Have been working away, and have 3 backups at any time on a different drive, memory stick and another pc, if I lost what I have now I would swear cry and shoot myself, probably not in that order...
Gene sent me two very high res pics of what I now know is the other 63" hero model without working undercarriage or air-brakes, but a lit cockpit. I thought I was seeing things when looking at the panel lines, but the two big models do have differences, sometimes just spacing, but in other areas like the top front surface of the wing completely different. Have ending up doing a blend of both, choosing the slightly less complex option in places as there's a lot on there for 1/48th scale!
Digitised the fuselage and wing air-brakes form Gene's scans. I think I will get these done in photo-etch and integrate them into the master so they are moulded as surface detail, that way I won't need to get a set for each kit.
I have rebuilt a number of pieces as the high res scans let me see previous small details clearly. The defence pods are all new, more of a stretched egg shape now. Alignment of the intake strakes, this again is different on the one hanging at the WB museum, but this one seems the odd one out as the top and bottom ones don't line up looking nose on. They do appear to on the others, so going with that, which looking back to when I started is how I had them originally as I had worked it out but forgotten!
Most of the front fuselage from the rear of the cockpit to the wing is also redone as the high res scans let me see the exact profile and subtle shaping of the cockpit top. The geometry was a bit of a mess there as I was still learning when I did it originally and then I cut it up with panel lines which were also too wide, so quicker to start over.
Got a bit bored with panel lines one night and made a missile model, helped me visualise the bay dimensions as looking at the different model shots I realised yet again they are all a bit different. I'm unsure about adding the missile bays as it adds another lot of work, will have to mull that one over. They are tiny at 1/48th as they are less than half the size of a standard air-to-air missile.
View attachment Firefox panel lines 01.jpgView attachment Firefox panel lines 02.jpg
You will need to click and click again (or save them) to see them full size as these are around 7-8000 pixels across, discovered you can do this in Sketchup.
Also rebuilt my 3D printer so I can now print 0.04mm layers which puts print time up exponentially but does mean I can master nearly all the plane myself. Also bought but have yet to fit and test a 0.3mm nozzle which will make corners and the detail around the exhausts crisper, will see how that pans out over the weekend probably.