Dynavector Wyvern - Finally Finished! 25 Oct 2015

[Radleigh]

Very nice mate

[JOCKNEY]

Really great to see things progressing so well

[bigbadbadge]

Wow this looks great, are you sure this is your first Vacform ??? There have been a few threads with first time Vacform modellers lateley and this is very inspiring, I have never done one before and I keep finding myself looking on Ebay at them.

Thanks for sharing

All the best

Chris

[IPMS19]

-Very good job, I have this kit in my stock, your model gives me the idea to prevent it from collecting dust.........

[Nik W]

As far as thread resurrections go this has got to be up there with something even Lazarus would be proud of.

This poor Wyvern has been sat on the Shelf of Doom since March 2013 and didn't so much stall as come to a crashing halt due to the slightly chaotic and nomadic nature of life in the Fleet Air Arm! But with a nice long break between flying courses I decided the time was right to get my finger out and make some progress on this brute of an aeroplane.

I left off with the beast having been given its initial shot of primer to highlight any flaws and show where some rescribing would be required to restore detail after the build process. So after a quick going over with a scribing tool of some of the fine panel lines which had vanished under the primer, another coat of primer showed it was ready to start getting some paint on.

A quick blast along the panel lines with some NATO Black for pre shading got me to this stage.

Then there was nothing else to do but crack open a tin of Xtracolor Sky (BS210) to start filling in the gaps between the pre shading.

I had a bit left over in the paint cup after the first pass of colour so decided to use what was left to quickly give the underside a first overall coat of sky.

My initial thoughts are that this looks a good deal too green, so the plan is that I'll lighten this significantly with some post shading once it has fully dried (which could be days away using Xtracolor Enamels in all fairness) and eventually give it a flat coat to tone down the contrast in the shading.

While the Sky has been drying I decided to get on with one of the elements of this build I've been looking forward to the least which is painting all 8 of the propellers. These were given an initial blast with some Tamiya White primer to act as a base coat for the yellow tips (painted with my trusty old tin of Humbrol 154 Insignia Yellow) before being masked and the blades sprayed black.

At this point I decided that this will be an 827 NAS aircraft from HMS Eagle in 1955 so the spinner was also sprayed white in preparation for being sprayed red as shown above.

So... That's where she stands as of today, hopefully it won't be a full two and a half years before my next update on this one... Who knows, I might even actually get round to finishing a model? That would be a novel idea!

Until next time!

Nik

Edited August 28, 2015 by Nik W

[Col.]

Nice to see this one on the go again Nik.

[Nik W]

Time for another update on the Wyvern.

Still on leave so I've had this one in the paint shop since my last update. Probably a lot easier to simply let the pictures do the talking.

The Extra Dark Sea Gray looked a little too dark for my tastes, so I lightened it with a few drops of Light Aircraft Gray for a small amount of post shading to give the aircraft a less pristine, worn appearance.

Anti Glare panel masked up ready for a quick blast of black.

Then finally after the big un-peeling of masking tape, I'm pretty darn pleased with how this is looking!

That's it for this update, the Wyvern is currently sitting underneath an upturned box to keep the dust off having been given the first of two layers of Alclad Gloss Klear in preparation for decalling and weathering.

Considering this was my first shot at a Vacform, I'm pleased with how this is panning out (long delay between updates aside...) and have to confess I've been well and truly bitten by the vac bug!

Till next time folks!

Nik

[Mike]

Good to see an old Dynavector kit getting some love My Wyvern is stalled at a similar point to your pics of the 28th of Aug, and I keep getting grief from Stringbag here to carry on with it. My problem is that I've got some duff props that need sorting out... it makes me want to grab it from the shelf and get on with it

[IPMS19]

- Well, I have to say that my Wyvern is still in my stock....A real shame......!

[Nik W]

Good to see an old Dynavector kit getting some love My Wyvern is stalled at a similar point to your pics of the 28th of Aug, and I keep getting grief from Stringbag here to carry on with it. My problem is that I've got some duff props that need sorting out... it makes me want to grab it from the shelf and get on with it

I'm a big fan of the Dynavector kits, they're brilliant as a means of a first venture into the world of vacform! The fit on the Wyvern has been better than some of the modern injection moulded kits I've built lately.

- Well, I have to say that my Wyvern is still in my stock....A real shame......!

That is a shame! Like Mike said above, all these old Dynavector kits need is a little bit of love to turn out a great looking kit!

[Mike]

Agreed. I heard that the Wyvern was about the best introduction to vacform modelling there was, and even though I was a n00b at the time, I liked a challenge, so I got one, then hunted down the Compass Rose resin sets just to make my life that bit more difficult! Once it was cut out with John Adams' superb how-to, it went together almost like an injection kit until I retro-fitted the flap bays and cockpit. Still looks good now, despite being a bit battered, and I really should finish it one of these days.

[Martian]

Its looking very smart.

Martin

[Nik W]

Edit: Post Deleted - accidental post!

Edited September 3, 2015 by Nik W

[Nik W]

Morning all!

Time for another quick update on progress with the Wyvern. First time I've used Alcad's Aqua Gloss as a prep coat for decals and I must admit I'm quite impressed with it. It went down nice and evenly and has provided a good glossy base to lay the decals on. I even tested it on a spare Canberra canopy I had lying around as a Klear substitute and it appears to have done its job rather nicely on that as well, so on whatever I get round to building next (or potentially finishing something from the Shelf of Doom) I think that will be getting a thorough test on any clear parts.

Fairly early in the decalling process I hit a small snag. I've used the Berna Decals Wyvern sheet, which seems to be somewhat inaccurate on sizing for some items on it. In the picture below, the 827 NAS crest on the tail looks far too big.

The only reference material I had available to me (aside from a search of the t'interweb for images) was this rather handy little book I 'borrowed' from my Dad at the start of this build.

It has several profiles contained within, one of which shows an 827 aircraft, but with a significantly smaller crest.

Is anybody aware of any significant issues relating to the overall accuracy of this sheet from Berna Decals? I haven't been able to track down any reviews of the sheet in question which could verify the authenticity of the sizing of that crest. But the Wyvern book I have and an image search don't seem to show any aircraft ever having carried squadron crests quite that large.

Moving on, I removed the offending decal with some heavy duty amounts of Micro Sol and now with the Wyvern looks something like this;

The stencils on the fuselage are a mixture of the Dynavector Decals, which appear to have silvered badly in this image but under a further coat of gloss I'm confident that the carrier film issues will be resolved, and the stencilling provided on the Berna Decals sheet. Neither of which have responded terribly well to my trusty bottles of Micro Set & Sol unfortunately. So I may have to look at getting something a bit stronger to bring them down to conform with the detailing underneath them.

So that's it for another update, still not entirely finished decalling and a few bits and pieces still to sort out such as the drop tanks, undercarriage doors and propellors, but I think I can fairly confidently say this is on the home straight now.

Sadly no more updates for a couple of weeks as I'm off to Portsmouth for a couple of courses, but hopefully once those are done I should finally be able to get this finished up and something else onto the bench!

Thanks for stopping by folks!

Nik

[Nik W]

Small update for this evening.

Progress slowed down a little bit due to some career courses in Portsmouth and SWMBO not being entirely happy with me airbrushing at the kitchen worktop while I wait on the desk arriving at my new flat. The only positive to the desk situation is I've got permission (kind of...) to turn the spare room into a modelling room/man cave. So its not all bad news!

Anyway, bit more progress on the decals, all of which are now on. The stencils are a combination of the Berna Decals sheet and the Dynavector decals themselves. Both types have thick carrier film which didn't respond too well to my usual Micro Set & Sol combination, so I ordered some Mr Mark Softer and Setter which are a bit stronger and seem to have done the job rather well.

Unfortunately the underwing serials are a bit oversized, this appears to be a common theme with the Berna Decals sheet, but since it'll only really be me that has to look at it and its on the underside anyway, I think I can live with it.

The most pleasing aspect of decalling was that the Dynavector decals which looked like they had silvered badly when they were first applied have blended in perfectly under another coat of gloss and then a matt coat, which bodes well for using the decals supplied in the other Dynavector vacs I've got stashed away (Scimitars, more Wyverns and a Sea Hornet).

The last picture above shows it as it stands at close of play today. In between the final gloss coat to seal the decals and the matt coat, I gave it a panel line wash with some thinned black and raw umber oil paints, to bring out a little more of the detail. I know this isn't always to everyone's tastes, but as I've said its only going to be me that ever really looks at it and I'm happy with it! Canopy was unmasked and after a quick buff with some micromesh to remove a little bit of paint seepage and a brush over with some Alclad Aqua Gloss it looks lovely and clear!

Next on the hit list will be painting on the black non slip area on the port wing which I forgot to do previously, and then the small details such as undercarriage doors and drop tanks and hopefully unless I spot anything else too glaring that I've missed I should hopefully be able to get this one finally finished!

Thanks for looking folks!

Nik

[Nik W]

Morning all!

After a slight break of a little longer than planned I can finally call this one finished! It's taken a lot longer than I'd originally hoped, but I'm pleased with how it turned out in the end!

I've learned a lot of lessons from this build, but its safe to say that vacforms no longer hold the fear for me they once did, and the small but growing pile of vacs in my stash is only going to increase as this has been one of the most pleasurable models I've built since my return to the hobby a few years back now.

To those that have looked in on this build, thank you for your kind words of encouragement!

More pics to follow in RFI shortly.

Cheers,

Nik