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1:72 Supermarine Scimitar F.1

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Navy Bird Completely Obsessed Member

Navy Bird

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On 7/26/2013 at 02:38, alex said:

looks really niceso far! I've got the extrakits scimitar in my stash, but the more I look at the CMR-Kits, the more I am tempted to bin it and get a resine scimitar too.

 

Go for it, Alex! Join the dark side of Resin Replicators! :)

 

On 7/26/2013 at 02:50, seadog said:

Though I know I-ll never build one, I'm going to follow this build with interest. The Scimitar was a fine looking aircraft, and your build is progressing very nicely indeed!

 

Thanks, Sea Dog! It's early in the build, though, plenty of time for things to go wrong! :)

 

On 7/26/2013 at 02:59, kev67 said:

With vacform canopy, I usually fill it with blue/white tac to make it more rigid inside and carefully cut out with a small pair of sharp scissors, then finish of with a sanding stick

 

Me too, but I still usually cock up the first one! :)

 

On 7/26/2013 at 07:44, Col. said:

Cracking job on the 'pit Bill. Following this one with interest and hoping Airfix are as well...

 

Well we know one thing, Col., Airfix won't produce a kit of the Scimitar until I'm finished with this one! :)

 

On 7/26/2013 at 12:29, Procopius said:

Holy geeze, that's a complex harness assembly!

 

I thought so too, Mr. Byzantine Historian. When I was adding the individual harness straps according to the instructions, I kept counting them and trying to imagine how on earth you would buckle them all up. Maybe some of them strap the parachute pack to your back, while the others strap your bum into the seat? However, I seem to recall that Eduard had them wrong on some kit I was building, so there's no guarantee the instructions are correct. :)

 

On 7/26/2013 at 13:55, cardiff guy said:

loving your work shore looks less of a fight than the extra kit

 

So far, things have fit well. Dry-fitting the fuselage halves would indicate that there is a little bit of a challenge ahead. But just a little, doesn't look like a big deal. :)

 

On 7/26/2013 at 15:23, Bill Clark said:

Looking good thus far Bill....I'm very tempted to get one of these, I have their Buccaneer (and some spares of course! And may attack that after I've built my Navy S2) and their Venom FB4, Not for the faint-hearted, but they do look good and accurate..

Thanks Bill! I've never been accused of being faint-hearted - fat-headed, yes, but never faint-hearted! BTW, your Navy S.2 is looking quite nice indeed! I think you should pick one of those rare EDSG over White schemes. :)

 

And definitely pick one of these up, it's much nice than the Buccaneer, and it was very good. The Scimitar is in the same league as the Sea Venom I have, and I suspect that is the same quality as the Venom FB4 you have.

 

On 7/26/2013 at 17:16, Procopius said:

Bill's indirectly responsible (by making it look so easy) for my owning two of their Buccaneer S.2s, a Venom FB.4, and a Sea Venom. If my wife knew about any of them, he would be in big big trouble.

Does your wife have a dough roller? :)

 

I landed in a bit of a spot myself today. Squadron had a nice sale recently, and I bought a lot of resin and PE sets for kits in my stash. Only $150 for about $250 worth of stuff. I thought I would get home before the UPS truck arrived, but bad timing doomed my plan. Since when does the UPS truck show up early? Oh well, now I have matching bruises shaped like dough rollers.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Neil Lambess Established Member

Neil Lambess

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Hi Bill , if you havent already tried this ,with the cutting out of the canopy,

I always chuck my optivisor on and lay Tamiya yellow tape on the outside of the clear parts , (the areas the pilot looks out of :) )

this produces a pretty good cutting guide.... for me its a lot easier to cut along the yellow tape than trying to follow a clear indented line .....

(it also protects the clear canopy a lil bit as you cut the excess plastic off.....)

Depending on the moulding of the canopy . you can also sometimes sit the uncut, taped up , unit on the model and see quickly if theres any potential fit issues (the yellow tape should line up with where it joins the kits resin or plastic ..(in theory)

hope that helps :)

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Navy Bird Completely Obsessed Member

Navy Bird

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All right then, let's see what today's wasted hours have brought. First, I had to repaint the colour PE instrument panel from Eduard. On the fret, it's a lovely light blue-grey, but unfortunately that isn't quite right for the Scimitar. Black is the correct colour, and I decided to use the dark engine grey that I used in the pit. I used my 20/0 detail brush, but it's still rather nerve-racking to paint the little bugger! You don't want to accidentally paint over the minuscule lines on the gauges, etc. Here is my result:

 

100_3870

 

It doesn't look too good when magnified up like this, but it found its way into the pit anyway.

 

100_3872

 

When photographed like this, under 800 watts of photo lighting, the grey in the pit doesn't look dark enough. When the fuselage halves are fit together, and it's viewed with natural light, the pit looks quite dark indeed. Not black, which would make a real "coal hole," but a very dark grey and the controls and other cockpit details are easily seen. Which is the desired end result after all! :)

 

You'll notice the addition of some weights in the front. CMR says to add them but doesn't say how much is required. I think this should do it, it's quite a bit of weight and the Scimitar doesn't look like it would be much of a tail-sitter anyway.

 

Now, onto the wings. I'll be using the folding wing set from CMR so I removed the inner wings from the casting blocks.

 

100_3871

 

As you can see, the detail at the fold is exquisite. Really well done. And there is PE to tart it up even more! :)

 

But, we have some problems...notice the exceptionally thin "skin" of the wing that protrudes past the end of the wing. Look just aft of the leading edge. On the port wing (the top one in the photo) this is a wafer-thin ("Better get a bucket!") representation of the aluminum skin on the real wing. But it's so thin that the one on the starboard wing isn't completely formed and has cracked. I've reinforced the crack with superglue, but the top side will need some filler where the skin meets the wing. Wish me luck so I don't break it off!

 

Also, note a similar protrusion on the lower side of the starboard wing, right near the trailing edge. You'll see that the port wing doesn't have one. Looking at the builds of the kit, most folks take this off, because I suspect they think it's flash. Heading to the web for some research, I learned that there definitely is a protrusion at this location. It is roughly rectangular, and much longer than what is on my starboard wing. Again, it has either not fully formed or it has broken off. I had a look in all the bags and in the box, and I couldn't find anything. I will have to remove what's on the starboard wing and scratch build these features on both wings.

 

So, I think it's time to join the fuselage halves, which is always fun with a resin kit. I use superglue, but I don't run a bead all the way around and try to put the two halves together all at once. I'll pick a spot to use as a "datum," glue that together and then work my around. The starting point is chosen so that any fit problems are minimized, and hopefully any mismatches are on the bottom. For this kit I chose the seam on the top spine (even though half of it will be underneath the vertical fin) because I want to make sure that the panel lines aligned properly. As I work my way around, I apply the superglue with a No. 11 blade.

 

During test-fitting I discovered that the ejection seat will not be able to be installed later. It's too wide for the cockpit opening (a proper problem for our pilot, I think!). I removed the PE from the seat that I figure would get broken off and lost, stored it safely, and glued the seat into the pit.

There wasn't too much fettling needed to make everything fit together correctly. The only real modification I had to make was to enlarge the opening for the rear cockpit deck. It was a bit too small for the deck, and that was preventing the proper joining of the fuselage.

 

Once both halves are joined I ran a bead of superglue along the top of the seam. I'll use this instead of putty, and sand it down smooth. I find this scribes well, and there will be a bit of re-scribing required to complete the panel lines. Here is the joined fuselage after sanding down all the superglue.

 

100_3879

 

100_3878

 

100_3876

 

Since superglue is clear, you can't see it in these photos. But if you take the fuselage and hold it up to the light, and look down the seam at a grazing angle of incidence, everything looks quite nice and smooth. A coat of primer will of course reveal what else may need some attention.

 

The very aft end of the fuselage is also not completely formed. I believe there is a light at this location on the real aircraft, can anyone verify that? My plan is to sand the end flat, and add a light made from clear styrene or something from the spares box.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Neil Lambess Established Member

Neil Lambess

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Vac-form canopy's can be a challenge, but cut it bit by bit - take your time. As a matter of interest (or concern maybe) my CMR Buccaneer canopy's have yellowed slightly (though they must be over 5 years old!)...

Mine too Bill .....as have all the canopys in my bagged CMR kits........ bit of a worry.....I wonder if sunlight will bleach it out?

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Duncan B Blabber Mouth

Duncan B

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Bill, you're not the Messiah (of resin), you're a very naughty boy!

You make all this resin malarkey look very easy, I suspect there are lots of modelers watching this with fingers, thumbs and resin all glued to the kitchen table wondering how it could go so wrong!

Watching your wonderful build has me tempted to break out my CMR Scimitar and get started but I know I need to work on a few simpler resin kits first. This thread will be used when I finally do pluck up the courage to have a go though so keep up he good work.

Duncan B

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Navy Bird Completely Obsessed Member

Navy Bird

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On 7/27/2013 at 23:57, heloman1 said:

Great work on the instrument panel Bill, you certyainly must have asteady hand. It's looking very nice indeed'

Colin

 

Thanks, Colin. I find a pint or three of bitter (CAMRA only please) steadies the hands quite nicely. :)

 

On 7/28/2013 at 05:31, Duncan B said:

Bill, you're not the Messiah (of resin), you're a very naughty boy!

You make all this resin malarkey look very easy, I suspect there are lots of modelers watching this with fingers, thumbs and resin all glued to the kitchen table wondering how it could go so wrong!

Watching your wonderful build has me tempted to break out my CMR Scimitar and get started but I know I need to work on a few simpler resin kits first. This thread will be used when I finally do pluck up the courage to have a go though so keep up he good work.

Duncan B

 

Thanks, Duncan. You have to remember that I don't post photos of the cock-ups! But trust me, they happen all the time...BTW I think "Life of Brian" is perhaps the greatest film of all time. Really, I do. :)

 

I strongly recommend having a go at a resin kit. My first was the CMR Buccaneer, which I thought might be a bit much to begin with. But having a well made kit helped, as things went together quite easily. Imagine if your first plastic kit was an evil-fitting MPM Sea Vixen - you might be put off modelling for life! :)

 

Some quick updates - first, I added small strips of styrene to the underside of the wing trailing edge. This replaces the "wafer-thin" resin that didn't survive the journey. (The astute observer will notice that I've been playing with some filler along the bottom seam. Almost there, at least one more iteration before I'm happy with the underside.)

 

100_3881

 

I did some test fitting of the wings, and it left a lot to be desired. The area on the fuselage where the wings attach is reasonably flat, but the wing surface is curved a bit. This should be easy to fix, but it's difficult to sand around the two locating pins on the wing. So I took them off! Then I was able to sand the wing mounting surface flat. I tried to show the difference in this photo, where the starboard wing is unmodified, and the port wing has been sanded. Both wings are just held on with tape, so the alignment could be better. But I think you can see the issue at the trailing edge.

 

100_3880

 

I can add some rods in the fuselage holes, but how do I tell where the locating pins on the wing were before I removed them? How about some wet paint?

 

100_3882

 

You have to be quite careful in your alignment as you press the two parts together. Using the paint impression as a guide, I drilled holes in the wing to accept the rods that I epoxied into the fuselage. Here are the rods as the epoxy was drying.

 

100_3883

 

While the epoxy was drying, I decided to have a go at the other wafer-thin resin from the trailing edge of the wing fold. Using the walk-around photos here on BM as a guide, I made some small strips of styrene to replace the resin which wasn't fully formed.

 

100_3884

 

That's it for now, wifey thinks I should stop so I can take here to dinner. Really? Doesn't she know how much that costs? I could get a ton of PE sets for the cost of this dinner. Sheeeshhh....

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Neil Lambess Established Member

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But having a well made kit helped, as things went together quite easily. Imagine if your first plastic kit was an evil-fitting MPM Sea Vixen - you might be put off modelling for life! :)

Or just spend a lifetime of Modelling trying to finish the %$#@*& Thing ! :)

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Navy Bird Completely Obsessed Member

Navy Bird

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On 7/30/2013 at 01:11, Neil Lambess said:

Or just spend a lifetime of Modelling trying to finish the %$#@*& Thing ! :)

 

Been there, done that...not real high on my do again list. :)

 

Thanks, Alex! Somebody told me that hours spent on modelling are not deducted from your life's allotment. If true, I'm actually only 12 years old.

 

Bill, most of the cool detail on the IP was painted by some Czech guy named Edward...

 

Procopius - A redhead! Who yells! And has a dough roller! Oh! The agony of it all...

 

(Just some good fun with SWMBO. Actually, since she controls all the money I make, she's the one who lets me buy all this stuff!)

So, let's see, how about an an update from Crosby, Stills, Black and Decker:

 

Fill, sand, sand, sand, fill, sand, sand, sand, fill some more, sand some more, re-fill, re-sand, wash hands, have supper, fill, sand....

 

100_3886

 

It's getting there. The fit of the wings was pretty good after my modifications, no filler required just some primer and sanding smooth. The fit of the vertical tail to the fuselage was another matter entirely! There were the aforementioned voids in the resin casting, compounded by some big gaps at the aft end of the fuselage. There was just no way to make it fit without leaving a big gap. I added some styrene inside the gap to provide some support, and then filled. You should be able to see a lot of putty below the tailplanes.

 

I discovered that I had a copy of Postwar Military Aircraft No. 7 - Supermarine Attacker, Swift, and Scimitar by Philip Birtles. I have no recollection of ever buying this. Odd. In any event, it does not appear that there is a light at the extreme aft end of the fuselage. My mistake from misreading another photo. It always pays to have references!

 

I think there may be a couple more applications of filler and fine sanding, followed by primer so my mistakes can really stand out. Then we fix those, add some legs to the bird, mask and prime a final coat, and we'll be ready for EDSG over White.

 

Is this a cool world or what? :):):)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Navy Bird Completely Obsessed Member

Navy Bird

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On 7/31/2013 at 23:27, Learstang said:

Bill, this certainly seems to be less of struggle than ol' Jaggy. Looking very good!

Regards,

Jason

P.S. Life of Brian IS the best film ever!

 

Thanks, Jason. It is less of a struggle, but not without its challenges. Like microscopic PE. :)

 

PS. Followed closely by Holy Grail or Meaning of Life?

 

On 8/1/2013 at 03:04, SaintsPhil said:

Just catching up with your thread Bill and you're doing a great job, on a Par with your Bucc build, keep it up!

 

Thanks! The Bucc was lonely. The Scimitar is such a beautiful plane, it will make an interesting contrast sitting next to the Bucc.

 

On 8/16/2013 at 07:56, crobinsonh said:

Hi Bill,

Not sure how I missed this but great work - you are catching me up and I only started 20 months ago :banghead:

Looking forward to your next update.

Regards,

 

OK then - here comes the next update!

 

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, and I haven't been very busy. Family stuff and all that. I finally had a chance to do some modelling in the last couple of days, not much, but here it is.

 

I cleaned up the outer wing sections which had a bit of resin flash on the leading edge. Mr. Thumb Fisted Modeller managed to break off some the delicate wing fence on the starboard wing - ouch! So, I put that resin flash to good work - by gluing it on the wing fence. It's pretty solid so I think it will take cutting and sanding into shape with no problems. Stay tuned.

 

100_3888

 

Setting that aside, I finished the putty work and then primed the affected areas, so I could have a better look at what needed to be re-scribed. I used a Tamiya scriber to fix the panel lines that got lost, and then realized that I had forgotten to fill one of the cannon bays. I used wall paste for that one, and then got everything in shape for painting the bottom white. I used cut foam to mask off the wheel wells.

 

I used Testors Model Master Semi-Gloss White (RLM 21 I think) as it goes down well, covering in only 384 coats. I then mixed a wee bit of light gray in with the white, and sprayed some random patterns to break up the stark white look. After I had finished up and pulled out the foam masks, it was a D'oh! moment.

 

Don't you just hate it when you forget to paint the freaking main wheel wells? Especially when you go to the trouble of masking them off? Is this just me getting old, or do you young guys have senior moments too?

 

Get out the Kabuki tape and Alclad...

 

100_3890

 

And here it is after pulling off the masking tape (no wash in the main gear wells yet).

 

100_3891

 

100_3892

 

The pictures that I have which show the underside of the Scimitar depict a rather dirty appearance. Not quite as bad as a Spitfire, but certainly not clean. If anyone can direct me to the proper panels where the fluids leak out, that would be a big help!

 

Before you ask, I'll be painting the speed brake wells after the EDSG goes on.

 

I also painted the landing gear and added the PE (scissors linkage and brake lines), so I'll take some photos of that tomorrow. And then I think it'll be time for the EDSG.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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crobinsonh Very Obsessed Member

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Hi Bill,

You may notice but on the Scimitar the front windscreen is blended into the front fuselage as shown here:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?sa=X&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB503GB503&biw=1667&bih=1258&tbm=isch&tbnid=uBbUM7YE2acChM:&imgrefurl=http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php%3F/topic/71103-latest-walkaround-updates/page-14&docid=WOZJFJf5urE9uM&imgurl=http://www.britmodeller.com/walkarounds/aircraft/scimitar%252520f1/sm01.JPG&w=1024&h=768&ei=mzcRUuOWMcTJ0QWz14HABw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:22,s:0,i:157&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=190&tbnw=243&start=0&ndsp=40&tx=136&ty=84

There are some great shots of dirty undersides in "Scimitar Supermarine's last fighter" by Richard A Franks.

This is the stage I am at - still doing final blending in.

Regards,

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Navy Bird Completely Obsessed Member

Navy Bird

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On 8/18/2013 at 17:14, crobinsonh said:

 

Thanks! I have Philip Birtle's book, but not Franks'. How about the Warpaint volume, is that a good one?

 

I've decided to blend the windscreen the same way I did on my Buccaneer - after it's all finished! Seriously, that technique worked well, and I won't have to leave masking tape on the windscreen for such a long time. I don't like doing that, and the vacuform windscreen won't be that strong, especially on top, and may not hold up well to the handling during the rest of the build. Anyway, we'll see how it goes! I may regret it!

 

I sprayed the EDSG today. I masked everything carefully, including the sections that wrap around the leading edges of the wings and tailplanes. Having been forewarned about the demarcation line, I spent quite some time studying on-line photos, profiles, drawings, and the CMR instructions. As it turns out, there are some panel lines which assisted in getting the line right.

 

What came as a bit of a surprise is that the demarcation line on the front nose section is just a wee bit higher than that on the intakes. The line on the intakes is in alignment with the wings, so consequently it's lower than the intake centerline, whereas the line on the nose is right on the centerline. Anyway, that's the way I masked and painted it.

 

I used Gunze H333 EDSG, and I post faded with H331 Dark Sea Grey. We're not done with the surface finish yet, this is just the beginning. Here she is:

 

100_3919

 

100_3921

 

100_3924

 

Next up I think I'll mount the gear so the bird has legs. Then, I'll be masking the wing fold area, the speed brake wells, and the intakes. All of these will be aluminum. The intakes will be fun - remember I still have the PE boundary layer piece to install yet. I left it until later because the EDSG/White paint extends underneath this piece. I figured it's got to be easier to add the PE later than try to paint underneath it later. We'll see!

 

Also, I'll be painting stainless steel and burnt iron/exhaust in the appropriate areas. But I like how it's turning out! Can't wait to get the transfers on, that's my favourite part! :)

 

Cheers for now,

Bill

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