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Sepecat Jaguar GR3.A / GR1.A in 1/12th Scale


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Well kids....

 

I started all over again...

 

New thread because the old one was just devolving into a endless stream of do overs.  

 

THIS THREAD SHALL NOT BE WHAT CAME BEFORE...THIS ONE WILL BE A FINISHED PROTOTYPE MODEL!!

 

So a few months back my good friend Paul Fisher lost his home and wonderful workshop to fire in Paradise, CA.  I am so happy he and his family escaped and in that light the mention of what comes next seems so trivial.

 

Paul was in possession of the masters I had completed at the time of the fire so an opportunity to build a better model arose.

 

Considering the magnitude of the work I previously completed, I started thinking about how to speed up the build.  As many of you know I have turned to CNC and SLA type 3d printing to augment the hand building of the model.  Until recently I had eschewed the use of FDM type printers due to the inaccuracy of the prints, and significant post processing required after printing model parts.  Cost also was a factor, nothing was worth the investment versus the risk of poor parts.

 

Enter the Tiertime Cetus MKIII.  This little printer was cheap, precise and worth a gamble.  The main feature that attracted me to the printer was the linear guide rails and bearing blocks.  These almost guarantee accurate movement of the axises of the printer.  With a price in the $300 US range it was worth a try.  With the printer in hand and after some tweaking with the assembly of the printer I managed to print dimensionally accurate parts.  One inch cubes were printed and were measured by digital caliper only a few ten thousands of an inch from true, and square adjacent surfaces measured with a machinist's square.

 

So I ordered up 7,000g of PLA filament and started a-printing.

 

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On a similar journey I ordered up an Anycubic Photon MSLA printer, though this journey was much longer because the Photon required much more significant modification to get true parts.  Out of the box it made fantastic parts in terms of detail.  However, they parts didn't fit with others, they were skewed in the Z or vertical axis.  The modification was much too complex to detail in this post, suffice to say the machine was disassembled, parts were machined true, linear rails and bearing blocks added and a new parts were machined to make it all work.  Parts that came out of the machine post modification were exceptional!

 

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Now that I have three machines working simultaneously part production has definitely accelerated the pace of this build.

 

I have also made some design changes.  Outside of getting another chance to improve the model's accuracy, simplifying and streamlining the build has been a chief consideration.  So the model will still be "skinned" in aluminum sheet but only where there are removable panels, the remainder of panel detail will be scribed in to a layer of primer paint.  PLA is a difficult material to sand and also hygroscopic and needed to be well sealed.  I'm using 2 part automotive epoxy paint (paint and hardener) to fill and "glue" the PLA layers together.  The result is a surface that is much easier to sand and finish.  You can see a few of the PLA parts were the black primer has been applied and finishing has started.

 

Lastly my machining skills have improved to the point where the acrylic parts now have machined in details, rivets and reinforcing layers etc.

 

Here's a shot of the parts so far.  These parts represent the main components of the fuselage from the nose to the engine faces.  

 

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More detailed photos coming as assembly commences.  This will be a prototype model, so I will be finishing this one as I go, so you can look forward to finished assemblies going forward.

 

Thanks for checking in!

 

Timmy!

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Wow! This will be something else. Your last efforts were both fascinating and painful to watch even though the results were superb. This looks like a new chapter in epicness 👍

 

I'm really glad to hear Paul and his family were safe, but the loss of his studio is a great loss indeed.😢

 

Will be cheering along your progress with this one.

 

Alan

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Thank god your friend and his family are OK Timmy

 

It is a pity our old friend, your other version, got written off however this is looking even more exciting

 

I love the engineering approach, "The machine was crap so I rebuilt it, now it's working right"

 

This is and has been one of my favourite all-time builds and I am so pleased we can still follow along with it

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  • 1 month later...

Hello again!

 

I’ve been busy printing and prepping parts.  The skeleton and first layers of detail are ready for final fitting and assembly.  Everything received a coat of black epoxy primer, for two reasons to seal the FDM printed parts and fill machine marks and layer lines on the CNC cut, and resin printed parts.  I mixed up some chromate color with Tamiya yellow and green and sprayed a base color layer.  A few days later I received some MRP paints...I've been looking a paint solution since the demise of Floquil.  Great paint, and I super happy with the results.  Anyway, I sprayed a thin layer of MRP chromate over the Tamiya color and I was pleased with the mottled effect and overall fidelity of the base color.  Details were painted in their appropriate colors, then the parts were sealed with Future.  A layer of lamp black and burnt umber oils, thinned with Japan dyer was applied, then  promptly wiped away.  This dirtied up the surfaces and created a good back ground for the details to come.  Assembly is underway, with some printing successes I'm looking forward to share in the next installment

 

White parts CNC cut acrylic and styrene, green/blue parts are resin printed, and the dark gray part in the middle was CNC cut, top and bottom halves the make up the cockpit floor and nose gear well overhead.  The nose gear well half had a printed detail appliqué added.

 

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Primed parts

 

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Base Tamiya color

 

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Weathered parts

 

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Detail composites

 

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This stuff is coming up.  These are the console panels that were cut from 0.040” styrene on the CNC mill.

 

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Thanks for tuning in!

 

Timmy!

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi guys,

 

I‘ve started with some assembly and initial layers of detail.  The following photos are the left side of the nose landing gear well.   This detail is primarily the hydraulic tubing, and insulated environmental system tubing.   As a proof of concept idea I chose to try to print sections of tubing.  The aft most lines are laterally offset and have connectors that needed to be rendered.  Doubting my ability to bend and fashion identical parallel line by hand as well as keeping future production in mind a printing attempt was justified.  So the tube sections were modeled in CAD with portions tubing clamps at each end and sent off to my Photon.  I did print three copies of each section, as it turned out, all printed successfully but one of the three was perfect.

 

The remainder of the tubing was fashioned from lead wire.  Printed fittings and CNC milled tubing clamps were placed on the side wall using a paper template made from a 2d drawing exported from my CAD software.  Hours of studying photographs and tracing one line at a time, I managed to get all the pipes in what I think is the right place.  That is to say, every tube end landed on a connection point, no loose ends.  I know they are not 100% correct but, without a maintenance pub that shows a trace of each line....I’ve achieved a, let’s say, 98% accurate result.

 

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Here are a few more printed parts.  I finally invested in a proper macro lens with a ring flash.  I think the photos are much better...two problems though.  1. You can see every microscopic flaw, even though I build with layers of magnification from my cheaters down to 10x jewelers loop.  ....and.... 2. I’m working on my f stops for depth of field.   So far my shots are hand held, maybe a little less laziness on my part and I should use a tripod and focus merge multiple shots.  Irregardess y’all ort git the gist of my progress.

 

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Thanks for checking in!

 

Timmy!

Edited by Timmy!
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So @Courageous I assume we'll pass over getting one of those 3D printing jobbies like this one?

 

This is not only gobsmackingly large, but gobsmackingly good!

 

Someone had better warn @Fritag in case he gets a mind to climb in it and fly it!

 

Terry

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Thanks guys!

 

5 hours ago, Jinxman said:

Great stuff - will you be using any photoetch parts in the build? 

 

No plans for photo etch.  My milking machine will take care of most items I would have photo etched in the past.   I have a laser cutter too hat should prove useful as well.

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12 minutes ago, Timmy! said:

 

No plans for photo etch.  My milking machine will take care of most items I would have photo etched in the past.   I have a laser cutter too hat should prove useful as well.

Sounds good - can't wait to see more. Any plans to borrow from 1/12 automobile accessories - some of those hydraulic fittings and presumably the electrical connectors will be similar to the stuff used in F!?

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6 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I assume we'll pass over getting one of those 3D printing jobbies like this one?

You're assumption is correct. The thing is, these 3D machines may be excellent and expensive but one needs the skill to produce the drawings...

 

Stuart

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6 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Someone had better warn @Fritag in case he gets a mind to climb in it and fly it!

 

:D  A rather frightening 29 years rusty........Someone would have to remind me how to get into it to begin with.......and then help me up the steps...

 

I tell you wot tho’; when Timmy is finished I bet you could use it as a training aid for the walkaround and start checks :)

 

I’ve loitered in gobsmacked awe on each iteration of this build.

 

I’d love to 3D print parts - but like Stuart I’d have to start by learning the software........one day....maybe....

 

 

Edited by Fritag
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41 minutes ago, Jinxman said:

Sounds good - can't wait to see more. Any plans to borrow from 1/12 automobile accessories - some of those hydraulic fittings and presumably the electrical connectors will be similar to the stuff used in F!?

They have come in and out of my awareness...

 

My local hobby shop doesn't have these items for me to see and judge if they would fit and I'm a little weary of buying online only to find they won't work. To be honest, I'm having enough success with my prints now that I haven't felt the need to look for alternatives.

37 minutes ago, Courageous said:

You're assumption is correct. The thing is, these 3D machines may be excellent and expensive but one needs the skill to produce the drawings...

 

Stuart

You are correct the CAD is the key.  However, the two printers I'm using are some of the cheapest out there.  However, however, the Photon has had some significant modifications made.  I machined the Z-axis pillar square to the machine and added linear rails, and machined a new build platform mount to fit.  Not insignificant mods, but not expensive either.  There are "kits" or folks offering upgrades the make the machines much better.

 

Fritag,

 

Thanks for the kind words coming from you and those who know this jet...they mean a lot.  I just recently saw one of these jets in person for the first time this spring.  There is one at the Pima Museum in Arizona.  With that said if anyone sees a flaw...pipe up!

 

Cheers,

Timmy!

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1 hour ago, Fritag said:

A rather frightening 29 years rusty

You think that's frightening. My involvement goes back 45 years to when I was a young and enthusiastic member of the MOD(PE) project office team that were on the "buy side" of the Jaguar programme. I can still recall walking around the production and final assembly lines at Preston and Warton and looking at these pristine aircraft in their new paint schemes (then it was DSG/G/LAG). I can still also smell that zinc chromate primer from the paint shops ..... mmmmmmm! Got every opportunity to poke my head inside doors and hatches, and even got to sit in a few cockpits. Then over time became entangled in the world of Jaguar, and other frontline aircraft, MOD states (modifications). What a complex jungle that was as time went by! Happy days, but oh so long ago.

 

As you say @Timmy! CAD is the key to the 3D world and I'm fortunate to have learned a bit about the software through one of my sons who does that sort of stuff for a living. Still a way off getting my own 3D printer though.

 

Very impressed with what you are doing here I must say.

 

Terry

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  • 4 weeks later...

Took some iPhone shots today.  The majority of the hydraulic lines are complete for the top of the nose gear well.  I’ve added a wire bundle, that several hydraulic tubes will route over, was installed.  These tubes required a number of T fittings and check valves to be printed up and pieced together.  It’s not an impressive number of tubes installed since my last installment but between fiddly construction and hours of staring at photos to understand where everything connects they consumed that time span.  Lastly the torque tube that connects the aft doors to their actuator was installed.  There are some hydraulic tubes that will route over this tube necessitating it’s installment now.

 

On to the photos...

 

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More soon....

 

Thanks for checking in!

 

Timmy!

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Very impressive work!

It would drive me nuts but lovely to see what others can do, and what can be done with 3d printing too, as I have a couple of bits done and available through Shapeways.

 

Ian

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Time to take a little break from tubing!

 

Here is the Weapon Main Unit, part of the control of the five stores hard points.  It' s a good warm up for the cockpit detailing to come.  The main box was printed along with a block of switches and knobs.  The clear cover was cut from Evergreen clear 0.010" styrene and scored and folded to it final shape.  The upper portion masked and sanded to create the frosted border.  Fairly simple paint job, black body, aluminum wire connections, switches and cover latches and dark grey wiring boots.  After a coat a Future decals were applied and a little thinned oil paint was used to pick out details and add some grime.  Finally a coat 50/50 flat and gloss lacquer to unify the finish and the cover was attached.

 

Plumbing is about half done so that's next....

 

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More soon and thanks for checking in!

 

Timmy!

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