**** DONE: GB-65 1/72 F9F Panther - No Propellers (1 Viewer)

[Hamchuck]

To Eduard: WHY?!

For some reason, AFTER I cut out the landing wheel door, I looked at photos of the F9Fs on the ground. Apparently the wheel door stays up, even after the aircraft is shut down! I found one photo with the doors down, but on an aircraft that had suffered battle damage. Why have those in the photoetch set but not the panel that swings out on the landing gear?

My reaction (artist's depiction):

 

[A4K]

That makes it rather pointless doesn't it. Wonder why they include that part.
(Same deal for Aermacchi MB339 trainers - doors only opened if bays are being inspected, otherwise pinned closed)

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Minor vent: Sawing out panels might be the most tedious job this side of sanding.

View attachment 822535

Your not wrong !

 

[Wurger]

 

[Hamchuck]

That makes it rather pointless doesn't it. Wonder why they include that part.
(Same deal for Aermacchi MB339 trainers - doors only opened if bays are being inspected, otherwise pinned closed)

It would be hard to say that it's lack of research, considering what must go into making the parts. Even for the guys that like to model sections that are difficult or downright impossible to see in the final build, it seems like a hard sell. It's not a "fun" area like an interior and if you're going for nut-and-bolt accuracy, you'd have to model it in a configuration that it would almost never be in.

Anyways, I'll be closing up that door again.

 

[fubar57]

Crappy but a good early catch

 

[CATCH 22]

To Eduard: WHY?!

For some reason, AFTER I cut out the landing wheel door, I looked at photos of the F9Fs on the ground. Apparently the wheel door stays up, even after the aircraft is shut down! I found one photo with the doors down, but on an aircraft that had suffered battle damage. Why have those in the photoetch set but not the panel that swings out on the landing gear?

My reaction (artist's depiction):
View attachment 822536

I believe you are talking of this photo:

IMHO the damage has nothing to do with the wheel wells covers down in this case. But you only see them like this during take off/landing or for a maintenance (or in a museum today).
BTW do not want to discourage you but the greatest flaw of this model is the wrong front portion - far from reality. I started building it 10+ years ago and stopped, never returned. Maybe some day.....

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Hamchuck]

So I'm back at it after a long while of life getting in the way, and waiting for some materials to arrive. Once it did, one of the key things I ordered--square brass tube--was somehow missing. The bag was there, but not the actual brass. Rather annoying after waiting weeks for it to arrive, but nothing to do but drive forward and it didn't end up mattering anyways.

I got the cockpit put together. The directions for the photoetch would have you sawing the kit head rest off and adding it to the photoetch seat. I just couldn't see how that was going to work. So I used epoxy putty to make the headrest. It looks a bit lumpy in close up photos but at normal eye distances it looks alright. I also made a parachute? life raft? for the seat bottom, as per one of my references photos. I also used some of the brass that did show up to improvise a sheet metal brake and bend some brass reinforcement stringers for the back of the headrest.

I couldn't get the completed cockpit to set right in the fuselage. It wouldn't stay where I wanted it and when it did, I saw it was sitting too low; the seat should sit higher out of the cockpit. So I used a brass strip to make a sort of spring to keep the seat shoved up closer to where I wanted it. Even so, it sits lower than I think it should but it's the most I can do with it.

I did some minor re-shaping of the PE armor plate as it was too squared off. Also, there's an inaccuracy somewhere in the dimensions because there should be more room between the seat and the armor plate that I was going to fill up with details using square tube that didn't arrive.

So at least it looks like an airplane now. I'll add some detail to deck aft of the armor plate, and I managed to lose the neat little gunsight that was in the photoetch kit, so I'll have to put something together for that. After that, I can start priming, sanding, and painting.

 

[Wurger]

 

[SaparotRob]

Pit looks great from here.

 

[Hamchuck]

Pit looks great from here.

Thanks! 3D decals sure make it a lot easier.

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Nice looking office.

 

[Wayne Little]

Looks pretty good.

 

[T Bolt]

Very nice looking

 

[Jock Tamson]

Great work

 

[Hamchuck]

Well... .

I noticed that the nose decals would have to go over the gun barrels, which would have been tricky. I could have slit them during application but I decided to push my abilities and try to drill out the barrels and replace them later with brass tube, since I have the right size on hand.

Yeah, that didn't work out. I'm definitely no Plasmo.

So, there's three solutions:
1: I ordered a Quickboost nose with separate gun barrels. It's meant for the Hobby Boss kit but maybe I can make it fit.
2: I also ordered a complete replacement kit. Yes, I got an entire kit just for the nose cone, but it's cheap or I wouldn't have done it.
3: I could try to salvage this one. Not awfully likely, but why not try while I wait for the other stuff to arrive.

Also in the meantime, I finally received the Arma Hobbies flight deck section. The fun part will be matching the flight deck as I see it on the Oriskany in "The Bridges at Toko-Ri." I'm about as good at matching colors as I am at drilling gun barrels.

 

[Airframes]

You could fill the gun recesses with putty (preferably a 2 part epoxy such as "Milliput"), and create to basic "holes" before lt sets, then smooth over and sand to shape.

 

[CATCH 22]

1: I ordered a Quickboost nose with separate gun barrels. It's meant for the Hobby Boss kit but maybe I can make it fit.

Haven't seen the Quickboost nose, but the HobbyBoss model is much "fatter" in the front area (correct) compared to the Hasegawa model: