John R Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 Finished at last! This one had to be wrestled to the ground. It was started over a year ago as an entry in the Vacform GB. It didn’t look too difficult – three triangles attached to a tube – if only! The initial phase of the story can be found here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234986765-convair-xf-92a-airmodel-vacform-172/ but then it came to a halt partly because I ran out of time to finish it before the end of the GB but mainly because seeing the Hunter crash at Shoreham left a very empty feeling and it was a while before I got back to doing any modelling. The biggest problem was the u/c. The shape of the u/c doors, and in particular the shape and size of the main u/c legs proved difficult to define and while it is now ‘finished’ I’m not really happy with that aspect of it. I’m not happy with the canopy either. It doesn’t look right and I could not get a neat edge to the framing. The finish is Alclad Airframe Aluminium over gloss black acrylic. No decals were supplied with the kit so the 6682 had to be made by copying that from the Mach 2 kit (and are not correct) and the stars and bars came from other sources. The big ‘star and bar’ on the nose proved a real problem as there is considerable compound curvature of the fuselage and the decal would not ‘sit’ without creasing. The actual a/c was the first true delta wing a/c to fly, in 1948, and Convair expected it to be a lot faster than it was. It started with a J33 engine but was later fitted with an afterburner but even that wouldn’t make it supersonic unless dived. One thing really puzzles me about the actaul a/c is that I cannot work out how the gear is retracted. I can see no evidence of a jack. The only thing is a strut which appears to have a joint in the centre and if the top half is rotated by something inside the fuselage the strut would fold and pull the gear up. If anybody can enlighten me further I would love to hear from them. John 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 I only had two Airmodel kits - one He-119 and a Super Crusader. The He-119 was sold on quickly and the Super Crusader was stashed for unlimited time. My highest respect for everyone that challenges an Airmodel kit. You did a great job IMHO. René Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 A Super Crusader! I presume that's the F8U-3. I wonder if Anigrand used that as the basis for their's. I never knew that Airmodel made one. What became of yours. Do you still have it and if so is it for sale? It's one of those on my bucket list. Thanks for the compliments John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ c Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 Great job on a difficult build, nice one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polo1112 Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 Beautiful bare metal finish on a beautiful delta wing aircraft. I really love it! Congratulations. Polo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_W Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 Nice build. Looks a lot like one of the German designs that never got off the drawing board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 2 hours ago, John R said: A Super Crusader! I presume that's the F8U-3. I wonder if Anigrand used that as the basis for their's. I never knew that Airmodel made one. What became of yours. Do you still have it and if so is it for sale? It's one of those on my bucket list. Thanks for the compliments John It is somewhere in the shelf of Doom. Guess I was a bit too zealous with the build by wanting to detail the hell out of it. I did not get very far and at some point I lost interest in punishing myself :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invidia Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 Great build the metal finish looks great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 (edited) 12 hours ago, John R said: Finished at last! This one had to be wrestled to the ground. It was started over a year ago as an entry in the Vacform GB. It didn’t look too difficult – three triangles attached to a tube – if only! The initial phase of the story can be found here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234986765-convair-xf-92a-airmodel-vacform-172/ but then it came to a halt partly because I ran out of time to finish it before the end of the GB but mainly because seeing the Hunter crash at Shoreham left a very empty feeling and it was a while before I got back to doing any modelling. The biggest problem was the u/c. The shape of the u/c doors, and in particular the shape and size of the main u/c legs proved difficult to define and while it is now ‘finished’ I’m not really happy with that aspect of it. The actual a/c was the first true delta wing a/c to fly, in 1948, and Convair expected it to be a lot faster than it was. It started with a J33 engine but was later fitted with an afterburner but even that wouldn’t make it supersonic unless dived. One thing really puzzles me about the actaul a/c is that I cannot work out how the gear is retracted. I can see no evidence of a jack. The only thing is a strut which appears to have a joint in the centre and if the top half is rotated by something inside the fuselage the strut would fold and pull the gear up. If anybody can enlighten me further I would love to hear from them. John I'm pretty sure (and as it turns out, I would be wrong) that the jack you're looking for is on your model on the back side of the landing gear strut, angled slightly in toward the fuselage. The landing gear pivoted at the bottom of the fuselage well, sucked up into the fuselage and wing as a single unit by that jack shortening. It would have had a locking mechanism to take care of the landing loads. I've built a few of the Airmodel "kits", including the AJ Savage, and can say from experience that you've done a brilliant job. Edited November 29, 2016 by Tailspin Turtle Foreshadow correct answer (scroll downward on this thread) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 1 hour ago, Tailspin Turtle said: I'm pretty sure that the jack you're looking for is on your model on the back side of the landing gear strut, angled slightly in toward the fuselage. The landing gear pivoted at the bottom of the fuselage well, sucked up into the fuselage and wing as a single unit by that jack shortening. It would have had a locking mechanism to take care of the landing loads. Tommy, the trouble is that u/c member does not seem to have to have anything hydraulic connected to it yet as far as I can work out it is the only thing that can cause the gear to retract. See the pix below for clarification/confusion. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 (edited) 40 minutes ago, John R said: Tommy, the trouble is that u/c member does not seem to have to have anything hydraulic connected to it yet as far as I can work out it is the only thing that can cause the gear to retract. See the pix below for clarification/confusion. John Ah - yes. And other pictures from websites that you linked to initially provide a picture of the actuator that is inside the wheel well, acting on the pivot point that the gear rotates on when it retracts. Annotated picture to follow... Edited November 28, 2016 by Tailspin Turtle New information... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tailspin Turtle Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 Well, enough of the guessing and speculating. There are just enough photos here to provide the answer: http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/howard_mason3/xf-92_dart/ The landing gear actuator is at the aft end of the wheel well acting on a bellcrank that rotates the landing gear up and down. I couldn't get Photobucket to cooperate so you'll have to go to this link for an annotated picture and explanation: http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2016/11/xf-92-main-landing-gear-actuator.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John R Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 Well done Tommy. What threw me was that it looked solid and I did not appreciate that it was connected to the rotating shaft on which the gear assembly was mounted. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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