AREA 88 : "Break The Big Leg" (B-1A)

Spanjaard
i have no idea, so i will look behind your shoulder to see your idea 🙂

Greg Baker
Well, I realized yesterday that a 1/72 scale Carreidas 160, the fictional business jet that appears in Flight 714 is basically the same shape as a 1/144 B-1. The three main areas of modification needed would be a) where the wings connect to the fuselage needs to be a straight "Y" shape, so I'd need to remove the slope on the front and the tabs on the back; b) the tail cross piece would need to move to the top of the tail (and the back angle would need to be sharpened just a bit; c) I'd have to remove the squashed part of the fuselage over the wings and basically make a straight tube all the way down. I think I might know a cheap 747 kit that might fit the bill for that....

And just like that, a new project appeared!

Spanjaard
have fun 🙂

Greg Baker
So, I started the kitbash and my wife walks by and says "OMG! Now you're decapitating airplanes?" 😉

So I just yelled at her "what are you doing!? You haven't even scrubbed in! You'll contaminate the operating theatre!" 😉

I was kind of glad she didn't come in a bit sooner, the way the grey 747 was wiggling around as I sawed it's head off looked remarkably like, a fish...

Spanjaard
you even use the leftovers to make an eggplane 😄

Nils Steyaert
good looking project, a few years ago, ive seen a kitbashed Carreidas jet, built with a 1/48 Falcon 10 and a 1/72 F-111
modelbox.free.fr/dossiers/tintin/Carreidas_P/

Marcel Klemmer
Greg very, very interesting project.

Greg Baker
Thanks for the link Nils. The Falcon/Aardvark combo is interesting. I looked at the Falcon kit in 1/72, but couldn't figure out where to get the wings from. In the end, my $12 B-1 and $6 747 kits seemed a "close enough" option. I know it's a bit skinny near the cockpit... but hopefully not too noticeable in the end.

Choppa Nutta
You've got a good eye for seeing shapes you can use in various kits 👍

Greg Baker
That and a "good enough is good enough" attitude will get you far enough... 😉

LOL I posted pics on Imgur and one of the comments was "Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should"... Perhaps my surgical experimentation and mutant offspring offend some, but I wonder what they'd say if I attached a motorcycle to the queen from Alien. 😛

Spanjaard
ha ha ha. some people are too.... dogmatic 😛

Greg Baker
Now that's a good word to use. 🙂

Choppa Nutta
... Well I for one love this kind of crazy 😄

Gavin Snowdon
Huge fun!!! massive grins here.

Martin Oostrom
Love it. Others are just jealous 😉

Peter Jenssen
Looks cool, I love the Tintin stuff.
Always wanted to make a model of l'Icorne myself...

Greg Baker
After much humming and hawing, I've decided I need to cheat a bit on the cockpit. I knew the nose was a bit sharper than it should be, but it would require major, life-threatening surgery to try and fix... so we'll just have to live with it as-is. But by consequence, the cockpit is really too narrow for a 1/72 3-man crew. I guess i'll Just have to use the 1/144 seats that came with the kit. So, in that case, the cockpit will rudimentary and I plan to try and tint the windows to obscure vision. I usually hate blacking out the windows, but oh well.... just nobody tell Choppa it's out of scale... 😉

Spanjaard
it will look fantastic at the end 🙂

Greg Baker
So... I declare a do-over!

I stalled out on the cockpit because I could never really get the 1/144 B-1 to look like a 1/72 scale private jet. So it sat and sat on the shelf of doom. Then, vowing to return to my stalled projects, I picked this one up and then, after remembering why I put it down... I decided to return it to the project I'd originally bought the kit for... Saki's B-1 bomber from the manga series Area 88.

Luckily I never throw away interesting bits of plastic. After a bit of a search, I found the bits I'd cut off in my spares box. A bit of glue and we're back in action!

I do still want to build the Carreidas jet... but I'll need some more planning on that one.

Julian Herrero aka Yuri
Phantastic

Martin Oostrom
I object your honour. I reserved a seat for a Tintin build. Not some warmongering item!
😄

Greg Baker
Thanks Julian... as for you Martin... stay tuned. There are plenty more Tintin builds to come. I just really need to clear off my "shelf of doom" as it's starting to look like a graveyard. 🙂

Greg Baker
I had put this one on hold when I was teased that the Dragon B-1B would be back in production in 2018... but that doesn't look likely... so it's back to the drawing... er... scribing board.

Greg Baker
Welcome aboard! This build has had change of destiny - twice. I bought the kit for this project, then switched it to a Tintin project... then back to the original Area 88 project... then been put on hold while I waited for a better offer... and now back again. The show might not be worth it, but the drama should be entertaining enough~

Spanjaard
Show will certainly be worth looking it 🙂

Greg Baker
Today on the Greg Show... panel scribing! Tune in tomorrow for... more panel scribing!

Greg Baker
After several days of scribing, putty to cover the mistakes (and other defects) and sanding, I'm still a ways away. I moved some panel lines on the wings, so I got to the point where I had too many lines and was confusing myself. I had to cover it with some paint just to check my progress. Otherwise I'll keep going over the whole thing again and again, even the parts that don't need more work.

Peter Hardy
If you promise not to put shark's teeth on it I will follow!

Greg Baker
Let me check my reference pic... yep. We're good... no shark teeth!

John Thomas
WOW, Greg, You are just a Modeling Machine, nice work

Greg Baker
A Rube Goldberg Modeling machine maybe... 😉

Anyway, I finally got all the panel scribing done and endless hours of sanding later, it's time to turn our attention to the engines. I'm still waiting on some eBay supplies for both the cockpit and the engines, but at least I can box in the intakes and start sanding down the seams and scribing the panels on the nacelles.

Donald Dickson II
OK, you HAVE to work sharks teeth into this one now. 😉 LOL

Oliver Zwiener
Following 😉

Peter Hardy
I feel my heart sinking!

Greg Baker
Thanks guys! Lode, if anyone would know small stuff, it's you. 😉

One of the reasons I'm only getting around to the cockpit now is I had a had time getting 1/144 pilots I could live with. The size seems to vary from "uhhh.. a bit smaller than 1/100" to "just make it tiny, no one will notice anyway" so it's been hard to find a happy medium. Since the cockpit is closed (and maybe tinted, I'm still deciding) I didn't spend too much time on the pilots... just made them different enough to give me the satisfaction that one of them is Saki and the other is his co-pilot. Painting sunglasses ona 1/144 figure was tough though... first I had to remove his oxygen mask without taking off his whole head! 🙂

Bart Goesaert
Nice work so far, unfortunately I'll have to follow your steps of scribing when I'll tacle this one. Still one of the reasons to push it deeper in the heep.

John Thomas
Hey Greg, did you go to Med School? Thats alot of Plastic Surgery. Very nice work.

Greg Baker
If I'd gone to med school, I'd have been sued for malpractice... so I operate without a license!

Bart Goesaert
Never heard a patient complaining after plastic surgery, does that qualify for licence?

Choppa Nutta
nice work 🙂

Peter Hardy
Didn't even know the B1 had afterburners! Shows how ignorant I am!

Greg Baker
Thanks Lode! Of course I need to resort to gimmicks to keep up with this crowd. It seems to have worked though, I even managed to capture Choppa's attention!

Bart, I think usually a license is required, but I also hang out at whatifmodellers.com/index.php and those guys operate outside the law. I've seen some things... 😉

Oh, and Peter, we never belabour anyone's ignorance around here. [quickly checks Wikipedia to see if B-1 bombers have afterburners or not], but EVERYONE knows that each of the engines on a B-1 have a dry thrust of 17,390 lbf (77.4 kN) each; but the thrust with afterburner is 30,780 lbf (136.92 kN). 😉

Peter Hardy
I knew that! Sort of.

Bart Goesaert
I felt those once at an airshow. It made a low pass (10m). You couldn't hear it coming, nu when it passed, you got blown out of your socks... And that was just below mach1...
Those engines were F-16 engines if I remember correctly.

John Thomas
Hey Greg, the LED's look Great. Were did you get them and what power source do you use. I have a F-14 project in mind that LED's would look very cool in.

Greg Baker
Thanks John. I just got a bunch of orange LEDs from a local electronics shop and wired them myself and connected them to a 3V (disk) battery. It's pretty easy to order a bunch off eBay or AliExpress though. They're cheap and usually come pre-wired with resistors set for 6-9V battery set-ups. Don't forget to get a switch too, unless you want to pull out the battery to turn it off. 😉

Choppa Nutta
Credit where due Greg 😉
Gotta say though I'm liking the Area 88 theme and I like the way you put a collection of models together, usually in the same scale too, which is nice as they can all sit together 🙂
I particularly like the Tintin presentations on those cute wooden plaques with a printed title on the front.
Have you put these collections into their respective gallery albums yet ?

Greg Baker
Thanks Choppa. The "all together in one happy scale" bit is a central theme of mine. 😉

The 1/144 Area 88 project has captured my attention at the moment and I'm really enjoying trying to recreate scenes (or themes) from the manga series. I'm trying to be a bit creative with the "in action" presentations so that the planes (or tanks) can be mixed/matched a bit for display and photos. It's pushing my "creative solutions" button, but I'm still trying to figure out how I can use Shin's Kfir as part of both the 747-200 build I've got waiting in the wings as well as upside down and partnered with the current (though stalled) DC-10-30 build. I'm thinking magnets... or maybe a rod with a rotating end that attaches to the engine rather than the fuselage.

I'm quite proud of my Tintin collection and I have plans to grow it. Next up will be an experiment to see if I can turn paper model templates for a Citroen 2CV and a Udet-12 Flamingo (both suitably box-like to begin with) into 1/72 scale plastic models. I've already got little wooden stands set aside for them. 😉

And I haven't forgotten about my Ghibli projects. My incomplete Ohmu diorama from Nausicaa is still staring at me from the shelf (with all 14 eyes!) and I'm currently hunting down a 1/72 scale Audi A4 that I can use as Chihiro's Dad's car from Spirited Away (not much of a stretch maybe, but it's the only major film I don't have solidly represented yet.

I have the builds organized into my main 3.5 collections here on Scalemates, but I actually started a blog (strobez.ca/wp/) to give some context and background thoughts to my grouped builds. All the Tintin ones are up (strobez.ca/wp/index.php/tintin/) but I'm still uploading the Ghibli and Area 88 ones.

Choppa Nutta
Cool and lots of work going on there, very prodigious ! 🙂
I look forward to the pics coming to SCM albums 😉 😄

Greg Baker
Got some primer on and checked all the panel lines. There are still a few spots that need some work, but I think they're manageable. This is an old kit and I didn't really do myself any favours by being lazy on some of the panel scribing (not to mention cutting the whole thing in half for a different project and then changing my mind!). It's funny though, last night I was getting quite frustrated and felt like the kit was going sideways on me... but this morning, after a quick peek on my way out the door to my real job, it didn't seem nearly as bad. Luckily I've been down this road before and I knew I should just walk away before I made any rash decisions I would later regret.

Donald Dickson II
Its looking good. Lindberg kits need a little patience sometimes. LOL

Peter Hardy
Greg, correction. Should read "... before I made any MORE rash decisions I would later regret". You cut the thing in half for pity's sake!

Anyway, I am intrigued with an American bomber and 3 Russian fighters the plot is at the very least complicated!

Greg Baker
The plot's not that complicated... the story is set is set in an apartment in Seoul. With such cramped quarters friends and enemies alike are forced to share the workbench. It's bound to happen that someone is going to get unceremoniously shoved out of the way so that I can take a picture or two... 😉

Anyway, I got some paint on. A relatively light coat of grey for under shading and the first of what will likely be several coats of white to bring it back.

Peter Hardy
Me too Lode but don't tell him!

Greg Baker
Hah! I'm not quite sure what part of this (or any) of my builds can be described as "artistic", but that sounds like a compliment, so I'll take it. I'm just glad someone else is interested enough in what I'm doing to follow along. Wouldn't be the first time I've talked to myself in an empty room, but it's not me preference. 😉

It's certainly a mutual admiration though, Lode. I'd love to see one of your builds come together using time-lapse photography.

Greg Baker
Ok, so the B-1 is back to being bite again. The under shadow is a bit more obvious that it is in the picture, but I'm trying to decide if it's subtle enough. More paint? Hmmm... let's review tomorrow...

Greg Baker
So, I got tired of basically posting up the same pictures of a white... more white, less white, more white plane. But for the first time, I really took John Thomas' advice and sanded the paint. Usually ai'm terrified of going near a paint job with any kind of sandpaper, but this time the surface was so rough I felt like I had no choice. So I got out the 3000 grit paper and started a bit of light sanding. It was a bit tricky, and I think aim over did it in a couple of spots, but it did make the paint job much much smoother... even after giving it one last paint coat tonight.

Into the home stretch now.

Greg Baker
Ok... so we're almost done. I finished painting the white then masked off the nose and the engines and painted them... then I repainted the over sprayed parts white again, and remarked the engines, and painted them again... 😛

After everything was dry I gave the whole thing a coat of Future... and then immediately regretted it. It seems my dipping tub was contaminated, so I ended up spraying a bunch of lint and dust onto the newly repainted model. aRgh!

After picking most of it off with tweezers, I gave in another coat. After it was dry I washed the panel lines with a dark grey. Happy with the results, but still some decals to apply and wiring to do before she's done. Done.

Spanjaard
Lode, it is only one plane 😉 Greg changed his mind from the initial idea

Spanjaard
looking very good by the way.

Spanjaard
absolutely 🙂

Peter Hardy
And Spanjaard has produced nothing for weeks!!

Spanjaard
Not for the past two weeks, since i was on holidays.... but actually i have been busy on something for months... that i have not yet published.... ahhhhh, now you are intrigued 🙂

Greg Baker
First off, I don't know why, but it makes me proud that Lode thought this was still a kitbash. 🙂 The confusion is understandable since I didn't really broadcast the change-0-switch-o part. I originally bought the kit to do this project - Saki's B-1 from Area 88 - but then got an idea to use it for a Tintin build to kitbash the Carreidas 160. I couldn't make the cockpit work, so I switched it back. having said that, the fact that I started this build by cutting the plane in half first kinda made it feel like a kitbash anyway. I'm just glad I didn't lose any of the cut off bits.

Once the decals are on, I still have some decisions to make regarding the base. I'm a little worried about setting a precedent for my 1/144 Area 88 project builds. I like to have them all displayed as a theme (much like my Tintin builds), but I'm having trouble figuring out how to incorporate batteries and wires (and multiple planes) into the base that I already used (and planned to re-use) for my "Bloody Screw" project. Decisions, decisions. 😉

I'm also very glad to hear that Spanjaard has been cooking up something for us. I've also noticed the lull in production and been thinking for the last couple of weeks that I should revive the "Black Bunny" love-in for a bit. 🙂

Peter Hardy
Should I avert my eyes and leave you two alone for a while?

Dave Flitton
Looking good, Greg!! I like he engine glow, looks cool.

Greg Baker
A bit of wood, a few decals and a homemade button for the afterburner LEDs... we're done... now just waiting for the F-4E Phantom to join... stay tuned for Part 2!

John Thomas
More outstanding work and a very nice base

Choppa Nutta
liking the display here 🙂

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. Placing a decal that big was a challenge... and I screwed it up a bit in a couple of places, but not so badly that I was willing to abandon the effort. I like the base too, but it takes up more room on the shelf than I thought... 😉

Bart Goesaert
Looking good nonetheless...

for such decals, they can take a lot of work, what I do is making the surface a bit wet with water, just to make it more easy to position the decal (it slides better that way). When it is positioned correctly I suck the "water" from underneath it with a flat brush ([img1]). I also use this brush to squeeze the water from underneath, starting from the middle to the outer borders. then I'll push the decal with this brush gently in the recesses. Now I repeat this process (as necessary), but with decal setting, when airbubbles form you can make a tiny hole, or try to push them to the outside... it's a tedious work, for large decals, but rewarding...

Donald Dickson II
Looks great! Cant even tell you did a Darth Maul on it.😉

Spanjaard
very nicely done Greg

Peter Hardy
Get a bigger shelf Greg. Decal has no flaws, I don't know what you are talking about.

Choppa Nutta
ah I thought you had drawn it, didn't realise it was a decal ...

Greg Baker
"Did a Darth Maul on it" LMAO. Thanks guys. I really appreciate the tips Bart. I basically did what you mentioned, but it would've been easier with a brush like that... instead of my thumb. As you can see, if you look closely at the F-4E's drop tanks on the decal... my thumb is neither as flat nor as soft as a brush. I got it on alright, but I couldn't really spin in as much as I thought I'd be able to. Shin's helmet has a bit cut out to go under the battery cover, but I couldn't quite get it there. At least I put it on somewhat close to where it was supposed to go. Oh well, what's done is done.

Donald Dickson II
I am going to presume you printed those decals yourself. So kudos there. My printer cant manage it. I am also clueless as to how to even use the program. LOL Anyway, it looks fantastic man! I use paper towels and qtips myself for water removal.