RF-20 Super Tigereye; Another FAR conversion

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Thanks guys for your continuous support . Ian watching Now I know I have to bring my "A" game.

Until later,
Steven L  

Interesting that my lapse in What If modelling coincided with your absence, Steven... people will talk, you know that doncha !! - I do have a '1946' build hovering near the bench, but just knee-deep in real world stuff just now.

BTW - you do know the RF-20 has already been done, doncha...



...

Ian

[FAR148]

BTW - you do know the RF-20 has already been done, doncha...

Schauen, dass hübsche Mädchen! 



Steven L  

[perttime]

Time to pick up a copy of knitting monthly me thinks....

We had to try knitting at school ... my mother said that what I made looked OK. Others didn't feel they needed to flatter me.

[NARSES2]

Time to pick up a copy of knitting monthly me thinks....

We had to try knitting at school ... my mother said that what I made looked OK. Others didn't feel they needed to flatter me.

Yup, mums...bless them 

[FAR148]

So, I've been getting the front office ready so I could get the cockpit tub into the front halves of the fuselage. I'm using the Monogram instrument panel cause it looks more modern with the two MFD's. It's a bit wider than the RF-5's panel. Which when the two halves come together, there is a large seam in front of the cockpit that needs to filled. I tried to reduce the seam as well as I could by sanding the sides of the instrutment panel.  But I don't want to go too far and start eating into details. The good part is the seam behind the cockpit is nice and tight. And it matches up to the rest of body. It's far easier to fit & hide the seam in front of the cockpit then behind. BTW... AFV tub, Monogram control stick & instrument panel, and the ejection seat is from Quickboost (not glued into place)





In order to save the surrounding panel lines, I masked off the area where I need to add putty. And using my favorite putty, super glue & baby powder, I filled the gap. Before the putty cures, I removed the masking tape.



The AFV RF-5 kit is amazing. Beautiful engraved detail, the part fit is wonderful. The one and only let down is the camera area in the nose    The instructions say to paint the area black and place the clear part over it. So all you see is a black painted area?! Don't like the idea of just painting it black and leaving it empty. I want to put something in there. Ha, I've got a bunch of left over F-20 parts. Going to use the ejection seat halves as my cameras.



I trimmed off the lower seat part and glued to the two side together. Looks pretty cool to me. I made the plate that the cameras will sit on out of styrene, cut and sanded to fit. Here you can see the plate glued into place and the camera sitting in place(not glued down yet) And for the nose camera, I just cut a piece of sprue/rod and glued it into place.



She's starting to look like a RF-20 now!    The nose section is not glued into place and still got to fit the tail planes.



Until next time,
Steven L  

[kerick]

That is looking so good! You really have this planned out, makes it look easy.

[jynx]

Someone with the same idea I have, but I'm not doing a recce bird. Will keep watching and taking notes.

[NARSES2]

The only thing similar between my modelling and yours is the mug of tea ! Superb work

[Gondor]

The only thing similar between my modelling and yours is the mug of tea ! Superb work

Agreed !   

Gondor

[FAR148]

The only thing similar between my modelling and yours is the mug of tea ! Superb work

Agreed !   

Thanks guys

I always find stuff floating in it after a good modeling session 


Steven L 

[Captain Canada]

Wow. You make it look too easy ! But in a good, inspiring way ! Thanks for all the insight into how you do it.

[FAR148]

Time for another weekend update, I figure recon birds travel light and fast. That means at some point in her mission she's going to need refueling. I ordered AMS F-5 refueling probe. But once I saw it, I was not happy with it. So, I cut it up and reworked it to my liking. I used some aluminum tubing and Master Model's beautiful NATO refueling probe tip.



So after last weekend sanding session of the forward fuselage, some panel lines were washed out or gotten softer. Even thou I masked the area where I applied putty, sanding will take it toll on the surface. I rescribed the nose with my usual tool, pin vise, serrated Xacto and an eraser shield. I also added a new pitot tube made from a steel pin. It's a bit thicker than kits but it will be much harder to break off.



I manage to get her tailplanes on. I located and drilled a hole in the base of her tail and super glued a 3/32 aluminum tube into place. I then located and cut a notch in the tailplane and super glued a piece of 1/16 aluminum tube into place. I then sanded the top and bottom of the tailplane where the aluminum tube is placed. You can also see there are a few panel lines I'm not happy with and will be filled with super glue then sanded smooth.



Here you see the forward fuselage and the rest of the body glued together and shot a very light coat of tamiya flat black as a guide coat. You can also see I added the leading edge extensions to the wings. Time for some more sanding! 



After sanding the guide coat, you can see the panel line detail has been restored. The guide coat also help to see all the area that still need some loving.





She's getting there 




Until next time,
Steven L 

[NARSES2]

The photography is as good as the modelling, and that says something  You really feel you are almost part of this build

[Captain Canada]

You're right Chris ! Very well done on both counts. She's really coming together and the refueling probe is going to be a great touch of realism.

[FAR148]

Thanks guys

Here's a small update.Was looking at the tail of the AFV kit and noticed it had a lot more detail then what's on the F-20 tail. I was going to use it and cut off the monogram one but the F-5 tail is much smaller than the tiger sharks tail. So I start adding more rivet detail. A row here, a row there.... Then BOOM!!! We got a blow out in the tail! The pin vise blow out a chuck of the tail. A few colorful adjectives...  Then it was Oh no! Where is it? The carpet monster wasn't getting this piece. A 1/2 hour into the search party, the blown out part of the tail was saved and was super glued back into place. I have since then sanded and restore the blown out area.



I also manage to dress up the intakes. I added a Photo etched panel that comes with the RF-5 kit. I also scribed a few new panel lines and restored god knows how many rivets to the body



Until next time,
Steven L