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Hi gents!

I started with the top fuselage. The intake nacelles are glued and the panel lines are filled:

 

IMG_20180603_181830.jpg

 

The cockpit is just testfitted, but it's not ready yet. The wings are finally ready. There was plenty of filling and sanding with so much gently, cause the trailing edges are now sharp as a knife. Bottom-side:

 

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And the top sides:

 

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With PE in the edges, this is how are the edges now. Sharp.

 

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Mounted. First i opened the boundary air intakes, then filled and sanded the seamlines between the intake nacelles and the fuselage. This was quite a difficult sanding due to the high curves and the delicate sharp edges. So it's not the best filling of seamlines, but after a dark paint - the seamlines look rather unobtrusive:

 

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The seats and the 2 pilot figures still need to be finished, and then i'll post pics of the cockpit. Meanwhile, the windshield went through a major cosmetic surgery. I was quite affraid of doing it, since i've never done this before... So the transparent part was split in 4 sections, and the 3 frames are added out of plastic. This will add more realistic depth of the frames, as it should be:

 

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After a lot of sanding, checking, sanding, filling, sanding, polishing...

 

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... it's done and it's gorgeous.

 

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Cockpit - prepped. Finally i achieved some satisfying result with the pilot figures... don't ask - what i did reminds me of the carved trains with rails and tunnels out of the graphite in a pencil. The figures are completely scratched out of stock plastic rods with different thicknesses. Then a little more cosmetic touch ups, and paint, and that's it. I'm quite pleased with the result indeed, and keeping in mind that this is 1/72 scale. Only the sillhouettes will be noticeable. So here is the cockpit in a more visible config:

 

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And with the figures and the seats on. Some viewpoints will be visible only in these pics, while the entire rear compartment is barely visible and only with a flashlight pointed in, and it adds only a little sense of depth. Yeah, the cockpit is finally done.

 

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There was a big bump at the very tip of the nose... some like a too prononciated curve where the 2 leading edges meet. Here is a comparison with a backdrop of the real plane on the screen:

 

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And after the edit:

 

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Very little difference, but there is one. And i checked many photos as well. Then i implemented a PE edge to make it stronger and very pointy.

 

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And with that, the upper fuselage is done. Wish me luck on the assembly 🙂

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Another "nose" adventure.... The leading edge that is part of the fuselage halves, had a tiny little yet noticable warp all along the leading edge, on both sides, and on both halves of the fuselage. This curve was perfectly shaped, like it was casted that way. But i don't know, this edge might be warped in my kit only... So here is the issue:

 

Starboard:

 

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Portside:

 

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Just a glimpse oer the real plane... this very front part of the leading edge, the sharp part, looks that way - perfectly straight, on every single picture i checked out...

 

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And the straightening after gluing the 2 halves:

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

10x 10x! 🙂

Hatch on the rear bulckhead?! :)))) If you mean on the cockpit rear bulckhead - it should be the hatch for the boarding ladder... or the door to the avionics (hidden) bay, which i'm not exaclty certain what it is... the area between the cockpit and the bomb bay. 

Or if you mean the small hole at the rear side of the bomb bay doors - it is the hole for mounting a pylon for the stand (for the flying mode).

Or about the rectangular shapes next to the beaver tail on the top fuselage - they should be some kind of antenna/sensors.... 

I have no idea what else would it be....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great work Sir! Your attention to detail is making this build a learning experience for all wishing to build the B-2. It's too bad they messed up the nose profile, but your magic work did improve it! Please give us an update on the paint job!

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Hi Matt, hi all! 🙂 Actually, i'm still planning on the painting and in the meantime, when i was just about to start with the primer, i decided lower the landing gear for one last time before the painting and see if everything is impeccable with the retraction and the hinges of the doors. They were flawless, top notch, perfect, but.....  the plane was unbalanced.... way too tail heavy 😞 That is is due to the enormous quality of reinforcements (glue, plastic, stainless steel nut) for the mounting of the pylon, which was located way behind the CG. I absolutely forgot about the added weight after making the measurements. Thankfully i did the last trial before starting with the primer coat. So i stuffed the entire rear cockpit area (which is absolutely invisible from the canopy) with heavy materials... The fuselage is restored and the seamlines are filled, and here is how it looks like after the first major sanding. Now i'm waiting it to cure properly for a nice sanding.

 

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Perhaps another subtle filling/sanding will be required, will see. In the meantime, i finally started the weathering of my F-15E. There will be a local exhibition/competition comming soon and i plan to show it nicely weahtered. 🙂 So far it is under a very very minimal gentle salt tratment. I managed to take pics of the vertical stabilizers only, but overall the entire top fuselage received that treatment. Before:

 

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And after:

 

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Then, OPs and heavier pin wash, and maybe some very fine posthsading and lacuqering... I'll update the original topic when it's ready.

 

 

 

 

 

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