wm cheng

Ah! look, when you glue those little cranked arrow bits or mini-forward canards (correct my nomenclature if you will David) they hide even more (if any sins) of those dreaded intake connections.

Here you can see the rounded over edges and the bit of baffling I added in the opening with the wing fully swept back.

Since therew is so much gap when the wings are fully swept back - you really can see right into the cavity of the fuselage. Again, I broke out my ribbed styrene sheet and cut little "fences" and glued then in place - being careful not to obstruct the swing extent and gear mechanism of the wings. Ah, the ribbed sheet make it look like some kind of retracting baffle system. (Hey David, what's on the real F-14 or F-111 - is there anything that seals up this opening when the wings extend fully?)

Come ON ( don't fear monger)!! that was the worst side, this side is even better. This is nothing , you should build some old Revel or AMT/ERTL kits, they've got seams that you could launch missles through! This kit really is up to Hasegawa standards so far, this portion is the worst fit of the kit thus far, but I haven't even had to break out the putty yet, all I've been using is Mr. Surfacer 500 so far. Mind you, on the bigger seams I've put a few coats on (after each coat dries).

Here's that "dreaded" intake area on the chest plate. Hmm... not so bad (I think Valkyrie's exaggerating just a bit ) don't be scared off, it not really that bad. I didn't build any of it up or perform any type of modification, I just dabbed a few coats of Mr. Surfacer 500 at the two ends - I could of used a bit of putty, but the areas are so small that needs filling.

Of course I had to re-scribe the panel line details that were lost when I rounded over the edges (I used the Hasegawa Tri-tool microsaws for this job - they are tiny photo-etched saws - you can buy them from HLJ) They are invaluable in recovering lost panel lines especially around seams and filled joints.

Here's the after shot, after I sanded down the edges and smoothed out the contours (sorry for the fuzzy photo - the camera had a hard time focusing so close)

I've decided to sand these areas down, to give an airfoil profile to them so that they would appear thinner in the end. (Here is the before shot)

When its fully swept forward - you hardly see anything at all.

Here's the forward section in the worst case with the wings fully swept back - you can see the little styrene card and the Mr. Surfacer around the edges that is now sanded smooth.

This area always bugged me - those really "thick" squared off edges don't look very realistic or "aircraft-like". Plus this gap seems rather large considering that the wings are fully swept back.

Another test fit with the wings in place, you can see how little sanding and filling was really required, there isn't a lot that is exposed (and this is the worst case when the wings are fully swept forward)

I've sanded down the areas I filled in with the styrene sheets and the little injection pin depressions. All I have used so far is Mr. Surfacer 500, there was nothing significant yet that required putty.

Hi all, got another 2-3 hours in tonight - yipee! I ran out of my old Microscale liquid masking film, so I am tring this new stuff from Japan (if its Japanese it must be better? ) made by the same Mr. Surfacer people. Its a bit thick - anyone know of a thinner for this stuff?

Hey thanks Gerwalker for the tip - I didn't know the paint marker was corrosive to plastic, I will have to watch out for that (you see, you learn something everyday) Thanks, I would like to learn tips from all of you (feel free to interrupt the thread - it shouldn't be me preaching - its a conversation, I'd like to get something out of it too ) I am hoping to get in a day (or maybe a day and a half) this weekend (at work now )

Odd, that the intakes on the chest plates are a different piece. e very careful to align them properly when you are glue these parts, they need to line up from the outside, if you let them seat tightly from underneath, the are a tad too high from the outside. This is a poor fit area for Hasegawa - I'm a bit surprised. Everything is drying for now.

Here's a clearer shot with the Mr. Surfacer500 on.

I've cut some stryrene triangles and fitted them in as well as the little portion just ahead of the pins that pivot the swing gears (they can be seen just a little bit with the wings fully swept. I'd thought that with these little pieces of plastic in place, I'd only have to fill in the cracks around them and sand them smoother (the laziness in me talking )

I've temporarily pieced together the wing and swing mechanism to see what portion of the interior slots are exposed when the wing goes through its sweep. As you can see its not a lot. Valkyrie was right, this time Hasegawa did not provide the plastic inserts to fill in that negative space so we would have to make one up. But as you can see from the pencil lines, its not a big area to cover. I'd also fill in those two injector pin depressions - yu can see a dab of Mr. Surfacer in each.

I'd thought I would skip ahead a few steps to fit everything together to see just what injector pin holes or crevasses need to be filled and in what order. I don't get why Hasegawa chose to make the wing in these pieces - I'd just like the old method where they were in two halves, nice easy edge seam that can be sanded away. Now with these panels - its just more work. I noticed that this wing root panel is a bit thick, I would sand down the thickness of it a bit to lay flat/ in plane with the surrounding surface.

Cockpit bye, bye (for the time being...)

I've glued the forward windscreen on, and attached the rear portion of the canopy. The paper clip idea seems to hold for now, I re-inforced it with a piece of plastic in the back cut to resemble a bulkhead. As long as I don't try to pivot the rod, pull it out and stick it straight in for the open position or take it out and stick it in for the closed position the canopy works fine. I'd love to see someone attempt to actually make a hinge for this baby - I'd buy a few. But at least, this option allows us to display the plane with the canopy open or closed - I always hate being forced to choose one or the other.

Here's a shot of the side seam - the otherside has a larger gap, so I'd have to use some more Mr. Surfacer to fill it in and let it dry.

My camera is having a hard time focusing on a white object with little detail - excuse the photos. The nose cone should look pretty smooth - the hints of grey are the Mr. Surfacer doing its job filling in the hairline cracks - remember to be careful not to make the nosecone round, it is somewhat squashed with a bit of an edge like the YF-19 - over sanding can dull this lateral edge.

Here's the other side. These will probably be some of the last shots of the cockpit for a while. I plan to seal it up inside the canopy till I'm done with painting. It took me half an hour trying to clean all that sanding gunk out of the finished cockpit! Remember, sand after the cockpit is protected (duh!)