Scratchbuild - CMC Leopard 1/72

[BritJet]

Felt like doing something different and as no-one else is likely to produce a kit of this, a scratchbuild is the only way to add it to my British Jets line-up.

More info

Luckily it's all simple shapes and very small so I don't think there will be too many headaches with this. Started off by printing out the basic shapes and cutting them out of plasticard. Quite quickly all glued together and left to harden off.

To cut down the amount of work, I had a hunt through the spares box for donor parts for the wings, tailplane and fin. The orange wings are from a Polish glider kit that previously gave up it's fuselage for another scratchbuild so I've had my moneys worth out of it! The tailplane is from an F-86 and the fin from a Crusader (I think) tailplane. Each one is shown before and after being modified, with the sections that have been removed. I was very lucky with these parts as they were all a fairly close match.

A bit more chopping and gluing later......

....and a bit more. The fuselage has now been covered in filler and the rear section partly sanded back towards the correct shape. You can just start to see the plasticard showing through.

Needs a lot more work but the basic shape is starting to come together.

Thanks for looking.

Steve

[Ragtag]

Interesting little jet - amazing to see something done from scratch, too.

[BritJet]

It is very small considering it's a four seater. I can understand why it didn't sell though (apart from the problems with engines), if you're in the market for a biz-jet then you're going to want something with a bit of room and 'presence'. Whilst it's eye-catching, it doesn't shout 'look at how much money I've got....' like a Learjet or Gulfstream etc.

Steve

[Giorgio N]

Always good to see someone scratchbuilding a model for which there's no kit ! Looking forward to the build !

[BritJet]

I didn't realise how long it had been since my last update on this! Now that I've finished the Meteor drones and my desk is clear (not tidy!) this has come to the top of the list again.

The basic fuselage shape is there now and the next step will be to take some moulds from this so I can get a hollow shell and for the vacform canopy.

I've made the masters for the two different engine types as well as scribing the wings, tailplane and fin.

The current plan for breaking this down into parts for resin casting is fuselage to rear cockpit bulkhead in one piece, rear fuselage as left and right shells, one piece wing and one piece tailplane, fin, two types of engine (left and right) on their pylons, ventral fin. There will be a few smaller parts such as cockpit seats, wheels etc as well.

Steve