Esoteric 1/72 Blackburn Dart

[Patrik]

Whilst finishing the A. W. Scimitar by retouching the odd painting error here and there, I decided to start my next project. Blackburn Dart, Esoteric 1/72 vacform kit I have been looking forward to build since I bought it so many years ago.

The plastic sheet contains all the necessary parts represented in the expected Esoteric quality. There is the usual set of plastic rods of various sizes and profiles for all the struts, and two huge sheets of very usable decals. So far so good.

 

 

There are also two bags of white metal parts. One contains more or less acceptable undercarriage legs, wheels and exhaust pipes, rather less acceptable propeller and quite unacceptable Napier Lion cylinder heads. I have built two other Esoteric kits so far, Parnall Panther and Westland Walrus, and the quality of their white metal parts was much higher, almost certainly coming from the Aeroclub stable. Where were you, John, when the Dart was released? (with a sad sigh)

 

 

There is a second bag with the “fish” and trolley assembly. Some flash indeed, but the moulding quality is definitely better than above. The torpedo needs some gentle care to transform from banana to erect shape, but otherwise looks promising.

 

 

I decided to build the Dart as N9536 (86) of 460 Flight HMS Eagle, the option contained in the kit decals. The available photos show all the airplanes of the flight wearing the (last digit of the) fleet number flag, so contrary to the kit instructions I will paint the yellow and blue “number 6” flag over the upper wing central section. I just wish I can find the photo below in better resolution in order to decide if the fin was indeed black and white as suggested by some of the available colour profiles, or just black over silver dope as suggested by others. Help, anyone?

 

Edited January 12, 2019 by Patrik

[Patrik]

Unable to resists I cut the plastic today. The plastic sheet is rather thick, so I am expecting quite a lot of sanding, And the parts are really big for a single seater. More like a single seat fighter in 1/48.

 

[Courageous]

A nice subject to start the New Year Patrik.

 

Stuart

[Smudge]

Oooh. Nice.

 

Following along 

[Jonners]

Love it. I’m just starting my first vacform, but I’d love to try this kit some day. I’ll be watching your progress with great interest.

Jon

[Patrik]

I did not want to start the dirty heavy sanding job while finishing the Scimitar, so I did some research instead, especially on the interior and engine section arrangements. I also compared the kit dimensions with the available references and drawings and found one unpleasant issue. Whereas the fuselage and empennage are spot on and the lower wing is acceptable, the upper wing span is at least 1 ft. (= 4 mm in 1/72) shorter, Unfortunately the missing length appears to be at the curved wingtips (the position of the ailerons is fine), so at this moment I have no idea how to fix it (or if to fix it at all).☹️

 

 

Edited January 26, 2019 by Patrik

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

33 minutes ago, Patrik said:

Unfortunately the missing length appears to be at the curved wingtips (the position of the ailerons is fine), so at this moment I have no idea how to fix it (or if to fix it at all).☹️

Two choices, cut it in the middle add the length there and rescribe the control surfaces. Or in my humble opinion leave it be. Unless someone whips out a set of blue prints, no one will notice the discrepancy. 

[John Masters]

6 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

leave it be

That's my vote.  It looks like you will have plenty of other work to do with this very interesting kit--like straightening out that torpedo!

[John Aero]

To fix the tips, blunt them by sanding then place them on a piece of the right thickness plasticard. draw round the tip with a thin lead pencil or very fine Sharpie. Cut out the curve.then do the same again but further along (distance = missing tip area). now carefully cut these crescent moon shaped pieces a bit wide to give you a bit of sanding leeway. Superglue each piece to the blunted tips. You can bend them to the camber at the tips. let them dry thoroughly fill the gaps and sand to shape.

Probably quicker than my typing.

If IRC we might have supplied Jim Wood with some metal parts but then he bought a table top, biscuit box Tirranti  spin caster and did his own

A few patterns were done by Gordon Stevens for Jim and also by my late old friend Joe Chubbock who also taught Jim wood, Les Cooper and quite a few others to do his style of pattern making. Joe was often somewhere behind most of the smaller British vac producers.

 

John

[Courageous]

15 hours ago, Patrik said:

I have no idea how to fix it (or if to fix it at all).☹️

Go for it Patrik, you know you want to. 

 

Stuart

[corsaircorp]

Oh a Blackburn Dart !!

Did'nt know that the kit existed !

I must look more closely in the Vac form world !!!

I'll follow if you Don't mind !

Sincerely.

CC

[Patrik]

Thank you guys.

 I am not as much concerned about the missing millimeters or the drawings, I am not millimeter hunter. I like my models to look right, of course, however if the basic shape and proportions are fine, I do not care about mm here or mm there. Though all the references confirm the upper wing span was slightly shorter with the early Blackburn torpedo/naval planes (applies for sure to Dart, Blackburn, Ripon, Baffin), the difference in the kit is probably too big (some 7-8 mm) and I am afraid it will show when the model is finished. Nevertheless, I decided to leave it be for now, assemble the fuselage and the lower wings first and then test-fit the upper wing as it is. And if it looks satisfactorily "Dartish", I will leave it be, if not, I will follow John's advice.

Regarding the torpedo. I think I will gently try to beat it to submission with a small hammer first. And if it does not work, I will use bigger one.😉

 

Edited January 27, 2019 by Patrik

[Jonners]

20 hours ago, John Aero said:

To fix the tips, blunt them by sanding then place them on a piece of the right thickness plasticard. draw round the tip with a thin lead pencil or very fine Sharpie. Cut out the curve.then do the same again but further along (distance = missing tip area). now carefully cut these crescent moon shaped pieces a bit wide to give you a bit of sanding leeway. Superglue each piece to the blunted tips. You can bend them to the camber at the tips. let them dry thoroughly fill the gaps and sand to shape.

 

John

Blimey, that's a good idea. Why have I never thought of that? You must have done this before, John...

Another one of those modelling schooldays!

Jon

[Courageous]

2 hours ago, Patrik said:

And if it looks satisfactorily "Dartish", I will leave it be, if not, I will follow John's advice.

At the end of the day it's your build and if you can live the mm shortage, then that's all that matters.

Bring on the hammer(s)

 

Stuart

[John Aero]

There is a reason that a number of RN biplane designs have the top wing span slightly shorter. and it boils down to minimizing spares in store, especially on two bay types. The Fairey III.F is another type with this feature. By having the struts perpendicular to the wing spar the rigging bay is square in front view so that the flying and landing wires can be the same length, (the rear pair may be a different length  matched pair), whereas if the bay is trapezoid and the struts are vertical in front view the flying wires have to be longer than the landing wires. Similarly the centre bay wires can also be arranged to match each other in length. Wing panels are another item which can be duplicated with the centre sections making up the difference between top and bottom spans.

 

As to the fix it or not conundrum, that's up to Patrik. My answer was to the "I have no idea".

 

John 

[Patrik]

Your explanation sounds perfectly plausible, John, thank you. I thought the unequal span had something to do with the dihedral vs. wing folding.

All the more I believe I have to add the lower wing with the correct dihedral first and then only decide on the top wing span extension yes or no.

Patrik

[72modeler]

I'm not sure if the fix that John proposed regarding making new wingtips would address the position and span of the aileron or slats, unless he meant for that to be dealt with at the same time. My thinking, first-off, would be I don't have the talent and intestinal fortitude to tackle a lawn dart, much less a Blackburn Dart; secondly, if I did, I think I would make a chord-wise cut from the inboard edge of the slat to the inboard edge of the aileron on both sides, then cement a spacer on each side to bring the wingspan out to match the drawing. This way, it appears to me that the slat and aileron span would match your drawing. If you hadn't said anything about your discovery, I don't think there are very many of us penguins out there except maybe John and a few others that would have noticed the dimensional issue of the upper wing. It's not as bad as trying to make the span of the upper wing of a Matchbox Fury correct to make an early Nimrod with the straight wing!  That being said, I won't say a word either way, and I can't wait to see the finished product! Would lengthening the span affect where the outer wing struts would be mounted; are they vertical or canted outboard when viewed from the front? As Butterfly McQueen said in Gone With The Wind, "Lawsy Miss Scarlett- I don't know nuthin' bout birthin' no babies!"

Mike

[John Aero]

I suspect that the drawings you show are by Harry Woodman. If I'm correct then they will be reliable. Does either wing fit the plan? If my knowledge of the Dart is correct then the kit outer wing panels should be identical in shape, including aileron position, and size, with the exception of the Bat like folding wing fillets. If this is so then the top centre section leading edge width plus the two tip differences (port and stbd) in the plan view, should equal the width of the lower centre section leading edge.

 

Two things come to mind If the wings don't fit the plan, this can be either the mould to original pattern shrinkage plus the styrene shrinkage in production. Also the pattern maker forgetting the plan of the wing does not show the true length because of dihedral.

 

The Dart wings have struts that in front view are perpendicular to the  wing spars. In short they will be tilted in at the top.

 

John

[Brandy]

When I have this problem I usually look at the ribs. Are they correct? If they are, add to the tips as John suggests. If not, and they can be made to match, add wherever is needed to make them match. It's not too hard to fill the aileron lines and rescribe them correctly if needed.

 The main thing to remember when adding to the tips is to sand them so you have a square edge. You already have to add plastic so a little more won't hurt, plus you'll have a secure bond. Re profiling the tips and aerofoil is fairly straight forward. I used that method on my Airfix Hannover and it worked very well.

 

Ian

Edited January 28, 2019 by limeypilot

[Marklo]

This was my solution when encountering a similar problem on my Pup build (self induced I might add), Cut off the tip at the nearest rib line, make a new one the right shape and size, use some brass rod to give it a bit of structure and sand/fill./sand till it matches

 

The finished article btw.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Marklo

[Patrik]

Thanks for the tips, guys. I still owe some answers to John, but I decided to leave them after the wings are cleaned up from all the extra plastic.

 

Meanwhile I am going through a period not exactly rich in modelling time. Too much travelling, both private and business. But at least I managed cleaning up and opening the fuselage halves and I did test-fit of the engine, which confirmed, what I have suspected for a while - the fuselage is a bit undernourished in the width. The interior parts do not fit inside, and the the engine cylinder heads stick out from the fuselage sides too much. I will solve this by inserting plastic stripes in the fuselage halves' joint.

 

 

I also decided to scratch build the internal structure behind the engine (including the fuel tank). The opening underneath the nose is by far too big to be ignored.

 

 

By the way, the engine. Given how prominent this part on the real airplane was, I was really unhappy with the way the Napier Lion V was represented in the kit. So I started looking for replacement. First - not very successfully - for the Aeroclub white metal one that I used in the Westland Walrus. But then I recalled I built the Montex resin Fairey Fawn a few years ago, and the the kit included very acceptable Lion, and I also have Karaya Supermarine Seagull II in my stash with likewise nice Lion rendering. So the mould evidently existed, most probably in Poland and after some internet browsing I found the guys from Silverwings in Cracow do have the 1/72 Lion V in their offer. OK, took a while, was not cheap, but here it is. First the engine in detail and then the complete delivery. And why three of them? Well, there are two Esoteric Fairey IIIDs in my stash, plagued by the very same bad engine parts as the Dart ...

 

 

[Courageous]

Lovely work.

I wish their were more readily available engines on the market to build these older aircraft.

 

Stuart

[Patrik]

Some of the engines are still available, but you are right, the actual offer is not very rich compared to the paper catalogue I have here, printed by the end of the last century, containing some 80 1/72 engines, 100 propellers, and dozens of wheels and guns and such. Name Aeroclub, you may know them ...

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Patrik

This looks like a very interesting machine and great to see one being built. Will tag along when I can, not getting much time myself at the moment.

Keep up the good work.

All the best

Chris

[Patrik]

Grinding, sanding, scraping and creating very healthy looking polystyrene-snow-drifts on my workbench and elsewhere. I like when the vacform contains both upper and lower sides of the wings or the control surfaces, but sanding the trailing edges down from the original 1.6 mm to the necessary razor blade thickness is real pain. Just the wings have not been cleaned yet. The kit contains quite nice control panel too. Unfortunately the instruments are pure fantasy, so I will use it just as a base for scratch-building more realistic one.

 

 

And I was unable to resist. Two weeks ago I managed to find and purchase the Sopwith Cuckoo kit and it arrived in the post this week. Neat little vacform, including white metal and photo-etched parts. Below photo of the happy family reunion from my stash, though I admit the Shark does not exactly belong into the inner family circle. So with the Cuckoo finally in my possession, I hope, that one day, providing I live long enough, all the family members will stand proudly side by side in my display cabinet.

 

Edited February 23, 2019 by Patrik