[ROB©]

Out of curiosity how much was the check they sent you for?

You can PM me the reply, i won't tell anyone if its supposed to be kept secret or something.

[MarkW]

 dr-evil.jpg (39.17K)
Number of downloads: 5
100 gajillion dolars.

Seriously, it's like $50 per published page or so. The rate depends on how much they do with text and photos, so each payout is slightly different.

[MarkW]

OK, finally something meaningful done. After continually trying to fix and clean up the extended stabs, I was running into the problem of trying to add detail to a hybrid surface. Even lightly tracing a panel line could cause a cave in or other some mess, and I realized I was spending all my time fixing errors instead of enhancing detail. So, I bit the bullet and decided to cast what I have, with the realization that fixing the casts will be easier than dorking around infinitely with the Frankentails.

The first pull, as expected, was a throw away. However, I noticed something very unpleasant--the resin had gone bad. In the picture below, you can see the canyons on the surface where the resin didn't cure and simply washed away when I cleaned up the parts:


After digging out a better batch of resin, I got this:


While not perfect, I only need two sets, and this is in the realm of relatively easy to clean up. The great news is the mold is in excellent shape, so if I do get more resin in, I can recast these puppies with better quality stuff for the second Raptor. Turns out this shape takes a ton of RTV and hardly any resin. Oh well.

[cwmodels]

Beautiful!

[MarkW]

Thanks!

OK, better news. I did another vert stab set tonight with refrigerated resin, and the surface roughness issue is gone much gone. I also built a more solid support box for the top of the mold, and am getting the proper thickness at the base now. Goodness all around!

[MarkW]

OK, time to make my mental list of "left to do":

• Install cockpit
  
• Interior painting for wing tip lights
  
• Join fuselage
  
• Rescribe nose panel lines
  
• Add flow/streamline things on nose
  
• Clean up surface flaws
  
• Polish canopy
  
• Thin HUD frame and install
  
• Finish canopy actuator area
  
• Make decision on exhaust area

The decision on the exhaust are a few. Do I bother with the angled look, especially with the nozzles mostly closed in flight? Do I pull it off with a decal (the cooling holes too)? What about the thin metal vents on the sides of the nozzle area?

Choices, choices.

This post has been edited by MarkW: 06 June 2010 - 05:54 PM

[ROB©]

Those magnets are pretty powerful, Have you tried to make it float yet?

[MarkW]

Nah...I'm only using one magnet, and while it could float the plane, it isn't balanced right. Given the weight involved, I'd need a lot bigger magnet set to get this thing to float more than a few mm anyway.


In the meantime, work continues on the drudgery of repairing and rescribing panel lines. Also getting the leading and trailing edges realistically thin, and continuing to repair the right lower wing leading edge section that I had to remove due to warping.

This is officially the un fun part of the build.

[PetarB]

Waiting to see more sir! Looking great.
In other news, Fujimi are releasing a very nice 1/72 version of the Raptor. A couple of years ago, I couldn't find a decent kit of this subject, and now we are spoilt for choice. If only someone did a YF-23...

[MarkW]

Yeah, the Testor's YF-23 takes waaaaaaayyy too much effort to look good.

[MarkW]

Very little done in the last month, but did get the fuselage joined. I had a bit of cleanup to do along the chine and wing leading edges, here shown with SGT:

Not surprising considering the full inlets are a teensy bit too tall, and the lower right wing leading edge was trashed. Also using SGT to help thin out the trailing edges a bit, and get better alignment on the trailing edges where the flaps line up with the rest of the wing. Continuing with cleaning up the panel lines, the worst by far was the underside of the nose, where you have very short, specific angles on the lines to play with.