Ha'la'tha Resistance Fighter build - 4.

Subtitled: sanding and filling and sanding and filling and sanding and filling.

Lots and lots and lots of sanding.   The main kits fit together well, and in reality, the overall curves where they join worked out pretty well.  The biggest issue was the huge gap where the wings were removed and the underside of the engine housings.  To fill this, I decided to work with something I'd not really used much: FreeForm Air from smoothon.  I really do like this stuff.

For the most part, it goes on pretty well, although it takes fiddling to get it to do what I want it to.  Of course, that's probably just my skillset.  Either way, the best thing in this case is the weight.  The stuff is very light and I have a ton of it going into this model to fill up the huge holes and gaps.  So this is not going to add a bunch of weight, like other stuff could.

After that set up, the sanding started again. The long, tedious process of getting the curves to go together. You don't need a thousand pictures of sanding. : )  Once I got the main curves done, though, I did add the intakes, vertical stabilizer and the nose build up strip.

 That strip is pretty much there just for the lines of the fuselage and so I could get that step right at the cone.  On the step, I put in the ports for the nose guns.  All it was is the insulation off of wire.  Saved me from having to drill that out. 

I also have been thinking about the under-wing guns.  I really do want to give the thing that look that comes from the engineering that gave rise to the Vipers.  It dawned on me that the Stuka Tank-buster gun pods might work.  I like them, they *might* work.

We'll see.  I also played around a bit with the Photoshop, and wanted to get a feel for possible decals.  I doubt I'll be able to hand-paint the specific markings for the affiliations, although I will use the F4 kit decals for most of the placards.  I just might try printing my own.

I've also been toying with conceptualizing the camo scheme.  I really like the yellow/tan look of desert camo, and I think it's appropriate for what I see Tauron's greater landscape to be like.  I expect the Ha'la'tha resistance, at least the part of it that has fighter planes and controls territory, would be out in the countryside, away from cities, and would want to blend in with the terrain.  We'll see, but I really do like the look.  I think it gives the planes a meaner look. 

So that's where I am so far.  more to come.

Ha'la'tha Resistance Fighter build - 3

With the engine cluster ready, I moved on to nose and fuselage.  Like all aircraft, to build the fuselage,  you pretty much have to build, paint and finish the cockpit first.  Gave this stuff a lot of thought too, and I decided a couple of things off the bat.  First, I'd go mostly with the Spitfire's cockpit main assemblies for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is convenience and fit.  Again, it meshes with the aesthetic of 'resistance' equipment.  Yeah, I know, what kind of "resistance" can build its own jet fighters, but hey, it's Tauron, known technology innovation source of the colonies.    The second decision was to put a pilot in it.  Cool thing about pilots, they're pretty much the same in almost every genre and doing the painting/detail work on them is old hat now.  It also will cover up quite a bit of empty space in the cockpit and allow for the viewer's imagination to fill in the gaps I won't with greeblies.   Besides, I have a few resin cockpit guys around that I picked up for different reasons. 

With that done, the first thing that had to be done was remove the wing roots.  They sit very far forward on the Spitfire and the wing tops are integral to the fuselage halves.  So they had to be chopped away, which I did with the razor saw.  (I really love this tool)  While I was at it, I cut off the wing bottoms from the fuselage under-carriage piece as well.  I might as well use as many "shaping" parts as I can while I build the thing.  With them trimmed down, did a quick check on the fit with the engine housing.  Yes, this part was running concurrent with the engine housing build. 

Then it was on to working up the cockpit.  This was mostly an "assemble as instructions indicate" exercise, with the exception of some repair work and the pilot seat.  One of the visible struts for the cockpit assembly broke on the sprue and needed to be fixed.  And, I plan to use a "jet fighter" pilot with ejection seat, so the seat assembly isn't necessary. I also added a couple of panels to the upper sides and put on the cockpit decals from the F4 assembly.  They're not really super detailed, but they add some interest and the appearance of extra instrumentation.  

The colors are mostly shades of grey with various washes.  Again, most of it's not going to be very visible, so it's got a cursory job.  Once this raw stuff was done, I moved on to the pilot.  I have a Russian Su-22 pilot with ejector seat and it's got about the right look for what I was going after.  I had to give some thought to the flight suit and decided that, given Tauron's description, a scrub-like camo would work.  As it is, I'm giving serious thought to a yellow/tan camo pattern to the plane as well, but we'll see.  I played around with various colors and settled on the light tan/yellow mottling look I have here.  

I've done better, but again, most of him won't be seen.   Did some test fitting into the fuselage and found an issue.   

The ejector seat is too wide at the head level for him to sit high enough to actually *see* over the nose of the aircraft without displacing the canopy.  Hmm.  So, I cut down the seat, and trimmed off the extra bits from the side.  With that done, I was able to get his head at a level more along where the Spitfire pilot's head would be.  

Then to tackle the landing gear.  I originally  had thought to put the gear a bit further back on the nose, and use the undernose scoop on the spitfire as a gunbay or missile pod.  Unfortunately, that doesn't work.  That'd put the landing gear directly under the pilot's seat, and there's no room in the fuselage for the wheel well.   I suppose, in retrospect, I could have done more modifications to the floor of the cockpit to make room, but at the time, and even now, I think I am more content with plan "b."

For the wings, the rear landing gear will use the F-4 wheel wells.  They'll be just fine where they are.  I then cut out the wheel well from the nose of the Phantom's fuselage and cut it into the lower nose assembly for the Spitfire.  This does have the effect of taking away the space that is on that scoop, and I'll have to come up with *some* kind of reason for that feature, but that's future-me's problem.  As it is, this works fine and it drops in to the fuselage well.  I even pretty much like the lines of it.  

That takes the nose fuselage close to being done.  I still want to do something to the top and have to figure out what I am going to do with the nose and those exhaust cutouts on the side.  The Vipers have these open spaces for mechanicals, so I'm seriously tempted to just fill them with piping and greeblies.  That would take away some of the "jet" lines, but then it also gives a bit of the "resistance fighter" aesthetic.  Still playing with that thought in my head.  

Next up, mating the two and starting the general detailing work.  Oh, and filling. Lots and lots and lots of filling.

Ha'la'tha Resistance Fighter build - 2.

Engine cluster:

The first thing I did was work on the engine cluster assembly.  To do that, I started by trimming down the fuselage on the F-4.   I took a few measurements, kinda eyeballed the rest and then marked out where I wanted to do the choppa. First thing to go was the tail fin and then I took off the tail boom assembly. I ended that assembly right about where the nozzles for the engines end.   The boom got thinner about that point so I could use the natural curves of the fuselage and it also will give a bit of a rougher "mk. Vii" vibe.    

Then went to the point where the fuselage begins the arc down toward the nozzles along the sides.  Again, I was cheating, using the original curves of the F4 to do most of the contouring.  When that cut was made, I then moved about 2" forward and then cut out the fuselage.  I left about 1/2 inch behind where the cockpit ends, as I am figuring that's about what I will want to mesh the Spitfire front in to it. 

After that was removed, I needed to take off the front of the fuselage.  I started at the top, pretty much right behind the end of the cockpit and went straight down.  I kept the intake mounts because I plan to use them and they'll make good standoffs for the intakes against the Spitfire fuselage.  

The fuselage bottom also was integrated to the bottom of the wing sections, so I had to remove those as well. I left it a little long as I expected to need to do some putty/filling/sanding and would rather have too much left over material than too little.  

Once I had all that trimming done, I glued them all up together.  The front half and back half went together very well and I just hacked off the fuselage bottom at the  point where the mounts for the intake started.  (more on this later.)  they meshed pretty closely, although there'll need to be some filling on the bottom, which may as well wait until I finish putting the nose on. 

I also went ahead and glued up the wings and tail fin.   I will use the wings, and I might use the tail fin, although I'm not sure about that.   The wings are going to be flipped to a forward-swept look, so once the wings set up, I cut off the ailerons from the wings and took the line in straight to the wing root.   On that raw edge, I glued a piece of plastic sprue, and then puttied it all up.   When all that was set up, I puttied it again to fill any gaps and build it up.  It was then sanded down to create a more appropriate leading-edge to the wing.  Yes, I know the back edge still has the original leading edge, I'll do a bit more sanding there to give it a little more realistic lifting geometry, but I'm not going to lose too much sleep over it. 

During all that, I then pulled out some 2mm sintra to build up the contours from the intake mount points back toward the exhaust nozzles.  Once I got all that glued on, I gave it a test-fit next to the Spitfire nose.  Just giving it a quick look, it works out that this is a bit smaller than I had anticipated, but it's not terrible.  It'll wind up having an all-up length that's pretty close to the Mk ii Vipers in 1/32 scale. 

Then came the putty/filling/sanding cycle.  At this point, I need to get the contours of the engine cluster flowing to something smooth as it's pretty much one of the major areas of viewing on the model when it's done.    Fill.  Putty.  Sand.  Putty.  Sand.  Putty.  Sand……

Custom Build - 1a Ha'la'tha Resistance Jet fighter

New Direction:  Not "Caprica" fighter - "Tauron" air superiority fighter, from the Ha'la'tha Civil war.   I always have been one for the fluff and story and it gives a good story behind the compact and nimble fighter.  It also lets me use more of the Spitfire details, as the Ha'la'tha are resistance fighters.  Even though Tauron is the seat of some of the most advanced technology in the colonies, it makes sense  that resistance equipment would be more cobbled together and raw.

Looking at the pieces and parts, I'm fairly comfortable that the 1/32 Spitfire and the 1/48 Phantom will work together as a basis.   Because I always do, I did a quick unboxing of both the Spitfire and the Phantom separately, but then got the parts together and started fiddling.

Video links are below.

Looking at the overall size and dimensions, the all-up build should come in approximately the same size as the 1/32 Moebius Mk II.  Of course, this just makes me want to do Husker's build as well, but that can wait. 

I'm still on the fence about the wings and upper stabilizer(s).  Sweeping the wings forward is probably the way to go, even though the engineer in me is going to balk at it.  Then again, it balks at the wings being all the way at the back of the craft anyway.  The forward sweep gives it a sci-fi look  and that works.  The other question is the vertical stabilizer.  I can go with the single vertical one, or use the Phantom's tail fins at about 15 deg off the vertical on either side.  I can't quite visualize it enough off the top of my head, so I'm not sure which look is better.  The one thing I want to avoid is the "batmobile" look, but the twin stabilizers  would also give a pretty cool look, I think, especially as I'm planning to droop the main wings at about 10-15 degrees off the horizontal.

And then there's the cockpit.  I'll build up the tub for the Spitfire, as it fits in the fuselage, but I expect to pull the instrument panels and the like from the Phantom and a few other bits and bobs.  I've also got a resin pilot/ejector seat combo that I'll use as well.  The frustrating thing about the cockpit is the need to completely build and paint it up before I can get any real work on the front fuselage.  It needs to be in before I put everything together and then from there, I have to figure out the landing gear concepts. 

I'm also still on the fence about those front radiator  holes.  Currently, I'm of a mind to put extending cannons in them, with a door flap/cover. 

New Years day is here, and with that comes the actual get-your-hands dirty start! : ) 

F4 Phantom Unboxing

SpitFire unboxing

Kit comparisons.

New Custom Project - If it Spits-it Builds.

Some time ago, Fantastic Plastic came out with a 1/72 version of the "Caprica" air force Viper - both a Prop and Jet version.  This kit intrigued me.  I liked the look and the implied history, as well as the mesh of the classic lines of the Viper into a real-world-ish kind of fighter design.  I had thought about picking it up, but it's a scale I rarely work in, and it got my engineering brain going.  I've done plenty of kit-bashing in the past, most notably on my Serenity "Valkyrie" using Games Workshop parts.  So, as I think on it more and more, this kind of a project is one I think I want to take on.  There is a group build for a Faceytwittyspace group of which I am a member and this is a great opportunity to just go all in and go for it.

The original Fantastic Plastic model, if I understand properly, came from designs from Pierre Drolet. I'm linking to his Sci Fi museum page here below since I will be referencing it.

http://www.pierre-drolet-sci-fi-museum.com/battlestar-galactica

Another take on the design is from Dave Eaves, Daveiant's Model Madness.  This one is a different style but it still has the same lines of the Vipers.   This one was a straight-up kitbash like I’m going to attempt.   Dave's is a larger beast, not small and tight like Pierre's.  I like that look and it has me chewing on the possibilities. 

Pierre's design was my first inspiration, and the design is very cool but I really do not have the intent to directly reproduce it.    I intend to use that as an inspiration to do a kit-bash of my own with a similar feel, and then I saw what Dave did, and that really opened up the possibilities.   

Since I'll be referencing the above inspirations, for convenience I'll be calling them the "P" and "D" models, just so I can not type out all that verbiage.

There are basic designs to the BSG Vipers that are consistent:  A long nose, an engine cluster about the same length, if not a touch shorter, than the nose section, twin down-sloping wings off the back of the craft, and wing-mounted weapons.    Both of the P and D models have more modern-day equivalent wing surfaces, larger than the wings of the space-capable Vipers.   They also have twin-engine clusters rather than triple-clusters.   The D model is a two-seat, heavy fighter, clearly larger in similar scale to P or the single-seat fighters of the BSG series.   I like the direction that went too, and it has me chewing on what I can do here.

The intakes and nozzle area on the P-model bear a strong resemblance, to me, of the F-4 and I can't get that concept out of my head.  The nose area has a look that resembles either the P40 Warhawk, P51 Mustang or the Supermarine Spitfire.   I really happen to like that look, and the F-4  has always had this "beastly" aesthetic to my eye.     I see similar design elements in the dropship from "Aliens."    Given that, what I have in my head is a combination of the Spitfire and the F-4. 

With that as a base, the engineer brain kicks in and starts designing.   What I really need to do is some mathing of the fuselages, and getting the overall look to be about right.  After that comes the figuring out the layout of the wings, etc..etc..  This shall be quite fun, I think. 

To start, I look at the overall components of what I have to begin with:

Overall length of the Spitfire:  29'11" = 30*12=360" general overall.

360/32=11.25

360/24=15

The next measurement I need to fiddle with is the nose to canopy distance, which looks to be approximately .4 the overall length = 30*.4 = 12'  12' = 144"  Yes, it's approximate, but it'll work for what I need to do.

144/32=4.5

144/24=6

Overall length of the Phantom: 63" , of which most is the engine and body.  It's a beast. 

63*12=756

756/32=23.625

756/48=15.75

Below is an overlay picture of the Spitfire and F-4 and we can see that in the same scale, we have some things to think about.   

To bring the Relative lengths into the right design aesthetic, I need to think about the scales of the initial kitbash pieces. However, there's also some changes that need to happen to the base body of the F4 to begin with.   First, the tail assembly needs to shorten, to bring the exhaust nozzles closer to the trailing edge of the wings, and also, the upper tail assembly can be cropped off, moving the upper stabilizer forward.   This also opens up a space for me to add a third exhaust nozzle in that section.  It'll be a smaller one as compared to the twin main engines, however it also ties back to the BSG Viper designs with three, and the MkII has different sizes as well.

So I need to play with those modifications, and then take a look at the relative scales again.  However, I am currently leaning toward meshing a 1/24 Spitfire with a 1/48 or 1/32 Phantom.   That size will make the aircraft larger, similar to the fighters of today as compared to the BSG fighters and their extremely small size relative to people.  With that said, I think that's appropriate, as I'm going for a more modern-based concept for the build. 

Days of Future and Past.

It has been a bit since I've posted here.  I've had quite an eventful year, and it has seen some changes to the world for me.  Good changes, but changes, which means my modeling has been really haphazard. Going forward, I'll try to document here a little more on what I have in flight.  I've been using the yinztoob a bit, but I'm still not so sure if video is really my medium.  I'm not interesting to look at and what am I going to show for pix while I waffle on about this, that, or the other.  At any rate, I will see if writing works for me too.  We'll see. 

For now, taking a look back on where I've been:

In the world of the BattleMechs,  I have recently acquired FCY's new TimberWolf Mk I kit as well, and while it'll be a bit for me to actually crack into that kit, I have done an unboxing and it's at this link here. 

Also, because I'm *that guy,* I've preliminarily finished up a 'Mechbay shelf display.  I rather like that I can put the 'Mechs on a shelf with a background that appears more appropriate.  I say preliminarily because I know I'll be adding pieces, etc  Pix below.

Oh, and I needed to put Natasha near her ride too. : )

With that said, I have continued to do some modeling, and have worked on a few fun kits here and there.  I picked up JPG Productions' "Chopper" kit from StarWars Rebels, that was fun.

A while a go I finished up a  1/72 BSG Viper with "Husker's" markings. 

And finally, the completed DieWaffenkammer's KV2 in 1/56 scale. 

There you go.  A quick -and- dirty update on where I've been and what I've been tinkering with.  More to come as the year rolls forward. 

Collected unboxings.

In the interest of collating all of the Battlemech Unboxings I've done, I'm listing them all below.  I suppose at some point I might find a way to make a playlist or whatever on the Yinztoob channel, but right now, this is easier. : )

FCY Templar Battlemech

FCY WolfHound Battlemech

FCY NovaCat Battlemech

FCY Owens Battlemech

FCY Atlas Battlemech 

FCY Loki Battlemech

FCY MadDog Mk IV Battlemech

FCY Victor Battlemech

FCY TimberWolf Mk II  Battlemech