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  #11  
Old 11-21-2022, 06:16 PM
Dazliare Dazliare is offline
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I haven't updated this thread in a long while (almost six months!!). I haven't worked on the model in 4 or 5 months, not for lack of time, but more for other hobbies/priorities. I did a few plastic models and realized that while I love building them, I find masking/painting to be complete tedium. Edge coloring doesn't really bother me, and I love the process of cutting parts out, trimming as needed, and seeing how things fit together, so I'm back to card as my favored medium

I wasn't sure if I was going to continue with this model or move on to something else, for a few reasons. I'm not thrilled with how I did the formers - I used soda cases for laminating but I didn't have enough cases to put all of the parts on flat sections, so some of the formers have a crease in them. I also laminated two sheets of card together in a few spots but didn't do a great job with adhesive so the thickness isn't very uniform. In addition, the pilot seat doesn't really fit (pics in a later post) and I'm not sure how to fix it.

THAT SAID, I've decided to try and finish this model. I LOVE the Nighthawk and would love to have a model of it. I'm also fairly new to card models and have several models in my stash that I would consider very advanced, so the more practice I have with modelling in general as well as fixing mistakes, the better off I'll be to tackle those projects.

I'm planning to update this thread with images in a few separate posts to get you guys caught up, then I'll try to do better about updating
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  #12  
Old 11-21-2022, 08:54 PM
Dazliare Dazliare is offline
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The next few posts will be catch up. First on the list is the Forward-Looking Infrared System (FLIR).

Made up of parts 6 and 7, we start with the chamber in which the FLIR sits:



Having a look at the instructions, we see that this part is made up of some small curvy parts. Every paper modeler's nightmare!



Parts cut out and shaped:


I took a lot of time working on these parts shaping, edge coloring, etc and I'm pretty happy with how it came out:

Attached Thumbnails
F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-flir.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-flir-inst.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-flir-parts.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-flir-installed.jpg  
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  #13  
Old 11-23-2022, 04:15 AM
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Erik Zwaan Erik Zwaan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dazliare View Post
I did a few plastic models and realized that while I love building them, I find masking/painting to be complete tedium. Edge coloring doesn't really bother me, and I love the process of cutting parts out, trimming as needed, and seeing how things fit together, so I'm back to card as my favored medium
I came to the same conclusion 30 years ago and never regretted the choice to only continue with paper modeling . The transformation from 2D to 3D is a magic experience, with every model.

Great that you have decided to continue. This must be a challenging model due to the formers and skinning later on in the build, so I wish you a lot of success and perseverance! Just keep on going and solve any issues along the way.... The end result will be worth it!

Erik
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  #14  
Old 11-23-2022, 11:54 AM
Dazliare Dazliare is offline
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Hi Erik,

I appreciate your kind words!

I'll post some more progress later today - this thread still isn't caught up to my current progress. I actually managed to fix the cockpit fix issue I think, but more info on that later!
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  #15  
Old 11-23-2022, 04:26 PM
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MacSongLi MacSongLi is offline
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There is a lot of detailing on this kit. You're doing a great job.

Gary
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  #16  
Old 11-23-2022, 08:17 PM
Dazliare Dazliare is offline
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Next up is the cockpit comprised of parts 8 and 9. I decided to do the pilot's seat as well at this point (parts 18) to make a complete subassembly. I don't have many pictures of the actual build process here but I'll share what I do have. We start with the control panel:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-control-panel.jpg

Next up is the pilot seat placed into the cockpit base:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-pilot-seat.jpg

In this photo we also see the control stick and pedals. The pedals are basically impossible to see when assembled but still a nice touch. The seat itself is 14 parts and I'm quite happy with how it came out.

Here's the cockpit fully assembled including parts 9:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-cockpit.jpg

Finally, we do a test dry fit of the cockpit into the skeleton:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-gap.jpg

It's not super clear, but there is about a 10 mm gap between the back of the cockpit and the skeleton. I pondered how to fix this for a long time but I did end up fixing it recently. I'll let that be a cliff hanger for now One more post of catchup....
Attached Thumbnails
F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-gap.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-cockpit.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-pilot-seat.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-control-panel.jpg  
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  #17  
Old 11-30-2022, 10:08 PM
Dazliare Dazliare is offline
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With the cockpit done (parts 9 and 18), next up is the undercarriage, parts 10 and 11. It's put together in three pieces, two of which meet at the front to give the assembly some curvature.

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-undercarrieage.jpg

Part 11 is the lower window covering the secondary SPIR (I think that's what it is), shown here:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-detail.jpg

My edge coloring is a little sloppy and it's very difficult to match paint to the print, but I'm overall happy with it.

Parts 13 tackles the rear exhaust assembly:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-exhaustsingle.jpg

Part 14 is the upper hull. This image shows roughly how the rear of the plane comes together:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-bothexhaust.jpg

That finishes all of the catching up! The next few posts will show progress I've made in the past couple of weeks. I'm pretty pleased with it!

~Daz
Attached Thumbnails
F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-bothexhaust.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-exhaustsingle.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-detail.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-undercarrieage.jpg  
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  #18  
Old 11-30-2022, 10:39 PM
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paperengineer paperengineer is offline
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It's starting to look like a nighthawk! Great work so far, keep it up
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  #19  
Old 12-05-2022, 08:00 PM
Dazliare Dazliare is offline
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With the undercarriage parts shaped, it's time to start dry fitting the skin. We start with the cockpit portion:



I made the cockpit fit by removing the pilot seat and fitting the cockpit to the formers, then putting the pilot seat back in. Doing this also pointed out my mistake - the pilot seat is pitched too far forward. Oh well, it's glued down at this point and nobody will notice.

With that problem situated, I glued the undercarriage to the bottom of the plane. It's a pretty good fit, though not perfect. Here are the bomb bays:



Not perfect but I can work with it. Here's the top skin shaped and put together:



I'm starting to do things "out of order" a bit and decided to work on the stabilizers after the skin. Here's a teaser of the instruction for them and the parts:





That's all for today Once again I'm pretty behind on posts but that's okay! I've made loads of progress on the plane in the meantime
Attached Thumbnails
F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-cockpit-dry-fit.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-undercarrieage-view2.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-skin-dry-fit.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-stabilizer-instructions.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-stabilizer-parts.jpg  

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  #20  
Old 12-20-2022, 08:50 PM
Dazliare Dazliare is offline
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Next up I decided to do things a bit out of order. Parts 26 are the tail fins. They're made of two pieces - one bit attached to the body (not pictured in this post), and the actual fin bit. Connecting the two bits is a structure I don't really know how to describe. It's like two tabs that are connected by an axel. Here is the structure buit:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-internal-piece.jpg

Here are the parts for the fins:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-image000006.jpg

The fins came together pretty easily:

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-stabilizer-unpainted-2.jpg

I decided to paint the entire fin structure black. More on that in a future post

F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-stabhilizer-painted.jpg
Attached Thumbnails
F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-internal-piece.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-image000006.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-stabilizer-unpainted-2.jpg   F-117a Nighthawk 1:33 scale, Halinski-stabhilizer-painted.jpg  
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