F11F Blue Angels

Greg Baker
Oh boy. Sign me up to watch this one unfold...

Robert Podkoński
Wow! That's the challenge - watching with interest!

David Culp
One of the things I learned about vacuform kits is that very thin objects, such a fighter jet wings and tails, don't form well. The wing surfaces are too flat and sometimes warped because there isn't enough tension on the material while it's being formed. Also, edges get rounded a bit, which means trailing edges need to be either 1) sanded down to a sharp edge, or 2) 3D printed or carved from wood instead.

In this case I printed wings and horizontal tails. Care must be taken to support the objects well for printing or they'll come out warped. Remember - it's easier to fix surface defects due to heavy supports than it is to fix warped parts. I learned that lesson with this project.

For the vertical tail I used the kit part, but I printed a new rudder. A printed vertical tail would look better, but I was worried about having too much weight at the rear of the airplane - making it a tail-sitter.

Robert Podkoński
Here you can find an interesting and effective way of dealing with thin vacu parts: Breguet Br. Bizerte | Album by potez452 (1:72)
Perhaps you find it useful.

Michael Kohl
Some fine modelling going on here.

bughunter
Michael is right, that is a very interesting build! The combination of kit parts with 3D printing is the same way Eduard is going nowadays.
Regarding the mask work: I suggest to use Inkscape here. It is OpenSource like Gimp, but is a very powerful vector graphics program. I use it to draw and cut masks (with a plugin) on my Silhouette cutter (as there is no Linux software for the cutter by manufacturer).

Ludvík Kružík
I agree with bughunter. Inkscape is a great tool. I use it to create my own decals. The program allows you to paint an object large enough and with all the details. Because the program works with vector graphics, if you then scale the object down to the desired scale, you don't lose detail.

David Culp
Thanks for the Inkscape tip. So far I haven't needed to learn a new way to draw, but I'll keep that in mind if I need to switch. It's interesting that I also do my 3D drawing (CAD) the "old way" working directly with meshes, while most people these days have switched to parametric CAD.