ianwau

Beautiful work! And given your confession on finish rate, and rapid progress - it must have been a pleasure to build.

Following! Have this kit in the stash and always wanted to build. And also a 1/48 (or 1/50?) Squirrel! I've always had a soft spot for rotary wings - but have only ever built two (one an AMP kit, a Sycamore - scrubbed up OK).

It's Gannet season! Suspect well see quite a flock of them when the new Airfix 1/48 comes out. Great progress towards the finish line.

I think the "instructions" might actually suggest the same thing re nose weight not required? To be sure to be sure, I glued a decent lead sinker in the nose of mine and that was very nearly not enough. Your arrestor hook will be an elegant solution. Also, your progress might negate any value - but I have ~25 detail shots of the QAM (Caloundra) Gannet that I'm happy to Dropbox to you. PM me if useful? I do need to go back and re-read your earlier posts properly. There are some really useful techniques you're using for this build. Impressed!

I'm late to the party but this is stunning work! Makes my OOB Dynavector look decidedly plain. It may well be the Dynavector kit provides a better foundation for this level of detailing vs the yet to be released Airfix. I might have missed it - what have you used for nose weight?

A bit of a milestone to report - the engine nacelles have been fitted. First off though - there was a bit of scribing required on the fuselage. I picked up a hand-me-down tip from @Malc2, which was to use 3M 471 vinyl tape to mark out scribing lines. I duly ordered a roll, and can confirm it's good stuff! It is relatively thick, flexible enough to guide it around quite sharp bends, sticks nicely and importantly, comes up nicely without any risk of removing layers of primer/filler. It provides a nice positive edge for the scriber - streets ahead of my previous efforts using styrene strips. Photo below shows work in progress on the scribing. So, onto the nacelles. Photo below shows the 'planning' stage I've printed out a whole series of scale plans of the nacelles onto plain paper. glued these onto a thin card Then a whole series of trial-and-error cut outs on these to make up a template that sits right on the wing vs the plans. You can see below attempts A, B, C, D - each finessing the shape. In theory this should be straightforward but there's lots of things it needs to align to and there's not alot of tolerance. So photo below shows attempt D - slotted in over the wing Easier to do it this way rather than experiment with the 'real thing' - I don't have any spares of them and don't fancy making more Also visible here are the wing fillets, fitted in an earlier post. Below is work in progress using this template D with the nacelles pieces. No, they're not in final position! Being extra cautious I've cut off less material than the template suggests - and slid the nacelle in over the wingtip. The position shown is as far as I can slide them without cutting off more material. And also allows me to check I have the engines aligned vertically, in correct fore/aft position, and pointing in the direction of flight. Cutting method is a mini cutting wheel on a 12V mini-drill/engraver. One of my essential scratchbuilding tools - it'll happily whittle away a 1/2 mm of material with a degree of finesse - far more safely/predictably than I can do with a sharp scalpel. And after another hour or so - the nacelles slide nicely into position per photo below. There's some minor gaps in a couple of areas Will blend this all in with a bit of Milliput once the glue has had a chance to dry. Of note here is I vacformed the nacelles with top/bottom halves meaning the join line has largely disappeared with the cut outs. Next steps: Blend in the nacelles Cut and fit the cockpit windows. This'll be tricky to get right.

Nice choice and following with interest! I built one of these as a civilian Oxford a couple of years ago. A relatively easy build - although I think I might have omitted some of the tinier PE. Watch out for the step between rear of cockpit canopy and the fuse (I didn't, to my detriment), and the A.S. Cheetahs look a bit insipid and perhaps even undersize. The Cheetahs in the 1/48 Airfix Anson are a good comparison if you have one of those in the stash? Haven't seen any resin/3D Cheetah replacements but surely they're out there.

That's the spirit! It's always the way - buttoning it up was the trigger point for new info to come to light! Certainly a distracting scheme - so doubt anyone will know (unless you tell them of course!).

The plot thickens! The AZ wheel wells look to be better length/position as well when compared to the photo. U/C legs do look pretty short and stumpy vs what would be implied by the Rareplanes version .

The gap between nacelle and fuse side is 990mm (measured along leading edge. And it's +/- 5mm - I had many measurements to take!). Interested to hear how this compares to your two kits. Doesn't help you with wheel wells of course course but the nacelles is a good start! The photo below gives you a pretty good idea of the wheel wheel location relative to the (missing) nacelle. Photo is tagged as "NZ1817 loaded on a truck at Perth Airport on 1st October 1972, bound for the AFA estate in the Perth suburbs. Photo by Geoff Goodall"

I've actually measured a 1:1 example for some of what you are after - a measurement of the gap between the engine nacelle and the fuselage at the leading edge. Will advise what the magic number is in next 24hrs (away from the paperwork at the moment).

A lifetimes work! I think you've put the final nail in the coffin - I'm definitely not putting rivets on! Easiest thing is just have a go. You have nothing to lose other than an hour or so of your time - and a sheet (or 2) of styrene. What could possibly go wrong. Entirely opportunistic - and in desperation as I have nothing like that shape in the spares box.

I do like the Vampire - even better with stripes! Interested to see how the new Airfix kit comes together as well. Great progress too date - and quick!

Time for an update. There's been a bit of progress, although most of it puttying/sanding etc is not interesting enough for an update. With the 'canopy' blended in nicely it was time for some engraving - the curliest of which is the cabin door. I've cut out a template from 10 thou, attached in correct position with some double sided tape, then used this as a guide to scribe around the outside. My delivery of 3M 471 vinyl tape has arrived (thanks to @Malc2 for passing on this hint) - and I'll be using this for a bit more engraving of the fuse in due course. Also visible here is the fin fillet on top of the fuse - basically a triangle of 2mm plastic tapered on the upper edge with various grades of sandpaper. Pretty straightforward. And I've also done engraving of wing panel lines. After much thought - I've decided not to go crazy with the rivetter. The rivets (and there seem to be millions of them) are actually raised, and the rivetter tool makes indentations. The rivets are certainly visible in close up photos - but not in the typical 3/4 view shots. I expect I'll be ably to play around with the panel lines and some pre/post shading to break up the finish. Hopefully a decision I don't regret. Next up was the wing fillets - quite distinctive/prominent on the Drover. - I needed some nice thin plastic with a natural curve in it. - handily, the offcuts from the fuselage vacform provide just the right solution - measured up and cut off with a 12V cutting wheel. - a bit of fettling with sanding sticks and a scalpel get these just right In the blurry picture below you can just make out the wing fillets glued into position. They'll need a bit of clean up with sandpaper and a touch of putty to blend them in nicely. also visible is the refinements I've done to the wing nacelles, and the nose nacelle. The wing nacelles are not in the correct position - just sitting there for photo purposes. The front of the nose nacelle re-uses the buck from the wing nacelles - to vacform a new matching nose profile. So let's move onto the tailplane - see picture below. Tailplane port and starboard sides have been cut to size, and panel lines and control surfaces scribed. The offcut can be seen in the centre - and will be discarded. Basically easier to make the whole thing as one piece initially vs making two separate halves. Keeps things symmetrical for starters A spar from 2mm x 2.5mm Evergreen styrene has been set into the fuselage, and through into the tail pieces. There is no dihedral on the tailplane so a relatively easy job to get everything lined up satisfactorily. To glue it together - I've made a few mods to the jig originally used to set the fuse/wing joint. the fuse has been pitched forward a tad to help set the tailplane incidence. Styrene chocks are visible at the tailplane wingtips - which are providing some positive pressure against the fuse join (all remains symmetrical because it's Lego!) The long red piece of Lego at the base of the photo is giving me a sight-line to check the horizontal-ness of the tail. Lego supervisors there to watch the glue dry. Next steps:- - blend all these extra bits in - bit of putty, bit of sanding. - fuselage engraving - fit and blend the wing nacelles - cut and fit the cockpit windows

Pop in a really big shim and you'll be able to stretch it to a Ceres! I actually used the Sierra fuselage as the basis for my 1/48 Airland Ceres. The Sierra path seemed somehow less sacrificial than using a Special Hobby kit? Although with the education you're now providing on Wirraway kits - maybe the Sierra was a better starting point for a Wirraway than SH? Following with interest Derek - there's still a Wirraway book in the wings I take it?

Thanks for the details and pix on the scribing - great work. I have some 3M 471 on order via fleabay and will be giving this a run myself.

Great attention to detail Derek (as always!). Despite the kit shortfalls - wish there were a few more of these 1:48 Wirraways in the hobby shops!

Marvellous progress! Beautiful work all round - and very interested to watch your engine/cowls come together. I've zeroed in on your micro-comment about 3M 471 for scribing - hadn't heard of that before. And an initial google says I need to explore further. Scribing panel lines around curves, and/or curved panel lines is a problem I've never really solved.

Making better progress than I expected. A bit of a run through here on getting the nacelles sorted. Photo below shows the component parts for the 4th nacelle half ready for vacforming: as mentioned above I am vacforming top/bottom halves as this means less joins to clean up (ie the nacelle is split above and below the wing at the rear) This is my small vacform 'machine' - a retired screw top kitchen container with umpteen air holes drilled randomly into it. There's a big hole drilled in the bottom that fits the vacuum cleaner nozzle. Buck is white-tacced onto a 4x1 lego piece which is in turn white tacked to the vacform machine. @Malc2 I haven't masked off the extra holes on this one - it's a pretty small base as it is and I needed the outside sucking holes to suck first to create the vacuum that sucks the rest in. Will try it on the bigger vac machine next time. The lego piece provides some necessary extra height to keep the banyan tree roots (see later pic) away from the moulded part I am using 0.75mm (30 thou) sheet styrene - which has been sandwiched between 2 bits of 3-ply with a suitable hole cut out of it. The 3-ply frame has seen quite a bit of vacforming and is sort of falling apart. I think it's my 'original' when I used to bolt the top/bottom/styrene together thinking that was necessary. It's not - bulldog clips are quicker and equally effective. This all goes under the grill element in the oven - exactly same process as the pictures at the beginning of this thread for the fuse. So below is what it looks like fresh out of the oven Also a couple of the previous shots with sufficient material removed to extract the buck for the next shot. A good clean vacform shot this one. Has drawn down beyond the magical halfway point. The 'banyan tree roots' visible at the front of the nacelle are well clear of the moulded part. Happy chappy. No rejects from this run. Below are the component parts more carefully trimmed now with surgical scissors (per @Malc2 suggestion over on his thread). Works well Also the side nippers used for a bit of fine trimmed round the bends at the front. The next step is to prep the nacelle halves for joining. Quite a few things to do here - most of which shown from bottom to top in the picture below. Determine a 'best cut line'. a) Sympathetic to the quality of the mould (ie eliminate imperfections or particularly thin skin). b) Mindful of how easy it'll be to clean up the join. c) Taking advantage of the fit of the nacelle above/below the wing (ie a segment will end up removed to fit to the wing). End result is I have a somewhat diagonal cut line running from the prop shaft centre at the front - to a point that'll be in the 'middle of the wing' in side view. Cut doesn't have to be precision but I've cut both bottom halves pretty much to this line. Fit the bottom half (the cut part) back onto the buck and draw a thin black texta line on the buck where the cut line comes up to. Remove the bottom half part. Fit the uncut top half to the buck. Hold it up to the light and you can see the black text mark through the styrene. Replicate this onto the surface of the top half - series of dots does the trick. Cut!! And sand/fettle so that the top and bottom halves join tightly over the top of the buck (which was intentionally undersized from the beginning) Repeat for the other side (lightly sand off the texta marks on the buck so you can customise process for the other side). Cut out some bulkheads. One bulkhead at the front of the nacelle (this'll give some backing for the vent holes at the front, and for the prop to mount to). One bulkhead at the midpoint just forward of the wing (this'll give some strength when we cut out the slot for joining to the wing). Fit some joining tabs to the bottom halves. I'm simply using offcuts from Step 6 - which already have correct compound curve shape. Have also gone full length, because I can, and to add extra strength/meat for later sanding/scribing/cutting. And below we see the result just dry fitted ready for glueing Happy I've got a nice fit fit here and the joining tabs effectively mean there are minimal visible holes Scribbled black text on the lower one roughly shows the slot that will be cut out for offering up to the wing. I'll be joining these together, puttying/blending/sanding as a single unit before the wing slot gets cut. Might appear superfluous but I get a better finished result by getting the part 'right' before the slot gets cut One thing I'll be doing immediately after joining is to drill some vent holes in the nacelle to allow glue fumes to escape (rather than stay captive inside and create sink holes etc). Drill holed will of course be in the same position as the wing slot - and for the prop shaft. Not that you can see from the photos necessarily - but the nacelles are a little bit bigger than the buck - by the thickness of the moulded material (about 0.5mm = 20thou without splitting hairs). I also said I'd be joining the clear 'canopy' to the fuselage - which is now done per below I've used 5 minute epoxy (araldite) as conventional styrene cement doesn't work on the clear PETG. And Superglue and clear parts don't mix (I know there's some superglue that doesn't fog transparencies but I'm not prepared to trust myself to get the right one off the shelf when I need it). The Araldite is a bit of a love-hate glue. The love bit is that it works and stays stuck. The hate bit is that it is incredibly messy to work with - dribbles where you don't want it and you have to be super careful not to get it on areas you want to preserve. It dries clear as you can see below - but not that clear that you can't see any remnant drips as a blemish. And it's a pain to sand. Anyone got any alternatives??? Below you can see how the extended side tabs (cabin interior walls etc) and the shaped bulkhead at rear give a really strong purchase point for the glue (you can see it inside). The perimeter of the canopy has been pre-marked with a permanent black marker. Which immediately stops that silvering effect you'll otherwise get. Learnt this from the car modellers and some car modelling a few decades ago and have done it ever since. REALLY pleased with how well this has fitted. Also pleased with how much room I have for blending in the join - it's well away from the cabin window line. One tricky thing is going to be fitting the flat-panelled cockpit windows. There are four panels in total - 2 each side. Worry about that when I get there. The shot below summaries progress of this post. Fuse now masked off, initial sanding ready for some Milliput Nacelles all glue with holes drilled, lightly sanded ready for Milliput. Photo-bombing for scale comparison is the Transland AG-2 for @stevehnz and @k5054nz which is tag-teaming with the Drover build. The AG-2 was a development of the AG-1 which itself evolved into the Piper Pawnee. More info on the AG-2 here https://aeropedia.com.au/content/transland-ag-2/ Next steps: putty/blend/sand all these bits. Maybe run the rivetter over the wings (I now have rivet diagram thanks to Juanita Franzi). Fit the nacelles (including sorting out the front engine nacelle. Fit the tailplane

Hmmmm. Certainly a good idea - very easy given the upper section is already clear. But I think I'll just paint it per the VH-PAB photo, and rely on observers having to squint to see if there's any interior detailing. Sort of one of those things where it's good enough for me to know it's done (without going over the top in detailing something that has no reference! Yet!)

Some more progress to share. Big news (well for me!) is that I've purchased the Juanita Franzi drawings (that appear in the Air Britain 'Drover' book) which means I now have some thoroughly decent plans. Thanks @Derek_B for the tip off. A comparison to my own fuse drawings derived from measurements of an actual airframe (at QAM, Caloundra) pleasingly shows that my basic fuse shape is indeed correct (enough) and I don't need to throw this lot out and start again. I always find the best way to source new reference material is always to start a model. And the best way to get a new injection moulded kit is to finish a model (odds increase if the subject is scratchbuild or a major conversion). Below we see the joined wings/fuse out of the lego jig with the clear 'canopy' just sitting in place. Really pleased with how the jig has worked - I have dihedral, sweepback, incidence all working in relative sympathy. In this guise - it almost looks like a glider? Which is interesting, given the DHA-1 and DHA-2 which preceded this were both gliders (WWII transports). Next step is the interior - for which it's relevant to reveal the target scheme. Not the most exciting colour scheme - but fits in with my ongoing aerial agriculture modelling theme. It's VH-PAB in 1968 when operated by Queensland's Pastoral Aviation for seeding purposes. Not the most exciting colour scheme - but fits my theme.... The following image of VH-PAB is by Geoff Goodall (image links directly to Geoff's site) where he provides a systematic record of all the Aussie Drovers. Of particular note is the seeding apparatus attached to the cabin door. Obviously there's something happening inside the cabin to allow the seed to find it's way to the seeder - without obstructing the doors operation (the only access other than the rooftop emergency hatch) My THEORY is that the seed would have been loaded in bags - and some sort of mini-hopper would have been manually filled up in flight. One bag at a time. The mini-hopper cannot block the door access - so my guess is some sort of removable tray would have connected the mini-hopper to the seeder to facilitate gravity feed. Making sense? Anyway - that's how I'll build it. I'm sure someone will have the evidence to correct this view (by which stage I'll probably have the lid on the fuselage and won't be going back!). So - with that as a theory there's a collection of things to be made to fitout the interior: cockpit has some good reference and has the usual contents - pilots seat, control column, instrument panel, controls and a 'dicky seat' for an observer cabin will be fitted out with a mini-hopper, with suitable gravity feed features - pictured below and made from thin sheet styrene Also a seat for the poor chap who has to load the mini-hopper in flight. It's a standard drover seat - and I reasoned it'd be right up the front to not get in the way of loading/emptying the seed bags? Also a swag of seed bags to go on the floor. These are made from air-dry clay (good for sandbags too) - coloured with some diluted oil paints. So here it is all put together. - cabin interior colour is a non-descript light blue-grey (Tamiya XF23) - Cockpit is fitted out per old style Drover - cabin has the hopper in likely position (just forward of the cabin door) - seed bags are distributed on floor - mindful of CofG impacts - but probably lighter than equivalent humans - would have required a degree of clambering to get into seats for takeoff and not sure emptying the bags would have complied with modern OH&S requirements - a bit of weathering with oil paints and pastels will finish this off. - Note that very little of this will be visible from outside - only 4 cabin windows each side and the cockpit windows not that big. Oh, and I said I had to do the buck for the Gypsy engine nacelles. Below is where I'm at. Same method as the fuselage buck but on a smaller scale Basic skeleton of styrene formers - back-filled with car 'bog' The picture below shows the result of 3 coats of car bog - and now up to the spot filling stage. Backdrop are the beautiful plans from Juanita Franzi. buck is slightly undersize to allow for thickness of material used to vacform. I suspect I'll do a top vs bottom vacform as that'll minimise visible joins in the nacelle when I glue it to the wing And per the fuselage - the one buck will be used to do both top and bottom vacforms (ie no need to cut it in half). This also gives surety that the top and bottom vacformed shapes should match up nicely at the joint , So - next steps? I think I'll be glueing the 'canopy' to the fuse. With some careful fettling to facilitate the later fitting of flat window panes for the main cockpit. Finish off the nacelle buck - vacform, cut and glue. x2 That'll be work enough for the next week!

Dropped on over (from my Drover build) to check out your vacform technique and the blanking off of superfluous holes. Very clever - the production line looked daunting! I might have missed it - but what do you use for cutting your moulded part away from the vac sheet? Interested to see the multi-media materials you're bringing to bear - very effective. Will be following with interest!

Ahhh! I hadn't thought of that, but that makes absolute sense. Concentrate the suction where it's needed - especially in the critical first micro-seconds! I'll give that a try next time - I have about a 90% success rate - but that's probably a result of practice. Your X3 Stiletto is coming along very well - went and had a look. Nice work on the exhausts!

Spot on! Not obscure at all for New Zealanders! Yes, trying to find a copy without falling victim to the exchange rate and overseas postage! I have a thorough walkaround of the QAM airframes but they're a couple of Gypsies short, so engine cowls bother me. [Update - I see from Juanita's website that she has the Drover drawings in her catalogue https://aeroillustrations.com/drawing-catalogue/ - I've just emailed an enquiry through]

Some more progress to share. The fuselage join has been cleaned up - and now time to cut out the clear section. Cut line has been marked up on both the (joined) styrene fuselage, and on the clear section Lots of checking, measuring, re-checking. Not planning to have to do this all over again Re the following photo: The cuts have been done. For the cuts in the white styrene, I used a razor saw For the cuts in the clear PETG, I used the 12V 'engraving' tool shown in the pic - which for this purpose has a thin cutting wheel attached Discarded bits are behind, and the bits for the model are in front. Still more work to be done where the front windscreen is going to join in. The front deck needs flattening out about where the instrument panel should go (shows some residual upwards curve from the vacforming process) And onwards to prepping the interior interior walls have been added - which will finish under the window line. These will serve to hide the join line between fuse and clear section. Ditto interior walls in the cockpit. A tab has been added to circumference of the rear join. I used an offcut of the discarded section of the fuse (basically the right shape. Technically this will be visible from outside through the windows - but you'd have to be keen. (In the background are a couple of other 1:48 scratch projects. Pretty obscure subjects - I think @k5054nz will know what they are!) At this point I've decided to fit the vertical fin. Gives me a positive reference point for what is 'vertical' - given the fuselage is round all the way round. AND I've decided I'm going to fit the main wings before glueing/blending the clear section. This will give me clear access to the wing spar and ensuring a good strong joint. In the photo below: the fin/rudder has been cut to size. Picture shows this and the offcut. a tab has been fitted to the base of the fin/rudder, and a corresponding hole drilled/cut into the fuse the panel lines have been scribed in with a P-cutter So the wing joining process. Those who've followed my previous builds would know I use Lego for setting up jigs. Precisely engineered, and very flexible. I know you can buy laser cut wooden jigs for modelling - but I've stuck with Lego (never let me down yet). A few comments with reference to the photo below. When viewed from above, the wing tapers to the tip at both the leading edge, and at the trailing edge. Creating some extra work to set up the jig. on the computer screen behind - I have drawn some horizontal lines that define the extent of the taper(s) and then drawn some 'lego scale' rectangles which tell me where I have to place the lego blocks to get the wings in the correct position when viewed from above. I use the same basic process to set the wing dihedral - finding out how many lego blocks (or part thereof) are required. The fuse is held in position fore/aft with blocks on either side. (where lego blocks need fractional adjustment beyond what can be achieved with the blocks alone - I introduce strips of styrene (0.5mm, 0.75mm, 1.0mm) to pack things out). vertical alignment of the fuse is achieved thanks to my earlier fitting of the fin, which now becomes a reference point. Another pic below. I've deployed a workforce on the job (the Lego mini-figures) with the hope they'll make some forward progress overnight. And here's a top view.... It does give a better view of the symmetry of the jig (even if the colours don't match!) And you can see some styrene packers behind the wing trailing edge (it's remarkable how well the jig fitted without needing the packers) Note the ailerons and flaps were engraved before joining to the fuse. The aircraft has a very clean finish, rivets are not prominent. Yet to decide if I'll run the rivetter over it. . Also note the wing spars coming through the fuselage - inside the spar box. This will be packed out further with scrap plastic before putting a lid on the spar box, and confident there'll be a good solid joint, better than you get in similar size model kits. Next steps: Give this plenty of time to dry then there'll be a bit of work to blend in the fuse/wing joint. and then sort out the interior before joining the clear section. oh, and do the buck for vacforming the engine cowls