A little surgery to my f-16

[YOAVHOZMI]

Hello friends, we haven't talked for a long time.

So....
For the past two years, my F-16 ventral has sunk in, probably because of the model's weight on the stand, even though I put internal reinforcement inside the ventral.
That's why I decided to do a little surgery ... a little body work on paper.

YOAV





Step one....
I printed the ventral part several times until I got to the right color because it's been over two years since the model was built and sometimes the color fades and changes a bit.

Here are examples of some prints, when in the end, I chose the last one.





Here you can see the dent under the model.






The second step ....
Cutting part of a main landing gear doors area.

You can see the original reinforcing rod inside the ventral.
I probably didn't place it in the right place.





At this point I added 2 more reinforcing Rods.





The final step is the main landing gear doors.
I sanded the edges of their insides so that the page will be as thin as possible, so that there were no height differences between the doors and the ventral.







The doors are glued into place and there are almost no signs of surgery.






And here the F-16 returned to its place with the A-4 SKYHAWK.

[YOAVHOZMI]

little mistake

[YOAVHOZMI]

little try

[YOAVHOZMI]

little try

[YOAVHOZMI]

little try

[Butelczynski]

Much better to just post link Yoav.You would think posting pictures from Google Drive would be made easier.

I see what you did there.I use the same technique with larger models when parts need to be kept apart and space is too large for former of any kind.Short piece of paper tube rolled on proper size dowel does the trick.
I did that in wings few times too .There I needed large diameter ring with tapering hight.Worked great but I make much smaller models recently.

[Erik Zwaan]

I can imagine that the dent formed over time. When I finished the F16 I was surprised about the weight of the model. It's not only the paper but also the cardboard to reinforce the formers and don't underestimate the weight of the glue (I used UHU All Purpose Adhesive and white tacky glue). So at the stand all the weight comes together. Perhaps Yoav, besides Butelczynski's suggention you could consider to make a cardboard box structure next time during the build and place it at the location where the stand will come.

Cheers,
Erik

[YOAVHOZMI]

Dear Butelczynski and Erik

Thanks for the comments and the tips.
and yes, In addition to a support rod, I also put cardboard inside the ventral to support the stand.
And you can see it in my building report and I think it is in the building instructions too.

we can see it in these pictures











In all of my models, I make reinforcements inside the ventral of the model, where I should insert the stand. And in all of them, it never happened to me that the ventral sank.

In the present case, I put the support rod in the wrong place.
I needed to put it more in the center, but for some reason, I didn't notice its location, So this time, the ventral a bit sank inside.

There is always a first time , and next time, I will pay more attention.


best regards


YOAV

[dhanners]

The repair looks effective and, best of all, unnoticeable.