and tried to make an ejection seat handle out of wire but then there's a flat area in front as seen in this photo.  This one's from a Skyhawk Escapac but the ejection handle is the same as the Corsair one.  Only the flat area has the stripes painted on:

 

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So I thought the best material to use would be styrene rod to make it easy to sand/flatten that portion.  

 

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Drew a template to form the ejection handle.

 

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Pressed it into the trench and dipped the whole thing in boiling water.

 

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Edit:  Actually there seems to be a flat strip glued onto the front:

 

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So I sanded the front and glued one on

 

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Repainting the pit for the Trumpy.  Did this one 2 years back when I was still struggling with painting but refused to admit it.     I thought it was the best cockpit back then, heheh.    Not that I can paint the best cockpit now, but we all grow in this hobby and I could say I've since learned a couple things so there should be some advancement to show somehow : )

 

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Masked the black areas to spray on the light gray:

 

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Then masked the light gray to spray on the black.

 

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Hand-brushed the edges of the black areas and weathered everything a little.   Still have to paint the switches, hoses, maps and other details.

 

Did my best to re-position the pilot's head in the most natural position possible.    It always ended up looking like a mannequin or a pilot having a stiff-neck day and when I hit a sweet spot that looked natural I just stopped fiddling with it and let the glue dry.   I used some Apoxie Sculpt on the neck seams.   Also sculpted the fingers and thumb of the left hand -- will sand those later.  The chips on the seat are from test-fitting the pilot figure.  Had to whittle away some material from the figure's back and bottom to get him to get him to "sink" into the cushion instead of hacking at the cushion itself.

 

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Edited by crackerjazz
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Crackerjazz

  I'm totally impressed with how you dealt with the ejection grab strap. looks great.  I've never been a figure type guy, but your natural posing really looks natural. Well done.

 

Joel

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Hi Peter, Wolfgunn, Joel, thanks a lot, fellas!  : )    Did a little more work on the cockpit:

 

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Borrowed a poop bag from the tomcat (the real one -- who's looking at me strangely).  Cut up a small piece and glued it on to serve as face mask.

 

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Wrapped some wire for the oxygen hose.

 

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Did some masking and painted the flight suit.   I like this Hold-it stuff -- It's like blue-tack but softer.

 

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Did the inside of the inspection hole on top of the seat.   I tried to cut up a piece of acetate to serve as glass but couldn't make it fit even after repeated trimming ---  and then the carpet monster took it  : (    

 

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The consoles look terrible zoomed into,  heheh.   I swear they look pretty good when viewed normally.    They`re actually smooth but the weathering makes them look hand-brushed and wavy.   I do want to repaint them but I`m not sure if they`ll turn out better.  I find nothing turns out the way I imagine it in my mind  : (  And I notice whenever I try to fix something I break another.    Like the ejection handle that detached while I was attaching the straps.   Oh, and that stuff on the edge of the consoles -- those are remnants from sawing off the cockpit sides to make it easier to paint.   I shouldn`t have done that looking back.

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Crackerjazz,

  The Pit looks great. Believe me I feel the same way about macro close ups. Everything just looks rough and kind of weird. But in real life the parts looks so much better. I have this discussion with my brother all the time, and the choices are pretty simple: stop taking macro pics, or just show the detail and realize that most of us already know what's causing the rough looking textures. I'm for showing my work as that's the #1 reason for taking the pics in the 1st place.

Joel

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Superb cockpit, i think! The IPs are bright and beautiful, the flight suit is matte and quite realistic... painted from a greater distance perhaps?, so just one touch and the paint could become glossier?! Keeping the pilot figure intact should be quite challenging. :) I would glue it asap to the cockpit and handle only the cockpit. Btw, now i`m thinking, how about the seatbelts? Are they part of the seat or you already glued the figure to te seat and installed the seatbelts?

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Hi Joel, southwestforests : )   Hi, MFAF, yeah, the Tamiya paint looks nice and matte.  I used to use Model Master Olive Drab (handbrushed to keep fumes down) but this particular bottle remains tacky for weeks so I tried the Tamiya -- airbrushed.  Dries real quick and the wife doesn't mind the smell of the acrylic thinner.   I want to seal it though so it might change in sheen.  As for the figure I had to glue it down first so I can measure the belt lengths  (belts are from the Aires PE fret).   Where they  go under the mae west "collar" I had to cut a portion of the belt to give the illusion of being partially hidden.  I found it a bit difficult to make curved cutouts on the PE  without creating unwanted bends but it went well for the most part.  I did the same for the Koch fitting -- I just cut off the portion that's hidden.  Thanks for stopping by : )

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Beautiful work on the office .. looking oh so good.

Completely agree about using macro and magnification. While it does show all the details and hard work, we view assemblies as we would never really see them. As an old Nikon shooter, I hold back on the magnification and prefer seeing the work as close to how we would actually see the model in the flesh. Just my two cents

Keep 'em coming

Peter

 

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Hi, Peter, thanks!  Yeah, and I don't really like zooming in on my work after paintjobs because my painting is terrible.  Those wonderful Aires pits are meant for zooming in on, though, and it seems wasteful not to show painted results.     I still get thrills out of seeing macro shots of other modelers' detailing and I get frustrated when I'm unable to do the same.   At night I often lie awake wondering what else  I could add.  On the other hand I want to hold back on detailing because it prolongs the build.   So now I try to keep myself from adding details which will end up being hidden.

 

 

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Chopping up some .013mm styrene to scratch a HUD for the 1/48.   

 

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1/32 shroud and PE HUD painted.

 

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Edited by crackerjazz
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Nice work CJ!

 

Here are some color suggestions for your aircrew figures you can still add to make them pop.

 

-the flight suit is a light to medium olive.

-the jet jeans aka g-suit is a medium green. That would bring some contrast with the knees showing between the leg and thigh bladders.

-the nomex gloves are a slightly darker shade of the flight suit. In addition, they have a gray leather palm pad for traction in the grip. There is a strip of gray leather that comes from between the index finger and thumb to the opening of the glove. You would see that strip of leather in the right hand gripping the stick.

 

love the details your adding to the cockpit and ESCAPAC. Have a lot of hours sitting in those.  ;-)

 

Tracy

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Hi Steve, Sebastijan, thanks for the kind words!  : )

 

 

I saw some great footage of the A-7 HUD in action here.  Unbelievable technology and this was in the 60's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTs8lAbA1FE

 

 

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I lost the original Aires clear part so I cut up some donor clear packaging and scribed an HUD image.  This may not reflect the plane's banking angle when I mount her but I decided any position will do.

 

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I smeared some white craft paint and wiped it off.   It should really be green I believe but I didn't have any on hand.

 

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Edited by crackerjazz
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Just love the attention to detail and the skills used to bring the IP assemblies to life. Beautifully done 👍

Same here as I feel more and more compfortable sliding into 48th scale  from years of 32nd scale builds - where I would spend countless hours not only on hidden details but on never to be seen internal assemblies - a waste of time in the end. I know the old philosophy and mind set: The satisfaction of knowing the hidden details were done to the best I can do but over time, seeing the model in my display case, all I remember is the countless hours of work that is never seen and instead enjoy looking at my finished work.

Peter :wave: 

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  • crackerjazz changed the title to A-7E Corsair II - Hasegawa 1/48 (Twin build - Completed)

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