John R
-
Posts
1,631 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Events
Profiles
Forums
Media Demo
Posts posted by John R
-
-
Nice work from a man after my own heart! Apart from the X-5 I've either built them or have them waiting in the stash.
One I really must get around to is the X-3. It was one of those that was around in my youth and promised so much.
Are you still building?
John
-
Thank you all for the kind words.
I have just edited the main post to show how the pannier was made.
Val Ukraine - Thank you for the pictures. Unfortunately for me these appear to represent the production version but I am sure they will be a great help to anybody else thinking of building one.
Sebastien - If you want one in 1/48 you must have a big house and workbench! In 1/72 it's about 350mm long.
Andy - the thing behind the cockpit was not that in your pictures. I was referring to the little triangular bit on top of the forward edge of the rear canopy and is not visible in your picture. I have just noticed that it does not appear in the side views of the prototype and early versions in 'Soviet Heavy Interceptors' (Should have looked earlier!)
Ken and Jabba - One thing that I always think about kits like these is that first you need to build one to find out how to do it properly but after finishing the first there is no way that you would want to do another. So Ken I salute you.
John
-
Tu128 right front by johnrieley, on Flickr
Tu128 underside by johnrieley, on Flickr
At the beginning of last year in view of my advancing years and the number of models in my stash I made a resolution – MUST NOT BUY ANY MORE MODELS!
This lasted until the first air display of the year when I was sucked into a passing tent full of brightly coloured boxes with pictures of aircraft on them and came out with a lighter wallet, a feeling that I might need psychiatric help and an A-model Tu 128.
I knew what I was getting into because I had seen and read the General’s thread but I just had to have one because it’s an aircraft that I have always regarded as a ‘business’ aircraft. A serious a/c to do a serious job – not one in which you fling around in the sky having fun.
I decided to build a model of the prototype instead of the version supplied thinking that it would involve just a few changes like the serial on the nose and making one of the cockpit windows triangular instead of round. WRONG !
Whilst checking a minor detail on the missile pylons I discovered that the wing fences were in a different position to the production versions. This checking turned up a few more changes. The prototype carried a huge pannier under the belly which housed all the test equipment and there were two ventral fins.
Building was beset by the usual A-model ‘features’ - beautifully detailed parts which didn’t fit by a mile, poor alignment of the mould halves and the small parts had so much flash that it was hard to distinguish the part from the flash. Luckily it didn’t seem to suffer from any warping problems that have caused anguish to other builders.
A couple of last minute hitches put its completion in jeopardy. I went to paint the nosewheel leg and it was not with all the other u/c bits. After a desperate search of the house it was found on the garage floor near my paint bench - in two pieces that could not be glued together so a rebuild using brass rod was required. Then when I got out the decals the Red Stars were the wrong size. This necessitated a raid on one of the Russian kits in my stash.
The model is finished in Alclad Aluminium to which was added some Polished Aluminium to make it a bit lighter.
Finally the model is still ‘incomplete’ as there are a few matters which I have been unable to resolve.
1. The bit sticking up above the rear cockpit - It looks as if it might be some form of periscope which would be useless on the prototype as I don’t think that it had the transparency seen on production versions. Should it be removed?
2. The ‘odd rods’ antenna. The prototype had it below the nose, where there is now ‘something else’, at one stage then later on in front of the cockpit. Does anyone know when it was changed and what the ‘something else’ is?
3. The kit and all the drawings I have seen, say that there is a transparent bubble on the spine of the a/c some way in front of the dorsal intake. The General does not appear to have fitted it to his version. What is it and should it have a black background indicating that it covers a cavity of some kind?
4. There was a correction kit for the engine nozzles made by Matterhorn Circle but it is now out of production. Does anyone know of the existence of any unused ones?
I started this kit soon after I bought it but after spending the whole of an evening trying, and failing, to get the lower panel of one wing to fit with the upper I decided to put it aside as a winter project. Somehow that time was hijacked by my P1081 and Lavochkin 176 projects but I eventually got around to it and found it to be not as bad as expected. After the problems with the 1081 and 176 anything might have been easier than expected.
The problem now is that it really requires an Avro Arrow for company…
John
PS. A big thank you to General Melchett for his advice an encouragement.
Additional.
I thought that you might be interested in how the pannier was added.
I made a guess at the profile and cut a piece of sheet to that shape and glued it to the belly.
The outline of the edge was made from strips of sheet and glued in place
Formers were cut roughly to shape and then a sanding block was used to fair them in.
Strips of plastic rod were then fitted to form the skin. I used rod because I had a packet of it spare and it saved cutting strips of sheet!
I also thought that it might form a better key for the filler
I kept adding rod until all gaps were filled
When all the gaps were filled the whole thing was covered in Milliput and then sanded to shape.
This last bit is harder than it sounds as the plastic tends to stand proud of the Milliput and you have to be very careful.
Tu128 underside pannier 2 by johnrieley, on Flickr
Tu128 underside pannier 1 by johnrieley, on Flickr
John
-
9
-
-
Pin,
Thank you. The first link I already have from an answer to an earlier query.
These two links come up as unavailable
http://aviaforum.ru/showthread.php?t=14155
http://aviaforum.ru/showthread.php?t=23025
Ken,
I went looking in my copy of 'Soviet Heavy Interceptors' and in the process found an answer to a question I was about to ask. 'Is there any anhedral on the tail' as the place where the tailplanes meet the fuselage is angled downward and the kit gives no clues. In fact there is DIHEDRAL... Urr! something else to be removed and adjusted. Should have looked
there first.
John
-
Whilst looking at one of my pictures to check a minor detail on the missile rails I was horrified (open the gas oven!) to see that contrary to the instructions in the kit the wing fences were not directly over the outboard missile rails.
A check on General Melchetts TU 128 thread showed the same 'mistake'. I then looked at the reply to my previous thread about the intakes and in the photo of the production Tu 128 the fences are positioned above the rails so the kit and the General are OK.
As I am building a model of the prototype can anyone tell me if it started as shown in the photo or does represent a later experimental configuration?
As far as I can tell the rail is in the same position for both versions
John
-
I am building an A-model version of a Tu 128.
There appears to be a discrepancy between the intake on the model and the actual a/c at Monino
in that the model does not have the kink in the sdiewall next to the fuselage.
Was there a difference between the production version, as in the kit, and the prototype, shown in the photo.
Any ideas anyone?
John
-
This came up in my thread about the La 176 and Flankerman, and perhaps others, wondered if anyone made it and where could he get one.
Good news - Omega have released one and it is listed at Hannants.
Bad news - approximately £60!
I don't think that I will be joining the queue just yet
John
-
I was beginning to wonder what happened to you with no progress reports on that Flying Leopard and I was afraid that the men in white coats had come for you. Either that or you had gone south for the winter.
Did it get chucked into the 'pending' bin whilst you got on with something feasible?
John
-
Hi Musa,
Best one is British Experimental Jet Aircraft by Barrie Hygate has 3-views and cross-sections
Published by Argus Books but out of print Available from Amazon but expensive
British Research and Development Aircraft by Ray Sturtivant has descriptions and pictures of all British R & D
Published by Haynes - available from Amazon
British Experimental Turbojet Aircraft by Barry Jones has lots of photos and colour 3-views
Published by Crowood available from Amazon
Hope this helps
John
-
How about a few panel lines and rivets added with a pencil?
Thanks Chris
I agree that it's rather bland but a few reasons why not
First of all I was still trying to find out if it was ever painted and had markings added.
I have since heard from Russia that it wasn't so...
Second reason is that the photos show an awful lot of very prominent rivets so how many do you add?
Last one is a desire not to over-egg the pudding. It's taken a lot of time and effort to get this far and I was afraid of ruining it. However now that I know it wasn't painted I'll think again
John
-
Nicely done..............................maybe slap some what if markings on it if you think it's a bit naked?
No way! I want to model it 'as was' not 'what if'
John
-
Now finished as far as I can go
See here
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...topic=234912665
John
-
This started out as a 'quickbuild' of a cheap kit but once started it turned out so awful that I really couldn't finish it 'from the box'.
For those interested see the WIP thread
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...topic=234912219
At the moment I'm not sure if it is 'finished' because I have been unable to ascertain whether it was ever painted or had Russian markings applied.
If anyone has any knowledge please let me know.
Was it worth the effort?
Well first of all there has been a frustrating hint that a new kit is likely and secondly I found that the problem with this sort of project is that the sort of time you put into it should really result in something of exhibition standard instead of just a normal model.
Does anybody else feel like this?
On the other hand I've learned a lot doing it and there can't be many others out there.
John
-
Thanks - I wondered where the spurious markings originated
John
-
I have several 'dodgy' kits of Russian a/c in the stash.
At the moment I have an A-model Tu 128 looking at me from the back of the workbench saying
'I thought That I was going to be your winter project'
I started it last summer and after spending an evening trying, and failing, to get the bottom of one wing panel to fit the top I put it aside until I had less pressing matters to deal with.
I saw a selection of your builds in another post and was most impressed
John
-
Aardvark your comment
John, I don't know model of what firm you build, but I would advise to you to postpone this assembly!
is too late. See this WIP thread
It shows a picture of the box - the origin appears to be Russian and I saw a Maquette version
for sale on Ebay a while ago.
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...topic=234912219
Thank you for the photos but they are the same as those in my reference book.
Where do you get the P&J models and how do I find out about new issues?
It's a pity that someone is bringing out a 176. I thought mine might be unique.
John
-
Rear of the canopy faired in, pitot on fin added, sprayed with Alclad Dark Aluminium and u/c added.
I just used the kit components although there was some packing out of the main wheel wells as the
kit legs were a bit short.
John
-
You might like this one
John
-
1
-
-
I am in the process of building a model of this a/c using the book 'Lavochkin's Last Jets' as a refernce.
There are a number of pictures of the a/c but these only show it in a bare metal finish 'during manufacturers flight tests'
but it looks to me if they were taken at 'rollout'.
Does anyone know if it flew like this or was it painted and had the Russian insignia applied?
It had quite a short life, being lost in an accident after 23 flights.
John
PS. The finished article is here
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...4912665&hl=
John
-
What's so significant about this a/c? Well it was the first Russian a/c to go supersonic.
I picked up a kit of this a/c at Southern Expo a couple of years ago marked down from £2 to £1. As a sucker for anything with a Red Star and as I had never heard of this a/c I thought that it was worth a punt. Even if it was crude I could put it together quickly and it would sit on the back of the shelf until something better came along.
When I got home and did some research I found out about its significance and made a start. The first thing I found was that the fuselage was much too fat and this brought the project to a halt. I then did some further research using the book 'Lavochkin's Last Jets' and found that there was almost nothing right about the kit apart from the overall dimensions and the size of the mainwheels! I couldn't bring myself to do any more but my interest was aroused and I didn't want to leave it. The thought of a scratchbuilt fuselage was too daunting but then the thought occurred that as it had the Russian version of the Nene engine a modfied Mig fuselage might be suitable. I had an old and somewhat unsatisfactory Mig 15 on the shelf so this was cannibalised.
It had to be extended by fitting a cruciform centre section
It was then planked and the fin reshaped
U/c bays were cut out
The u/c doors were reshaped - original on the right
The next step was to try to get the wings right. the chord was increased by adding strips to the trailing edge. It might have been more intelligent to have added to the leading edge but...
These were then added to the fuselage. This involved much fiddling and bad language followed by copious amounts of filler.
The tailplanes were reshaped and added together with a new canopy and new wing fences (six of them - what fun!)
-
I have a set from a built Thunderstreak that I cannibalised to build the F84 prototype.
The side where the u/c gear cover was attached has glue and plastic rubbish attached but the 'open' sides are OK.
Drop me a pm or email. I can even send a photo if you are undecided and don't get a better offer.
John
-
Just a thought about modelling BBD instead of a standard P51. Was she not modified to have a rear seat? If so this may have meant that the canopy was non-standard too.
John
-
From a photo taken at one of Shuttleworth's evening shows when the light was kind
John
-
My Airshow Calendar consists of 12 photos taken at events in 2011. It contains dates of UK airshows in 2012, dates of some Model shows and dates of Formula 1 Grand Prix
http://johnrieley.files.wordpress.com/2011...2012-gp-jpg.pdf
You are welcome to download it for your own use. All I ask is that you make a donation to the Motor Neurone Disease Association via the following http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/airshowcalendar
The calendar is in PDF and should appear quickly as it is only 860kb. To download all you need to do is save it to a file on your computer and view using Adobe Reader. You can print off individual pages as you need them
Please let me know of any problems. I would also welcome any opinions - good or bad - as to the content and whether this is a good idea
John
Heller Etendard
in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Posted
Nice work. What was it like to build? I've got one of these in the stash
John