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What's needed to build a 48th Scale EKA-3B


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On 11/27/2017 at 3:50 AM, JeffreyK said:

Sorry, at point of posting I had one left, but as of this morning (UK) it got sold.

I'll cast more this week and have a small batch ready next week.

Afaik, the EKA-3B was a converted tanker which in turn was a converted bomber, so the late bomber canopy would be appropriate... ( correct me if I'm wrong).

J

 

Just received my nacelles.   If anyone is on the fence about ordering a set from Hypersonic, rest assured that they are of very high quality.   The resin has outstanding fine detail and the set comes with very clear instructions.    Not a single air bubble or casting defect noted.   Took approx 2 weeks from when I placed my order.   Going to require some time to remove all the pour stubs but that's par for the course.   I'll post some pics once I start my build.   I also got a Wingnut Wings Hansa-Brandenberg W.12 floatplane for Christmas, thinking at this point I'll build that one first and put the EKA-3B in the queue.  That will hopefully give some folks time to release some aftermarket decals. 

 

I'd be curious to see what Hypersonic's wheel well set will look like.  That seems to be a significant issue with the Trumpeter kit.   

Edited by 11bee
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Got the last of my Steel Beach resin stuff a few days ago.  Also of very high quality.  One thing I really like about the SB stuff is the price.   Really good value.  I've got the corrected nose, tailhook, refueling basket housing and seats.  The seats are truly awesome and should be mandatory for anyone wanting to build an A-3.  Nice work Darren. 

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50 minutes ago, 11bee said:

Got the last of my Steel Beach resin stuff a few days ago.  Also of very high quality.  One thing I really like about the SB stuff is the price.   Really good value.  I've got the corrected nose, tailhook, refueling basket housing and seats.  The seats are truly awesome and should be mandatory for anyone wanting to build an A-3.  Nice work Darren. 

I'm glad I could help out. I've started using a new resin that really casts well. It's even in gray!

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  • 3 months later...

 Just saw that Caracal Decals is releasing an EKA-3B sheet.  Don't even care what the subjects are, anything will be better than the single bland subject that comes with the Trumpy kit.   Based on this, I'll be starting my EKA build as soon as I wrap up my current WNW kit.   Only need a couple of other bits of aftermarket.   

 

I decided to go with the Hypersonics resin canopy.   Aside from the corrected shape, I really like the separate escape hatch that allows you to see into the cockpit.  Only issue is that now I find out that Hypersonics is closed until August while the owner relocates to Japan.   Thankfully, there are a few suppliers that stock these parts.  Ended up purchasing it from The 48er's.   https://the48ers.com/a-3-canopy-late-type.html   This was an expensive purchase.  I really hope the resin is clear!

 

Last bit I'll be adding will be the Eduard PE set for the interior.  I figured since I've got the open escape hatch, might as well dress up the interior a bit.   This might end up being the most expensive model I've ever built.  Given that I've spread the purchases over 6 months, I think I can keep these costs hidden from "the boss".  

 

Once I get everything in and am ready to go, I'll start a build log.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

Anyone got first hand experience with all the Eduard PE sets for this kit?  Just curious if they add enough value to justify the cost.  Also, I've read that Trumpy really screwed up the aft wheel bays.   What exactly is wrong with them?  I haven't found many good pics on the net to compare the kit against. 

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3 hours ago, Piker38 said:

Trumpeter put the wheel wells in the wrong place........ too far back, I think ?

They also didn't make them see-through. As shown in the pics above, you can see daylight on the other side of the fuselage.

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On 5/6/2018 at 6:23 PM, Piker38 said:

Trumpeter put the wheel wells in the wrong place........ too far back, I think ?

Hmmm....  I didn’t know that.  I thought the issue was just some internal details on the wheel wells.    Any specifics?     Hoping this can be fixed.    

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1 hour ago, 11bee said:

Hmmm....  I didn’t know that.  I thought the issue was just some internal details on the wheel wells.    Any specifics?     Hoping this can be fixed.    

 

Yes, it is bad enough that I could not put accurately-sized national insignia on the two Caracal Models decals sheets I designed for the kit. Accurately sized national insignia would have looked horrible on the kit due to the position of the wheel wells.(*).  Most people will not notice it though.

 

(*): I will be able to feature accurate national insignia on the EKA-3B sheet though : the national insignia were painted in a different location on the EKA-3B due to the antenna blisters. 

 

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...eventually I will get to doing the wheel well correction set. Had started it twice, but shelved it as more issues came to light. It will include new side sections of fuselage to re-position the wheel well about 9mm (I think that's what it was) forward and provide a whole now interior and gear suspension linkage (the angles are wrong...).

 

Jeffrey

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11 hours ago, JeffreyK said:

...eventually I will get to doing the wheel well correction set. Had started it twice, but shelved it as more issues came to light. It will include new side sections of fuselage to re-position the wheel well about 9mm (I think that's what it was) forward and provide a whole now interior and gear suspension linkage (the angles are wrong...).

 

Jeffrey

Keep us updated on your progress.  In the mean time, I’ll take a close look at the kit and figure out if I can deal with this myself.   Wish this was a Russian jet, we’d have plenty of pics posted with helpful red lines illustrating the problems.  😀

 

Pretty sad that one needs to spend significantly more than the cost of the kit for all the correction sets needed, although, probably not a bad thing for Steel Beach and Hypersonic.   

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On 5/8/2018 at 11:41 PM, JeffreyK said:

...eventually I will get to doing the wheel well correction set. Had started it twice, but shelved it as more issues came to light. It will include new side sections of fuselage to re-position the wheel well about 9mm (I think that's what it was) forward and provide a whole now interior and gear suspension linkage (the angles are wrong...).

 

Jeffrey

So, as far as the physical location, if I can move the wheel bays forward by ~ 9mm, that should resolve that one issue?  The struts and internal construction I'll look into later.   At first glance, it sounds like this might be possible.  Kursad - I can see your problem.   You'd have to either shrink the stars and bars or have the modeler apply them further back.  Either way, it would be pretty noticeable.  

No automatic alt text available.

 

Picture courtesy of the Facebook page Planes_Trains_Ships, a very useful site.  Well worth checking out...

Edited by 11bee
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I don't have the kit, but my understanding is that the aft end of the bomb bay doors are properly located. See Jeffery's post here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/trumpeter-skywarrior-findings-t484504.html

 

The problem is that the front end of the main landing gear bay should be located ahead of aft end of the bomb bay doors, not at the fuselage station at the aft end of the bomb bay doors.  See http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2014/04/trumpeter-148-3-skywarrior.html

 

Jeffrey's original estimate was that the gear bay is too far aft by 4 to 5 mm relative to the aft end of the bomb bay. My assessment from Douglas drawings is the overlap was an actual seven inches, which is about 4 mm in 1/48th. See http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2015/06/a3d-2-3b-skywarrior-bomb-bay.html

Edited by Tailspin Turtle
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Sorry about the confusion, I can't confirm the exact measurement at the moment as the project is packed up and still on the boat to Japan. I had closed up the bay doors and marked out the new position. Somehow the figure of 9mm was in my head, but if I said 4-5mm in that post (hard to believe it's already 4 years old!), then that might be it.

It will all be resolved eventually.

J

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Great info, thanks very much guys.  I just pulled the Trumpy kit out and gave it a look-over.   While it doesn't seem to be that difficult to move the wheel wells forward 4 mm, the problem is this  - the aft antenna bulge appears to be in the correct position with regard to it's position relative to the aft edge of the wheel well.   If we move the well forward, you will now have a somewhat noticeable gap between the forward part of the antenna and the edge of the wheel well.  The only way I can see this being resolved is to lengthen the entire antenna bulge.  It's doesn't appears to be a question of just sliding the antenna forward another 4mm, because then the aft edge of the bulge is out of alignment with the speedbrake.  Essentially, it appears that the entire geometry of the aft fuselage is off and that there is no quick fix for any of this.   

 

Do you agree or am I missing something?

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On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 11:41 PM, JeffreyK said:

...eventually I will get to doing the wheel well correction set. Had started it twice, but shelved it as more issues came to light. It will include new side sections of fuselage to re-position the wheel well about 9mm (I think that's what it was) forward and provide a whole now interior and gear suspension linkage (the angles are wrong...).

 

Jeffrey

I'm waiting.......

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On 5/12/2018 at 9:16 AM, 11bee said:

 Kursad - I can see your problem.   You'd have to either shrink the stars and bars or have the modeler apply them further back.  Either way, it would be pretty noticeable.  

 

Applying a correctly-sized national insignia any further back is not an option, because it will then partially have to go on the airbrake. This is why I had to scale down the national insignia ever so slightly on the earlier A-3 sheets. As I said, this won't be needed on the EKA-3B sheet.

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This may help in deciding what to do: http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2018/05/eka-3b-aft-fuselage.html

 

Note that there are so many significant and relatively minor errors in the Trumpeter family of A-3 kits that you might want to limit yourself to addressing only the more egregious ones, e.g. the canopy and the engine nacelles for which Jeffery provides excellent substitutes.

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  • 2 years later...
On 5/8/2018 at 11:41 PM, JeffreyK said:

...eventually I will get to doing the wheel well correction set. Had started it twice, but shelved it as more issues came to light. It will include new side sections of fuselage to re-position the wheel well about 9mm (I think that's what it was) forward and provide a whole now interior and gear suspension linkage (the angles are wrong...).

 

Jeffrey

Hi Jeffrey - just wondering if you have an update on this?

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On 11/22/2020 at 8:36 AM, 11bee said:

Hi Jeffrey - just wondering if you have an update on this?

Hi,

I'm sorry, but no progress as yet. It's still high on my to-do list, but time and again more pressing things have come up so things haven't moved forward much. I have done a tiny bit of work on it in that I made preparations to set up the project in CAD though, i.e. taken measurements, contours etc., traced them and tried to place them accurately in 3D space incorrespondance with drawings and photos.

J

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