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Comet 4B


specky

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Hi everyone,

well, I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I find myself with one of these about to go onto the bench...

DSCN0501_zpsxexsklj9.jpg

I'm a little surprised to see that no one else has started one - either you all know something I don't, i.e. its a dog, or it was forgotten about - we will see!

My only previous airliner build experience was to start, and almost immediately abandon, the Airfix Vickers Vanguard about a month or 6 weeks ago - that is a truly awful kit on an almost biblical scale, but this, at least in the box, looks far more promising. Minimal sink marks, reasonably fine trailing edges and decals for windows - how very 'hi-tec'!

I'll be finishing it in the 'British European' scheme, which looks quite colourful....

DSCN0502_zpsyo8u7usc.jpg

But can anyone give me a clue what this might be? No mention in the instructions. A tail stand perhaps?

DSCN0503_zpsohsygcth.jpg

Any advice, hints or tips will be gratefully accepted!

Craig

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Looking at the instructions for the special edition boxing part 45 is used to apply clearfix which was supplied in the box to make windows part 46 if still included with your kit was for marking the holes in the decals for the windows. Hope this is some help.

Garry from a wet and overcast Cornwall.

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  • 1 month later...

I did one ages 'n' ages 'n' ages ago, using decals from various sources and well before Airfix re-issued this one. I must acquire one (even tho0ugh its been out for a while now)

Good luck with the build!

DHComet4C_BEA_2.jpg

Edited by Kev1n
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Hi everyone,

I was waiting untill I had something really worth showing, but after more than a month, I figure I'd better post something!

An initial burst of enthusiasm saw me invest another 25 pence on this project in the form of 5 pence pieces as nose weights - they're a perfect, almost 'interference fit' within the fuselage, but from there it went down hill very rapidly. The fit is just terrible apart from the horizontal stabilisers. Although they are a bit 'gappy', compared with the rest, you could almost consider them decent!

After spending what seemed like forever 'tickling' the relatively hard plastic with a selection of files and rasps from what I would normally regard as the 'coarse' end of my selection and getting nowhere fast, it was time to wheel out the 'big guns' in the form of a quarter sheet of 60 grit and a sanding block and really go to town. After a couple of sessions, I finally have a reasonably 'cylindrical' fuselage but the transition from wing trailing edge to fuselage still has a step, maybe 0.25mm, but since that is now thin to the point of being translucent, I'll have to shim the upper wing root to level it off

2016-08-30%2022.29.48_zpsetj2b67x.jpg

Not the best photo, but you get the idea

I had planned on 'gear down', hence the nose weight, but after losing all the detail from the fuselage and by the time I'm finished, I'm sure the wings will be just as bare, it'll now be 'gear up'. I'm now going to finish it in a similar manner to the models that might have been seen through a Travel Agents window 40 or 50 years ago - 'representative' rather than an accurate scale replica, so that really lets me off the hook!

In other news, and I really cannot believe I missed it, the second decal option in the kit is an Olympic Airways machine - so that's a 'no brainer', assuming I finish it this year!

So, this is how it stands...

2016-08-30%2022.32.30_zpsv1mpofom.jpg

....but it looks nowhere near as good, or less bad, in the flesh. Plenty to do.

Craig

PS Thanks for posting that photo Kev, terrific finish and it gives me a much better idea of the engine intake shape!

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Your welcome and glad it is of some help - the mold is the existing one from way, way, way back, when the world was in black and white so there are some fit problems.

As to losing fuselage detail, thats a given with a kit of this age, but if yor'e up for a challenge, try rescribing; it would be a shame to lose those 5p coins (I could have spent them...)

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I'm amazed that Airfix is still producing this kit. Would have thought the moulds would be well and truly worn out by now. This was the 3rd kit I ever built - bought together with an Airfix VC10 with 2 quid that a great aunt gave me for my birthday, 36 years ago. 16.99 on the Airfix website now!

Craig, yours is looking great so far. You could have a go at rescribing, but I'm not convinced models in this scale really need it. Won't be doing much of it on my VC10s.

I'm surprised more modellers aren't using coins as nose weights. I save all my leftover foreign coins for this. My two VC10s each have 5 1p pieces up front, whilst my 1/48 Javelin got some Malaysian currency (can't remember how much but did work out at the time it was equivalent to 25 Australian cents!).

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