1/72 MikroMir Lockheed Martin "Hopeless Diamond"

[frank2056]

With some trepidation, I started this kit:


https://www.scalemates.com/kits/mikromir-72-031-lockheed-martin-hopeless-diamond--1646333

It has relatively few parts, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult of a build.  With my experience with MikroMir I knew that most of the build would be  fit, sand, test, fit, repeat. The cockpit area, landing bay and exhaust are all multi-part affairs with considerable flash. The main cockpit tub looks like it's enclosed, but the front and back "walls" are actually flash and have to be removed.

I spent a lot of time carefully fitting and sanding the forward edges of the lower fuselage until it all but snapped into place. After adding the main landing gear bays I noticed that they hit the upper fuselage, so it was either remove them and remove yet more plastic, or trim and sand away the sections that contact the upper fuselage. That's what I did, but sanding the lower edges of the bays (where they go into the lower fuselage) would work as well. I also had to do extensive trimming near the exhaust to get the two fuselage halves to mate at the same level:

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Top view with the cockpit and PE intake grills - which don't fit perfectly, but close enough:



The real debate has been how much to detail the cockpit. The ejection seat is pretty bland, but it's both narrower and shorter than any modern ejection seat. I even tried a resin seat for a P-80 and it was too tall. I may just end up adding some belts to the kit seat and calling it a day. The instrument panel has been colored with some AK pens and brushed with a pencil. The side panels have only been brushed with a pencil:



There's a 3D printed add on for this kit from AMP that may help solve some of the fit problems (or may have problems of their own). It looks good, though:



The next big show stopper is the canopy. It comes as two flat clear styrene plates. The instructions show the plates glued along the top edge, then dropped into place. That's not going to happen because the canopy sections are about 1mm too long and 1mm too wide at the bottom. A combination of very careful but extensive sanding is required just to get them to barely fit in the provided space. I probably have an hour or more of test fitting and sanding (and puttying) before they fit properly.

The instructions have you trapping the nose gear in the nose bay halves as you build them. We all know this will lead to great unhappiness, so I carved a channel from the two depressions that hold the nose gear "T" axle. By twisting the nose gear slightly, it falls into place.

[DogfighterZen]

Don't think i'll ever build something like that but i know you'll produce an excellent model so i'm watching.

[PR19_Kit]

More strength to your elbow, and your mind Frank! 

An amazing 'aeroplane', I just wish they'd have actually built and flown it in that form, if it WOULD have flown of course................

[Paper Kosmonaut]

I love the Hopeless Diamond. I've never seen this kit though. It looks like the little brother of an FDL-5. Looking forward to the rest of the build!

[frank2056]

Thanks guys - this kit is 80% sanding, fir and repeat and 20% assembling. I haven't gotten to the putty stage yet, so the 80% may increase.

Kit - I don't think you would be interested in this model, since it has no wings to speak of. I did consider adding wings (like the FDL-5!), but that's beyond my enthusiasm budget for this build.

The original plane, if built today, would probably fly OK with modern avionics.

[PR19_Kit]

Kit - I don't think you would be interested in this model, since it has no wings to speak of.

Hehehe, you could well be right there. 

[seadude]

I've always wanted to get a larger kit of the Hopeless Diamond, but was never able to. Most I could afford to do was with a tiny 1/144 scale one from Anigrand Craftworks as shown in my display I made in the below pic.
A Hopeless Diamond craft might look good whiffed as some sort of sci-fi space vehicle.

[kerick]

Sci fi or skip the cockpit altogether for a rpv.

[frank2056]

That's a great display of stealth aircraft!

The MikroMir kit comes with the nose probes as separate, tiny pieces. Due to their molding technology, they're not great - so I'm going to skip them. The nose has some engraved spots for them, which I'll declare as covered ports for the probes. Saves me the trouble of trying to sand and glue the tiny probes.

[Old Wombat]

I've been watching this build & have come to the conclusion that there isn't a single thing I like about this aircraft - not one! 

That's not to say you won't do a wonderful job of the build, Frank, it's just that the aircraft itself is a complete turn-off. 

[NARSES2]

I've been watching this build & have come to the conclusion that there isn't a single thing I like about this aircraft - not one! 

That's not to say you won't do a wonderful job of the build, Frank, it's just that the aircraft itself is a complete turn-off. 

I know where your coming from. It just doesn't look like an aeroplane to me. Something from a 70/80's TV Sci-Fi show perhaps, but ..... ?

[chrisonord]

It looks like it should have hydro skis on it, and be armed with anti ship missiles and cannons.

[frank2056]

It does look like a sci-fi ship (or a spearhead). A full sized version with modern avionics - maybe - but it's so small that I doubt it would have a useful range or payload. Maybe as a drone.

[scooter]

Scaleorama to a 1/35 stealth drone

[frank2056]

I'm making a slighter larger/different version in 1/35.

This one is finished, though:


The canopy popped out slightly.... I'm not going to fix it, though:



I added some Vallejo irridescent paint to the Vallejo jet exhaust:



Not a bad MikroMir build experience, overall.

I used some Hasegawa TF903 "Polarize Finish" interference film on the inside of the canopy:



It does create some cool effects:



The decals have a "CAPT J POEWRS" flying this plane. I thought this was a misspelling of "Powers" so I shortened it to POE. Good enough for a raven black aircraft: