Air Cadets, 1/72 Sedbergh T21 Vacform

[Terry1954]

14 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

That is coming together well. Looks nice along side it's stable mate

 

      Roger

Thanks Roger. A way to go yet but I'm pleased she is taking shape at last. I'm getting a bit of a taste now for Vac form gliders!

 

Terry

[Terry1954]

A little more progress on the IP this week. I wasn't happy with the first attempt which replaces kit supplied (very inaccurate)

 

 

So I decided to re-build again. I was pretty fortunate to acquire these decals at a show a few years back. They contain 1/72 instrument panels representing many types of gauges in various suitable sizes. 

 

 

They really are rather neat but each one requires a white background. As printed they are simply black on clear, so putting each one on a black panel would mean losing all detail. So I made a small plastic template with three holes to represent where each instrument sat, and airbrushed the white:

 

 

Then each decal was cut out and carefully placed over the white disc. I also painted a very thin white vertical strip between right hand and middle dial and used one of the decals that represented the vertical tape type guauge to represent the variometer. The yellow cable release is made from one minute sphere of Liquid Gravity, which as some may know is a pot of thousands of small spheres of lead, used for nose weight. Seemed about the right size for a cable release knob!

 

 

Test fitting into cockpit again and all looks OK.

 

 

That was enough to send me cross-eyed, so taking a break before I focus on continued shaping of lower fuselage and fitting of single central wheel and housing!

 

More soon.

 

Terry

 

 

[Biggles87]

Apart from having to supply the white background, those Reheat instrument decals are really good. I still have a good selection from more than 20 years ago and they are still useable, unlike some of the more recent offerings.

The instrument panel looks good, I like the use of the strip instrument for the variometer.

 

John

[Terry1954]

2 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Apart from having to supply the white background, those Reheat instrument decals are really good. I still have a good selection from more than 20 years ago and they are still useable, unlike some of the more recent offerings.

The instrument panel looks good, I like the use of the strip instrument for the variometer.

 

John

Thanks John. I agree and am very impressed with the Reheat decals. I think I paid about 50p for them at a show, together with some other odd bits and pieces! A modellers bargain!

 

Terry

[Terry1954]

 

I cant believe its over a month since I did any work on this one. When you live in Dorset less than half a mile from the sea, and a mere 10 minutes drive from Studland beach, you have to accept you will get LOTS of visitors when its sunny! Friends, family, offspring and grand offspring. All very enjoyable but very limiting on modelling time! Add to that a very distinct distraction from the naval side of the hobby (check the maritime WIP section later today), and poor old T21 has had a quiet time. 

 

But updates are due. The weekend before last saw me at the Old Sarum model event with my local club, and apart from the modelling side of this event, I had chance to view the Boscombe Down collection in great detail. Part of that included a superb 1:1 example of a  T21 Sedbergh no less. Many pics were taken, and these will appear shortly in the Walkaround section. However close examination of the real thing led me to consider some small refinements to be made. Even when you have good plans (thanks to @stringbag) there is nothing quite like being able to closely paw over the real thing. 

 

Latest efforts included attaching the tailplane thus, all good but seeing the real thing up close I need to pay some attention tho the join into the rear fuselage, and possibly even the depth of the rear decking.

 

 

And the real thing:

 

 

I'm planning to slightly increase the top fuselage rear faces to accentuate the "point" along the spine, but also blend the whole area in properly. I'm even considering lifting the tailplane a tad higher and re-fixing. Thinking on that.......

 

Also, whilst I'm pleased with my initial efforts to open up the underside and make the hole for the main wheel, there is more refinement to be done I think.

 

Remembering how this............

 

 

Has now become this .............

 

 

There is still some clean up needed but also some better attention to detail, given what I actually saw when I scrambled underneath!

 

 

Starting to look the part with main wings temporarily in place:

 

 

And a final shot to show relative size. Bigger than the T31, but still quite small!

 

 

So next tasks are:

 

Complete cleanup of cockpit edges and nose profile.

Complete underside detail, including skid.

Improve tailplane join, and area where upper decking meets tailplane.

 

Other projects calling now for my attention!

 

Cheers

 

Terry

 

 

[Hamden]

 

Nice to see some progress on this project. Being able to crawl over an 1:1 example certainly helps with the details

 

  Roger

[Brandy]

Nice to see this back on the bench, if only briefly!

 

ian

[Terry1954]

5 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Nice to see some progress on this project. Being able to crawl over an 1:1 example certainly helps with the details

 

  Roger

Thanks Roger. Yes it was a pleasant surprise to find one at the museum on the day. Trouble is its got me deeper into refining the detail on an already small model! thats what we do I guess.

 

4 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Nice to see this back on the bench, if only briefly!

 

ian

Thanks Ian. I'm planning to make a concerted effort to at least get this one to paint stage, so I should be posting more again over the coming week or two. It will be decal'd then final assembled after that. I'm hoping to have it ready for Telford.

 

Cheers both

 

Terry

[Martian]

Looking forward to seeing some paint going on this.

 

Martian 👽

[perdu]

Good to see paint looming on the horizon, not that I can see any need for Alclad?

 

Silver gliders were surely just silver doped, I remember seeing them at Cosford and Colerne to name just two of the places I got thrown up to the sky at and seeing the painted doped surfaces

 

First ones I flew in had yellow trainer bands on wings and fuselage, before the dayglo came in

 

This is going to be superb when the tailplane faired in section goes on, really enjoying this build Terry

[Terry1954]

2 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Looking forward to seeing some paint going on this.

Paint coming your way soon Martian!

 

53 minutes ago, perdu said:

Silver gliders were surely just silver doped,

Yes, silver dope is the finish I will aim for, but as on the T31, I plan to use Alclad's Dull Aluminium, over a mid grey primer, with a subsequent dusting of almost matt varnish, it worked well I think on its little brother....

 

 

All the T21's I flew in had dayglo finish, but having seen the one at Old Sarum with yellow bands, I'm tempted by that scheme now.

 

Glad you are enjoying the build so far Bill.

 

Cheers

 

Terry

 

 

[perdu]

The first Chippy I flew in 303 (possibly WB303,  the pilot only used the numbers) had yellow bands too

 

That scheme is very evocative for me

Yup, the 31 looks good in Alclad, I will relax a bit now

 

[Terry1954]

5 minutes ago, perdu said:

I will relax a bit now

That's good. I know the very mention of Alclad gets many of us a tad nervous. I break out in a cold sweat every time I use it................ 😓

 

 

[Terry1954]

BTW folks. For those interested, all the pics I took of the T21 at Old Sarum can be seen now in the Walkaround section here:

 

 

Terry

[stringbag]

Nice pictures Terry.  I noticed a lot of missing or non-standard items on that particular airframe so check with other on-line sources before you commit too much detail to your model.

Nice to see it back on the bench too. 👍

 

Chris.

[Martian]

If it turns out as good as that T31, we are in for a treat!

 

Martian 👽

[Terry1954]

8 hours ago, stringbag said:

Nice pictures Terry.  I noticed a lot of missing or non-standard items on that particular airframe so check with other on-line sources before you commit too much detail to your model.

Nice to see it back on the bench too. 👍

 

Chris.

Thanks Chris. Yes, I am well aware of the potential pitfalls of using museum examples to model from, what with the possibility of locally engineered or missing parts, or doner aircraft coming from weird and wonderful locations where previous owners have done similar. Also a lot of museums get given prototype or pre-production models, or other non standard subjects which were "specials" when in service.

I have the good ref's you sent as well, so am looking closely at this. On the other hand, I could just model exactly as is in Old Sarum, colours and all, then it would be an accurate model of that very machine!

 

1 hour ago, Martian Hale said:

If it turns out as good as that T31, we are in for a treat!

 

Martian 👽

Such encouraging comments Martian, thank you sir!

 

Terry

[perdu]

Must confess to hating the  'font' they used on it

Serifs?

Heaven forfend...

 

 

🤣

[keefr22]

Firstly, sorry for the bombardment of 'likes' over the past couple of days Terry, but I've spent a couple of happy hours catching up with your thread after you mentioned it in the @Baron's Boxcar thread - & I do 'like' the excellent job you're doing on the dear old thing! I've also very much enjoyed reading all the memories of flying the Sedburgh! Strangely enough, despite many happy weekends spent at 636 VGS at Fairwood Common, I can't drag up anything memorable about actually flying there! What I do remember was the winch fitted in the back of a stripped out, bright yellow Series 1 Land Rover & being taught to drive the thing - complete with crash gearbox - when I was 14! Tearing about on the bumpy grass on the airfield was probably responsible for a lifelong love of rallying....!!

 

Looking forward to seeing this & it's later stablemate at Telford!

 

Keith

[Terry1954]

Hi Keith,

 

No problem with the likes, glad you like! Yes there are lots of memories coming out from modellers on this thread and that on the T31 RFI which I posted back in Fenruary. You can find that one here if you havn't already seen it .....

 

 

I had similar experiences at 615 Gliding school at RAF Kenley, not only in the air but also in their land rovers! I think our winch was an old Bedford truck converted to a winch.

 

The T31 will certainly be at Telford, and hopefully this one too. Problem at the moment is I seem to have too many builds on the go at once!

 

Thanks again

 

Terry

[Terry1954]

A small update today.

 

You will recall getting the IP in required much hacking away of the fuselage sides around the front edge of the cockpit.

 

 

This left me with the challenge of making all that good, without spoiling any of the internals. Well I managed to get two small 10thou inserts in each side to make up the height, then faired in with green stuff. I now have to form the downward curve and clean up the inside walls VERY carefully. On the port and starboard views you can see the pencil line I need to bring the edges down to. I'll do that first, then fair in the insides, thus keeping the edge line very thin - fingers crossed!

 

 

Finally a bit of work to fair in the tailplane thus.

 

 

Lots of cleaning up still needed, but she is edging closer to the paint shop.

 

On that subject, I'd be interested to learn of view on final finish. I was originally planning to build one of the many I flew in (silver and dayglo) but I'm undecided at the moment.

 

We have three choices:

 

1. Early silver doped with trainer yellow bands.

2. 70's era silver dope and dayglo panels.

3. Later RAF trainer colours of red/white/grey. Actually looking at pics of this scheme the grey could be silver dope?

 

Answers on a postcard.............

 

Cheers

 

Terry

 

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Terry 

Looks great some fantastic work.  The T31 looks amazing.  

Keep up the good work 

All the best 

Chris 

[keefr22]

7 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Answers on a postcard.............

 

 

Dear Terry, wish you were here, er, sorry, I meant number 2, silver & dayglo for me, I think that was also the colour they were when I flew them (wish I could remember where I put my memory). I do remember that like Bill my first AEF Chippie flight was in a silver & yellow one, so I need to build that one day...

 

Keith

[perdu]

I don't have a dog in that fight, I like the dayglo ones as much as the silver yellow ones

Never managed more than six minutes in either, wish I'd pushed for the Gliding courses

 

As usual I let the opportunities drift away...

[Terry1954]

18 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Terry 

Looks great some fantastic work.  The T31 looks amazing.  

Keep up the good work 

All the best 

Chris 

Thanks. Glad you like them both.

 

12 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

 

Dear Terry, wish you were here, er, sorry, I meant number 2, silver & dayglo for me, I think that was also the colour they were when I flew them (wish I could remember where I put my memory). I do remember that like Bill my first AEF Chippie flight was in a silver & yellow one, so I need to build that one day...

 

Keith

Thanks Keith. Silver and dayglo was my intention from the beginning so that may well be the way.

 

1 hour ago, perdu said:

I don't have a dog in that fight, I like the dayglo ones as much as the silver yellow ones

Never managed more than six minutes in either, wish I'd pushed for the Gliding courses

 

As usual I let the opportunities drift away...

Thanks Bill. We can all be guilty of letting things drift sometimes. The day I past my A&B pilots licence I was immediately offered a course on the advanced course. Of course, being 16 at the time, I was very worldly wise (not) and declined while I thought about it! Never did go back to that.

 

Terry