1/72 Jet Provosts - Finished

[keefr22]

I use clear sprue for nav lights - cut it slightly oversize,(drill a hole for the bulb & fill with red/greeny blue clear paint if the covers are clear, don't bother if not!), superglue them into the cut away plastic areas, leave to dry overnight & then just attack them with progressively finer grades of sanding sticks, finishing off with micromesh or a nail buffer/polisher thingy. If they have coloured covers, paint with the aforementioned red & greeny/blue clear paints, if they don't, don't bother! And don't forget to mask them before painting.....!!

Easy peasy - really they are.

[Col.]

That worked! Much better and worth all your efforts. Although that is a small detail it is the first point on the very front aircraft and anything less that perfect will look out of sync with the rest of your work.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

My late father in law (ex master air engineer - Britannia's and VC 10's ("Queen's of the Skies")) ran the flight line at Linton-on -Ouse for his last several years in the RAF. He somehow aquired a JP5 windscreen to use as a sort of greenhouse cover for his tomato plants in his back garden! and thinking about it, it is a pretty hefty chuck of plexi-glass (or whatever). It may be that thinner is not neccessarily better here.

The FAA Museum Barracuda rebuild project found some bloke who was using a Barra canopy to grow his tomatoes under, too. (Clearly at some stage there were a few eminently respectable engineers who used to borrow the odd aircraft part for horticultural purposes.) In the case of the Barra, the restoration team were chuffed to bits to find it - the canopy is a pretty significant part of that aircraft, and since they are rebuilding from a selection of crashed cabs, the chances of anything useable surviving had been assumed to be zero.

[Hamden]

Great looking landing lights you've really improved the front of the JP.

Worth all the time and trouble

Roger

[feifeitim]

Fantastic work on those nose lights Steve - they totally look the part!

Edited March 8, 2014 by feifeitim

[Cheshiretaurus]

Those lights and cover came out really well, nicely done!. Never thought of casing from impressions made in plasticine.

[Fritag]

Those lights and cover came out really well, nicely done!. Never thought of casing from impressions made in plasticine.

I got the plasticine out to use as you suggested Mark, to build up behind the kit clear part to make a RTV mould - and I was thinking about how I'd have to wait for the RTV to set etc. and then I thought s*d it - it's not like there are any undercuts or anything - and it's just about the simplest shape you'll ever cast - why not just push the kit clear part into the plasticine?

Fantastic work on those nose lights Steve - they totally look the part!

Thanks Tim - I was looking back in my log book and thinking about which airframes/serial numbers to use if and when I get to painting and set me to musing. How many hours did you get on the JP3/5 over a course of a creamy tour? Hell of a complement getting creamed off to be an instructor of course. And wasn't the tradition that you got your choice of front line jet after a creamy tour?

There was no way I could have been creamed off after Valley - way to immature. I did ok on the course - came second to a university graduate who got creamed off - Trevor Roche - who sadly died recently flying one of the Shuttleworth Collections vintage aircraft. The guy who finished third on the course was also a graduate and he also got creamed off. Sandwiched in the middle was me - bypassed as it were

Edited March 8, 2014 by Fritag

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

The Navy never really "got" the point of Creamies - we were always of the opinion that you could really only teach a military pilot once you had proper front line experience under your belt. With the benefit of hindsight, I can kind if see that there's little that (oh I dunno), say, experience of air defence adds to purely learning to fly a JP... but I still find it a bit of an odd idea. The lessons of stuff Iike lapses in airmanship etc. seem a lot mire vivid from an experienced pilot, even if it makes no difference at all to the pure "stick waggling" stuff.

The nose lights look superb, Steve; your usual high standards & refusal to settle for "it's good enough".

Edited March 8, 2014 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[perdu]

I don't know what kind of law you specialise in Steve but I'm sure that 'wotever' it is the people who depend on you will get a meticulous case built up

Like wot we'm getting with this JP

Now I have to go and get a pack of Plasticene for the grandkids to ignore when they visit

(and so grandad can misappropriate bits occasionally)

Ow that's loud, bet the landing hurt that time...

We have a family group of Wood Pigeons living locally that practise circuits and bumps on the roof of my office/workroom/library/'mancave' (whoever calls their spare room a sozzing 'man cave'?, self obsessed modellers no doubt) and junior has just flown off, done an anticlockwise circuit round the apple tree and thudded to a very ungainly lumpy landing just above the ancient pate. Ow I bet that hurt. (junior Woodies dont have the white neck rank badges of the older officers)

Mom and dad sitting in a local birch watching the debacle.

And back to the JP, you know what Steve, that nose looks the bizz.

[Fritag]

The Navy never really "got" the point of Creamies - we were always of the opinion that you could really only teach a military pilot once you had proper front line experience under your belt. With the benefit of hindsight, I can kind if see that there's little that (oh I dunno), say, experience of air defence adds to purely learning to fly a JP... but I still find it a bit of an odd idea. The lessons of stuff Iike lapses in airmanship etc. seem a lot mire vivid from an experienced pilot, even if it makes no difference at all to the pure "stick waggling" stuff.

The nose lights look superb, Steve; your usual high standards & refusal to settle for "it's good enough".

I don't know the theory behind the system of first tourist QFI's . But the Creamie instructors I came across on the JP were well liked and respected by the studes.

As you'd expect their handling skill were superb and they had an enthusiasm for flying and the job that was absent in some of the other instructors. Maybe it was because their own careers were just beginning but they seemed to have a positive and helpful attitude when some instructors were definitely negative.

I can recall only one instructor on BFTS when I was there who had a fast jet background - and he was positively ancient! (by which I mean about 10 years younger than I am now ). He must have been specialist aircrew and pretty hard for an 18 year old to relate to....

On the Hawk it was rather different. All of the instructors, bar the one Creamie on the squadron, had at least one fast jet tour under their belts (there was a prepoderance of Lightning pilots on the training squadron I was on - largely I guess because it was a shrinking force - QFI was not a popular posting after a first fast jet tour) and hoped and expected to return to fast jets. They were generally inspiring guys to fly with. There ex-lightning guy who was my primary instructor went on the fly with the Red Arrows. The Creamies at Valley probably suffered in comparison in our minds.

Thinking about it. The QFI's on the Jag OCU and squadrons (every squadron had it's own QFI - like it had it's own QWI) were often ex-Creamies - and I suppose the Creamie system also worked by helping to provide the OCU's and squadrons with QFI's.

We have a family group of Wood Pigeons living locally that practise circuits and bumps on the roof of my office/workroom/library/'mancave' (whoever calls their spare room a sozzing 'man cave'?, self obsessed modellers no doubt) and junior has just flown off, done an anticlockwise circuit round the apple tree and thudded to a very ungainly lumpy landing just above the ancient pate. Ow I bet that hurt. (junior Woodies dont have the white neck rank badges of the older officers)

Mom and dad sitting in a local birch watching the debacle.

When we were in the Shetlands last year it was very windy (surprising that!) and the Puffins, who are poor flyers at the best of times, were having real difficulty landing back at their cliff top burrows.

I watched one Puffin for about 10 minutes - make approach after approach. It repeatedly approached a little below cliff top height before climbing steeply and trying to wash off speed so it could just about run out of forward momentum as it came to the top of its climb just at the point it could settle onto the cliff top. Time after time it got it wrong and swooped in too fast and high or too low and slow and had to do a wingover and back down and away from the cliff. A couple of times it looked just about right but it got caught by a gust and it gave up and wingovered away.

Finally it just sort of gave up trying to get it right (as far as I could see) and despite being a bit to fast and high it just plonked down onto the cliff top and immediately fell forward and slithered forward about 2ft on its belly. Whereupon it stood up shook itself down - looked around proudly as if to say any landing you walk away from is a good landing - and disappeared down its burrow.

[Fritag]

Plasticine has suddenly become my modelling aid of choice.....

The the CMR wings are a simple 'butt' joint albeit with two nicely cast stubs/sockets to get themlined up correctly and I've been stressing over how to (1) get the dihedral correct and (2) get them symmetrical.

So plasticine to the rescue once again...

Dunno why it takes me so long to figure stuff out? Obviously need to make more models and get more practice,

[dr_gn]

You could try Araldite in the fuselage sockets, and when everything is jigged and set, run some liquid poly cement into the joins for good measure?

I'm looking forward to my second trip to Skomer Island, to watch the Puffins (May hopefully). We went last year and it was fantastic - a small island with mainly rabbits and Puffins, both of which are extremely tame becasue they have little contact with humans! Well worth a trip if you are ever in Pembrokeshire.

[keefr22]

Dunno why it takes me so long to figure stuff out? Obviously need to make more models and get more practice,

Well, if that's your excuse I don't know what I can use - after nearly 50 years & a good few hundred models, I'd never thought of plasticene jigs - what a good idea! Much easier than faffing about measuring & cutting plasticard to make them - I shall definitely be stealing that one in future...!!

[perdu]

oooh

pretty colours too

Another good reason to buy some for the grandkids

I loves pretty colours

And down to earth, it seems so obvious now. The stuff holds its shape (if you don't let it get too warm) and has decent removable sticktion too

And when I was a lad I used to do stuff with Harbutts that my lad later replicated with Lego

Truly great material

The JP3 seemed to have been relegated to the second division, glad it's just had promotion to the Prem again.

Although the JP5 looked sleeker I always related more to the 3, cos the JP3 was the weapon of choice during my formative years

The JP3 was what they drove at Linton when my ATC Sqn were there on camp while the Vamps were being scrapped at Dishforth

We were taken to Dishforth for Air Experience with Chipmunks and marched along serried rows of T11s ready for disposal, that made you think as a thirteen yr old kid, I'll tell you

Linton wouldn't accomodate any of us going up in a JP, (scared we Brummies might have nicked one I suppose)

Edited March 9, 2014 by perdu

[LongMan2]

G'day Fritag,

Ok, its look'n like your close to paint. But did JP5's for pilot training have tip tanks, thought that was reserved for Nav's?

PHIL

Ps : Was given a 1/48 kittyhawk Jag which I'm gonna do a GR1.

[Fritag]

You could try Araldite in the fuselage sockets, and when everything is jigged and set, run some liquid poly cement into the joins for good measure?

Yes - I think that using Araldite or some such would be ideal. Here I pre-moulded the palsticine 'jig' whilst dry-fitting so that it gave a pretty positive location and support and then I used thick cyano - which seemed to give me just enough setting time to get the wing relocated in the plasticine; then I ran some thin cyano all around the joins. I hope it will be strong enough.

I'm looking forward to my second trip to Skomer Island, to watch the Puffins (May hopefully). We went last year and it was fantastic - a small island with mainly rabbits and Puffins, both of which are extremely tame becasue they have little contact with humans! Well worth a trip if you are ever in Pembrokeshire.

We were down in Pembrokeshire last year - near St David's. I thought the coast was superb. Didn't know about or spot Skomer Island though. Sounds like a good reason to go back.

You can see awe inspiring seabird colonies in various places in the Shetlands - but probably the best place for Puffins was Noss. We also go walking in the the North West of Scotland most years - and Handa Island is another great place for sea birds - as long as if you don't mind the odd low fly by from Skua's

The JP3 seemed to have been relegated to the second division, glad it's just had promotion to the Prem again.

Although the JP5 looked sleeker I always related more to the 3, cos the JP3 was the weapon of choice during my formative years

Have to say that the 5 was a rather more exciting aeroplane for a young stude in the 80's:

(1) flying it it meant you'd passed the first part of BFTS and been graded group 1 (fast jets) - at Church Fenton/Linton on Ouse anyway - IIRC at Cranwell the whole course was done on the 5 - but also IIRC only university graduate types did their BFTS at Cranwell.

(2) it was much more powerful - 300kts at low level vs 240kts in the JP3 - better rate of climb etc.

(3) it had a pressurised cockpit so was more comfortable.

(4) it had a nice little electric motor to slide the canopy backwards and forward - a much cooler solution than the little windy handle you had to turn in the JP3 You could see a studes little head nodding away as they turned the windy handle - very uncool.

Now why did that last reason seem so important at the time?

Anyways I've got the 3 and the 5 to a similar stage now:

One of the two has taken rather a lot more work to get there though! No prizes for guessing which

Ok, its look'n like your close to paint. But did JP5's for pilot training have tip tanks, thought that was reserved for Nav's?

Ps : Was given a 1/48 kittyhawk Jag which I'm gonna do a GR1.

Hi Phil,

Yes you're correct - the JP 5's used for pilot training at Church Fenton, Linton on Ouse and Cranwell did not have tip tanks - but the ones at Finningly used for fast jet nav training did have the tip tanks.

Good on you with the Kittyhawk Jag. Why not a nice wrap around scheme on a GR1a with a gunners strip in the tail?

Oh. BTW. Feel free to omit the ugly bugger getting out of it..........

Steve

[woody37]

Steve, can't wait to see some paint on these lil beauties

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Great phot - looks as though you're climbing in, but looking shiftily behind you. "Quick, let's get airborne before they realise I actually work in the SE section and borrowed this goonbag".

[Fritag]

Great phot - looks as though you're climbing in, but looking shiftily behind you. "Quick, let's get airborne before they realise I actually work in the SE section and borrowed this goonbag".

Rumbled at last

The conversation actually went:

"Who me? What do you mean I'm not a pilot? Look I'm wearing all the right clothes aren't I? I know how to get into it don't I? I signed for it didn't I? I must be one mustn't I? What do you mean there's a nice chap in a white coat waiting for me? Psychia-what? trist? What's that? Go away and leave me alone............Now where's the ignition key?"

Edited March 10, 2014 by Fritag

[perdu]

looks more like the conversation was on the lines of

"Oh. The Vicar was up on top of the church tower, oh shucks..."

Nice jet the Jag, I must have one lying around the spares box somewhere.

On the list!

Edited March 10, 2014 by perdu

[geedubelyer]

{~snip~}

- very uncool.

Now why did that last reason seem so important at the time?

Steve

So all of this "protecting Queen and country" malarky was just a ruse? You only became a fighter pilot to get the chicks did n't you?......Busted!

Neat work on the lights Steve. That worked out beautifully.

The pic showing the two side by side looks superb. I am inspired by the amount of effort I see you putting in. Good job.

Great idea with the plasticine jigs. Remember to make sure no residue (read :oily stains) is left behind on the plastic before you paint your jets.

Eager to see more.

Cheers.

Edited March 10, 2014 by geedubelyer

[Fritag]

Oh Bu**er.

Got home from work - looked at the JPs - thought something looked a bit skew-whiff on the CMR JP 3. Namely this:

Done some alignment checks against my plans and it shows the problem more clearly:

The starboard horizontal tailplane is skewed backwards. I don't think it's a warp in the fuselage - or me having mis-glued it - It's fitted snugly into it's location - and the fit was solid. It looks to me like it's just moulded that way.

I suppose those with limited run/resin kit experience will be live to such matters and check for everything.

Me - I was careful to get the dihedral etc correct (hence the plasticine jigs) but I didn't think to check if it would be square laterally - just assumed that the kit maker would sort that out.....

Come to think about it. Even If I was aware of it before I glued it - I think I would still have had to stick it together before sorting it out.

Haven't got a plan as such yet. But I think the only thing to do is to razor saw it off close to the root, and in line with the inboard end of the elevator, then file a small angle or insert a small wedge.

It's cos I just said that there CMR 3 had got to this stage without hardly as much work as the Airfix 5

Edited March 10, 2014 by Fritag

[HOUSTON]

Nice..... geedubliar ,I served "Queen and Country" and I got Zilch! TOO BUSY!!!

Fritag ...Awesome work by the way..I am no expert at all in matter of plastic what so ever but it looks astounding work to ME.

[Sarcococca]

The work at your Braille scale Provost`s is incredible!
Simply nice and lovely!!

They looks now crisp and busy!

[keefr22]

Oh Bu**er.

Haven't got a plan as such yet. But I think the only thing to do is to razor saw it off close to the root, and in line with the inboard end of the elevator, then file a small angle or insert a small wedge.

Oh butter indeed. That's a bit of a blow Steve. But I think the plan that you haven't got yet sounds like a good one...!!