F/A-16 Dragon ***FINISHED*** Pics Pg.6

[chrisonord]

You are doing a  cracking job with this build  Brad ,I never put anywhere near as much  effort in to a cockpit, hats off to you   
Chris

[TheChronicOne]

If you can do that in 1/72 scale Brad      what could you do with the 1/12 Esci/Italeri F-16 cockpit.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/esci-601-f-16-cockpit--130008

Ooooh!! I could get that and put a little mouse in there! Then there's a mouse in the viper! See, it's all natural! 


Thanks y'all.... problem is the canopy is smoked so much of this will barely be seen. That's why I mainly just put bright colors here and there to serve as a reasonable facsimile. I'm not even going to bother with stuff like painting the interior walls and things like rudder pedals, etc.


Time for nose weight and getting the canopy masked I guess. Not sure how much weight I need but this seems a bit heavy in the back so I'll cram whatever BBs I can in there...

[TheChronicOne]

You are doing a  cracking job with this build  Brad ,I never put anywhere near as much  effort in to a cockpit, hats off to you   
Chris

I finally dragged out some of my unused brushes a couple months ago and they helped me along! Fine tipped brushes.... having decent wares can make painting damn near fun! 

[kitnut617]

Not sure how much weight I need but this seems a bit heavy in the back so I'll cram whatever BBs I can in there...

What I do there is assemble most of the big bits but held together with tape, then stick some thumb tacks into the spot where the u/c axle would line up with, set it up as if it's on it's wheels and then place bits of weight on the nose until it just goes over the balance point. That way you don't overload the nose gear with too much nose weight.

[DogfighterZen]

Not sure how much weight I need but this seems a bit heavy in the back so I'll cram whatever BBs I can in there...

What I do there is assemble most of the big bits but held together with tape, then stick some thumb tacks into the spot where the u/c axle would line up with, set it up as if it's on it's wheels and then place bits of weight on the nose until it just goes over the balance point. That way you don't overload the nose gear with too much nose weight.

That's the way i normally do it, too. Can't remember if i put any nose weight on mine but, better safe than sorry, right? Never had to put weight on normal 1/72 Vipers but the XL does have a lot more material aft of the main gear so it's a wise choice to do so.

[NARSES2]

Fine tipped brushes.... having decent wares can make painting damn near fun! 

Absolutely, the best you can afford  I still have some very fine pointed ones I used for detail painting on wargame's figures (15mm) and they are still in good shape.

One thing I do tend to do is use a different set of brushes for enamels, acrylics and varnishes etc. Means I need 3 separate storage areas but helps give them longer life in my experience.

[Captain Canada]

Nice work ! Love the details. And I also love an aeroplane all bombed up !

[TheChronicOne]

Fine tipped brushes.... having decent wares can make painting damn near fun! 

Absolutely, the best you can afford  I still have some very fine pointed ones I used for detail painting on wargame's figures (15mm) and they are still in good shape.

One thing I do tend to do is use a different set of brushes for enamels, acrylics and varnishes etc. Means I need 3 separate storage areas but helps give them longer life in my experience.

I learned that lesson the hard way back when i first bought all these nicer brushes. They start to not clean up as well after awhile switching back and forth but the truly helpful thing I learned Harkens back to basic elementary science: oil and water don't mix. What I mean in this instance is that I learned AFTERWARD that certain types of brushes are actually better geared for certain types of paints. Some of my brushes were natural hair so they soaked up acrylic paint like a sponge and didn't want to release it again whereas my synthetic taklon stuff would let go of it. On the other hand, seems to be that natural hair works better than synthetic plastic for the enamels.  It never occured to me but it made sense after I read the little article or whatever it was about 3 days AFTER I bought them all.   

[TheChronicOne]

Nice work ! Love the details. And I also love an aeroplane all bombed up !

Hell yeah, she means business!  Even has a nuke!!!  Yeah B-61 in the house!!!   We can destroy a whole airbase in one pass and half the anti-air along the path to get there! I'm getting a little too excited here....  I love to blow stuff up.

[DogfighterZen]

Lots'a boom bags and "go get'em" sticks for the win!!  Don't mind me, i just had too much wine at dinner...

[TheChronicOne]

 

On my way, too! Guzzling beer like a slob this evening. It's American Hand Egg Sportsball Run-Offs and I had a weather day so it's time to watch Hand Egg, swill beer, and work on builds!!!

Speaking of... I just learned that half my painting efforts wen right down the crapper once I glued stuff in.... 




No biggie. 

[DogfighterZen]

Doesn't matter, you know it's there!
Man, i had way too much wine, my boss has the good stuff... I just wish i had some green stuff to burn along with it... 
Enjoy, brotha! 

[TheChronicOne]

Right! 


For the rest... well, hell, some good wine can make up for it I guess but I know what you mean.... gotta be diplomatic around the big-wigs.   

Likewise; glad to hear of your good time with good company!  Personally, I'm sitting around slowly working on builds still (11PM now) and have spent a good chunk of the last couple of hours on the FB talking @%#! and watching Handegg. Titans pulled out a hell of an underdog victory! Yeah, I'm enjoying it. Any chance I get to make a fool of myself is never wasted! 


EDIT: Oh yeah... the update. I'm filing and wet sanding things like the weapons that I had to glue together and the fuel tanks. I've also managed to prime a good deal of this stuff so I'll be painting it soon. I also have the fuselage halves together now. Did some filing and sanding on the new pylons I made to put an aerodynamic edge on the fronts. Probably some other things, too, but minor and I can't remember. Either way, it's moving forward nicely.   

[DogfighterZen]

well, my boss has a pharmaceutical weed plantation in the plans for 2020 so that might be a good thing for me to take over... 
Yeah, brotha! Get that baby going!

[NARSES2]

Apologies lads but I've had to do some moderating. PM's with explanation have been sent.