RE: 3D foamy F-15 - getting tricked out!
Its not completed yet. I still have to finish the panel lines, Add the tiny details like antenna's, pitot tubes, vents, etc. Do the tailpipes. I dont know if you noticed it or not, but the cannon on the right wing root is already installed. I think Ive got it set right so that when I pull vertical, Ill get a nice WHOOT whistle out of it.
So far it hasnt added much weight at all. Just a little paint, and what ever the foam weights in the cockpit. Im guessing maybe a few grams tops. The panel lines were done with a millenium .003 pen. I copied the panel lines from a scale drawing of the real F-15, so they should be exactly like the real thing. The entire interior of the cockpit is all foam...including the pilot.
I shaped him out of a chunk of depron using sandpaper and a dremel tool. Ive decided to go even more indepth in the cockpit. Im gonna tweak the ejection seat a little more, to make it more realistic. Its too blocky, and doesnt have the ejection pull handles, seatbelts or anything.
I havent even started on the guts of it yet, like installing the avionics or motors. Still trying to decide what I want to put inside it. Ive also figured out a FANTASTIC way of putting scale lights in it.
FIBER OPTIC CABLE. You can use one central light source inside the plane. Like a bright LED. Low weight and low power consumption. Then run fiber optic cable throughout the plane to the various places where you need light like the vertical fin lights, wing tip lights, dashboard lights, etc. The fiber optic cable is REALLY light weight, and you can thread it through the plane into spots that would be hard to get wires and such. You can RIT dye the ends of the cable to get different colors.
Im going to try a new technique I've been working on. Applying a light glue to the surface of some foam, and then using a thin aluminum foil as a "leafing" to reproduce exhausts, vent fins, and other non-painted metallic surfaces. You'll see it soon. Ill be using this technique for the exhausts of the engines, and the heat shielding inbetween the vertical fins. You can see it on the full scale pics above.