Cool!!

 

Needs longer wings, then you could carry even MORE pylons/stores etc.   

At that point it's basically a single-engine A-10 

The look I was going for was a bit more like a modern light attack jet.  With that being said, the wings print vertically with the roots at the bottom, so I could just scale them in the Z direction and make a version with more wingspan...

I have a couple of other projects in the works though, and my work area is getting a bit cluttered, so I'll hold off on that until I get the F-15CX and F-14E finished most likely.  I also have the Sea Harrier II to finish repairing, and an F-11 Tiger that was badly damaged and seems to be just begging for conversion into a Convair 201.

LANTIRN pod removed, didn't like the look of it.  The integrated laser designator ball I put in the underside of the nose should do for those LGBs.  I'm wondering about the windscreen bracing, should I keep it or remove it?  Modern light attack jets have single-piece windscreens, and that would be a lot easier to make...

The LANTIRN pod was impossible anyway: you had it over the main gear doors.

There isn't room for anything under the wing root/intake fairings, see below:

Red = undercarriage doors
Blue = airbrakes
Green = inboard flaps



If I wanted to fit a targeting system to a Panther, my inclination would be to fit longer tip pods with a parallel centre section. Fuel in the centre of the tip pod, targeting turret + electronics in the front of one, something else (fixed FLIR? LRMTS?) in the front of the other one, chaff/flare dispensers in the tail of both.

You can still have laser-guided bombs without a targetting pod: the designation just has to come from another source, like another jet, a scout helo, or a forward air controller on the ground.

Good point.  The F-117 had a laser designator built in, I imagine there's room in the nose for something like that now that two of the cannons are gone...

My biggest issue right now is the canopy.  I attempted to use cut sections of a plastic bottle, but they don't fit well and the glue is crazing them.  Cockpit is otherwise as done as it gets, pretty simple scratch-built seat and 3D-printed main panel, with a pilot figure scavenged from the spare parts bin.

I would carve the entire canopy with a little extending over to leave room for trimming from something like birch wood. Then use the heat and mash method to form one from clear plastic. Mount the canopy mold on a dowel and mount it upright on the workbench. I've used a vice to hold the dowel. Mount a hair dryer so it's pointing up and turn the heat on high. Using gloves, hold the clear plastic over the hair dryer until it gets soft but not quite melted. Then mash it over the mold until it's pulled all the way over the mold and gets cool enough to be solid again. It can can take a few tries to get it right but it works. Of course a vacuform machine works great too if you have access to one.

Kericks advice is good - and nice to see the old-school methods getting a mention/making a comeback.

IIRC someone here mentioned using a toaster for the heat source.
Haven't tried it myself, but it looks potentially useful enough to give it a go. Will still need gloves, though...

And remember not all 'clear' sheet is created equal; the ones that have used them could tell stories of Aeroclub canopies (in particular, though others had the same problem) yellowing with age.

I can just imagine the reaction if I was found putting sheets of clear plastic in the toaster...

Quote from: zenrat on March 04, 2024, 02:27:36 AMI can just imagine the reaction if I was found putting sheets of clear plastic in the toaster...

Well don't get caught 

Quote from: kerick on March 03, 2024, 08:37:18 PMI would carve the entire canopy with a little extending over to leave room for trimming from something like birch wood. Then use the heat and mash method to form one from clear plastic. Mount the canopy mold on a dowel and mount it upright on the workbench. I've used a vice to hold the dowel. Mount a hair dryer so it's pointing up and turn the heat on high. Using gloves, hold the clear plastic over the hair dryer until it gets soft but not quite melted. Then mash it over the mold until it's pulled all the way over the mold and gets cool enough to be solid again. It can can take a few tries to get it right but it works. Of course a vacuform machine works great too if you have access to one.

Stuff like this makes me wish I had a vacform machine, but I don't.  Great advice though, that's probably what I'll end up doing.  Here's some photos for now.
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I'm probably going to replace those countermeasure dispensers because they printed too small and they are sort of in a bad spot.  Same ones as the Sea Harrier II, but I got the scale wrong when I printed these...
And yes I know the cockpit is very rough and very simple

'Basic' is fine, it depends on how much you can actually see.
Granted it's a nice big fishbowl, but with a pilot in there too?

The other way of home moulding canopies was to cut a male and female mould.  The female mould was simply the outline of the canopy base traced onto some thin wood, which was then cut out. The clear plastic was fixed over it and then heated. Once soft you then push the male mould through the plastic/female mould.

Not something I've done for a very long time, but tends to be slightly less wasteful than pulling the clear plastic over the male mould. In my case anyway.

'Plunge moulding', the old school way of doing it. 

I've moulded complete slot car bodies like that, and a 1/24 dragster body shell which won its class at the IPMS Nats in 1976! This one.