Revell F-18 Blue Angel 1/48

Good day kids.
This weeks update has the completion of the cockpit with pilot painted and seated. A few add ons on my part is the re-painting of that pull lever next to the seat. I made a yellow and black striped decal for the top of the lever and for the ejection pull in between the pilots legs that you can't see. You'll have to trust me....it's there. I also made decals for the Blue Angels logo for the right side chest on the pilot as well as an American flag patch for his left shoulder. The shoulder patch is a wee bit over-sized but that's as small as my printer can print. I also added some Tamiya Tape brand harness straps that are fitted for the pilot.

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With that the cockpit was installed so on to the stabilizers.
Here I used the Smooth On Starter kit to make my first molds ever on a model. I created two block molds each representing one side of each stabilizer. The idea here is to light the engines, NAV lights and stabs. So to do this I need to split the stabilizers in two to imbed fiber optic. These are the results.

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So far I'm pleased. The molds and resin parts came out okay. In the pics you can see that I had used a scribing tool to create a trench to the appropriate spots where lights need to be. In these trenches I laid down fiber optics and used white glue to hold them in place. I then joined both sides together bonding them with CA making sure not to get any on the fiber. Once cured I cleaned up edges and used red spot putty to fill in seams. Not many so I chalk this up as a victory in Terra incognito.
The stabilizers are complete and now installed to the upper fuselage with fiber snaked in to the stabilizer mounting slots. So far success.

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Next is the closing of the landing gear doors.

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I need to think of my angle of approach here as their meant to be in the opened position. The kit doors actually fit the openings rather well as I thought I would have to scratch new ones to close them up but I'm finding that probably won't be the case. It's a pleasant surprise but still needs to be thought out to get them to sit right.
That's it for tonight. Cheers guys!


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Definitely coming along.
Nice work on both the cockpit and making those two part stabilizers.
 
sweet work

what size fibler optic are you useing?
 
Q, Jason, John thanks boys.

Neo said:
sweet work

what size fibler optic are you useing?

Neo I'm using .5mm f.o.. I mushroomed the ends just as a precaution so the fiber wouldn't slide out with the glue up. The mushrooming really worked well in stopping the fiber from slipping out of the holes.
 
The pilot and office look great mate ,keep it up ;)

Chris.
 
Looking good, I got to take a good look at one of these a few days ago. They had stripped it down pretty good, but the outside of it was still intact.
 
Great work with the new tails except for one thing... there should be nav lights are on the outside faces of each vertical stab, near the top and should be a clear red semi disc shape.
 
Thanks boys. Official Spring update. Optics, LED's, red putty and sanding. Oh' and assembly too.
Started this weeks episode by drilling out holes for stringing F.O..

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The blurry pic shows mushroomed fibers accomplished by way of candle.

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Before installation I used my Dremel with an engraving bit to hog out a channel to lay the fiber in. This is done to help join both halves of the wings together and to avoid any unpleasant surprises. Then the fiber is strung through the drilled hole.

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This over exposed pic shows the use of a tooth pick with Micro Kristal Klear in preparation for gluing in the fiber.

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I drilled out the engine cans to except LED's.

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Got her all stitched up and together.

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How about some power.

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This optic is giving me some issues as it's not lighting up as intensely as it did in my test runs. I think the optic lifted or is cocked off center of the LED. This would be the starboard side NAV light, the red one. The light is there but I needed to finagle the lighting for the pic to show it is there. Ahh' the fun with fiber optic.

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The strobes are on the stabilizers too and their circuit works fine. But like the starboard side NAV light the port side strobe seems to have the same issue. It strobes but is far more faint then it's counter part and that's awfully bright. The fun with fiber continues. I'll toy with them and see it I can wiggle them somehow in to being a bit brighter. Other then that she buttoned up pretty easily without many clamps or interference from the wiring inside.
At some point next week....primer!
Followed by some more sanding I'm sure.
 
I have had that problem before, where the fibers don't line up right. I am sure you can handle it
 
great build, and adding that lighting really adds to the model, those exhaust lights look saweet!

Cheers
 
I remember when I was a kid I did a set of 4 of these beauties... I don't think they were this size thou and I know my skills weren't honed, but I got it at air show where they performed in CA. Loved them... You're doing a great job on this! Keep it up!
 
Week 4 update. Decals finally walked in the door for this bird. The original ones are really yellow. Guess that's what happens to decals when their about 20 years old. Did I mention the plastic is very soft? Well it is. It makes sanding a whole lot easier. Especially when taking off detail....oh' boy the fun!
Started this week by getting in to the horizontal stabilizers. I cut the support bar off because they want you to install this before you join the fuselage halves together. I quickly dispensed the instructions at that point as they proved to be useless now that everything else is together.

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First coat of primer went on and that helped to show off areas I needed to attend too. Also added some tidbits like the pitot tube, some hingy type things for under the wings, scratch built antennas, and the stabilizers. Some red putty to kill the join of my vertical stabilizers was needed. Not a lot of seam work to fix on this model as it goes together pretty darn good for an older model.

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She's looking pretty sanitary in primer. I'll let her sit a couple of days and see about getting paint on her sometime next week. Thanks for the comments boys but it's time for me to get back to checking out your builds. Man I love this stuff!
 
wow dude. this is awesome that you are lighting it!!! very rarely do we see lit up jets!!! very cool.
 
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