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1/24th Buccaneer - detailed and picture heavy build


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Cleaned up and added the weapons bay. It is fitted with the slightly more rounded end at the front, and sits in a straight line between the front of the two forward vents on the centre section belly and the joint between the centre section and the rear end. I'll fill the join line and scribe it in later.

To my eye, from photos of the real thing it looks as if it ought to be a little deeper, although not as deep as on the drawings General Melchett posted on his thread....

Comments on this anybody?

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I think you're right Radleigh, but I'll leave this one as it is...

Anyway, The nose is now fixed to the centre section, and as can be seen from the pics, it fitted where it touched.

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The gaps were filled with plasticard after the nose was fixed on, rather than squaring off the sections which would have shortened the overall length of the model. There were a couple of points where the profile of the nose didn't match the centre section, so filler was used quite extensively - see below for the result after a session at the kitchen sink with wet and dry.

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As can be seen here, and as with the rear end and jet pipe fairings, there was a fair bit of sanding and filling to get a smooth transition between the joints and I've just noticed from the pic above that there is a slight dip forward of the jet pipe fairing, so I'll fill that area and resand it. Apart from that, I'm happy with the result so far. Note how the intake lips are angled back slightly in the plan view. It doesn't show very well in the side elevation, but the intakes are at 90 degrees to the overall plane of the engine nacelles which makes them look tilted slightly back at the top, relative to the nose. The surface is smooth, joint free with no visible pinholes anywhere, so that's all the donkey work done. Now that the bulk of the fuselage is done, to pinch Tiggers phrase, I have a blank canvas to work on and I can get on to the more enjoyable fiddly bits now. This is another good reason not to scribe the parts before assembly - a lot would be lost in the process of sanding the joints and filling any pinholes etc. I like to use Upol hi build primer at this stage as it highlights any blemishes I might have missed and also fills some of the smaller ones. Scribing after using this primer is perfectly feasible too, without any problems.

Edited by Scratcher
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All that filling and sanding is more than i could cope with, i fret over the smallest gap, this would give me kittens :gobsmacked: .you have my admiration.

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As must be obvious by now I'm pretty reckless with my sanity, so I might tackle a Sea Vixen, with it's even more complex shape....

Or maybe a Seahawk, if I'm borderline...

Edited by Scratcher
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I decided to tackle the canopy next, one of the more enjoyable but difficult tasks, which always makes me a little apprehensive. This is a long post with a lot of photos, but it's critical to get this right.

After cutting it from the surrounding sheet, being careful not to lose any of the depth, it was matched up to the canopy rails, to determine how much depth to remove to get a good fit heightwise. After a little trimming and sanding, it was left sitting about 1mm higher than the front of the fuselage spine, to allow room for the back part of the frame sweeping down further towards the spine. - It's covered in dust and finger prints in the photos and is actually very clear!

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As the General suspected, the canopy was a little too wide for the canopy rails

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So, it was pinched with tape and dunked in hot water - hot to the point where I can bear to put my finger in for a second or two, so as not to damage or warp it.

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It was left in hot water while I cut the frame parts from .5mm plasticard. Next time I'll have the wit to realise I've got enough spare 0.25mm brass from the etched fretwork to make the frame. After taking it out and removing the tape, it was a gripping fit on the canopy rails.

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The canopy front arch was carefully checked to make sure it was fitting squarely in plan view and matched the angle where it butts up to the windshield.

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The .5mm plasticard side frames were made 3mm by 78mm curved gently to match the canopy rails on the nose. They were cut square at the front and at a 45 degree angle at the back. The 2mm wide front arch frame was also curved slightly, to properly fit the compountd curve of the canopy arch.

Firstly, I attached the front arch frame, after forming it round a cylinder so it wouldn't tend to pull straight and spread the canopy wider. I attached one corner first, to ensure I had it aligned properly. Although it can cause clouding I use cyanoacrylate cement, very sparingly, applied with a cocktail stick and haven't had any problems. It does mean theres no room for error, so that's why I like to fix the frame a little at a time as it can't be moved after it's positioned.

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The remainder of the frame was fixed in place, leaving a .5mm overhang at either end, for reasons that will become clear.

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I'll edit this post shortly - Photobucket is playing up.

Anyway, the side rails were added - you may be able to make out the tape I used to hold one end in place while I fixed it on a little at a time, butting it squarely against the front arch (hence the .5mm overhang on the ends of the arch frame) and leaving .5mm below the edge of the transparency - this will allow me to add guides to fit the slots in the rails on the nose.

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A paper template was cut a little oversize to get the correct shape for the back end of the frame

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Plasticard was then cut, again formed round a cylinder to keep it in shape, and fixed in place

The back end was then fixed in place, making sure that from the side, it followed the sweep of the canopy

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After several test fits, removing a little of the excess at a time, I ended up with this

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Kinda miscalculated how far the back of the frame would sit above the spine - maybe I sanded too much off the spine. No matter though, I had thought that the forward end of the spine didn't have enough of a 'hump' in it as photos of the real thing show, so a little filling word will give a snug fit here.

That's the tricky bit done - I'll add the canopy rail guides, internal framing etc. polish it and dunk it in Kleer after a pint or two..

Edited by Scratcher
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Looking good Stuart, hopefully next week I'll have the time to start catching up with you ! As you point out too much length will be lost if everything is cut back and squared off perfectly, something that's quite different for me personally as I try to use as little filler as possible during normal builds...but then this is something else !

The canopy looks fun.....

Melchie

Edited by general melchett
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That's one hell of a build for a one-man-band Scratcher. I'm tempted to pick one up when you are selling - you seem to be just down the road from me but I notice that no one has asked:-

What the hell does it weigh ?

Dennis

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Very impressive work! I can't imagine the amount of time you've invested in designing and building the first model, let alone going into production! Did you keep track of the engineering and prototype hours?

Your talents are just incredible - me, I may wait for the diecast version! :)

Cheers,

Bill

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Finished off the canopy this evening, apart from a little work on the internal framing, and adding brass handles to the front arch. The internal frame was made from white decal sheet. The angled arches were cut around a wide curve - the lid of a wok - to get a crease free fit. The spine was also built up a little to give a better fit with the canopy and to better match the side view of the real thing. There's some overspray of primer in the rear cockpit to be touched up too, and a slot in the top of the spine to scribe for the canopy slide mechanism.

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I test fitted the brass wing roots against the centre section root and after a little sanding, got a reasonable fit - the preparation before fixing the top and bottom centre sections together helped here.

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Cut outs for the hinges and the folding panel over the aileron cable pulley were made.

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I added some scratched internal detail to the brass wing roots - there appear to be several variations on the photos I've seen, so I've tried to approximate what I can. There are still several scratch details to add - hinges, hydraulic jack and pipes, but they'll be done once the root is assembled. I sprayed them with dark grey primer to add some depth after spraying US Ghost Grey.

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The brass edge will have the 2 internal vertical bars removed and the edges removed to match the cutouts in the wing root - the brass edge is duplicated on the wing itself, where the bars will be left in place.

Edited by Scratcher
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Constructed the airbrakes today, starting with the internal structure

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The parts were assembled using 3.25mm brass tube for the 3 rods in the centre - I ran out, so sleeved the centre rod to get the correct length. The disc was trimmed to leave a light step at the rear fuselage joint

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And fixed to the rear fuselage angled as shown

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If the chaff dispenser isn't fitted, as on earlier Buccs, 2 sections need to be scratched to complete the circle. If the chaff dispenser is used, as in this case, only one arc needs to be scratched. An ice lolly mould happened to be exactly the right diameter, but those without grandchildren will have to use plasticard...

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Below shows how the arc section relate to the drag link and the rear fuselage

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The structure inside the top arc was scratched, as was the support between the chaff dipenser and the airbrake do-da.

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The drag links were several mm too long so were cut to match the slot in the airbrake itself.

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The drag link internal structure was scratched apart from the brass section

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The airbrakes were boxed in as below, with the edges of the box sanded flush.

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The fit was checked

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And the brass airbrake internals fixed. In the photos below, the airbrakes are temporarily taped in place to show how the whole structure goes together, so it all looks a bit squint at the moment.

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I won't fix the airbrakes on until later in the build as I tend to be a bit clumsy.

Hope this all makes sense...

Edited by Scratcher
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To my eye, from photos of the real thing it looks as if it ought to be a little deeper, although not as deep as on the drawings General Melchett posted on his thread....

Comments on this anybody?

DSC01138.jpg

Just to add my tuppence worth on the bomb bay mate, take a look at this pic I took last Saturday, it seems to me that it's really only the front of the bay that needs beefed up more. What do you reckon? Brilliant work btw.

UASOpenDay027.jpg

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