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Mighty Hunter...1/72 Airfix Nimrod MR2P


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A long overdue update. 

Airfix 1:72 BAe Nimrod MR2P

 

The outboard wing lights fused into place with Tamiya ET and roughly filed down to shape. As you can see, they are a great deal more inboard of the original locations. These need to be filled over and sanded/polished back to clarity. Which was done inbetween this photo and below...

 

Airfix 1:72 BAe Nimrod MR2P

 

...you can see the change. Light lenses have been masked , and black painted to infill the clear parts to give the light a dark 'scale' appearance when finished. A coat of Klear was applied after polishing to give a little more lustre! With rescribing and some more filling to be done these will hopefully then be finally completed. 

You may notice a rather big part of the kit attached now to the wings! Fuselage halves! 

 

Airfix 1:72 BAe Nimrod MR2P

 

Here you see the current state of progress. I ignored the instructions and take problems into my own hands. The wing assembly was cut down the middle of the bomb-bay skirting, and each wing glued into the fuselage half. Each Nimrod I have built always ends up with the fuselage not properly meeting the wings and forcing the wings to glue to what little intake area there is. Invariably, forcing the wings upwards when gluing, to make the wings and body meet, only makes it worse by giving the Nimrod a dihedral to the wings that she doesn't have. So now the main structural join on this model will be the fuselage which is very easy to clean up, versus bendy bits of fuselage and wibbly wings. Filler has been applied to the wingroots to tidy those up. By making the Nimrod in this way you can save yourself some gaps on the wingroots which are very hard to reach neatly. When the AlleyCat resin payload bay arrives it will be sandwiched between fuselage halves along with the cockpit and nosewheel bay, and glued as a conventional airliner kit, for example - left half, to right half. Another advantage of this method is that the forward bomb bay skirt fits effortlessly rather than bending and caving under pressure, and as you can see, when glued it is perfect and seamless. The Nimrod has sealing strips running along the skirt and the joint between the 'double-bubble' fuselage sections, curving up to the windscreen on the real jet, so this will be added with stock card. 

Here you can see the LORAL/ESM wingtip pods have been attached, rescribed and sanded awaiting details. 

 

As I type, I have run out of filler. More has been ordered. Your patience is appreciated, as always...

 

George

 

Edited by George Aldrich
Correction - wingtip ESM pods are Loral, not Loran - thanks 71chally!
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7 hours ago, 71chally said:

Your Nimrod is coming on a treat there George, good idea with the wings to fuselage join, nice little touches with the modifications.

 

Just for info, the wingtip pods are Loral (ARI 18240/1) ESM pods, LORAN being a navigation system

Thank you! I will amend my post. Something didn't look quite right with what I said, last night late - getting in a muddle I is! Thanks for your insight into that and for the correction.

 

Tonight will be mainly Vampire fiddling, the 0.25mm plasticard stock has arrived so I can get on with the Nimrod's bomb bay skirting amongst other little panel details. Till then...

 

George

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  • 3 weeks later...
12 hours ago, vit79 said:

Hello, how is the process going?

Hi vit79!

 

In short terms, very little at the moment.

 

I have been informed the resin is on it's way from shipping, so I await it with great interest!

 

In the meanwhile life has gotten in the way a lot, I have very limited evenings now to model, and with the Vampire detailing in progress there isn't anything I am able to do on the Nimrod until the resin arrives, and things can get buttoned up, so to speak!

 

Thanks for your interest. Be rest assured as soon as I can, things will continue. 

 

George

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can you please tell me if this is a window or just a hole? Airfix offers this as a window and gives clear plastic. From what I know in this place inside the auxiliary power unit. It seems to me that this is an air intake of an auxiliary power unit, therefore there should not be glass there. Who has a good photo of this place ? 0800571-1-1.jpg

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2 hours ago, vit79 said:

Can you please tell me if this is a window or just a hole? Airfix offers this as a window and gives clear plastic. From what I know in this place inside the auxiliary power unit. It seems to me that this is an air intake of an auxiliary power unit, therefore there should not be glass there. Who has a good photo of this place ? 0800571-1-1.jpg

We have several "walkarounds" on this site of the NIMROD...………..it appears tobe an access bay or something but on several of the walkrounds, when stationary or parked up their is a red blanking plate covering the HOLE...…...check out the walkarounds or even go to PRIME PORTAL, they have plenty of walkarounds on their also

 

 

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As with half the people on Britmodeller, I too have this kit. Nice work you've done with your Mighty Hunter! I have to second what has been said about Alleycat - they do sometimes take awhile to arrive (I believe it's basically a one-man band; the chap who runs it posts here sometimes), but what I've received from them, including all the Nimrod bits, has been well done.

 

Regards,

 

Jason 

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6 hours ago, rayprit said:

We have several "walkarounds" on this site of the NIMROD...………..it appears tobe an access bay or something but on several of the walkrounds, when stationary or parked up their is a red blanking plate covering the HOLE...…...check out the walkarounds or even go to PRIME PORTAL, they have plenty of walkarounds on their also

 

 

Thanks, I looked a lot of walkarounds, but did not find a good photo of this unit. There are many photos from afar, but it’s hard to see inside. If someone gets a good photo of this place, please drop it here.

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You can still find some great builds by Mattie Bee here on BM. They're a great source of information, although some of the photographs have disappeared into that 'bucket' I'm afraid.

 

Tony

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally the full set of aftermarket resin has arrived! 

Between work (and the associated lack of energy), general life and a commission build also on the go, work has been slow. But since the AlleyCat resin has arrived, things have moved! 

Airfix 1:72 BAe Nimrod MR2P

 

Here is the full complement of sets - the SCP intake, nosewheels and guards, fin root, payload bay, and canopy set. Quite impressive in the flesh!

 

First job was to insert the windows and porthole bubbles into their appropriate holes. Nothing extra-special - each fits very satisfyingly, with a good almost snap-fit tightness! Plenty of ET used to make sure all is strongly fused!

Airfix 1:72 BAe Nimrod MR2P

 

In this view you can see just how neatly the lower bubble of the fuselage skirting has fitted to the main fuselage when the main wing is split into two. 

 

Airfix 1:72 BAe Nimrod MR2P

 

AlleyCat supplies the payload bay in two halves to reduce the risk of malformed castings and increase consistency. Absolutely no problems here - beautiful detail, and intricate! Bulkheads are supplied with added detail, which here have been attached with copious amounts of cyano. They provide an extra bulkhead to apply just ahead of the intake roots, as they mention plenty of flexing and stress. Because I have attached the wings pre-fuselage join, and thus differently from normal, I saw no reason to add them to an already strong joint! So the extra isn't shown here. Cockpit was inserted after being primed black, and the nosewheel bay boxed in and glued also, awaiting painting later.

 

Airfix 1:72 BAe Nimrod MR2P

 

A view of the great detail put into the payload bay. AlleyCat provides beams for adding the Airfix bay equipment onto, which I will add later. I intend to pose her as a clear bay so the Airfix parts won't be needed. You can see the bay fits with a minimal amount of gaps around the plastic joins, which with filler will disappear. I intend to add more piping and ductwork myself to hide this also, and increase the fidelity.

 

Airfix 1:72 BAe Nimrod MR2P

 

And then the two halves become one! 

Plenty of large areas to fill but all in accessible areas on the fuselage centreline. Wing roots still need to be sanded, but they are strongly joined to the fuselage and do not move, unlike every other Nimrod I've built in the normal way! So these will be swiftly tidied up. 

 

The MAD boom has been added, and the fin root fillet has been cut out, ready to accept the new resin correction piece. 

 

More in due course!

 

George

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Is it just me or that mixing chamber too far back in the bomb bay?

It's been a long, long time since I stood in there but I seem to remember the mixing chamber as being further forward - almost in line with the front of the engines.  I think it aligned with the split between the front and rear bomb bay doors

 

I could well be wrong though

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Hello George,

I am following your NIMROD WIP.

Very well explained. and excellent photography.

Regards, Orion.

 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/14/2018 at 1:08 AM, hendie said:

Is it just me or that mixing chamber too far back in the bomb bay?

It's been a long, long time since I stood in there but I seem to remember the mixing chamber as being further forward - almost in line with the front of the engines.  I think it aligned with the split between the front and rear bomb bay doors

 

I could well be wrong though

Looking at a few images online, seems you're right in that it should be just a bit further forward, just short of the intakes. 

On the bomb bay, it looks roughly halfway between front and rear. Interesting..!

 

On 11/14/2018 at 2:30 AM, Bendinggrass said:

Great work!!

Thank you!

 

On 11/14/2018 at 10:59 AM, Orion said:

Hello George,

I am following your NIMROD WIP.

Very well explained. and excellent photography.

Regards, Orion.

 

Thanks Orion, appreciate it! Good to have you along for the ride, albeit a slow one 😀

 

On 1/8/2019 at 11:23 PM, vit79 said:

Hello, how is your building?

Hey! With work and life, it's fallen a bit by the wayside. Picking up again now!

 

On 1/9/2019 at 12:08 AM, CedB said:

I'm interested too George - I've had trouble getting the Alleycat canopy to fit in my build - how's yours?

 

Hi CedB! Yes - I couldn't get mine to fit. A little heating in hot water to get it to be less wide in cross section to sit neatly on the frame of the kit fuselage was needed. I didn't bother with the spacer the instructions tell you to make. Filler round the edges and she seems to be smooth! Looking forward to seeing how your 'Rod progresses!

 

On 1/9/2019 at 12:55 AM, gazza1963 said:

Looking George. Have you finished the dark falcon yet?

I have. Her owner is pleased 😉

 

On 1/9/2019 at 7:07 AM, Biggles87 said:

Beginning to look like a Nimrod now.

 

John

Indeed John! Just love the shape. One of my all time favourites!

 

George

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