ozief16

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Thanks guys, the compliments mean a lot coming from you three

I’ll keep posting then

the Misty contact has been invaluable from a life perspective and cool for the model building too. Those guys did “it” and did it well. 28% shoot down rate with 4 shot down twice. Crazy

I offered if they were near Nellis to open up the squadron bar and feed them scotch as long as they told stories in return. I’m half afraid they’ll drink us dry. Nobody has told these guys they’re in their 80s/90s. I think their brains are still 25 and flying combat sorties

Today I worked on the external tanks. If you’ve ever seen one in real life you realize the fins are huge! Knowing me I’m likely to kick one of those damn things off so I would like them removeable. My intent is to put the fins on the tanks for events but not daily flying when I cut the aft end of the tank off I was surprised to find a 1/4” balsa central keel back there. That actually will make the process of making the aft part of the tank with fins removeable. I’ll put two blade spars on either side of the keel so I can put a bolt through them.

I also got my stickers from warpug for the bypass and they look great!


thanks for letting me post Roger

More pics to follow

ozief16

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Inside of the tank. Also of note the tail end of the tank has a funny angle to it on the FS so this will allow me to replicate that at the same time

ozief16

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Ps- both the books you mention Roger were written by (or edited/compiled by) Don Sheppard. He has been my primary contact with the guys and has been an absolutely invaluable contact. He suggested “Misty” as a great bathroom read. It’s a series of stories from the various Misty’s compiled in one location and are all 5-10 min reads. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in that era of fighter aviation

roger.alli

BV put me on to those books. Astonishing stories.

The tanks are a mini build all on their own. As you said the geometry of the fins is a bit funky and care is required to get them lined up with flight direction.
With the tanks fitted to the model, the fins are actually in the space between the wing and the stab, so they are 'kind of' protected in there. The pitot probe on the other hand!! I’ve had a few Ahhhh $%!T moments with that item.

I have never flown mine without tanks.. Apparently they go pretty good.

Like what you have done on the gear doors.

ozief16

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As Roger said, everything on this plane is a mini-build all its own and the tanks are no exception

My intent is to fly the airplane daily without the tank fins, but for an event I’ll put them on. By doing this I was also able to make the tanks more scale. See pics for details

Heres how I did that:

Here is how the tanks come stock with a straight spine

Here’s the three view of the tanks

And the three view with a straight edge applied. Notice the funny little downturn in the very aft turn at the end

This is the end product

I cut the aft part off where that aft panel line is



I installed .030” poly ply tabs

ozief16

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Next up is to build the fins;(

ozief16

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Roger

ive been trying to figure out if I can put some magnets in the pitot tube for exactly that reason. Damn thing extends forward almost 12 inches

CraigG

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You will be smart to figure out a way to install/remove it easily, Guaranteed,100 percent, take-it-to-the-bank, that if left in place it will get kicked off/bent on a regular basis. If not by you (which you will), then by every other pilot or spectator that comes close. It happened with the much shorter nose pitot tube on my old (your current) F-4. If you can work out a magnet arrangement, that would be ideal.

PS: Nice job on the tank fins.

ozief16

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Craig,
I know you’re right. Hence all the extra effort. A whole day ‘wasted’ to make the aft end of those tanks removeable. Sucks to work all day and say “and now the tank is at the same it place before I spent the whole day”. That said adding that little kink in the end makes them more scale too

Ps-Here she sits Craig! Starting her 22nd season and still looks amazing. No one can believe it’s as old as it is with 250+ flights at this point

ozief16

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Today’s work has been on the fins. They will be fairly stock except I will add a leading edge piece to smooth out that transition a little better/more scale

ozief16

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This is with the piece of wood glued into the leading edge

Rounded edge

Semi-finished product
Stock/manual is to pinch the leading edges and trailing edges together and glue them. With the trailing edges that works and looks good. The leading edges, however, didn’t look right. There is very little material forward of the spar so the 3/32 ply sides don’t bend all that well. The manual calls for scoring the ply so it bends better. A friend, who’s a heck of a builder, suggested tapering a piece of 1/8x1/8 basswood and inserting it in the LE and then rounding that off...so that’s what I did and love the effect

ozief16

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Trying to keep the hands good

three today on this old gal. Still going strong!

ozief16

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Guys,
Yesterday and today was spent honoring my wife as a mother and working on sealing/priming they fins for the tanks and the rocket pods

The Misty FACs carries two LAU-59 rocket pods with seven each Willie Pete (White Phosphorus) rockets for marking targets

Thankfully I have a buddy that’s great with 3D printer and happens to be a Weapons troop (contractor) for the AF so he knows these pods personally. He printed the front and back end of the LAU-59 pod and I bought the Cardboard tubes from erockets.com. I added BVM hatch latches to attach them to the pylons. Very happy with how this all turned out

Front end of the pod

Back end

Back end again

ozief16

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Pod on pylon

Attachment method

ozief16

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Note rhat the ends aren’t at the correct orientation yet. They’re simply slid into place

Bob_B

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Nice work!

ozief16

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Thanks Bob!

todays work centered on wet sanding the tank fins and the flaps. Man I hate this process

i was able to glue the fins on one tank. I’ll do the other one tomorrow

I’ll add a hysol filet around the fins once both sides are done

the first couple pics are of the fins slid roughly into place. They were fitted much tighter later as you see in the later photos



This is what the fins look like when removed. I’m very happy with how this part turned out. The removability works just like I want it to


Tank alongside the fuse

ozief16

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Today’s efforts focused on getting the fins on the second tank as well as the anti-sway braces on the outboard pylons

Second tank looks the same as the first so a pic is unnecessary. This is the anti-sway braces on one of the outer pylons

roger.alli

All looks very familiar. .

I like the Willie Pete rocket pods. I searched the internet high and low to find a pic of that weapon but couldn't find any detail photos at all.

This model is going to be stunning.

ozief16

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Roger,

Don’t hold your breath quite yet! Still plenty of opportunity to F it away!!! Thank you though. Happy to send you a couple pods if you need for yours. My buddy Sean has been amazing for that. The pods I had fromD4S for those pods absolutely did not compare in the least. They were the wrong size by far and the ends didn’t look right at all. Very lucky to run into the people I have.

To me it's about the story. My big F-4 was about the story of it being my dads jet. This one is about this group of guys just trying to stop bullets from making it far enough south to kill young Americans and the stuff they got themselves into. Absolutely phenomenal group of guys doing the J. O B.

ozief16

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Today I got the second rocket pod to the same place as the first. Amazing how much faster the second one goes once the engineering is figured out

i also did some filling and priming on the vents in the hatch

Finally I glasseD the rudder. Hoping that works out. I squeegeed the excess off towards the aft. Hoping there isn’t a huge pile of resin that I have to deal with later

Buck asked me how much more there is today. Great question. It’s a lot of filling and sanding to do next. The aft fuse doesn’t fit the forward one all rhat well. Probably because it was later to the D model forward fuse and the F was an afterthought that wasn’t quite perfect. I’ve used Evercoat for years as a filler. Buck suggested Dolphin Glaze. He says it sands easier and is just as strong. I may give it a whirl because I hate this process...second only to filling and sanding the flaps/rudder

im guessing another month before paint and a month or so of that and then another month or two weathering it and gearing it up. Hoping to fly it NLT the first of October

yeahbaby

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And then taking it to Phoenix for the Arizona jet rally in November! Keep up great work amigo.

ozief16

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That’s exactly right Buck

Don Sheppard, former Misty, retired two star etc lives in Tucson and will come up if his schedule allows during AZ Jets. He’s been my primary contact with the Mistys and has been immensely helpful

Dave

ozief16

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Guys,

Does anyone have the D4Sinstructions for the nose gear hydraulic unit? I have the molded parts but not the instructions. I can piece it together but much time will be saved if anyone has them

Thanks
Dave

bruno borges

[QUOTE=ozief16;12605790]Guys,

Does anyone have the D4Sinstructions for the nose gear hydraulic unit? I have the molded parts but not the instructions. I can piece it together but much time will be saved if anyone has them

Thanks
Dave


Hi,

you would have the website where you bought it. I need one of these.

😃