woody37 Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Great progress Phil, it's taking shape Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 You've done a better job re-scribing than me Phil - I couldn't be bothered to check & just rescribed the lines Airfix had provided....!! Once again, good luck with the exams Keef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbuna Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Coming along nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Awesome stuff, looking good Thanks for sharing all the best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted May 26, 2012 Author Share Posted May 26, 2012 Well, the revision notes are in the recycling bin, the dust has settled and the hangover has finally been beaten into submission. Term does not end for another three weeks, but lest you fear I am going to collapse into moral decay, alcoholism and constant modelling, I have a 9-5 job for those three weeks, starting Monday! Nonetheless, I have a particular large project planned for the summer, and really want to get on with the Javelin. Target finishing date is late June. So here goes! Last thing I did before abandoning the Javelin for a week was a bit of preparatory work for the rear fuselage graft. At the joint where I cut to swap the rear fuselages, the two kits have a subtly but noticeably different cross-sectional profile. The Frog has flatter top and bottom surfaces, while the Airfix is more convex-ly curved and slightly wider. This didn't seem to be much of a problem with the Frog kit, but dry fitting the Frog rear end to the Airfix front revealed irritatingly poor fit. To save a lot of filling/sanding down to smooth the profiles etc, I decided on a simple mod to force the Airfix into a closer match to the Frog shape. It's a chunk of very thick Valiant sprue. Simply cut a mm or so too short to span the internal height of the fuselage, glue strongly to the bottom half, wait for this to dry, then put glue on the top of the sprue and clamp the fuselage! Hey presto, a flattened fuselage This was well worth doing. Just done the crucial joint (the entire point of this whole project, and the sections line up very nicely. The only bit that will need really serious filling is on the sides where the Frog section is too narrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Jellyfingers Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Really nice stuff going on in here, Si. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted June 2, 2012 Author Share Posted June 2, 2012 Thanks Si, having seen your Huey etc that's a real compliment! It was all going so well... A few rounds of filling and and sanding and the rear fuselage was nicely faired in, and as of this evening I had finished scribing access manels etc into the rear fuselage section. Then things began to go wrong. I've been using Revell precision poly cement for the first time on these builds, and for a few weeks some ominous squeaks and movements have been coming from the seam. Still, I thought I'd managed to sort out the seam issues in the one or two places they were occurring. That is, until this evening, in the act of trying to scribe some small access panels I'd missed under the nose, I managed to split the fuselage seam open all around the nose from one intake. The problem affected the entire kit, and to add insult to injury two of my compressor faces also flew out of their positions and rattled off into the depths of the fuselage. I had little choice but to split the whole lot open and detatch the rear fuselage, thus undoing all the seam cleaning and sanding I had been involved in, douse the whole lot VERY thoroughly in Humbrol poly cement and, swearing, clamp it back together. So I've lost over a week's work in a few minutes. It's a very long time since I've been so close to throwing a model overarm into the wall, giving up and walking away. As it happened, I threw the Revell glue instead. So all isn't yet lost! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 As it happened, I threw the Revell glue instead. So all isn't yet lost! Good man!! That's a real booger though, I always tend to use the Revell stuff where I think I need a stronger joint! I'll have to watch out for that type of failure now! Keef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbuna Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Keep up the great work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aerofan Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Vulcanicity, what a setback. I wish I had seen your thread earlier as I might have suggested using lacquer thinner applied via a needle nosed tweezer or eye dropper or if you can get one a medical needle. The thinner is very strong and will melt the plastic where you apply it making a welded seam, just like metal welding, the two pieces will be fused and won't have the issue of it cracking open unless you use too little. It is best to practice this technique with scrap pieces to get it right and not ruin your work. I have done this when kitbashing and have had good success. Good luck and I hope you don't encounter anymore setbacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perdu Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 oh bugger that's a shame ("smileys" or "groaneys" dont transmit quite what I mean but there's probably rules about saying what I might have) Sort of looks like "fill with Milliput and leave to set" time, with it all closed down to the depth you need. Milliput will set hard and act as adhesive if you fair it all together I can't remember having thick poly glue do that before, but back when I modelled before I would tend to use Britfix for the thicky jobs. Revell stuff wasnt much in evidence back then Still You will soon be back on track and the Jav will be looking great again b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted June 14, 2012 Author Share Posted June 14, 2012 Thanks all for the support, and sorry for the lack of updates! As well as working full time for the three weeks since my exams, I've been trying to cram as much socialising as possible into my last few weeks at Oxford. As a consequence the Javelin has slipped a long way down the priorities list, and even when I have had a chance to work on the model it's been catching up to where I was before the recent disaster. It turns out the Humbrol glue is fine, but thanks for the advice Aerofan and Bill. On reflection I reckon it's more a case of the plastic being old rather than the glue being inadequate. In the last few days I've just started to make progress. Things got going once I'd finished scribing the upper surfaces of the wingtips. These were very difficult and beginning to get me down; as you can see, I had to scribe around the vortex generators. As with the undersides, most of the kit panel lines were in the wrong places, and as you can imagine I was struggling for reference photos of this area. I took a few of FAW9 XH897 at Duxford back in April, but the Javelin is a big aeroplane and even holding the camera above my head the pictures weren't great at showing the position of access panels etc. The thin drybrushed coat of gunmetal is good for spotting filler blemishes and slips with the scriber. A few of both here! With the wingtips done and together, I could fix them to the main fuselage sub-assembly, and also add the underfuselage fuel tanks. PROGRESS! Probably the last big job is the wheel wells. These are properly boxed in and nicely (if rather faintly) detailed. However I reckon I'll add a few details: acentuate the structural ribs a bit, put in the actuating mechanism for the inner wheel well doors, and liven the area up with some wiring. I find complex wheel wells much less of a visual mess if I draw a colour-coded plan first to organise my thoughts and make sense of the reference photos. So here's a bit of a scribble showing the main features of the wheel well: Time to break out the plasticard and electrical wire again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Jellyfingers Posted June 14, 2012 Share Posted June 14, 2012 More good stuff going on, re-scribing scares me daft so respect to anyone who can do it! Si. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted June 14, 2012 Share Posted June 14, 2012 Thanks all for the support, and sorry for the lack of updates! As well as working full time for the three weeks since my exams, I've been trying to cram as much socialising as possible into my last few weeks at Oxford. As a consequence the Javelin has slipped a long way down the priorities list, and even when I have had a chance to work on the model it's been catching up to where I was before the recent disaster. It turns out the Humbrol glue is fine, but thanks for the advice Aerofan and Bill. On reflection I reckon it's more a case of the plastic being old rather than the glue being inadequate. In the last few days I've just started to make progress. Things got going once I'd finished scribing the upper surfaces of the wingtips. These were very difficult and beginning to get me down; as you can see, I had to scribe around the vortex generators. As with the undersides, most of the kit panel lines were in the wrong places, and as you can imagine I was struggling for reference photos of this area. I took a few of FAW9 XH897 at Duxford back in April, but the Javelin is a big aeroplane and even holding the camera above my head the pictures weren't great at showing the position of access panels etc. The thin drybrushed coat of gunmetal is good for spotting filler blemishes and slips with the scriber. A few of both here! With the wingtips done and together, I could fix them to the main fuselage sub-assembly, and also add the underfuselage fuel tanks. PROGRESS! Probably the last big job is the wheel wells. These are properly boxed in and nicely (if rather faintly) detailed. However I reckon I'll add a few details: acentuate the structural ribs a bit, put in the actuating mechanism for the inner wheel well doors, and liven the area up with some wiring. I find complex wheel wells much less of a visual mess if I draw a colour-coded plan first to organise my thoughts and make sense of the reference photos. So here's a bit of a scribble showing the main features of the wheel well: Time to break out the plasticard and electrical wire again! Now you are brave re-creating that in 1/72! Hope those pics come in handy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/data70/6947654894/ You are way way ahead of me with your build, I'm still re-scribing mine. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sten Ekedahl Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 I don't know if you have decided to correct the jet exhausts or leave them as is. But just in case you haven't noticed, they should be canted inwards slightly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 Cheers all! Sten, I decided to leave the exhausts as I figured I'd make such a mess trying to correct them that overall the model would look worse! I took your advice about the deflected tailplanes though. Only a one picture update today, as this sums up my entire effort on the Javelin this week. One down, two to go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbuna Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Coming along nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Mahoosive improvement on the wheel wells! Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 Thanks Martin! Having seen your amazing work that's quite a compliment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 (edited) Two down, one to go! Edited June 25, 2012 by Vulcanicity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbuna Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Looking great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Good work Phil! But you've reminded me why I always stick my models to a base....!! Keef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 Thanks Keef and Jimbuna. Great to see that I've got 10000 hits now! It's full speed ahead now, the finishing line is looking close. Just as well, I'm definitely getting Javelin fatigue... Firs bit of progress; "three greens" at last for the wheel bay scratchbuilding. The nose bay was in many ways the toughest of all, as drilling holes, adding plasticard detail and trying to route wires was very difficult in such a deep, confined space. As the fin makes turning the aircraft upside-down very awkward, I'd left off the attachment of the fin until after the bays were finished. This also gave me time to plan my response to this issue: The Airfix Javelin's tailfin sits on a raised base which stands 1-2mm proud of the fuselage surface. The Frog kit is designed differently, with the fin joining directly onto the top of the fuselage, therefore the fin parts are 1-2mm taller in the Frog kit. This obviously leads to problems with these hybrid rear fuselages: in the Airfix case this is a big gap between the rear portion of the fin and the Frog rear fuselage surface. I've been lining the bottom of the fin with plasticard strips this afternoon, which has sorted out the gap quite nicely, although filler was still needed. I've now finished scribing all four weapons pylons. The original Heller T.3 moulding didn't have these, and they're typical of the extra parts added by Airfix when they changed the moulds. The general execution is much sloppier than the original Heller parts, with big ugly ejector pin marks everywhere. Each pylon had two of these to fill: I've finished detailing the main undercarriage legs. There's not much detail to add, the full-size units are remarkably neat and "clean". All of the undercarriage doors also had ejector pin parks, although these aren't nearly as bad as those on the pylons. I'm undecided about the weapons load. The kit only comes with two Firestreak missiles, and to be fair to Airfix these aren't bad at all. I've also got two excellent ones left over from the Trumpeter Lightning, which are moulded clear so the glazed seeker head can be represented. I'm in two minds about whether to display the model with all four or just the two Trumpeter ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 On the plus side, got the pylons done and attached, and quite a few small scoops and aerials added. On the minus side, we have a bit of a centre-of gravity problem: I was half-expecting this, but it's rather galling having already put quite a lot of noseweight in. Fortunately I have a plan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Fortunately I have a plan! Mine, as already mentioned, is always 'stick it to a base'!! Bet that would be even more galling with all the work you've done in the wheelwells....!! Good luck with your plan! Keef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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