Steve,
I do remember the days when we lived in apartment and just seemed to be moving every few years. I never looked forward to a move as I knew that another one was just down the road. But once we bought our house, we've been here for 37 years.

Now we're looking at selling and moving into a Condo in a retirement community down south. Still will have a modeling/computer room, but I won't have to fix, repair, nor cut the lawn. Just fish and play golf during the day, and model at night. took 70 years to get to this stage, and I sure hope it lasts for a long time.

Joel

Best of Luck Joel. But, don't count all of your sunbeams before they hatch. Having a condo doesn't eliminate honey-do lists..

Oh no!! Not another dreaded Honey To Do Lists. My retirement has been pushed back another month at work once again, but this time is my last time. Just the fact that the Condo will be so much smaller then the house, and they will take care of the outside, i'm way ahead of the game.

Joel

Moving is definitely not my favorite thing either, and I'm grateful for all the advice on keeping kits safe. I have a self-imposed to do list. Not sure that's any better as I have no one to blame ;-)

Ah, retirement - its a dream right now!

Have a stress free day guys.

Somewhere, in amongst a chaotic landscape of packing boxes, half-emptied cupboards and piles of things there is a small island of order. It’s called my workbench, and I ran there a couple of times this week to hide from stuff to do as I move apartments. The result is that I’ve made progress on the cockpit. I added some detail to the side-walls and the area in front of the dashboard. Belatedly equipped with a decent photo of the rear bulkhead I also added some more details and wondered about correcting some things that are wrong. I decided against the corrections because it’s too much work and what I have offers a good enough impression. Here are the collected results to date with a few parts held in place by Blu-Tack.







On the subject of references I found all sorts of photos showing the flexible covers that protect instrument cables as they leave the cockpit. The trouble is the references show different things. In some shots these look like very flexible canvas or some such material. In others they look more rigid like rubber or cardboard. It left me scratching my head trying to decide how to improve the very basic texture provided by the kit. In the end I went for the more rigid option. I recreated it by scrunching up some strips of thin plastic card, gluing it in place and then trimming it to fit. Like this…





Now I’ll have one final look over to check I haven’t missed anything. Then I'll turn my attention to the engine, or I’ll pack up the kitchen.

Happy modelling guys.

Steve.

Steve,
The pit and seat just look tremendous.
Joel

I second Joel's comment. The cockpit looks amazing.

cheers
Michael

Hi guys

Thanks very much. It was a lot of work and probably not something I'd do with every kit, but it was fun and the end result makes me happy. I'm excited to get painting, but that will definitely have to wait until I'm set up in my new place.

By the way, I really fell out of love with Eduard's coloured, self-adhesive photo etch during this build. In other scales it might well be great but for me at least, in 1/32 it's too flat, too fiddly and not sticky enough. Having said that, I've seen other guys get great results. I guess each of us has our own style and sense of what result we are looking for.

Happy modelling.

Steve

Steve,
I've used the Eduard pre-painted sticky PE in both 1/48 and 1/32 scales, and there certainly are pluses and minuses. The fact that especially the IP is pre-painted including the gauges is a huge plus. But up until my last build, the black they used was more like a Blue-Black. Where they got that color from who knows, but they were certainly intent on using up their entire supply no matter how long it took. For that matter, a lot of the their colors just don't match the generally accepted FS chips even when transposed to WWII. Case in point is my F6F-3 IP.

Also they seem to have decided for the best paint adhesion to use this weird textured paint or primer with the end result when viewed close up is anything but smooth.

Still, I used their sets more times then not because the fidelity to scale, and detail was superior to anything I could produce.

I'm confident that once you button up the fuselage halves, those small issues just don't seem to manifest themselves to the viewer as the pit is usually viewed as a whole, with the seat taking the place of honor.

Joel

Hey Joel

Yes, I think on a different build with different objectives I might come to exactly those conclusions too. Have you ever tried the Yahu (sp? alternatives? From what I have seen on-line their printing quality looks better.

Have a great day.

Steve

Steve,
I wanted to try the Yahu IP for the Hurricane build, but Sprue Brothers doesn't carry their whole line. I'm still trying to locate one but time is running out till I need the IP ready to go.

Just took a quite look at their site and Hobbyworld carries most of their line. Their located only a few hours from, and they carry the Hurricane Mk I IP and several others I need. Going to order them asap. I owe you one for getting me to look again.

Joel

Good luck with tracking down the Yahu products Joel. I hope it works out for you and its a pleasure to help a little bit.
Have a great day.
Steve

This really is shaping up to be the BEST STARFIGHTER EVER !
All your hard work in the cockpit will certainly be highly visible at this scale so looking forward to seeing the paint go on.

I'm in awe of the level of detail you'er going for. Amazing work!

Hi Paul and Liam

Thanks a million guys. I have to say that so far it has been a lot of fun, and the project is stretching my skills. It's great that you are enjoying it too. Thanks for looking in.

Have a great day.

OK, the kitchen can wait. The engine supplied with the kit is fairly simple, and I will be keeping it hidden inside the fuselage. In contrast to all the fiddly work on the cockpit that will make building it an easy job. The big parts are mostly crisply moulded but there are some soft details in places. The exception is the area where the intakes merge. These parts are badly moulded with a rough interior texture and ejector pin marks. Luckily - if I have interpreted the instructions correctly - absolutely none of this part will be seen once everything is closed up. It just provides a locating place for one end of the engine.

The interior of the engine looks good, and this is the bit that matters to me because in theory it could be seen. The corrugated inside with lots of little slots (help please, people who know the name of this stuff!) is well reproduced, even if there is a potentially difficult join to fix where the two parts meet. That’ll be the tricky bit I think, because I was planning to paint the two halves before joining them so I can use the airbrush. Hmmm, better think on that. The last part is a resin exhaust. I splashed some cash on this because it will definitely be seen and it looks lovely. Here are the pics:











Happy modelling guys

Steve,
That AM resin exhaust can looks fantastic.
Joel

Hey Joel,

Yup its a Brassin one, and it really is a joy. When I see (and feel) products with this quality I'm tempted by the HPH Resin kits. Check out the link below if you haven't already

http://www.hphmodels.cz/hph/

Only the cost and prospect of a lot of resin dust makes me think twice.

Have a great day.

Steve,
Thought so.

When I into 1/32 scale, I often drooled over some of the hph models, but they're far more expensive then my budget allows, especially since I have my doubts that I'd actually be able to get one across the finish line.

joel

Hey Joel,

I'm sorry for the long delay in replying. All my time has been take up with moving apartment recently. It's nearly done now and life is beginning to focus back on the things I like to do.

Yes, those HPH kits have to be about as good and as challenging as it gets for us aero-modellers. Moving revealed the full extent of my stash - oh boy it's a lot bigger than I thought - so I'm definitely not investing (yet :-)).

Happy modelling.

Steve

It feels like I’ve been away from my workbench for ages. In fact I don’t actually have a workbench. The old one is recycled and I’m waiting for a new one to arrive at my new apartment. As a result I have withdrawal symptoms. I work on a kit most days so this enforced time away leaves me feeling out of touch with my hobby.

To try and reconnect a bit I’ve been doing some research and encountered a conundrum. Have a look at these two shots taken inside an F-104 engine. One is used and sooty, the other clean and green. I guess the sooty one is more like an inservice engine so this is the look I should go for when I finally unpack the kit, tools and paints. What do you think guys?





Happy modelling,

Steve.

Steve,
I vote for the used version. the new one with the green sure will be a hard sell.

Joel

Steve, it depends on how new your starfighter is going to be. It took a few flights to get the GE J79 flame keeper and afterburner to look as sooty as the first photo shows. And in reality, that combustion chamber and flame keeper look a little too sooty to me-- I've seen the interiors of several jet fighters, and they are rather dark, and the metal is discolored, but there isn't a lot of soot buildup. The second photo is definitely a brand new or refurbished combustion chamber and flame keeper. The bronze color of the end of the flame keeper is closer to the color of the chamber after use, only much, much darker-- almost a dark copper-brown. I like Alclad Jet Exhaust over Dark Aluminum which I think is a pretty good match for the color of the interior. The J79 was a fairly common engine, powering the F104, B-58, and F4 phantom among others, and characteristically ran hot when the afterburners were in use, which would discolor the outside skin of the airframe/engine covers and the iris of the afterburner. The "green" color is an absolutely brand new, never started engine-- really not suitable for an operational fighter that's seen any use. But the darker engine looks like it was heavily flown and has weathered after a long period of disuse. The F-104C wasn't in service as long as the 104G, and I suspect the first "sooty" photo is an F104G that's been in service a long time. Something in between would be better.
VR, Russ

Hey Joel,

Yes I reckon you're right. Actually now I check further the green one is in a museum so it's probably cleaned and restored. The sooty version has it, unless someone knows better?

Have a great day.

Steve

Steve,
I don't know if you've been following my Hurricane Mk1 build, but I did locate a online hobby shop that carries the Yaho line of IPs, so I bought a 1/2 dozen over a few orders. My word, they're the best I've ever seen in any scale to date.

Joel