(DONE..FINALLY, sheesh! LOL) F/U-2 H.A.W.K., Vietnam era warbird (Pics page 14)

TheChronicOne · October 20, 2016, 04:11:48 PM

Solidifying the back story and thus getting my transfers in order. For the most part, this is what will be applied to the HAWK.

Transfers courtesy of Snowtrooper; Thanks again!!

kerick · October 20, 2016, 05:28:19 PM

For your scenario a camo suit might just work but U-2 and SR-71 pilots wore an orange or yellow pressure suit. Just my $0.02 worth

TheChronicOne · October 20, 2016, 06:00:55 PM

Quote from: kerick on October 20, 2016, 05:28:19 PM
For your scenario a camo suit might just work but U-2 and SR-71 pilots wore an orange or yellow pressure suit. Just my $0.02 worth

Thanks, bro!

I figure since this is more combat geared, the last thing they want is a bright spot running through the jungle after having to bail out. The role of the aircraft has changed, so the rest has, as well. Different role, different livery, different pressure suit.

The Hawk kit instructions told me to paint it green, anyway.. I know that type of stuff can be far from accurate but... I found this:

Matches with the kit instructions and all I altered was the color of the helmet and also left the face "shield" unpainted as there's no good way to do it. Seeing as how the instructions and likely this photo are both from early on I suspect that's why its not orange or yellow. Mine is to be set in 1972. The orange and yellow I'm sure were to make locating a downed pilot easier, but normal Blackbird or U2 missions weren't in combat zones. If my pilot has to bail out in RP6A he doesn't want to look so obvious.

sandiego89 · October 20, 2016, 06:20:51 PM

Quote from: kerick on October 20, 2016, 05:28:19 PM
For your scenario a camo suit might just work but U-2 and SR-71 pilots wore an orange or yellow pressure suit. Just my $0.02 worth

Nah, I would say he's good. You could write a book about the different pressure suits between the A-12, SR-71 and the U-2. The early U-2 suits like the MC-3 Gary Powers wore were the tight fitting lace up jobs, having much in common with the early Mercury/Gemini suits and could be silver or olive drab. The A-12/SR-71 suits varied throughout the years and came in a variety of colors, and your could see white, silver, chocolate, orange (actually called "gold" for the S1030 suit after @ 1977. David Clark suits like the S901J used during the time frame of this scenario had a variety of colors for the outer layer- even chocolate brown for operational missions over hostile airspace. Most later SR-71/U-2 photos, especially do indeed show the gold/orange, but operational mission photos of the suited up crews are much rarer. Besides, I don't think you will see much of our hero pilot when the canopy is closed....

-Dave

TheChronicOne · October 22, 2016, 03:21:11 PM

As promised, a few pictures of my first attempt at casting my own parts, scratch building them into something, then kit bashing my U2 into have a larger nose/radome.

After I pushed the front end of the external tank into the clay. I forgot to use any release agent and and had to "wiggle" it a bit to get it out. I was worried it would create a problem with diameter or roundness but I got lucky, I guess.

There's the tank and the epoxy I used. Good stuff!

I thought I did a good job pushing the sludge down all the way with toothpicks but I missed some. No worries, I'll whip a tiny batch of resin and put it on there...let it thicken up for a couple minutes then shape it closer to the final shape. After it dries a couple days I'll sand it down. Also, my piece is too short so I'm going to hack up this marker to extend it. Diamter matches up well... I'll have to use a bit of filler and file it down a tad but should work fine. My resin piece, as it sits, is damn near identical in shape and size as the existing nose so unless I extend it, the point would be moot to saw off the perfectly good nose just to put this on there.

Stay tuned! I've also been doing other small bits and pieces of the build such as painting and assembly the pogo wheels, trimming and filing down the parts on the sprues, etc.

Flyer · October 22, 2016, 07:49:43 PM

Oh, two part epoxy glue. I have/use similar clear stuff all the time with R/C, I was thinking you were talking about a special (casting? moulding?) resin.

Never even thought of using that stuff.

TheChronicOne · October 23, 2016, 09:19:33 AM

Quote from: Flyer on October 22, 2016, 07:49:43 PM
Oh, two part epoxy glue. I have/use similar clear stuff all the time with R/C, I was thinking you were talking about a special (casting? moulding?) resin.

Never even thought of using that stuff.

So far, so good! It says it has resin in it so I catch myself calling it resin. Been doing it for years. It's manily resin with some other crap thrown it... silica and some such.. not sure the engineer and science of it.. but yeah, good ol' about $3-5 dollars a tube epoxy. I like this marine stuff. Quite a bit of it, too! Could make quite a few smaller parts.

Man this stuff is great so far, for this. It's nice and hard, but easy to file and sand. Sets up fast.. hell, I don't think it was necessary to wait those two extra days. I think the only flaw in this project is my own inability. That...and will it adhere to the marker piece and will the marker piece adhere to the styrene........ I'll find out soon enough. I'll "tack" weld with CA, let it harden, then go for the gusto with me regular modeling glue.

NO eta on this one.

kerick · October 23, 2016, 02:04:38 PM

I don't think regular model glue will touch the epoxy. Use the CA or more epoxy to attach it to the styrene.

TheChronicOne · October 23, 2016, 02:12:40 PM

Quote from: kerick on October 23, 2016, 02:04:38 PM
I don't think regular model glue will touch the epoxy. Use the CA or more epoxy to attach it to the styrene.

Thanks.... you saved me much cursing and frustration! I think tomorrow will be the day I officially saw off the nose of the spyplane so no turning back at that point.

Today... more of the "finer" aspects of getting the overall shape and surface up to speed.

TheChronicOne · October 23, 2016, 03:15:38 PM

Talk about it,hell, be about it. I was motivated after the last post and didn't want to wait. I used my big file and low grit sand paper to get all the surfaces nice and level. I forgot about the marker piece extension.... but, remember when I got started.

Anyway....

Going to whip some dope and finish the missing chip in the nose then I want to slap a coat of primer on it to see what I'll need to do as far as the rest. It will be a good time to scratch up the sensor eyeball thingy and some antenna.

TheChronicOne · October 23, 2016, 08:55:28 PM

I little something different with the backdrop today.

I after I mutilated the face of this beautiful dame I figured I'd least give some justice so I leveled and smooth the cut piece off , sanded down the errant stray glue splotches, wiped it down, and threw a coat of primer on it.

I want so see how much more work I have to do to get the seams taken care of.

Not too bad. The wings are perfect (usually always are.. it's much easier to get those seams to blend than the fuselage, etc.). I see an ejection pin mark there but.... OH WELL, I'll leave it.. who cares. It was a modification the the thing done when the rest of this fake crap was done. lol

Anyway, that seam, I might be able to get away with just using sand paper on a lot of it... we'll see.

TheChronicOne · October 23, 2016, 11:20:10 PM

OK... 1:10 AM and still working on models. LOL

Mocked up the new nose section and radome. I took some pics with flash off up against a bright background to make a silhouette. Some of the "step" you might see there is the masking tape I used to hold the crap together.

Top down view. Sort of looks like ammunition!

Side to side. Again, masking tape is present and throwing some of it off... Might rotate this around a bit or shim it up a tiny bit before I do the final gluing. The top part sure matched up well!!

Also, I still need to file and sand on this a good deal before it will be ready for anything...

Now, for color:

Side to side.

Top down (slightly rolled, apparently).

Now, the question is this..do I make the entire thing the radome or leave it sectioned as it is and just the nose cone be the radome??? Needless to say, after all this work and how nicely this is coming along I'm definitely sticking with my scratch built stuff so time to start thinking about the next steps.

Definitely will be making more home made parts in the future.

EDIT: I forgot a head-on shot but trust me, it looks dead on. I'll get a picture of it at some point.

TheChronicOne · October 24, 2016, 04:49:10 PM

Thanks, Brad!

I stopped to get the Aim-7 Sparrow missiles all done. I settled on Aim-7F and worked from this picture:

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-7.html

Mine.... with the scratch built forward section and radome thrown in for giggles. (still have to do a fair bit to that).

I've never tried to be this accurate or put this much detail into ordnance before and I think it turned out OK... certainly "good enough" and using the "arm's length" rule I'd say I like 'em!

kerick · October 24, 2016, 05:56:51 PM

I think you are on to something here! Carry on!!

TheChronicOne · October 24, 2016, 06:31:00 PM

Quote from: kerick on October 24, 2016, 05:56:51 PM
I think you are on to something here! Carry on!!

Wilco!

Some of this has been a bit tedious and nerve wracking but now that a lot of that is out of the way I'm having a blast. The beauty is that I have plenty of time left to get things right. No need to rush... I'm doing other builds for this but I've always maintained that I want this one to be the best.

Thanks again for the tips and showing interest, kerick!