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Blackburn Roc Floatplane Target Tug


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7 hours ago, BlackAck said:

I've got some good 'uns lined up

Whacko! :fraidnot:

7 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I was assuming this was a mild diversion in the gentleman's scale, which would be a pardonable indiscretion. But I've just realised it's 1/48 as well! Now I know yer off yer roc-ker!

 

But somehow I find myself watching with interest (from behind the sofa, mind...).

 

Regards,

Adrian

If you look at my description you will see that I am only doing what it says on the tin.

4 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

He was obviously listening to Rocabilly!

 

(And still they keep coming)

(But society is to blame)

Have you been going to the Blackack School of Corny Jokes? 

1 hour ago, perdu said:

As long as nobody wants to blame me...

Just for once, no. Blackack is clearly bang to rights for this outbreak of excruciating humour. :police:

 

Martian

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On 6/4/2017 at 5:15 AM, Martian Hale said:

Blackack is clearly bang to rights for this outbreak of excruciating humour


Mrs. BlackAck simply shook her head when she heard that my sense of humour had provoked international condemnation..

 

But back to the topic at hand, the internet of things has very few pictures of Blackburn Roc's with floats, what are you using/plan on using for visual reference?

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25 minutes ago, BlackAck said:


Mrs. BlackAck simply shook her head when she heard that my sense of humour had provoked international condemnation..

 

But back to the topic at hand, the internet of things has very few pictures of Blackburn Roc's with floats, what are you using/plan on using for visual reference?

She may have shook her head but was she surprised?

 

As to the floats, Knowing that they were Blackburn Shark floats was the key. The AP (official manual) gave dimensions for the floats which turned out to be very close indeed to Swordfish floats in both length and beam. Not surprising really as they were similar size aircraft, designed to the same specification. A small amount of plastic needed removing from the rear of the SMER Swordfish floats that I used, about 1.5mm if I remember correctly. Photographs and the respective APs showed that the step on the Shark floats was further back and I laminated about 5mm of plastic card to the Swordfish step and just carved this to shape. Next up was to remove any remaining detail from the SMER parts and replace it by re-scribing and with plastic card and strip using the AP as a guide. As to struts these will be from Contrail strut section, drilled and pinned. Fortunately I have a set of old Aviation News plans and all I had to do was scale these up and calculate the actual length of the struts allowing for the angles at which they were to the perpendicular.

I am glad I kept my calculations as I recall sweating over them for some considerable time.

 

All this is avoidable if one is modelling in 1/72 scale as all you need to do is pinch a set of floats from a cheap Frogspawn kit of the Shark.

 

Thanks for raising the point about the floats as, having already made them ten years ago, I had completely overlooked the need to describe how I went about making them.

 

Martian

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Oooh I'm a little late to this party but so glad to see someone who is crazy mad bonkers brave enough to have a go at this. I did the Skua a few years ago which for me turned out nice. I fancied a Roc but the limited injection turret was putting me off, it'll be good to see how all that jargon goes together in the back. Really looking forward to seeing this elegant beasty coming together, all that remains is a quote from the beloved Bobby Ball.......Roc on Martian!

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4 hours ago, moaning dolphin said:

Oooh I'm a little late to this party but so glad to see someone who is crazy mad bonkers brave enough to have a go at this. I did the Skua a few years ago which for me turned out nice. I fancied a Roc but the limited injection turret was putting me off, it'll be good to see how all that jargon goes together in the back. Really looking forward to seeing this elegant beasty coming together, all that remains is a quote from the beloved Bobby Ball.......Roc on Martian!

That Blackack has an awful lot to answer for!

 

Welcome on board! Once the actual butchering of the fuselage is complete things should be relatively straight forward albeit slow moving, as I have quite a bit from the Roc manual. The colour scheme may be another matter as there are not any pictures of Roc target tugs out there. Still we can worry about that one when we are further own the line with the construction. It may result in a trip to the Fleet Air Arm Museum archives if all else fails.

 

Martian

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Just a quickie. A bad attack of the fibromyalgia has kept me in bed for most of the day but I have managed to get the retractable fairing cleaned up and the forward edge thinned. Such detail as was moulded on the insides of the fuselage was very basic and woolly at best so, out came the Dremel clone  and it was all ground away. Once this has been sanded smooth I can get on with sorting out the interior floors and bulkheads. Unless anyone particularly wants to see some, I haven't bothered with any pictures as they don't really bring that much to the party. hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more productive.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Martian, feeling a bit sorry for himself.

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ditto, I hope you are feeling a bit better (or a lot better, many variations are available. Hope yours is the best)

 

No sir, save the pictures til they say something

 

Not doing that is a frequent mistake on my threads  :(

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Thanks Guys, hopefully tomorrow will see some sort of improvement, it can't be much worse than yesterday afternoon or today. I hope to be able to do something worth photographing, both on this build and the Karel Doorman project. Often that alone helps one feel a bit better.

 

Martian

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8 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

 

As to the floats, Knowing that they were Blackburn Shark floats was the key. The AP  (official manual)  Air Publication gave dimensions for the floats which turned out to be very close indeed to Swordfish floats in both length and beam.

Martian

 

I spend hours updating them things one year for an AOC's (Air Officer Commanding)'s inspection and finding out that half of what I was after was superseded by a few later amendments.

 

Gondor

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4 hours ago, Gondor44 said:

 

I spend hours updating them things one year for an AOC's (Air Officer Commanding)'s inspection and finding out that half of what I was after was superseded by a few later amendments.

 

Gondor

It was the same with HM Customs official instructions.

 

Martian

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I sincerely hope that this is not an omen but we have already hit the first heads up for those building this kit, either OOB or insanely modified as I am doing. I finished smoothing down the insides of the fuselage today and had the same taped back together. I noticed that when I went to offer up the kit supplied floors and bulkheads, the fuselage was forced apart and by not an inconsiderable amount at that. This set alarm bells ringing that there could be issues further down the line with the fit of the transparencies. A quick check revealed that without the floors and bulkheads in place the transparencies are an almost perfect fit, with them in place the fuselage is way too broad, leaving the clear parts nowhere to attach to. The bulkhead behind the pilot's seat is even worse. It is way too high, preventing the centre section transparency from seating properly and is not very accurate as regards the various openings in it. I don't know if some of the lit parts can be salvaged or whether is will be easier to scratch build new items, although I can feel it in my water that white plastic card is looming in my future much sooner than anticipated. With a view to the fact that others may have been inspired/ led astray by my ramblings, I shall investigate and get back to you asap.

 

One good heads up however is that the sliding portion of the pilot's canopy fits perfectly over the centre section.

 

A Well Wisher from Mars

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That appears to suggest that we will hear the sound of Martian scratching on this thread in the immediate future.

 

Bad luck for you - good luck for us!:evil_laugh:

 

Baron Schadenfreude

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47 minutes ago, Howlindawg said:

It's never boring when you're around Martian.

I shall watch and learn.

Thanks, regardless of how the builds might turn out, I would be very unhappy if my threads got boring. However, with the calibre of those following them, I can't see that happening anytime soon!

41 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

That appears to suggest that we will hear the sound of Martian scratching on this thread in the immediate future.

 

Bad luck for you - good luck for us!:evil_laugh:

 

Baron Schadenfreude

Well, I have been scratching something!

 

This has actually prompted me to have a look at another Special Hobby kit that has been pointed out as having canopies that are too narrow, a fault that has been brought up with several of their kits recently. In this case it was their Heinkel 115 seaplane and it suffers from the same issue. Canopies too narrow when kit floors and bulkheads are in place but fit perfectly without. I am beginning to think that this has to be a point to check on before doing any significant amount of work on any of their kits as the floors and bulkheads seem to be a nice tight fit and everything seems to be OK right up to the moment that the transparencies have to go on. I am leaning towards binning the kit parts and starting again to be on the safe side. Either way I feel that this issue is something that needs to be kept under constant review throughout a Special Hobby build.

 

Martian

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Thanks o generous Earthling. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that it will be quicker to make new items as the kit ones aren't up to much anyway. frustrating as all this is, I think it is actually a blessing in disguise as it potentially avoids a lot of grief with other SH kits, of which I have quite a few. Hopefully it will help others avoid grief as well.

 

Martian the Philosophical

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Following the hiatus while I tried to figure out the best way to sort out the canopy issue, I decided to actually start doing some thing about it. I decided that it was easier all round to scratch build new floors and bulkheads for the interior. As and added bonus we will end up with sharper looking details anyway. Due to the fragile nature of the corrected bulkhead aft of the pilot's seat and the need to constantly keep checking the fit of the canopy centre section, I ended up sitting up all night just getting this far. Still, softly, softly catchee Earthling as we say back on Mars and I am sure care taken at this stage of the build will pay dividends later on.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Martian

 

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Hello Martian,

this probably won't be at all helpful or tell you anything you don't already know ( I feel as though I'm on roc y ground here) but just googled Blackburn Roc & was looking through the pictures page & there are a couple of photos purporting to be of a TT floatplane  model with reference to IPMS Canada which may help your search for a colour scheme,

spad

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1 hour ago, BlackAck said:

Very nice!

Thanks Blackack.

1 hour ago, perdu said:

I don't know how good the kit bits looked, but this is looking excellent Martian

 

Carry on old chap, s'marvellous.  👌

To be honest the kit bits were not the greatest bits of moulding I have ever seen so ultimately the decision to replace them was not that difficult, especially as the detail on them was very woolly.

1 hour ago, spaddad said:

Hello Martian,

this probably won't be at all helpful or tell you anything you don't already know ( I feel as though I'm on roc y ground here) but just googled Blackburn Roc & was looking through the pictures page & there are a couple of photos purporting to be of a TT floatplane  model with reference to IPMS Canada which may help your search for a colour scheme,

spad

I did find one picture on the IPMS Canada website. Do you have a link so I can compare and see if we are talking about the same images?

 

Martian

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