Bit frustrated with progress on my other two Jags as they're at fiddly detailing stages... so I've started another

This one, however, is gonna be quick!

It's the Airfix 1/72 GR.3 kit, which I was never intending to get but the other half bought me it for Xmas. I didn't like the thought of the amount of rescribing and detailing it would need to get it to look good, so this one is earmarked to be the Coltishall gate guardian, XW563. This instantly means I don't have to bother with undercarriage or cockpit (as the canopy is painted black) so I've been able to throw together 90% of the kit in one go:



The major assemblies went together fairly easily. Cut off the nose locating pin as it wasn't helping alignment; similarly the panel under the engine area had the pins cut off before putting it in place. Cut out and backed the intake on the spine with plastic card. Gear & airbrake doors glued on in the closed positions and all raised detail sanded off. There are numerous areas needing filler and more sanding - the windscreen & canopy is a poor fit in particular, and the underside has various sink marks. In addition:

1 - intake relief doors closed off
2 - jet pipes drilled out to give them a few more mm of depth
3 - the Phimat pod needed some work, the integral pylon was all wrong so it's been cut down to shape and the flatter bit between it and the wing pylon has been added from plastic card

Hi Damien,
that's a nice idea for a quick build, and also a very important aircraft. I went to see her a few weeks ago at the County Hall in Norwich. Looks good, but would look better back outside the gate at Coltishall. I helped Mick Jennings and John Welton stick the lettering on the nose, and it was a right b**tard to get on straight. Are you making your own decals? It will be nice to see the finished product, and I may even pinch your idea and have a go myself later on.
Keep us posted mate
Regards
Andy

I'll be modelling it as on was on the gate at Colt on the final day - makes the base easier for a start!

Not sure what I'm going to do about decals. The Airfix kit supplies all the necessary stencils; there are no squadron markings to worry about; but there's the Colt badge on the intakes and the Spirit of Coltishall writing to do and I don't have an ALPS printer for that so I may have to beg help from somebody!

A bit more progress...



4 - the tail cone part was missing from the kit, and the rear edge of the fuselage was missing some plastic anyway, so a new tail cone has been made up (sanded down tip of a Phoenix missile!)
5 - the bumper under the tail isn't present on this aircraft so has been cut off
6 - made a start on the stand. No idea of measurements for it, but luckily had some photos taken from side on and rear aspects, and by comparing known measurements on the jet I isolated the bits I needed and printed them out to use as templates (S - starboard view, R - rear view) for cutting out some plastic card. Going to use a metal pole as the real support and hide it inside this part of the stand.

Now time for a filler session before bedtime!

Well it was a marathon filler session it has to be said.

Progress today was limited to lots and lots of sanding down plus adding a few details here and there.



7 - cannon bulges and ejector chutes added; tried a different method from my usual build-bulges-from-Milliput technique - cut a base out of plastic card and dropped PVA on top of it. It naturally dries in a bulge - not entirely successful though as it didn't quite follow the shape of the base.
8 & 9 - various underfuselage details added from plastic card and tube

I also gave my new airbrush its first use in anger - wonderfully easy to cover a large area, but by gawd I need to prepare a smoother surface first! It's shown up every tiny imperfection - wah!

I think the tailcone may need reducing in length a bit... further progress will I fear have to wait til next weekend anyway.

Lots more sanding down today plus some work on the metal work bolted underneath the aircraft's belly - not really worth a photo though. The tailcone, it turns out, wasn't too long - it only looked like it because Airfix have situated the rear stabilisers too far forward (by nearly 2mm), so they were gently cut off again and reglued further back. Also noticed that unlike production examples, XW563 has a small light fairing on the rear of the fin, just under the RWR, so that's being added.

My major progress today was all on the computer... a recreation of the Coltishall station sign:



...anybody got any pics of the other side (for the colour) and know what section the two poles holding it up were?

Hi Damien,
lovely work on the gate guardian so far mate. I found this picture showing the rear of the sign as being black, and the frame was made in my workshop and was 50mm square box section. I have also got some better shots of the rear of the sign somewhere, as there was a cock up with the design. We were given sizes to work to, and cut and welded the frame to suit the original sign.
Then somebody changed the sign to a larger one, and the framework was modified to fit it, rather than it being re-made. The result looked awful in my opinion, but pressures of time in readiness for a visit didn't allow for a proper re-make. I have a disc of photos of us taking it down at the end, so I'll e-mail them to you ASAP. Very sad day for all of us.
Keep up the good work mate!
Regards
Andy

Top man Andy. I may have to resite the sign a bit closer than scale distance to fit on the diorama base it has to be said...!

Nice Idea this Damien, i'm following with interest

A bit more progress. Dealt with all the surface flaws I found after the first coat of paint. After a scary moment when my airbrush was feeding paint and air when it should only have been letting air through (solved with a disassembly, cleaning and reassembly), I've given it another base coat of dark camo grey and I'm happy enough with the surface this time bar a couple of minor flaws that will get dealt with shortly.



10. Added the small intakes on the top of the engine doors from plastic card.
11. Added light under the RWR (barely visible here) from plastic rod.
12. Work in progress on the stand; the bars on the aircraft are plastic strip, the main stand is built up from plastic card sections glued together. It won't be load bearing - there's an aluminium tube running through it into a hole in the Jag, said tube will go into a hole in the diorama base too.
13. Drop tanks are from the Revell/Italeri kit, suitably reduced in length as Italeri made a total balls-up of them (see my build of that kit here)

Getting close to the finish line on this one now!

Sprayed, masked, sprayed again, touched up, masked, sprayed a bit more... and finally time for some decals. The Airfix kit thankfully comes with an impressive decal sheet, superior in many ways to after-market sheets from Model Alliance and Xtradecal. However the roundels and fin flashes were a bit naff, so I've used Xtradecal ones. The various stencils are mostly Airfix; rescue markings are MA ones (cut up and rearranged as they are laid out differently on XW563), Coltishall station badge on the intake sides is from an Xtradecal sheet (and as it turns out, too big, too yellow!). The ERU triangles on the pylons are from the Airfix kit, sadly too small really but hey ho...



14. I've used a pin for the pitot, and the waisted part near the tip has been simulated with careful use of a round file to create the waist - I can see why Brooksy had troubles trying to machine 1/72 Jag pitots, bit of a nightmare, too much and you snap it, too little and it doesn't look right!



15. The sign is ready for erection! Mucho thanks to Brooksy for some photos that gave enough clues to waste an hour of my life creating a framework for the sign that actually replicates the real thing. Why? Because.

The base has been superglued to the fuselage; the metal tube will go through it and through the wooden base, which is the next job. After that, add various fiddly little aerials plus drop tank fins, some more varnish to even up the touched-up bits of paint with the rest of the finish and a very small bit of weathering. And then... bring it all together. 2 days left to do all that before the GB deadline... which probably translates into about 3 hours of free time. Eek...

Looking great Damien. I love to see these things taking shape, and this is such a nice idea. I really hope you get it done for the deadline. You've planted the idea in my head now, and I want one!
Take care mate
Andy

Well my idea of painting some sandpaper green to simulate grass did not, it has to be said, work very well! So this is a temporary base - I'm going to redo it with better grass when I get time. With the GB ending tomorrow though, this is going to have to be it for this build for the time being.





Going to take some better photos tomorrow... and if Bex's spare decals arrive in time, I'll add the missing walkway decals too.

The 'Spirit of Coltishall' titling on the nose is also going to have to wait for another time, don't have the technology for that one...

it does look good Damien, and I hope your postie isnt a lazy sod like mine, but it will be interesting to see who gets their package first, you or Entlim as I sent both packages at the same time 1st Class

Bexy

well done Damien - looks just like the real thing

Well Bex's spare decals arrived just in time, so I'm calling this one finished (for the time being)! Won't get the other couple of Jags done in time but they're next in the queue.



More pics in the finish line thread.