FoxMalcolm

I agree, as I stated in a previous post, as i was constrained by the plans I was using and the original indentations of the model. In order to avoid the marks of the windows I had to cut them slightly larger then the original marks. You know I was actually contemplating this last night, Perdu was correct about the angles and I decided that I will make a stamp/die to act as a template and I will simply fill in the areas around it with putty. It sounds simple but I am not sure how easy it will be to do . . will probably require a complicated rig just to hold it in place. but at least then they will be all uniformed.

* * QUICK UPDATE * * Finished assembling both wings and affixing them to their respective fuselage halves. Here is some pics of them tapped together Now the keen eyed modellers amongst you may have already noticed that something is not quite right, and you would be correct. It wasn't until I joined them together just now that I realised that the wings are each a different size. It's not much only 2mm . . it is not a problem I inadvertently made by cutting one wing wrong, apparently the difference lies in between the outer engine and the wing flap [so in the model itself]. Consequently this made the jig I used to get the correct wing shape useless as this is where the difference lies, so one of the wings dihedral is slightly higher than the other, plus slightly longer. Granted it is only significantly obvious when you look at it head on . . . oh well. I am not sure I want to fix it at the moment [if at all]. I am also not sure where I can put this thing when it is finished either . . one of the main things that has kept my modelling enjoyment to a minimum the past 15 years is the lethal combination of partner and cat. Between the two of them I have had 100% fatality of all of my models. So I held off building anything until I had the appropriate [secure] display areas setup [or rather, the space to have said display cabinets]. I had originally intended to house the Nimrod temporarily in the area I am custom preparing for my 1:48 scale Tamiya Lancaster [birthday pressie form a few years back, haven't started building that yet] but whilst the Lanc is bigger in terms of height and wing span, it is unfortunately 15 cm shorter in terms of fuselage length . . **doh!** Ideally I would love to just put all of them on the ceiling but unfortunately I am in a rental, and the real estate agents are quite strict about marking walls and ceilings with anything [took 2 months just to get permission to hang a couple of paintings in the kitchen]. Gonna' have to think about this otherwise I am literally putting my model at risk of being accidentally damaged.

* * UPDATE * * Ok, started work today by affixing and sculpting the engine intakes into position and finished the day by attaching the port wing . . good times. The intakes didn't line up at all and when comparing it to blueprints, I discovered I needed to move them forward a fair bit. This was corrected with a styrene sheet cut into a wedge and then a copious amount of Tamiya Putty to sculpt the engines shape. Later when this had dried it was filed and sanded smooth. Next up was the wing. I had originally intended from the start to attach the wings from inside the fuselage instead of just gluing them to the side. After after cutting out the wing wall from the fuselage I quickly discovered that though the wing lined up perfectly on the underside . . . it left a rather large gap across the top. So I felt that my decision to affix from the inside was the best choice. To help strengthen the connection I cut and glued some scraps into tabs and used these to connect the wing. [sorry about the blurriness of the pics . . tried several times but these were the best ones I took]

Ahhh . . . interesting, I originally thought you meant the panel on the engine . . well this is easily fixed. I was thinking of remaking that panel anyhow, as it was kinda "bulbous" in it's shape [it detracted from the flow of the wing]. So this makes my job easier, I can just sand it back.

I am intrigued . . and a little confused as to what you mean by small box thing? Could you elaborate a bit please?

2 reasons, my blueprints have them like that and also some of the models windows were cast like that and I don't have intimate access to a real one to develop a contrary observation. Plus it made it easier to line them up when I was cutting them out, if it becomes a sticking point I can always round them out a bit. I happen to like them, makes it look distinct. Besides this kits accuracy level fell by the wayside a while ago . . it's now more of an imagined impression, a ghost of a memory now.

Quick update Did work on the engine vent, cut it out and remade it out of scrap styrene. I think it is a vast improvement [see previous pic above]

* * UPDATE * * Ok so I finished cutting out the windows and I re-scribed the doors Stuffed up the main hatch Did a lot better on the aux. I have some clear plastic acetate I can use for the windows as the kit only has 3 bubble domes. I also started work yesterday on the Port Wing, now unlike the main fuselage the wing didn't line up as nice. It took a lot of sanding in order to for the seams to lay flat and even then . . they didn't quite line up, but that's ok. After I reshaped the leading and trailing edges those pesky mismatching lines disappeared . . . so I re-scribed them. I then noticed that the wing dihedral was wrong, the wing of the model was flat with a slight taper. So I cut the wing and reset it to the correct angle, using small scraps of styrene as spacers. I think it worked rather well. After I was done with that I checked the blueprints again to make sure it was the right angle and god damn it I noticed that the wing of the model was too long . . . rrraaaggguuuhhh!! It was at this point I thought to hell with it . . . it's not like this is a super realistic & accurate build, lets go with the spirit of the design instead of the accuracy of the design. This is my line in the sand . . . . . . I am sure I will revisit this decision later anyway. Anyway, after my little spat of well deserved temper-tampering, epic gestures and nicely selected cuses, I pick my monitor up from its discarded position in the corner and check to make sure it still works . . . . it does. back to the build . . . The final bit I worked on, was to start work cutting out the sunken detail and re-creating it in styrene, I think it went well. Just need to fill in the gaps a bit [this kits plastic is so thick, very tricky stuff to work with] Well, that's all for now, I have some more detail to cut out and replace on this wing before I start on the starboard wing. Cheers

Thanks for that Ascoteer, I happened to come to the same conclusion and I have adopted that as my standard. But seeing how you posted some pics of them, can I bring peoples attention to what appears to be a port dorsal intake under the tail and forward of the stabiliser. Again this is something that does not seem to be on most plans and not every version has one, neither does the model for that matter. Now I am not concerned, whether or not I include one, but I am curious as to what it is for. I am guessing it is for cooling rather than ventilation as the engines traditionally handle that function.

No update just yet, I have been stuck researching a slightly perplexing irregularity . . . To make things easier to see I have coloured in the windows and drawn on the what lines are visible of the door frames My problem stems from the fact that my windows are all of different sizes and shapes, so in order to address this I went hunting for some blueprints. I had decided to do an MR2 like the ones I saw as an 8 year old, so I downloaded the MR2 blueprints, and so I could have a practical example to compare against, I sourced some pics online . . . unfortunately they didn't match up. Curious, I went to other sites and downloaded their blueprints [including a few Hi-Res, that show the differences between the different refits], but they were all different. Some showed circular windows, others showed oval, some had a mixture of the two. Utterly confused now, I started watching some old BBC news reports on youtube, and I saw in one film several nimrods go past the camera, each with different window configs. From what I have seen most follow the same standard for number of windows, the irregularity comes down to size and shape of the windows. The majority seem to follow the pattern of circular bubble window followed by a number of oval windows followed by a small circular window in the door. Given that one of the better Hi-Res blueprints I downloaded also contains this I think I will go with that. Ultimately I don't think it matters that much, I doubt there was any pressing performance related need to change the shape of the windows during refits but it is rather perplexing from a hobbyists [about to recreate them] point of view. My final words on this matter . . . huh!? , , , Ugh . . Grrr & grumble Cheers

Not entirely sure, I was basing my design off of these images I would say it is a safety bar to prevent the wheels from retracting to far into the bay.

* * UPDATE * * Ok so I freed the second half of the fuselage yesterday, and did a dry fit, it was almost perfect [i wish some commercial kits fit that well]. the only problem was a slight warp around the cockpit, which necessitated me moving the cockpit bulkhead forward half a cm to compensate and act as a brace . . works like a charm. Next up I decided to work on the cockpit. Still tossing up whether I am going to put much detail into there as the Nimrod has very small but most importantly high cockpit windows . . doesn't allow you to see much inside. Anyway, still thinking on that so I will let you know what I decide later. But the work I have done on the cockpit is very rudimentary . . more structural than anything else. The kit comes with a floor with raised sections to indicate where the seats and console goes. It also comes with 2 almost unrecognisable and thick triangular lumps which I assume is the seats and a smudged console I decided that rather than try and drill out the consoles dials I would just sand smooth the whole thing and maybe glue a printed console onto it later . . which is what I did I also decided to not drill out the doorway, given that the bulkhead now has the added pressure from the warped fuselage pressing against it. Due to my moving the bulkhead forward earlier there ended up not being room for the console when I dry fitted it later so I had to modify the console a bit to accommodate the change [i am good with it, seeing how it probably won't be seen]. But I won't be using the kit seats, I figure I could make both seats from scraps in less time then it would take to drill/cut out and prepare the kits seats [i will upload pics of them when I make them]. Finally today I started work on the front undercarriage bay [which is surprisingly absent from the kit, despite coming with options for wheels], so I cut out the bay doors and then spent an hour figuring out where the doors were suppose to go . . . apparently they retract inside, bit of a shock when I realised that. Mind you I have only ever seen a Nimrod once and that was when I was a kid during a Bicentennial Airshow in '88, the Nimrods were involved in some Naval war games against Australian forces I believe. Anyway, so after figuring out that small epiphany, I started work on the bay itself. It is cut from scrap styrene sheets and augmented with wire, haven't added the doors yet, I want to assemble and fit the landing strut first. Will let you know how that works out.

They still exist? Oh cool they are [i just googled them], ha, whadda you know. Can't seem to find the nimrod amongst their current lines but that's ok, I want to see how I go for now [isn't the whole purpose of a vac kit, to challenge your self and find creative solutions to any obstacles?] Anyway it has been 2 hours and I finally freed the starboard fuselage from the sheet, yikes that was fun and really messy, glad my partner is away today, gives me time to clean up in here.

Had this laying around for a number of years now, been wanting to make it for a while too but it is really intimidating. I haven't done many vacforms and never one this chunky, but I am now willing to do or die. So the kit is a Historic Wings 1:72 vacform H S Nimrod MR1/MR2 (P) The Plastic on this quite thick and the detail in places is smudged . . . so a bit of work will be required to correct these areas. Fortunately some of the really bad areas I don't need to worry about as the kit comes with some handy white metal replacements. The only other problem is the canopy it is blurry and the surface area is filled with small pock marks. Don't know yet what I will do about that, maybe there is an aftermarket canopy I could purchase, failing that I could cast my own . . will see.

------------------ * * UPDATE * * ------------------ Small update for today, modified and added the larger decals today. While doing so, I ran into a little hiccup . . . I had been assuming this whole time that the model was 1:32 scale, turns out it is a little larger than that, so the lovely RAAF No.85 Squadron decals I ordered were too small. So I was forced to use the standard kit decals from Guillows, which are RAF [this didn't work with my choice of livery], so I added white circles to make them RAAF. This unfortunately also means that the squadron codes are dodgy but I am not too fussed about it. Anyway it is coming along nicely . . I am hoping to wrap this up in a few days.