Moments of Zen

[NARSES2]

i've turned 40 last September...

As I said a young man 

I've been wearing glasses since I was 5 and as the lads who've seen them will tell you they are rather thick 

[DogfighterZen]

i've turned 40 last September...

As I said a young man 

I've been wearing glasses since I was 5 and as the lads who've seen them will tell you they are rather thick 

I know i'm still a pup...  and although my body has sustained some abuse, i still feel like i could pick up my BMX anyday and backflip it on any ramp... did that last summer again but just jumping into a pool, not on a real ramp...
One of my BMX brothas, whom i've known since my 4 years of age, had thick glasses since he was very young too, he was younger than me and he already wore them when we met. When he was almost 30, he underwent surgery and now he sees better than me without glasses...

Anyway, today i'm going to clean up my cave, too much dust flying around and it's starting to get a bit out of hand so, let's see what i can get done on the bench when that is done.

[DogfighterZen]

Ended up not doing much after the clean up, just chilled out in a clean room watching a few vids on the tube.
Yesterday i did do something but wasn't much... just painted the instrument panels of the Cobra.



I was about to use one of the smaller Ammo by Mig brushes i bought at Modelcult 2019 but the dials and knobs of the IPs are so small that i knew it wasn't going to turn out as i wanted. No matter how small, a brush is always flexible and for such tiny details, i wanted to have something more precise so, i got an old sewing needle and used that like a solid brush. Don't think one can find a brush that's thinner and more solid than a needle so i tried and i was happy with the result. I'm not going to try and detail the Cobra's pit cause the canopy is a one piece affair and not much will be seen of an almost totally black cockpit so, although far from perfect, i think it'll do the job.
And besides that, last night i ordered a set of PJ productions AH-64 pilots to put in the cobra. These pilots look good and i know i'll have to buy more in the future for the rest of the 1/72 choppers i have in the stash.

Today i've spent most of the time working on new song for the band so nothing else has been done on the bench but i'll try to finish the Cobra's pit so i can work on joining the fuselage halves and put the fenesteron in place to begin PSR work on it.

[NARSES2]

Neat work on the instrument panel 

For details like that I use toothpicks/cocktail sticks. Being wood they can be sharpened up with fine grain sandpaper and also because they do absorb a little of the paint you don't get the dreaded "blob" that you can get with needles.

[DogfighterZen]

Neat work on the instrument panel 

For details like that I use toothpicks/cocktail sticks. Being wood they can be sharpened up with fine grain sandpaper and also because they do absorb a little of the paint you don't get the dreaded "blob" that you can get with needles.

Thank you, mate! 
I have used toothpicks but i wasn't very happy with the result cause as the paint soaked the toothpick's tip, the blob would form very easily. I don't get that with the needle cause 1) i just take a very tiny drop on each go and 2) the paint was adequately thin and ran down the needle without drying and forming a blob.
I've found these IPs harder to paint than the Revel F-4F's IPs and those had much more detail than these. Even with the thinnest brushes i have which are AMMO 3/0 and 5/0, i just knew i wouldn't be happy with the result and decided to try the sharpest thing i could find which was the needle.
It's not a perfect job but i don't care because very little will be seen in that all black cockpit and closed canopy.
There's so much detail missing compare to the real thing that i won't even bother to try to replicate.
There's also the fact that this model has serious fit issues on a lot of parts...

So, continuing work on the Cobra, i sawed off the tail stabilizers and glued on the new ones i made...



Then i assembled the gun turret and tried it on the fuselage to see how it would fit and this was the result...



Sanded off a bit of the part that serves as a spacer inside the turret and it was a bit better but still...



After a few minutes of looking at it, i found a solution for the problem which consisted of turning the assembly's "locking" part upside down and filling in the space with styrene strips and the gap was gone...





Then i turned back to the nose weight issue. In order to properly determine what it will need, i had to install all the parts that will go on aft of the rear skid legs and for that i had to assemble the fuselage's top parts to dry fit everything in it's place and, although this looks like overkill, i can assure that it was just enough because the fenestron really made it tail heavy...



It's all metal there, a whole u shaped cable clamp and another heavy round metal bit i had in the tool box. I sawed the U shaped bit of the cable clamp in two and smashed the rest of it into small bits that would fill in the all  the small spaces left under the cockpit floor and behind the pit's back wall.
The kit's instructions call for 5 grams of nose weight but although i haven't been able to weigh how much i put in there because my digital scale's battery died, i'm sure it's over 5 times as much... and i still want to test it once more before i join the fuselage halves, just to be sure it's really enough to get the chopper firmly on the skids.

Work on this will continue throughout the night...

[Old Wombat]

Cobra-bash is coming along brilliantly, DfZ!

[DogfighterZen]

Cobra-bash is coming along brilliantly, DfZ!

Thank you, Mr. Wombat, Sir! 
But i have to say, this kit SUCKS!! 
Overall fit is bad, not the worst but it's bad... I've had to use clamps or at least, hold the parts in place for a couple of minutes while the TET dries and does its thing... the left top fuselage section is shorter than the right side part, leaving a gap of around 1,5mm between it and the canopy...
That means i'll have to cut and glue a few thin styrene strips to close it up.
Dry fit is mandatory on almost every part... the way that those parts join the lower fuselage creates a big seam line along it's whole length, which i'll try to fill with PPP but still, it looks awful...

I haven't had to use clamps for quite some time but on this kit... :





I know that it's an older mold but even the 1960's Airfix and Monogram kits i've built recently have a much better fit overall compared to this kit, which was first released in 1987...
Anyway, i'm gluing the "cheeks" on and will keep on working on this build today.



EDIT: Typo...

[DogfighterZen]

Well, made good use of the Deluxe Perfect Plastic Putty today to cover all the seams on the Cobra and the Fenestron tail rotor has been glued on and blended into the tail. This one is now getting to the point where i can begin to see the final layout and this is when i become impatient and can't wait to see it finished...





I'll leave the PPP drying and call it a night and tomorrow i'll continue to work on it.

[Old Wombat]

Looking très chic!

[DogfighterZen]

Looking très chic!

C'est le fenestron, il est trés beau... 

[DogfighterZen]

So... after finishing the Cobra's fuselage work, i turned to the 4 bladed main rotor assembly... My idea for this build came from the pics i saw of the AH-1W(4B) prototype, which was the first 4 bladed rotor Cobra. The whole rotor differs quite a bit from what i had done but, once again i was doubting my scratchbuilding skills and thought i'd never be able to replicate the real deal but last night i just thought: "What the hell, if i screw this up, i'll just use the rotor assembly of an Apache and get it done anyway..."
So, i went ahead and bit the bullet...

Started by cutting bits of Evergren strip styrene for the innermost section of the blades...



When those were done, it was time to cross the "no turning back" point...



Attached the previously made bits to the center part of the rotor...



While the glue was drying on the central assembly, i got to work on the shape of the blades themselves...



And by the end of the night (7.30a.m.) i had this...



So, what i consider to be the hardest part of this affair is still ahead of me but, now i'm starting to believe i'll be able to get something similar to the real deal so, as i'm not sleepy at all, i'll just keep on working to see if i can get this finished...

[NARSES2]

Impressive work yet again 

[DogfighterZen]

Impressive work yet again 

Thank you, Chris! 
Still not done but it's getting there, i'm just about to begin the final shaping of the innermost part of the blades and although it won't be perfect, i think it'll do the job quite decently! 

[Old Wombat]

Impressive work yet again 

+1

[DogfighterZen]

Ok, after sleeping a few hours and other family/house affairs, i got to sit at the bench for a few more hours and, i can finally say that this battle is over... and i dare to say I WON!   
So, i sanded like mad and got the blade grips' shape as close to the real ones as i could and decided that it would all look too bare if i didn't add a few more details like the hinge pins and the blade folding hinge nuts. I took the parts that were cut off of the old assembly and started cutting and fitting...





The result was the following...



This was quite a task for me, as i said before, i wasn't very sure if this would come out good enough to use on the build and was already thinking of the Academy's Apache blades as replacement in case it all went wrong but, although they're not perfect, i'm very satisfied with the result so, the build moves on!