Project: Kalashnikov

[FAR148]

So with my last two projects either finished or about to be done very soon, I wanted to start my next two projects. This one is Project: Kalashnikov. Why is it called Project: Kalashnikov? Well its going to a F-22 Raptor Aggressor based at Elmendorf Air Force Base(tail code is AK) with the Bort No# of 47! Get it... AK 47 And the scheme I chosen is the Late Flogger scheme. I'm going use this F-16 paint guide from Don Color to apply the scheme to my Raptor.



It should be the easier of the two builds. The only aftermarket stuff for her will be a resin seat and decals. I will have the weapons bays closed and I'm planning on making some intake plugs.

Until later,
Steven L 

[Daryl J.]

That's quite sly.

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Hi Steven
Already know this will be great.... what happened to the Rafale project(s) you were working on a while back ??

Best

Ian

[Thorvic]

Nice idea and should look good in those colours. Nice to see camo on traditional grey and bland looking aircraft.

Another one you could consider in the same theme could be the Raptor in the Pak-fa splinter scheme for something a little more in line with the timeframe.

[FAR148]

Hi Steven
Already know this will be great.... what happened to the Rafale project(s) you were working on a while back ?? 

Best
Ian

Hi Ian,
They are still in my stash. Here's a small update on them, the aggressor is now going to be a single seater and the blue one with the yellow pattern got her wings ripped off!! Her wings are going to another future project, a F-16XL 2.0! I do have another Rafale kit and she will be the new blue one. But motivation for them now is little to none. I will get to there, when.... I dont know.

Another one you could consider in the same theme could be the Raptor in the Pak-fa splinter scheme for something a little more in line with the timeframe.

Thorvic,
I considered it and seen it done before, that why I went with the Late Flogger scheme. Just trying to be different.
Steven L 

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Yep know what you mean about stalled (What If) projects. I have a Jag, an F-2B and three Rafales all ready to hit the bench... and what am I building ??

Two Spitfires, a Hurricane and an RF-4, all real world !!

Will be following all your builds very closely, friend.

Ian

[FAR148]

I've been thinking about renaming the build, Project:Pain in the A$$! Starting with Hasegawa's 1/48 scale Raptor kit, which is overengineered and it's fit is not up to the Hasegawa standards. But been working on her for two going on three weeks now and this is where I'm at with her. It looks like a lot of progress but it with a fight to get here. She still has alot of areas that need alittle more love(black spot primer) but she is starting to look like a Raptor!




Until later,
Steven L  

[FAR148]

Sorry about not posting any progress on this build. It's been pretty frustrating. First off, The surface detail of this kit is way out of scale and not much you can do about it. One could sand it down or completly off and rescibe the kit but that's more work then I'm willing to put into this build. Of the two kits I'm working on, this one is surppose to be the easy one!  But anywho...From the start I knew I was not going to have the weapons bay open, making the build easier right? Well the weapons bay doors fit is crapy to put it mildly. And it did not help that around all the doors is the out of scale raised surface detail. So how to fill the gaps around the doors and save the surface detail...... I'm not. I'm going to fill them with super glue, sand them down and rescribe the door opening. Sounds like a pain in the a$$? It is but I figure it's a lesser pain in the a$$ than trying to fill/save/restore the raised surface detail.  



So how am I going to rescribe the door opening after I fill and sand them smooth and have them look nice? With templates! After I glued the doors into place, I started making some tape templates. I carefully taped around the weapon doors.



I then very, very, very carefully remove the tape template and stuck them to a piece of sheet styrene. With a fine tip Sharpie, I drew an online of the tape and removed it from the styrene. As you can see, the lines are not the straightest in the world but thats OK. The lines will be trued up with a straight edge when I cut them out.



Let the sanding, scribing, priming, filling, sanding, scribing madness begin!

 



Once I filled and sanded all the doors smooth, I then cut out the door templates. Using some double backed tape, I stuck the scribing templete into place. And with my favorite scribing tool, I slowly scribed the new door opening.





Here's a pic of the weapon bay doors after like millionth time of sand, scribe, prime, fill, sand, prime.... Still have a few little problem areas but at less I can see the light now!







To improve the fit of the tailplanes, I removed the kits pins and drilled out the hole in the body. I found two stryrene tubes that fit inside one another. Then aligned the tailplanes to the body and marked where I need to locate the tubes.



Now the tailplane fits super tight!




More to come,
Steven L

[kerick]

Wow that molded on surface detail looks like some kind of Aztec mosaic. Hasegawa should have done better than that.
That's going to be a lot of work. Looks like you are on the right track.

[Captain Canada]

Wow....you really go all out eh ? Great job so far. The new bay doors look awesome.

Great idea as well.....AK47 !

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Great effort, Steven. Weaps bay doors look excellent, but I'm even more impressed by the change in the way the stabs now sit. Another hint I intend to ruthlessly steal !!

Keep it coming, friend.

Ian

[Father Ennis]

Very impressive work and I can't wait to see what you do next. I have a question. Why didn't you cut new fitting doors to replace the kit ones ?  That would have been my solution,but I don't build suck and blows so I ask. I would have used plastic to fill the gaps as well,too. I've just found it easiest to work with.

[FAR148]

Thanks Guys 

Here's more food for thought...

After the madness of the weapons bay doors, I decided I wanted to put a drop tanks on the inboard wing stations. The Hasegawa kit does not come with drop tanks but the Academy kit does. Tried to find someone willing to part with their Academy tanks but no joy. I figure heck, I'll make my own. It's always cooler when someone ask "Where did you get the pylons and drop tanks for your Raptor?" and you can answer...I made them. So here's how I made my pylons and drop tanks for my Raptor. After a bit of googling, I found out that the tanks for the Raptor are not the same tanks for an F-15. And the pylon has a odd shape to it but looks kind cool. I did find a pic of the Academy tanks and pylon online. And from what it sounds like the tanks are too fat.



Here's what I'm starting with, In my stash I managed to find two tanks the same size but has differently spaced panel lines. Because I got two different style tanks, I'm going to play up on it. One tank will look like the Academy style tank with than rear cut off and the other will not. Also I'm going to start with two pylons from Revell F-15E kit. I took the image of the Academy tanks into photoshop, resized and made a line drawing as my guide. In the image below, you can see where I drawn the new shape onto the revell pylon.



Straight edge, double back tape and my X-Acto, starting to shape the new pylon.



To keep the same tank-to-pylon proportion, I'm going to enlarge the tanks. I don't want to make the pylons any bigger cause they fit just right inbetween the leading and trailing edge flaps. I don't know how I manage to cut the tanks in two differnt location and at different lengths and keep the same overall length?? You can see the pylons are cut and sanded to shape. I rolled a stripe of styrene and super glued it to one end of tank and adjusted it until it look right to the size of the new pylon then glued the rear into place.



To fill up the gap in the drop tank, I glued a strip of styrene and wrapped around until it was about 1/2 mm above the surrounding surface. I then sanded it down flush to the rest of the tank. If there were any holes or gaps, I filled them with super glue.



Two new longer tanks



Oh yeah, there is still more to come!
Steven L 

[FAR148]

Very impressive work and I can't wait to see what you do next. I have a question. Why didn't you cut new fitting doors to replace the kit ones ? That would have been my solution, but I don't build suck and blows so I ask. I would have used plastic to fill the gaps as well,too. I've just found it easiest to work with.

Thanks Ennis  

Well it's easier(for me) to fix something that fits poorly then to make a new one and hope it fits better then the kits. For me filling the gaps was not the problem, it's trying to saving and restoring the raise detail around the weapon bay doors which I did not like.


Steven L  

[Daryl J.]

Loooking at the underside of the kit makes me wonder just what in the world the designers were thinking......  

But, that being said, your pain the the keester kit will no doubt be our delight to watch build up.