SPA Modeler

Nice goodies. Shipping has become so costly. Plus VAT taxes...

All of the aftermarket stuff got here from Hannant's, and one of the inlet ducts is off the master and glued along the cut I made to peel it off of the master. The second one has just been laid up on the master. I didn't work too hard on the seam because it will be impossible to see without a borescope, the view will be blocked by the forward fuselage. The first one came out very well and is just the right size to match the inlet. Anybody got any extra J-75 engine compressor faces?

Very neat work John! This is gonna be soooo good!

Alas not, but that looks great John!

Well, thanks for checking, Stuart. I think the only source would be the Hobbyboss F-105, but I'm not going there. At least I don't think I will...

The aftermarket bits look very impressive. Should dress up the cockpit perfectly

It was a cold wet foggy day today so other than buying a few 4 X 6's and moving a few boards around, I didn't do much on the garage today. My smashed finger can use the break anyway. Had an R/C club Toys for Tots event this morning, watched a few guys fly small electrics around in the fog and ate at the pot luck.

This evening I did a little work on the Arrow, fitting the inlet duct to the inlet part, and then that assembly to the fuselage. I had already faced the center side of the inlets with .005 plastic card as if that was not done you could see the unfinished area when the model was finished. Over the last several days I've also been working on the long seam that runs down the middle of the sides of the fuselage, using passes of CA, Mr. Surfacer and Aves Epoxysculpt. The seams are almost subdued. Hard to do because the sides are a little concave instead of flat, more on one side than the other despite my best attempt to get the seams even and everything square while gluing them initially. The thick plastic has it's own ideas about where it wants to go.

In order to get the fiberglass ducts to fit the inlet fronts, I chamfered the mating surface of the inlet fronts so the ducts would fit a little inside and fair up good. The fiberglass is thin and flexible and the chamfer insured that the shape was good while attaching. Worked out well, if a little fiddley to do. The duct is attached with CA. Since the duct is semi-transparent and the inside is very smooth as it left the mold master, I had the idea to spray the outside of the duct with Tamiya aluminum from a spray can, I think that will work just fine. I then proceeded to fit the assembly into the fuselage, which required a fairly murderous attitude toward the top of the fuselage, and the thinning of the inside edge front outer surface until it was very thin.

I finished the inlet work and attached them to the main fuselage. I cleaned up the resin ejection seats and started the cockpit assembly, test fitting things and figuring out the best order to do things. This later kit has decals for the instrument panels and the consoles, and since I can pose the canopies open with the Iroquois resin parts some of it will be visible. I also started working on the resin afterburner parts. I'll have to make up some speculative markings for the Mk. II Arrow as it was never completed and all the ones that were had the J-75 engines which the resin parts are not appropriate for. So far I think things are fitting pretty well.

Looking pretty good John.