captain america

Extremely mean and dangerous! Sometimes the best projects are the throw-away designs the original art team didn't mangle. So this is me throwing my hat into the ring with an offer for a second run, this time with decals and commensurate price bump. Please forgive the rickety build, it's barely holding together with hot glue.

Instructions are done!

I did.

All the kits went out in two batches: one on Friday, the other earlier today. Once it's in the hands of UPS, there's a myriad of factors that influence transit time.

This is what's in the box. It's not shown, but I'm also including a small piece of metalized acetate to make the HUD from.

Kits are being packed-up and should start shipping on Monday. Jose Jauregui: please PM me!

Decal placement guide and decal layout finalized. f203 dragunn decals artwork.ai f203 dragunn decals artwork.cdr

Now that's a beautiful Norbert-Gerard!

Hi guys. Just wanted to check-in and say that my silence of late has not been in vain. I'm currently at mid-point in the production run and things are going beautifully! I should be done with the bulk of the casting by the end of next week, and will dedicate myself to the decal artwork and then the kits will ship. If someone could suggest a way to host the decal files for people to download, I'd really appreciate it. They're really simple, 2 colors only (grey + black) for the low-viz scheme.

Captain's Log: Tuedsay, July 26th. 1/72 F-203B Dragunn resin kit scratchbuild update. Supply shortages are a frustrating matter! I just received my mold material yestarday, so I'll be able to complete the remaining molds... Now waiting on my resin shipment. Thankfully, I should be able to get through most of the production run with the resin I have on hand. All the tiny parts which were a concern for me have been casting very well. The clear canopies are underway as well, and looking extremely good right out of the mold. I'm also working on the markings for the fighter, which I may simply offer as free artwork that you can download & print yourself. It will also include a color & markings placement guide.

I went with smooth, simply because if I add detail to the burner can, it will only make it harder to fill that seam afterward. The way I designed it, you can putty & sand the burner, and then drop the flame ring in at the end so that it doesn't get damaged. Because of the zozzle design, the cans are quite well shrouded from most viewing angles. The ejector pin mark on the nose wheels is my bad: I should've filled them, but I forgot. More good news is that the landing gear struts all came out beautiful The main gears probably didn't need a metal insert, but I added one anyway just to be safe. At some point, we may need a 2-seat attack variant of this thing.

Captain's Log: Monday, July 18th, 2022. Molding is going well! The bulk of the masters have now been molded, but because everything is either slow or delayed these days, I'm waiting on the materials I need to finish the remainder of the molds, so the frustration continues. As such, I'll use this time to try to mold as many of the very delicate parts as I can and get those out of the way.

Thank you, you're most welcome. Truly I have been humbled over the years by the faith people have had to fund my projects, sight unseen, believing that they would meet expectations. I can't express how much I appreciate everyone who has helped to make projects like these a reality, because the truth is, I couldn't have done it without your help. Here are some final pics before I commit the masters to mold-prep. Please excuse the floppy gear bay doors, which are held with Tamiya tape: once I add the hinges, the only way to build the doors closed will be to trim those hinges off, just like your average Hasegawa kit. Some very fine detail parts are going to be extremely challenging to mold, so please pray that everything goes smoothly! One pleasant surprise is that the Dragunn doesn't do a wheelie on its tailpipes, even with all the weight shifted aft. The main struts will have brass inserts for added strength, and a few small details were omitted from the pics to avoid losing or damaging them, like the teeny-tiny control stick and the door for the refuelling probe. The canopy will be clear, of course, and the casting for those is already underway.

It. Is. Finished! Or at least mostly finished. Behold: the F-203B DRAGUNN II Air Combat Fighter in all its glory! Perhaps it's just me who has low standards, but this thing turned out better than I could have hoped for! Please not that these pics depict flight configuration with gear up. Early next week I will have pix of the parked bird with gear, cockpit and refuelling probe. This thing is just glorious to behold, and reminds me of an F-15E. As you can see, the kit will include a centerline fuel tank and 8 medium-range and 4 short range missiles. The slight compromise here is that the missiles will need to be cast on their pylons because they're just too spindly to cast properly otherwise, and believe me, I tried! You will also have the option to build the exhaust nozzles drooping, or canted slightly upward. I've added a data link dome behind the cockpit, as well as an IRST ball on the nose. Several other small doohickies will be integrated when I disassemble and begin mold-prep. If the wings look gappy, it's just because the parts fit very tight, and I didn't want to risk damaging the masters, which I kinda already did because the tolerances are tight AF! However nice the old Tanmen kit may have seemed, I encourage you to compare it side-by-side with this modernized version and draw your own conclusions. Mold-prep begins next week, after I do final wheels-down photography. Stay tuned!

Captain’s log: Thursday, June 29th, 2022. I decided to leave the hollowing of the intake trunks until late into the build, simply because I needed to do a lot of exterior refining first. Once the intake tunnels are made, the structure becomes very delicate and prone to damage so I’d have to be very careful in my handling of the parts. Pic 36 shows exactly what I’m refering to. Here you can see the intake body having been emptied both fore and aft, as well as the two master plugs which will be used to recreate the intake tunnel (left) and the burber can (center). The latter component is a complex geometry that goes from a circular shape to a rectangular one, which is needed to mate to the squared vectoring nozzles. Pic 37: putty is mixed and spread onto the forms, and these are then smooshed into place within the intake bodies. This is a more stressful operation than it might seem at first glance, because the surface being created is large and the overall structure thin and fragile. If the mold release is improperly applied, the only way to separate the buck from the part would then be to destroy the entire intake assembly! Pic 38: thankfully, I mostly know what I’m doing, and the procedure was a success! Here you can see that I already began removing some excess putty around the intake area. Pic 39: the complex RCS-minimizing intake tunnels are looking quite good. The outer wall is still quite thick, and this is by design: the final thinning will be done when the upper roof/intake ramp is added to reinforce the structure. Pic 40: I forgot to show the sto-wing feature, so here it is: notice that the wing tips have not yet been added. Pic 41: the intake tunnels are done! If the left one looks rough, it’s just because I sanded down some of the primer. The intake ramps are in the fully open position, though if the build permits, I will include an add-on the represent the lowered ramps. Pic 42: the burner cans are also done, though these stil feature a seam. I’m debating whether it’s best to leave these smooth and let the builder fill them, or try to mask the seam with ribbing of some sort. As much as I would have preferred a seamless unit, the complex shaping of the part made this impossible. Pics 43-48: what a beauty! I stole the main gear from an SU-27, and the nose gear from an F-18, and they look excellent. You can also see the refuelling probe housing on the starboard forward fuselage, which you will have the option to build open or closed. I also have missile pylons in the works, but I need to make mold duplicates. I have already begun priming and detailing, and should have it all mostly done by July 8th or 12th. I think you’ll be quite pleased when you see the end result. Stay tuned for the grand finale!

That's what I'm currently working on.

Quick 1/72 Dragunn project update: Friday's progress report will be pushed to next week because sooo much puttying.

That bodes well, because I may end up using some SU-27 weapons pylons.

Captain’s log: Thursday, June 16th, 2022. Pic 25 shows off some very VF-1-inspired lines, which only makes sense as its predecessor. I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having with this thing! It’s such a nice change of pace to be able to play pretend aerodynamicist, even if it’s only for a little while. Pic 26: the engine nacelles being hollowed-out while the upper surface is modified with the appropriate shapes. Frankly, the aircraft has way too much of its weight distributed aft (engines, wings, stores) so I need to scrape as much weight out of this area as possible to keep her from being a wheelie-bird when she sits on her gear. Pics 27 and 28: wing surgery underway. The wings need to be split for the flaps, and then again for the sto-wing hinge. Because of the thrust-vectoring nozzles and secondary ventral thrusters, I didn’t think the plane would need fowler flaps, so conventional units are used. The rudders are all-flying control surfaces, and I modified the pivot to make sure that all the control surfaces don’t interfere with each other. They’re a little shorter than they appear in the line-art, but that’s because se sits tall on her gear and hangar clearance is a real thing. Pic 29: having fun with putty! There are lot of intersecting parts in this area that had to be mated and smoothed. Truth-be-told, the way that central ventral fin bulges down at the rear is absolutely horrendous for drag, and can also interfere with the aircraft’s take-off AoA, so I toned it down a bit. It’s still an interesting shape that can house lots of sensors/jammers/fuel dump pipe, and will also feature an arresting hook… because carrier landings! Pic 30: even more putty! Here you can start to see the shapening of the ventral area, as well as progress on the wings, which now have all the appropriate hinges. I’ll be adding hard points on the engine nacelles, but I’m also considering using that ventral tunnel to house more munitions, much like we see on the F-14. Pics 31-35: here’s the fuselage, now with partial wings. I’m leaving off the wingtips until I have the rest of the wings scribed & primed. She looks very MiG-25 at a glance, and I love it! Bear in mind that some parts are just tacked together, which is why it looks wonky. Next week I’ll be looking to molding the canopy and start adding details, so stay tuned!

It's definitely worth seeing a second time, and more, just because it's such wonderful fighter porn. I say this despite some rather blatant creative liberties taken by the writer & director.

Not wood, modelling board, then resin for the kits.

Captain’s log: Thursday, June 9th, 2022. Pic 13: say hello to my widdle fwiends! This is a pack of 1.3mm bull-nose milling shanks I bought on the internet a few years ago. They work wonders for tiny details, and for a subject with lots of fine detailing like this one, they come in very handy indeed. Pic 14: those very same milling shanks hard at work creating some of the boundary layer bleed slots on the upper fuselage of the fighter. In operations like this, your cutter has to be sharp, otherwise the modelling board may snap and utterly ruin the work. Pic 15: that same upper fuselage part, now being sanded to a fine point for the splitter plates. While I would have prefered to wait as long as possible before making this part so sharp & delicate, it’s a critical detail around which other parts will be formed, so away I go. Lots of very gradual, manual sanding is used here to avoid snapping the edges. Pic 16: the fruits of my labor have paid off. More shaping and surfacing ahead, but it’s coming along nicely. Pic 17: once the front end of the part is shaped, I now move toward the rear. Here, I’m tracing some guide lines for the downward slope I will create on the trailing edge, as well as the sides of the fuselage where the wings will join. As opposed to just having a flat, lifeless plane for the upper fuselage, I want it to have some subtle character. Pic 18: another delicate operation involves mounting part of the lower surface that blends the fuselage to the intake trunks. The two rectangular openings are the main gear bays. The frontal section will house the the cannons & fuel, while the aft sections are ideal for sensors, chaff & flares. 19: this is the underside of the forward fuselage/nose section getting its nose gear well machined. Out of necessity, the front bay will only be as deep as is needed to store the nosewheel assembly. Pic 20: the same forward fuselage, now mated to the nose cone, and having recently been milled to accept a cockpit tub, courtesy of an Academy Hornet kit. The tub had to be modified and cut down to meet my requirements, but it now fits nicely. Pic 21: once all the critical openings have been milled, I can now proceed to giving the nose its more characteristicaly rounded shape, courtesy of my rotary tool. While some reference points were marked in pencil, I mostly just eyeball this part. Pic 22: it’s starting to look like a fighter! The major fuselage sections are now cobbled together so that I can gauge the areas that need more love & refinement. It’s a wonderful blend of VF-1, F-14 and F-15! Pics 23 and 24: gone is the blocky nose, now sporting its signature curves. You can also see the angled pathway I created on the leading edge extension to give the aircraft a few extra low-observable features. This is turning into such a fun project, and it’s a wonderful change from the blocky shapes I’m used to. Tune in next week for another update, where I give some love to the control surfaces and the engine tunnels!