Images of Philly

Hey guys,
just to let you know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, nor did JoJo die.

I had to go on a business trip to Philadelphia last week. I had the opportunity to do some sightseeing and thought I'd share some images with you.
So here are some of the better shots:













Our headquarters building in the US.

The cottages we slept in.

A short visit to Ocean City (NJ)

I'm still a bit jet-lagged, but I hope to be over it by the weekend, so I can start on sculpting the crew for the STRIX. Tomorrow I have to go to the vet with JoJo, as she now has a cold (well running nose), but luckily she has no fever. She's eating quite healthily and looks good - but in her age, and with the cancer we want to be sure she's alright.

Cheers

Klaus

Nighthawk (6)

Thank you guys for your supportive comments.
Especially Danny; your comment left me crying in the office :-/
I really feel your pain.
Oh well, the injection worked wonders and JoJo is very happy and pretty much her old self right now. She was a lot in the Garden with our other cat Lilly (11 yrs) and both showed the birds who's garden it is :)

So, quite relieved about her condition, I had more energy to work on the STRIX.
I finished the two canopy hatches.

But instead of hinged hatches as I initially intended, I made them like a sliding roof.

For the pilots piece I need some tac to keep it in place, but in the final version it will be glued anyway.

Then I spent some time detailing the hatches, adding rails and frame.

Here you can see the rail and frame in the open position.

With the canopy completed I started to detail the body, adding hatches and stuff.

And then it was time for the rivets...

And finally I could mount the wings :)

There are still some details to do, like the cables and stuff in the fold section of the wings, but other than that it's pretty much done :)

Cheers

Klaus

Nighthawk (5)

Thanks for your supportive comments.

Luckily the situation isn't as bad as it looked yesterday. The Vet is very positive about my tough old girl and he's sure that she'll be with us for a bit longer.
JoJo spent pretty much most of the evening on my lap.


She doesn't really fancy being photographed :)

Well, with the cat on my lap, there wasn't much I could do last night, so I just inserted the two angeled pieces of glass to the forward part of the canopy,

as well as the two supporting pieces for the canopy "hatches".

Since I'm working with normal plastic glue and PVA these pieces take some time to cure, so there wasn't much I did last night.

Again, thanks for your support and good wishes.

Cheers

Klaus

Nighthawk (4)

A rather short update today.

I had a very busy weekend with the family and I'm not feeling so good. It looks as if my 16 year old cat is very steadily heading towards the end of her days, which makes me very, very sad.

Today we have another vets appointment...

Oh well.

Still some updates.
I completed the paintjob for the cockpit. Doing all the instruments.

Here the seat of the Gunner/Navigator is glued in place.

The pilots HUD.

Pilots seat and gunners station.

From the front with the HUD visible

and from top.

Then I started to work on the canopy.

The idea is to have a rather stubby nosed canopy, like the Arado AR-240.

So here are the first pieces of clear plasticard in place.

For this I used normal plastic-glue covered with some PVA glue.

I hope this will turn out good.

Cheers

Klaus

Project Nighthawk (3)

250th post!
:)

Thank you for your participation and feedback.
I really listen to all of you (and the guys at Work in Progress and Warseer), and so I decided to have two armament versions.
The Nighthawk/Owl on the elevator (this one) will have the 6 AA-HK-Missiles in addition to the 4 nose machine guns, while the second model will have the two Punishers and a Hellfire AtG Missile in addition to the nose armament.
So the two different wing types will look like this - I think I will add an Ammo Drum for the Punisher mounted on the engine housing.

With this settled, I began to build the secondary thrusters mounted on the wing tips.

and this is how they look. The two small rings in the center are the connectors for the Punishers.

Then I constructed the missile launch rails and mounted them.

The completed underside with rivets and all - note the right wing is patched up...

Here I had a major hick-up while sanding and I decided to cover it up as a patched battle damage. relatively crude, thick metal, larger rivets - it will also be bare metal in the painted version.

The upper side of the wings, also with rivets.

And this is how they will look in the folded position on the elvevator.

Since the canopy will the the next larger item to build I had to complete the cockpit.

For this I had to build the gunners station.

As you can (hopefully) see, it consists of a Joy-Stick and a larger (radar?) screen, plus a kind of keyboard.

With all the owl-talk about the name - I think I will settle on STRIX - I remembered a painting I did half a lifetime ago.

It depicts a 1939 Lagonda "LG Rapide" and an attacking Owl. I did this during my early airbrush times - September 1991 says the signature - where most of my work was still with a regular brush and the airbrush was mainly used for highlights and the background.

Anyhow, I think I want to use this owl for the side wings of the rear fuselage (just like I did with the tiger face for the CHARON).

And maybe a black silouetted version over a red circle as the unit logo?

Who knows...

I hope you like the armament solution and STRIX for the name.

Cheers

Klaus