JetMads 1/32 Viggen

[DocRob]

Great work on the burner can, Gus. The fit generally seems to be ok-ish, but the detailing looks fantastic. You´ll need a lot of patience with this build, I guess.
Some years ago, I enlarged my spray booth, using a large transparent plastic container, duct taped to the vent box of my old booth. I described what I did in this thread, a simple fix. You´ll need a bigger booth, Gus to stay in adopted movie terms not Ad bullshit, which is the same here, but I seldom watch it.

Cheers Rob

[PanzerWomble]

3 hours ago, GusMac said:

Yes, she's getting fairly weighty now, will save me doing some of my weight training with the missus.

Given the length she's going to be, I've been pondering your method with the Lightning and contemplating doing at least some of the basic painting before I add the nose section. It'll be a very tight fit in the paint booth either way.

I remember reading that the Icelandic models buccaneer was something like 9kgs of resin 😢

[GusMac]

So after a couple of rounds of filling and sanding with the Bondo putty I've put some primer down to see where we are. Apologies for the crappy pics, it's big and heavy enough now to be difficult to move and hold and hang onto the phone!

So, a bit more work needed, mainly on the underside. A lot is just hairline cracks in the Bondo so I'm moving on to the grey Tamiya putty as I hope the finer grain should deal with this.

I'll now show what I'm facing next and it's got me a bit worried as I'm unsure how best to approach it.

The wing root is correct at the leading edge and tight against the 3D printed tail piece at the join area but I've got this big gap and the bottom of the wing sits about 2mm proud of the corresponding 3D printed section.

Another angle to show what I'm meaning. The problem is I'm constrained by the position of the inferior reverse thruster vent as you can see below.

I can't grind down the wing as the flaps wouldn't fit correctly so I'm going to have to lose the difference in the short distance to the thruster vent. 

My plan is to plug the worst of the gaps with plasticard and then blend it with filler as I think all filler would be too prone to cracking, etc. Does anyone with experience of these type of kits think that's a sensible plan? I'm kind of stuck until I sort this out.

It's a bit weird as the tail piece and wings fit perfectly everywhere else but something seems to have propagated to produce this. I know others have moaned about the wing fit on other forums but that's mainly been around the topside fit. 

[PanzerWomble]

Are you a fan of the old Halfords Grey Primer ? I don't use it everytime but it's fill properties can help with this sort of micro cracks ? 

Big cracks I've moved towards black superglue these days as it won't shrink and can help to bond , both of which fillers fail at.

[BlrwestSiR]

Maybe try a 2 part epoxy putty for filling the gap. Mix some up, fill the gaps and then do the basic shaping with wet tools before it sets. This could cut down on how much sanding you need to do after. It's what I've done to make the new nacelles on my F-15 Kai.

[GusMac]

Thanks fellas. I might give the Milliput a try Carl as saving on the sanding definitely sounds like a plus.

[Peterpools]

Gus

Yikes, the Viggen is really turning into a challenge. For any gap that it too big for CA and I wouldn't trust filler on for fear of cracking down the road, I go with small pieces of strip styrene, sanded to shape, solid down the road. The only issue is the initial strip needs to be glued to the fuselage with CA or epoxy, as it is the weak link with resin.    

[GusMac]

Thanks Peter, I think I'm just learning about the challenges of resin kits. 

In the end I've gone for a hybrid of your's and Carl's suggestions. A styrene base with a skin of Miliput over the top. It's looking good so far but just needs a bit more blending and sanding. Will post some pics later. 

[Peterpools]

Gus

Glad it's working out and everything is under control. Just seems with a 3D resin kit, you shouldn't have had some of the fit issues you are experiencing.

 

[GusMac]

Not sure if I've just been unlucky Peter or if I've screwed something up somewhere. Other's builds have shown some gaps but nothing quite as big as this. It's almost like the 3D printed tail section is too small but anyway I think I'm there with the fix. Fingers crossed anyway!

[Peterpools]

Sure hope so, as I've also followed a number of builds and none seem to have had anywhere near a gap that large. 

 

[GusMac]

Well, a major bit of progress tonight....

Glued the front fuselage on, so we have the bulk of the airframe together.

This view gives a better sense of scale and clearly confirms that it's not fitting in the spray booth! May have to look into Rob's suggestion for expanding the booth to let it fit.

I also got the front windscreen removed from the casting block and trimmed and sanded to fit. Haven't glued it yet as I'm slightly unsure as to the best adhesive to use for a resin clear part. My go to is the PVA you can see behind it but I'm not sure how well that works with resin. All suggestions welcome!

[Peterpools]

Gus

Awesome progress. looking might good  and the Viggen is one big bird for sure. If CA is too risky, I would always default to Micro's Kyrstal Kleer, which I use to attack most of my canopies with no matter what the modeling material is. 

 

 

[GusMac]

Got all the main underside components on now.

The casting of the pylons was pretty ropey so lots of clean up needed and the belly pylons are going to need a good bit of filler after the epoxy cures properly. The top edge of the pylon is essentially flat while the actual under surface has lots of curves and no flat point! The underwing pylons needed clamping to get them to conform to the curve of the wing but that was fairly easy to achieve.

Next up, after filling around the belly pylons, is flipping it over and doing all the topside pieces, main ones being the canards and tail. Ready for primer soon hopefully,

[DocRob]

Starts to look seriously Viggen, Gus, except the Canard wings, of course. You seem to have a good pace with the Swedish bird now. I would have left the pylons off until after painting the splinter, I guess.

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

Got some time off work this week Rob as I have to use my remaining days before the end of this month, so been able to really get at it. I did think about leaving the pylons off but the other builds I've been following for hints, etc installed them now, so I just followed suit.

So, today's progress - 

Got the belly pylons smoothed in and so it was onto the topside. The canards went on surprisingly easily and the tail was a drop fit. Some filling required around both where the fine edges of the fillets have been chipped and broken but shouldn't be too onerous. Hoping to get it primed later this week.

I've certainly learned a lot about working with resin and although there's a lot of prep and the filling, sanding loop, you actually make pretty quick progress once you get going as all the bigger parts as single piece castings, so it grows fast.

Also learned that another tool you need is a box of sticking plasters! 🚑 Managed to stab myself with the microchisels twice in the last couple of days during parts cleanup. If I had a swear box I might have saved enough to buy another of these! 😁

[Peterpools]

Gus

Looking mighty good and your constant progress and overcoming the 'pitfalls' of the kit should be a lesson for us all: when there is a will, there is a way. Of course, I should be first on that line. 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Definitely taking notes for the time when I finally start mine. Great progress and can't wait to start seeing the paint go on. 

[GusMac]

Thanks fellas. It's been fun so far with a lot of learning along the way. Main learning point is that it isn't nearly as scary as I'd thought. 😆

As long as you take your time and do the prep properly and test fit everything it's actually not too different from IM other than having to use epoxy and CA for everything. That does the advantage though that everything is rock solid, you could beat someone to death with this thing now!

Carl, virtually everything I'm doing is copied from Aigore's build over on LSP. I'd recommend looking it up and bookmarking it before you start as he's got some great photos in it - way better than mine.

[Clunkmeister]

On 3/12/2024 at 4:23 PM, GusMac said:

So after a couple of rounds of filling and sanding with the Bondo putty I've put some primer down to see where we are. Apologies for the crappy pics, it's big and heavy enough now to be difficult to move and hold and hang onto the phone!

So, a bit more work needed, mainly on the underside. A lot is just hairline cracks in the Bondo so I'm moving on to the grey Tamiya putty as I hope the finer grain should deal with this.

I'll now show what I'm facing next and it's got me a bit worried as I'm unsure how best to approach it.

The wing root is correct at the leading edge and tight against the 3D printed tail piece at the join area but I've got this big gap and the bottom of the wing sits about 2mm proud of the corresponding 3D printed section.

Another angle to show what I'm meaning. The problem is I'm constrained by the position of the inferior reverse thruster vent as you can see below.

I can't grind down the wing as the flaps wouldn't fit correctly so I'm going to have to lose the difference in the short distance to the thruster vent. 

My plan is to plug the worst of the gaps with plasticard and then blend it with filler as I think all filler would be too prone to cracking, etc. Does anyone with experience of these type of kits think that's a sensible plan? I'm kind of stuck until I sort this out.

It's a bit weird as the tail piece and wings fit perfectly everywhere else but something seems to have propagated to produce this. I know others have moaned about the wing fit on other forums but that's mainly been around the topside fit. 

Using styrene strips is the only durable way to attack that permanently.  Shape it before you glue it.

[GusMac]

Thanks Ernie, that's pretty much what I ended up doing with a skim of filler over the top to blend it in. 

I'm learning a lot as I go along and it's a lot of fun. 

[Clunkmeister]

Gus, this is looking amazing!  Just catching up on your build.  I’m glad your micro chisel wasn’t a macro chisel….

I bled all over my hobby room floor after my a #11 blad and handle rolled off my bench and went straight down into the top of my foot.  
It ruined a good pair of socks, and Joy was unimpressed with the level of copious arterial bleeding.  She told me to suck it up, be a man, and mop up the mess before it strainers her wood flooring. 

[GusMac]

Thanks Ernie. Thankfully the chisel didn't go in too deep so the bleeding stopped pretty quickly.

A scalpel straight to the foot sounds nasty. Thankfully avoided that one so far although have had a couple of near misses. My wife is getting seriously into her upholstery so I might 'borrow' her leather apron for protection.

[Clunkmeister]

8 hours ago, GusMac said:

Thanks Ernie. Thankfully the chisel didn't go in too deep so the bleeding stopped pretty quickly.

A scalpel straight to the foot sounds nasty. Thankfully avoided that one so far although have had a couple of near misses. My wife is getting seriously into her upholstery so I might 'borrow' her leather apron for protection.

The fear is real.  A #11 to the tender tootsies is no laughing matter 

[Peterpools]

As much as I hate to join the #11 cub of injuries and mishaps, I've had more then my share and was even banned from using them by the 'chief' until I could demonstrate I was able to use them once again with great care. I now have switched over mostly to handles that won't roll off the bench such as Tamiya or one other brand but forgot the brand name. I also have a small tray I keep on the bench and need to keep reminding myself to put the #11 knifes in there every time I put them down and that also goes for my modeling chisels as well.  

Of course, cutting yourself with the knifes when using them is a whole other story and I'm a member in that club as well with dues paid up for years to come.