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FM Breguet ALIZE the Gallic Gannet - RFI posted


CJP

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44 minutes ago, corsaircorp said:

It seem that I will stay in my naughty corner for a while...

Here's the list of my Fonderie kits...

Bell P-63 Kingcobra

Grumman F9F-8 Panther

Sikorsky HOS

Bell X-2

Grumman F11F Tiger

Lockheed PV-1 Ventura

Bloch MB-152

SNCASO Griifon II

and SNCASO Vautour IIb

Still looking for an Alize, a Zephir, a Halifax and a Hampden…(Maybe should we have an Airfix Hampden however)

I know, I'm mad ! Surely need more rocket fuel for the coming years !!

Thanks CJP, Do not hesitate if you find one !!

At a good price of course

I was about to buy an Halifax at Telford but 220£ for putting myself in :poo::poo::poo:is a bit too high priced !!

Thanks for the kind words and for sharing good job

Sincerely.

CC

That's a daunting list of FM kits CC and you would have to be really keen to pay 220GBP for a Halifax - I think Martian would be lining you up with a Therapist if you did.

CJP

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6 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Note to myself… Is this reasonable to have your mits on 3 FM kits at once ????

No, having seen the number you have in your stash, its bordering on criminal insanity! :mental:

 

Martian 👽

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2 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

No, having seen the number you have in your stash, its bordering on criminal insanity! :mental:

 

Martian 👽

Look at the name received from @The Baron

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On 7/2/2018 at 3:49 PM, CJP said:

Thanks Colin - this was my first foray in to vac-forming a canopy so I had quite a few failures before I got one half decent

Chris

Hi Chris, if that is you first attempt, then you did excellently. Congratulations.

 

Colin

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On ‎03‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 11:54, corsaircorp said:

I was about to buy an Halifax at Telford but 220£ for putting myself in :poo::poo::poo:is a bit too high priced !!

Since I got married, I seem to have developed a talent for doing that free of charge! 

 

Martian 👽

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18 minutes ago, Martian Hale said:

Since I got married, I seem to have developed a talent for doing that free of charge! 

 

Martian 👽

I think most of who have been married were versed inthe art of dropping ourselves in the poo quite easily!

 

Now I am unencumbered as it were, my new lady is somewhat more forgiving. Plus she doesn't have a fan...

 

Colin

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  • 3 weeks later...

Returned to the modelling desk after a few weeks away and it took some time to get motivated and get the Alize moving again  - decided to continue work on the Alize main wheels and install them - I added some detail from plastic strip and fuse  wire/copper electric wire to represent various switches and hydraulic lines for the brakes and electric cabling to make the main gear struts look something like the real thing.

Three pieces of copper wire were twisted together to give the impression of the conduit the electrical wiring runs inside.

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It took a couple of days of fiddly work detailing the struts referring to photos and then gluing the gear into the wheel bays

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CJP

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think I have got to the point with the Alize where the major airframe reworking is done and I can focus on specific areas that need fixing - I made the bottom of

the intake cowl slope down more and gave her a deeper chin in front of the nose gear - the contour was shaped with plastic strip and putty.

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Next the nose pods had discs representing the sensors added and I painted the interior of the pod in the same colour I used for the wheel bays and wing fold break (Humbrol matt 148) & the sensors discs a red brown - some machines seem to have the interior colour painted a light grey as an alternative. The clear vac-form front covers were then glued on and the joint blended in with putty. The clear area was masked off and that was very fiddly due to the irregular shape of it - fingers crossed for when the masking gets taken off (canopy too for that matter).

 

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Cabin top - some grab handles were made from copper wire and a mast for the radio antenna was made from brass tube & a styrene disc - the knob for the Radar operators entry hatch is a 4mm scale model railway handrail knob

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The etched parts for the catapault hooks were fitted and the centre section underwing pylons were made up

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I started reworking the nose wheel doors referring to GAUDARTS article on master194.com - I also added a strip to the intake edge as the little intake looks a bit small compared to photos - the intake was then carefully carved out with a 1 & 2mm chisel

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The etch in the kit provided parts for the wheel bay hinges which are those funny looking hook things - I have in the best tradition of my modelling lost one of the hinges  to the carpet monster so have filed up a replacement hinge which sort of looks like the original part. - You can also see the aileron push rods - I have replaced the etched rod with  brass wire flattened at the ends so it looks a bit like a clevis - this lot looks like being a challenge to fit.

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I then turned attention to the tail lights, sensor pod & cover - the sensors again were punched from plastic sheet and the lights made from clear stretched sprue - this time I painted the interior a blue grey colour similar to colour photo references I have - the clear vac-form cover was fiddly to sand to size and was glued on with Testors canopy glue and carefully  blended into the fuselage with putty

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CJP

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  • 2 weeks later...

Over the last couple of days I decided to have a go at fitting some of the brass etches to the wings/tailplane - I modified the aileron push rods by replacing the etched part with 0.045mm brass wire - this was flattened at the ends & glued to the rest of the push rod parts with CA while still on the etch sheet - in hindsight I should have soldered them as the CA glued parts came undone a couple of time when handling - the wing pylons are fitted loose at the moment until after painting.

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Next I tackled the rudder trim tab push rods - I did not think the etch parts looked much like the real thing so I made up a push rods from etch scrap and 0.45mm wire this time soldered together. As far as I can tell from the photos I have the lower one is smaller than the top one.

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I did use the etch parts underneath the elevator for the trim tabs - these are very delicate so the model will need careful handling & thought before I pick it up now.

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After looking at Alize photos I decided that the resin engine intake that I had glued a 1mm spacer on the back to looked to wide so cut it off again with a razor saw and sanded the spacer down to about 0.5mm and refitted it again - I'm only going by photos for this as my scale plans are a bit wanting - before & after below

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CJP

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi FM fans - I thought I would post an update to prove this Alize build has not beaten me yet - as previously advised the nose wheel strut was adjusted again and the previous extension was reduced by about half and the angle modified.

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A little bit of extra detail was added to the main wheel bays - a lot of work was required to get the doors cleaned up to fit and plastic strip was added to the edges of the doors to make them more substantial & this can be seen in some of the photos - some of the etched detail was  glued to the doors but push rods left until after painting - brass wire pins were fitted to the nose  wheel and main wheel doors to make mounting easier.

NOTE - I decided at a later stage that the gear doors looked too thick and reduced the thickness by removing plastic from the inner face

 

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First coat of paint on the doors show a bit of sanding & tidying up needed.

 

The weapons bay doors had to be cut into segments to fit along the curve of the aircrafts belly - I tried to keep them in one piece but the doors came apart with handling so I had to pin & glue them rather than leaving them until after painting - mounting hinges were made from Evergreen plastic channel and strip.

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So there she is belly up and maybe making a start on painting is not too far off now

CJP

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  • 1 month later...
6 hours ago, j-fever said:

So glad to see someone building this beast. I have one that I am not sure if I will build.

Thanks j-fever - It is a limited run kit & I guess it depends on how much you want to add detail & correct the fuselage shapes - I wanted to add a fair bit of detail so it made the build a bit of a challenge - I think for me it was much like building a vac form model

CJP

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4 hours ago, 71chally said:

Superb work there CJP, for some reason I had missed your updates.

The lower nose reprofiling has worked a treat and I'm sure your leg adjustments will have it sitting just so to give that distinctive Alize' stance.

Thanks 71chally good to hear from you again - I'm still plodding along with it and hope to post another small update again soon

CJP

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3 hours ago, Graham T said:

Watching.  I had this kit once & Used to like taking it out, looking at the parts & thinking "not now, but soon".  Never did!

Yeah a common FM tale I think - I can't remember how many years I looked at my Alize kit before I took the plunge

CJP

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Well I've managed to nudge this build along a bit further and decided to put the EDSG/SKY colours on and see how it is looks - I've used

Humbrol enamels which sprayed nicely and I had no problems with masking pulling paint off which was a relief - then did a check to see how the demarcations between EDSG and Sky looked - they were basically ok with just a bit of tweaking required.

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The more I looked at the landing gear nacelles forward of the wing the more I felt something did not look right - after looking at Alize photos I found that the clear covers on the front of the pods should have a pronounced downward droop. I made up a template to try and capture this shape a bit more closely - the photo below shows how different the kit supplied cover is.

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I made up a mould to push mould a new set of covers

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the scratch built sensor installation was adjusted to the new cover shape

 

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I glued the gear doors next and it took a lot of fiddling to get them to look anything like they are on the real aircraft - in the end I averaged out the errors and called it quits - I noticed in photos of parked Alize's that the sonobuoy bay doors usually were open when parked too so I made life a bit harder for myself and cut that bay open and modelled a bit of the interior detail to look something like the real thing - the doors on the sonobuoy bays were probably harder to get looking right than the wheel bays doors - in the end a bit of a compromise.

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The arrrestor hook was also glued in place

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Still a fair way to go yet and once I'm happy with the fuselage/wings I will need to think about modelling the detail at the wing fold break

CJP

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12 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Nice work, I am starting to thin that you might actually beat this kit into submission after all!

 

Martian 👽

Thanks Martian - I trust in your interplanetary wisdom - I think I'm more bruised than the Alize.

CJP

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4 hours ago, j-fever said:

Fantastic. Have you logged how many hours you put into this, just curious?

 

Cheers

 

Hi j-fever - No I have not logged the hours I put in  to it but have been working on the Alize on and off for about 8 months

CJP

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  • 5 weeks later...

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