Sea Vixen FAW.1x2

[giemme]

13 hours ago, TheBaron said:

If sadism is you're thing Giorgio....

Well, maybe...  

 

Neat progress there, Tony   Merry Christmas to you and yours  

 

Ciao

[perdu]

If I am collecting inferences correctly Tony you plan to pin this to a deck, correct?

 

If so, a fate my Gannet is about to endure, I ponder whether your resin needs extra weighting via the chambers you have induced?

 

Before I pin the Gannet to its deck area I expect to find ways to remove half a pack of Liquid Gravity first, I dont entirely trust my home fettled undercarriage to hold the weight against occasionally getting moved to places.

(My 7sqn Chinook lost its pinned and glued rear suspenders coming home from Telford last month, hence inspiring deeper thoughts than usual about vulnerability.)

 

It is very impressive how nicely these disparate bits become Sea Vixens in the twinkling of a resin and dash from the maestro's home brew bar.

 

Wunderbar, is I believe the correct expression, no doubt Ben can correct me if I am off-key.

[bbudde]

3 hours ago, perdu said:

It is very impressive how nicely these disparate bits become Sea Vixens in the twinkling of a resin and dash from the maestro's home brew bar.

 

Wunderbar, is I believe the correct expression, no doubt Ben can correct me if I am off-key.

Hi Bill,  this is exactly the correct word for that. You could also say "Wunderschön", which expresses the same here. Have a merry christmas too,

Cheers Benedikt

[perdu]

19 hours ago, bbudde said:

Hi Bill,  this is exactly the correct word for that. You could also say "Wunderschön", which expresses the same here. Have a merry christmas too,

Cheers Benedikt

Thank you Benedikt old friend, have a wonderful "Wunderschön" Christmas too and lets hope for a far better year to come.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 12/22/2021 at 7:45 PM, bbudde said:

Btw has anyone heard anything about Ced?

Ced is fine - just suffering from an extended bout of Mojo loss.   

[bbudde]

4 hours ago, perdu said:

lets hope for a far better year to come

Thank you Bill and yep all a bit confusing and challanging at the moment. We will see how it turns out  Stay safe all.

Cheers

[bbudde]

4 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Ced is fine - just suffering from an extended bout of Mojo loss.

Glad to hear that. Also a merry christmas to you and of course to Ced too, if you see him.

Cheers Benedikt

[TheBaron]

A quick Christmas' Eve update before falling silent for a spell of family and indulgences.

  

On 22/12/2021 at 19:20, Pete in Lincs said:

Be sure to empty the collection box on after flights as it may affect the C of G.

 

Merry Christmas to you and yours over there on the Emerald Isle. Stay safe and warm.

Will do Pete - hope you get plenty of time off shift to get the feet up by the fire.

On 22/12/2021 at 19:37, 71chally said:

I'm hoping to get some more superlatives for Christmas!

Hope yourself and famille Chally are all doing ok James.

2022 might be the year I finally finish this thread!

On 22/12/2021 at 19:45, bbudde said:

Hello Tony,, a bit time on my hands for funny things now. All looks very fine what you have done and do. Hats off.

Danke Benedikt - frohe Weihnachten.

On 22/12/2021 at 21:32, mark.au said:

The more I see pay attention to the incredible work you and others are doing with 3D Printing the more I become fascinated with it.  I love the evolution of things in general, and in creativity in particular; the work that’s being delivered in this medium is simply outstanding - this Vixen being an example in the making.

That sounds perilously like someone about to buy a 3d printer Mark! 😁

On 23/12/2021 at 06:16, Hamden said:

 

More stunning work Tony this Vixen is coming together now and will look great alongside your Martel trials version

Thank you Roger - I hate to say it but I think two Vixens will be enough to last the rest of this mortal coil now. 😁

On 23/12/2021 at 08:15, giemme said:

Well, maybe...  

Enigmatic response - duly noted!

On 23/12/2021 at 09:57, perdu said:

If I am collecting inferences correctly Tony you plan to pin this to a deck, correct?

 

If so, a fate my Gannet is about to endure, I ponder whether your resin needs extra weighting via the chambers you have induced?

Reasonable cogitations Bill.

With the beefy main fetlocks on this beast plus a brass axle on the nosewheel I'm going to place my trust in prayer and hubris that this will stay locked onto the base I'm going to build for it. Bookmark this page now so that in the summer you'll know where to quote from when saying 'I told you so!'

 

I have it on good authority though that if you place a picture of Jeff de H in front of the aircraft it remains standing to attention out of sheer tremulousness...

8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Ced is fine - just suffering from an extended bout of Mojo loss.   

He's secretly teaching himself 3d printing isn't he - I just know it.

(If you're reading this Ced we miss you mate).

 

Been poring over undercarriage diagrams of late:

In those not entirely abundant photos looking up into the Vixen's well  (Vixen's Well sounds like a good name for a neighbouring village in Midsomer Murders...) there's a lot of lovely hydraulic pipework, fire extinguisher bottles and the like tucked away in the recesses but unfortunately it's only visible due to the inboard half of the main gear door being lowered-  which doesn't happen under normal circumstances when the gear is locked down. It only drops when the gear is being cycled up/down, as you can see here:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=724129844661424

 

I'm not sure therefore if I'm going to add all of that internal gubbins only to immediately hide it under the door forever but as soon as I type this out I realize it's a ridiculous things to say and of course I'm going to add at least something representative. Just not today...

 

A test fit of said inboard doors however revealed that whilst the fit of the doors themselves is pretty much spot on, full disclosure means showing you a couple of minor issues to the rear of the well where there was a slight deformation of the resin due (I suspect) to suction inside of there during printing. I did use a series of supports inside the wells to try and mitigate such problems but it looks as if there was still  just enough of a pressure wave going on around those supports to leave a small void (circled) where the wing and fuselage mate, plus a little sanding back needed (red outline) on the front of the boom underside to let the door sit in at the correct angle:

I'd class this under 'minor fettling' in needing about 10 mins work with a file and filler to tidy both sides of the aircraft.

 

Having attended to that I had a restful couple of hours streaming a mixture of Hawkwind and Ebo Taylor whilst sorting out the excess top and bottom where the inner wings are glued on to the fuselage:

The best tools I've found for levellling the resin seams are a small Xacto blade to plane off the bulk of the resin, followed by 600 and 1200 grit W& D with water:

Using the same material as an adhesive that the aircraft is printed from means that the seams basically disappear into the bodywork.

You get the same surface smoothness using an epoxy resin like Araldite as an adhesive, just that the seamline remains visible due to its slight translucency compared to the opaque grey of the resin.

 

After finishing the underside seams as well:

 - it was time for a test fit of the main gear legs:

A little modest filing to get the tops of the legs to slip into place inside the well but otherwise a good solid fit with no vertical orientation issues when viewed from the front:

It'll come as absolutely no surprise to anyone to notice in the above shot that the wing hinges went for a Burton.

 

I didn't mess about but very professionally dropped the fuselage onto the ground from shoulder height whilst examining it yesterday, resulting in said hinges flying off simultaneously into oblivion. Having mystically predicted in a previous post that I would do something this stupid, I'd already taken the precaution of doing up a design to print off sets of spares for these parts:

That's it this side of Yule, it just remains dear fellows to wish:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[perdu]

Nice work with the mysterious intake below the wingroots.

 

Its a mystery because I dont have the full monte of AP info like your good self.

[Gondor44]

Just been catching up an a weeks worth of postings.

 

WoW that snippit of Jack Hargreives was a blast from the past. Didn't get to see many episodes of that series so maybe I should spend some of my holidays looking through YouTube.

 

Gondor

[Anthony in NZ]

Another awesome update....now not too much eggnog please.  We need your head in the right space for the next installment!  

 

Have a great holiday break mate and stay safe!

 

Cheers Anthony

[Pete in Lincs]

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

hope you get plenty of time off shift to get the feet up by the fire.

Had today off and not back until Tuesday. Nice, and thank you.

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

from shoulder height whilst examining it yesterday,

From shoulder height? You were 'flying' it and practicing deck landings weren't you?

[71chally]

Merry Christmas Tony, and to the Baron family, and to the assembled throng here!

[bigbadbadge]

Glad you knocked up the spare hinges, you must be psychic  Tony.  Great work , U/C legs look good in place too.  

 

Merry Christmas to you and yours and to all.

Chris

[TheBaron]

Today's update is bought to you by Lentheric:

On 24/12/2021 at 17:03, perdu said:

Nice work with the mysterious intake below the wingroots.

 

Its a mystery because I dont have the full monte of AP info like your good self.

I had a squint through the manuals Bill and that small intake is simply referred to generically as 'air intake fairing'.

A bit of further digging and the only other functionally related fitting that seems to align with it in that area is the centre wing air conditioning:

James can correct me on that later... 😁

On 24/12/2021 at 17:07, Gondor44 said:

WoW that snippit of Jack Hargreives was a blast from the past. Didn't get to see many episodes of that series so maybe I should spend some of my holidays looking through YouTube.

There used to be a compendium of old episodes (transferred from VHS judging by the quality) up on the MV Group forum iirc, but that was a good few years ago so not sure if it's still available.

On 24/12/2021 at 19:14, Anthony in NZ said:

We need your head in the right space for the next installment! 

I hope today's update does not disappoint Anthony, though what it might say about my mental state after an excessive intake of Irn Bru over the weekend is a moot point... 😄

On 24/12/2021 at 20:28, Pete in Lincs said:

From shoulder height? You were 'flying' it and practicing deck landings weren't you?

I was!

(But the deck was a bit slippy Pete....)

PS. PM me a postal address? I'll have a bag of Krieger parts for you for after the crash landing...

On 24/12/2021 at 23:33, bigbadbadge said:

Glad you knocked up the spare hinges, you must be psychic  Tony. 

That's me Chris. Now if only I could find a bookie to give decent odds on me dropping something/letting the file slip at the least opportune moment... 😁

 

 

As always when I don't quite understand the relationship between what I'm seeing in photographs and what is illustrated in the maintenance manuals, I'd started working up some drawings to help me understand what was going on inside the main gear bays (in terms of pipes, wiring, connecting rods & etc.):

For the purposes of model building it's possible to divide these bays into two sections, the bit covered by the inboard doors and the bit visible once the legs and outer doors are locked in the down position. When analyzing what was going on around the walls and roof of the first of those sections (shown in the drawing above) I quickly realized that a decision was going to be necessary due to my inboard wheel well sections not being as deep as on the actual aircraft. Why this discrepancy? Well it was actually a necessary design decision due to finding on one of my first wing prints (with the well of the correct depth) that it came up too close to the upper surface of the wing and resulted in deformation above that area when the resin shrank during curing.

 

You saw something similar with the firewall affecting the belly of the aircraft a couple of posts back.

 

I've been doing this bloody aircraft for so long now that it amazes me how much I've already forgotten about what I did back in the design phase. Anyway, this gave me a choice to either produce an oddly truncated version of the interior detailing, or else to omit it; as my policy these days is leave out what won't look right, I did exactly this and moved swiftly on too work out the required features to add to the outboard part of the main gear bay instead, eventually resulting in:

Fitting out was complicated somewhat by the need to work around the leg and radius arm on each side:

The hydraulics and pipes were knocked up from mixtures of brass tube and fuse wire treated with Mr.Metal primer for painting purposes: on the aircraft that hydraulic arm doesn't in reality pierce the wing rib as you see here - I drilled a mounting hole for strength knowing that the inboard door would hide the stub sticking through.

 

At this point the build became afflicted by mission creep in that I figured if I was going to knock up an Admiralty Grey mixture for those wells and legs, it would make sense to prep the other parts requiring this colour as well, rather than faffing about  back and forth later. Firstly then the exhaust cone assembly was removed from its supports and tidied up. The fit was encouragingly snug with the mounting lugs that I'd added helping to position it quite effectively:

The top 'lip' along the top of that assembly I added post-print (by applying resin and carving) as it wasn't possible to add this feature to the part at the design stage due to it interfering with the printing support required around the rim in that area. With an old engine mule added to check tolerance and blimey I surprise myself sometimes when a thing works:

 

As anticipated, resin shrinkage made installation of the nosegear a tight affair - I'd guesstimate the (in)tolerance in this case to be about 0.2mm, so with about 0.1mm filed off of each side it slid home without any visible damage to accuracy:

 

By this point I'd run out of excuses not to actually start slapping some primer over all these bits and fittings, so was able to unsheath my new and long-coveted Samurai tool:

At 0.35mm my usual Iwata Eclipse has never let me down, but increasingly in recent builds I've felt the need for finer and more precise control when painting certain parts of an aircraft. Despite the instructions being written predominantly in Japanese:

these are by a country mile the most thorough and clearest set of instructions hat I can recall getting with any kind of a mechanical device, proving that well designed graphical communication transcends any language barrier. Out of the box this airbrush just sits, well, beautifully in the hand. I wasn't sure though how such a fine needle would perform with Alclad's black but aside from having to keep the brush much closer to the subject that I would have done with the Iwata, the results were beautifully smooth:

Exhaust tunnels:

Arrestor bay:

Engine bays:

Bays & exhausts:

Main gear wells:

 

Right. Time for lunch I think.

Hope your weeks are off to a good start mes braves.

Tony

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Well, primer and a new airbrush! Only one thing to do, post this...

 

Lovely wheel bays. That engine looks good in there & the nose leg is proudly prominent (f'nar).

From what I've heard, that Airfix flight deck game was somewhat difficult to master.

PM inbound, BTW. Hopefully it'll catch the 3 wire.

[hendie]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

so was able to unsheath my new and long-coveted Samurai tool:

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Out of the box this airbrush just sits, well, beautifully in the hand.

 

 

I think you'll find you get much better results if you point it in the opposite direction Tony. 

 

Lovely update.  It's a wonderful feeling when you start assembling all those parts you've designed, printed, cured, cleaned, fitted, primed and whatnot all by yourself isn't it?

Absolutely stunning. Stunning!

[giemme]

You got a PROCON BOY! Excellent choice, you won't be disappointed! And when you start playing with the built-in MAC valve, you'll likeit even more!

 

Great updates, BTW - all coming together swiftly    

 

Ciao

[bigbadbadge]

Great to see some paint going on Tony, really looking forward to seeing the paint lift ghis amazing build to another level too.  I can't comment on the Airbrush though as I know nothing about them!!!

Chris

[TheBaron]

In the dimmer days of the year it sometimes seems as if mosses and lichens are the brightest things alive:

 

Aand Pete from Lincs is on line 5. You're through to the show Pete, so what's on your mind:

On 27/12/2021 at 15:50, Pete in Lincs said:

Only one thing to do

And of course  you had to do it... 😁

On 27/12/2021 at 16:06, hendie said:

I think you'll find you get much better results if you point it in the opposite direction Tony.

Gah! I need a stencil, doing it freehand sucks:

On 27/12/2021 at 16:06, hendie said:

It's a wonderful feeling when you start assembling all those parts you've designed, printed, cured, cleaned, fitted, primed and whatnot all by yourself isn't it?

Definitely. 😁

On 28/12/2021 at 08:07, giemme said:

You got a PROCON BOY! Excellent choice, you won't be disappointed!

I'm certainly not - it's pure delight. I take it you have one too Giorgio?

On 28/12/2021 at 08:07, giemme said:

And when you start playing with the built-in MAC valve, you'll likeit even more!

Absolutely - I had a MAC valve patched into the airline when using the Iwata and was getting what I thought were some nice results, but the combination of a much smaller needle diameter with one here just blows me away in terms of the greater precision it gives, especially when working with small parts or in tight regions like the wheel wells.

On 28/12/2021 at 08:47, bigbadbadge said:

I can't comment on the Airbrush though as I know nothing about them!!!

You don't need to know anything about airbrushes when you can produce work of the quality that you do with paintbrushes Chris. I envy you your skill and patience in that department no end.

 

Having another day off meant being able to spend part of yesterday obsessing over a paint mixture to represent BS381C-697 Light Admiralty Grey - a delightfully ambiguous hue that manages to look different in  nearly every single photo I've seen of it on aircraft. In photographs taken with a flash or other bright light it can look bluer/cooler than those under less intense light, where it appears slightly warmer/greener. It took me quite a while fiddling with various combinations before reaching something I deemed reasonable but unlikely to fool an expert like Nick Millman if he ran a spectrophotometer over it:

In terms of additive RGB value for screens the colour is produced nearly equal mixtures of green and blue (thegreen predominating slightly) with a lesser amount of red. I've seen it described in one or two places as having a light blue tint which I don't think is really very accurate in colour terms; it's more of a light cyan in my view. Either way I rustled a bottle up from the above mixtures of pale greens and flat blue in a white base.

 

The longer I stared at sample chips of the colour online though the more uncannily familiar the hue seemed, a mystery cleared upon showing the bottle of colour to Mrs B, who promptly replied: 'That's because it's the colour of our kitchen wall!'

This was if memory serves a colour called 'Pale Sage', which I imagine would sound a bit fey if you went into the Stores to ask for some on an aircraft carrier.

 

First up, the engine bays:

The effect I was striving after here was similar to that of the Avons previously in looking 'used' in operational terms, but not overdone:

From various shots and videos from the Navy Wings maintenance archive the main things I noticed where a general dark grey 'grubbiness' to the walls (done here by airbrushing some heavily diluted Payne's Grey oil paint on in random patches and knocking back with a cotton bud) along with chipped/abraded paint on the corners of the vertical ribs in places (simulated here with graphite highlighting on said edges rubbed back with a fingertip) due I imagine to knocks received along the carcass during engine removal/replacement. I also added some minor lubricant/fuel staining on the floor of the bays with airbrushed Yellow Ochre oil paint (same as used on the Avons) to match some of the staining that you see leaking out into the slipstream along the underbelly of the aircraft.

 

Wheel wells used the same base colour, with a slightly darker mixture of Payne's Grey airbrushed over the top and rubbed back from the highlights to match the darker soiling (from tyres/decks?) you see inside those regions:

Main gear legs received that same treatment to match:

 

 

Ditto for the nose:

 

There's still the various hydraulic and electrical lines to run around those legs but I'll wait until the end and the undercarriage is being permanently installed along with their doors before adding these features.

 

The inside surface of the gear doors, plus the Microcell units likewise got LAG'd in similar fashion today, and that's you up to date.

 

Postman delivered emergency supplies today so off to hunker down somewhere comfortable with a large beaker of Lavazza and chocolates....

 

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

18 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

You don't need to know anything about airbrushes when you can produce work of the quality that you do with paintbrushes Chris. I envy you your skill and patience in that department no end.

Thanks Tony for your incredibly kind comments there.  I am touched fella.

The engine bays look fantastic with your weathering effects as do the UC baysand legs  too.  Another awesome Seavixen is emerging. 

Great work as always Tony 

Chris

[CJP]

Really enjoying this build - that Avon looks great sitting in the engine bay!

CJP

[hendie]

Wot can I say that hasn't been said many times before in this thread?

... Firkins! Has anybody mentioned firkins yet? 

Probably 

 

Those details are just firkin amazing Tony. It just gets better with every post. It really does.

 

 

 

[Terry1954]

10 hours ago, TheBaron said:

obsessing over a paint mixture to represent BS381C-697 Light Admiralty Grey - a delightfully ambiguous hue that manages to look different in  nearly every single photo I've seen of it on aircraft.

 

That statement evokes a few memories of Biggin Hill Air shows back in the late 60's, early 70's, where my "dedicated to all forms of aviation, especially military, and even better if it's FAA" mates and I, would crawl around underneath visiting FAA aircraft (parked within in the crowd as you could do that in those days) in search of many details, and most definitely that colour. I can recall it very clearly on those huge legs of the Buccaneer, but as you say, challenging to actually replicate. It seems like you are right on the money with it here though Tony, nice one.

 

And how fortunate to have yer actual kitchen wall decked out in such a colour! Mrs T recently suggested our living room chimney breast needed some "statement" darker but complementary colour to offset the white of the other walls. Has to be EDSG really wouldn't you say?

 

Nose gear and main gear legs look splendid and those engine bays are coming alive. Can't wait to see your wonderful Avons installed.

 

Wonderful stuff.

 

Terry

 

 

[perdu]

Some is AWE ing me again. rather nice job there Tony

 

I hope you publish the actual recipe for Lt Ad Gy in Tamigunze colours because well they do paint better than Vallejo but if you want a reasonable facsimile of LtAdGy in Vallejo they do two complementary hues 70.973 Light Sea Grey is as near as buggery to the main hue without mixing and their 70.907 Pale Grey Blue gives a slightly lighter hue to knock back with as a dry brushing coat.