Supermarine's best? [Now with added Seafire 47... & Seafang!]

[Courageous]

Better perspective Crisp, especially of your slippers

 

Stuart

[Pete in Lincs]

29 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

catapult strop

(When it gets all wound up and starts throwing aeroplanes around)

 

BTW, Crisp, I was out today delivering beer in a rented truck.

It came with a driver too. Turns out he's an ex Buccaneer & Tornado back seater.

He didn't know the route but I did. So he piloted the wagon and I navigated. 

(We did observe some drivers doing stupid things though)

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Ah, but if he flew Tornados, then he was ex-RAF, so an ex-Nav.  If he’d been an ex-RN Observer he’d obviously have known the route.

 

Looker with access to controls; be very afraid.

 

(“Looker”; see, even the slang name underlines your myth!) 

[giemme]

Amazing detail Crisp That catapult spool is simply outstanding

 

Ciao

[CJP]

Nice work on the undercarriage and wheel bays on the Seafang and shame about breaking the wheel fork off - have you seen these Scale Aircraft Conversions whitemetal sets? - they do one for the Attacker and one for the Spiteful/Seafang - the Attacker leg looks a bit nicer than the Seafang one to me but I have never seen them in the flesh.

Attacker 48218    http://www.scaleaircraftconversions.com/moreinfo.cfm?KIT=408

Seafang  48208   http://www.scaleaircraftconversions.com/moreinfo.cfm?FROM=search&KIT=390

CJP

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Thanks, @CJP - I had missed those (though it is also true that I hadn’t looked for them, either!).  Since SAC have made the same changes as me, that’s a no-brainer; duly ordered from Lowestoft.  Now I will not be worried that the u/c is always about to pack up.  

 

My Plan B was based on the fact that the gap between top of wheel & oleo is v small, so a brass pin in the wheel at the correct angle would take the weight in a straight line & be fairly invisible.  It would habe worked, though judging angles was a challenge - but this is a far better solution.

 

Dunno why I hadn’t looked before; maybe I assumed that either SAC wouldn’t bother with such a monority type, or if they did that they’d simply reproduce Trumpeter’s error in metal.  Oh me of little faith! 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Given the fact that there will now be a pause on the undercarriage work until Hannants have done their stuff (see above), the Fang is about to enter a quiet period.  The elevators have now been added, and a rudder hinge filled where there's a slight difference between Fire & Fang.  Rudder and airscrews dry fitted, but really starting to look like an aircraft now.

 

 

Just for interest, here is a direct comparison with the FR46:

 

Note one area which Trumpeter got wrong and which you'd have to make significant changes to address; the Fang nose tapers... including the Griffon rocker arm covers.  Griffons are not tapered.  See FR46 for comparison, where the rocker covers are parallel - the two aircraft had essentially the same engine.

 

Anyway.  Time for some work on the FR47 and the Walrus, I think.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

Edited December 29, 2017 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[CJP]

4 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Dunno why I hadn’t looked before; maybe I assumed that either SAC wouldn’t bother with such a monority type, or if they did that they’d simply reproduce Trumpeter’s error in metal.  Oh me of little faith! 

I think that this is something worth looking at before purchasing some companies aftermarket items - not always much different to kit parts - I always wondered why SAC have not done Hawker Seahawk undercarriage in 1/48 as the kits I have built have spindly representations of what are quite robust struts.

CJP

Edited December 29, 2017 by CJP
text

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

So, back to the FR47.  I have now added the large coolant pipe from header tank to radiator on the port side (starboard side done some time ago):

 

There engine is now close to being done.

 

The cockpit is progressing, though it is fighting me all the way.  The issue is (as so often with Aires) that you need to do a lot of sanding etc to get it to fit snugly... and the thinner you make it, the more fragile it becomes.  Frankly, I cannot wait to get this securely fitted inside the fuselage, so I can no longer ham-fistedly knock something off yet again.  Here are most of the pieces; just waiting for seat belts to dry before fitting, then I can go ahead.  The PE rudder pedals have been consigned to the dustbin of invisibility; they failed once too often and I couldn't be bothered to rebuild them yet again - you will not be able to tell...

 

As anyone who has built a Spitfire cockpit will know all too well, the arrangement of the seat / armour plate / adjustment mechanism / frame can be challenging.  It becomes a great deal more challenging if the Muppet of a builder cuts the part at the wrong place, thus removing two vital supports.  Replacing them with brass wire and getting the angles right has taxed my patience, but I think it's good to go now.  Apologies for out of focus shot, but even so you can see that 3 of the 4 things which will support the rear of the seat are brass rather than long-snapped resin.

 

All the same, it is going to look good once it is done, I think.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

Edited December 31, 2017 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[giemme]

All looking good to me, Crisp

 

Ciao

[hendie]

1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

and I couldn't be bothered to rebuild them yet again - you will not be able to tell...

 

but we'll know.... we'll all know !

 

the engine is looking good - very nice pipery indeed.  That's going to look great in situ.

 

 

[Hamden]

 

Your 46 was stunning, your Sea Fang is following suit and the 47 will be another show stopper!

All the best for 2018

 

  Roger

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Happy New Year, everyone.

 

Thanks for all the kind comments - but boy is this FR47 cockpit putting up a fight!  The problems are almost entirely of my own making, as I said a couple of days ago; when trimming away pouring stubs from the Aires resin, I wasn't concentrating hard enough and removed two important struts, and the cockpit design - specifically the way the seat back is supported - makes stability on these struts vital.  I thought I had achieved it with brass rods glued into shallow holes drilled in the rear of the seat, but the entire thing fell apart with alarming ease when I tried putting it all together.  I really don't want a seat that breaks free after the cockpit has been closed up, so it was time for a re-think.

 

Just to remind you, this is the equivalent section of the FR46 from a couple of months ago.  You have the fuselage frame behind the seat, to which a sub-frame is attached.  The subframe has four rods protruding, which attach to the rear of the seat - and you also have to fit a piece of armour plate at an angle over the upper two rods.  All fine if you follow the instructions. but a nightmare to make stable if you screw it up like I did!

 

OK, back to the present.  I decided that trying to obtain stability with four separate rods was a recipe for failure and a lot of frustration, so after some careful measurement and bending, ended up with these two section of brass rod.  The wider one - upper in this picture - is for the bottom of the seat, and the narrower one for the top. 

 

Then, having very carefully removed a resin crossbar from the sub-frame, I glued the wider rod into position:

 

While that cured, I attached the narrower rod to the back of the seat, and then added the armour plate.

 

Then the subframe was attached to the main fuselage frame:

 

So now I have two much more solid subassemblies, which will shortly be put together in what I hope is a much more secure arrangement - once I am happy with it I'll restore the paint job, but for now I need as much solidity as I can muster!

 

Meanwhile the Fang has acquired my habitual Alclad black primer coat to check the joins and start laying down the base for the paint job.  There is a little bot of remedial sanding needed on the top of the nose, but most of it is looking pretty OK.

 

All this lot has taken up 3 hours!

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

Edit:

 

Ta-daaaaah!  This now feels - for the first time - that it has enough rigidity to stay in one piece.

 

And a second edit...:

 

Some experimental dry fitting suggests that once I have tidied up the paint job (I scraped away a few sections to ensure maximum adhesion around the seat frames) and added the shoulder straps, this will work. 

 

Edited January 1, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[giemme]

Smart thinking to fix the seat frames, hat's off

 

Also, the primed model looks flawless to me, super smooth job

 

Ciao

[Cookenbacher]

Yes, that's some excellent scratch work on the Seafire cockpit, and the Sea Fang is looking very svelte in black.

[Brandy]

Great fix, but Capt Mainwaring's  description of Pike came to mind when you admitted to lopping off the mounts! 

 

Ian

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Guilty, Uncle Arthur!

[perdu]

Remedial sanding required?

 

Hmm, a moot point I always think

I wonder if we risk sanding the size away as we try to sand away the grooves, its always been a worry for me

 

Not as if I don't have enough to worry about anyway

Strange hobby this, innit?

 

😀.    😨

 

And I forgot to mention this

 

The 'Fang looks great Crisp, lovely jubbly

☺

Edited January 2, 2018 by perdu

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I know what you mean re sanding, Bill - but it doesn't need a huge amount; just a smear of Vallejo putty (other brands are available, kids) and a few minutes' work to remove the seam from the top of the cowling.  

[perdu]

Glad you're doing the sliver of putty bit Crisp

Really a magic build

 

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

At last I have managed to nail the FR47 cockpit.  Even after my surgery yesterday, the seat made one final break for freedom just as I glued the sidewalls on (one of them there Aires raised details under the access door fouled the seat, so has had to be removed - though you cannot see it).

 

It is, of course, extremely hard to photograph now - but it does look better in real life than these iPhone camera glimpses make it seem.

 

And just to keep Hendie happy, I found some suitable replacement rudder pedals in my spares box (styrene, not PE!).  [Actually, the Hend-ster might be right; if you look above you can see the starboard pedal!]

 

There will shortly be a final piece which plugs this view, so feast your eyes on those pedals for one final time!

 

Now the (ahem) simple question of fitting this inside Airfix's fuselage...

 

A big step forward, for all that.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

P.S.  I have also been preparing all the other stuff that has to be ready before the fuselage can be glued together.  You have already seen the engine, which probably needs another hour or so's work adding final details.  You have not, however, seen these before.  From left to right, the rear of a camera (which will be visible through the starboard round camera window), the front of a camera (which will face to port - I might even pose the hatch open), and a smaller camera which will almost certainly be entirely invisible - it points directly downwards just behind the wing.  This is my first use of AK Interactive "Gauzy" gloss - I'm dipping canopies etc in it, but here it's used to try to suggest some sort of gloss camera lens.  1st impression good.

 

P.P.S.  Sometimes the obsessive dry fitting that we all do actually seems to pay off.  I have sanded the cockpit and engine firewall (and appropriate receiving sections of fuselage) for hours to get this to fit, but it is really difficult to tell just how successfully until now, because the cockpit has been in lots of pieces.  However, considering this is just dry fitting with a few gash bits of masking tape to hold it in position, I reckon it looks promising.  First, the cockpit:

 

...and second, if until now you have not had a mental picture of where this is all heading, the cockpit and engine (approximately!) in place:

Edited January 2, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Kenny Stevens]

My Mrs and me were at Miggers house last night for an hour or so,he invited us round for a couple in his home bar(still amazed by it).

 

I hooked up to his wifi and showed him the pictures so far of your work on these planes in this thread he was pretty impressed with your stuff

I can tell you( I know that these naval seafires are some of his favorites).

 

He reminded me that your one of the guys I should look out for and to watch your planes and helicopters taking shape,so here I am having another look.

Great work on the pilot's cabin there Mr FAAWAFU.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Thank you very much Kenny (and welcome to the forum).

Edited January 2, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Kenny Stevens]

8 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Thank you very much Kenny (and welcome to the forum).

Your very welcome Mr WAFU.

I'm sure all you guys would like to see his wartime theme home bar too,I'll try to get him to post some pictures somewhere that I can link you to.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Minor but useful progress today.  Firstly, the Fang's SAC undercarriage has arrived, and looks great - a bit of clean-up required, as there always is, but it solves a problem beautifully:

 

 

As for the Seafire 47, the cockpit is now glued into the starboard fuselage half.  I am getting ready to close up the fuselage, but before I can do that I have to sort the 3 camera bay inserts mentioned above.

 

The port one is glued in, after a fair amount of sanding, and then polishing, of the Airfix clear part.  It had a significant sink mark in its outer surface, but as luck would have it was also too thick, so I sanded out the sink mark and gave it the right amount of curvature to match the fuselage side, before polishing it and gluing in place.  Enjoy it while you can, because by the time you see this again it will have been masked and will remain hidden until the very end of the build.    I have jazzed up the rear of the camera with an Airscale placard.

[Sorry - not quite in focus.]

 

The starboard side is not glued yet, but I post this photo to show why I am pleased with the AK Gauzy (new to me, as I said a couple of days ago); it has produced quite a convincing "lens" (though I am not sure how well you can see it in this photo).

 

People coming round in a few minutes, so I'd better stop.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

Edited January 4, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU