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Vintage Pair's Meteor T7 WA669


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Ok - that's fair enough :)

Thinking about it I may have been coming at that from the slightly different - dimly remembered - perspective of a twenty something........... :fraidnot: Perhaps more age appropriate prudence was required........

Probably a good plan with plenty of runway and clearway, height and airspeed are both important things to gain after take-off .Airspeed is always king though.

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I have just caught up with this. When vacforming, besides the speed of "draw down", there is a relationship to the thickness of plastic and the minimum radii of cavity and detail corners , especially on side walls. no matter how much more heat you apply.

John

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Probably a good plan with plenty of runway and clearway, height and airspeed are both important things to gain after take-off .Airspeed is always king though.

"Speed is life, height is life insurance"

And even if all engines are running the Meteor had the old Artificial Horizons which precessed under acceleration and resulted in a large number of smoking holes off the far left (I think) end of the runway. We really had it easy by the '60s... Skip.

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"Speed is life, height is life insurance"

And even if all engines are running the Meteor had the old Artificial Horizons which precessed under acceleration and resulted in a large number of smoking holes off the far left (I think) end of the runway. We really had it easy by the '60s... Skip.

In that situation probably the first thing you would know was when the altimeter began to descend unexplainably as the artificial horizon says your wings are level arnt they. cos your always told to trust your instruments......why am I turning.....oh sh...

Ironically following this discussion of asymmetry in Meteors I am tonight in the St George hotel at Teesside airport. For those who don't know, this building was once the officers mess at RAF Middleton St George and was the scene of a very bizarre accident in 1951. Story has it that on the 24th November Flying Officer Raymond Norman was flying circuits on runway 27 in VW297 a Meteor F4. He decided to try an asymmetric touch and go. The 'touch' was fine but the 'go' followed with the predictable result.

Report on accident to Gloster Meteor Mk. 1V. Serial no. VW297. No. 205 Advanced Flying School. 24th November 1951.

Pilot: Flying Officer Raymond Thomas Norman, aged 33.

F/O Norman took off from RAF Middleton St. George. At approximately 14.45 hrs. he informed Air Traffic Control that he was about to carry out an asymmetric approach, landing and overshoot. This was acknowledged by the Air Traffic Controller and a successful approach and landing was made. After touchdown the aircraft rolled for some distance before the pilot opened up the live engine to attempt a go-around. The aircraft pulled to starboard and became airborne for a few yards before crashing into the ground floor of the west wing of the Officers' Mess. The pilot was killed. F/O Norman was inexperienced on type.

From what I have read, during his journey to the officers mess he hit one car....his own, also the room in the mess that he arrived in was also his own. I understand he wasn't killed in the crash, he was killed later by falling masonry. Bad day at the office sir?

Think he did something like this

16663092629_bfbee17f6a_b.jpg

He is a bit of a legend with flight crew as his ghost is said to still be here and haunts his old room he is also particularly fond visiting aircrew in the middle of the night. I'm not in that room tonight although I have stayed in it in the past........but nothing ever happened.

So it is rather ironic that I am in here sanding the detail from a Meteor canopy master.

16848994735_6b9dc90269_b.jpg

Just needs a bit of a polish ready for the windows to be stuck on. I am also going to remove the rear fairing, the bit that is not part of the opening canopy and remove the windscreen and just vacuum the main canopy section. So have intentionally not sanded the windscreen.

because.....

there is a relationship to the thickness of plastic and the minimum radii of cavity and detail corners

....I don't think I'm going to get the edges sharp enough.

John has a good point. For the windscreen as its a simple shape consisting of flat panels I'm thinking of doing that from flat (unheated raw pieces of PETG, might be able to do it in one piece and use the cutter to cut score lines in to get sharp folds.

CT

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I'm about to try to stick the frames to my PET-G vacform canopy. Question is - how?

Have you tried PVA? Humbrol clearfix Is good too, a couple of tiny specs of either in inconspicuous places maybe.

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Formula 560 canopy glue

strong thin and very quick drying

Or pretreat with Klear and use cyano, the Klear will stop cyano fogging the clear canopy

Ive done that with the canopy I made for the Jaguar, looks pretty good

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Have you tried PVA? Humbrol clearfix Is good too, a couple of tiny specs of either in inconspicuous places maybe.

I experimented with Formula 560, but it sprung apart under not much load, I guess it's under even less than 'not much load' so I dunno...

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  • 2 weeks later...

As well a continuing with the vacuum form approach to canopy modification I'm trying a new idea, Resin

First of all a practice of casting a canopy so have cloned the kit one by making a 2 part mould and filling with the epoxy resin I bought for making the vacuum moulds. Female half was filled part way with resin then the male lowered into place allowing any excess to leak out. The plan now is to take one of the clones and modify the windows to T7 standard then make a mould of that for the final T7 cast. This should be a better way to maintain the detail in the upper straps as I showed in the pic in post #84 that wouldn't be possible with vacforming. Also still going to experiment with getting a vacform canopy too as I'm not going to let that beat me just yet. The resin was only degassed on this test but I intend to pressure cast the final canopy but cant do pressure casting at the moment as I needed to change a leaky seal on the pressure chamber and ended up rounding the head on an allan bolt in the process, new bolts in the post.

Can you tell which is the original? its the one without the casing flash in the bottom left pic.16745911837_228944eb85_b.jpg

Ive also cast one in the white polyurethane casing resin should make in easier to see what you doing in a solid colour while making the modifications. Just need the edges cleaning up a bit.

16953284735_96a194c66b_b.jpg

CT

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Now THAT I'm liking

Is that clear resin the stuff they sell to use as clear resin for encapsulating flowers and stuff in a clear block?

The stuff they sell at Hobbycrafts?

It really does answer so many questions that I can't even think of any more just yet ;)

:thumbsup2:

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That looks excellent,would you be willing to do a small run of them sell some to us lesser mortals ......Neil

Dont see why not, the resin takes a good 12 hours to cure so cant make all that many in a short period, Still not made a T7 master yet though.

Is that clear resin the stuff they sell to use as clear resin for encapsulating flowers and stuff in a clear block?

The stuff they sell at Hobbycrafts?

Not sure what the resin in Hobbycraft is but I would suspect its a polyester resin, but will be quicker curing. maybe not as tough as epoxy resin though.

I just cleaned off the flash from the cast and have a bit of problem, I cant tell which is which without very careful inspection, although they do have a different sound when lightly dropped on a hard surface.

16766170748_670d1ae6b8_b.jpg

CT

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Dont see why not, the resin takes a good 12 hours to cure so cant make all that many in a short period, Still not made a T7 master yet though.

If you should perchance draw up a 'customer list', I'd be most happy if you'd add my name to it... :please:

It looks very nice indeed, & would certainly enhance the T7 kit I happen to have 'in stock'...!!

Keith

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So we have Fatalbert, Keefr22 & Procopius so far

Certainly will, Never tried this before so If the cunning plan works....... Have some water clear polyester resin on order at the moment. Should be even clearer its a quicker cure so I wont need to keep the compressor kicking in and out for 12hrs or so keeping the pressure chamber pressurised. Its about 70% the hardness of the epoxy but that shouldn't be a problem.

CT

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Hi CT,

have a bit of problem, I cant tell which is which without very careful inspection,

CT

Darn it! Don't you just hate it when your scratch built part is too perfect? :lol:

That is a superb result. Great stuff, well done.

Cheers.

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I reckon CT should be given his very own techniques forum on BM :)

I'm running out of hard drive space trying to save it all........

Not that I'm likely to manage clear resin canopy casting, home brew PE or sticking LED lights into my 1/72 efforts just yet a while - and I still want a silhouette cutter if I can think of a persuasive reason to give Mrs F - and I so need to learn how to use drawing software and......and.....

Maybe I'll just stick to reading CT's threads and picking up my jaw from the floor........

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Tried one of the over head straps for fit today, not sure if it looks like it was made from 10mm steel plate by Cammell Laird, Rubbed some kitchen foil over it to get an idea of how the profile. would look after paint. does the film look too thick at 0.1mm or am I being over critical?

16977251061_243cb10143_h.jpg

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