Eurofighter – awful wings!

Although the wings are in place, it looks too awful!

Bent and tilted wings!
Bent and tilted wings!

I’m not sure what to do with this. The wings look awful!
I think I can make the right wing come up a bit and be straighter, but the other wing looks bent!

This kit is closer to the bin than any other kit ever been!

Glueing wings on the Eurofighter – part 1.

I don’t know what Revell had in mind when they constructed very small tabs for the wing support.

Small tabs for wing support.
Small tabs for wing support.

So I decided to do something about it to strenghten the joint. By adding tubes that fit into each other, I could get a much better stability.

Plastic tubes.
Plastic tubes.

Jumping a bit, but the leading edge needed some attention too.

Leading edge not matching.
Leading edge not matching.

Some sanding sorted that out.

Off with the tabs!

The tabs cut off and sanded.
The tabs cut off and sanded.

Rods added to the wing halves.

Rods added to the wings
Rods added to the wings.

Luckily I did a test fit against the fuselage. It turned out the rear wall section was in the way for having a tube going right through as I first had thought.
I also accidently shot away half of the smaller tube, and still haven’t found it. I replaced with a piece of sprue that matched the size of the bigger tube (with some minor sanding).

The larger tube also had to be shortened to fit, as I had to use my Dremel to cut part of the wall. I wish I had planned this tube thing before I glued the fuselage. So now there a sprue rod going right through the body in the front part and a short tube in the rear part.

Wing rods and tubes.
Wing rods and tubes.
The wings.
The wings.

After some adjusting, I got the first wing in place.

First wing in place.
First wing in place.

Quite ugly on the underside though.

Quite a gap!
Quite a gap!

Got a bit of a gap on the underside. By using some mild violence, it is possible to close the gap, at least somewhat, but I think super glue will be neccessary.

Both wings in place, but still some work to do to close the gaps and tidy it up.

Both wings in place.
Both wings in place!

Next I’ll sort the wing gaps, and then put back the IP and hopefully close the cockpit. I also need to figure if I need to add some weight in the nose.

Eurofighter fuselage glued!

Insserting the cockpit and rear wall was no problem, but glueing the fuselage took a while, partly due to being made of three parts. A bit wobbly to keep the fuselage together while glueing one section at the time.

Fuselage assembled.
Fuselage assembled.

I shouldn’t have glued the canards as Revell suggested, as both broke off, one by one. I have to sort that later and have them in a fixed position. Often pointing downwards when parked. At least from what I can see on walk around pics.

I’ve glued the nose halfs, engine and assembled the radar. Not sure if I’m going to show the radar yet, although the nose can be made movable.

Nose, engine and radar.
Nose, engine, radar and parts to the front of the intake.

I’ve also started re-scribing the wings. Not many panel lines to re-scribe, so it should be a pretty quick job.

Re-scribing the wing halves.
Re-scribing the wing halves.

Next I will assemble the wings and glue them to the body. After sorting the surfaces where the wings will go. Even though the contact area for the wings are pretty large, it seems like the tabs are a tad bit small.

Eurofighter cockpit done, I think!

I did a wash and then some minor dirtying down in the cockpit. I think I’ll leave it at that.

Cockpit done.
Cockpit done.
View from the rear.
View from the rear.

There are 2 decals for the small black side panels. I haven’t decided if I wanna use them yet.

Eurofighter cockpit almost done.

I used Magic Sculpt to add details to the ugly kit stick.

Improved stick
Somewhat improved control stick

Hopefully I didn’t make it worse. Perhaps a tad bit large.

I also made new rudder pedals from plastic. Here glued and painted.

Side panels painted and rudder pedals in place.
Side panels painted and ruddern pedals in place.

Control stick painted. I also added some bits of plastic to raise it somewhat.

Painted control stick.
Painted control stick.

The instrument panel was painted.

Instrument panel painted grey.
The instrument panel painted dk gull grey.

Then I painted the upper parts in black and added instrument decals.

Instrument panel with decals.
Instrument panel with decals.

Then I did a test fick of the whole cockpit.

Cockpit with stick and IP in place.
Cockpit with stick and IP in place.

With some wash and dirtying down I think it’ll look alright. At least a lot better than the things the kit provided.

Now I need to decide what to do with the “sight”. Next I think cockpit will be done and inserted into the fuselage.

Home made belts for the Eurofighter seats.

I decided to try to make seat belts with Magic Sculpt. So I mixed a small lump and rolled a thin layer on a bit of plastic. Then I let it dry for about 20 minutes before I started cutting stripes with a ruler and a sharp knife.
I then put those stripes where I wanted the belts to go.

Belts added.
Belts added.
Side view of the added belts.

A few more details and the seat is ready for paint.

Eurofighter – modifying the ejection seat.

From the start I had decided to build this kit ootb, but after looking at some pictures, I realised that the seat didn’t even look close to the real thing. So I decided to modify it a bit.
I started by removing the side walls from the backrest.

side panels removed.
Side panels removed.

Then I cut of the headrest, and made it thinner. Quite a bit of sawing. Then I cut some side panels for the seat.

Parts cut and taking form.
Parts cut and taking form.

The top part of the side panels was cut of and glued to the headrest. Right now it looks a bit ugly, but will look better once I’ve sanded and cleaned up all parts. I did a bit of a test fit.

test fit of seat in cockpit.
Test fit of seat in cockpit.

The side panels are a little too wide and needs to be sanded down a bit to fit and things needs to be straightened out, and the side panels for the backrest will be glued back.

I’ve also done some re-scribing on the fuselage. Not many lines, so it was a fairly quick job. Need to sort a few misses though.

The fuselage re-scribed
The fuselage re-scribed.