1/72 Jet Provosts - Finished

[Zone19]

Ordered!!!

[Fritag]

Pinched another Cheshiretaurus idea this afternoon. Used the vac machine to mould some painting masks from the resin canopy moulds. Vac machine excels at stuff like this.:

JP5's had a warm water washing/up liquid bath and is in prep for priming - here with canopy masks test fitted (great idea Mark).

Unfortunately were out tonight - so it may not be until the weekend until I get to see how all the surface detailing looks under paint...........But hey it'll be painted before the snow!!

Edited July 17, 2014 by Fritag

[Fritag]

Dusted off the JP3.

The CMR Canopy is beautifully vac formed:

My only issue with it is that cos the windscreen and main canopy are moulded as one it's almost impossible to separate them neatly enough to use both halves to pose the canopy open. At least I ended up sacrificing the main canopy so as to ensure I got the windscreen perfect:

Dunno what I'd 've done if they hadn't provided a spare.

Anyways the JP3 gets its G meter/E2B as well:

And after a fair bit of careful and judicious fettling the windscreen is a cracking fit:

P'raps ever so slightly wide - but that's probably because I sanded the fuselages halves a bit thin in trying to ensure a neat join (first resin kit and all that). But I can deal with that (hopefully) when I glue it in place.

[robvulcan]

Beautiful work Fritag and that Parafilm sure does look useful stuff

[keefr22]

Dunno what I'd 've done if they hadn't provided a spare.

Vacformed another - you have the technology....!!

Cracking stuff again Steve, you're making me want to dig my CMR kit out now...!!

[kev67]

Looking good Fritag, love all the detail

I dont think the Parafilm has sold it to me, seems to long winded when you could use thin Tamiya tape and masking fluid

[perdu]

Vacformed another - you have the technology....!!

Cracking stuff again Steve, you're making me want to dig my CMR kit out now...!!

I think he'd have just glued a thick enough piece of plasticard across the arch at the front and carved it away gently when set

We've seen him do that sort of thinking before after all

Looking bloody nice too, shall I sub out the instrument backs on my Scout to a certain high powered, powerfully visually acuitied legal eagle?

I love the compass and meters you are knocking out on such an industrial scale

(As an un-needed aside. I've dumped my allegiance to the 3 now. Too many 'folks who KNOW' have rallied round the 5 and convinced me)

b

Edited July 18, 2014 by perdu

[Fritag]

(As an un-needed aside. I've dumped my allegiance to the 3 now. Too many 'folks who KNOW' have rallied round the 5 and convinced me)

b

Bill,

In celebration of your belated conversion I've updated my avatar. Dumped the old JP3 selfie and updated to a JP5 selfie.

The conversion to the JP5 came with a change of oxygen mask. Pressurised cockpit required a sturdier - better sealing oxygen mask in case of rapid decompression.

We studes were given horrible old black rubber ones (instructors had nice green silicone) played havoc with my teenage acne....

Glamorous job so I'm told....

Steve

[perdu]

suits you sir

suits yoou!

[Fritag]

Hate jets....Even simple ones like the JP seem to loads of little ariels and what-nots protruding everywhere. Hard to decide which to put on and which to leave off; hard to decide which to do before painting; harder to do.....and I hate PE just now.

Anyways - I spent a frustrating hour or more last night just trying to put the two prominent little triangular bits under the nose of the JP5. I think they must be some sort of aerodynamic flow straighteners for the pitot tube. A couple of spare triangular PE bits were the perfect size and shape - but gluing them to the fuselage; - give me strength......

Thankfully the full size affair seems to be bent out of one piece of metal - so I could glue a small rectangle of plastic card to the fuselage which gave me a small 'step' which provided a little bit of vertical area to glue against........It was still a right royal pain:

They're on for now. What are the chances of both of them staying in situ for the rest of the build?

Shall try Bill's sweetie wrapper trick for the little blade type ariels.....

Only left me with time to glue the JP3 canopy in place - avoided cyano fogging again (phew) and get the Mr S out...

Steve

[keefr22]

That makes the dainty 'ickle JP look like some kind of pre-historic monster! It's funny, but I ''never seem to notice'' a lot of those little protrubrances in my builds. Problem is there's no chance of doing that when people like you go & point them out & then model them so well...!!

Shall try Bill's sweetie wrapper trick for the little blade type ariels.....

I shall look forward to seeing that, first time I've heard of using sweetie wrappers for anything - must have missed Bill's explanation of it....

Anyway, I shall say it once more....'cracking work again Steve'...!! It's little things like this that make all the difference!

K

[robvulcan]

Well that's the 1st time I have seen MrSurfacer used as a canopy glue. Is it really strong enough for that ?.

I am only just beginning to use MrSurfacer and now I cant understand how I managed without it before. Its wonderful and Im using it all the time now.

[Fritag]

Ah - that'll be my poor use of English. What I meant to say was that despite using cyano to glue the canopy the canopy had not fogged - and that I was using Mr S to conceal the join.

It was early in the morning and I was only on my first cup of coffee.......

[robvulcan]

Nope your English is fine, Looking back at it now it makes sense. I too was only on my 1st cup of coffee and I am pretty tired so ..

More coffee

[Fritag]

Right. The last (I think) of the JP5's aerodynamic 'extras' are done. Slow work but nice to be playing with plastic card rather than PE. The remaining avionics aerials and beacons etc can wait until after its painted. A few flap/aileron/empanage operating levers to add and then construction is more or less done.

This evenings aerodynamic extras were the little wotsits at the wing root/engine junction - just little lengths of slightly curved plastic card fixed with dots of cyano and then some plastic weld. Bit fiddly - lots of measuring and marking.

And the flat blade type oojemythings under the engine. Again little strips of plastic card. I measurd, marked and scribed location 'trenches' into the bottom of the engine inlets and used plastic weld to glue them in:

And the whole set. Not difficult - but satisfying:

Oh - and the poor relation JP3 has had its windscreen faired in with Mr S. So far I remain a fan of micromeshing Mr S rather than wiping it off (I promise to practice though Keef )

Steve

Edited July 20, 2014 by Fritag

[robvulcan]

That is looking very good. I still can't believe how much detail you have added. What I previously thought of as a smooth plane is changed. Its amazing what you don't notice till you look close.

What do you use to apply your MrSurfacer Fritag. I am still getting to grips with it and want to learn more techniques using it.

Cheers Rob

[perdu]

Lovely jubbley Steve

That screen is just crying out for

A masking off with Tamiya's tape

Protect it before the micromesh gets near

Job's a good 'un

I love the detailey bits, exactly how I like to work

It doesn't even matter to me (any more ) if folks don't notice it

They probably miss seeing this stuff because it ISN'T out of place

[Fritag]

What do you use to apply your MrSurfacer Fritag. I am still getting to grips with it and want to learn more techniques using it.

Rob, I'm still getting to grip with it too. I started by using it straight from the bottle and applying it with a micro brush. But that was expensive as I had to throw the brush away afterwards - and I found Mr S to be a bit too thick and a bit too quick drying to be manageable. So I bought some Mr Colour Levelling Thinner (at Huddersfield earlier in the year IIRC) and since then I've been experimenting with thinning Mr S 1000 a little and applying it with a fine brush (0 or 1). I've found it much easier to control this way. It has to be built up in a few more layers but it's still very quick drying so it doesn't really matter. Also I can clean the brush after and re-use it!

That screen is just crying out for

A masking off with Tamiya's tape

Protect it before the micromesh gets near

It is a lovely clear moulding isn't it.

The JP3 is the first resin kit I've built so I've nothing to compare it too - but CMR seem to have done a cracking job throughout.

Been a bit of a challenge - what with resin being so soft and easily damaged and all. And it's made me realise what wonderful things injection moulded plastic and liquid poly cement are.

Still - live and learn eh....

[sidewinder1]

Hi Steve. I am really enjoying following this thread, it really is modelling at its best and totally inspirational! I love the jp in all its forms and think you are doing a fantastic job enhancing these kits. Keep up the brilliant work and I look forward to seeing the application of paint! Cheers. Martin.

Edited July 22, 2014 by sidewinder1

[perdu]

Hate jets....Even simple ones like the JP seem to loads of little ariels and what-nots protruding everywhere. Hard to decide which to put on and which to leave off; hard to decide which to do before painting; harder to do.....and I hate PE just now.

Anyways - I spent a frustrating hour or more last night just trying to put the two prominent little triangular bits under the nose of the JP5. I think they must be some sort of aerodynamic flow straighteners for the pitot tube. A couple of spare triangular PE bits were the perfect size and shape - but gluing them to the fuselage; - give me strength......

Thankfully the full size affair seems to be bent out of one piece of metal - so I could glue a small rectangle of plastic card to the fuselage which gave me a small 'step' which provided a little bit of vertical area to glue against........It was still a right royal pain:

They're on for now. What are the chances of both of them staying in situ for the rest of the build?

Shall try Bill's sweetie wrapper trick for the little blade type ariels.....

Only left me with time to glue the JP3 canopy in place - avoided cyano fogging again (phew) and get the Mr S out...

Steve

They used to do realism round here, ages back

It were all fields then though

erm?

Thankfully the full size affair seems to be bent out of one piece of metal - so I could glue a small rectangle of plastic card to the fuselage which gave me a small 'step' which provided a little bit of vertical area to glue against........It was still a right royal pain:

So did it occur to you to do the same, maybe?

Strip of discarded etch brass, snip ends at the requisite angle, bend, glue the bugger on

No triangular shrapnel awaiting your next unguarded motion

Carpet time!!!

I might have ended the corner with a wipe of cyano that could, when dry be knife-shaped tight to the angle for sharpness

(do you like it when idle busybodies pick holes in posts two pages old?)

At least it proves I have been thinking about this superb combi project

anyway sorry Steve

Edited July 21, 2014 by perdu

[general melchett]

Lovely job on the little blighters Steve, only sorry that I haven't commented before now ! Nice to see someone else who's happy to play around with multi media modelling. You're penchant for aeronautical terms is wonderful.....typical pilot. Reminds me of the time I visited Wattisham as an overkeen air cadet in the early 70's. One of the 111 squadron pilots, Steve Riley was showing us around 'his' Lightning F.3 and I noticed a small piece of equipment fitted to the underside of the nose...when I aked him what it was for he shrugged, said 'dunno' and proceeded to ask the crew chief what the doohinky on the whatsname was all about....he in return told him in plain English and he grinned at me and said ' still non the wiser...'I just fly the bl##dy things I can't be expected to know what makes them go'.....I was shocked, I thought every RAF fighter pilot was a Barnes Wallace in a pressure suit...soon learnt otherwise.

Look forward to progress....

[robvulcan]

And my provost is still buried in the stash.....

Not seen her in a while she must be hiding from the embarrassment of how much detail she lacks..

I actually am inspired by your build to build my Airfix one OOB to enjoy how plain It would look next to yours.

I am curious how many RAF types you have flown and when you get these finished I really wonder what your gonna do next. As the provost from a casual eye though loved by many does seem rather simple. Your build however proves otherwise. I would love to see your take on a Jaguar or phantom.

I hear what your saying about the MrSurdacer so far I have been applying 500 for filling panel lines with an cocktail stick. I find this grade the most useful for general stuff. The 1200 has a huge shrink back rate and is good for making scruffy surfacest flat. I can't believe how good it is. Same with the perfect plastic putty which is also amazing and feathers very well.

So much good gear now I remember when I thought plasto was the way to go. Would not touch it now.

I must get one of them little vac machines it looks very useful.

Keep up the good work this is a great thread mate

[Fritag]

I recently completed the Fly 1/48 jet provost which is really nice

I've got one of those too - but I might be a bit JP'd out for a while after these two

Thankfully the full size affair seems to be bent out of one piece of metal - so I could glue a small rectangle of plastic card to the fuselage which gave me a small 'step' which provided a little bit of vertical area to glue against........It was still a right royal pain:

So did it occur to you to do the same, maybe?

Strip of discarded etch brass, snip ends at the requisite angle, bend, glue the bugger on

No triangular shrapnel awaiting your next unguarded motion

anyway sorry Steve

It did as it happens Bill. But the little triangles are just so small I really didn't think that I would be able to get it right - not with my klutzy level of competence with PE anyway. I do agree that it would have been a better solution tho'

You're penchant for aeronautical terms is wonderful.....typical pilot. Reminds me of the time I visited Wattisham as an overkeen air cadet in the early 70's. One of the 111 squadron pilots, Steve Riley was showing us around 'his' Lightning F.3 and I noticed a small piece of equipment fitted to the underside of the nose...when I aked him what it was for he shrugged, said 'dunno' and proceeded to ask the crew chief what the doohinky on the whatsname was all about....he in return told him in plain English and he grinned at me and said ' still non the wiser...'I just fly the bl##dy things I can't be expected to know what makes them go'.....I was shocked, I thought every RAF fighter pilot was a Barnes Wallace in a pressure suit...soon learnt otherwise.

You only needed 5 O levels to be a pilot when I joined the RAF. The chaps with brains maintained and understood em - and the chaps with good eyesight flew em and didn't understand em........ years later when I was sent on the QWI course my wife had to try and re-teach me basic mathematics so that I could do the ballistics calculations.

I had the O levels in the bank when I went through the officer and aircrew selection at Biggin Hill aged 17 - and half way through the second year of my A levels. I passed the selection (somehow) and was accepted by the RAF a few months before I sat my A levels. As I didn't then need the A levels I just stopped working and started (alright continued) dreaming of 'slipping the surly bonds' in a Lightning. IIRC I ended up with 2 grade D's and an E (a fail - in computer science). This later proved a bit embarrassing when I left the RAF and was trying to get into university as a mature student to study law........

As I think I've said before in other posts - I did get posted to fly the Lightning at the end of training and did the Lightning ground school and simulator work up (aged 21) . But the T5 was grounded for several months so I got chucked back into the postings pot. I then got posted to fly Phantoms. But I kicked up a fuss on the basis that it wasn't fair - I had been graded as a single seat pilot (oh the misguided confidence of youth) and I didn't want a navigator - so I got sent to the Jaguar.

Some of the best fun flying we did was affiliation training with the lightnings over the North Sea abeam Binbook (they didn't have the fuel to go further from Binbrook than that ) To see a Lightning dropping near vertically from the heavens to try and get a firestreak/gun solution on a manoeuvring jag at 250' was quite something. Especially whilst manoeuvring yourself to try and get a sidewinder solution on the Lightning. Then watching it disappear near vertically upwards again in full burner.....

After the Lightnings had gone home out of fuel we'd carry on at low level for another hour or so and maybe have a play with some phantoms or Tornado F3's as well.

I am curious how many RAF types you have flown and when you get these finished I really wonder what your gonna do next. As the provost from a casual eye though loved by many does seem rather simple. Your build however proves otherwise. I would love to see your take on a Jaguar or phantom.

Not that many Rob. Chippie, JP, Hawk and Jaguar. Flew F16s (C and D models) with the Americans for a short while - but then lost my medical clearence to fly and so left the RAF after about 11 years and retrained as a Barrister.

The plan is that after the JPs it'll be the Hawk x 2. One in the RAF Valley training colours and one in Chivenor (63 squadron) wrap around grey/green. Then a couple of Jags probably a T2a and GR1a.

There have been some great takes on the Jag on these forums. And there are a few guys who really seem to know their stuff on the Jag as well. Andy's Steve Riley and the crew chief story gets it about right. And it was all over 20 years ago now........Not sure my jag - when I get to it - will add much to the mix.

Right - to work. I did post some progress yesterday - but that post seems to have got lost in the server switch. So here it is again.

I've got a spare PE from the CMR JP3 so I'm gonna use the PE elevator/rudder/flap linkages on the Airfix JP5. They're flat (obviously) but are so small on 1/72 that I don't think that's an issue here.

I was stressing about how to fix the PE - and then Bill outlined his sweetie wrapper technique over on his Scout thread. thanks Bill.

Well I don't have any quality street wrappers in the house - or any other sweetie papers for that matter. But I do have one of those Tamiya/Trumpeter trays in that special plastic type stuff that resists cyano (it ain't only aeronautical terms that I don't know......) which is even better! Thus:

I made a little jig to hold the PE from some scrap square profile plastic rod, then put a couple of small drops of thick cyano on the tray, and then positioned the end of there PE in the drop and left it to dry:

Bob (or Bill) is your uncle and it came away nicely:

Trimmed it square with a sharp blade:

And repeated the process on the other end:

Bit time consuming - but the product was 2 x elevator linkages ready to fix to the jet:

And one just resting in situ:

Took most of the evening to then produce a kit of parts to do all of the linkages:

And I got as far as fixing the aileron operating rod:

And then I needed a cup of tea......

Bill - you're a genius.

Steve

[perdu]

Not me mon ami

Its just having time to ponder that does it

I'm glad it works anyway

The actuators look pretty darned good

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Chippie, JP, Hawk and Jaguar. Flew F16s (C and D models) with the Americans for a short while - but then lost my medical clearance to fly and so left the RAF after about 11 years and retrained as a Barrister.

The plan is that after the JPs it'll be the Hawk x 2. One in the RAF Valley training colours and one in Chivenor (63 squadron) wrap around grey/green. Then a couple of Jags probably a T2a and GR1a.

You are me, even down to the medical problem (I was grounded with severe arthritis for my final year in the mob). My eventual plan is Chippie - Bulldog - Gazelle (done) - Sea King 5 - Lynx 3 - Sea King 6 - Lynx 3s. At least I have ships to work my way through as well: Norfolk - Fearless - Boxer - Ark Royal (in progress) - Broadsword - Blackwater...

You need to build a few airfields, mate