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A Flight of Fanciful Fairey Fireflies: FR.1 & TT.4


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On 1/25/2016 at 17:54, martin hale said:

Blended whisky? Come on Bill, you know only heathens drink that muck. Its OK for a toddy or a mixer drink but on its own? I'd rather go teetotal!

 

I agree completely - which is why I said "Heaven Forbid!" :)

 

On 1/25/2016 at 18:05, perdu said:

I wonder if you are falling victim to the "it's in a museum so it HAS to be shiny" curse Bill, the other paint on that baby has quite a decent shine too

 

The Canadian Firefly is more than a museum piece - she flies regularly. The CWH crew keep their fleet in pristine condition. They have a Lancaster, too, which I believe was over to the UK last year.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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On 1/25/2016 at 19:18, venomvixen said:

The TT is superb, I think mine will have to stay in the stash.

 

Thanks, Danni! That means a lot coming from someone who is so well educated on all things Firefly. I can't thank your Dad enough for all of the help (and formerly restricted information) he's provided to help me with the build. This would be a very different model if he hadn't been on board since page 1. In other words, I would have probably made a lot of silly Yankee mistakes!

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Your Dad says I can stop by your museum whenever I want to, as long as I don't mind pushing a broom. :)

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The TT is superb, I think mine will have to stay in the stash.

I can't agree with that Danni. You have posted some of your models here before and as I remember they looked fine. I am sure we would all like to see a Danni build here, especially if it is in a larger scale.

Martin

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I can gaurantee you that if I do my TT.4, you won't want to see it posted; not after Bill's splendid effort. I'll stick with posting the occassional Soviet aeroplane (although I did actually finish a Spitfire F.22 last year - Huzzah!).

Regards,

Jason

P.S. In the spirit (pun intended) of full disclosure, I have to admit to drinking blended whiskies during my drinking days, but only as a mix. And I also did quite a bit of modelling whilst fair-p***ed, which helps to explain the results. I don't know what my excuse is now.

Edited by Learstang
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I have been intrigued by that black patch on the port wing tank, so have been trying to figure it out. I came across this You Tube video of the Canadian Firefly, although it doesn't explain why it does show the extent of it quite nicely, and a nice view of the folding sequence. I can only think that because this one looks like it has a light for the Stbd tank that it is to prevent reflection off that. But that doesn't make sense because the pilot would be blinded by the light it self...... :hmmm: the plot thickens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uSr_rY6ecM

Could you use the blended stuff to kick start the Firefly that we a re planning to liberate, or would that be too dangerous?

Bob

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On 1/25/2016 at 21:55, martin hale said:

I can't agree with that Danni. You have posted some of your models here before and as I remember they looked fine. I am sure we would all like to see a Danni build here, especially if it is in a larger scale.

 

+1! :):):)

 

On 1/26/2016 at 07:04, moaning dolphin said:

I have been intrigued by that black patch on the port wing tank, so have been trying to figure it out. I came across this You Tube video of the Canadian Firefly, although it doesn't explain why it does show the extent of it quite nicely, and a nice view of the folding sequence. I can only think that because this one looks like it has a light for the Stbd tank that it is to prevent reflection off that. But that doesn't make sense because the pilot would be blinded by the light it self...... :hmmm: the plot thickens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uSr_rY6ecM

Could you use the blended stuff to kick start the Firefly that we a re planning to liberate, or would that be too dangerous?

 

Nice video, thanks for the link. :)

 

I'm wondering if the pilot sees a reflection from the landing light (which is in the leading edge of the port wing) off of the port drop tank and that's the reason for the black patch. It's looking more and more like I should paint the black patch. The patch on VX388 is very similar to the CWH bird, and numerous FAA photos in Paul Bradley's book show the same patch. Even all of the Royal Netherlands Fireflies have the patch.

 

OK, my mind is made up. I'm adding the black patch.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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I did a quick google last night and found some close ups of the "patch" - and noticed that on some aircraft it's black, and on others, it's the same grey as the top surface of the wing.... and like others I have no idea what it's for or why it's not symmetrical

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Thanks for doing some research - my tank will get a black patch. Arrrr...it's a pirate thing. :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. The more I look at the shape of the black patch, it appears to cover the portion of the tank that can be seen from the cockpit. There are also patches on the top of the tanks that match the colour of the top of the wing. I've already painted those aluminium.

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So, back in post #664 I queried the audience with regard to the appropriate size of some photoetch pieces. I got these off of a NASCAR fret and the actual application for the little buggers are 1:24 scale windshield clips. As it turns out, I thought they would work well as part of a 1:72 scale Firefly wing fold mechanism. Let's have a look at a picture of the actual wing:

 

08FaireyFireflyFoldingWing

 

On the inner face of the outer wing (the area painted interior grey-green in the photo) you can see what looks like four grommets or sleeves, mounted at an angle relative to the axis of the wing. My guess, and that's purely what it is at this point, is that when the wing deploys into flight position there are some pins or axles of some kind that slide into these sleeves to lock the wing in place. Steve, help me out here - am I even close in describing what these are used for?

 

With respect to a Firefly model with the wings folded, these grommets or sleeves will be quite visible. I got the idea of using the NASCAR windshield clips since they're about the right size, but more importantly the right shape. On the fret, these clips were flat, so I bent the bottom portion into a square angle which not only gives the correct height but also a small flat surface that the CA adhesive can stick to. Here is what we have after attaching to the wings:

 

100_6837

 

100_6836

 

What do you think? Is the ruse successful? :)

 

I've also done some weathering to the wings, and I think they're ready for their final varnish. I used some small diameter copper wire to make the guards that attach to the outer ends of the tailplanes but I'm not going to add these to the model until the wings are attached. Otherwise I think I'll just knock them off.

 

What else is left? The Black Patch™, various antennae...oh, yeah, a jig to hold the wings in position while the glue dries. Hmmm...

 

Cheers,

Bill

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The "grommets" are the wing fold latch pin fittings.

Before the wing is spread the locking lever is moved to the unlock position as shown below

4_zps8dgl5sj1.jpg

When the wing is spread the lever is pushed back up into the "Locked" position which pushes the four latch pins

through the corresponding holes in the latch pin fittings.

The black patch on the port drop is indeed for the landing light. I fired up 388's electrics late last year and the landing light

lights up the tank quite well.

Video here for those with Farce burk

https://www.facebook.com/1510750749175428/videos/1596344360616066/?video_source=pages_finch_thumbnail_video&theater

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The wing folds look particularly effective.

As to Moaning Dolphin's suggestion that we use blended whisky as fuel, is he trying to fly the aircraft or poison it?

Martin

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On 1/26/2016 at 16:31, NAVY870 said:

The "grommets" are the wing fold latch pin fittings.

Before the wing is spread the locking lever is moved to the unlock position as shown below

<snip>

When the wing is spread the lever is pushed back up into the "Locked" position which pushes the four latch pins

through the corresponding holes in the latch pin fittings.

The black patch on the port drop is indeed for the landing light. I fired up 388's electrics late last year and the landing light

lights up the tank quite well.

 

Thanks for the great explanation, Steve, and the cool videos. Sorry for calling them "grommets," that sounds like something a tent maker would use! "Fittings" is much better.

 

On 1/26/2016 at 17:13, woody37 said:

Looks flippin brilliant :)

 

Thanks, Neil! That means a lot coming from someone who can do such an amazing job on all those Bomber Command subjects. Wow! :)

 

On 1/26/2016 at 17:32, Blogs On said:

I think those "grommets" are perfectly believable.

What I find difficult to register is that all this stunning finesse is in 1/72 !

 

Thanks - I struggle sometimes adding detail that is the same scale as the model. A lot of my scratch-built or kitbashed details seem too large for 1:72, but I think I've gotten pretty close with this TT model. The photos are weird, though, because they tend to be magnified. The models look better in real life than they do in the photos. I think that's true for 1:72 and smaller, in 1:48 it's the same, and for scales larger than that models tend to look better in the photos because the magnification factor is less than one. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else with an addled brain like mine, but... :)

 

On 1/26/2016 at 17:39, martin hale said:

The wing folds look particularly effective.

As to Moaning Dolphin's suggestion that we use blended whisky as fuel, is he trying to fly the aircraft or poison it?

 

Do we have to use blended whisky for anything? Can't we just ignore it, or donate it to science? The Firefly should have only the finest - which doesn't explain the dearth of premium injection moulded kits. She deserves better. :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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I agree with what all other said, but particularly with this:

I think those "grommets" are perfectly believable.
What I find difficult to register is that all this stunning finesse is in 1/72 !

and I perfectly understand this:

Thanks - I struggle sometimes adding detail that is the same scale as the model. A lot of my scratch-built or kitbashed details seem too large for 1:72, but I think I've gotten pretty close with this TT model. The photos are weird, though, because they tend to be magnified. The models look better in real life than they do in the photos. I think that's true for 1:72 and smaller, in 1:48 it's the same, and for scales larger than that models tend to look better in the photos because the magnification factor is less than one. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else with an addled brain like mine, but... :)

as it's what I felt when detailing the cockpit in my current F-4C build.

Now I have to recover my dropped jaw ...

Ciao

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On 1/27/2016 at 02:41, giemme said:

Now I have to recover my dropped jaw ...

 

Thanks - did the Carpet Monster get your jaw? Ouch! :)

 

On 1/27/2016 at 03:50, Fritag said:

Agreed without reservation. Surpassingly lovely Bill.

 

Thanks - I'm currently designing a jig out of Lego blocks to hold the wings in the correct position while the glue sets. This has been more difficult than making the model! Yikes - it does take me back to my youth, though. I'm glad that Memsahib saved the Lego set for our grandchildren. It's the medieval set - I can make castles if I want to take a break from modelling.

 

On 1/27/2016 at 08:59, gbondoni said:

It looks eminently believable, and utterly fantastic for 72nd!

 

Thanks - believable is a good thing to aim for. Way back when, I chose to build in 1:72 scale due to the selection available and since the display space required was not so bad. As I get older though, each 1:72 kit keeps getting smaller... :)

 

On 1/27/2016 at 12:34, Cookenbacher said:

Wow, next level begun.

 

Thanks - as I read your comment I was listening to "Level Five" by King Crimson. Is that the level you're referring to, or was it just a cosmic coincidence? :)

 

I hope to have some photos of my Lego jig, and the wings on the model, sometime today. Fingers crossed!

 

Cheers,

Bill

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