Classic Airframes DH Sea Hornet NF.21

[Martian]

I stand to be corrected but I think naval overalls were bark blue at the time in question.

Martin

[aidy]

Looks good, David. Can't wait to see her with some paint on.

[ththtttu7]

I stand to be corrected but I think naval overalls were bark blue at the time in question.

Martin

Hi Martin,

I think you're correct.

Many thanks

[ththtttu7]

I've sprayed the main colours now, and loosely assembled some of the remaining parts. Plenty of extra detail, light weathering, and the tail wheel to add before decals can go on.

[12jaguar]

Great paint job DC

[ththtttu7]

Great paint job DC

Thanks John,

Humbrol acrylic rattle cans!

[keefr22]

That looks lovely!

Keith

[gingerbob]

Ah, now that DOES look a bit like a Sea Hornet!

bob

[Martian]

The paintwork has transformed her!

A thought just occurred to me. When Trumpeter were thinking of dong some Hornets, surely the most minimal amount of research would have shown that there is a chap in the UK who is actually building a Hornet and the thought might have occurred to them that it might be a plan to get in touch with him? Or is that way too unreasonable of me?

Martin

[Troy Smith]

The paintwork has transformed her!

A thought just occurred to me. When Trumpeter were thinking of dong some Hornets, surely the most minimal amount of research would have shown that there is a chap in the UK who is actually building a Hornet and the thought might have occurred to them that it might be a plan to get in touch with him? Or is that way too unreasonable of me?

Martin

Not unreasonable, it's a good idea, but when someone who worked for Trumpeter tried that, here in fact

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/55621-spiteful-seafang-master/

which generated lots of useful input, he evidently got ignored by management, as none of the points raised were changed, and the Trumpy Spitfeful is still flawed

I believe Song now works for Kitty Hawk IIRC.

Excellent work again David.

[ththtttu7]

A lot of years of research (16 so far!) have gone into my Hornet data base, but I'm still discovering new details.

I'm using the 1:1 cockpit reconstruction, these kits, and supporting the publication of new books to share the info with others.

Edited September 17, 2015 by David A Collins

[AlexN]

Hello David,

She's looking really nice! Very inspiring .

Hi Alex,

This is proving to be a very satisfying build. Its my first proper build thread, and this kit is proving straightforward to work with.

I look forward to seeing your Hornet one day, as well as plenty of others displaying the range of different colour schemes.

The satisfaction shows. Unfortunately for me, I made a mistake regarding which kit i had: I had both the Hornet and Sea Hornet kits, but had to hive off a proportion of my collection out of domestic necessity, and one of the kits that got the chop was, sadly, the CA Sea Hornet - I still have the "land" Hornet kit, thankfully.The Hornets are one of my favourite aircraft; I have a dim memory of building an Airfix 1/72 (land) Hornet when I was a kid, but maybe I'm confusing it with their 1/72 Mosquito FB, which I know I built.

Cheers,

Alex.

[ththtttu7]

Hello David,

She's looking really nice! Very inspiring .

The satisfaction shows. Unfortunately for me, I made a mistake regarding which kit i had: I had both the Hornet and Sea Hornet kits, but had to hive off a proportion of my collection out of domestic necessity, and one of the kits that got the chop was, sadly, the CA Sea Hornet - I still have the "land" Hornet kit, thankfully.The Hornets are one of my favourite aircraft; I have a dim memory of building an Airfix 1/72 (land) Hornet when I was a kid, but maybe I'm confusing it with their 1/72 Mosquito FB, which I know I built.

Cheers,

Alex.

I'm pleased you like it. It was Frog who did a Hornet in the 70's, so it was probably an Airfix Mosquito you made?

Which mark of sea hornet would you like to build? If it's not this nf.21 you can still make the f20 or pr22 from the RAF kit. Xtra decals are available too.

All the best.

[AlexN]

Hello David,

PR22 sound pretty interesting - having confessed that it's one of my favourite aircraft, I'm embarrassed to have to confess that I don't know as much about Hornet Marks as I should. Thanks for the Xtradecals tip, too. It's possible that I did build the Fog kit, then - I had a Frog Sea Fury amongst a number of others around that time. The Mossie was definitely an Airfix kit.

Interestingly, I have just been down to the lock-up to check something else in my stash, and came back with the plans for John Ranson's 100" (1/5.4) electric flying model (which he kindly sold me a "pre-release" copy of, with documentation). John's Hornet (not Sea Hornet) build was put up on rcscalebuilder.com - highly detailed and included "real" Merlin engine sound (startup, in flight, and shutdown) via hidden loudspeakers in the fuselage (work that he did in conjunction with the German inventor of the sound-system for r/c planes). He went to great lengths to get the shapes right as well, using DH documentation as I remember. It looks great in flight!

Getting things including details right in smaller scales such as 1/48 and 1/72 is so much more difficult than with larger scale (flying) things (the main trick there is keeping the weight down to acceptable levels, especially with electric flight). I struggle with tiny parts quite a lot of the time.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next instalment .

Cheers,

Alex.

[ththtttu7]

Hello David,

PR22 sound pretty interesting - having confessed that it's one of my favourite aircraft, I'm embarrassed to have to confess that I don't know as much about Hornet Marks as I should. Thanks for the Xtradecals tip, too. It's possible that I did build the Fog kit, then - I had a Frog Sea Fury amongst a number of others around that time. The Mossie was definitely an Airfix kit.

Interestingly, I have just been down to the lock-up to check something else in my stash, and came back with the plans for John Ranson's 100" (1/5.4) electric flying model (which he kindly sold me a "pre-release" copy of, with documentation). John's Hornet (not Sea Hornet) build was put up on rcscalebuilder.com - highly detailed and included "real" Merlin engine sound (startup, in flight, and shutdown) via hidden loudspeakers in the fuselage (work that he did in conjunction with the German inventor of the sound-system for r/c planes). He went to great lengths to get the shapes right as well, using DH documentation as I remember. It looks great in flight!

Getting things including details right in smaller scales such as 1/48 and 1/72 is so much more difficult than with larger scale (flying) things (the main trick there is keeping the weight down to acceptable levels, especially with electric flight). I struggle with tiny parts quite a lot of the time.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next instalment .

Cheers,

Alex.

John Ranson's Hornet F3 is a thing of beauty. I went with him and a former 80Sqn Hornet pilot to see one of its early flights in Kent. It not only looked right, it also flew right in the air according to the pilot. This must have been something to do with its trim and weight/inertia during manoeuvres.... ie. not too light so it didn't get blown around. I helped John with some technical references for the build, as did a couple of other people. I know what you are saying about it being harder to fit detail into a smaller scale model, but just seeing how much accurate detail John put into this larger scale model, and have it working too was very impressive. I especially like the way the pilots head turns when the ailerons are moved!

[AlexN]

I had a sneaking suspicion that you knew John, and had had some input into those plans. John did you proud. I had forgotten about the pilot's head turning, I'll have to go back through the build again! Some of the best articles in the late-lamented Radio Control Scale International (my favourite magazine) were written by John.

Cheers,

Alex.

Edited September 27, 2015 by AlexN

[ththtttu7]

I've added the windscreen, both canopies, trainer stripes, undercarriage doors and belly door.

The wing tip lights have been painted, as well as the pilots canopy release button and the observers emergency canopy external release handle.

Also on the underside, I've applied a little weathering to the leading edges of all flying surfaces and controls, exhaust staining, and wing fold join.

The props and spinners were painted and added at this point. The RH engine spinner is 0.3mm further forward than the LH spinner in 1/48 scale if you choose to add that level of detail??!! In this kit I was also happy with the spinner shape too.

Still to add will be the four wing hinge blisters (that I forgot to add before I painted the upper wings) fuel caps, pitot tube, whip ariel, three belly ID lamps, cannon chute holes, steam catapult hooks, u/c door hinge brackets, and decals.

I've assembled together most of the decals I need to complete this from various sheets. The CA kit roundels look a little bright/glossy, so I'll have to find another source.

Edited September 22, 2015 by David A Collins

[Martian]

Looking better and better! Have you thought about doing her with the earlier St Davids BQ tail code? I have a soft spot for that airfield having walked round it a few times and before they put some banks across the main runway, let rip with my old TR7 on it. Great fun!

Martin

[Troy Smith]

I've assembled together most of the decals I need to complete this from various sheets. The CA kit roundels look a little bright/glossy, so I'll have to find another source.

great progress, really enjoyed your work.

Regarding roundel decals, Xtradecal do various sheets, I'm presuming these are 'D' type required?

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X48037A

note sure what sizes you need, but the diameters are listed.

they do 'C' as well.

Or, ask in the 'wanted' section here.

HTH

[ththtttu7]

Looking better and better! Have you thought about doing her with the earlier St Davids BQ tail code? I have a soft spot for that airfield having walked round it a few times and before they put some banks across the main runway, let rip with my old TR7 on it. Great fun!

Martin

You'll be pleased then! As I'm going to mark this model as VW957, BQ/415.

[ththtttu7]

great progress, really enjoyed your work.

Regarding roundel decals, Xtradecal do various sheets, I'm presuming these are 'D' type required?

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X48037A

note sure what sizes you need, but the diameters are listed.

they do 'C' as well.

Or, ask in the 'wanted' section here.

HTH

Thanks Troy,

I have this sheet. The red still looks too bright on these, however I will try an experiment to dull them a little. Very useful links as usual. :-)

Edited September 23, 2015 by David A Collins

[Martian]

You'll be pleased then! As I'm going to mark this model as VW957, BQ/415.

..................Is the right answer!

Martin

[ththtttu7]

Here's an interesting comparison (I hope?).

When the Classic Airframes kit first came out in the shops I quickly got hold of one, and did my best at the time to model a Hornet F3 straight from the box. Over time I have discovered that there were things I could have corrected, hence this thread. To compare, here are a couple of photos. Although the length difference is not immediately apparent when they are next to each other, the differences in the undercarriage bays and legs stick out a mile. This coupled with the different length fuselage, also changes the angle of the rear fuselage to the ground line slightly too.

The main wheel position looks the same, but the CA kit leg is far too vertical.

Note the top of the main wheels lean out slightly. This is so when the leg retracts into the bay, it does not clash with the fairing.

See below how I got it wrong the first time round!

Note the relative positional differences in the undercarriage bays to the radiator exit flaps between models.

This F3 will be the subject of a future thread, where I will give it a good makeover, and turn it into an F4 variant still in a camouflage scheme.

Thanks for following,

Edited September 23, 2015 by David A Collins

[ththtttu7]

Most of the decals are on now, but there are still a few more details to add including the pitot tube, whip ariel and wing blisters.

I used the Hornet Xtradecal sheet as a basis, and added the black numbers and letters from another sheet. This pretty much did the basics, but I wanted to try to add the smaller ones too. For these, until someone produces another decal sheet with them on, I looked through my collection of used sheets and found some good sources that I will list here for reference:

1/48 Airfix F22/24 Spitfire (Fuel/Electrical)

1/48 Xtradecal Vampire (Hood release/emergency)

1/48 Tamiya Mosquito (Sling/tether)

1/48 Eduard Tempest (DTD/Jack/Tether)

On the underside you can see the auxiliary air intake vents just behind the main leading edge ducts. I've marked on the cannon shell ejector holes, three ID lamps in the belly, and the drift sight aperture in the belly door.

[tonyot]

Woe David,......its is a stunner,...well done indeed and I love the extra work you`ve done, not to mention the scheme,.....I`ve never seen trainer stripes on a Sea Hornet night fighter before! I fancy putting the same basic scheme on my next single seater when I get around to it.

Cheers

Tony