1/72 Airfix TSR.2 Takes Flight

[sunray]

I have seen TSR.2's at Duxford and RAF Cosford so I thought I would have a go at building one so here it is.  The box has a picture of a TSR.2MS from a kids TV series but the kit has an option for the TSR.2 at both museums.





















I have bought Eduards photo etch set as well to add a bit more detail.





As I usually do I am going to have this in a flying display with the stand made from brass tubing mounted on an oak base.  So the first thing I am going to do is to workout how I am going to do it.   After a few hours of studying the instructions and examining the fuselage parts I decided to mount a long steel bolt through the centre of the part that made up the rear wheel well and bomb bay.  So I hand drilled a hole to take the bolt and I attached it to the part using epoxy.  The epoxy is fast drying but I left it over night to cure.



As you can see from the photo's I have added the epoxy at both sides of the hole for a bit more add strength.  The I glued the wheel well to one fuselage half along with the front wheel well.  Then I added some photo etch detail before I attached the cockpit tub.  The reason for doing all this is because the fuselage halves are a bit bent and twisted so I wanted to make sure that the part holding the mount has a really strong bond.











To help the fuselage halves line up better I also attached plastic tabs made from thick plastic sheet.





After test fitting and test fitting and test fitting again I still have not attached the fuselage halves as there were other things to do before I could attach them together.





Because of the way and location of the mounting bolt I glued the doors of the bomb bay in the closed position.  Then marked and drilled the hole through the bomb bay doors.  Again to add more strength I glued a piece of thick plastic sheet to the back of the doors.  The width of the plastic was cut to allow the plastic to fit inside the bomb bay housing again add strength.







Then again I did more test fitting.



This time I tried test fitting the wings to check the symmetry with the fuselage.





My attention then moved to the air in-takes.  These had a few gaps that required filling and then sanding to try and get the inside of the in-takes as smooth as I could.







I then moved to the jet exhausts assembly which went together without any problems.



So with all this done I sprayed the inside of the cockpit and then I finally got around to gluing the fuselage halves together with the help of a few clamps.



Once the glue was dry I attached the air in-takes to the fuselage.  



I also glued the bomb bay door assembly to the base of the fuselage lining up the steel bolt with the hole in the bomb bay doors.  As this is a flying display I had to glue the undercarriage doors in the closed position.  The doors are not a good fit so I used right angled plastic rod to help support the doors.







Then in was just a case of filling the sanding then filling and sanding until it looked right.







The cockpit tub and the fuselage had a few gaps that required filling thats why I haven't added the seats, pilots or instrument panels.





I decided to use a pin for the pitot tube instead of the plastic kit part.  I drilled a hole in the end of the nose cone then I dropped a few drops of CA glue into the cone then I pushed in the pin.  The pin was one of those with a bead on the end which helped it attach a touch better to the cone giving the pin head more surface area for the glue.  I then trimmed the end of the pin with a pair of wire cutters taking the length from the kit part.  Out came the filler again and I sanded the nose cone smooth.



The wings were then attached which was an easy job and the fit wasn't too bad.  The fit for the tail plane was a bit too loose so I added a copper pin to the rudder and elevators which was just a case of drilling a hole in the base of the rudder or elevator.  Then attaching a small piece of copper wire with CA glue then cutting to size.  Then I gently pushed the rudder or elevator in position on the fuselage so the newly installed copper makes a mark.  Then I just drill a hole at the mark on the fuselage for the copper pin.  Its then just a case of attaching the rudder, etc using normal plastic glue.



After I had attached the rudder I glued in position the jet exhaust assembly then I did a bit more filling.





Now its is starting to look the part.








 

[stever219]

Now you know why so many TSR 2 models have the undercarriage bay and weapons bay doors open.  One thing to note is that the vertical fin is an all-moving surface so it's base doesn't need fairing in to the fuselage.

[sunray]

19 minutes ago, stever219 said:

Now you know why so many TSR 2 models have the undercarriage bay and weapons bay doors open.  One thing to note is that the vertical fin is an all-moving surface so it's base doesn't need fairing in to the fuselage.

 

Thanks Steve.  The reason for the filler is that the gaps were really wide so what I plan to do is to run a scriber down them once they are done.  I love doing the old Airfix kits but this one should have "Filler Not Included" on the box. 

[stever219]

My apologies.  It's so long since I've seen mine that I can't remember how bad tha gap is.  Then again I can't remember breakfast time most days......

Edited January 16, 2017 by stever219
Typed in haste

[CedB]

Great build on one of my favourites... I'll follow along if I may  

[Crossofiron1971]

Oooh, lovely subject!

Great start!

[sunray]

Thanks chaps.  For the elevators I did the same as the tail fin by drilling a hole and attached a spigot or pin made from copper wire with CA glue.  Then I test fitted the elevator allowing the copper spigot to mark the fuselage, this is where I am going to drill for the spigot.  That done on both elevators it was just a case of attaching them.  The good thing about using copper spigots is that the copper wire is soft allowing to bend it slightly to a line the elevators and holding them in the right position to allow the Tamiya glue to cure.





Now for the cockpit.  I thought this was going to be difficult adding the photo etch cockpit detail as the cockpit tub has already been glued in the fuselage, restricting any room I had to manoeuvre the photo etch parts to a minimum.  But using a pair of tweezers it was surprisingly easy.  So I just followed the instructions and it all went in without any problems using Roket Card Glue.







I am not going to use the kit pilots as I prefer to use Revell pilots for their NATO set.  To get them to fit some minor surgery was required with my razor saw.  Also I removed a head from one figure and drilled a hole in it to attach some thin copper wire.  Then I drilled another hole in the chosen body.  Doing this way makes it easier to attach the head and allows you to move the head to different positions.









Then it is just a case of adding arms.









I test fitted the pilots a few times just to check that they fitted and looked right.



Before painting and attaching the crew I had a problem with one of the canopies.  One of the hinges had snapped off and there was a air bubble in the clear plastic.  



So with the help of a skinny stick I sanded the air bubble out from inside the of canopy and polished the canopy.  Then I removed the remaining hinges from the two canopies as I decided to fill in the hinge recesses on the fuselage with scrap plastic and sand them down.







Also there is a large gap between the front canopy and the fuselage so I decide that the solution was to use plastic strips to fill the gap.







I then painted the crew and in they went.

















 

[CedB]

Very nice work Ian - I like those internals, a lot, and the pilots look great too. Good job!

[AdrianMF]

Coming on nicely - the cockpit looks great with the pilots. Is the NATO set like the WWII RAF set of aircrew?

 

The TSR2 moulding looks awfully blobby - it looks like every seam and join needs a whole lot of attention!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[hovis]

Brilliant work mate.

[Martian]

You are making a fine job of this build despite the kit's dreadful fit!

 

Martian

[Head in the clouds.]

Nice work thus far on what looks like a bit of a pig of a kit although the subject matter makes it all worth it. I will watch this build as this is a future project for me.

[sunray]

Thanks chaps.  The canopies on the kit are clear so I decided to tint them with yellow ink lightly sprayed on the inside of the canopies.





I have used the ink once before spraying the acrylic rods on my Red Arrows display which is one the forum and as you can see the ink dulls the plastic. 



To bring back the shine and make them more transparent I dipped them in Klear.



I think it worked quite well.



The problem I had with the canopies were that they were just too wide for the fuselage.  To get around this I glued the canopies to the fuselage with PVA and then I used the homemade filler again made from Tamiya Extra Thin cement with chopped up bit of grey sprue melted in it.  I used grey sprue because the interior of the cockpit was grey.  This didn't fog the clear plastic, gives a strong bond and allows you to fill and sand.  I didn't use it on the front canopy were it joins the windscreen there I stuck with the PVA.







I wanted to get the canopies as flush with the fuselage as I could so I filled any gaps, left it over night to harden and sanded.













Then on with the masking using tape and masking fluid.





Now on to paint.  



I primed it and I noticed I missed a gap in the bomb bay doors.  To fill this I just cut a strip of plastic, glued this in the gap and sanded it when I gave the whole kit a rub down.



    





I then I did a bit of pre-shading.









 

[Martian]

Good progress! The tinting to the canopies looks very effective.

 

Martian

[AdrianMF]

Looking good in the primer!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[CedB]

Very nice Ian - great work on the canopies and well worth it - they're one of the eye catchers IMHO  

[sunray]

Thanks guys.  On with the paint.





I used Vallejo metalizer for the exhaust.





  

Then I gave it a few coats of Tamiya X22 Clear, sanding between coats.













I add the decals and gave it another clear coat.  Then I made up an oil pin wash and on it went.


















 

[CedB]

Very nice Ian, can't wait to see the masking off!  

[Martian]

She is turning into the elegant beauty that the 1/1 scale examples are!

 

Martian

[snapper_city]

Looking good. I have the same cheap Chinese rotary sander.

[neil5208]

Has this one been finished?

[sunray]

On 1/25/2019 at 4:41 PM, neil5208 said:

Has this one been finished?

Yes Neil and here is the link to the finished article.  https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235017624-172-airfix-tsr2-takes-flight/