Sea Vixen FAW.1x2

[TheBaron]

Afternoon all.

Lovely warm day here with cooling breezes: hope it's as pleasant where you are.

On 10/05/2022 at 14:11, Fritag said:

Exquisite. Even in the most potentially unflattering of close-up photographs.  It’s great that your finishing skills match your construction skills, Tony.  

 

On 10/05/2022 at 16:16, giemme said:

You spoke the truth, Brother Steve! Amen!

 

Kind of you Steve & Giorgio: I'm definitely finding that the non-use of primer has made a small but significant difference to the kind of quality I'm getting in terms of paint/definition/smoothness these days. In this respect, It's reduced a lot of the tremulousness which I used to feel about the painting stage.

 

Never ceases to chasten me how much there still is to learn about colour/visual effects and all the ways which there are of achieving what you see in your mind's eye...

On 10/05/2022 at 17:37, Brandy said:

One sometimes forgets just how small 1:72 is when all we have is pics of the subject with no scale reference.

I find that particularly true of the wood effects which you've produced on your biplane builds in the past Ian - on occasion those visuals have floated entirely free of any sense of reproduction and and look utterly convincing as well, wood! 😁

On 10/05/2022 at 19:01, bigbadbadge said:

Only Gardeners delight , nothing Fancy.

The Lettuce looks interesting,  I have just gone for Little Gem and lots of it.

Nice one Chris.

For no apparent reason it used to be nigh on impossible to source watercress seeds here in Ireland but since finding a supplier, for the last few years I've been happily growing the stuff in an old metal drawer:

On 10/05/2022 at 19:15, Space Ranger said:

I propose that “one TheBaron’s thumb” become the Britmodeller standard scale reference for Work in Progress photos.

How did you manage to make 'Baron's thumb' sound so salacious Michael....

On 10/05/2022 at 19:19, Pete in Lincs said:

The engines look wonderful too, I hope I can get mine somewhere in the same universe.

I was counting on yours being from a galaxy far, far away tbh Pete! 😁

On 10/05/2022 at 20:47, hendie said:

Impeccable craftsmanship sir.  The end result is going to be worthy of the hours and effort you have expended.

I still think you should have purchased that canopy for a display case.  A little bit of elbow grease and it would have come up lovely.

Know anyone who could knock me up a marble stand Alan? 😄

On 13/05/2022 at 08:45, CedB said:

More stunning stuff Tony. The realism you're achieving is exceptional!

Ced old bird you are simply too, too kind.

 

I wanted to keep ploughing through all the smaller parts that had been at the back of my mind but without getting much of a look in whilst the overall features of the aircraft were sorted out. Since the early days of designing the undercarriage I'd been conscious as to how integral a part of the main gear the brake lines for the Maxaret system were in terms of the overall appearance of these components. They're revealed quite nicely in this typically useful shot from Damien Burke:

References like these, combined with several informative drawings in the maintenance manual gave me no excuse not to have a lash at building them, but after several abortive attempts with some very fine fuse wire and the Pixnor tweezers I was getting a quite discouraged at the crude results. Even building a simple jig to make the shape of the runs was unhelpful as the wire was simply too uncooperative when trying to shape multiple strands to the same path as the runs (which when viewed from the side are sort of elongated 'D' shape, with a twist in the middle where they mount to the scissors of the oleo).

 

This approach obviously needed rethinking but a rummage through the brass drawer threw up a tube of miscellaneous brass rods I'd bought from China yonks back and forgotten about. Several of these were whisker thin (0.25mm) but looked ductile enough that I was able to solder three of them together to form a single run:

This combined the three required lines in a form that was easy enough to hold in some small parallel pliers to form the central twist and then bend the 'D' shape of the overall run, leaving a little exxess at either end that could be folded up at 90° to give a little lip for mounting purposes:

Painted up with varying blends of NATO black and grey tempera, the resulting visuals for the brake lines were about as close as I was going to get at this scale:

The wheels themselves might get a little more attention later after some further handling but we'll see:

Dry fitted though I'm pretty happy with the combination of colour and griming:

 

That set of problems solved, I transferred attention to the observer's door.

 

 From ongoing experiments with trying to recreate a convincing (i.e., non-exaggerated) look to wear on metal features I've found a process that seems to be working out for me at 1/72. Having acquired various artist's metallic paints over the last few months, one I hadn't found a use for up until now was this Liquid Metal stuff from Roberson:

It's far too thick for airbrushing and even for  paintbrushing at this scale, yet it does have a lovely 'glint' when dry - especially this Pewter tint. Unlike some other silver pigments I've tried (which look the same vibrancy from multiple viewing angles in a way I find a bit unrealistic at this scale), this stuff, for whatever reason, is a bit more fugitive in the way it catches the light. Freshly applied like this it's too prominent of course:

 - but gentle rubbing it with an HB pencil gives a nicely-controllable way of grading the effects of wear to something like this:

You'll also note from the new brass hinge on the door that I clumsily broke off the original printed thrust link section and so had to drill out the door hinge to mount some 0.5mm tubing as a replacement:

Also added at the top of the door from brass is the interior release handle that again is prominent enough that it needs to be present:

 

Final addition today was tucking the remaining 'drum' of the AI18 unit into the port inspection bay:

The raised door for that feature will get added at the end with all the other small breakables...which reminds me I need t paint the missing bit of that '2' on later.

 

Take care until next time mes braves,

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Another fab update for us mere modelling mortals, thank you your Baronship.

Re the mainwheels, don't forget to paint the slip indicators onto the outside of the wheel & tyre.

For those who don't know, a small rectangle of white paint goes on the wheel and tyre. If the tyre slips around the rim under braking it's easy to see.

I found this Vampire picture in the walkarounds from @Julien Ta. Some Aircraft only had one white mark not two as here.

 

[bigbadbadge]

Great update and great work on the door and brake lines , they look splendid and great job on the watercress too fella.

Chris

[hendie]

2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Some Aircraft only had one white mark not two as here.

 

maybe only one half of the tire was prone to slipping then?

 

 

7 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Unlike some other silver pigments I've tried (which look the same vibrancy from multiple viewing angles in a way I find a bit unrealistic at this scale), this stuff, for whatever reason, is a bit more fugitive in the way it catches the light.

 

A nice choice Tony.   I'm not a great fan of silver for chipping/wear as if it's that far down to the metal, any aluminum is going to oxidize and turn greyish.  Other metals maybe not so much but unless it's a fresh scar it just isn't going to be silver, or shiny.

I like yon undercarriage - just the right amount of patina.

 

 

 

[giemme]

Impressive finesse of detailing on that undercarriage, Tony!  

 

Ciao 

[perdu]

Pete, ta. I knew what them was for but didn't know what them was called.

 

Seriously thanks.

 

Tony yet more brilliance, that pewter looks exactly what it should be.

 

Base metal that isn't shiny shiny.

 

And the brake lines, I can't..I don't know where to begin.

 

Blimeyoriley.👌

 

 

 

[TheBaron]

Had to take Mrs.B over to Ennistymon yesterday to drop off some of her work and found a town where time assumes a rather ambiguous quality - all the normal activity of modern life but punctuated throughout by a host of relic frontages from previous eras:

Nestled away in a side road amidst them was superb little bookshop and I mean what's not to like about a place that throws the normal categories out of the window to label its shelves thus:

As well as scoring a bundle of old 2000ADs for a pittance, this also found it's way to the till:

I figured that as helicopters are basically just very fast clocks, this should help on the Wasp build....

 

 

 

On 15/05/2022 at 19:22, Pete in Lincs said:

Re the mainwheels, don't forget to paint the slip indicators onto the outside of the wheel & tyre.

For those who don't know, a small rectangle of white paint goes on the wheel and tyre.

It'll not surprise you to learn that I was oblivious to this detail Pete: none of my period shots of operation FAW.1s show this from the shadows beneath the belly so I'll be sure to add a stroke or two in now. My thanks as always for keeping me on the straight and narrow!

On 15/05/2022 at 19:22, Pete in Lincs said:

If the tyre slips around the rim under braking it's easy to see.

Few old tractors round my neck of the woods have that problem too judging by the way they're driven....

On 15/05/2022 at 21:05, bigbadbadge said:

Great update and great work on the door and brake lines , they look splendid and great job on the watercress too fella.

Thanks Chris - I don't know about you but going outside to get your hands in the soil is one of the great antidotes to stresses caused by work.

On 15/05/2022 at 22:13, hendie said:

maybe only one half of the tire was prone to slipping then?

 

Is it true that tyres slip in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere?

On 15/05/2022 at 22:13, hendie said:

A nice choice Tony.   I'm not a great fan of silver for chipping/wear as if it's that far down to the metal, any aluminum is going to oxidize and turn greyish.  Other metals maybe not so much but unless it's a fresh scar it just isn't going to be silver, or shiny.

I like yon undercarriage - just the right amount of patina.

Thanks Alan.

There were some nice views on that video of XN708 I posted a while back which - allowing for the slightly 'muddy' looking film stock - give a useful sense of the visual strength of those areas from which paint has been worn away. Not often I've been lucky to get hold of photographic references for a subject dated as exactly as in this case.

On 16/05/2022 at 08:45, giemme said:

Impressive finesse of detailing on that undercarriage, Tony!

 

On 16/05/2022 at 11:49, perdu said:

And the brake lines, I can't..I don't know where to begin.

The legs had to include the brake lines lads - that was one of my lines in the sand.... 😁

On 16/05/2022 at 11:49, perdu said:

that pewter looks exactly what it should be.

 

Base metal that isn't shiny shiny.

I'm still surprised just how many different kinds of non-modelling metallic paints there are out there to play with Bill! That Pewter was way too thick for any type of airbrush application and clumped together too readily for normal dry-brushing, yet burnished on in places with a cocktail stick when partly dry it made for a nicely-controllable process.

 

Shifting attention the the front of the aircraft of late to work upon the radar mechanism and radome. I'd previously designed the annular shape that sits on the front of the radome so fired up the Silhouette first thing to cut its shape out of some scrap packaging:

0.3mm thick is about right for the scale. A quick test fit:

 - and then it was on to some more painting:

The intermediate tan hues of the radome resin look so very similar to the honeycomb annulus bolted to the front of the radar dish that I used the same paint combinations for both, albeit in slightly different ways. I initially laid down some patchy areas of khaki on both items first, before overlaying this with a couple of (very) thinned layers of dark yellow afterwards, the difference between the two being that for the annulus I painted on the reverse side of the part to create the shiny, slight translucent look of the original.

 

Once that had a chance to dry, I then flipped the radome over to apply some Alcald gloss black which I had to do twice - the first time revealing that I'd forgotten to dribble a little resin along the centreline of the radome top and bottom where it needs a smidgeon of levelling out due to the presence of a small but noticeable 'seam'. A quick file sand and respray and it looks as it should now after a polish:

The only problem as you can see is that all polishing produced enough static to attract every passing mote of fluff whilst being photographed...

Whilst the gloss black was out I also gave a final coat to the radar dish and scanner head:

Then I got to work on the inside of the radome again, LAG'ing the metal lip and adding the sockets for the locking mechanism around the rim:

These sockets were crated from 0.5mm discs punched out from silver foil. I also wanted to avoid the 'griming' of the interior to look too mannered so this was reproduced by the simple method of handling it none too delicately with dirty fingers!

 

The counterpart to those sockets on the radome are the latches at their corresponding intervals around the rim of the nose:

I'd added some locating dimples to the 3d print for this section but even so, it was still a bit hairy drilling out that rim in order to make the latches from 0.4mm brass tubing. Although the actual latches are pointed in shape I didn't want to push my luck any further trying to file these down and end up breaking something off so gambled on the fact they would recede visually into the overall structure once painted with a little Alclad steel:

By this stage the bench had begun to resemble a freeform jazz score...

After absorbing some more coffee it was then back to the AI18 dish to glue the honeycomb annulus onto the front with some Gator's Grip:

Need to add the bulbous tip to the central stalk still  but in terms of appearances, I'm pleased with the way the paint  shows through from the underside of the transparency:

That done and it was time for a test fit of the radome:

I'd just taken that shot when the setting sun broke through the clouds in the West so relocated to the kitchen table for a front view:

Seeing this aspect made me glad I bothered to put those latches in: it all adds to the busy-ness of the area in terms of the quintessential character of the aircraft:

Bonne nuit and sweet repose all of you.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[perdu]

👍

 

particularly damned good

 

And a damned fine bookshop too

 

[CedB]

Couldn't have said it better myself - thanks Bill!

[CJP]

All looking very nice!

[Terry1954]

More wonderful work to observe here Tony, lovely stuff.

 

19 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I figured that as helicopters are basically just very fast clocks, this should help on the Wasp build....

 

I can never resist a good book on miniature or model engineers lathes. As for the Wasp build, the very mention of it makes me tremble with anticipation. I assume you will also be scratch building the giant key to wind up the mechanism?

 

Terry

[bigbadbadge]

21 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Thanks Chris - I don't know about you but going outside to get your hands in the soil is one of the great antidotes to stresses caused by work

 

I certainly agree, I work from home at a desk in the mancave apart from a weekly reconnection day in the office, and getting outside and getting dirty is great.  Still trying to get my main crop Spuds out, all the rest of the veggies are out and Salads are already being harvested and consumed, love it.

Great update Tony,  the latches on the Radome OMG fella, the Radar too, looks flippin awesome. 

I love those old bookshops, we used to have a decent one in Hythe and used to love visiting,  there's a great one in Hastings too, must make an e case to get the family there in the summer holidays!!!🤔

Chris

[Pete in Lincs]

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

 getting outside and getting dirty is great.  Still trying to get my main crop Spuds out

Will someone please wake up @CedB He really isn't paying attention!

 

And look what I found in the walkaround section. This is the Duxford sea Vixen...

http://www.britmodeller.com/walkarounds/aircraft/seavixen/Sea Vixen Lwft Wheel.JPG

[CedB]

Sorry Pete. Er, fnaar!

 

(Bit out of practice)  

[Spookytooth]

She looks stunning Tony, absolutely stunning.

 

It`s nice when you find little shops tucked out of the way with not your main stream titles in.

 

Simon.

[giemme]

That radome interior is nothing short than a work of art! Suitably busy and weathered too!    

Ciao

[TheBaron]

Evening everyone - a Monday update before the week gavottes away again.

 

On 17/05/2022 at 21:30, perdu said:

👍

 

particularly damned good

 

And a damned fine bookshop too

 

Either will do for me on a good day Bill. 😄

On 18/05/2022 at 09:22, CedB said:

Couldn't have said it better myself

It's the thought that counts.

On 18/05/2022 at 10:07, CJP said:

All looking very nice!

Thanks CJ. Amazing how much more you still find there is to do at this stage of proceedings...

On 18/05/2022 at 15:54, Terry1954 said:

I can never resist a good book on miniature or model engineers lathes.

Only recently discovered the existence of Saxony Handsteine as a form of modelling Terry and feel compelled to make you aware of this now as well!

On 18/05/2022 at 15:54, Terry1954 said:

I assume you will also be scratch building the giant key to wind up the mechanism?

Wind-up merchant....

On 18/05/2022 at 18:07, bigbadbadge said:

Still trying to get my main crop Spuds out, all the rest of the veggies are out and Salads are already being harvested and consumed, love it.

Hat doffed to a kindred spirit Chris. 🤝

Afraid I pong a bit tonight as Mrs B. has recently switched over to making natural plant fertilizer from nettles fermented in buckets of water. After about two weeks, to say these mixtures niff a bit when stirred is an understatement... 😁

On 18/05/2022 at 18:07, bigbadbadge said:

I love those old bookshops, we used to have a decent one in Hythe and used to love visiting,  there's a great one in Hastings too, must make an e case to get the family there in the summer holidays!!!

On 19/05/2022 at 14:31, Spookytooth said:

It`s nice when you find little shops tucked out of the way with not your main stream titles in.

There used to be a superb one at the top of the High Street in Guildford back in the 80s (called Thorpe's iirc) which used to be like entering an enchanted forest of the early 20th C as much of the stock appeared to have been cleared from country house libraries in the area. To this day I still have many of the books I picked up there on visits, like this volume of Durer's etchings and woodcuts published in Ansbach in 1910, complete with Gothic typeface:

No-one will mourn Amazon warehouses when they're gone, but I mourn the loss of such places as that....

On 18/05/2022 at 18:46, Pete in Lincs said:

And look what I found in the walkaround section. This is the Duxford sea Vixen...

That is, and I have to say it Pete, a  most timely find for which I'm most grateful.

On 19/05/2022 at 16:12, giemme said:

That radome interior is nothing short than a work of art! Suitably busy and weathered too!

Amazing what grubby fingers can do Giorgio! 😁

 

The bench had become so chaotic even by my standards so it got tidied recently. Can you see the brass wing fences there?

No.

Me neither. 🥴

 

They'd been there when I started and i spent a whole hour scouring shelves and flooring to no avail. Guess where they where?

Yeah, that's right. I'd dry fitted them to the wings previously and forgotten about it...

 

Is this how senility starts?

 

Anyways, before any further stupidity could occur they were promptly tucked away into the dwindling box of bits that are waiting their turn to be added to the ensemble:

In keeping with my usual modus operandi, I'd made sure to break off the locating lugs ffrom both the Microcell containers so had to drill out and add replacements from brass tubing, which along with the cable trays, got a final coat of LAG and some Aqua Klear to seal:

Followed by some graphite treatment on the front to match the grimy/smoke-stained look that appears in a couple of reference photos I have showing this fetaure in enough detail:

Whilst the LAG and Aqua Klear were in the airbrush I also finished painting up the RAT sub-assembly:

The view below showing the minimum effective print resolution of the Mars 2 as the turbine blades visible here are 0.02mm thick:

Then before they could cause any further mayhem, he fences got GG'd into position:

I'll come back to them next time and wick a little more diluted GG along the rear portion of them for extra bonding strength:

Wingfold colour.

Period colour photography of operational FAW.1s is not exactly abundant regarding such matters (and you can safely ignore contemporary museum/static display items beyond the basic grey) but nonetheless I have been able to collate a bunch of characteristic views of the protective lubricant used in service:

James has previously commented on the nature of such colour variations here:

-whilst some additional hands-on information about the wingfold is provided by the third comment here (ignore the racist gobshite posting after it) to whit:

 

'the Wing Fold mechanism had to be cleaned and lubricated regularly otherwise it would corrode and the Latch Pins wouldn't lock the wings down unless you jumped up and down on the outer Wings.' (!)

 

Playing around in Photoshop by turning some of those colour shots into grayscales to compare with the original Pathe bw film stock provided a stunningly ambiguous tonal comparison:

I did read recently that some very early production FAW.1 wingfolds did receive a coating of zinc chromate (and at least one photo seems to clearly show this) so the labelling above adds a question as to whether the gold/green hue seen sometimes (allowing for fading dyes in period colour photographic film) on this feature may be a weathered version of that. It's a possibility of course, but not conclusive.

 

I'm going to go with the red though.

 

I doing so I freely acknowledge I've no exact reference to show XN708 did use this colour of protective application - and conversely that she didn't - so this is one of those circumstances where you just sometimes have to go on the balance of probabilities from what visual information you do have.

 

I think the red will look lovely and pretty and nice.

 

Last of the parts to get its visuals finalized in this session were tthe two 150 gall. tanks:

Since doing these for XJ481 I'd noticed that in many shots the rivets holding the sections together would often gain individual grime streaks of their own so added these here along with other representative levels of griming.

 

That's it this time around.

 

Slowly facing the reality that I have to work out what sequence to start sticking all this stuff onto the airframe in a way that minimizes my capacity to break things off at a rate faster than I'm adding them...

 

Hope your weeks got off to a good start and speak soon,

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheBaron]

Duplicate post.

[perdu]

16 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Duplicate post.

Twice as good?

[TheBaron]

10 minutes ago, perdu said:

Twice as good?

If only.

'Tis but shameless padding to try and make this one as long as a  @Fritag thread Bill.

[giemme]

10 hours ago, TheBaron said:

'Tis but shameless padding to try and make this one as long as a  @Fritag thread Bill.

Lord, please, no! 

 

 

 

Back into topic, it's all looking great in your last report, but I'm particularly impressed by the drop tanks  

 

Ciao

[Fritag]

1 minute ago, giemme said:

Back into topic, it's all looking great in your last report, but I'm particularly impressed by the drop tanks  

 

Me too.  Really like the graphite work.  Unless it wasn’t graphite work but some other splendiferous method, in which case I really like that……

 

10 hours ago, TheBaron said:

'Tis but shameless padding to try and make this one as long as a  @Fritag thread Bill.

 

3 minutes ago, giemme said:

Lord, please, no! 

 

Oy! I like to think that there’s a salutary circumlocutory effect to my threads; sort of a subliminal reminder of the merits of brevity…. 

[Terry1954]

25 minutes ago, Fritag said:

Oy! I like to think that there’s a salutary circumlocutory effect to my threads; sort of a subliminal reminder of the merits of brevity…. 

 

Mere mortals like me can only dream of having threads that long, and finding words like that to pad them out ............😁

 

12 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Only recently discovered the existence of Saxony Handsteine as a form of modelling Terry and feel compelled to make you aware of this now as well!

 

What a fascinating link!

 

12 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Wind-up merchant....

 

🤣🤣🤣

 

Wonderful update once more Tony. I am unashamedly nicking most of not all of your weathering techniques. They are brilliant, at least when you do them!

 

Terry

[bigbadbadge]

Great update Toney and don't worry we've all misplaced items like that, with me it's tools when working on the car!!!

The tanks and microcell holders and RAT are looking sweet, hope the wingfold goes well.

Off topic  the nettle fertiliser is a great idea, will have to remember that myself, thank you, all nearly done now just a few more spuds to plant out along with the last peas and beans and I am finally done and can relax for a while!!!.

Great work on the Sea Vixen

Chris

[Galligraphics]

3 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Off topic  the nettle fertiliser is a great idea, will have to remember that myself, thank you

Just be warned that Tony wasn't joking about the smell...