De Havilland Sea Vixen FAW1 - 890NAS, HMS Ark Royal 1963-4

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I have reached the stage with Ark Royal where there is a lot of sitting around waiting for layers of paint to dry fully, so it's high time (as Fritag and others have reminded me...) that I return to the world of flying machines.

So here we are:

Airfoil 1/48 Vixen, with Ally Cat resin conversion to FAW1, Quickboost small intakes, Heritage seamless big intake, Eduard PE and a donation from Madmusky, a fellow Britmodeller, of 4 Firestreaks which he didn't need for a Lightning build. Those of you who are familiar with this kit will see that I have already taken the plunge and cut the top half of the original cockpit off, ready for its resin replacement. (Original visible far top left, and the replacement on the right of the lamp.)

This to be built as an aircraft that my next door neighbour flew as a Sub Lieutenant first tourist on 890NAS in the early 60s, and to be given to him for his 75th birthday later this year. Besides, I think the Mark 1 Vixen was a superb-looking aircraft, even if the Red Tops and extra fuel made the Mark 2 a more potent machine in real life; it just looks so much better without the sticky-out bits on top of the wing.

I haven't quite decided how to pose it yet, but the current favourite is just catching an arrester wire, with everything dangling / hanging out. This will be the first time I have painted a figure in around 40 years, and that's the bit that is currently giving me the most worry!

Welcome aboard; stand clear of intakes, jet pipes and exhausts - start the Vixen.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Linus]

That mean? You have everything you need, courage good job, and do not forget to wish your neighbor's birthday, even for me!!!!

I hope to see the various steps here!!!!

Good work

Linus

[AntPhillips]

Well that's 2 builds with which you have me hooked.

[Duncan B]

I've got 2 of these to build (and 2015 will be the year of some 1/48 builds for me) so I'm going to be paying close attention to this one.

Duncan B

[heloman1]

Oooooooh, great choice. I'm envious!

Colin

[Benbow]

Nice sword case leaning on the radiator! You must be v proud (as am I) hence I keep following all your FAA builds with avid interest!! Ben

[Martian]

This will be cool to follow!

Martin

[Fritag]

Excellent!

Now - you've just got to find an inch or two of work bench that isn't covered in bits of Vixen and we can begin to enjoy the show

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

As there always is with resin, lots of sanding in a mask today, starting to prep the various parts. The port boom is now close to fitting nicely:

As you can see in the background, some of the cockpit sub-assemblies are done, and now it's all been sprayed (rattle can) German Grey as a primer.

No photos of Ark today; just a sprayed coat of Valejo Off White in preparation for the start of the mask-fest!

[Col.]

This has caught my attention!

[David H]

I will be following with interest. I too like the looks of the FAW.1 better myself, what with the contrast of the black radome with the Extra Dark Sea Grey and Gloss White.

If you didn't want the engineering headache of depicting the plane as it catches a wire, you could always do it in the turn into the "groove" with gear down (oleos fully extended), flaps down and hook down. Your friend can probably tell you about what time they retracted the speed brake on the belly.

I didn't know the FAW.1 had smaller intakes.

david

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

The FAW1 didn't have smaller intakes; the intakes I am talking about are the tiny ones underneath the belly - directly below and slightly aft of the main intake for each engine. I don't know enough about thew Vixen to know what they were/are for.

More sanding and dry fitting today, so the booms are now approaching ready:

Apart from that, it has all been cockpit work. I am not going to go mad with the cockpit, because there's going to be a pilot in there, thus making most of this invisible. There is a prt of me that things all this pre-painted PE is cheating a little, but frankly there is no way I could get the cockpit looking as good as this...

Not sure how I will justify the severe right wing low attitude in which Sandy appears to be landing. I'll just have to tell him his AI has toppled (or do you fixed-wing types call it an AH?). Mind you, if he pulls me up on that detail, I might just kill him!

More soon.

Crisp

Edited December 27, 2014 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[hendie]

I remember playing around and having lots of fun refining and honing my technical skills as a yoof on my mechanics course at Halton on one of these. I always thought they were a really cool design.

I'm looking forward to seeing this one develop - based on your floaty thing, this should be a real brammer !!!

[Martian]

Nice start! It's always good to get the potentially difficult stuff over with as soon as possible. Once you have those booms sorted the rest of the build should be a breeze.

I would take issue with the use of pre-painted parts being a cheat. After all they are clearly done using machinery costing an awful lot of money which the average modeller could never afford and are way beyond what could be achieved by hand.

Martin

[Biggles87]

I will be following this closely.I also have the Airfix kit and Alley Cat FAW1 conversion and like you, I think the Sea Vixen looks better without the enlarged booms.

Keep it coming.

Happy New Year

John

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I have been thinking about how to engineer this for display, and the Airfixc instructions saying "30g" for weight to stop it being a tail-sitter has given me an idea. I think what I am going to do is to put in less weight than that (maybe none at all - the nose cone can go on very late, so experimentation shouldn't be a problem) and beef up the tail hook so that the model actually sits on a three-point support of both main u/c legs plus the hook. This decision has been helped by the fact that the arrestor hooks provided are very thin and fragile, so I'd probably want to beef it up anyway with some brass rod or whatever. The only problem that remains is how to build the aircraft around the hook housing - so what I have done is to cut off the hook at the fatter section. I will drill this out to take some thin brass rod, but then continue the hole right into the guts of the aircraft so it bears a bit more weight. That's the current plan, anyway!

I have also reapplied that I possessed an Aires cockpit for this beast, so have re-worked the cockpit to incorporate the (exquisite) Aires casting, some Eduard PE - the main difference is that the bang seats are a whole different league in detail terms, as is the section behind the Pilot's seat; since that is pretty visible, it's been worth the effort. Very early stages of painting the Observer are evident. I am awaiting a PJ Production 1950s-60s Pilot figure, because he is wearing an oxygen mask, which is the look I am after. The Looker will barely be visible, which gives me a chance to work on my figure painting techniques and to get at least something in there - there needs to be the impression of an arm or whatever, in case the viewer can see through at some odd angle...

I am going to need to take a little off the bottom of the Looker's bang seat (and probably his feet, too!) - the FAW1 is lower than the Mk2, and I think his head won't fit at present. Ally Cat warn of this and provide a shortened seat, so it is no surprise.

More soon

Crisp

Edited December 30, 2014 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

That's better:

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

The more I look at this guy, the less satisfied I am with him. I know there's still lots of painting to be done, but the whole shape of his bone dome is horrible, and the life jacket isn't a whole lot better. Still, he's going to be invisible bar the odd arm or two, so perhaps Zi should stop being so anal!

I have the Airfix Javelin in my stash, and there's no way I'll build that with anyone in it; Sod's Law says it'll be the same mould, but it's worth a look...

Edited December 30, 2014 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Fritag]

Not sure how I will justify the severe right wing low attitude in which Sandy appears to be landing. I'll just have to tell him his AI has toppled (or do you fixed-wing types call it an AH?). Mind you, if he pulls me up on that detail, I might just kill him!

OK. I'm first to admit that it's been a while. But It's worse than that isn't it? Isn't he upside down and left wing low ? Since when was the black bit the sky?

I think the two terms are actually interchangeable. That said I thought that in common parlance an AI was a more modern or posh AH. The JP had what we referred to as the AH - cos it had just the old fashioned white horizon line against a black background (and toppled), whereas the Hawk and the front line jets had the more modern affairs different colours for above/below the horizon and pitch markings etc. (and did not topple) which we referred to as an AI.

The more I look at this guy, the less satisfied I am with him. I know there's still lots of painting to be done, but the whole shape of his bone dome is horrible, and the life jacket isn't a whole lot better. Still, he's going to be invisible bar the odd arm or two, so perhaps Zi should stop being so anal!

You can't just stop being anal Crisp......Mind you on this occasion I think you should try hard.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Struth, you're right - he's upside down, innit?

[Biggles87]

You could be right about the 'bone dome' it looks like a Mk2 ( bulky one piece affair) rather than the Mk1 shell and cloth inner type of the 1960s.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I rather like this two models at once game; while waiting for Ark's deck to dry, I can get on with this beast...

Intakes and wheel wells glued in, in preparation for buttoning up the main part of the fuselage. The airbrake was done some time ago - having consulted the pilot himself, he told me in no uncertain terms that to use the air brake during a landing was a certain recipe for a crash, especially at sea. "A tad under-flapped, so we were right on the edge in terms of power; the air brake made the aircraft drop like a brick. What we really needed was a brake like the Buccaneer, where you could be more subtle with it". So no air brake needed for this model, then!

One of the advantages of this conversion to Mk1 is the fact that the cockpit section is an entirely separate piece (which I know will present its own fun when I try to marry them up...), so the inner wings, engines etc. can be worked on separately.

Quite pleased with those wheel bays - though the Vixen was one of those aircraft where most of the doors closed up again when the wheels were down, so most of this will be hidden.

Note the two black 1/350 flight deck tractors under the port wing; multitasking, me!

Edited January 1, 2015 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

The Observer's cockpit of the Vixen was notoriously claustrophobic, and (because of radar technology at the time) had to be pitch black, so became known as the "Coal Hole". For modelling purposes, luckily the option exists to build the cockpit around the man, because otherwise I think there'd be no chance of shoe-horning him in!

But the booms definitely fit nicely.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Martian]

The idea of having two projects on the go at once works quite well and I am pleased to see that it works well for you too. I have found that it keeps me fresh, whichever one I am working on.

Martin