slick95 Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 It's been a few years since I've opened a kit, but I figure the IBEX T-6 is as good as any starting point for jumping back in to the hobby! I'll be building/converting the IBEX T-6A to a T-6B based at NAS Whiting Field in Florida. The only aftermarket I'll be using are the decals from Two Bobs for the TAW-5 T-6's, removed before flight tags, and a covered HUD from Steel Beach. Unfortunately they only come with the 010 BuNo for the first T-6B delivered, but there are plenty of numbers on both the aftermarket and kit sheets to splice something together for an aircraft I flew. I'll just need to look back through the logbook to find a suitable orange and white candidate. Anyway, here are some pics. The first step, and really the only step, in converting the A to a B is to change the old steam gauge/partial digital cockpit to the three MFDs in the T-6B. Luckily this was pretty straight forward, and only required me to remove round gauges to add rectangular bits from thin sprue sheet. I also took care of a little prep for the future before putting the fuselage halves together. I plan to have it as if the aircraft is shut down with the control lock engaged, and remove before flight covers in place. This means the rudder needs to be deflected to the left slightly. In addition to this I did a little rescribing and added some rivet detail. I wanted to add a bit more detail with some placards to the instrument panel, so I cut up some old cockpit decals saved from my previous CH-53E build. Fuselage halves together and ejection seat details/painting in progress. These ejection seats were always very clean, and as far as models are concerned they make for a boring cockpit. As a result I decided to spice it up a bit and do one of them with the blue seat pad that we would occasionally find in aircraft on the flight line. Thanks all for looking! Any comments and critiques are welcome! SLICK Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Messersch Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Looks great for me buddy! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Falconxlvi Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Off to a great start- good job! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
slick95 Posted March 19, 2016 Author Share Posted March 19, 2016 Thanks all! I've been pretty busy since last time, so there isn't too much of an update. I did a bit of filling and sanding on the fuselage, attached the covered HUD, added some rivet detail to the rudder, and attached the wing and resin nose section...which will both require quite a bit of filler. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
slick95 Posted April 3, 2016 Author Share Posted April 3, 2016 Another small update. I've removed the elevator from the horizontal for positioning when the control lock is engaged. I've continued with some filling, sanding and riveting; which hasn't been as tedious as I original thought. I also added a few small details to the cockpit area and painted the glare shields. The largest pain so far as been the vacform canopy. I've never worked with one before, and it's been a continuous...we'll say "learning process". I'm adding some basic detail to the canopy as well. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Drifterdon Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Man is this turning out nice. Following along with your build as I have two of these kits. One for USAF and one Navy. Are you planning to show canopy open or closed up? And that is really the only weak part of this kit in my feable opinion. Ibex made the dang frame too heavy. I keep hoping someone will make an updated canopy without the horrible 2 x 4 frames. Keep up the great work! :thumbsup:/> Quote Link to post Share on other sites
82Whitey51 Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Coming along real nice. I built one a while back...and had a heck of a time getting the canopy painted! Not so much the fact that it's vac form, but the way the framing is soft on the edges and the interior framing non existent. However, after seeing what you did there with yours, I'm going to prep up the spare canopy like that for a "re-do". Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Great work so far and nice job on the canopy framing. I've never worked with vac-u-form before, what do you use to glue the framing to the glass, regular liquid cement or something else ? Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
slick95 Posted April 4, 2016 Author Share Posted April 4, 2016 Thanks all for the kind words! Yup, I plan to display the model with the canopy open, and all the remove before flight tags/plugs installed as if parked on the ramp prior to preflight. For the canopy frame itself, I just used various thicknesses of sprue strip for the frame, and attached them using 5-minute epoxy...it was relatively tedious. Each portion of the frame had to be attached and held in place individually while the glue cured (luckily only 5 minutes). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
slick95 Posted May 21, 2016 Author Share Posted May 21, 2016 My apologies for how long it's been since the last update, but the kit is complete. I'll take the next couple posts to show some of the progress. Just prior to painting I added a few small scratch details. The GPS antenna, stall strips, lights, elevator trim cable, tie downs, drilled out the swiss cheese holes in the speedbrake, and a couple remove before flight details that would be easier to manage if attached before primer. Painting was accomplished using basic MM flat white/black and trainer orange (I can't remember the actual color name). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
slick95 Posted May 21, 2016 Author Share Posted May 21, 2016 (edited) For the leading edges and the spinner I used foil to get a nice polish/chrome look. I was very impressed by the Bare-Metal foil product...I'll definitely be a repeat customer. Very easy. I also used foil for the remove before flight plugs/streamers. These were painted with a base red, then lightened by adding increasing amounts of white to show some fading. Decals went on easily, and I renumbered the aircraft to 094. I had intended to do 049 (an aircraft I actually flew), but I had been drinking a beer while applying decals, and ended up dyslexic. Tamiya smoke was used for exhaust. After all this I attached the landing gear and canopy to complete the aircraft. I'll be making a dedicated post in the display case. The model has a lot of weight in the nose, but still came out a tail sitter :bandhead2:/> Thanks all for looking! Display Case post here: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=293077&view=findpost&p=2803749 Thanks for looking! Edited May 21, 2016 by slick95 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Emvar Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Very nice! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Nice, have that in the stash for years now. Going to have to build it some day. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Falconxlvi Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 I love it! I used to be a T-6 instructor and your build brings back some good memories. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
slick95 Posted May 22, 2016 Author Share Posted May 22, 2016 Thanks all! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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