Cranked Arrow

[Ikon]

I guess I'm a fan of a bit of the 'oddball' planes. F-16s are cool enough but I never had any real interest to build one - unless it's the XL. I had bought a couple of Kinetic's 1/48 scale kits when they came out, but then sold them off when I realized my preferred scale for jets is 1/72. And of course the only model of the XL in 1/72 is the antiquated Monogram kit which can get a bit pricey. However, keeping one's eyes open over the years and I managed to snag a pair of them. Although, of course, their lack of detail and raised lines always had them sitting near the back of the shelf, unloved.

Then, and I don't recall if the idea popped into my own head or if I gazed once upon a kitbash, but I bought a couple of F-16 kits to go with them, one a two-seat D model, and mix that in with a group build over on Britmodeller, and I figured now was the time.

So, the kits in play here are Monogram's XL kit as well as Hasegawa's F-16D.

 

I had started the one-seater first, but ended up putting that one on pause, mainly because I messed up the initial cuts and I realized that the kit I was using for nose/cockpit and central fuselage was (compared to the Monogram) an over-detailed Tamiya. And I say over-detailed because it has such great details on it that I was sure I was going to obliterate in any case, and even when they survived they would have looked out of place compared to the Monogram's blank slate. So I ordered another Hasegawa for that one, and while I was waiting, I broke out this pair to start with. Which leaves me with a Tamiya to toss into the mix as well.

 

So, the plan is to use the Hasegawa nose and cockpit, central fuselage upper/lower sections, the Monogram wings, and the Tamiya for the gear wells (and gear), intake trunking and the exhaust.

 

To start, we have a side-by-side of the main kit parts.

 

I'm going to lay the Hase parts over the Mono to see where to cut, also keeing in mind that the XL is longer than the standard Falcon, so I'll need to leave some of the Monogram platic to keep the right length.

 

It's not as straight forward as that though. I trimmed down the Hasegawa parts to cut straighter lines and tried to keep the curve of the chines (which I found shortly after would have to go anyway...) But once the lines were drawn and that first deep breath taken, a scriber started the line that was then deepened by a hobby knife, and the cuts finished by a saw.

 

And voila! Not perfect, but not bad either.

 

And since I was already cutting things, foolish or not, I hacked off the back end with the air brakes in favor of the more refined Hase parts.

 

I did the same with the bottom piece, the difference in depth between the Monogram and Haseaga parts being marked.

 

A lot of the depth of plastic will end up being trimmed out. Then it was time to mark out the bottom piece, whcih is not as straight forward.

A few things to keep in mind is, of course the added length of the XL, but also that the main gear well was moved forward and the air intake is set further back, at least on the two-seat XL.

Here you can see the areas to be discarded,leaving enough plastic behind the Hase gear well to make up the difference in placement.

 

The nose was also cut for later extensions, seeing as the intake location will have to stay near the main gear well.

 

The Monogram bottom was then hacked in preparation for splicing, and something I'll need to remember on the next one is to cut the Hase part along that triangle, as going with 'square' cuts and leaving all that plastic will come to bite back later. But...

 

In this pic, you can see where the curve of the Hase part is tighter than the Monogram. Cutting the plastic along the triangle would make trying to fit/correct that a lot easier.

 

Anyway, main cuts done and committed, including taking out the Hase gear well.

 

Happily, the Tamiya gear well is pretty much a drop-in fit!

 

Taking a break from all of that cutting, I then moved onto more cutting. Hasegawa, at least these older kits, I don't know about their newer released, always cheap out on the intakes. As in, sometimes they are either not even there or very shorted. With this kit it was the latter, and wanting something deeper, I decided to see if I could graft in the Tamiya intake along with its associated nose gear well.

Well, success - after a tour of sanding and cutting, realizing I had cut too much and needed to add back some plastic and a lot more sanding. Did I mention more sanding? I thought I had.

On the 'outside' it was not so bad. That white section between the dark gray Tamiya part and the light gray Hase part is the plastic that was added back in after I had cut one or the other too short.

 

On the inside, I had to do a lot more sanding! the Hase part was deeper top to bottom than the Tamiya, so there was a slight gap and a ledge inside. Rather than sand sand sand and sand some more, I took section of thin plastic and layered them in against it. Which you can see along the bottom curve here.

 

When that dried, I got to do more sanding! I used narrow round metal files at the sides and thin sanding sticks top and bottom, and CA in order to add material where needed such as some depressions. Sand and sand and sand again! But at least I got someplace. Not the best pics down the 'throat' but it is now much deeper. Not as deep as I would have liked, but I can live with this.

 

The nose gear well lines up pretty well too.

 

I decided to test fit that - and that's where a major fit issue came into focus. First was this, which isn't so bad in the long run. Obviously, cutting and bending parts will throw things out of whack.

 

That wasn't the big problem. This was! Shazbot!

 

So many things going on here! (Although, that is a nice pic of the inside of the intake!) The intake is fully seated into the part, so obviously I was not straight enough when putting the Hase insert into the Monogram bottom. There is also a bend in the Mongram wings that is NOT helping at all.

The only answer was to take one step back and cut out the Hasegawa insert and re-glue it. I did that, which left one side proud of the Monogram plastic and the other in deep shame, but the intake was now closer to true. Not there completely, but a lot closer.

 

Crisis, somewhat, averted! Though, from the side... yeash, I'll save that for later!

 

So it was time to starts filling canyons and valleys. My preferred filler is super glue (CA). It dries fast and can be sanded easily and I've had good luck with it in the past.

I laid down some painter's tape to try and protect the Hasegawa details and started applying CA and then sanding.

 

In this pic, you can see the white plastic that was used for filler. I don't like to use putty over such large areas. Also, I cut out the base plate for the intake to free up more room for fitment.

 

To note, the Monogram fuselage was wider and a little higher than the Hasegawa parts mated up to it, so the sides had to be sanded down between the gear well and the engine area, and then built upward with strips of white blank plastic. (not applied yet)

 

And that gets me to here. Most of the sanding is done. Black Gundam paint markers are great for showing where work still needs to be done, but once that is finished I can start repairing some of the inset details and scribing the Monogram wings.

 

Hopefully before too long I can actually start on the build!!!

 

Comments and critiques welcome!

 

Thom

 

Edited February 27 by Ikon

[ST0RM]

You are very dedicated! 
Nice cutting and fitting. Looking forward to seeing it continue along. 
=Jeff

[habu2]

Link to the IPMS article on modeling the XL in 72nd scale, from my long defunct webpage on the wayback machine:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20080102033505fw_/http://www.habu2.net/vipers/xl/index.html

 

click on the thumbnails on the left side, includes drawings of fuselage plugs, intake and main gear locations.

 

.

 

Edited February 27 by habu2
typos

[Ikon]

13 hours ago, ST0RM said:

You are very dedicated! 
Nice cutting and fitting. Looking forward to seeing it continue along. 
=Jeff

Thank you! From my seat it is more 'amateur hour' but I'll take your view any day!

 

9 hours ago, habu2 said:

Link to the IPMS article on modeling the XL in 72nd scale, from my long defunct webpage on the wayback machine:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20080102033505fw_/http://www.habu2.net/vipers/xl/index.html

 

click on the thumbnails on the left side, includes drawings of fuselage plugs, intake and main gear locations.

 

.

 

The fuselage is altogether, so the gear well and such are staying right where they are!😁I figure, with this not being a perfect kit to start and with all the cutting I've done, close enough is good enough.

Thanks for the link too, as some of that will come in handy, esp for when I scribe the wings.

 

Thom

[lgl007]

Holy cow... that's one hell of a project you got going on there.  I'll definitely be cheering you on 🙂  Well done so far.

 

-Greg

[Thadeus]

I don't know what to write. On one hand, this is quite crazy. On the other hand quite amazing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for You!

[Ikon]

11 hours ago, lgl007 said:

Holy cow... that's one hell of a project you got going on there.  I'll definitely be cheering you on 🙂  Well done so far.

 

-Greg

Thanks. Usually what happens when I bite off a lot!

8 hours ago, Thadeus said:

I don't know what to write. On one hand, this is quite crazy. On the other hand quite amazing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for You!

Fingers and toes and other imaginary appendages!

 

Actually, she's starting to come together. Which surprises me too...

 

Thom

[Ikon]

So, one problem noted was the way the intake cowl ended up skewed and hanging all ways of wrong.

This pic of the real subject shows how tight it is to the fuselage and the way it bends up into it.

(Yes, this is going to be livery, prior to the wing modifications of course!)

 

And mine...

 

Yeah, no!

I couldn't get it to sit at the right angle without a major step at the back of the part, in which case the Dreaded Bin would be this one's future. A little more cutting and hacking was in order, in this case removing the triangular part that is between the cowl and the bottom of the plane.

 

Before I had sawed that off, I had traced its dimensions and transferred them to blank styrene, and then glued that to the top of the intake cowl instead.

 

Those white extensions are in case I needed to really move the part around for the best fit, but they proved out to be unneeded and eventually removed.

Offered up, and the part slides right into the vacant spot.

 

Which gets me here.

 

Yeah, there is a big gap to fill at the back and panel lines that'll need to be re-orientated, but that profile looks world's better than before!

 

Taking a break from that, I I went back to the wings, which had some open slots for ordnance that had to be filled. I have some pics of the 848 with matching blue painted missiles on the forward hard points, so I'll be keeping those. For the ones not needed, blank stryene was shoved into the slots, and snipped and sanded flush.

 

I did the same for the holes for the un-used strakes on the Hase part.

 

And while I was there, I decided to try scribing! Now, I am no expert, and I am glad I started on the bottom as there were a few* corrections to make and it is not done yet.

 

But it is a start.

 

And a few things showed up in the mail, one being the Eduard cockpit PE and Caracals NASA decals for the F-18.

 

In this livery, the XL had little wordage beyond the NASA logos and the 848 number which can be made from those on the sheet. For the red F-16XL seen on the intake cowl I'll have to make that myself.

 

And that is it for now!

 

Thom

[Ikon]

Update time! And this is feeling far less like assembly and more like outright construction of the kit itself! From scratch!! I was hoping to be putting this together by now, instead  I've had a couple of go-arounds at the ol' Russian Roulette Tango - and it's tune was scribing! Man, scribing is such a PITA!

But... It's going where it needs to go. Slowly. Glacially. But it is getting there.

 

First, a little miss-hap with a cutting blade. I'm okay, but these parts just fell off...

 

As if I did not have enough planned already, those have to go back on, and knowing me, they'll be all droopy and hanging down. Nothing for it though, I think.

 

Anyway, scribing, yay!! First I had to fill in all the erroneous panels lines that were already present, including the trenches running down the leading edge of the wing. For this, superglue comes in real handy, following be several grades of finer and finer sanding sticks until it was all smooth. 

After that, I used photos from the 'net of the real plane as well as those from the Kinetic 1/48 kit in order to start getting my erroneous panel lines in place. 

I'm not going for super accuracy here. but just something representative of the thing.

 

One of the tools that came in real handy was my drafting compass! I bought it a few decades ago and never used it. I had even forgotten about it until I was looking for a straight edge and then the proverbial light went off. After that, I was happily using it to make and transfer measurements from one side to the other. That is never getting lost in the tool box again!

Anyway, pencil to map out the lines, then straight edges and Dymo tape and a scribing pin to gouge (gently) into the plastic. After that, the sharp end of a toothpic to go along the line, some sanding and then Tamiya Extra Thin wiped along to dissolve the plastic chaff. I'll still wash it down after all this to get as much of the plastic dust off as possible.

 

You can see the scarring that happened several times from my goofy fingers wanting to do their own things, that was then fill/repaired with superglue.

 

With the wings mostly done, I moved to the rear of the Hasegawa insert, but too much of the rear-most details had been damaged, so that was all smoothed out as well.

Going through my templates, I found one that was close to the rectangular panels and started scribing those in. That is close to the real thing, though on mine they are way too far forward, plus there were too few rows of the smaller panels that are forward, but I won't be a stickler for that. They do look better under a coat of Gundam marker paint...

 

 

And all this scribing got me thinking, why has no one yet made dedicated templates for plane models? Think about it, you need to rescribe a shape that has been obliterated, just pull out a metal template made specifically for the kit you're building, in 1/72 or 1/48 or 1/32. If I'd had something like that, there would be more hair still on my head!

 

Well, that's it for now. I hope I actually start building this kit tomorrow or Saturday. Wish me luck.

 

Thom