Jump to content

A DH Hornet Fix-ation


Recommended Posts

With the arrival of the Trumpeter Hornet(s) and the rather fine mess they've made of it I thought I'd start a new thread on ways to fix them (as far as possible) without too much stress. I've all ready contacted the Guru of all things Hornet, Dave Collins and invited his input into this thread. Also I know Jon K.T is keen to do a build and at least he will paint his. Where possible I hope as we do this, I will be able to produce some correction parts in either injected plastic or other mediums.

Behind the scenes David has supplied me with a further range of dimensions and co-ordinates with which to check my drawings which in turn have been done from my assembled DH data and so far I'm singing from the same hymn sheet as David who has so much more, as well as a complete Hornet cockpit..

What I propose are workable fixes and start with what is wrong with the kit. Some discussion has already been started in other threads such as the one on the HpH kits and one in the WW II thread but i thought that it was much better under one banner.

I welcome any helpful input or questions. I will say again, that it would be wise to ignore any of the previously published drawings of the DH Hornet from whatever source as they are without exception badly flawed. This codicil does not include the unpublished Arthur Bentley drawings which Iain has.

John

SDC11479_zpse82d79f8.jpg

These are just to show something of the background work that has already been done. The above drawings are early sheets of my still unfinished drawings but later printouts will suffice for this exercise.

  • Like 22
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brilliant - following on closely - planning to crack on with my HPH kit soon - so any and all info appreciated even if aimed at the Trumpeter kit!

And thanks for your input in the judging area at Telford '13 when I was considering the HPH kit John.

Have a set of drawings from Arthur Bentley after chatting to him at Telford - which are my primary source of data - for the moment!

Iain

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Trumpeter Hornet F.1 sadly follows the (sods) law that "models and drawings of the most aesthetic aeroplanes, will be inversely proportional interpretations of the real thing" as in the case of Spitfires, Hunters and the Hornet.

Is this kit savable? IMO yes, but there is precious little to to start with. Are we going to end up with a perfect representation? Nope! In this case I think the object should be to to make something that looks like a decent Hornet model and how far you take this will depend on your own skills. All the following measurements and calculations are based on my work which is grounded on original De Havilland and RAF material and should I be in error then I'm sure David will help to get the right answer.

So what's right about the kit... The wheel hubs are very nice and the spinners are pretty good. OK let's move on.

What's wrong with it... well I'm afraid that this is going to be about as long as The Book of Lamentations.

Taking sections at a time let's start with the fuselage. Apart from the nose and cockpit areas, it is in profile generally acceptable. It is too wide by around 1 mm and too short (for a Mk.1) from the nose tip to the base of the tail light by about 2.5 mm. I haven't started from the kit Main spar datum as I find this is is again about 2 mm to far aft. Bear with me and my reasoning will become clearer.

The cockpit sill height is pretty good, which in turn shows that the whole top of the nose is too high and humped. The cockpit is too far back. The canopy it's self is too tall and the lower edge of the windscreen side panel is canted up at the front, it's also too short at the 'pen nib'. If we can fix the grotesque upper nose area then we can cure the main visual problems to the front fuselage.

The problem...

SDC11472_zps4a99a879.jpg

SDC11464_zps0cb57709.jpg

As you can see by the rough sketch above I've outlined the areas to be altered. Using the cockpit sill as a guide, with a razor saw cut forwards along the blue line to remove the Red shaded top of the nose. I then cut the unshaded portion of this piece off, and cemented this back as below. When the modified canopy is in place some improvement of the nose contours can take place.

SDC11466_zps37f4f295.jpg

Next the canopy.

.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've played about with the kit canopy and as it's too tall and misshapen, I pared and filed off parts of the lower edges and reduced the top curve, as you can see here. The cut down canopy on the left can now either be polished back and used on the model, but mine will be used for a new Vacform replacement once the correct framing is done. The max depth of the canopy should be 10.5 mm.

SDC11491_zpsaf39d8f9.jpg

The next step was to test fit the modified canopy onto the modified fuselage, but first I razor sawed the fuselage top behind the canopy of the main fuselage. When the canopy is moved to the new location a gap of some 4 mm is left behind, by cutting this piece off and moving it forwards, it will match the canopy 'pen nib' and thus leaving an easy filling job, using scrap plastic and milliput. I used a similar piece off another kit.

SDC11506_zps535112b2.jpg

SDC11509_zpsef609b6f.jpg

The next step is to refine the windscreen side panels and put in the gentle curve along the lower edge of the side screens and blend it in with filler.

Note the front edge of the wing box is the Trumpeter wing Datum. The true Datum is 2.5 mm in front of this I have used the True Datum to locate things with my drawings. However for your convenience, the lower rear edge of the modified kit canopy is 2.5 mm behind the Trumpeter Datum. and the front edge of the sliding hood is 18 mm forwards of the Trumpeter Datum. Now the rear edge lower corner of the canopy should be 2 mm forward to be true, but if you do that then you will have to match up the front edge of the fuselage.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the windscreen, the front is "frameless".

The two side glass panels butt up against the front screen, and are actually pulled together with a 1/4" dia steel rod on the original , secured between the top and bottom castings. This rod is sealed on the outside with a 1/2" bead of black mastic.

The top and bottom castings are airframe colour.

Edited by David A Collins
Link to comment
Share on other sites

John, David,

Many thanks for your efforts here.

I don't know if I'll be brave enough to follow your lead, but I'm sure many will be!

regards,

Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

More power to your elbow John! Why oh why do Trumpeter persist in refusing to do their research properly? It surely must be impacting on sales by now, not just in the UK either?

Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

More power to your elbow John! Why oh why do Trumpeter persist in refusing to do their research properly? It surely must be impacting on sales by now, not just in the UK either?

Martin

It still looks like a Hornet, so I don't see why it should.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably Photobucket have resized this but the distance from the tip of the nose to the line should be 43.5 mm. The nose mod is so simple. The canopy is harder as it will require polishing but as I said I will be doing a vacform canopy. I haven't looked at the interior yet but it might prove challenging.

John

img152_zps325ab907.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have a set of drawings from Arthur Bentley after chatting to him at Telford - which are my primary source of data - for the moment!

Iain

some people have all the luck :bleh::lol::D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably Photobucket have resized this but the distance from the tip of the nose to the line should be 43.5 mm. The nose mod is so simple. The canopy is harder as it will require polishing but as I said I will be doing a vacform canopy. I haven't looked at the interior yet but

John

The kit instrument panels are very good, just well out of position!

The top of the panels should sit under the leading edge of the wind screen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just a quick heads up. The interior is proving a challenge to get it in to the right place. I've succeeded but on no account slim the fuselage width down, as then you will not get the kit cockpit into a modified fuselage.. David has informed me that the F.1 did not have a covered coaming over the top of the instrument panel. So for the F.1 just use the lower windscreen fairing bit and trim the rest off.

John

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's very refreshing to read something so critically constructive or constructively critical. Either way once we've wrung our hands over the inaccuracies it's this that we need to set about sorting things out..

Excellently described, executed and illustrated... thanks John and David.

Matt

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's very refreshing to read something so critically constructive or constructively critical. Either way once we've wrung our hands over the inaccuracies it's this that we need to set about sorting things out..

Excellently described, executed and illustrated... thanks John and David.

Matt

Ditto

Great to read the solutions you are coming up with. Well done!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

More power to your elbow John! Why oh why do Trumpeter persist in refusing to do their research properly? It surely must be impacting on sales by now, not just in the UK either?

Martin

TBH, I wouldn't of known how inaccurate the kit is, ignorance can be bliss!

I guess it depends on how well we know an aeroplane. Being a fan of the Halifax I was horrified with the Mk.II that Revell did, but do appreciate to some, it looks like a Halibag straight from the box and they would really enjoy the build.

If not many people are intimate with the design of the Hornet but like the general shape (I'm in that pack, or was!!), I suspect they will really enjoy building this kit. There's no going back now for me though, I'm becoming educated !!!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is what you can see in a Hornet F1 cockpit.

Note the gunsite and bracket are currently removed, but I will upload another reference image when I re-install it.

Also, the red A-frame is in primer, and will be painted silver/black.

The inner walls of the fuselage are black. The camera flash makes them appear lighter.

DSCN3068.jpg

DSCN3067.jpg

Edited by David A Collins
  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fantastic thread, thanks very much to you both John and David. I was planning on just doing it OOB, as long as it doesn't get too scary I might give at least some of these things a go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...