Since the last
installment, more modifications were added. Back in February, I
had taken the plane to a model show for display with only modest changes to
antennas, rudder, tail and landing gear doors. Someone asked if I was going
to try and make the wing surfaces work. I told him that it was highly
unlikely and practically impossible. The plastic on average is 4 to 5mm in
thickness covering a large surface area and no way could that be hacked
with an X-acto. Power tools were automatically ruled out as the cut would
be to wide. I ended up cutting all the component parts to the wings with a
#11 Xacto and grouping them into zip lock bags and leaving them to sit. With
no real plan or contingency, it was a big gamble. It wasn't until a couple
weeks later that I slowly figured out how to approach this. It was time to
scrounge up some reference material. I had to engineer from scratch hinge
mechanisms for the top and bottom parts of the Flaps. For the Nose
Gear, steering and elevation capability were enabled. I had to design it
to allow the wheel to turn in unison with the carrier launch bar. Lastly,
the signature AN-ALQ-165 units were added to behind the canopy area.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|
|
Initially I
removed the fake turbine blades at the end of the engine nozzles and
sprayed the inside "Ultra Flat Black." I decided to
convert these to the newer F404-GE402 Enhanced Performance Engine. I
individually cut and assembled the Ceramic Plates.
Rob
|
Click on
image below to see larger image |
|
|
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|
|
|