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01-06-2012, 03:56 PM | #1 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
Posts: 1,117
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Hey guys. I planned on making a new master pattern at work today for a Skystriker cockpit interior upgrade kit.
What i eventually ended up doing was something completely different(But i will get to the cockpit next week). I have been VERY inspired with this build by the Plethora of cool customs being done on the new tool striker. Most notably, Nath's "Jolly Rogers", and Superflanker's "Bombcat". If everyone reading will indulge me, i am going to detail here what i did, so if you read this part first, then the pictures will have no annotations. The work will be described here, so i will know who is reading and who is just looking at the pictures based on the questions that come in later, lol. First of all, i had to pop open the plane. In doing so, i realised one of the shortcomings of the craft is that lever that operates the wings and the gear. When you see that black tab, and the outline, it shows you are not looking at a Tomcat, you are looking at a Skystriker... More about that later. My main reason for attacking this in my lunch hour today(I am very lucky to have my model workshop in the next room to my office at work, so in my lunch hour i can go to the next room and do my hobby), was to make a cockpit kit. But in popping it open, i saw too many other things needing doing before i started the cockpit. I did lay all the groundwork, and i will now detail my work. First things first. There are four screw ssecuring the top of the cockpit to the bottom. Only the two at the rear and the one at the very front are truly needed. This was great for me, because removing the one that sits just behind the console leaves more room for the legs of a pilot. When i was sure the cockpit could stay together with just three, i removed the peg which houses the now un-needed screw. I also removed some little bulkheads forward of that area to leave the place where the pilot's feet will go clear(So a pilot can now sit further forward with ease, which is one part of my plan to "enlarge" the internal area). Another, sadly neccessary, measure that is needed, was the removal of most of the peg that secures the cockpit to the main hull and, subsequently, the box on the cockpit end that accepts the peg. This means the co-pilot(Or navigator, or whatever it is that that guy in the back does), will be able to sit further back, meaning he won't have to sit with his feet under the elbows of the pilot. With these subtle mods i have just mentioned, you can fit two of the tallest figures in there with ease. And STILL have so much room you will wonder how you are going to fill it! In any case, removing the peg gives one major problem. Now the cockpit pit will not fit... I took care of this problem retroactively by doing it first and making sure it would work before removing any of the peg... I took out the screw that secures the original pilot's chair piece and dremelled off the screw hole that would secure it. Just behind that(In the bulkhead at the rear of the cockpit, just under the canopy hinge), i drilled a single hole through the rear and into the main hull. The scre that had previously secured the seat was retasked into now holding the cokcpit to the hull. This way, you can screw on the top of the cockpit part to the rear, and then screw the bottom of the cockpit onto the top. And it is very secure. With that done, i took a few pics of how easy it now is for figures to fit. As i mentioned before, i will make the upgrade kit next week if i manage to get my entire lunch break to work on it over a couple of days. In any case, as i said above, i have never liked the tab that opens the gear and moves the wings. So i decided to move it elsewhere. Logic suggests that to move the tab onto another part of the craft means eaither re-engineering the gear altogether(I did consider trying to get R/C servos... But decided against it), or working with what is there. I decided to move the tabe to the underside. Anyone with one of these things knows there is a big slot on the underside. I have not attached any ordnance, but i guess it was for a big bomb to attach. It turns out that this slot is PERFECTLY positioned to be used as an auxilliary gear moving tab location. I worked out the travel fo the gear and drilled out many holes along the length of the tab. With them drilled out, i sanded the tab open the rest of the way and totally removed the location for the bomb. I used a screw, drilled in through the hole into the underside of where the previous tab was and, with that, i was no able to actuate the gear and wings from the underside AND the top. That had to end, lol, so i dremelled off the original tab(Including the large rectangular frame on the top rear hull), and filled the resultant gaps with resin and sanded it smooth. Back on track, i wanted to get rid of those big lumps of plastic that attach the wings to the wing roots. Those simply unscrew. With them off, obviously, the wings will not stay on. So i first added a thin film of superglue along the join line and set it instantly with zip kicker. With that done, i dremelled off the screw location tabs and cut out some aluminium diamond mesh. This was tacked in place with small drops of superglue, over the edges and the centre, and once more set instantly with zip kicker. With that done, i mixed up a small cup of resin and filler the gap left by the original peg system. The alu mesh(Which had been secured to both the root hub and the wing with superglue), acts as a bridge, and the resin set solid and the join is now permanent. With that done, i knew i wanted to remove the cog teeth from the wings and do a job similar to Nath and Superflanker by using one bar attaching the wings to each other. That turned out to be incredibly easy to do, and i am grateful to both builders for their meticulous image taking during builds so i could breeze through this part. I did mine slightly differently from the others i have seen(And i had to remove some structure from the interior of the hull and the cogwheel part), and if anyone wants to know what i did, you can either ask for clarification, or i can make annotated images later. All i can say right now is that i took on board what eberyone else did, altered it slightly, and still managed to make it work. I also got a little more movement on the wings(The sweep further forward than they did before. I made little dashes with a sharpie at the position they used to be at during full extension, and if you loom at the later pics of full extension, you will see the little dots are visible). With the wings working in unison(And now mercifully free of the big blocky connectors on the underside), i dremelled off all the missile mounting tabs and ran out of time on my lunch hour(I actually had an hour and a quarter, lol! My bad!). When i got home, i took some more pictures of the thing, showing all the work i did today, and with the gear shown to be independent of the wings. Oh, and eagle eyed viewers will see that i removed the upper edges of the front intakes(To get rid of the surface with the screw holes. Never liked those). I will be replacing them with styrene on monday. In any case, here are the pics. I took 50, so that will probably take a couple of additional posts to get them all up. Feel free to ask any questions if i haven't been clear on any points. Enjoy! Last edited by bar; 01-08-2012 at 09:40 AM.. |
01-06-2012, 03:57 PM | #2 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
Posts: 1,117
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01-06-2012, 03:57 PM | #3 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
Posts: 1,117
|
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01-07-2012, 05:07 PM | #4 |
Iron Grenadier
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Somewhere extremely sarcastic.
Posts: 997
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This is awesome. Great work.
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01-07-2012, 05:11 PM | #5 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Houston
Posts: 6,170
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WOW! That's going to be fantastic, keep us posted!
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01-07-2012, 06:18 PM | #6 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Maryland
Posts: 4,555
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wow, taking it to the next level! removing the landing gear switch from the top looks fantastic. which they would have done a bottom switch like you have done.
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01-07-2012, 10:19 PM | #7 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
Posts: 1,117
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Thanks a lot.
Thanks. Will do. I actually started this just to make a 2-seater cockpit custom kit of parts to sell to members here. But i got sidetracked... I'll have the rest done this week coming. Quote:
Thanks. To be fair, you have to open the switch a certain way to make sure your hand is not in the way of the rear gear opening. But once that is understood, it works like a charm. And i think the effect of "no switch on top" will be great when the final paint app is on. I am still looking into what tomcat squadron i want to replicate. Most people go with the Jolly Rogers, but i am still looking for the best one. I know i want to go for a factory fresh one with this build. I also want to do a highly worn one. I have been looking on the Navy website for official press images of the Tomcat, and the wear on this one is my favorite(It must have REALLY seen some action! It's also very interesting to me that frontline Tomcats all had excessive wear on the part of the wing that slid under the frame when supersonic. I will be adding that): |
01-08-2012, 09:10 AM | #8 |
Banned
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: the hills
Posts: 759
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Most of the wear was from hydraulic fluid leaking onto the paint and not the salt air, because even the land-based Cats at the schools looked pretty ragged too. Those old Tomcats were really beaten. I have a buddy who used to maintain their safety and ejection systems. I'll have to ask if he has any good pictures.
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01-08-2012, 09:37 AM | #9 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
Posts: 1,117
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Quote:
Most of the wear was from hydraulic fluid leaking onto the paint and not the salt air, because even the land-based Cats at the schools looked pretty ragged too. Those old Tomcats were really beaten. I have a buddy who used to maintain their safety and ejection systems. I'll have to ask if he has any good pictures.
I do fully intend to make two fully removeable Ejection seats for the kit(So if your friend can help out with pics of that too, it will be very well recieved). They won't be as deep as they should be(Because of the shallow draught of the cockpit itself). But i'd like to make them separate. Shouldn't be difficult. Thanks in advance for any help you and your friend can be. |
01-08-2012, 09:41 AM | #10 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
Posts: 1,117
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I have edited the first post to give a detailed account of everything i did in the pictures if anyone is interested to read the text, it might help out with descibing what the pics show(But i expect most people here will get it with just the images).
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