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A bit of Sabre Rattling, Mk F.4 RAFG Jever 1955 Style


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On 3/9/2019 at 6:39 AM, Biggles87 said:

Some good progress there, and some useful information stored away for future reference.

When I started work in ATC there were quite a few ex-aircrew around and I worked with someone who had flown Sabres then Hunters in the RAF. He was a pretty fierce character and I was somewhat in awe of him, being a callow youth of 19 at the time so didn't ask questions, just listened.

Definitely got the itch for a Sabre ( or three ) now.

 

John

Being too young is just as unfair as getting too old John, if only it'd have been a few more years down the line and you might have had a book in the pair of you! 

 

Go for it, I've pulled the SoD Sabre down now, (might shoot some pics of that but it was done a few years back and I've learnt stuff since then, not that you'd tell!) and have received some sharkmouth decals from @Silver Fox (thank you Andy), so should be able to push that one along a bit too.  Then there's the other 4 in the stash!

 

On 3/9/2019 at 7:42 AM, Col. said:

Your Sabre is certainly rattling along at a good pace Chris :speak_cool: Great work dealing with all the modifications and fitting issues. This is looking better with every update you show.

I see what you did there Col!!!  Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

 

On 3/9/2019 at 9:45 AM, Peter Lloyd said:

You've made those wings look like they were always meant to be there.

Thanks Peter, pretty sure that's down to the lads at Red Roo and not my ham-fistedness!!

 

Well, we had the weekend away giving it yeehahs all round at Country to Country, and more to the point have now recovered from the 3 hours in IKEA on Sunday (Mrs FC's eyes lit up like saucers when she saw that right next door to our hotel!!) so progress has been a bit hit and miss.

 

I took the opportunity to box in that vent with plastic card, and then filled the resulting gaps with sprue-goo........

 

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....... which then got a rub down with a damp copy of the Sporting Life.....

 

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..... and then we were ahead by a short nose .....

 

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The cockpit and wheel wheels were filled with bogroll and then covered with Tamiya Tape, and a coat of Halfords finest grey primer was wafted all over.

 

This as usual showed up a few flaws, so out with the PPP and that is where we stand as of now.

 

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Oh and last but not least, The Canadair Sabre book ordered from the States showed up today, blimey it's a tome and half when you're more used to dealing with things like the On Target Profiles.  Well plenty of bedtime reading there then.

 

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Speaking of bedtime, nighty-night all you Brits and G'day to the rest of you!!!!

 

Until the next one, Chris

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Good solid progress there Chris :thumbsup:

That's a proper book you have there, makes the On Target profile look like a cafè menu, stuff like that reminds of a time before the internet was so ubiquitous and a good book was all we had to work from.

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Hi Chris, how's the Sabre going?

My Red Roo wings arrived on Friday and I'm very impressed with them,and I didn't get caught for any tax,probably below the threshold. I'm now waiting for the Millbury book which will hopefully arrive next  week then my life will be complete. Amazon's arrival estimate was between 12 and 20 days so it's probably coming across the channel on a rowing boat!

Hoping for more soon.

 

John

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On 3/14/2019 at 1:17 PM, Col. said:

Good solid progress there Chris :thumbsup:

That's a proper book you have there, makes the On Target profile look like a cafè menu, stuff like that reminds of a time before the internet was so ubiquitous and a good book was all we had to work from.

 

On 3/15/2019 at 12:17 PM, Terry1954 said:

A bit late to the party, so quietly slipping in. How could I miss a good Sabre build. 

 

Lovely work so far Chris.

 

Terry

 

On 3/17/2019 at 8:40 PM, Threadbear said:

great job on the Sabre, very inspiring. Love the wheels and tyres. Always set a subject off. 

Thanks for keeping my nose to the grindstone fellas with the dopamine highs of your very kind words.  And welcome to the madhouse for the new boys.

 

3 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Hi Chris, how's the Sabre going?

My Red Roo wings arrived on Friday and I'm very impressed with them,and I didn't get caught for any tax,probably below the threshold. I'm now waiting for the Millbury book which will hopefully arrive next  week then my life will be complete. Amazon's arrival estimate was between 12 and 20 days so it's probably coming across the channel on a rowing boat!

Hoping for more soon.

 

John

They are good aren't they (until they fell into my hands anyways!).  Hope my pitfalls of lopping off the slat tracks has help your build avoid this schoolboy error. 

 

The Millbury is a good read as well as its cracking pictures.  Have concentrated on the RAF chapters but loads of great Sabre info, especially about the squadrons that operated it.

 

Ah how's it going though.........

 

Well, I've learnt a lot in this last 10 or so days.  Mainly that trying to rescribe lost detail into resin parts is nowhere near as easy as on styrene and that re-building short shot (or possibly just broken off but I don't remember doing it) dogtooths on the wing tips is a right royal PITA.  The two Sabres I've built so far both had resin wingtips included that were not needed in those builds but as they were 6-3 wingtips I didn't think I could use them, though I suppose with the amount of butchery that I've been through with this so far it probably would have been better to have re-shaped them.  Ho-hum, hindsight is always 20-20.

 

Another reason for not that much being done was the arrival of the second baby into the household in just over a month. Again not of the smelly, noisy variety, but one with two more strings than the last arrival.

 

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Just as we have SABLE for our obsessive stash accruals the guitar world has GAS, which I heard of for the first time from the 72 Custom's seller (Guitar Aquisition Syndrome) and as Mrs FC is always telling me off for my GAS I suppose I should keep adding to the stable anyways.

 

In the meanwhile some plastic-wrangling did occur.

 

Firstly I had cut out some slots for the slat tracks (you can see the bit of the missing wingtip I was referring to in this piccy too)......

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........ drilled holes into those slots to take some brass rod..............

 

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(The primer makes the join on the nose look quite pronounced but IRL it will (IT WILL!!!!) disappear under the camouflage topcoat.)

 

....... brass rods were fitted into the drilled out bits and then attempts were made to 1) make the openings in the wings fit the slats, and 2) rebuild the tip of the wingtip dogtooth.......

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....... OK so far so good.

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However I wasn't as happy with the profile of the tip as I could be so we had another go, this time using sprue gloop rather than infuriatingly brittle PPP.   No photos of that repair unfortunately but I can assure you I was much happier with take 2.

 

Anyways all got a coat of primer again and the hateful black stripes of the pre-shading clan were added.

 

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For completeness and as a yardstick to show a little improvement in techniques over the last couple of years here's a few photos of my stalled 6-3 F Mk.4 build.

 

As you can see I have mangled far more decals than just the sharkmouth that I originally thought was the extent of the damage, so if any of you have these decals in your spares drawers I will happily negotiate them a new home in exchange for beer tokens.

 

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Yes we've done some learning since that build but I do want to see it finished.

 

So until we have some PRU Blue on our bottom, be safe out there.

 

Chris

 

 

 

 

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On 3/24/2019 at 11:16 PM, Col. said:

That's not mangled Chris, that's just a bit of weathering ;) 

Hey that sort of wethering seems to come naturally and I'm good at it, perhaps need to change my styles!

 

On 3/28/2019 at 7:01 PM, stevej60 said:

Look's superb.

Thanks Steve, welcome to the frey.

 

This week's update is now in colour...

 

Well my undersides are now bluer than a Smurf's backside...

 

First coat of Hataka PRU Blue, thinned this time with its own brand thinner, and I think a slight improvement over the finish on my PRU Blue Spits built last year is evident......

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Let it dry and then do it all over again......

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One more coat (sorry I got all excited and didn'ttake any pictures of that - sorry folks!), then mask up the undersides to start the top coats....

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A couple of coats of Mr Hobby Aqueous RAF Green (semigloss), and some LAG on the fin radome........

 

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....... out with the wiggly worms and the Tamiya Tape.............

 

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...... a first thin coat of Mr Hobby Aqueous Dark Sea Grey.....

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.... erm let it dry and do it all again, again............

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Despite being thinned to within an inch of its life the Dark Sea Grey looks far to monotone for my liking so some post-shading to get some modulation going is foreseeable in my future.

 

Well this build is really 'whizzing like a Sabre Jet' as Chuck Berry sang in Run Run Rudolf, so until the next thrilling installment, stay safe out there.

 

Chris

 

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I'm really looking foward to the next installment and finding out how the paintwork turned out now :D  Is that a RAF Phantom lurking in the background by any chance?

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1 hour ago, Col. said:

I'm really looking foward to the next installment and finding out how the paintwork turned out now :D  Is that a RAF Phantom lurking in the background by any chance?

Thanks, am hoping it'll be a good unwrapping too.

 

Yes there is a Crab 'Toom taking up a fair bit of deskspace at the moment.

 

She is a renovated bird, having originally been 3/4's+ built and then re-homed to the SoD over 10 years ago when my skills were far more limited than they are now.  Originally she was finished in the 56 Sqn low vis scheme with the red tail (didn't know about aftermarket decals then you see), using Humbrol enamels (no pre or post shading, just solid colours).  She got Mr Muscled a few weeks back when I received my 2 pre-ordered Revell re-releases (to keep company with one other first issue and a couple of Hasegawa kits in the stash), and I thought why not use her as a trial run for the Phestival of British Phantoms (including the F-4J (UK) using Showtime 100 plus the Xtradecal Tiger Sqn sheets) that is in my near future.  As I was using Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey for the Sabre I thought running this rebuild alongside would cut a few corners too.

 

Unfortunately I have lost a number of key parts, but have put a request into Revell's spares department to replace them (fuel tanks and flaps being the main parts I can't find) and I had bought the sprue with undercarriage legs etc from an eBay seller as the originals had been decimated over the years.  The Tooms in the stash will get AlleyCat seamless intakes, but again as I didn't know better this one was built straight from the box, so I have bought some Mastercaster FOD guards to hide that multitude of sins.

 

To that extent and I know there are still plenty of little fixes needed, and I'm not looking forward to repainting the offices in-situ, here she is:

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I've literally just unmasked her a couple of minutes ago.  The build quality isn't cutting edge, I was only using Squadron Green filler and wet & dry back then, not having discovered all the lovely manicure buffers and sanding sticks & PPP etc etc that are my current go to's.  As I said it is what it is; it was too good a kit to get rid of and we're trying to make a silk purse out of the proverbial sow's ear.

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I'll have a look in a large box of random spares that live in the garage this evening as I may be able to help you with the drop tanks if Revell can't.

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44 minutes ago, Col. said:

I'll have a look in a large box of random spares that live in the garage this evening as I may be able to help you with the drop tanks if Revell can't.

You are a gentleman and a scholar Col, thank you.

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Well it's time to strip her down to her shreddies.  Wiggly worms off and all's well.

 

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The slats were the first to get their bottoms molested.........  But hang on, The Hataka has lifted.

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Now it's squeaky bum time, now just what will stay put and what will come off (to the tune of the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go" in my head!)??

 

Dum dum dum....  Other suspense-inducing noises are available!

 

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What's life without a little jeopardy then eh; as it happens the modelling Gods smiled down and apart from a tiny thumbnail malfunction near one of the wingtips, all the masking came off nicely. Tadah!!!!!

 

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There's definitely going to be more RAF Sabres in my future as these arrived today......

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...to go with these being used in this build....

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As I said earlier in the thread there's plenty more Sabres in the stash, so I think when I need a nice comfort build (probably after all those Phantoms!), the Italeri 6-3 versions can get an outing, but we'll save the Revell/Hasegawa FOD guards to hide the intake shortcomings in those kits.  Job's a good 'un!

 

One quick question to the BM Massive before I sign off; the slat tracks - what colour?  I've trawled the internet and the few Sabre books I have and none show the underneath of the slats or the inner-gubbins.  Would natural metal/alu be a good guess or would they have been primered?

 

Right, time to trek up that carpet hill to Bedfordshire as tomorrow's a late one as I'm off to see 2 Rifles box 13 AASR RLC in the Army Major Units semi-final tomorrow night.  Now despite being a Rifleman for a dozen or more part-time years I'm a guest of 16 Air Assault Brigade, so it's the Loggies I'll be cheering on tomorrow!  Hoping for a 13 AASR/3 PARA final.

 

Thanks for tuning in folks...

 

Chris

 

 

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Very nice paintwork there sir and with decal options like that it's no wonder you've plenty more RAF Sabres planned :speak_cool:

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/2/2019 at 6:02 AM, exdraken said:

Very nice paint work!

I like the blue undersides....  :):)

 

Thanks exdraken, who wouldn't love a nice blue bottom, unless you're an eskimo I guess!

 

On 4/2/2019 at 7:01 PM, Col. said:

Very nice paintwork there sir and with decal options like that it's no wonder you've plenty more RAF Sabres planned :speak_cool:

Planning and doing are two totally different things Col.  I wish I could model 24 hours a day but life throws spanners in all the works; there's work, families, football, mortgages, did I say work.....

 

It's been a funny old couple of weeks since my last update.

 

Firstly I have realised that the old saving the football with your eyeball rather than your hands trick has some consequences.  My right eye is still having none of that seeing properly stuff. The hoppy passed me fit with no serious damage, just a vitreous detachment which gets in the way of my sightline making the world look like one of those IMAX 3D promo films under the sea where you're surrounded by jellyfish!  They said it should settle down within 6 months - grrrrreat!

 

Also I had an early 70's sports car that I was long-term restoring stolen a couple of years back.  It has suddenly appeared for sale, restored, on eBay.  I will be paying the seller a visit tomorrow to assess the situation, however if the Police can get their act together in time I might be able to recover it.

 

Well the Sabre did get a little bit of attention in the meanwhile.

 

The colour shots in the Milberry book show the RAF Sabres as having a Tanny/brown radome on the end of its schnoz.  I copied the appropriate decal from the Revell sheet and used that to make a mask and painted it in.

 

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Well that's good enough for me, a Flory wash later should sharpen those edges up.

 

Now back in the beginning Wez made a point that I have to say I dismissed at the time:

On 3/2/2019 at 8:59 AM, Wez said:

 

The drop tanks would have had triangular finlets without endplates.

 

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Now I know that, what had Wez mis-seen? As if I'd put the wrong ones on..........  Shut the front door, I had only gone and stuck the wrong fins on hadn't I, what a dim-dum!!  Sorry Wez for doubting you for a second!

 

Therefore the trusty Swann Morton scalpel and the razor saw were used to remove those fins, breaking my razor saw blade in the process - grrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

Then the correct fins were inserted, yes inserted is the right word just that they weren't inserted where I really felt like inserting them!

 

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Much better.  These then got filled, rubbed back and re-primed ready to go again in the near future.

 

The main airframe got a few coats of Pledge to prepare us for some stickering:

 

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The first evening got us the starboard side done.

 

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Tea-time to just now saw us add the majority of the port side....

 

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I know I have a similar and probably even more long-winded task ahead of me with the refurbished Phantom but boy don't Sabres have a lot of stencils!!!!

 

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I'll let those dry a bit and I will attack them with some MicroSol and that'll be me for the night I think, I'm bushed!

 

Until next time modelerinos, be good.

 

Chris 

 

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Very nice indeed.

 The only picture I have which shows the flap tracks in close up is of a Korean War jet which was of course natural metal. I would imagine that if any paint was applied to them it wouldn't stay on very long because of all the movement.

Looking forward to starting mine in the Shark Mouth GB.

 

John

PS Hope your eye is improving.

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On 4/19/2019 at 9:43 PM, Sabrejet said:

Smart as a dart!

Like that Duncan and will shamelessly use it in future as if it was my own!!!

 

On 4/19/2019 at 11:18 PM, Col. said:

Very nice!

 

On 4/20/2019 at 5:57 AM, Biggles87 said:

Very nice indeed.

 The only picture I have which shows the flap tracks in close up is of a Korean War jet which was of course natural metal. I would imagine that if any paint was applied to them it wouldn't stay on very long because of all the movement.

Looking forward to starting mine in the Shark Mouth GB.

 

John

PS Hope your eye is improving.

Cheers fellas.

 

John, I've gone natural metal for the self-same reasoning as I've only seen close ups on NMF Sabres too.  Roll on the Sharkmouth GB.  I may have to find the male version of this (coveniently in Rifles green too!) to wear for the duration of that one.

 

bape-shark-mouth-only-ladies-fitted-t-shirt

https://www.artistshot.com/bape-shark-mouth-only-ladies-fitted-t-shirt-p-7537129

 

Unfotunately still in the land of the jellyfish as far as the eye is concerned.  It doesn't hurt so much now, more like a dull ache so must be on the mend!

 

Wel,l as I said in my previous post I was off to Sheffield for the weekend via a detour to Leicester to look at my stolen Scimitar that was up for sale on eBay.  It was in a beautiful condition.  On Saturday I posed as an interested eBay buyer but found that the present owner was totally innocent (and a really nice bloke too), having bought the car at a classic car auction in January and then got ill and as he had a stable of Alfas and Maseratis his SWMBO had decreed one must go, and my Scimmy was the bottom of the pile.  Having viewed and copied all the seller's paperwork and reported back to the police on what I'd seen, I went back the next day to tell him who I really was (it had been strange talking about myself in the third-party first time as the seller had told me about the previous owner who had owned it for 27 years - it was difficult not to just shout "I know, it was me!!!!!") and to get him on side to help nail the real culprit.  He had mentioned that he'd paid the indemnity premium as well as the auction commission at our first meeting, so I knew he'd be able to reclaim his monies too.  The long and the short of it is that it looks very likely I'm getting my car back and in good nick too.  Am already planning the driving holiday in Northern Spain but I do know I shouldn't really be counting my chickens yet!

 

Anyways got back from the outlaws at tea time, having bought back my school-age son but leaving the eldest and my SWMBO up there for a few days more R&R.  That gave me a free evening and after having caught up on the weekend's Britains Got More Talent, (I cannot abide Britains Got Talent but in the follow up show on ITV2 Steven Mulhern remorselessly rips shreds into the auditioning public and he's so funny with it!), I got a couple of hours man-time at the bench.

 

So thankfully the not too many stencils on the underside, national markings and underwing serials got applied, left to dry a bit then Microsolled. Before putting the Microsol on I attached the wheels.

 

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Happy with that so far.

 

I also attached the windscreen (Kristal Klear) and gunsight (Revel Contacta) and attached the canopy to the electronics tray that forms it's base (CA).

 

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... and last but not least, here's the canopy resting on the fuselage.  Will attach it properly in the next installment.

 

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Well I hope you all had an Eggcellent Easter, I know mine was full of Eggcitement.  So until next time, make sure those bedbugs don't bite,

 

Chris.

 

 

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33 minutes ago, Col. said:

Everything sounds and looks to be going in the correct direction for you Chris :thumbsup:

You had to go and say it Col, you just had to go and say it!!!!   Just when you think you're there, the flick up fairies descend on you like a ton of feathers!!!!

 

@Biggles87 John, did your wings set come with any instructions as mine didn't?  If not it's time to break out the brown crayons and we'll write our own instruction sheet. 

 

As we saw before, the undercarriage legs got added, we did a bit of stickering and all good so far.  We even had the temerity to attach the wheels to the undercarriage legs.  We didn't have a tail-sitter so we're winning at life - or so I thought!

 

The next part of my build involved adding the undercarriage doors.  Now the kit main doors are a smidge too wide for the Red Roo hole, so they both got a tiny tiny trim to make them fit.  No alarm bells ringing yet, this is proper modelling eh?! Turned the Sabre right ways up and we've got a tail-sitter.  

 

Now two tiny doors on the same plane as the MLG legs can't turn this into a tail sitter can it; cue much head-scratching.  I get my nose down and dirty onto the workbench and I see the Sabre isn't resting on 3 wheels but on the nose wheel and the points of the doors.  Like Mr Morcombe's erstwile sidekick, our legs are too short (don't know about hairy though)!

 

Now with hindsight it should have been pretty obvious that the Red Roo wheel wells were deeper at the MLG attachment points than the kit parts but spotting that the first time round was way above my pay-grade.

 

Here's the kit parts:

 

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and here's the Red Roo well.............

 

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My measuring stick told me that the kit attachment sat .75mm below the level of the wing and that the same point on the Red Roo one was at the heady depths of 3.5mm down.

 

Therefore I deduce that the MLG legs need to be lengthened by 2.75mm.

 

I have used Albion Alloys concentric tubes and rods for these.  Not sure of the sizes but the outer looks right and the inner tube and the cental rod all fight tightly together.

 

I removed the attachment from the top of the MLG leg with my trusy razor saw, then drilled through it to take the rod.  I then drilled out the main leg and stuck a length of rod in it with CA.

 

The 2.75mm plug of the two outer tubes were cut by rolling them with a Stanley knife on the cutting mat and they were then CA'd to the rod.  The attachment lug was also re-attached and the rod trimmed up nicely.

 

So we went from the one on the left (yes I deliberately snapped the wheel off that one rather than gently prising it off like the other one as I love more brass rod reinforcing work, grrrrrrrrrr!!!!)....

 

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to the one on the right..........

 

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Have done both now, plus added a brass axle for the weel on the second leg.  Ok will re-paint these later and see how things stand when they're re-attached.

 

Blimey O'Reilly what a palava!

 

Gotta love aftermarket with no instructions!

 

All the best and catch up soon.


Chris

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