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On 4/1/2020 at 5:02 AM, SERNAK said:

Very beautiful work so far Steve!

 

Just a quick question though; would you say that the detail of the Wolfpack wings folding mechanisms is better than the one that the Paragon Designs parts have?

Thanks for the compliments SERNAK.

As far as the details go, they are both very nice. The Paragon details seem to be larger than the Wolfpack one's. I just prefer the Wolfpack stuff because there is no surgery involved.

 

Steve

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14 hours ago, SERNAK said:

Good point Steve. I didn't know that the Paragon set was larger (or overscaled?) and therefore doesn't fit very well into the wings. 

I have the Paragon wing and tail fin fold set. I've never tried to fit them to the kit so, I can't say how they would fit.

 

Steve

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Greetings all,

I hope everyone is safe and staying sane during all this "madness."

I managed to get the Wolfpack resin wings dry-fitted to the Vikings fuselage halves. While the resin wings fit beautifully front to back, they are a little thinner than the area where they meet the wing root. I decided to sand the fuselage area before attaching the wings so I wouldn't screw up the panel lines on the wings. I really hate to re-scribe so, whenever possible I'll avoid it.

I laid the wings onto the fuselage halves, keeping them flush on the bottom, and marked the "high spots" with a fine tipped sharpie. I then carefully wet sanded the areas that were too high while constantly checking the fit of everything. All of this took me @ 20 minutes and while it's hard to tell in the pics, with some slight pressure applied they fit extremely well.

I will need to re-scribe a few panel lines on the topside of the fuselage but, this was going to happen anyway from sanding the seam once the fuselage halves are glued together. I didn't want to go anywhere near those resin wings with sandpaper. We'll see how those look down the road.

My other issue is I need more epoxy. Usually not a big deal but, in today's "mad world" you have to stand in line outside the store and wait because they are limiting the amount of people in the stores. Gluing the resin parts to the fuselage halves could take a while at this point. While I'd like to get them attached and move on, I don't really consider this a necessary trip to go out. It's funny how we take things for granted until we can't do them as easily anymore as we were use to.

Thanks for checking in and, until the next update ...

Steve

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Greeting's all,

I hope everyone is hanging in there and doing well.

Today's update is about prepping the Wolfpack resin wings to be epoxied to the Viking's wing roots. I wasn't sure if the tabs on the resin wings would provide a strong enough attachment point so, I drilled a few holes into the attachment point area. Just more areas for the epoxy to contact the plastic.

 

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Next I marked two of the holes onto the resin wings and drilled a 3/32" hole to accept some small brass rod pieces, which will get epoxied into the wings first. This might be overkill but, I don't want any issues with these wings coming loose down the road. The other 4 pieces will be for my Shadow's wings when I get to that point.

 

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Thanks to all who are following along. Stay safe and well everyone.

Steve

 

 

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I made some progress today on the Viking, the wings are glued on. I used some J-B Kwik Weld to attach the resin wings to the wing root. Everything was glued from the inside of the fuselage to avoid making a mess on the outside. These shouldn't come loose.

Now I can move on to getting the cockpit, the tailhook well and, nose weight into place so I can close up the fuselage halves.

Thanks for having a look.

Steve

 

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Steve,

 

Awesome work on the wings; I like the added strengthening pins to secure the join. Seems like you continue to kick it up a notch with each new build.........Looking great so far!

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5 hours ago, wardog said:

Steve,

 

Awesome work on the wings; I like the added strengthening pins to secure the join. Seems like you continue to kick it up a notch with each new build.........Looking great so far!

Thanks Elmo, high praise coming from you.

 

Steve

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SO, for some reason I can post short replies but adding a few sentences with a few pics gives me the dreaded "Internal Server Issue" yet again.

Extremely frustrating to say the least.

Steve

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I guess I'll just have to post this update in sections. The first part will be the wording and the next part will be the photos.

Update for today,

I spent the last couple of days slowly getting the fuselage on the Viking glued together. Some areas took more effort and time than others but, in the end everything looks fine.

The worst fitting part so far was the door for the FLIR turret under the nose but looking at my reference pics the door wasn't correct anyway so, a small piece of .040" plastic with a crescent filed into it was added to the one side. I had to remove a small piece of the kit door and add a small curve in the edge before I could glue it into place. The APU exhaust port (on the side) and the fuselage heat exchanger vent (on the bottom) are from the Phase Hanger S-3B conversion set.

My modified sonobuoy panel, which will get hollow tubes added later, was also glued into place. Another Phase Hanger part, the MAD boom blanking plate, was installed with some 5 minute epoxy.

Thanks to all who are following along.

Steve

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Greetings all,

I hope everyone is safe and well.

I managed to get the Black Box seats for the Viking ready for paint. I had to scratch-build the face curtain ejection handle and the lower ejection handle on the seats with some scrap wire. I also added the ejection control safety lever and handle out of some scrap plastic.

Next up, painting for these and the seats for the Shadow. Thanks for looking in.

Steve

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

With the Viking's fuselage closed up, I decided to start the Shadow's cockpit. I'll be using the Wolfpack S-3B resin set. The Shadow had some differences in her cockpit and I'll need to make those changes with mine. For starters the pilot's side has the display screen for the APS-137 ISAR radar removed and replaced by smaller gauges and panels which I had to recreate with .010" plastic. The right-hand seat in the Shadow cockpit has no flight controls and the main panel has a much larger tatical display screen which I made out of plastic as well.

 

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I dry-fitted the cockpit to the Shadow's fuselage. The fit is much better than the Black Box one I used on the Viking. Next up will be to get the Dark Gull Gray sprayed onto the pit and paint the details. I sprayed the Light Gull Gray on all four seats yesterday so, the details can be painted as well.

Thanks for having a look.

Steve

 

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I managed to get the seats painted, for the Viking and the Shadow,  and flat coated. The difference between the two, Black Box for the S-3B and the Wolfpack for the ES-3A, is pretty apparent. I like the Wolfpack versions much better. I still need to add a "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" streamer to each seat before I can call them officially finished. I'm hoping to get the Dark Gull Gray sprayed on the ES-3A pit tomorrow. Thanks for looking.

 

Steve

 

The Black Box seats for the S-3B

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The Wolfpack seats for the ES-3A.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finished up the Wolfpack cockpit set for the ES-3A Shadow,  I modified their S-3B pit. Since the right seater has no flight controls, I had to modify that as well as corrections to the main instrument panel. The book photos show the differences I had to make. I also added the "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" streamers to the "head knocker" safing devices.

 

Steve

 

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5 hours ago, A-10 LOADER said:

I finished up the Wolfpack cockpit set for the ES-3A Shadow,  I modified their S-3B pit. Since the right seater has no flight controls, I had to modify that as well as corrections to the main instrument panel. The book photos show the differences I had to make. I also added the "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" streamers to the "head knocker" safing devices.

 

Steve

 

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What book did you use for your reference?

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13 hours ago, Rocketdrvr said:


What book did you use for your reference?

It's a World Air Power Journal issue, these were released back in the 90's. Go to my first post on page 1 and you'll see the issue.

 

Steve

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On 6/3/2020 at 1:41 AM, A-10 LOADER said:

Thanks bud, at least your checking in on my stuff. 😁

Steve

Always, and gritting my teeth in envy of your sense of details! That is your true strength!

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20 hours ago, Rocketdrvr said:

 

Thanks Steve!  Superior Build!

 

12 hours ago, Aigore said:

Always, and gritting my teeth in envy of your sense of details! That is your true strength!

Thanks guys for the kind words, much appreciated.

 

Steve

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