Late starter - Andy's Jag

[brooksy]

Hi everyone,

firstly, happy new year to you all. Hope you all have a great one. I am late joining this group build due to working away, so I will have to get my skates on, and I'm a slow builder at the best of times!

I am building the Airfix 1/48 GR3 kit with some resin extras by Neil and a Neomega cockpit. I have pondered over which aircraft to build and I really am torn between two airframes.

I am dedicating this build to my dear brother Tony, who passed away suddenly in September. He enjoyed watching the Jaguars when he came to visit me at Coltishall, and came to the disbandment day of 16 & 54 Squadrons in March 2005. During that day he sat in an aircraft, which thanks to Damien Burke, has been identified as XZ367, the weapons loading training aircraft. This had the 6 Squadron 90th anniversary scheme painted on it's tail at the time, prior to it being applied to XX112.

It's either that one or Jonny Fartpants XX725 'T' (for Tony). He loved reading the Viz comic aswell, so it would be very appropriate. I have both sets of decals and enough kits to eventually build both, but wanted to make a special effort for the group build entry. What do you guys think?

Regards

Andy

[DamienB]

Well, 367 would get my vote... naturally you need to do a diorama complete with all the weapons on display though

[GrahamEM]

Go for it mate, i nearly did that scheme but did the 41 squadron 2005 display one instead having decals for both, plenty of time as it finishes end of April, i did my 2 jags in under 3 months

Edited January 1, 2008 by GrahamEM

[rdxtnt]

That's a lovely idea Andy. Look forward to seeing your progress

Gary

[kstater94]

Sounds like a wonderful idea to me Andy!

I'm actually thinking of being an even LATER starter and throwing a Jag into the build!

Cheers!

John

Edited January 3, 2008 by kstater94

[Col.]

Welcome to the fun Andy, nice to hear a personal story behind your build.

BTW John, glad to see you've found your way across mate

[periklis_sale]

Good luck mate and keep us posted!!!

[kstater94]

Thanks Col!

I've been lurking for a wee bit now (I actually have Andy to thank for letting me know about the Jag group build over here)

I just need to pull my finger out and help you out over on ARC and get something done over here as well!

Cheers!!

John

[Neil]

Good to see you on here Andy, and nice sentiments regarding the build. Let me know if you need anything.

If you happen to be in the vicinity any time, feel free to pop into the workshop, you are more than welcome as always.

Neil.

[brooksy]

Hi everyone,

had my first modelling session for over a year yesterday, and started with the major surgery on the fuselage. I decided to open up the gear doors, as whenever I saw the Jags out on the line, they nearly always had the doors open. I do have pictures with them closed, but more often than not they would be open, plus it makes for a more interesting model I think, and I wanted to go the extra mile for this build. I could be biting off more than I can chew though as there's a lot of scratch building to be done to fill the holes! Here is my progress so far.

I thought I would thin the tail down a bit before cutting out the rudder.

Whilst I was there I plugged the holes for the ILS antenna as I am hijacking as many tips from Neils build as possible

I must apologise for the quality of my photos, but I am under flouescent light with a very old camera. My nails aren't that dirty in real life - honest!

Neil, thanks for your encouragement and support as always. It's really good to hear from you. I have been back for over a week now, and will definately drop by with some Hob Nobs in the near future, as I hope to get some time off work in January. I still haven't finished my T4 and didn't want to enter it for the group build, as it is fairly well advanced. Anyway, I thought I should start a new model for the group build and for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

Hope to get more done tonight so I'll keep you posted

Regards

Andy

[Gary West]

Hi Andy and welcome to the build - I feel a master piece coming on. Great start

[DamienB]

Now that's what I call bravery on the wheelbays...!

[speedy]

Hello mate, welcome and good luck.

[Neil]

I have been back for over a week now, and will definately drop by with some Hob Nobs in the near future, as I hope to get some time off work in January.

Andy

Right oh, will make sure that I have the tea or coffee at the ready then. .

[brooksy]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys, and all the encoragement. Made a bit more progress last night, and cut more out of the fuselage halves. I started with a nice cold beer to get mentally prepared

I cut out the nose gear doors, but didn't bother saving them as they will be replaced by plasticard. This made hacking them out a bit easier.

Then I removed the coaming for the cockpit, but got a bit carried away and had to glue some tiny strips of plasticard back into position to keep a nice snug fit on the resin replacement part.

Then, copying Neil again (sorry), I cut away the area of the air inlet on the spine (heat exchanger?), ready for a new piece of plasticard to be glued in from underneath.

I also cut away the 'end' of the spine, where the fuel vent pipe sits, just above the brake parachure housing. I forgot to take a picture of this, but there's not much to see anyway. Again, a plasticard blank will be fitted with a new fuel vent pipe. All this chopping and filing leaves me with this rather sorry looking Jaguar.

I am now getting even more worried about finishing on time

Next job is to start filling up some of the holes I've made. I may need some more beer for that part!!

Regards as always

Andy

[Col.]

Next job is to start filling up some of the holes I've made. I may need some more beer for that part!!

Good progress so far Andy, can see this is an ambitious start so we'll be watching with interest.

[brooksy]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. My computer blew up again so I lost it for over a week while it was being fixed. I would like to say that I made loads of progress on the Jag in the meantime, but unfortunately haven't managed to get the hours in. I have made some progress though.

I glued the rudder halves together, and added the little rudder damper, just to make it more interesting. This may come back and bite me on the bottom when I come to put the decals on, but I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it. I will be positioning the rudder centrally when I glue it back into position. The reason for cutting it out in the first place wasn't to deflect it, as most of the parked Jags I have seen have the rudder central. It was just to make adding the damper a bit easier.

The white plasticard has been added to the edges of the rudder becuase when I filed the rounded edge of the original panel line away, it made the whole rudder smaller. Hopefully these will be invisible when I have primed the model.

I also made a start on the main wheel wells. As this will be the cause of many headaches I started with the easiest bit. I turned the main leg hydraulic actuator from a small piece of brass bar, and drilled the end to accept some stainless steel welding wire to look like the chrome plated ram. I remember one of the riggers telling me that this actautor isn't what raises and lowers the gear, even though thats what it looks like. Apparently it's the small actuator that sits behind the leg that does all the work. This large one is just the lock by all accounts.

The only other minor job I have done is to fettle the gun shroud to make it a bit smoother. Here it is compared to the unmodified one.

Well, that's as far as I have got. It could be some time before I have some wheel wells finished. Once again, I must thank Damien Burke for kindly sending me some close up photos of this aircraft. It has left me with a slight dilema though, as the close ups show the slats lowered but the flaps fully home. I have already roughed out the wings for Neils lowered set, so I'm not sure whether to pinch a new set of wings from another kit or continue with all of them lowered. I must admit I have never seen the wings like this before. Maybe it was robbed of something so the slats were lowered manually? Not sure what to do now. If I want to model it faithfully as it was when Tony sat in it, I will also have to open the gun bay - nuts!!

Hopefully get some more done in the next few days. Hope you are all well,

Cheers for now

Andy

[Gary West]

OMG - you're taking this rather seriously Andy I see. Not fair, I don't have a lathe

[Rich F]

Go for it Andy, looks like this ones going to be a cracker!

[Mike]

Very nice... I'm now wanting my own lathe even more

[miduppergunner]

Very nice... I'm now wanting my own lathe even more

You could join the RAF!

Andy that is looking good - but then I was rather expecting it to do so, following our chat.

[rdxtnt]

I get the feeling this one is going to be a bit special! Love the rudder damper. It's little details like that, that really make a model. Looking forward to seeing more. Great work Andy

[DamienB]

Niiiiiiiiiice! With an opening like that on the gear construction we shall of course expect nothing less than perfection. Once spoke to a guy who tried to create accurate articulating gear for a flying Jag model. He gave up after a year of failed attempts and changed it to have single wheels and bulged bays so it could just retract forward.

[brooksy]

Hello all,

thanks for the kind comments. Just a quick post to show my (slow) progress for the week. I've had very little time to work on the model lately, but managed to do the standard modification to the air intakes, by sticking plasticard to the opened doors and then sanding them flush. I also rounded the internal corners with Milliput, and the external corners blended to suit. It's quite a tricky job to get them just right and I think I will be having to do more work once the primer is on and it shows up any gliches. I'm not convinced about the doors either, and may just fill all the panel lines and rescribe them and then use decals for the hinges. I've seen that on some of your models and it looks very neat. I would have bought a set of Mikes resin intakes and saved myself loads of time, but I'm really skint just now so had to make do with the filler! Here's how they look at the moment

I also had a look at the main gear doors which I chopped out. I decided it was probably easier to make new ones than try and do something with the rough bottom chunks that I cut out of the kit. They were made up in three layers using plasticard, and just need some hinges and catches to be finished. I really enjoyed this bit of scratch building and it's getting me in the mood for the wheel bays which will be a nightmare.

Once again, sorry about the crap photography. I had to do it like that so the shadow would show the steps in the white plastic, but it gives the general idea. I can't avoid it any longer, next job will be the wheelbays which I am not looking forward to

Regards as always

Andy

[Neil]

Coming along rather nicely there Andy, I can see that this is going to end up a good 'un .

By the way, you left that packet of chocolate Hob Nobs in the workshop this afternoon, but don't worry, I'll look after them ....