The nose gearbay is made up a small tub piece from Tori Factory and the bottom of the cockpit assembly.
I used Epoxy Putty to secure the Tori part.
I test fit the main gearbay into the slot and noted that some further trimming is required at the rear of the slot for proper alignment.
With the trimming done, I just need to deal with the gaps on the forward area.
I filled the area with epoxy putty.
It was at this point when I noticed that the length of the gearbays provided by Dolan and Tori Factory were different. Dolan’s is the same as the kit though.
So I found a porfile picture of the T-50 and did a comparison and it looks like it’s Tori Factory that got the length right. So onwards…
I think the result looks OK once the epoxy was sanded down to shape.
3D printed resin is quite brittle and as expected an oleo broke off when I was removing the main landing gear from the pour block. I replicated the broken off part as best as I can with styrene rod.
The actuators were missing on the Tori gear doors. At first I thought to cannibalize the ones from the Dolan set but I couldn’t pull it off so I again replicated them with styrene.
The Dolan set comes with two wing tanks and I decided to add a pair of training AIM-9Es for the wingtips. The missiles come from Fine Molds.
The HUD is a prominent detail that’s missing in the kit so I added it with styrene and a square piece of blister pack. To give it the prismatic effect I usually stick on a piece of Aurora Film but I tried Hobbymio’s Pearlescent Marker Field Green this time. I think it’s alright: the pigment might be too large for the scale though.
And then of course disaster strikes: the main gear breaks into two. I decided to tackle the rest of the kit before coming back to this.
I first reshaped the large fin antenna on the spine.
I then added the pitot tube using styrene bits on the starboard side forward of the canopy.
The gun port and leading edge RWR sensors were added with CA glue.
The kit doesn’t include wing pylons so there’s no clear indication where they would go. I based their locations on reference photos.
After reviewing photos, I saw that the blade antenna I modified still didn’t look right and Tori includes one so I replaced the one on the kit.
With that done, now I’ll go scream at the wall for the landing gear breakage.
Build Log
Pt.1 – Construction | Pt.2 – Construction | Pt.3 – Painting | Pt.4 – Finishing
