Saur's big bunch o' Stuff - now featuring more than ships! Black Eagle/Harrier!

[Sauragnmon]

In reality, I think somewhere along the way one of the measurements is buggered, because it only rubs on the one side.  It only rubs the right side edge on the right side fan, which leads me to thienk it was something I didn't line up properly somewhere along the way and it's just off by a fraction of a nosehair and that's why it rubs.  The turret ring is flat, since I carved out the Old turret ring to fit the new drop-ring in place so it properly held the leo turret.  The bustle's rubbing against the new, slightly raised, engine deck, and only very lightly, so it's something that I didn't quite get just level enough.  In reality, on the tank, it wouldn't rub, since it'd be precisely measured etc etc ad nauseum.  Since the fans have a slight aftward declining slope, the bustle shouldn't rub more.

[sotoolslinger]

So basically your just too lazy to rebuild it

[Sauragnmon]

I'd have to diagnose Where the problem is to begin with, then I'd have to pry off the top fan plate, shave down the putty that I've built up into the area to flush it out to the new fans, adjust the size, fiddle with it, and then bash my head against the desk until it works.

Short answer - yes.

[sotoolslinger]

  :thumbsup:With kitbashing the rule is good enough is enough I don't have enough forhead skin for rebuilding a kitbash

[Weaver]

:thumbsup:With kitbashing the rule is good enough is enough I don't have enough forhead skin for rebuilding a kitbash

MAN did  I read that wrong on the first pass..........



Sauragnmon: could you put a very thin spacer in the turret ring that just lifts it up a hair's breath? Thinnest plasticard (or something else) you can find?

[Sauragnmon]

IF I could find ANY plasticard, I might consider it, but the ring's a tight fit as it stands, Weaver.  That's why I have so much practice in the tao of Putty Fu!

If I were to get plasticard, it'd have to be online, and that'd be a pain in the donkey, just for plasticard.  Thus, putty is my tao, and putty is my whif.  I am one with the putty.  *gong*

[Sauragnmon]

Alright, last few days I've been working on two of my projects - Mightier Mo and the Sprukidd as I'm calling it, because it'll be a Spruance mostly, with the Tomahawk ABLs even, but with the Mk 26 twin-arm launcher aft for the RIM-66 Standard SAM instead of the cheap-donkey Sea Sparrow.  So, first on the table, the Mightier Mo.  Got the gun turrets mounted, painted.  Refitted the CIWS with Goalkeepers for more punch against the more threatening missiles out there.  Because a chop-barrelled GAU-8 for your CIWS is always bitchin.









Now for the Sprukidd project.  This one's been something of a back burner project, just progressing when I feel like it.  I'd originally thought of just doing it as a Spruance with the ABLs, until I wondered what made the Kidds different and went looking.  I figured the Mk 26 launchers would have been a good interrim pre-VLS upgrade to the Spruance on the aft deck, as it would benefit from still having the belowdeck magazine.  The forward ASROC is powerful in itself, because the Spruances were the only ones that could actually reload their launchers on the roll from an internal magazine.  The ABLs just add an extra level of menace onto this ship, giving it pretty much the full functionality of a modern ship, just without the VLS.  What if the Iranians had decided to buy a Spruance off the US Navy, but with the refit of the Sea Sparrows, and stolen the designs somewhere for the ABLs and systems to operate a tomahawk-like missile?  They'd be the most powerful ships native to the Gulf, that's what!  I replaced the kit ASROC and ABLs with ASROC by Pitroad/DML and the ABLs with those from my Trumpeter Missouri, because they had infinitely more detail to them, and you can model them open as you see demonstrated here.

[pyro-manic]

Goalkeepers rock.

[Sauragnmon]

That they do, and that's why they're there.  hard-hitting 30mm CIWS for the true close-in destruction of threats such as aircraft and missiles.  That and hopefully they won't fire at chaff on autoengagement mode like the Phalanx has done before.

[Jschmus]

Mightier Mo looks pretty sweet with all those missiles and the 5"/54s!  The "Sprukidd" is pretty cool, too.

[Sauragnmon]

Thanks for the feedback, JS - I'll be working on it soon, just got the hunger to build some birds right now.  In the mean time, the aircraft - I have not been inactive, just been waiting for something I thought picture worthy:

Here's the Red Arrow I've been working on - nobody gave me any input, so I figured I'd just go about doing it in Interceptor Grays modelled off a MiG-25 Foxbat over on ARC.  I've been operating on this in the dark, carving out sections, building a weapons bay section.  Essentially this is a later-fit model Arrow, with little structural rebuild - I plan to have two AA-8's on small rails hanging off the fuselage.  The majority of the aircraft is untouched - the forward pilot fig I decided to jack from an old MiG-29 model, one of my two Salvage Fulcrums - something to spruce up the cockpit, I was also going to replace the seats with the seats from my Fulcrums, but that fell through as the surgery to try and extract one seat failed.  Alright, enough blabbing, here she is, with the majority of her light gray, the dark gray nose and the black antiglare.  I'm going to add the metal paint sections soon, and the intakes.









The missile in the bay is an R-27T1 "Alamo" yeah I know, it's something you'd have to see refitted systems to support, and they've done some internal work on this bird to keep it up to spec - maybe even operating a high speed interceptor unit - AL-31's might fit into the engine mounts, I'll compare them tomorrow.  I Might have an IRST ball I could put on it I wanted.

[ChernayaAkula]

"Mightier Mo" FTW! 


I think a Yamato could also benefit from this refit.

[Sauragnmon]

CA, if I can find somebody willing to cast the VLS missile launchers, really, honestly, I'd entertain the thoughts.  I might entertain Other concepts with a Yamato II conversion though.  I'd have to look at the lesser-number launch tubes as well, the ones you find on the Burkes I think it is, with the 29 cells total, those might fit better in some of the places with a little finesse.  That would be an interesting Zipang-oriented piece, for a certainty.

Damn you, CA, you've made me want to add a Sixth Yamato-based build to my list.  I already have the Shinano and the Class Evolution, now I have the Zipang Yamato concept in my head.

[Sauragnmon]

Alright, production update - I just finished, this morning, the MiG-105 Arrowski.  The main gears were being a pain in the donkey, so I did it gears up, this is why in the last pictures it was propped on stuff.  I took a metal coat hanger and with just my bare hands, and with flex work I shaped a stand with it, and turned the ends into a twin-post mount - I drilled into the engine housings and mounted it there.  Cockpit I decided to alter, with the framing borrowed from the MiG-25, with the dorsal band over clear panes.









So, behold, gentlemen.  Questions, comments, queries, rude remarks are welcome.

[chrisonord]

Very nice Simon, it really does look the part, shame the landing gears were being a pain though.
Excellent, me likey !!
Chris