1:72 CMR de Havilland Sea Venom FAW.53

[Martian]

Did you say you design and arrange shrubberies?

Sir Martin

[NAVY870]

Wing fold jury strut correctly installed (like I'd do it any other way) is 1470mm in length.

The wings folded are 1855mm between the widest point of the tip tank.

I shan't say anymore as you lot are of your bonces. I knew Hale was but I'm quite surprised

at the rest of you!

[Martian]

Wing fold jury strut correctly installed (like I'd do it any other way) is 1470mm in length.

The wings folded are 1855mm between the widest point of the tip tank.

I shan't say anymore as you lot are of your bonces. I knew Hale was but I'm quite surprised

at the rest of you!

Why single me out?

Sir Martin the Curious

[NAVY870]

Why single me out?

Sir Martin the Curious

Because it says barking mad on your avatar.

Bit of a give away there mate

[Martian]

Because it says barking mad on your avatar.

Bit of a give away there mate

Alright its a fair cop!

Martin

[Gondor44]

Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress in this period in history!

Cheers,

Bill

I'm not sure if that's a picture from "Journey to the West" with "Monkey" and friends or Monty Python

Gondor

[Martian]

No, that's definitely Roger the Shrubber. He designs and arranges shrubberies apparently.

Martin

[Brandy]

Cutting down flora with piscean axes and peckers I cant help you with

Cutting down flora with your pecker is definitely NOT recommended. Especially if there are squirrels around...they'll steal your nuts! .....oh wait...maybe there was meant to be a comma there...

Great to put some faces to the names anyway. Carry on that man.

Happy 41st!

Ian

[Navy Bird]

On 5/29/2016 at 03:02, NAVY870 said:

Wing fold jury strut correctly installed (like I'd do it any other way) is 1470mm in length.

The wings folded are 1855mm between the widest point of the tip tank.

 

Thanks for taking the time to measure this. I went back to the kit struts, and if I measure the length of the area that remains visible (not including the pegs that go into the receptacles on the fuselage and wing) the length is 19mm, or 1368mm in real life. Based on your measurements, they should be approximately 20.5mm. So the struts supplied in the kit are short by about 1.5mm which doesn't seem like a whole lot. However, it's not possible to use the kit struts AND achieve your tank spacing of 1855mm (25.8mm at scale). They'll end up much closer than that. So I have some more questions!

 

Looking from the front or rear end, do the struts appear to be vertical, or slightly leaning in at the top? Have a look at these two photos:

 

 

 

I know that the struts lean backwards at the top when viewed from the side:

 

 

This next photo shows the struts leaning backwards at the top, and the right and left hand struts appearing parallel - which would mean that they are pretty close to vertical when viewed from the front (you need to think in 3-D space to visualize this one!):

 

 

In that last photo, the attachment point for the bottom of the strut appears to be just inboard of the boom fairing. On the kit, it is centered on the boom fairing. Which is right for my subject?

 

My plan of attack is to have jury struts that are approximately vertical (or slightly leaning in at the top) when viewed from the front, and see how close I can get to a spacing of 25.8mm between the widest part of the tanks. It will be interesting to see how long the struts turn out. Stay tuned!

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Steve, you are absolutely correct about the canopy. I wish you hadn't mentioned that, it will now haunt me for the rest of my days!

[NAVY870]

May be of use

UHF Homing antennae's on the back of the canopy fairing, ignore the silver square bit on the access panel. Its for the

ADF installation WZ.895 didnt have it.

[Navy Bird]

On 5/30/2016 at 02:22, NAVY870 said:

May be of use

<snip>

 

Thank you, these photos are more than "of use" - they're perfect!

 

Regarding the UHF Homing Antennae - did WZ895's antennae have a bulbous base (insulator?) like shown in your photo, or like shown in the following photo (which is WZ907 I think...):

 

 

Looking through my Sea Venom photos, it looks like both designs were popular. I don't seem to have a clear photo of the antennae on WZ895, but if I had to guess she had the bulbous base. Just want to be sure!

 

Cheers,

Bill

[NAVY870]

895 had the UHF/VHF radio mod so it has the short homing antennae's with the fairing at the base.

907 was retired from service before the mod was introduced so she still has the longer antennae without the fairing.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Shame you don't have a Vixen at Camden, Steve; the ability to get someone to just nip out to the hangar and measure something is pure gold! The Venom is not an aircraft I knew much about a few months ago; thanks to you two that has changed. For someone who has spent hours poring over little details in B&W photos of FAW1 Sea Vixens, the more I look the more family resemblances I find.

Oh for a good one of these in 1/48

[NAVY870]

Shame you don't have a Vixen at Camden, Steve; the ability to get someone to just nip out to the hangar and measure something is pure gold! The Venom is not an aircraft I knew much about a few months ago; thanks to you two that has changed. For someone who has spent hours poring over little details in B&W photos of FAW1 Sea Vixens, the more I look the more family resemblances I find.

Oh for a good one of these in 1/48

If somebody wants to give me one I'll happily put it in the shed

[Navy Bird]

On 5/31/2016 at 02:59, NAVY870 said:

895 had the UHF/VHF radio mod so it has the short homing antennae's with the fairing at the base.

907 was retired from service before the mod was introduced so she still has the longer antennae without the fairing.

 

Did 895 have the long antennae before the mod? I'm asking because, obviously, I already added the long antennae to the model several days before your post!

 

Cheers,

Bill (I make things nice because I do everything twice!)

[NAVY870]

Did 895 have the long antennae before the mod? I'm asking because, obviously, I already added the long antennae to the model several days before your post!

Cheers,

Bill (I make things nice because I do everything twice!)

Yes but she wasnt in that paint scheme.

[NAVY870]

Thanks for taking the time to measure this. I went back to the kit struts, and if I measure the length of the area that remains visible (not including the pegs that go into the receptacles on the fuselage and wing) the length is 19mm, or 1368mm in real life. Based on your measurements, they should be approximately 20.5mm. So the struts supplied in the kit are short by about 1.5mm which doesn't seem like a whole lot. However, it's not possible to use the kit struts AND achieve your tank spacing of 1855mm (25.8mm at scale). They'll end up much closer than that. So I have some more questions!

Looking from the front or rear end, do the struts appear to be vertical, or slightly leaning in at the top? Have a look at these two photos:

I know that the struts lean backwards at the top when viewed from the side:

This next photo shows the struts leaning backwards at the top, and the right and left hand struts appearing parallel - which would mean that they are pretty close to vertical when viewed from the front (you need to think in 3-D space to visualize this one!):

In that last photo, the attachment point for the bottom of the strut appears to be just inboard of the boom fairing. On the kit, it is centered on the boom fairing. Which is right for my subject?

My plan of attack is to have jury struts that are approximately vertical (or slightly leaning in at the top) when viewed from the front, and see how close I can get to a spacing of 25.8mm between the widest part of the tanks. It will be interesting to see how long the struts turn out. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Bill

PS. Steve, you are absolutely correct about the canopy. I wish you hadn't mentioned that, it will now haunt me for the rest of my days!

Just for giggles

WZ.907 - My photo

WZ.901 -Moorabbin air museum

WZ.901 - again

WZ-939. Classic Jets at Parafield, up for sale at the moment.

[keefr22]

Yes but she wasnt in that paint scheme.

Careful of those teeth Bill, I can hear the gnashing from here....!!

Keith

[perdu]

Yes but she wasnt in that paint scheme.

You bad, bad man

Even getting me at it now

[Navy Bird]

On 6/2/2016 at 03:11, NAVY870 said:

Yes but she wasnt in that paint scheme.

On 6/2/2016 at 04:38, keefr22 said:

Careful of those teeth Bill, I can hear the gnashing from here....!!

On 6/2/2016 at 07:04, perdu said:

You bad, bad man

Even getting me at it now

 

No worries (or gnashing of teeth)! I just have to figure out how to make those bulbous-looking fairings for the antennae...I'm sure I'll think of something. I just ordered one of those "third hand" adjustable jig thingies, so I can better position the wings while the glue is setting up. It's very difficult to hold the wing and jury strut in the correct place with just two hands, and maintaining that position while the glue dries. Near impossible actually!

 

I hoped that I could get this finished this week, but since I will now wait for my third hand to arrive, that won't happen. Plus, I leave Saturday for a week-long family vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. All the kids, all the grandkids, most of the kids' in-laws...it will be an experience with everyone in the same house! But it is so much fun to watch the grandkids together.

 

Plus, the week following that I have another appointment with the infusion pump. More chemo! And only three weeks after the last one...bloody lousy scheduling. It's supposed to be a full month, but that's the way it goes, I guess. Better this than skipping a month! This time it will be the really toxic brew. Ugh.

I used some black decals for the sun-shields on the inside of the canopy. I was concerned about how the decal would conform to the "bubble" on the pilot's side, and therefore how it would look from the outside, but everything came out OK. Based on the photos I had, it seems these shields were a different size and shape on every RAN Sea Venom!

 

 

I have to confess that a good deal of my "non-modelling" over the last few months has been because of another project that I've been helping with. My older (and much more talented) brother restores old cars, and his current restoration is a 1966 (I think!) Aston Martin DB6. In 1:1 scale of course! When he got it, here is the condition it was in (the rest of the parts were in random boxes and crates):

 

 

This was taken right down to the framework, and each component was restored and reworked. This car was an export version of the DB6, as can be seen by the left-hand drive. I wanted to convert it to a right hand drive (the holes are in the firewall already) but logic prevailed in the end:

 

 

The engine had to be completely rebuilt and re-machined, and luckily a local machine shop had worked on Aston Martin engines before! The engine is a straight-six, DOHC with three Weber carburetors. I was surprised that the gearbox was from Borg-Warner:

 

 

Anyway, those pictures were from about a year ago (and taken with a really lousy cell phone!). Here is where we are now, these photos taken with my cell phone and are a little bit better.

 

 

 

The lenses over the headlights had to be very carefully polished. I wanted to dip them in Future! The windscreen and rear window still need to be polished to remove staining.

 

 

After re-building, the engine started right away - just a quick activation of the starter and she was running nicely! (No, I don't think the rubber band is original equipment!)

 

 

There is still a bit or work to do with the wiring harness! This was separate from the car when my brother got it, and it's been fun figuring out which wire goes where. Still not sure how the wires get to the back end of the car - there are conduits in the rocker panels, but they are occupied by the battery cables.

 

 

Other than putting it on the front bumper, I can't imagine a more safe place for the petrol tank than here in the boot (and there is a matching unit on the other side):

 

 

My brother opted for replacement wheels, rather than re-chroming the originals. I understand that re-chroming involves disassembly of the wires/wheels. Replacements were less expensive - new technology radial tyres, too.

 

 

The wire wheels came from the UK, as have a lot of the parts. A surprising number have been sourced here in the US as well. Anyway, lots of work left to do.

Now for the important part of the post - when the Sea Venom is finished, what should I build next? Here is my stash. Maybe I should build those AZ Spitfire XIVs before the Sword kit arrives...

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Beard]

That Aston looks very smart, attention to detail clearly runs in your family.

My vote is for an AZ Spitfire XIV next.

Hope the chemo goes well.

[CedB]

Have a good vacation Bill - a well deserved break - and I hope the chemo goes well.

Nice Aston. Are you fitting an ejector seat Q?

[Navy Bird]

On 6/2/2016 at 14:22, Beard said:

That Aston looks very smart, attention to detail clearly runs in your family.

My vote is for an AZ Spitfire XIV next.

 

For some reason, my brother gives me all the jobs involving very small parts.

 

I kind of like the Ginger Lacey kit, with un-clipped wings and SEAC roundels. I believe the rudder needs to be changed in these kits? As moulded, it's a Mk.XVIII or something like that.

 

On 6/2/2016 at 14:29, CedB said:

Have a good vacation Bill - a well deserved break - and I hope the chemo goes well.

Nice Aston. Are you fitting an ejector seat Q?

 

Ha! No, but the owner wants the interior to be finished in a saddle brown. I'd prefer black myself, but since the exterior paint is a warm silver, the saddle colour will work.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Great Aston.

Next you deserve something simple and classic. So XF-109 or Firebrand it is, then!

[keefr22]

Lovely Aston Bill, skill in building nice things obviously runs in your family! The fuel tank is in exactly the same place in our Mini - not much else in common between the two though!!

Enjoy the vacation, we had a similar one last year & I agree about the fun in seeing the grandkids playing together!

And all the best again with the chemo.

Keith