Sea Vixen F.A.W. 2 (F409) - FINISHED

[nimrod54]

I have decided to have a go at the intake trunking, thinking that if things don't work out I can add FOD guards anyway, I started by removing the detail from the top and bottom of the fuselage halves, choosing to do this on one side to start with whilst I test out the theory. I then cut some thin sheet plastic and folded this in half, I will fix this to one fuselage half, and I am hoping that once I close them up, this will be flexible enough to form the other section of the duct and butt up against an inner section of plastic sheet that I have to add yet.

 

by John L, on Flickr 

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Rabbit Leader]

I love these types of homemade kit enhancements, so rewarding whenever they come off and I have no doubt yours will look splendid.

Cheers.. Dave 

[nimrod54]

15 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

I love these types of homemade kit enhancements, so rewarding whenever they come off and I have no doubt yours will look splendid.

Cheers.. Dave 

 

Thanks Dave. This is the first time that I have attempted this, and I am sure that there are better ways to approach what I am trying to achieve, but it will all add to the scratch building learning curve. I hope that everything works out, but in the end it may still come to nought.

 

[nimrod54]

Over the course of the morning I have glued the fuselage together. To achieve a best fit I had to do this in stages and started at the back gradually working my way forwards once each section had set, I then had a test fit of the tail to check the joins over.

I can't say that the intake trunking was a great success on this occasion but with everything painted black there won't be much to see, and having recently acquired a Revell boxing of this kit I can try a different approach next time. Next job is to clean up the fuselage before I finally add the tail and tidy those joins up.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

[nimrod54]

Apart from the nose area, the fuselage joins have had an initial clean up, the nose will have a 2mm spacer added before I fix that in place and fair it in. The kit is a little short when compared to Warpaint plans and this should help to improve the overall appearance.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

I have also been looking at the canopy with a view to separating the sliding section. To that end I copied the moulded detail on the canopy frame onto masking tape, then used this as a pattern to create the part. Using the canopy surround I traced the outline to establish the lower edge fit line and glued the new part in place, and I assume the sliding section sits behind this, I hope all of that makes sense.

 

by John L, on Flickr

[AdrianMF]

Looking good!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Rabbit Leader]

Nice clear photos in this WIP John, allows us to see how you go about doing your craftsmanship quite well. I'm liking this lots. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[stevej60]

Just having a catch up John,she's coming together nicely!

[nimrod54]

Thanks chaps, I must say that for its age this kit goes together really well. The standard of fit being better than some of the short run kits currently available. I understand that there are some reported dimensional inaccuracies which are not easily corrected, but it is close enough to looking like a Sea Vixen for me.

[nimrod54]

I didn't do much to this over the weekend but this morning I glued the spacer in place, then filled the kit nosecone with Liquid Gravity before I fixed that in position. I will leave that for a couple of days to allow things to harden up, then I can start the sanding process.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

When I first opened the kit I noticed that the upper fuselage had a corner missing at the wing fold and consequently the small bullet fairing at that point was also missing, I reinstated the missing corner as part of the initial filling process when I joined the fuselage halves together. That left me the fairing to deal with, so I sanded a piece of plastic rod to a suitable shape at one end and cut it to length. I glued this in place with Tamiya Extra Thin and then ran some superglue along the join for added strength. Once that had set I refined the shape and blended everything together with plastic putty.

 

by John L, on Flickr

[nimrod54]

Having checked things yesterday evening, I decided that they had set up enough to start sanding the spacer to shape. It was quite a balmy evening here in NW England and so I took myself off to the bottom of the garden where, surrounded by birdsong and the occasional scent of honeysuckle wafting through, I spent a pleasant hour sanding this to shape. 

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

Having completed the change I decided to have a quick comparison of the FROG Kit v Warpaint Sea Vixen plans to see how far out things actually were. First I checked the plans against known dimensions: Wingspan 50 ft (15.24m) and Overall Length 55 ft 7 ins (16.94m). The wingspan is spot on in scale whilst the length scales out at 55 ft. making the plan 7ins short.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

I then sat the model on top of the plan and this is how things looked. Not too bad eh!

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Rabbit Leader]

Coming up very neatly and tidily there John. She really does look the part and we are dying to see some Grey and White paint splashed on. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[CliffB]

I'm just catching up with this one John and am very impressed!

[Dermo245]

4 minutes ago, CliffB said:

I'm just catching up with this one John and am very impressed!

Me too, great work!

The image of sanding in the garden with just birdsong around was lovely 😎

[nimrod54]

9 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Coming up very neatly and tidily there John. She really does look the part and we are dying to see some Grey and White paint splashed on. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

Patience young Padawan.  

 

I have separated the sliding section of the canopy from the fixed part and after looking at photos on't'internet, I have decided that the glazed section slides on the frame. I removed the rear section of frame and glued the sliding section to this, Because the photos that I have found don't show this area that well I am still a little unclear on a correct mode of operation, but after looking at several side on views, I think that this is the best solution. I await for the naysayers and flat earth society to react. 🤯

 

Not too far off paint now Dave. 

 

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

8 hours ago, CliffB said:

I'm just catching up with this one John and am very impressed!

Thanks for your generous comment Cliff. There are still a couple of areas to tidy up before I start painting, and I'm sure there will be more when the primer goes on.

 

7 hours ago, Dermo245 said:

Me too, great work!

The image of sanding in the garden with just birdsong around was lovely 😎

Cheers Dermo, and just to help with your imagination, here's where I was sitting on Monday evening, the honeysuckle is in the corner.

 

by John L, on Flickr

[nimrod54]

I have done some more filling and sanding work, with the nose receiving further attention and I then had a look at the wing-fold join. There is quite a step between the inboard and outboard sections with this kit which isn't too much of an issue if you fold the wings. Had I checked this earlier in the build I would have reduced the leading edge before making the join. Because of my lack of foresight, I decided to reduce the step by laminating the inboard sides with thin plastic sheet. I will reinstate the panel lines when the glue has had time to harden, once that is done I can tidy up those areas and it will be time for primer and paint.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Jinxman]

That looks fantastic - very neat work indeed. It's saying prime me, prime me!

[AdrianMF]

That’s coming along a treat! You wouldn’t know there was a whacking great step in the tailbooms when you first glued them together.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Rabbit Leader]

Every post seems to be looking like a winner John, she's certainly coming along quite nicely. 

Cheers.. Dave 

[nimrod54]

Painting  has finally started and I sprayed on some Tamiya primer this afternoon, of course that has highlighted a couple of areas which will need some further attention, including a previously missed hole at one of the joins at the forward end of one boom. 

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

[Jinxman]

That looks very good - a 'proper' looking aeroplane.

[DaveWilko]

On 6/25/2019 at 1:48 PM, nimrod54 said:

Having checked things yesterday evening, I decided that they had set up enough to start sanding the spacer to shape. It was quite a balmy evening here in NW England and so I took myself off to the bottom of the garden where, surrounded by birdsong and the occasional scent of honeysuckle wafting through, I spent a pleasant hour sanding this to shape. 

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

Having completed the change I decided to have a quick comparison of the FROG Kit v Warpaint Sea Vixen plans to see how far out things actually were. First I checked the plans against known dimensions: Wingspan 50 ft (15.24m) and Overall Length 55 ft 7 ins (16.94m). The wingspan is spot on in scale whilst the length scales out at 55 ft. making the plan 7ins short.

 

by John L, on Flickr

 

I then sat the model on top of the plan and this is how things looked. Not too bad eh!

 

by John L, on Flickr

Sir,

Could one most respectfully suggest that the Warpaint plans quoted dimensions for the length are actually wrong?.

 

Many plans quote the OAL as 55'7",the actual length as quoted by de Havilland is 53' 6 1/2" .

 

The Frog Sea Vixen is the most accurate for overall shape and dimension in 1/72nd scale.

 

It's main problem is that it is slightly wide from wingfold to wingfold,making the outer folding panels slightly too short

and making the weapon pylons slightly too close together.

That fact will be apparent if one tries to fit armament and fuel tanks,they will foul each other.

 

The reason for one fitting the extension plug 'twixt radome and fuselage(actually making the length too long!!)is to visually

make the over wide centre fuselage "look" slimmer.

 

There are other subtleties such as the length and shape of the hot air ducting,undernose retractable rocket pods and fuel dump pipe for a start

that can be much improved upon to make the model look much better .

One's careful study of the real aircraft will give handsome dividends.

 

Excellent work though Sir in fitting the aftermarket cockpit,an immense improvement to what,IIRC,Frog actually supplied when

one last built this kit back in 1978.

[Hockeyboy76]

Nice work John, a great little read of your build so far. 

[nimrod54]

Thanks buddy, I tidied up and re-primed the areas that required a bit more work earlier today, and then started to brush on the first coat of Extra Dark Sea Grey late this afternoon.

[nimrod54]

Flying in the face of convention, I have started the painting by brushing two coats of Humbrol 123 onto the upper surfaces. I felt that because I had added the undercarriage legs in prep for painting the white undersides, painting the darker shade first would make for an easier masking job. I hope to add a final thinned coat of EDSG later today, I should then be ready to make a start on the white tomorrow.

 

by John L, on Flickr