Trumpeter 1:32 F-105G Wild Weasel Build Thread

Sure does! I slept on the dilemma and came to the shop with a better attitude. First of all I was completely ready to use the metal front spacer since the other one was gone—or so it would seem. I thought about how to hold it in a vise without undue stress and without it exploding out again. I came upon using Sculpey clay to form around the odd shape and then fire it to make a fixture. But then I realized that it probably would work in its soft form since it just had to stabilize the gun.

I actually made another front bracket and spent a lot of time getting its contours perfect. To do this without the original, I traced the profile at the open end of the gun trough in the left fuselage half. The contour opened up slightly as it went forward, so I had to make a second one with the bottom curve opened up a bit. I was all ready to glue that into the fuselage, and decided to make another front piece as I mentioned. When I got back to the work bench that part had disappeared. I don't know what happened to it. I had been holding it or carrying around and putting it down somewhere. It was just gone.

Now I have writen ad infinitum about the dimensional rift that absorbs parts and then spits them out again. It's a quantum mechanical thing... So I machined another front spacer just to have two (one to practice on), and I had swept the floor twice and laid down to with my eyes at floor level to see anything that was sticking up. Nothing. Then a little time later, I moved the bench forward on its wheel just a bit and there was the plastic front piece just sitting right in the middle of the floor. Seriously. It wasn't there a few minutes before. So I was able to get back to assembling the gun as I originally planned.

The wire idea worked just as I thought would once I had the gun stable enough that I could tip the vise forward so I could visualize the holes. Having different lengths of guide wires helped so I didn't have to get two wires into the holes at the same time. A couple of the wires insisted on going into the wrong holes, but patience paid off and all six went into their correct spots. Here are all 6 wires through the holes with the barrels waiting to follow.



The 1mm barrel fit in the holes was perfect and it didn't take much persuasion to get the barrels to follow the guide wires. In fact, this part went much easier than I thought. Heck, I deserved a break!



All that was left to do was slide out the guide wires and carefully file the barrel ends so they were all perfectly equal. I debuured the bores and then took this picture.



I tried my hybrid into the gun chamber and found the barrel length I chose to be okay, so I then sent it to the paint shop.



I sprayed the gun with Tamiya Gray primer since I wanted to be sure that the metal parts would hold paint better.



The instructions call for "gun metal", but when you look at these weapons, they're basically black. I'm going to paint it semi-gloss black. But when you look at this picture, the gun is actually pretty gray. I figure something out. The Eduard set includes new wall for the gun compartment. It did not have a new PE door. That was in a different set which I did not get.



I glued together the cylindrical magazine, cleaned up the joints and then set it asside. It gets painted aluminum and has the 20mm ammo belts attached to it, but it really won't be visible.

I started building the J75 Turbojet Engine. This was a 2nd Generation jet engine and was not a turbofan like many 3rd Gen engines are. I vacilated about stripping off all the molded piping, but then said, "What the heck", I like jet engines and I'm going to make this one with a separate stand so it can be displayed outside of the plane.

Here's a picture of the J75. I need to find an opposite side view since to do an adequate piping job is going to require 360 degrees of detailing. If anyone has a source, please let me know.



All of the 3D boxes and covers are pretty much included in the kit, so the real challenge will all the piping in between.

Before I started removing the piping I took some pictures so I could at least put the ones back that I removed. I have .5mm solder wire that works for the smaller diameter tubing. I have enought various plastic and brass wire shapes to do all the piping.





I used the MicroMark chiself to remove the relief piping.

I then started gluing on the valve and control bodies. I almost has a screw up. The front compressor guide vane should have gone on BEFORE the engine halves were glued together, but I was able to pop it apart enough to get the vane in place. I then filled the resulting gap with some thick CA and sanded smooth.



I also started drilling the various remaining nipples and junctions to receive the piping. Since most of the piping is bright stainless steel, it will all have to go on AFTER I paint the bulk of the engine.

I will need to get some plans for making the jet engine cart too.

I was actually looking at getting a set of ABER aftermarket 1:32 brass Vulcan barrels and supports or the resin version from True Details. The True Details gun is specific to the F-104 Starfighter, but I would only need the barrel array and could graft it to the Thud's reveiver. As it is, since I was able to find that criticla front spacer, I won't need to puchase any more parts. I was very relieved to get the gun finished.

Despite the drama, looking good

Glad to inspire!

Mixed bag today. I'm sort of jumping around since some WIP had to dry. I got the rest of the accessories glued onto the forward casings of the J75, and then built the afterburner section.

The afterburner consisted basically of five parts: the core which had the flame holder ring glued to it, and the casing which was divided into four quarters. There were no alignment pins or anything once you glued the front portion of the burner pipe so it took some fiddling to get the edge aligned and glued. I ended up seeping some thin CA into the joint and adding some accelerator to lock it up. Then with the edge of a single-edge razor blade I scrpaed the joint ends to make them level.



There are still a ring of parts that has to be added at the burners back end; the exhaust petals operating cylinders. And with those the engine will be done with the kit's parts. In looking at my photos of the real J75, there's more valve bodies on the engine body than included in the kit which I may scratch-built to support the piping. It's actually been many years that I wanted a kit with a good starting point for a good jet engine model.

I airbrushed the interior of the burner quarters before gluing them together since airbrushing down a closed tube is less than satisfactory. I also dry brushed some bare aluminum to the flame holder and the pipe ribs. I could get it sit still to take a picture of it's innards. I will now have to paint the entire engine before piping. The plans call for aluminum for the whole deal, but looking at the pictures, it's really quite discolored and way into the hot metal colors.

Eduard included some PE for the inside of the gun housing. I instaled this, but it's really subtle. I needed to paint it interior green along with other interior air frame parts. My left over Model Master acrylic interior green was dying. I've kept it alive by adding acrylic thinner, but it got too clumpy and clogged my airbrush to the point that it took me 20 minutes to get it cleaned out. It's fine line gun so the actually nozzle is so fine the only thing that will go into it is the needle itself.

I had some new Tamiya Zine Chormate Yellow, so I decided to make my own green mix. I did it wth a small amount of Tamiya basic Flat Blue. My first ratio came out like turquois, so I backed it off and got a very respectable interior green mix which I now have bottled. I added some iso alcholo and a bit of Tamiya retarder which helps keep the paint from drying in the gun nozzle. I've just stated using the retarder. It makes for better brush painting too. The paint was still a bit wet in the pic. It dried totally flat.



I decided to prepare the brass G-Force landing gear. They're investment cast and their sprues are still attached. It's a bit different cutting sprues off of a solid brass part than a plastic one. I used the micro-razor saw for the more delicate cuts and a pair of heavy-duty Xuron flush cutters. After cutting the raw edges needed filing and shaping. I took the bulk of the metal off with the 1" belt sander, and used files for the rest.

The design of the gear just begged to be soldered and/or actually pinned for motion. The nose gear has a triangular back brace that slide in between two lugs. The movable end required narrowing a bit to slip into the lugs. I through drilled the lugs using not one, but three 0.032" carbide drills. These end up being expensive holes. Brass is nortorius for breaking small drills since it's gummy and binds the drill just as it breaks through. I used some cutting fluid for brass to help prevent the grabbing, but the first hole when it broke through the first lug. The second drill broke when it fell on the floor, and the third when it broke through on the second lug. I was drilling it using the flexi-shaft on the Dremel.



The 0.032" brass wire was turning out to be a press fit into the holes and I decided this was not necessary so I opened the holes up a few thousandths. For the movable end of the brace, I first tried drilling with a new High Speed Steel drill of the same size, but I suspect the flutes are not ground correctly. I ended up going with carbide again, but this time got it drilled without breaking it. That was $6.00 worth of drills to make this work.

I soldered the scissors link into its location on the front gear leg. I first tried using the resistance unit, but the bulk of the brass was too great and it was taking too long to heat, so I switched to a mini-torch and it soldered nicely. These gear ain't coming apart.



I put the two together and it will work just fine. Like I said, when you're working with solid metal then treat it like metal and do metal things with it.



Then I got to work on the main gear. The metal gear has a part that the kit doesn't, or if it does, it appears to be simplified and of no value as a reference. The part is the locking link that keeps the gear extended when it's supposed to be, and bends like an elbow when the gear retracts. There is a secondary linkage buried within that unlocks the elbow and lets it fold. It's an essential parts of many kinds of landing gear. The kit just has what looks like a slender hydraulic cylinder. There is a small brass pin protruding from the metal link which I am assuming is the connecting point of the locking link. The link itself needed a lot of clean up and I drilled it's ends also. Broke another drill when I torqued bit sideways. The carbide is glass hard and any side thrust breaks them, but they drill so sweetly.



I tried the gear into the wing to see just where the locking link is going to sit. Once I'm sure of the location, I'm also going to solder these links to the gear leg.



I'm not sure about the orientation of this locking link. The G-Force products came with no instructions so I'm guessing about which is right and left (they are handed) and whether the secondary release link is facing upwards or downwards. I need to find some reference photos. I had to file the rectangular bottom lug on the gear so it was nice fit into the wing socket. I think I'll epoxy it into that spot. These gear will be very strong.

I also painted the Vulcan Cannon with Nato Black. I'm not using "Gun Metal" any longer since guns really aren't that metallic dark gray. Not glued in the picture. You can see the PE ribbing better in this image. In the prototype image these appears to be another bulkhead between the gun motor on the extreme right and the rest of the receiver. I can add that.

Beauty. Never heard of Tamiya retarder, I'll have to look for it. I'm using Vallejo's version. For Interior Green I use XF-3 Yellow and XF-5 Green: 2/1.

By adding blue instead of green, it was more like zinc chromate yellow 6 or 7 and straight blue 1, or maybe even more yellow. Unfortunately, I didn't calibrate what I was adding. You can always make it stronger, it's harder to make it less so.

Well dear readers, I've found my answers. That linkage thing faces upwards and is actually the connection point for the gear retraction actuator. It pulls on the line which, when folding, brings the main gear along with it. I also found a ton of photo if I want to go crazy on the piping/wiring nonesense inside the gear wheels. I may not. Unless the model is situated on a mirror, or if you're going to pick it up and turn in upside down, a lot of this work is not valuable. My Corsair is sitting pretty on a display shelf at the hobby shop and no one can see all the piping I put in underneath.



This picture also clearly shows the small secondard cylinder that unlocks the leg so it can be folded by the main cylinder. I got a lot of images by a fellow on the Large Scale Planes site that did super-detail the wheel wells. Here's an example of his work. THIS IS NOT MY WORK!! I don't know how you can do all this piping before the paint is on. You'd lose all the color differentials.



I'm doing this model on commission and I don't believe my client is expecting a 300 hour build time. Beside, if I'm going nuts on piping, I'm doing the jet engine and displaying it outside of the model. Without that heavy engine in the tail you won't need as much nose weight.

Looking great.

Nice work.

I've located a few pictures that give me information about wheel well piping if I decide to put tons of details in places no one will see. I do intend to detail places they will see.

And I got some pictures showing a range of different kinds of stands to hold jet engines. Out of them should be one that will work.

I put the main gear into their slots on the wings, added the actuating link and prepared it for soldering, by wire brushing the area to receive solder. Again tried to use the resistance unit on the first one, but didn't work so I used the torch. But I was able to use the resistance on the second gear by grabbing it in a slightly different way.

Since this brass piece was sitting in a styrene wing, I had to put heat sinks on both the main gear and the link to protect the plastic. For the gear I used a hemostate and for the link used a spring-loaded tweezer. It worked! The heat did not distort the plastic. By soldering it with the gear in position, I was assured that the angles were correct. I will epoxy the gear into the wing.

I soaked all three in vinegar for a few minutes to do a micro-acid etch to help with paint adhesion. Then I washed them in water to remove the vinegar and then in iso alcohol to remove any excess solder flux.

I rattle-can sprayed them with Tamiya gray primer. Did some touch up and then let them dry.



I then painted them with Tamiya Rattle-Can Bare Metal. It has a nice sheen. I will either paint the oleo slide with the Chrome Pen or wrap it with Bare Metal Foil. There's not much slide showing on the front gear.



Lastly, I started adding more piping gizmos on the engine to match the photo that I have. I drill the plastic with 0.032" carbide, then open it up bit with an 0.034" so the .8mm brass tubing would slide in more easily. It's very easy to crush this ultra fine tubing if the fit is too tight. I added all the exhasust petal actuators. In one picture it shows these burnt brown color, but it another it shows the actuators to be bright metal and everything else burnt.

I also filled those few annoying cracks with Tamiya filler. I predrilled some other places where pipes are going to attach to the engine. When I'm done it will be very busy looking. I'm using the .8mm Albion Brass which is a perfect fit of the .5mm solder I'm using for the tubing.



I found a lot of good detail pics, showing piping, especially tubing around the gear themselves. Here's a sampling. This Thud's been sitting for a while considering the rust on the oleo slide. That gear will never move again.



This pic clearly shows where the main gear actuator interacts with the gear. It connects to the side of the locking link, not the main gear strut itself. It also shows that the link folds towards the viewer in this picture. It was really helpful in having me figure out the relationship when I soldered those links to the main gear.



Here's a shot at the wiring that runs the Vulcan cannon. I will be doing some of this since I'm going to have that hatch open. I'm not opening the radome in front.



Here's a shot looking up into the nose wheelwell.



Here's some jet stands, two of which are holding the J75. One has the afterburner attached, the other it is removed, and you get a good view of the AB Flameholder. This cart is very simple to construct. I just have to find some suitable wheels. Any ideas?

The brackets extending from the engine's sides are duplicated on the model and hold it to the fuze sides.



THis is the picture showing the shiny exhaust petal actuators. This engine is pretty bare bones with very little piping on display, so it doesn't help me very much.



This is the TF-30, the engine that powered the Tomcat in the background. Again, not a very complicated build for the stand. This one does have some of that cool piping. To me, the only thing that makes jet engines interesting to look at is all that piping. Lots of different metal colors to try and replicate.



Going to the hobby shop tomorrow and will look to pick up some other metal shades to help create that "Jet Engine Look".

While you are there, you can pick up some Plastruct sections to build your cart. There are probably some I-sections available to your scale.

Not much to report today, but I did solve the "Yellow Weather Striping aroud the Canopy" challenge. I bought 1/32" yellow striping tape and the LHS. That will work just fine. We also researched more about how to build a Jet Trailer, but didn't come to any conclusions. We estimated that the tires measure probably about 20", and the girders somewhere between 6" and 10". I could probably use aircraft wheels regardless of scale if they come out to 20" at 1:32.

Depending on how easy or hard it is to build the cart, I may rethink my plans regarding the jet engine installation. If I can get the wheels I'm sure I can build the rest of it.

If you know anyone who builds 1:24 model cars, see if they have any spare 16" tires. These are very close to 20" in 1:32. Or check hobby stores and eBay

Builder 2010 said:

I've located a few pictures that give me information about wheel well piping if I decide to put tons of details in places no one will see. I do intend to detail places they will see.

And I got some pictures showing a range of different kinds of stands to hold jet engines. Out of them should be one that will work.

I put the main gear into their slots on the wings, added the actuating link and prepared it for soldering, by wire brushing the area to receive solder. Again tried to use the resistance unit on the first one, but didn't work so I used the torch. But I was able to use the resistance on the second gear by grabbing it in a slightly different way.

Since this brass piece was sitting in a styrene wing, I had to put heat sinks on both the main gear and the link to protect the plastic. For the gear I used a hemostate and for the link used a spring-loaded tweezer. It worked! The heat did not distort the plastic. By soldering it with the gear in position, I was assured that the angles were correct. I will epoxy the gear into the wing.

I soaked all three in vinegar for a few minutes to do a micro-acid etch to help with paint adhesion. Then I washed them in water to remove the vinegar and then in iso alcohol to remove any excess solder flux.

I rattle-can sprayed them with Tamiya gray primer. Did some touch up and then let them dry.

View attachment 534020

I then painted them with Tamiya Rattle-Can Bare Metal. It has a nice sheen. I will either paint the oleo slide with the Chrome Pen or wrap it with Bare Metal Foil. There's not much slide showing on the front gear.

View attachment 534021

Lastly, I started adding more piping gizmos on the engine to match the photo that I have. I drill the plastic with 0.032" carbide, then open it up bit with an 0.034" so the .8mm brass tubing would slide in more easily. It's very easy to crush this ultra fine tubing if the fit is too tight. I added all the exhasust petal actuators. In one picture it shows these burnt brown color, but it another it shows the actuators to be bright metal and everything else burnt.

I also filled those few annoying cracks with Tamiya filler. I predrilled some other places where pipes are going to attach to the engine. When I'm done it will be very busy looking. I'm using the .8mm Albion Brass which is a perfect fit of the .5mm solder I'm using for the tubing.

View attachment 534022

I found a lot of good detail pics, showing piping, especially tubing around the gear themselves. Here's a sampling. This Thud's been sitting for a while considering the rust on the oleo slide. That gear will never move again.

View attachment 534023

This pic clearly shows where the main gear actuator interacts with the gear. It connects to the side of the locking link, not the main gear strut itself. It also shows that the link folds towards the viewer in this picture. It was really helpful in having me figure out the relationship when I soldered those links to the main gear.

View attachment 534024

Here's a shot at the wiring that runs the Vulcan cannon. I will be doing some of this since I'm going to have that hatch open. I'm not opening the radome in front.

View attachment 534025

Here's a shot looking up into the nose wheelwell.

View attachment 534026

Here's some jet stands, two of which are holding the J75. One has the afterburner attached, the other it is removed, and you get a good view of the AB Flameholder. This cart is very simple to construct. I just have to find some suitable wheels. Any ideas?

The brackets extending from the engine's sides are duplicated on the model and hold it to the fuze sides.

View attachment 534027

I'm afraid those are engine adapters, they're missing the "skates" (Roller adapters.)

THis is the picture showing the shiny exhaust petal actuators. This engine is pretty bare bones with very little piping on display, so it doesn't help me very much.

View attachment 534028

This is the TF-30, the engine that powered the Tomcat in the background. Again, not a very complicated build for the stand. This one does have some of that cool piping. To me, the only thing that makes jet engines interesting to look at is all that piping. Lots of different metal colors to try and replicate.

View attachment 534029

Going to the hobby shop tomorrow and will look to pick up some other metal shades to help create that "Jet Engine Look".

Click to expand...

This is an East Coast build as the engine is missing the mounts and the inlet ring that were installed as part of the QECA on the West Coast.
It's a VF-102 Diamondbacks aircraft in the back ground. They transitioned to the "B" in the mid-'90's(?)

Good work so far!

Only two hours, but a productive two hours...

Found a great resource for the jet trailer problem. It's a company brochure who makes them and had all the dimenisions including the tire size. I screen printed the drawing and imported it into CorelDraw and scale the 132" rail length to 1:32. This then gave me all the rest of the measurements. The tires come out to .81". That works out almost exactly as a B-15 Mitchell wheel in 1:48, but the hub is all wrong. 1:48 truck tires come close also, and that may be the way I go.



I have some brass I-beam that would work for the main rails. The prototpe rails aren't I-beams. They're specially made units that quickly connect to other carts and work stands. The company makes three styles. The positioning trailer, has smaller wheels and a parallelogram lifting mechanism that enables the operator to set the angles to remove and install jet engines into the air craft. Then there's the transportation cart, which is simpler with bigger wheels and connects to the positioning cart so the engine can be moved to the transport cart. This, in turn, connects to the work stand which had fixed legs. If pressed, I could do the work stand and solve the "wheels problem" completely.

To test whether my scaling works with the model's engine, I printed out the drawing and set the engine on it. This checked the width which was perfect!



Then I checked the length. Okay also. So I was confortable that the scaling of the M-3000 Transportation Cart works with the J75 Engine.



The cart suspension is not simple. It appears to be made out of steel stampings where the axle peices are riveted between two sides of the stamping. The stamping is closed on top with a (probably) welded piece. It will not be easy to scratch-build this. I can either make it out of styrene sheet or brass. I'll see how it goes. This pic is the rear. The front steerable wheels is more complex.



In discussion with Marty Schwambau at Scale Reproductions yesterday, he suggested that if I want to display the engine AND had the ass end of the plane complete, that I could cut off the afterburner section and put that into the plane. One of my pics the other day shows the engine just like that with the AB tailpipe removed up to the flame holder.

So I bit the bullet and sawed off the AB pipe with the micro-saw. It turns out that the simulated bolt circle, which I cut jut aft of, is the actual place where the flame holder is. I didn't screw that up. Needs some painting and TLC, but it's okay. To stand the engine vertically for this image, I made an adapter piece of some junk MDF with a hole in it to accommate the bulge at the compressor inlet so the engine would stand straight up without falling over.



Since the engine is centered in the fuselage with the four lugs projecting from the engine proper, the AB section had nothing to hold it in. So I had to make some bulkheads to center the engine in the tail section. This took a bit of crafting.

I started with some card stock, tracing the rear-most tail section of the tail cone held together with a rubber band. This was not the size that would be needed since the bulkhead was going to be positioned further into the tail cone where it was narrower, but it was a staring point to get the contours right.

I drew center lines in both directions where I cut a hole that matched the AB pipe's middle dimension. I cut that hole in the card and trimmed it so it fit the AB nicely.

I cut the o.d. and then started trimming the diameter evenly just on one side until it fit decently into the spot that placed the exhaust's end just sticking out at the correct distance. I kept fitting unil it work and the center lines were still corresponding to the edge of the 1/2 tail cone piece.



When it was finally right, I transferred the profiles to some 0.040" styrene sheet. I only traced the 1/2 that was correct, and then traced it again to make the other half. This was I was assured that the engine was properly centered. I cut the styrene by scribing with a #11 blade and breaking on the line. I glued each bulkhead half to their respective sides and tried it out.



After gluing with solvent cement, I went back and hit it with thick CA to close any other gaps. I then followed up by glueing in 0.040" X .100" styrene strip so not gaps were visible. Lastly I closes some gaps at the juntion between the two halves with some more 0.040" styrene cut to the same contour as the bulkhead.

I painted it all with burnt iron.



Here's the two halves fit together showing how the bulkhead appears from the outside. I had to put a block at the now-open AB front end. After gluing in the styrene block I sanded it to conform to the O.D. and then brush painted the visible face with the burnt iron.



To make the installation even more secure. I wanted to put some side stabilizes between the bulkhead and the outlet of the tail cone. I was next to impossible to find that distance on the tapered portion. So I took some Sculpey Clay and put a ball of it on the cone where I wanted to get the dimension, and put the AB in place and centered, pushing it into the clay. I ran out of time to fire the Sculpey to harden it. I'll do that tomorrow. I'll finish shape the pre-shaped Sculpey and will glue it to the wall and the AB. This will perfectly secure it. I'll do the same for the other side.

With this important mod out of the way, I can relax about detailing the rest of the engine for the display. The more I think about it, I would be so much simpler desiging and building the work stand instead of the traveling one.

I think I've made a decision to use the Work Stand instead of the Transportation Cart to hold the display engine. As you can see it's a much simpler soldering job with 1/16" and 1/32" brass tubing/rods. Not a big deal for my soldering set up. I, of course, will keep y'all posted.

Good stuff