Buck Rogers Thunderfighter mods

Revell-Fan

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A test fit showed that the fins segmented the rainbow stripes on the engines so that they didn't look good any more. A monochrome stripe looks a lot better in this case. Because I had already assembled the engines I isolated the stripes from the original plans, recoloured them and glued them onto the engine sections. This idea was so simple and effective that I decided not to add the complete recoloured engine section to the final plans but the recoloured stripes only instead.
 

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Revell-Fan

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Construction of the main wings is really clever. You have to laminate two formers with cardboard (both sides). These formers serve as an anchor for the wings and, once laminated and inserted into the outer wing shell, push the wings into shape. I used glue only at the tail end of the wings so that the "onion layers" are not visible any more when the wings are attached to the main body.
 

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Revell-Fan

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The wings are mounted between the two body halfs. Two texture lines on the engines and the wings show the exact mounting position.
 

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Revell-Fan

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Final assembly is straight forward.
 

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Revell-Fan

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Et voilà - the Thunderfighter Mk. III.:inw::row1::cool:

P.S.: I know there is a small buckle at the front; I'll cover it up later! :mrgreen:
 

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Revell-Fan

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Now I will continue with the HBB starfighter. Main body, wings and fins are complete. Stay tuned and Happy Easter!

RF :wave::wave::wave:
 

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Greenman

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LOVE IT!!!
The Mk III is incredible. I love forward swept wings.
All of the work for the other fighters is wonderful too.
Well done, both of you.:thumb:
 

Revell-Fan

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RB asked me to revise some parts of the Mk. III which I am doing. So this will not be the final design.

A little update: I've completed retexturing the original plans to make the David Jones TF and have begun building it. I have noticed that there is still a bit confusion concerning the origin of the blue quad. The blue quad can be seen in the season 1 episode "Twiki is Missing" (episode #18 ). It is not from season 2. The quads on the Searcher are all off-white. The canon blue "TwIM" version does not feature a blue stripe on the canopy and no blue part 34. CU! :wave:
 
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Rhaven Blaack

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You have done an OUTSTANDING job on this one. I do like the retro look (even though it is not what I had in mind). Some of the parts that you have come up with actually fixes some of the problems that I was facing with my original design. I REALLY like the paint scheme. I also like some of the detailed texture that you have added (like the louvered vents on the bottom of the tail of the FSW, as well as other little details).

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!
 

F131

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I was a huge Buck Roger fan (1st season at least), back in the day. You have done great work, Sir.
 

Revell-Fan

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Today I give you the Thunderfighter by David Jones. As mentioned earlier in this thread David Jones was a member of Universal Hartland VFX company and produced some impressive paintings which were used to build the final studio models. The DJ TF features a completely different surface panel structure, a stretched canopy and different wings.

The most critical part in creating this model was revising the WHOLE texture. I worked on and off on this and was very curious to see if the result would match DJ's vision. Due to the fact that the proportions of the drawing do not match those of the base model by Martin I chose to get at least 90 % close to the sketch.
 

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Revell-Fan

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One of the most obvious differences is that there are no engine louvers. I developed a new part to close the gap between parts 224 and 178 and so on.
 

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Revell-Fan

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Unfortunately the drawing doesn't show the bottom of the fighter. I used my imagination to fill this gap.
 

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Revell-Fan

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The top structure features new detail and a slimmer part 49.
 

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Revell-Fan

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The canopy is longer than usual. If you look closely to the painting you will notice that the whole canopy is very low. The standard procedure in this case would have been cutting the cockpit down. I didn't do that because I feared that it would not fit in the existing slot any more. Instead I decided to cheat: I changed the size and position of the windows so that they appear closer to the body.
 

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Revell-Fan

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Building the DJ TF thrusters is a lot easier because they don't feature the intakes. Here is a comparison shot of them and the traditional thrusters. I have also added some close-ups of the wings (including a comparison shot of traditional and new ones) and the retextured nose cones.
 

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Revell-Fan

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And this is it, the David Jones Thunderfighter.
 

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Revell-Fan

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This is a true world premiere: As far as I know this model existed only as a painting. It has never been built - until now.
 

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Revell-Fan

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While developing this model the advantages of paper modeling really showed. If I had made this model using the old Monogram plastic kit, I would have had to completely sand off the surface structure, carve in another, build the new parts from styrene sheet, use a lot of putty, produce much plastic dust and debris and airbrush the assembled parts. With paper I only had to redesign the parts in the PC, paint them digitally, print them, test fit them and glue them together. In addition, I saved a lot of money considering that the old Monogram kit would cost an arm and a leg on the collector's market nowadays. I would estimate the cost of this paper model by approximately 2 - 5 $ (for colour, paper, glue and power).

CU with the next one! :wave:
 

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Rhaven Blaack

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Let me be the first one to say that this fighter looks FANTASTIC!!!
I can see where some of the build might be easier then the original.
This would make a WONDERFUL addition to my (ever growing TF) collection.

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!
 
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