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Redoing old Airfix Demon


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Nicely appointed office J! Looking great!

Thank you, Nobs! It certainly beats what I started with ("bench seats" for the pilot and observer/gunner). I have some more photographs of the work I did. Because of the roughness of the bottom fuselage seam, not helped by the partially opened-up slot for the stand, I decided to add a "false floor". I actually had one in my bag of extra Hart variant parts (the kits from the Avis mould(s) - the Audax, Hector, and Osprey all have two floors; one with the bomb-aimers window, and one without). The following photographs show this work. Pretty simple really as I just had to shorten it then sand it down on the sides just a little. I then painted it Interior Green with scuffing that showed the red dope showing through to give it that well-worn look. The last photograph shows the fuselage halves shortly before I finally glued them together.

Regards,

Jason

StarboardFuselagewithFalseFloor.jpg

TopViewwithFalseFloorinPlace.jpg

FuselageHalvesImmediatelyBeforeGluing.jpg

Edited by Learstang
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Here the freshly-glued halves are held together using a secret and sophisticated technique passed down through generations. The surfaces actually mated together better than I had thought they would, as they seemed quite rough after being forcibly pried apart, then scraped down to get rid of the paint in the seams.

Regards,

Jason

SideViewofGluingFuselageHalves.jpg

TopViewofGluingFuselageHalves.jpg

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After I had glued the halves together, I noticed something; the small ammo feed box was missing from the port side. If you look at the earlier photograph it is there, but the photograph of the halves just before I glued them together show it missing. No biggie - I took the ammo feed box from an as-yet unfinished Hector and will use it to create a nearly exact copy from the scrap plastic on the left. Then the trick will be gluing it into the cockpit now firmly located in the glued-together fuselage halves, but I'll worry about that when I get to it.

Regards,

Jason

CloseupofPortFuselageBeforeLossofAmmoFeed.jpg

FuselageHalvesImmediatelyBeforeGluing.jpg

AmmoFeedwithPlastictoBeShapedInto.jpg

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Have you given any thought yet to improving the gulleys on the wing and tailplane? I've a set of unmade Demons on my desk at the moment and am contemplating Mr Surfacer for the Airfix one(s). Well, I've bought the stuff after being unhappy with the use of watered-down Milliput on the Hasegawa Hurricane - it did the job but was incredibly messy. So I might as well use it on this, as deserving a cause as any. Any experience with it?

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Have you given any thought yet to improving the gulleys on the wing and tailplane? I've a set of unmade Demons on my desk at the moment and am contemplating Mr Surfacer for the Airfix one(s). Well, I've bought the stuff after being unhappy with the use of watered-down Milliput on the Hasegawa Hurricane - it did the job but was incredibly messy. So I might as well use it on this, as deserving a cause as any. Any experience with it?

Actually I did think about the wings, Graham. I thought I could sand them down to tone down the ribbing a little, but that would make thin wings even thinner. I also thought about what you're suggesting, using some filler in between, again to reduce the exaggerated effect. However, I'm not sure my meagre talents are going to allow me to do this, so I'll probably just leave the wings as is (although I will integrate the lower wing into the fuselage using filler). Regarding Mr. Surfacer, I've used it on my long-standing Manchester conversion, and I'm quite pleased with it; it dries quickly, with little or no shrinkage (the bane of fillers!), and it sands easily for a nice smooth finish. It's obviously not for any large filling or shaping project, like making a new nose (it's too runny; Milliput would definitely work better for something like that), but for filling in rough or low areas, it works a treat. I used it to fill in the incorrect fabric-like (for a metal-winged single-seater) ailerons on my Hobby Boss IL-2 and it worked quite well, filling in the area between the ribs and leaving me a nice, smooth surface to represent the correct, metal-covered ailerons.

Regards,

Jason

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Since you are bringing an Airfix Demon back from the dead, would that make it a zombie Demon? ;)

Seriously, the work on this "Hartbees" is looking dang good. Nice project!

Thank you, JM, I just hope the work doesn't turn me into the zombie!

Regards,

Jason

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Yes, the thin wings, particularly the leading edge, might be accentuated. I thought about a thin strip of plasticard (5 thou or ten at the most) along the leading edge that would act as a dam for the Surfacer. With separate pieces for the slats. I'm not sure what that would do for the centre-section. It's probably worth a try, after all I do have a spare. Too much work though, and it becomes better to just scrap it and get another AZ/Avis/AModel. What do you use for cleaning the brush (or whatever) you use for the Mr Surfacer?

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Yes, the thin wings, particularly the leading edge, might be accentuated. I thought about a thin strip of plasticard (5 thou or ten at the most) along the leading edge that would act as a dam for the Surfacer. With separate pieces for the slats. I'm not sure what that would do for the centre-section. It's probably worth a try, after all I do have a spare. Too much work though, and it becomes better to just scrap it and get another AZ/Avis/AModel. What do you use for cleaning the brush (or whatever) you use for the Mr Surfacer?

Graham, I agree about the too much work and you might as well get a new-mould kit. That's what I'm trying to avoid here by going with the original wings pretty much unaltered. However, if you have a spare wing, you might as well test it out. I'd be interested to know the results (are you going to post the build?). As far as a "brush" for the Mr. Surfacer, I have just used the other end of the brush, and kind of push it around to smooth things out. I'm sure you could do finer work with the bristle end, but the sort of work I did on the Shturmovik (and the Manchester) really didn't demand much precision. No to be facetious, but I suspect there's something like "Mr. Thinner" to clean off a brush. That's actually a good question, and one I hope someone reading this thread can answer.

Regards,

Jason

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My jar had separated, with a clear layer above. I stirred it around, then brushed some onto the wing, but it went on much like a layer of paint. Perhaps I need a spatula to make sure the bottom is fully stirred. I cleaned the brush in white spirit - it seemed to come clean but I repeated the cleaning in cellulose thinners too. This morning the brush is clean.

I think I shall combine this Airfix Demon with Aeroclub wings and other bits to do a Hart Trainer, giving me a complete pair of wings for experimenting on, but I don't think just filling the valleys will produce a particularly good result. I agree that the AZ Hart/Hind/Demon kits (or Avis Audax/Amodel Osprey) would be a lot better starting point, if the view is narrowed down to producing the best Demon model possible. It just seems a shame to junk the spare Airfix one - maybe I should draw up a new sales list.

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My jar had separated, with a clear layer above. I stirred it around, then brushed some onto the wing, but it went on much like a layer of paint. Perhaps I need a spatula to make sure the bottom is fully stirred. I cleaned the brush in white spirit - it seemed to come clean but I repeated the cleaning in cellulose thinners too. This morning the brush is clean.

I think I shall combine this Airfix Demon with Aeroclub wings and other bits to do a Hart Trainer, giving me a complete pair of wings for experimenting on, but I don't think just filling the valleys will produce a particularly good result. I agree that the AZ Hart/Hind/Demon kits (or Avis Audax/Amodel Osprey) would be a lot better starting point, if the view is narrowed down to producing the best Demon model possible. It just seems a shame to junk the spare Airfix one - maybe I should draw up a new sales list.

I've thought about doing the Hart Trainer, but if I remember correctly most (all?) had the wing sweepback decreased from 5 degrees to 2 1/2 degrees. That might entail some rescribing of the ailerons and slats. For now, I'm sticking with more straightforward conversions, like this Demon into the Hartbees, and the AZ Models Hart B.4 into an Iraqi Nisr. Later I might tackle something a little more ambitious like the Hart Trainer or the Turret Demon.

If you don't need the Airfix Demon, put it on eBay. They don't sell for a lot of money, but they do sell. I know - that's where I picked up a couple.

Regards,

Jason

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I've discussed the Hart Trainer wing with John Adams, and he says that it was just a standard Hart outer wing with modifications to the wing root where it attached to the centre-section. It would seem more sensible to simply add a spacer at the trailing edge and pivot around the leading edge, than pivot around the trailing edge and have to totally revamp the connecting structure. Having the wing ribs a couple of degrees out of line with the airflow would give a small drag penalty but high top speed wasn't a key parameter for the trainer. The spare fuselage in the AZ kits gives me a pilot's cockpit surround. The key problem I had last time I did one (40 years back!) was the change in lengths of the interplane struts, but the AZ will be easier to deal with than the integrated Airfix approach.

I'll have another sort through the stash for other kits that can go and put a batch up on Britmodeller, but not soon.

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I've discussed the Hart Trainer wing with John Adams, and he says that it was just a standard Hart outer wing with modifications to the wing root where it attached to the centre-section. It would seem more sensible to simply add a spacer at the trailing edge and pivot around the leading edge, than pivot around the trailing edge and have to totally revamp the connecting structure. Having the wing ribs a couple of degrees out of line with the airflow would give a small drag penalty but high top speed wasn't a key parameter for the trainer. The spare fuselage in the AZ kits gives me a pilot's cockpit surround. The key problem I had last time I did one (40 years back!) was the change in lengths of the interplane struts, but the AZ will be easier to deal with than the integrated Airfix approach.

I'll have another sort through the stash for other kits that can go and put a batch up on Britmodeller, but not soon.

That makes sense that they wouldn't go about redoing the ailerons and ribbing. That's a good idea about the spare fuselage - I have a couple of those that could serve as a donor for the rear (instructor) pilot's coaming. It sounds like the Hart trainer may not be such a difficult conversion after all. An all-yellow one (or mainly yellow), like the example in the Hendon museum, would be a colourful addition to my collection. I'll have to add it to my ever-growing to-do list of Hart variants.

Regards,

Jason

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  • 1 month later...

Well me maties, I've decided to get back to the old Hartbees. Not a lot of work done, but some important work all the same. I've been filling and sanding the fuselage, and more importantly I've attached the lower wing. I've also started to fill in where the lower wing attaches as this should be smooth where the Airfix wing cuts across the fuselage in (originally) one-piece. Below are the pictures showing how I'm steaming ahead with this rebuild with the unstoppable momentum of a runaway locomotive! (I changed cameras so that explains the different sizes - I'll have to figure out how to get my new/old camera working like the other one - I know, just resize the b****y things but the quality will be different).

Regards,

Jason

TopViewofGlued-TogetherFuselagewithSomeWorkDone2.jpg

BottomViewofGlued-TogetherFuselagewithWorkDone.jpg

TopofFuselagewithWingOn.jpg

BottomofFuselagewithWingOnandNoFiller.jpg

BottomofFuselagewithWingOn.jpg

Edited by Learstang
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  • 7 months later...

I have not given up on this project, dear readers, in fact I've almost got the lower wing smoothed into the fuselage. I shall post some pictures as soon as I figure out how to get the photos from my b****y camera to my computer. Hopefully, by tomorrow I'll have it figured out. This kit is one I've already put too much work on to just set it away and forget about it. I tried, but it kept calling to me.

Regards,

Jason

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I will have no more of this Audaxious behaviour on my thread! (Oh, that one even hurt to type!). Or perhaps I should say stop this Hectoring. Okay, enough of the bad puns. I can't think of one where I can use the word "Nisr" (the Iraqi Audax).

Regards,

Jason

Edited by Learstang
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Jason I hope you didnt think we'd forgotten this exotic beestie whilst rejoicing in a plethora of other delights

So I'm pleased to hear we'll be getting a new ration of pictures soon

keep up the work

even the good stuff ;)

bill

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I will have no more of this Audaxious behaviour on my thread! (Oh, that one even hurt to type!). Or perhaps I should say stop this Hectoring. Okay, enough of the bad puns. I can't think of one where I can use the word "Nisr" (the Iraqi Audax).

Regards,

Jason

Aww, spoilsport - you old Nisr-y guts...

:winkgrin:

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I certainly hadn't forgotten about it, Bill. I think I've been puttering around with too many big kits (Lancasters, Lincoln, Li-2 - Soviet DC-3, etc.). Time to finish a relatively small one. Paul, you know what they say, Nisry loves company!

Regards,

Jason

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All right, then. On to the main course - here's an actual photograph of actual progress. The wing/fuselage join on the undersides needed some more filling, so here it is. I think it looks pretty good. I'll know better of course once I've got it finished and decalled; then the obvious flaws will finally magically appear. But for now I'm happy. Next, on to the tail, where I'm going to try and duplicate the twin posts that the rudder was attached to the fuselage with, and that the horizontal tailplanes could be adjusted up or down on, on the original aeroplane. Enough talk, on to the piccie (or at least the link)!

Regards,

Jason

BottomofWingwithNewFillerOn.jpg

Edited by Learstang
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Now that I look at this photograph again, I can see what appears to still be a slight step at the aft end of the wing/fuselage join. Strange, because I can't feel it. Perhaps I should go ahead and paint the primer on the fuselage before I add the upper wings on. At any rate, I need to get this area corrected before I add the landing gear.

Regards,

Jason

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