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Iran (Persia): Hawker Fury (with foil how-to)


Old Man

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you, Gentlemen.

More progress to report.

First, the work on the motor is complete....

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The exhaust collector ring rests on the cylinder fronts, which it probably oughtn't, but making it 'float'; would have been a most tricky business and the thing is deep enough in the cowling I doubt the difference could be noticed. The large-ish bit of rod at the bottom of the ring (and poking out in the rear-view picture) are leads for the exhaust pipes (which run out and back, outside the landing gear legs. The motor is only test-fit in the cowling, but holds pretty tight. I still have to notch the cowling lip at the top (to accommodate the LOF for the machine-guns). I wound up re-doing the fuel manifold in the rear --- I had trimmed it down too much, it needed more thickness than I had left.

With the motor well in hand, I proceeded to the new nose....

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I 'adjusted' my cut on the fuselage, sanding it back till there was 9mm of fuselage left before the leading edge of the lower wing. The 'plug' added is 5mm long, a laminate of one blank from 3mm sheet, and one from 2mm sheet. These were first shaped to profile and plane, then to section contour.

Finally, here is a preview of the thing, with the motor and cowling tacked on temporarily with double-face tape....

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Next step will be the tail, which needs a lot of fiddling on any Hawker product of this period, and involves the only remaining conversion element of this build --- making a larger, Nimrod style vertical tail surface....

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That looks great with the engine on, OM!

Regards,

Jason

Thank you, Sir. The big radial does make an odd but striking nose for this.

More progress, getting things lined up for major assembly work. One set-back as well --- I managed to drop it. The starboard wing cracked off, the seat and backing came loose (as a unit, fortunately), and the starboard MG breech disappeared. Wing went back on easily enough, and I got the seat and backing back into place without much fuss. I am going to wait on replacing the breech, though I do not expect much difficulty with it.

Here is the motor painted:

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Base coat of spray silver, the rest is washes. Some touching up needed before installation, got a litle carried away with the exhaust coloring.

Here is the cowling with the 'notched' in the lip put in:

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The lip was notched with 'V' cuts, and bits of 2mm rod sanded to a point were put in. Once trimmed down to match on the inside, they were hollowed out with knife-edge and rat-tail needle files.

Here is the new vertical tail surface in blank form with ribs in:

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It is next to the kit piece for comparison. The drawings in the Mushroom monograph do not show this accurately. Larger vertical surfaces were put on the naval variants ro improve handling at low speeds (necessary for carrier work), and were fitted to radial variants to make up for the forfeit of the benefit to directional stability offered by the long cowling of the Kestrel motor.

Here is surface detail added to the new nose....

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I don't know what the tear-drop fairings and louvers were for, but they are in photographs (four louvers to starboard, three to port). The tear-drops are made from bits of medium sheet (just scrap on the bench) cut to 3mm x 2mm rectangles, held on a piece of thick sheet with double-face tape for rough shaping (first corners trimmed and then worked with heavy-grit sanding sticks), then attached to the model and given final shape. The louvers are quarter-round section rod, sanded down a good deal after attachment. Note also the slant and cover given at the rear where the tail-plane will go. There is always daylight under the tail-plane of a Hawker machine of this period, to acomodate the variable incidence, pivoted on the front spar.

Next should be getting some aluminum dope finish and some foil on major components, and getting the tail surfaces in order.

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Great work as usual, OM! Interesting about the tail - the very thing was done with the Hart variants. The larger tail was used on the carrier variant, the Osprey, then used on the radial-engined variants (although for some strange reason the Mercury-engined Latvian Hinds had the normal tail).

Regards,

Jason

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This is a lovely piece of work, especially the engine, which is a little jewel! However, the concept of a radial engined Fury is a bit like a whippet wearing an oversize cone collar to my eyes!

I guess I should work on showing radials more love...

Regards,

Adrian

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Blimey! Your talent in scratching and detailing, particularly in 1/72, is awe-inspiring! Will definitely be referring to this thread when I eventually tackle my IAR-80, which needs pretty much an entirely new radial engine.

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  • 1 year later...

This is another project which was put aside owing to a family health crisis. I recently got it out from the 'cupboard of doom' to take a run at finishing it. So here it is with the fabric areas painted silver for aluminum dope, and the metal areas in foil....

 

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In these following shots, the motor is simply loose in the cowling, and tacked into place with double-face tape to give some idea of the eventual appearance....

 

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The silver paint is a very old Testor's rattle-can silver, which proved to be all I had available. I have heretofore used a particular brand of craft acrylic silver paint, cut with Future, which gave excellent results, but my supply is exhausted and the stuff does not seem to be on sale anymore. A couple of new brands I thought might work as substitutes did not pan out, and I had to do some stripping, and then, because I had used a coarse primer, do some further surface preparation --- little is more unforgiving than spray silver. Just yesterday, I got a tube of Winsor and Newton metallic silver acrylic, and tests so far have been promising. I may go over the spray with a coat of that cut with Future and a little water. One of the things I don't like about spray is the difficulty of touching up, and I like the extra flexibility of a brush coat in that regard.

 

The foil has been boiled in water in which egg-shells were boiled a good while, which knocks down the shine considerably. These pictures were taken with diffused flash, but though this exaggerates the shine less than straight flash, it is still not so good as indirect sunlight for giving the appearance in a picture the stuff gives to the eye.

 

Though not shown, the upper wing and vertical tail surface have also gotten a coat of the silver spray.

 

Next step will be doing things like the wind-screen necessary to getting the upper wing on, and proceeding to the decals, which will be home-made with wife's kind assistance.

 

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Great to see this back on the bench OM, and so glad that your family's health problems are resolved - hopefully for the better! Welcome back!

 

Ian

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It is nice to see you have got back into the swing of things so quickly. It usually takes me ages after a layoff of even a few weeks.

 

Martian

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C'est très bien Monsieur vieux homme.

It's good to hear the health issues are abating. Health  takes priority. Modelling can be a wonderful aid in convalescence and recovery :) .

 

The different textures in metallic finish work extremely well. The Fury, Demon, Nimrod, Audax et al have the extremely shiny forward metallic fuselage. This method of foil use is fascinating, above all with the eggshells.

 

I hope one day to build the single Norwegian example, with the huge Armstrong Siddely Panther IIIa.

 

With your advice from here, and an engine from (I'm not sure where) somewhere, it could be possible.

 

:goodjob: 

 

Best regards

TonyT

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  • 2 months later...

Thank you for your kind comments, Gentlemen.

 

This one has gotten its turn in the rotation over the weekend (an excellent way to put off doing some extensive canopy work with painted decal strip on another project). The critter has took a major leap....

 

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Upper wing went on with very little trouble, though getting in the cabane proved no fun at all. I assembled the thing interplanes first, because I was not quite sure where the cabanes (kit pieces cut off their bearers) would rest on the fuselage. Windscreen is scratched, with heavy foil frames. Motor and cowling are attached. Fin and rudder have been left off for ease of decalling the rudder.

 

Next steps will be making the exhaust pipes, doing the structural rigging, and making and applying the necessary decals. This will be the first run with our new laser printer; the necessary artwork is on file from my earlier run at this subject.

Edited by Old Man
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I'm very glad to see this coming back to life OM. Superb work so far. :worthy:

 

If I may ask: I use self-adhesive aluminium foil tape for natural metal. Could you give more details of your egg-shell technique as my attempts have all failed to achieve a satisfactory result. I'm sure others would be interested as well.

 

I understand if you are unable to share though.

 

I'm currently experimenting with Windsor and Newton metallic silver. Grey primer then several almost dry brushing coats thinned very slightly seems to show promise. It might be worth a try for fabric areas. I'll try your approach for other surfaces like the struts. :thumbsup:

 

I hope your health continues well. I'm quite happy to see the back of 2016 myself and my Dad makes three of us. :D

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23 hours ago, Learstang said:

Very nice - she looks great standing on her legs now!

 

Regards,

 

Jason

 

22 hours ago, GrzeM said:

Very well done and unusual, interesting subject!

 

Thanks for the king comments, Gentlemen. I am looking forward to getting decals and rigging on this soon.

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Nice piece of work. I have this kit in the stash and looking forward to building it, and thus have bookmarked this build for reference.  However, despite your excellent conversion I have to agree with Adrian above: "the concept of a radial engined Fury is a bit like a whippet wearing an oversize cone collar". Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say though. Keep up the lovely work.

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11 hours ago, SleeperService said:

 

 

If I may ask: I use self-adhesive aluminium foil tape for natural metal. Could you give more details of your egg-shell technique as my attempts have all failed to achieve a satisfactory result. I'm sure others would be interested as well.

 

 

Happy to, Sir. I can get kind of evangelical about foil. Nothing looks quite so much like metal as metal....

 

I use the foil tape for a few things, but think it unsuitable for basic finish. Two main reasons.

 

First, it is quite thick, and so will 'blur' some surface detail, like the small tear-drop bumps and louvers, even if it can be pressed down well over them.

 

Second, the adhesive is thick enough that the stuff sort of 'floats' on a layer of adhesive, and if incautious burnishing it down, or from some other cause, you can find you press nicks and such into the surface, that cannot always be smoothed out.

 

Further, it is awful shiny --- good for showing how things might have looked when Air Commodore S. P. Ickandspan did his yearly inspection, when ground crew had been at the cowlings for a week with silver polish and rouge cloths, but seldom seen otherwise. I have never tried aging the stuff, but suspect boiling it for a few minuted would not be good for its adhesive.

 

I use it mostly for replacing certain sorts of raised detail ---strap fasteners, metal access panels on a fabric surface, that sort of thing, where it will be primed and painted over.

 

Here is how I do the eggshell aging now, after some years of employing the method.

 

In a medium saucepan (not aluminum) boil the shells of eight to twelve eggs in a couple of cups of water (when I am going to make a batch, we save the shells over a few days, or, if some meal involves many eggs, I will just go ahead and do some foil). Let this boil for a good while, about fifteen minutes. Keep it topped up with fresh water so you have about as much liquid when you take it off the heat as when you started. Pour the liquid into a jar through a strainer, removing the shells. Scrub the pan, there will probably be a bit of tough grey-ish scum above the water line, and it is best got off while fresh. I used simply boil water and shells a while, then add the foil, but it works well with the shells removed. One thing to look out for is a bit of scum on the foil, and this has proved less likely when shells and foil do not commingle in the boil.

 

To prepare foil for boiling, you will want some steel wool, a scissors you don't care about, and a smooth hard surface (I have a piece of tempered glass about a foot square). Cut foil into pieces about six inches square. Two such will be more than ample to cover entirely a single engined model in 1/72; a 1/72 B-17 I did a while back took about two square feet....

 

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It is good to make up excess sheets, to have it on hand, and because some might get spoiled. Place the piece on on the hard surface, dull side down, and go over the shiny side with steel wool. Use long, straight strokes. Avoid wrinkles. A hard wrinkle cannot be smoothed out.

 

Pour the liquid from the jar into a frying pan (again, not aluminum). Bring it to a boil. Place a sheet of foil in it, dull (smooth) side down, scratched (once shiny) side up. For just a little discoloration, leave in for about two minutes or so. If left in for six or seven minutes, the foil will get much darker.

 

Take the foil out with tongs, rinse well under cold water, and wash the smooth side then rinse again. Sometimes a scum may form on the sheet (this happened more often when the eggshells were left in), and this will get it off. If it forms, and remains, the scummed foil is useless. Pat dry. Store the sheets so they stay flat (I put them between pages of a large book). The liquid will prove good for about a dozen such squares. The discoloration has a brownish tinge when pronounced.

 

I use MicroScale adhesive. I have read adhesive for gold leaf can be used as well, but have not tried it. Place the foil on your hard, smooth surface, dull (smooth) side down. Tape in place, stretching it as you do (a bit of tape on opposite side, then opposite corners, like stretching artists canvas). Sometimes I repeat the steel wool here --- if you do, dust to be sure all fragments of steel wool are gone. I apply the adhesive with a cotton bud. Cover evenly but not too thick. It shows cloudy, and dries clear.

 

Once clear, you can cut and apply.

 

Since you can't see the surface that will be showing, variations in the discoloration can ambush you. One thing I mean to try, and will next time I make up a batch, will be to see if, once the adhesive is dry, the sticky side can be placed on wax paper and so stored with backing. I suspect this can be done, and if so, it will be possible to cut pieces with scissors, looking at the surface that will be showing.

 

I will ,ention another method of aging foil, that I have used only once. I have seen others get good results with it. You put copper. lead, and foil in a large jar, cover with laundry bleach (chlorine bleach(, and close. After a while you open it and take out the foil. What happens is some lead plates onto the aluminum surface, and some aluminum is leached off into the bleach. The discoloration has a bluish tinge. I do not know how long is right, I do know that too long puts pinholes in the foil. Much of the foil on this model was prepared with this method....

 

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Edited by Old Man
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11 hours ago, SleeperService said:

 

 

I'm currently experimenting with Windsor and Newton metallic silver. Grey primer then several almost dry brushing coats thinned very slightly seems to show promise. It might be worth a try for fabric areas. I'll try your approach for other surfaces like the struts. :thumbsup:

 

 

Grey primer sounds like a good idea, Sir. Dry-brushing had not occurred to me. I am mixing it with Future (for smoothness) and a bit of water. The old PrismaColor spoiled me; three coats brushed over white, and things were solid with just a bit of streaking if the light hit it right, which effect combined weathering and application. Three coats over white dos not quite do it with the W&N, though it almost gets there, and a fourth does it. Grey might well be better, I will try it. Thanks for the tip.

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2 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

Nice piece of work. I have this kit in the stash and looking forward to building it, and thus have bookmarked this build for reference.  However, despite your excellent conversion I have to agree with Adrian above: "the concept of a radial engined Fury is a bit like a whippet wearing an oversize cone collar". Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say though. Keep up the lovely work.

 

Radial is 'a look' for sure, Sir. It is the incongruity I like, I think. I saw it first ages ago in the old Profile number, as well as radial Audaxes.

 

The kit is a nice one, and if built to a standard Kestrel Fury needs no more work than one might want to put into it. Nothing will draw your eye (except perhaps the rivets) if you build it straight OOB. Fit of the upper cowling piece I did not like much when I did a South African Fury. I did an A-Model in Munich camouflage, and the Matchbox was more fun. I suppose one day I really ought to do a straight RAF 'silver wings' example.

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