Air Cadets, 1/72 Sedbergh T21 Vacform

[keefr22]

Skills of a surgeon there Terry....I think I can just see some tiny bits of plastic, mightily enlarged on my screen....!!  

 

Neat work!

 

Keith

[Terry1954]

7 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Skills of a surgeon there Terry....I think I can just see some tiny bits of plastic, mightily enlarged on my screen....!!  

 

Neat work!

 

Keith

Thanks Keith! Believe it or not, I was not happy with the first attempt, so re-did them slightly smaller (more to scale). Lots more bits went flying that time too 😱

 

Photos will follow shortly.

 

Terry

 

 

[Terry1954]

This week has involved a bit of re-doing things and some fine scratch work on the underbelly.

 

As mentioned before, I wasn't entirely happy with the original size of the skid wheel holders so I decided to replace them with slightly narrower ones. Original below compared with replacement. The replacements are in the second picture and they now have the small wheels fitted also.

 

Much happier with the size of those.

 

 

Next I needed to fill the relatively "large" square towing attachment hole with something that made a bit more sense than just a square hole, so I fabricated the small ring which is up inside the aperture. For this I used extremely fine 34 gauge beading wire, which was looped around an very small drill bit and twisted off. Rule gives an idea of size here.

 

I had drilled a small hole into the back of the inside of the hole, and glued it inside. Fine tweezers, calmness and a steady hand essential!

 

This may not be entirely accurate, being more of a representative impression of the attachment mechanism, and it looks better as you get further away!

 

The next "fix it" item on my list was the main wheel housing. I was not happy with the construction that I had built in when I re- modelled the underside, so it had to come off with the help of a small file!

 

The idea was to make a more accurate structure, better matched to the new wheel, and the actual profile on the real thing.

 

The first attempt, and the general idea of what I was aiming for is shown below. It needed a bit of trimming but was a much neater way to fabricate what was needed

 

So two of those, one for each side:

 

The idea was good and I could see how it would work but they weren't particularly accurate in profile, as there needed to be more depth to the back (longer at the back than the front) as you can see.

 

So another pair were made and this one test fitted ok. You can also see I have fitted the skid itself now.

 

That worked for me, so the two were cemented in place. I strengthened the inside with some superglue as the idea was the wheel would have its brass axle trimmed back so that it just pops inside the housing with a little pressure.

 

So here is the now painted wheel inserted into its new home, and also the rear housing "plated" over with a small piece of plastic card, as per the prototype. I plan to leave this overnight to set hard before I clean up the edges of the housing and generally tidy up underneath.

 

I'm happy with the last few days efforts, and at last it's beginning to look like a Sedbergh, to me at least! 

 

One final shot. Although the wing is not fixed, this shot shows the relative sizes of the T21 next to the much smaller T31.

 

More soon. Some updates on the Sabre are overdue!

 

Terry

[TheBaron]

Oh brother but those underside structures just look superb Terry!

[Terry1954]

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Oh brother but those underside structures just look superb Terry!

Thanks Tony, glad you like! I'm rather enjoying this build, even though it is close to scratch building in a number of ways!

I'm eyeing up a T38 Grasshopper for my next glider, that could be fun!

 

Terry

[Biggles87]

Looks like a Sedbergh to me too. Great work on the nose underside.

 

John

 

PS The Grasshopper will really be a challenge, I have a story for you if you build it.

Edited October 6, 2018 by Biggles87

[Hamden]

 

Love your T21 - your attention to detail is second to none!

Looking forward to the next update

 

         Roger

[Terry1954]

4 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Looks like a Sedbergh to me too. Great work on the nose underside.

 

John

 

PS The Grasshopper will really be a challenge, I have a story for you if you build it.

Thanks John. I'll probably start a Grasshopper after Telford. Looking forward to the story!

[Terry1954]

2 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Love your T21 - your attention to detail is second to none!

Looking forward to the next update

 

         Roger

Thanks Roger, glad you are enjoying the build still!

 

Should get to another update after the weekend. We are very close to primer/paint now. I'm also looking into some home made decals as per the T31.

 

Cheers

 

Terry

[keefr22]

More cracking neat work Terry! I do like that comparison shot, didn't realise the Sedburgh was such a beast!

 

Keith

 

[Terry1954]

Good progress in the last few days.......

 

First correcting yet another niggling issue. I noticed the blank that I had made at the back of the wheel housing was sitting proud of the housing itself. I'd made the classic mistake of "plating over" from the outside as you can see in the picture below.

 

 

This would annoy me if not fixed, so off with the offending part:

 

 

I made sure the new part fitted between the two wheel housing sides, flush with the outside face:

 

 

With that out of the way I set about cleaning up everywhere as much as possible before this afternoons airbrushing session. I used a coat of Alclad White micro filler primer all over, to prep the surface and to fill any very small blemishes and highlight any bigger ones. When that had dried off after a couple of hours, I used fine sanding and a polishing cloth to get the surface as smooth as possible, and now we have an undercoated Sedbergh .............

 

 

This highlighted one or two very small pits and scratches, mostly on parts of the fuselage, so the last job tonight on this one was to dab a bit more Mr Surfacer 1200 into the areas needing sorting.

 

 

That will all be left to set overnight for some fine sanding again tomorrow, and a final dusting of undercoat white tomorrow.

 

When that was done, and whilst the airbrush was out, the Sabre got some attention!

 

More soon

[stringbag]

Nearly there now Terry.

Having followed your progress from the beginning, It's got me thinking about a T21 in 1:48 scale.  I may just have a go at one shortly but need to draw up some plans first.

Chris.

[Terry1954]

8 hours ago, stringbag said:

Nearly there now Terry.

Having followed your progress from the beginning, It's got me thinking about a T21 in 1:48 scale.  I may just have a go at one shortly but need to draw up some plans first.

Chris.

Thanks Chris, it feels like a long journey, but there was so much to refine on this one. Your input from the beginning has been very helpful, you will have to get a big mention in the credits when it's done!

 

A 1:48 scale T21 would look the biz, you should go for it!

 

Terry

Edited October 10, 2018 by Terry1954

[Hamden]

 

Having seen this at the Bovington show today I'm even more impressed with this project!

I had forgotten how small these aircraft are, looking forward to more on this

 

      Roger

[Terry1954]

20 hours ago, Hamden said:

Having seen this at the Bovington show today

Thanks Roger. Glad you liked what you saw. It did get lots of comment from passers by.

 

I must have missed you? I was there all day Saturday and Sunday after lunch.

 

Terry

[Hamden]

 

I was at Bovington Sunday morning sorry to have missed you!

 

  Roger

[Terry1954]

On 10/6/2018 at 7:06 PM, keefr22 said:

More cracking neat work Terry! I do like that comparison shot, didn't realise the Sedburgh was such a beast!

 

Keith

 

Thanks Keith. Yes when you see the two like this it really shows the size difference. As far as I recall though (it was a long time ago) the Sedburgh had a better glide ratio and and a lesser rate of sink than the smaller T31.

 

Cheers

 

terry

[Terry1954]

Edging ever closer to laying on some proper colour, but still some very small details to add and some rough work to correct!

 

After a coat of micro filler white (Alclad) and some further rubbing down to get a good surface finish, I wasn't too happy with the rudder join line thus:

 

So a bit of remedial work and a tidy up with a razor saw and the result was not as shabby and looking a little more convincing. The area just below the elevator and at the base of the rudder has also been cleaned up subsequent to this picture being taken:

 

Next the wing. Re-scribing the aileron position has really made a difference but looking at this photo, I wanted to add the control horn and enhance the gap with some impression of the hinge positions. I did consider separating all the control surfaces but decided instead to go for fairly deep scribing and some detail in the hinge line. The picture shows what I'm aiming for, but without the visible gap. A bit of delicate shadow enhancement should deal with that.

 

The control horns are not 100% scale accurate, but given the size we are dealing with here, I'm happy to get a good representation. The picture shows two of the four horn mechanisms made from micro strip:

 

These don't look too bad when in place:

 

Next job was to get some detailed representation of the hinge positions themselves and find an accurate way of positioning them. I had worked out the position from plans and numerous photos and came up with the idea of a template to mark out where they should go. In the next picture of the wing undersurface you can see I produced port and starboard (mirror positioning) on some masking tape. You can also see I did get confused over inboard and outboard on the right hand tape!

 

With the position clear, I then had to make 24 very small representations of the hinge/attachment point.

 

Good old slaters 10 thou rod seemed to fit the bill so off we went. The rod is held on reversed masking tape and then as I cut each piece, they didn't fly off into the ether. I think you will agree, these would NEVER again be seen after ingestion by the carpet monster!

 

Next step, was a bit easier than I had anticipated as I was able to position the round rod, into it's appropriate position within the scribed hinge line, using the template as a positioning mark. When I was satisfied that one complete aileron had the hinges in the right place, the tiniest drop of Tamiya ultra thin liquid cement was run onto the hinge itself, as per picture below. Aileron horn/control can be seen there also.

 

I've completed the lower wing surface and will do the upper wing next.

Apart from all this detail work, I'm now considering colour scheme. Original intention was a dayglo and silver dope machine from 615 gliding school in Kenley circa early 70's, but I'm still contemplating the more up to date red/white/grey training scheme, or even the earlier silver dope and yellow training bands. Biggest challenge for the earlier schemes (silver dope) is lack of good clear reference photos of the era. Decision yet to be finalised, but in the meantime have been testing out some ideas on achieving different dayglo finishes.

 

Some example paint types can be seen on the top card in the picture. The lower card shows the effect of (in this case) Revell Aqua 332 Dayglo Red over the top of white, yellow, orange and red undercoats. The picture doesn't show it that well but there is a surprising degree of difference between each. Will do a further example using Revell Aqua 25 Dayglo Orange over the same four base colours.

 

Here is another shot of just the lower card as that came out slightly clearer. Thinking time on the final scheme now!

 

 

[Brandy]

That looks like a lot of work for the hinges. I think I would have taken the easy route. Cut the ailerons off, drill, insert brass rod, reattach!

 Looks good though!

 

Ian

 

[Terry1954]

56 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

That looks like a lot of work for the hinges. I think I would have taken the easy route. Cut the ailerons off, drill, insert brass rod, reattach!

 Looks good though!

 

Ian

 

Thanks Ian. It wasn't too bad actually although I did consider your idea but I wasn't confident I could exactly re-align all the holes! I felt like I had taken the lazy way out ............

 

All done now and being cleaned up ready to decide on final scheme.

 

Cheers

 

Terry

[keefr22]

Another good update Terry, nearly there now!

 

Keith

[Biggles87]

Good progress on the hinge lines.

The good thing about ' Dayglo ' is that it faded with time so who's to say that any particular shade is wrong.

 

john

[Work In Progress]

I'm reallly enjoying this, wonderful work and far more detailed at this scael than I could achieve.

Like you and so many of us on here I have a personal connection to these, in my case dating back to 1979 at 622 GS, RAF  Upavon, and then I used to go for the occasional evening ridge flight in the one at Yorkshire Gliding Club at Sutton Bank. They're so stately.

[Terry1954]

13 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Another good update Terry, nearly there now!

 

Keith

Thanks Keith. Yes nearly there, although still a bit of fiddling left before paint.

 

3 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Good progress on the hinge lines.

The good thing about ' Dayglo ' is that it faded with time so who's to say that any particular shade is wrong.

 

john

Thanks John. I agree about the dayglo. I was experimenting to see what a more red look would come out like, and also add a little variation for comparison to the T31, assuming this one goes that way. Still very tempted by the later red/white/grey scheme.

 

2 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

I'm reallly enjoying this, wonderful work and far more detailed at this scael than I could achieve.

Like you and so many of us on here I have a personal connection to these, in my case dating back to 1979 at 622 GS, RAF  Upavon, and then I used to go for the occasional evening ridge flight in the one at Yorkshire Gliding Club at Sutton Bank. They're so stately.

Thanks. Glad you are enjoying it. I never intended to go for this level of detail but the kit itself needed so much work I just got carried away! Many on here are reminded of those days it seems.

 

Cheers

 

Terry

[Terry1954]

Not many posts on this one lately as most of the work has been cleaning and preparing the surfaces for top coat. There have been a number of niggling rough spots which have all now been sorted.

 

Originally this build was to have been of a silver doped and dayglo T21, which I actually flew in during the late sixties/early seventies. Sadly lack of good reference photos exist from that era, so I decided to go for the later scheme of white/red/light-grey. I plan to do a grasshopper at some stage in silver with yellow bands, and a Viking in smart white and red trim, the collection would then contain a good representation of Air Cadet gliding through the years.

 

So, once again I find myself spending a lot of time applying the masking................

 

At the moment, the elevators will remain white, but I only have a few shots of examples like that, by far the majority seem to have them red, just like the tailplane, so that may change tonight when I finalise things. Also need to get just a very slight curve in where the red starts to dip down beside the cockpit towards the nose.

 

The wings have had a couple of good coats of Light Aircraft Grey in the centre section area and are now ready for the red!

 

I just need to finalise on exactly which red I will use, so need to check paint stocks. The plan is to airbrush tonight, fingers crossed.

 

More very soon.

 

Terry