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A pair of Airfix Hawks in 1/72. Finished.


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I also (fwiw!) think the 'flatter' blades look better.

Aye. Like everything the technique gets better wth practice :)

Not going to re-do compressor 1 tho'.......

Just wondering though Steve, are they rotating the right way.....??!! :whistle::bleh::D

I believe so ;)

Just don't count the blades......Several short of the full complement.......

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I've never really understood the over the top enthusiasm for this skiing malarkey...

............

Then again I'm probably a little odd...

Not 'over the top' Debs - more 'down the sides'.......

As to oddness - I respectfully refuse to answer on the grounds I may incriminate myself...........:)

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I've never really understood the over the top enthusiasm for this skiing malarkey...

I learnt to ski (at the RAF Winter Survival School at Oberammergau) but merely so I could do ski-mountaineering - it's far nicer skiing in to a climb than trudging in on foot!

Personally I think hanging on one's ice-axes is more of a winter sport than whooshing down some slope on a pair of planks!

Then again I'm probably a little odd...

I'm with you on that one Ascoteer. Mrs Nimrod and I love to watch the wintersports programme on the Eurosport channels, but having seen the Lauberhorn and Hahnenkamm slopes we can't help thinking that the downhill racers have a screw loose, whilst admiring their bravery at the same time.

I have difficulty staying upright just out walking, earning a free helicopter flight into James Cook Hospital after breaking Tib/Fib and Femur in the Yorkshire Dales. I had turned to Mrs Nimrod uttering the phrase 'Be careful here, it's icy' and bump. I still think that I was pushed but she claims she couldn't reach. :D

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I've been on a couple of slopes part of the World Cup series and yes, they can be a bit intimidating in some points and the idea of flying down a 55% slope at 100 mph is not what most would call relaxing. So yes, downhill racers may have a screw loose or two. Me I'm happy to try and manage the slope at a much slower pace.

Still, those who blast in a 20 ton aircraft below 100 ft. at M 0.9 don't sound to be much saner to most, guess the need for speed shows in many different ways...

As i was never allowed to fly as a pilot (damn eyesight...), I have to satisfy myself with skiing, so if you guys organise the next Britmodeller skiing meeting on the Alps, let me know and if my knees are back to work I'll be happy to join !

Speaking of plastic, I hope Steve that you'll make resin copies of the second compressor face, it looks great and can be useful in many situations.

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Compressor 2 has had a coat of gloss black enamel and is drying overnight - as I thought I'd see how it looked sprayed with alclad chrome (compressor 1 was done with alclad aluminium and a black oil wash):

Well the whole alclad chrome idea was a bad one :weep:. Yuk!

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Compressor 2 then had a bath in Dettol and benefited from some alclad aluminium and a black oil wash - just like it's brother....

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I quite like how the seamless ducting and compressors look - if anyone is mad enough to squint down the intake :)

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S'pose it's time to stop faffing about with silly diversions and try and actually progress these little'uns :)

.........so if you guys organise the next Britmodeller skiing meeting on the Alps, let me know and if my knees are back to work I'll be happy to join !

It would at least show that we're not just indoor hobby anoraks :)

Speaking of plastic, I hope Steve that you'll make resin copies of the second compressor face, it looks great and can be useful in many situations.

Note to self. Remember to make a silicone mould. Note to self remember to ..........

Edited by Fritag
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They are probably the best examples of scratch built intakes I have seen in this scale and better than many in larger scales as well.

Martin

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's nigh on a month since I posted an update :weep: Sorry about that - the evenings and weekends have largely been taken up with other stuff and the poor old hawks have taken a back seat.

That's not to say that I've been entirely remiss - I've been slowly getting hawk number two to the same stage as number one - but it didn't seem a good idea to post what was essentially a repeat of the first.

Anyways. Here's a catch up.

I detailed the second two fuselage halves in similar fashion to the first:

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Painted the second tub - then picked out the raised detail on the PE panels, added a wash or three and some dry brushing :

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I changed the way that I picked out the raised details on the PE parts. I did a white oil pin wash over the basic grey finish (protected with Klear) to pick out the recessed detail; and then masked out the individual raised panels and used black enamel paint paint, with a nearly dry brush - and a dry brush technique, to colour in the panels:

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Here are the four instrument panels after painting and with the instrument films in place. There is a slight deliberate difference in the painting of the T1 rear cockpit panel from the T1A:

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That gave me a kit of parts for two hawk cockpits. I've also painted the intake ducts in light aircraft grey:

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And here are a few piccies of the two cockpits side by side. Still a bit of fettling to do to get the fuselages to fit perfectly - and some trimming around the the instrument panels. Shame there isn't more colour in the hawk cockpit - but the seats and control column will liven them up a bit:

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Almost ready to close up the fuselage halves.....

I've also been putting some thought into the front parts of the intakes. As supplied by Airfix the insides are blanked off. This is a before and after shot of trimming away the blanking. But the tube formed by the inside of the intake parts is neither seamless nor is it a shape that matches the trunking inside the fuselage.

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One solution would to shape and smooth the insides as best I can before joining the parts - and I may yet have to do that. But the other thought I had was to vac-form a small tube to fit inside the forward intakes and also into the fuselage section.

So I made a simple resin master of the inside of the intakes:

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And then it was the work of only a few minutes to sand and smooth it to the required cross section:

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And I've got as far as mounting the masters on cocktail sticks ready to vac-form:

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I'm not sure it will work. But it was fun thinking it through - and I'll keep you posted - so to speak........

Steve

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Nice to have you back Steve, and what an update! It is said that quality is about doing things good, and then be able to repeat them; your Hawks build certainly falls into the hi-quality build category! :clap::worthy:

Interesting solution for the front part of the intakes; I don't want to sound like a smart.ss now, and I know it's late, but just for speculation sake: do you think it would have been possible to shape up the main seamless intakes you made to have a sort of protruding sleeve that would adapt to the front part? A bit like what I did using Gene's method in my F4 build, if that makes sense to you

Ciao

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I don't want to sound like a smart.ss now, and I know it's late, but just for speculation sake: do you think it would have been possible to shape up the main seamless intakes you made to have a sort of protruding sleeve that would adapt to the front part? A bit like what I did using Gene's method in my F4 build, if that makes sense to you

I didn't think so at the time Giorgio, partly cos there's a fair amount of double curvature in the front section and partly cos it just seems so complicated to work out the shape required for the whole thing.

As it happens - however I end up doing it, the double curvature is going be at the least flattened somewhat even if I vac-form the 'sleeve' and perhaps even removed.

what I may end up doing is making the inside - essentially flat - side of the front intake from a strip of 0.1mm card and then vac-form a sleeve for the rest of it.

However I do it - I plan to attach the Airfix inner part of the intake (the flat bit) to the fuselage and then build up the inner sleeve on top of it before attaching the Airfix outer part.

The plan is to overlap the front sleeve over the existing rear trunking section - and as it will be very thin - 0.1mm or less - I think it will either not be noticed - or look like a panel line :)

One other complication is that the first 12 inches of the intake is painted in the exterior colour and the rest in light aircraft grey - so I reckon I'll have to figure a way of painting the inside before attaching it. It'll be impossible to mask and pain afterwards.

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Makes totally sense, Steve. And it is complicated, especially for painting the outside color into the first part of the intakes! :frantic: Unless you try doing it by brush and have a very steady hand ... :hobbyhorse::crosseyed::blink2:

Ciao

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