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A DH Hornet Fix-ation


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Just curious, how do the Dynavector and Classic Airframes canopies stack up to the plans? Both kits come with spare canopies and if the shape is reasonably good it may be easier to adapt them to the Trumpeter kit, after the nose has been reshaped, rather than modify the Trumpeter clear parts.

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Unfortunately I don't have either kits but I know the information that the Dynavector kit was made to and so I think that either canopy will be quite usable if they don't have that lower slope on the side screens. This is the main aesthetic bugbear of most of the plans and kits out there. Yes the clear canopy butchery is not easy but mine will be used to make a new Vac canopy. Mine will be converted into metal and then polished and scribed.

Over night I have come up with an easier slightly different approach to the nose mods and I will describe this in my next post as well as dealing with the interior fit. Isn't Dave's cockpit wonderful!

John

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John, David,

Thanks for putting together such a welcome and valuable thread. It is so refreshing to see a guide on how to get the best from the plastic we are given in this way. I had similar high intention with my HpH version, but it kinda got the better of me after a while unfortunately.

Now I am going to have all the info I will need when I return to it

Thanks again to you both, not only for the help you have given me personally, but for keeping the world's most beautiful aircraft high on the agenda and helping preserve the accuracy nearly lost to history..

Peter

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You all realize that I'm working very quickly and it's not meant to be high class modelling but a tutorial on how to get the best from what Trumpeter have given us. On the first fuselage I inserted a small cut off piece into the front fuselage and it's a bit fiddly, so on my second fuselage (why trash one kit when you can do two at the same time) I looked at a slightly different way. This time before sawing off the top of the nose I made a vertical saw cut on top of the nose about 1 mm deep at 30 mm from the kit wing datum where the windscreen front edge will fit If you are using one place to measure from, it's a good idea to put a piece of tape carefully around the fuselage so this can act as a universal datum, top, bottom side etc. I then made the same saw cuts as before along the sill line but only as far as the vertical saw cut. Remove the scrap area leaving a small 'peak'. I then glued on two slivers of plastic I cut from the tag on the sprue (as shown). These when dry will be filed to suit the lower edge of the side screens (you can use filler).

SDC11513_zps33f609be.jpg.

Before joining the fuselage, remove the mounting points for the cockpit interior, because the whole thing has to be moved forwards.

SDC11514_zpse633845d.jpg

SDC11516_zpsde75e90a.jpg

To do this the assembled interior has to have a lot of material removed from the external surfaces, it's a case of file and fit,We now have to look at the overall length issues so obviously as you will have painted it, stuff the cockpit with damp tissue to protect it.

This part is a pain but the kit cockpit while having good detail is in the wrong place. I think the ultimate answer is a new resin tub. Under cut the little nose 'peak' to take the canopyfront edge.

I then sanded the slivers of plastic to suit the lower windscreen contours. It's probably better using Milliput.

SDC11521_zps1dfcdef5.jpg

Once this was done, I then sanded and blended the nose contours. The effect is the same as before but it took longer to type this up than to trash plastic.

I'm not going to address any detailing or cosmetics, I'll just concentrate on trying to point out and if possible, iron out the main flaws in the kit.

John

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We now have to address the overall length issues. Because of the layout of the Hornet such as the engines sticking out and accumulated errors and as it's still in pieces it's not easy to measure . However my initial findings are that the overall length of the kit is in error by at least some 6 mm. These errors are mainly in the fuselage and nacelles. The nacelles are approx 2.5 mm short and the fuselage needs a 3,5 mm gastric band inserting. The fuselage plug is probably best put in immediately behind the wing box roughly where the fuselage strengthening strap goes.

For this you'll have to wait for the next chapter of this gripping tale of murder and mayhem.

John

EDIT I've just carefully placed the Trumpeter fuselage on my drawings and I note a very slight 'fullness' of the rear fuselage so I now think it's best and easier to put the fuselage extension at the rear just in front of the tailplane.. More on this soon.

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dead right there John it is gripping

Amongst the gripping bit is seeing John Aero making his magic

Love it mate, as you may have said your self a time or two

real modelling

And this is where our dreams come from

ta John

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Hi Jon

I've been busy today so not much progress. I have been studying the nacelles and checking my drawings with the original DH co-ordinates drawings to find the best way to sort them.

This will take a long time as there as so many errors in this kit, I feel I would have been better starting a 1 to 1 model of the Great Pyramid of Giza. :banghead:

John

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The question was asked about the CA nose and especially canopy. Here's the best I can do to show it at the mo':

CAHornetnose_zps0d481a29.jpg

The hood seems peaked very far forward, compared to John's drawing on p.1.

bob

(Edit to put intended cropped version of photo up!)

Edited by gingerbob
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Thanks Bob

The nose top is too straight and the canopy is too peaked as you pointed out. My drawing was taken straight from DH material and the max height of the curve should be 18.5" or 10.5 mm in 1/48.with the max curve being about 8" back from the top of the windscreen. Again thanks to Dave Collins for confirming my original dimensions. Unfortunately on some of the copies I have the surface is disintegrating whenever they're opened rather like the Dead Sea Scrolls .

John

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I'm still a too busy to chop plastic up at the moment, but I thought I'd find time to raise a few of the errors which appear on this kit. I think that the most useful word in this project will be compromise because this kit contains so many errors and it would take a whole Boots Cosmetic counter to supply the Lipstick for this Pig.

There will be those among us, and I totally appreciate their views, who will want a halfway decent model of a Hornet, (the kit as it stands goes together quite well) without spending a year building it or binning it because of the work needed.

Visually the most jarring area IMO is the nose and canopy which we have already gone some way to addressing and as soon as a new canopy is available this will be not too onerous a task to do. It is the modeller's prerogative to ignore or carry out much of what follows.

SDC11527_zps141f1f60.jpg

The rear fuselage needs to be extended by cutting off the tail at the black line and a piece of plastic 3 mm thick inserting and shaping to section. This is required for any of the Hornet Mk.s (if you choose to carry out this mod). For all Mk.s other than a Mk.1 the tail cone it's self will require lengthening by further 3 mm with Milliput, The tail cone extension was as a result of the empenage anti flutter mods that also led to the larger tail planes.

Another concern that I have is that when Trumpeter bring out the Mk.3, is, will they use the same tailplane as in this kit (we have the fin) because if so this will be too short. The Mk.3 introduced the 18' 1.4" span tail (over the elevators). I note from the pictures of the NF.21 kit that it does have a larger tailplane, However the span over the elevators of the NF.21 was increased to 18' 9.7". so unless they're cut back they're too long for the Mk.3. It can easily be trimmed.

In the above photo you might note that there are several other black lines. The ailerons are too short and too wide. All moving surfaces require the 'fabric effect' removing by filling and filing. The tail surfaces all require minor profile alterations and the rudder hinge line will need rescribing. The wing tips have over emphasized fuel dump nozzles which give an odd profile. These are only really noticeable if the ailerons are deflected. The major areas of work on the wings will be as follows. For some of which I haven't worked out a complete solution yet. The engine nacelles are too far apart by 3 mm. The radiator intakes are not angled in front view and the large raised area inboard of the nacelle and fuselage over the radiators will need to be added. On the underside the carburetor filter box will need scribing on. The most difficult area will be the nacelles. These are too short by 2 mm but they are misshapen fore and aft and the wheel bays are too shallow The main under-carriage is very over simplified and the tail wheel unit is fictitious. All will be dealt with in detail. There are also a number of other little irritants and the overall sections aren't very good. I'm sure if I've got anything wrong David will comment further.

SDC11526_zpsa6d3dcda.jpg

SDC11531_zpsb9802c68.jpg

John

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This afternoon I cut off the tail unit to start the modifications to the fuselage length and I've discovered that the cone aft of the tailplane is nearer the Mk.3 in length (but not quite the right shape).

I've been thinking that the best approach would be to injection mould a new extended rear fuselage and to this end, I've spent the rest of the afternoon making a pattern and the the aluminium inserts to form the tailplane slots in the mould. As well as this part I will also do a new fuselage fairing for fitting behind the canopy in the modified cockpit area. Together with a new canopy these correction parts will sort out the fuselage with little fuss.

When these patterns are done, I'll address the nacelles and remaining areas.

My nacelle drawing was made from a manufacturers lines drawing from which the shape of the nacelles (and other parts)are created.

John

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