Sea Hornet - Finished +++

[825]

I hope it's not too late to start with this little beauty. 

 

 

Special Hobby's boxing of the NF21. This is not a simple kit, the basic airframe is but it has to be cut up as it's the basic fighter airframe, there is a shed load of resin a little bit of etch, and the props need constructed. Here is the sprue shot

 

 

The resin, having undergone an ultrasonic clean. 

 

 

Not a great picture but shows the cutting that needs done and the rather nice transfers.

 

 

Transfers for three Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky, whcich IMHO is a rather fetching scheme for this beautiful aircraft. I think I'll do one of the HMS Eagle options as it was one of the carriers my dad served upon. 

 

 

First up the chopping up of the fusealge. Out with the saw, knife and sandpaper. Pictures to follow. 

Edited June 15, 2017 by 825

[wyverns4]

 and 

 

Christian, exiled to africa

[825]

Yesterday's cutting work.First the observers opening and escape hatch. Some prominent ejector pins which will get in the way of the resin

 

 

Now the nose. Careful Sawing for the nose, chain drilling and hacking and sanding for the cannon insert.

 

 

[DAG058]

Welcome In! Never too late, with over 2 and a half months left until the end date.

 

Good luck with your build, I'll be following with interest. 

[Grandboof]

Great start will be watching 

Martin H

[825]

Spent a couple of hours removing the resin parts from the casting blocks. Then wet sanding them to shape.  Loads of them, resin hard but brittle. There are a few where moulded plastic would have done, the blanking plates in he undercart bay for example.

 

 

A few broke for no apparent reason. Tail wheel, pilot's seat and one of the cockpit side panels.

 

 

Not sure to paint before assembly or glue them up first. The rear cockpit may be a bit of a challenge for the latter. 

 

 

[825]

Summary of today's work. First the cockpit glued up with cyano. 

 

 

Now some paint on

 

 

 

Used Revell Anthracite rather than pure black. Some more paint on other parts including wings, but appears to be no transparency for landing light cover. Or insert for wing. Perhaps a chunk of clear sprue is required. 

 

[825]

Done a little more. Added shims to the escape hatch and cannon insert spaces. I'm worried both that the resin parts will fall inside and be lost, and that the fit might not be ideal. So a ledge of plastic strip added round the holes should help prevent that as well as give a base to position and for filler if needed. Look a bit rubbish at the moment as the solvent has caused the paint to run. A quick swipe with sandpaper when dry and a coat of paint on the inner surface will soon sort that out.  No more for a few days as I'm off to Portugal on rugby tour for the weekend. 

 

[825]

Some further work on the interior. The etch seat belts look good and add a bit of colour to a dark cockpit. One of the observer's literally disappeared when I was fitting it so has been replaced by a strip of Tamiya tape.  It's a bit noticeable here but once holed up in the fuselage much less so. 

 

 

The IP is nice but I'm not convinced that the layers of resin, film and etch really adds much. Considering the cockpit is pretty dark. 

 

 

Last but not least, the wings are being prepared and the sprue gates are massive, cleaning up left a notch on one part. Cue filler. 

 

 

[825]

The cockpits complete..

 

 

The tail wheel insert added, but it subsequently needed sanding to permit the other side of the fuselage to close up. 

 

 

The bearers for the undercart legs glued up. Although accurate, the undercarriage is a mixture of resin, plastic and etch and a bit over engineered. I suspect these resin bearers may be a weak point

 

 

And last but not least the notch in the wing is almost filled, a combination of Perfect Putty (which wasn't quite perfect for this job), correcting fluid and superglue. 

 

 

 

 

[825]

Previous post was work to end of Saturday, a little more done this evening. Including glueing in the front cockpit, after much fettling, but it seems a really positive fit now.

 

 

 

The wing leading edge is sorted now, finished off with superglue, but no pictures yet. 

[825]

Ready to close up

 

And here we are. It got a lot of sanding of the resin inserts and cockpit sides to get here. Glued with a mixture of Tamiya Super Thin and cyano.  To be left overnight to harden up

 

 

 

 

 

[825]

This is what the fuselage looks like unobound and following a bit of sanding and polishing. The rear end didn't quite close up; so some more cement and a firm taping up.

 

 

 

The  nose might need a little filler but I'll wait to see what it looks like after the resin parts are added and there's a coat of paint on. The cockpit does look nice though IMHO. 

 

 

Engine nacelles assembled with undercarriage bearers. Bottom one tidied up, sanded and smoothed, top one drying with a little layer of cyano on top to fill a gap.

 

 

And last but not least, the radiators glued into the wings. 

 

 

Just some more sanding, glueing, filling and painting to do.

[825]

Resin parts added to bottom of the fuselage. The hatch had a couple of hinges moulded on but they got in the way of fitting it. So I sanded them off and added two little slivers of plastic card once the hatch was fixed. Some card strip used as a shim to fill gaps initially. 

 

 

I faced the front with some plastic strip to give the resin nose something to fix to. It's not quite smoothe doff now. I'll leave it for a couple of hours to firm up.

 

 

Wings glued up and nacelles fixed. Took a bit of sanding and trimming to get to fit. And then had a gap at the back. I think I will need to sort out some form of spar to ensure that the are firm enough and get the dihedral right. Also can't really be seen here but some filler is needed, particularly on the underside. 

 

 

 

[825]

Some tidying up of the joints between plastic and resin

 

 

And filling of the wing/nacelle joints

 

 

Fuselage drilled for some spars as well. 

[825]

Spars, non prototypical, added. The two rods are inserted right through while the plastic strips are butted against the wing fillet, glued first with solvent then firme up,with cyano. I've added them to both give strength and a guide when glueing up. 

 

 

And now the nose thimble added. This went on a lot easier than expected. I pur some Revell Contacta cement on the plastic card nose bulkhead, adjusted the thimble till satisfied, the Contacta giving enough bite to hold it in place temporarily. Then cyano was added around all the joint for a permanent fixing. 

 

 

 

Wing on. Both wings were on but I wasn't satisfied with the port wing so it was prised off and some work done on it. 

 

 

Now both wings, and empanage on. Starting to look like a Hornet now. Lots of solvent and liberal cyano to fix everything. I know there's been a mess up with the pre-painting of the tailplane. 

 

 

 

A bit of filling to go before a coat of paint.

[Grandboof]

Oh what a big nose you've got Looking good Well done 

Martin H

[825]

Not much work done this week as busy at work and late nights having todo work at home. Lost last Saturday as had to go to Portsmouth to help solve an 825 junior crisis. Well he needed a new phone and we know generation X cannot be disconnected. Had a really good day mind you. 

 

I have been doing small small bits of filling and sanding and added what I hope is the final layers on the wing roots and tidied up the nose join seam which want at all bad. It's just a bit small and awkward shapes. I also don't want to be too aggressive in case I rub away some of the resin. Here are the wing joints

 

Upper

 

 

and lower

 

 

Looks messy but should clean up fine.

[825]

Argh!!! Where did this come from? It definitely wasn't there before. And it's on both upper and lower wings. It must be 'rotting' from the inside as it doesn't look like dropped glue or solvent being on both sides.  I'll have to fill it as it is too obvious, especially on the upper wing as it will be where the roundel goes. 

 

 

[nimrod54]

I have just had another run through this build and I must say that you are showing lots patience on what, at first glance, looks to be a tricky kit. It's coming together nicely though and will be worth all that effort in the end. Keep up the good work.

[Troy Smith]

42 minutes ago, 825 said:

Argh!!! Where did this come from? It definitely wasn't there before. And it's on both upper and lower wings. It must be 'rotting' from the inside as it doesn't look like dropped glue or solvent being on both sides.  I'll have to fill it as it is too obvious, especially on the upper wing as it will be where the roundel goes. 

 

 

could be a blessing, as SH have repeated a common Hornet error, upper wing panel lines,  they should be smooth like a Mosquito (same structure)

There have been builds on here of the 1/48th CA kit showing this. 

I'll try find and edit one in.

OK

 

 

 

Quote

I hope this shows the actual lines visible on the wing of a Sea Hornet clear enough? I've pencilled-in what should be there, including the slanting rear edge of the radiator fairing. Its very subtle even on the full size aircraft, so for this kit I've chosen to represent it as an engraved line. If you choose, you could cutaway the complete skin forward of this line and inset a piece a fraction of a millimetre higher.

With the lines I wanted to keep now marked out, then comes the messy bit of filling the unwanted details. As you can see, there is a lot of spurious detail present (copied onto the Trumpeter kit too). These lines actually represent the inner wooden wing ribs. They are shown as hidden detail on some original diagrams, so someone would have mis-interpreted the drawing unfortunately. Also in the photo, you can see the diagonal rear edges of the radiator fairings clearly.

 

the whole build is well  worth a read.

 

HTH

T

Edited May 13, 2017 by Troy Smith
add details and links

[825]

Thanks Troy. I did think that the wings should be pretty smooth. I have filled the sink holes and smoothed them off. I'll look at this build and my Sea Hornet from the Cockpit book and see if I can get the panel lines sorted. They are quite light on the airframe so it might not be such a big challenge. 

[Guest]

The spurious panel lines, amongst many other issues, were one reason why I sold off virtually all of my Special Hobby Hornets at a loss.  Vile kit.  The two I have left are going to be butchered for a diabolical what if Hornet/Vampire mash up.

 

You're doing some excellent work there.  Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[825]

Sink marks filled and some of the 'aberrant' panel lines filled. Waiting for the filler to dry on the upper inner wings before sanding smooth and rescribing the radiator panels and associated panels.

 

 

 

 

I think I'm at the two steps forward and one back rather than the other way round now.

 

 

[825]

A week or so of sanding, filling, more sanding, more filling, ............... and a coat of paint has got us here. 

 

 

Some more sanding and another coat of paint has got here, and it's looking a lot better. I have found a little step on the bottom wing that needs filled but that can wait. 

 

 

Here it is with its older, bigger brother. Mind you the Tamiya Mossie almost just falls together in comparison.