Egilman

Thanks brother, it's an easy fix but one must be careful with the heat... The tailplanes are fine, they are a simple pin connection into the hole and they have the proper angle already will be using Gators Grip to install them as given the tricky nature of the plastic I don't want to take a chance that the glue will weaken the pin allowing them to sag... This plastic is interesting... it will shrink before it will sag if too much heat is applied, I'm going to have to cut the rear fuselage tail off the wing section ahead of the landing gear bays and reinstall it and fill the gap afterwards. It did warp a bit during the cooling after applying the heat.... I was expecting it so it's not a big deal, and will show pics when I've figured out exactly how to do it... The wing root gap is still going to require some strip filling to close it up completely but it is a lot closer now than it was... I'm just glad I didn't destroy the wing doing this, it was a bit of a gamble given the strange way this plastic responds to gluing and heating... Almost PVC like.... As I get into it, it's becoming a little bit more involved than the instructions let on... I mean you can build a decent looking model straight out of the box, even adding aftermarket, but correcting some of the (rather minor) issues is getting technically complex... Nothing I haven't done before.... (and it's helping to keep my mind off some RL issues that are a pretty heavy weight now) Onwards...

Yep, they were bulky.... Going to be a nice addition to the collection....

She looks beautiful right now... As far as the decaling? I have faith....

Thanks Mike, I have several of their products I use frequently Mr Surfacer 500 & 1000 to be exact... Great products for what they are intended for... (filling spaces where sanding is undesirable) and I agree, use in a well ventilated area... CMK's parts are pretty good getting up there with Eduard in quality and their casting is the equal of Eduard... I'm sure as time wears on their instructions will improve which is an area that all the aftermarket companies could improve upon... One of the most fun parts of this hobby is learning and engineering the changes to make the model more than just a generic representation of the object... Kinda bring the basic object to life, (and more accurate to boot) It's why I like this hobby so much.... (as we all do brother)

Ok Brothers, another update.... Plastic bending... The wing on this kit was molded flat... Unfortunately the real aircraft has a 3.5 degree dihedral to it... Dihedral is upsweep, the wing tips are higher than the wing root... And on the F-86 it was barely noticeable but it is there... So how do we go about making the wing tips higher than the roots without warping the wing? Heat gun... But first we have to figure out how much to bend the wing at the root for a 3.5 degree upsweep... The length of the wing in scale is 6 inches from root to tip... To figure out how much lift we need we turn to solidworks... This consists of drawing a horizontal line 6" long and a corresponding line at an angle to that line... Then we measure the angle between the lines and set it to 3.5 degrees... Then you draw a vertical line joining the open end of the two lines and measure it... in this case 3/8th of an inch is how much we need to raise the wing tips.... So how do we go about this in real life? Working upside down, you use a 3/8th piece of wood just wide enough to support the wing roots on the center and place a block on the center to hold them flat... You then place a couple of pieces of light wood on the wing tips to increase their weight a bit to let gravity work in our favor... WE then take a standard painters heat gun on it's mildest setting and gently apply heat along the wing root on the bottom side watching carefully as the wing tips settle to the bench surface... Remove the heat frequently cause you do not want to overheat the plastic.. (which can happen awful fast) when the wing settles to the surface remove the heat and allow to cool, then do the same to the opposite wing, allowing it to completely cool when it has settled... At this point you remove the blocks at the wing tips and check if the tips are still settled on the bench surface, if not another slight application of gentle heat to the wing not touching and allow it to cool completely... (takes about 10 minutes) At this point you have added dihedral to your wing.... Maintaining the straightness of the wing itself.... without damaging any details on the wing surface... Next up, assembling and fitting the wing to the fuselage.... (sometimes this process will warp the rear center section of the wing a little bit, you will need to adjust the fit) This is the old school process of adjusting a wing... More later... Onwards...

Looking good brother... Setting the tracks is the right move in my opinion, they are nice looking tracks, production molding is getting better and better...

Thanks Dennis... Proceeding slowly, making sure I hopefully get it right... Main assembly of the fuselage is complete, awaiting it's final cure... Next was the control surfaces, Flaps and Rudder.... I went ahead and checked my source pics and came up with this one... late '52 or so Suwon, Korea.... Two F-86's sitting alert off the end of the runway... They are F-86E's instead of F-86F's but the period is correct... Notice the Flaps are down and the Speed Brakes closed.... So sitting in their revetment the flaps were closed but sitting alert could be open or closed for either control surface... Now I have a debate going on in my mind, which way I want to make it? Anyway, just finished gluing up the wing.... Once it is cured I'm going to have to heat bend the dihedral into the wing... 3.5 degrees, the kit molded them perfectly flat.... Making progress my friends... Thanks for the likes and following along... EG

I could see where that might work better, The Dental Repair powder is a water mix resin and cures indescribably hard.. But yet is still sandable and carveable... And it's wipeable smooth as long as it hasn't fully cured.... Well worth a try...

And another update... I've found that the plastic this kit is molded in is a bit soft, not really a big issue with building... But the plastic formulation does react a bit differently from regular polystyrene... Usually when I'm gluing plastic from most kits or Evergreen stock with Testors brand MEK glue, the joint is cured within ten minutes of application, the plastic this kit has been molded in takes about 4 hours to cure sufficiently to hold and overnight to completely cure... I found this out during the fuselage assembly portion... There is a part... D-13 on the drawing, (circled above) that is too big, 1/16th inch too big... When installed, it spreads the upper joint of the rear fuselage half wide open...... The fix is simple, cut the part down so it fits properly without spreading the joint... The initial installation exposed the glue/plastic problem by pushing the joint out... Thankfully there is an insert panel that creates a break in the joint and stops the spread before it ruins the entire upper joint... The fix is to cut a 1/16th inch section out of the part at the top to either side of the joint and snap it back in place so it doesn't put any pressure on the joint itself... When snapped into place it becomes a trapped part that doesn't require any glue at all... But I'm still going to glue it cause it will act to hold the fuselage separation joint together as a reinforcement maintaining it's shape.... As you can see below, makes for a much tighter and smoother joint.... This is a beautiful kit, but it does have some idiosyncrasies unique to it... Anyway, Onwards...

Thanks Dan... Yep I've tried it, but usually I let it harden too much before I'm finished sanding, it's an option I've used in the past but only for certain situations, usually for flat open seams... It does have the advantage of making very hard fills and joins but in my experience it's not so good with complex joints or sharp corners... The other issue is that it doesn't harden at the same speed, some CA's are faster than others, even from the same brand... And part of it is preference, simple Testors Putty (grey tube) dries slow enough that you can work it for a few minutes before it begins to harden and if you make a mistake you can easily remove it before it completely cures, the down side is it is an overnight cure.... 12-24hrs for a completely hard cure, but that is also a benefit, it gives you a natural pause in the build sequence... It's another tool in the box for those situations that would benefit from it... But not a general use tool....

Thank you my friends, old school the only way I know how to do it... (I would be lost without my microsaw) It's now time to glue it all together into one fuselage, and then prime and final smooth the joints to finish it off... Then the wings get glued together as well. from here on it should be a fairly straightforward build... The only issue I've got to figure out is the wing join gaps, probably some filler strips, the angle is slightly less than 90 degrees in a sharp corner so the joint has to be tight... I also have to cut off the left wing gusset, when the ammo bay door was open the wing root leading edge was removed and usually hung off a cable but was occasionally placed on the wing upper surface... I still have to figure out where to cut it.... I'm going to present her in alert mode, sitting on the apron in rapid reaction state ready to fly, just pull the engine covers, fire up the engine and go... So the assembly will take her to an almost finished state as everything except the left side Ammo Bay Door and Speed Brakes will be closed up.... Even the Flaps will be at 0 degrees... (very rarely were they anything but when on the ground) And of course, everything gets silvered.... So this should move along fairly quickly until it's time for Rub-n-Buff & decaling/stenciling, (there are a million of them) Landing Gear & Canopy will be the last parts done.... At that point I will probably revisit the engine and see if I can't improve the cart... Again Thank You for the complements, it is sincerely appreciated....

You continually amaze me brother with your abilities to do figures that look real especially the modified figures... You have a real talent for this type of modeling... They are spectacular all by themselves....

Very Very nice, and a completed GPM kit to boot! I've watched a lot of people start one of these kits and eventually bin it over the years... (me included) Completing it is an accomplishment itself.... Beautiful job my friend, very impressive... Gonna try a Halinsky next? I heard the Thunderbolt was a particularly interesting build (the engine alone I believe has over 100 parts, it includes a lot of choice words in it's workflow as well) {chuckle} But they are a lot more accurate in their appearance... You are definately a card master....

Another small update my friends... And another excursion with the micro saw.... The object here is to thin the back wall without breaking thru to the gear bay.... Far enough into the wall to clear the Ammo Bay insert.... Initial cut went like this.... That took off about 2/3rds of the thickness... Next is to remove the remaining corner from the intake planum.... Essentially a #2 straight blade run into the wall along the curve of the plenum, then a short straight cut along the machine gun bay... Once done, use a chisel blade to remove the triangular part along the plenum... And yes, that red splash on the side of the machine gun bay is my physical contribution to the build, courtesy of the #2 straight blade.... As the admiral would say, it is now officially mine.... {chuckle} Done... I will have to do a bit of filling along the joints when all is said and done... But it now ready for assembly..... More later.... EG

I've read that it is a wipe on wipe off type of stuff, only for filling gaps... Sandable smoothing fills take place after it is cured for at least a day... I don't know, others may have a better understanding of it, all I know is I haven't found an application yet where it works like we understand normal putties do... And it has come off everything I've ever put it on...

As originally designed the Stuka had a bomb swing on the centerline so the bomb would clear the propeller arc when dropped... It is what made it a deadly accurate dive bomber much like the American SBD..... but as a tank buster, it was removed so no one would get the idea of loading it up with gun pods and a bomb, it wouldn't even get off the ground with both... Beautiful job on this brother... it was one of the favorite planes of my youth.... (especially the cox u-control version)

Short update brothers... I knew that installing the Ammo Bay was just went too easy... And I found out when I was trying to fit the forward fuselage halves together.... The back wall of the nose gear bay is way too thick and needs to be trimmed down on that side so it can slip into the space in front of the bay... I checked the two aftermarket landing gear setups for this kit and they have the same problem, I would have to thin them as well... Shouldn't be too much of a problem for the razor saw as long as I get the initial cut straight... Failing that replacing the entire back wall with some .010 sheet styrene should do it.... I just knew that the Ammo Bay went in way too easy... {chuckle}

Thanks Craig! but I will say there are a few more plastic surgeons out there that make me look like an amature... Got a bit more to do to fit it properly, has more to do with the thickness of the parts as shot by Kinetic, some serious thinning needs to be done... (and aftermarket is no help)

Thanks Dennis, it's appreciated... Except there is always a fuss with this kind of stuff... Will be showing what's next cause it doesn't quite fit as well as it seems, more surgery is needed.... Pics in a bit... And hopefully the gods of no pain will smile on me for the next few weeks... (yeah right)

The real problem Brothers is that it doesn't adhere very well to the model plastic and tends to peel... And, like anything acrylic, once you get a corner lifted, it comes right off...

That's the issue brother, at least everytime I've tried it.....

Thanks Ken.... I think they came out well... They did line up nicely..... Still need to prime them to see how smooth they actually are but I have a good feeling... Thanks my friend...

Ammo Bay installed.... Hole cut.. Installed.... Now the door doesn't fit perfectly, it's a few tenths of a mm off, but that was expected.... Besides it will be open functioning as the initial step into the aircraft and no one will see it... That went a lot easier than I though it was going to.... Almost ready to assemble the fuselage.... Onwards....

Ok, Short update; The left side is now cut and glued in... My process is simple, old school and goes like this... 1st step, drill 4 holes in the corners of the panel you want to remove about 1/8th inch from the finished edges... I used two of the existing holes... then you use a saw to join the holes taking out most of the material... Then using a large #2 blade you shave down the edges to the panel edge line... The last 1/32nd or so using a brand new sharp blade to get the cleanest cut you can.... Then it is just a matter of trimming the replacement panel until you get a snug push in fit, tight but not so tight to distort the pieces, you want it to just stay in place for gluing... I apply a few drops of CA to the back side and leave it sit until dry.... They will be close enough to make final adjustments to the shape with sanding sticks... Any gaps being filled from the inside with modeling putty... Here is how they look from the nose on position... The right locations and not too much sanding to get the fuselage shape correct.... But before I go to filling and sanding, I have to add the Ammo Bay on the left side as the door for it formed the first step for getting into the cockpit... A prominent feature that is always open when the aircraft is sitting on the ramp.... This part is also designed for the venerable Hasegawa Kit so it's going to take some figuring in how I want to cut it into the fuselage.... Anyways, Onwards.... Thanks for following...

Me neither... {chuckle}