Old Man Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 (edited) A while back, I took an old Aeroclub Demon off the shelf and built it pretty much 'out of bag'.... http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234966280-vintage-aeroclub-demon-172/ It was a lot of fun, and got me to thinking of doing something with several more of these and its mates I still have left. When I saw the time-frame for this Bomber Command Group Build had been extended to 1936, I decided to turn one of my remaining old Demons into a Hind. Here are the bits out of the bag along with an old ModelDecal 'Hart family' sheet, which will provide marking for a Hind of No. 103 Squadron, reformed in summer of 1936 as part of the Expansion scheme. I got started on the project yesterday.... This picture shows some of the necessary conversion elements; filling in the starboard gun-trough and letting in windows on both sides. The latter will get a good polishing soon. The other major element of the conversion will be contriving 'ram's-head' exhausts. This picture shows start of some external detailing on the interface between the bomb-aimer's and pilot's stations. Nothing major, but what is provided benefits from a bit of tightening up. As with the Demon, I intend to put a pair of lads in Sidcots in place in lieu of detailing the interior. The sides are awfully thick, and I do not have the time to sand them out properly. Edited January 3, 2015 by Old Man 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyverns4 Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Will be watching this! My Uncle helped restore the example in the Shuttleworth Collection, Christian the Married and exiled to africa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 This is an interesting one, and it will probably be the smallest model in this group build! If it comes out even half as good as the Demon it will be spectacular! Regards, Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted November 19, 2014 Author Share Posted November 19, 2014 Will be watching this! My Uncle helped restore the example in the Shuttleworth Collection, Christian the Married and exiled to africa Good for your uncle, Sir! That is a beautiful job. This is an interesting one, and it will probably be the smallest model in this group build! If it comes out even half as good as the Demon it will be spectacular! Regards, Adrian Thank you, Sir. I expect it will be at that. I have got a good deal more done on this, though it may not appear to be much --- once the preliminaries are in order, this will come together rapidly. The lower wing is just dry-fit in place for the picture. I took some 're-fit' pains with the lower wing to fuselage joint, owing to the proximity of the windows to its seam, and the need for a smooth bottom in this area for detailing the bomb-aiming position externals. The shims were blocks of 3mm sheet, trimmed out, with the 'center' of the wing piece made shallower and reduced a bit in chord. The windows have been polished on the inside, but not yet on the outside. The slots for the Demon exhausts have to be filled for proper representation of the 'ram's head' manifolds. The blisters are made from bits of 2mm sheet, mostly shaped before fixing to the model. On this example of the old kit, the blisters were definitely undersized. To get the gun ring, I made a disk of thin plastic, glued it on after the fuselage was closed, and then cut away the center with a new knife blade till only the ring was left. The holes in the partition between the cockpits are not yet finished. Next order of business is what I have put off so far; the tricky bit of making the needed exhaust manifolds.... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyverns4 Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 Great to see the progress and how you are handling the various conundrums! And many thanks for your kind words. Uncle Mo passed on several years ago and every time I see the Hind it brings back fond memories. Christian the Married and exiled to africa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 All the hard work is coming together now and it is looking great,........I`ll be following the rest of your progress with great interest, Cheers Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted December 1, 2014 Author Share Posted December 1, 2014 (edited) A good deal more progress here, Gentlemen. Ready, in fact, to begin priming and painting on the next pass. First, I tackled the element I had been putting off, namely the 'ram's horn' exhausts. This took a good deal of time.... This illustrates the early going: bits of 1.5mm round cut to a hair under 13mm length, and blanks for the individual exhuast elements, which began as 3mm x 5mm pieces of 1.5mm sheet, and have been given a very rough shape. They are considerably oversize at this point, bit it is always easier to remove than to add in this sort of thing. Here the exhaust elements are much nearer their final shape, and have had their edges rounded to proper section. They are still over-sized, but this is mostly in their length, and this has had the advantage of making them easier to hold and work. These last show the pieces in the final stages, with the over-length trimmed off (about 2mm gone), attached at proper angles to the carrier rod, and fiddled with here and their to give at least the appearance of uniform size and curvatures. I have not decided which will go on which side yet, and so have not put in the outlet slots on the undersides. With this 'tricky bit' in hand, I turned to completing surface detailing on fuselage and upper wing, correction of the upper wing in one particular, work on the tail surfaces and area, and attachment of the lower wing and tail-plane. Various louvers and scoops were replaced on the nose, a couple of small tear-drop fairings added, as well as the small scoop under the nose. The lower wing was attached, shimmed where needed, the whole area on the bottom got smooth and level, and the bomb-aimer's sliding hatch put in (rails are 0.25mm rod, hatch is from a roll of 'furnace foil' from the hard-ware store, very useful stuff). The holes in the panel dividing front and rear cockpits were finished with bits of sheet shaped to quarter-circles put in at the tops (fixing a slip of the knife made earlier). The tail area received a good deal of treatment, not all of which shows up in these pictures. In aeroplanes of this period, there is generally something odd going on if you look closely at the tail area, and Hawker's provide the epitome of this. The tail-plane was adjustable, rotating on the front spar, so there needs to be a wedge of daylight under the tail-plane between it and the fuselage, and also over the tail-plane, between it and the bottom of the fixed fin. Small bits of rod (the traveling jack that moves it) are exposed as well. The bracing of the rear spar moves up and down as a unit, so there is a small cut-out in the vertical fin exposing some of this, to which landing wires are anchored. The vertical fin itself is off-set a bit to port (to balance the motor's torque). Scoring through the division of rudder from top of the fin allows the off-set to be bent in on the piece without separating the rudder entirely. The upper wing requires an actual accuracy correction; if you look up at the 'kit' photo heading this, you will see it was moulded with some dihedral, which it ought not to have. The upper wing in this kit is made with a very hard and brittle, almost translucent plastic that will not bend, but happily breaks (there is a reason the other Demon kits I bought were built first) at small provocation. I simply scored at the center, cracked the wing there, and held it with CA gel. This gave a 'tenting' at the center, which I filled in at the bottom with CA gel, and sanded down from the top. The fuel tanks are rectangles of 'furnace foil', as are the Handley-Page slots. Hand-holds were put in at the trailing edges of the center section, and pieces of thin sheet cut and shaped for the slat actuators. When I get back to the bench in a couple of days, the fabric areas will be primed and painted, and the nose of the model covered in aluminum foil (kitchen foil boiled a bit with water eggshells have been boiled in, and treated with a contact adhesive). With a smile from the modelling gods, even attachment of the upper wing and rigging is possible. Wife has said she will set up decals for the serials numbers, which will be a big help. Edited December 2, 2014 by Old Man 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Looking good now, nice detail work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 The attention to detail is very impressive, especially in 1/72 scale. Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Jephcott Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Very impressive work!! Amazing attention to detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 I'm impressed to pieces with this Old Man, you're giving us a real treat with this build, watching & anticipating. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Great work so far, looking forward to watching more progress on this lovely aeroplane! Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Thank you for your kind comments, Gentlemen. Here is the state of play at present; a little behind where I had hoped to be, but still on track for completion before the deadline.... Primer coat showed up a few areas that needed tending, and putting them right took some time. The second picture shows the 'wedge' under the tail-plane and the exposed bit of jack-rod. Am about half-way through the process of putting on the aluminum finish. I use an ordinary craft acrylic silver, with a healthy dollop of white added, and the mix cut heavily with Future. First covering coat gets sanded thoroughly with a polishing pad (3000 grit) after it has had several days to dry; the picture above was taken when the paint had only just dried to touch. One or two more thin coats then go over that, with a final session following with the pad. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Excellent work, OM! I don't know how I missed this one, being the Hart Family aficionado that I am. It almost tempts me to get back to my long-stalled Hartbees conversion/rebuild of my old Airfix Demon model. Regards, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Very nice, great work, looking forward to seeing this come along, keep up the good work All the bestChris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted December 21, 2014 Author Share Posted December 21, 2014 Just a quick note to say this has not lapsed, but I have not been able to get any pictures, and will not be able to till after Christmas. However, painting is done, foil applied to nose, and all decals are on. I do have every expectation of getting this completed before the closing date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted December 26, 2014 Author Share Posted December 26, 2014 Here are pictures showing how things stood at the posting of the note above. Will be able to get some solid work in this weekend on this. Wife laid out and printed the serial runs. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 You're lucky to have sucn a talented & helpful wife - mine just continouosly disparages my models as toys! She's a good cook though....!!! She (the Hind!) is looking very nice! keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 That is looking good, OM! I'm looking forward to the next installment. Regards, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 Nice work ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted December 29, 2014 Share Posted December 29, 2014 I like the contrast between the metal and the fabric. The foil work looks flawless. Regards, Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Wow this is looking very good. Can't wait to see this one finished. All the best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted December 31, 2014 Author Share Posted December 31, 2014 Thank you, Gentlemen. And I do consider myself very lucky indeed.... A bit of progress to report on this.... Exhausts are in, and radiator and vertical tail surface are on. Though it may not look like it, I remain pretty sure I will have this in hand by the deadline. Only a few small bits of detailing, including wind-screen, and the undercarriage, remains to be completed before the upper wing goes on and I set to rigging. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Those exhausts came out nicely, OM! Nice job on the retracting arms on the radiator, also. Regards, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 The rams horn exhausts look great. I have no idea why they were designed that way. Apparently they were prone to exploding in flight - very reassuring! Regards, Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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