Sea Vixen FAW.1x2

[Navy Bird]

7 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

What a fascinating link!

 

JSTOR always has such interesting articles. I really look forward to their newsletters. I think I'll make a cabinet of curiosity model next.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[bigbadbadge]

1 hour ago, Galligraphics said:

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

That'll please the neighbours 😉

Chris

[Pete in Lincs]

22 hours ago, TheBaron said:

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

You are more than welcome. It's my small attempt to pay back some of the pleasure I've had from this thread.

The red protective, BTW, is PX 7. It came in tubes and tubs. Consistancy was akin to general purpose grease and it could be painted on.

Beautiful drop tanks. Oh look, a powered oyster!

 

[TheBaron]

Well. (Sips laconically from tumbler in style of Dave Allen)...

 

Currently bedridden and self isolating with an eager cast of symptoms all vying to take centre stage as the bastid pox of CV-19 has a lash at the Baronial carcass.

 

Ugly stuff, but it seems to be burning through the various stages quite rapidly since waking up with it on Tuesday, ameliorated by caring comments from sons and heirs such as: 'How will he know if he has brain fog?'

 

In hindsight the missing wing fence episode may have been the onset...🙄

Ho, if not an outright hum.

 

On 24/05/2022 at 08:04, giemme said:

I'm particularly impressed by the drop tanks

Thanks G: I just have to figure out whether it will be best to stick them on before or after mounting the outer wings onto the aircraft....🤪

On 24/05/2022 at 08:27, Fritag said:

Really like the graphite work.  Unless it wasn’t graphite work

It was indeed graphite Steve - varying grades from HB to 8B.

 

Doing that caused me to realize there isn't a working pencil sharpener in the house between us, so I've just ordered a classic schooldays-nostalgia version:

Anyone else remember that petrichor-like aroma of wood-shaving and chemical-tang which these things produced when cranked in hot summer classrooms...?

On 24/05/2022 at 08:27, 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…. 

😄 Id est quod est.

On 24/05/2022 at 09:01, Terry1954 said:

Tony. I am unashamedly nicking most of not all of your weathering techniques

Nick away Terry , the graphite is nothing more than pencils, water, eraser, fingertip, and a flamboyant sense of the random.

On 24/05/2022 at 12:17, bigbadbadge said:

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!!!.

It's a splendid feeling isn't it at this cycle of the season Chris when you keep popping out to check how much the stuff has grown overnight? The mung beans I'd previoualy planted to have bean sprouts for salads have gone over so potted them on now to experiment with growing them on to harvest as beans instead. Presumably just like growing peas or Broad beans....

On 24/05/2022 at 16:06, Galligraphics said:

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

Definitely not one for an apartment balcony in the urban environment!

 

Pt. 2 to follow after some Panadol....

 

[TheBaron]

On 24/05/2022 at 16:30, Navy Bird said:

JSTOR always has such interesting articles. I really look forward to their newsletters.

You cannot beat their random sparks of revelation Bill.

 

I'm lucky in having a full institutional access to JSTOR through my job, which is basically having acess to ideas in methamphetamine form...

On 24/05/2022 at 18:41, Pete in Lincs said:

You are more than welcome. It's my small attempt to pay back some of the pleasure I've had from this thread.

🤗

On 24/05/2022 at 18:41, Pete in Lincs said:

The red protective, BTW, is PX 7. It came in tubes and tubs. Consistancy was akin to general purpose grease and it could be painted on.

I knew you'd be the one to give the the correct information here Pete - in fact I remember you mentioning PX7 some time back and I'd neglected to make a note of this material.

I'd done some trial runs with various red pigments dissolved in Aqua Klear and this seems to work well in terms of reproducing the glisten and translucency of the coloured grease in response to light. Applied with a paintbrush though it's a little too textured at this scale on top of the wingfold details, so reckon it will look better lightly airbrushed on, possibly with a stipple here and there from a cotton bud.

 

As well as the period red colour, I see PX-7 is still available today in a kind of honey colour: this might well account for the green-gold appearances of some wingfolds when applied over the top of Light Admiralty Grey.

On 24/05/2022 at 18:41, Pete in Lincs said:

Oh look, a powered oyster!

No wonder they move so fast!

 

Manic visions of Sea Vixen firing off molluscs instead of chaff and flares....

 

Although rubbery feeling limbs deny me the bench currently, I have been making further headway in terms of further identifying the function of various parts of the aircraft, by a more careful rereading of Molly Neal's excellent article  'Sea Vixen: The Royal Navy's Strike Fighter' in the  Feb 5th, 1960 edition of Flight magazine.

 

Even more so than Tony Buttler's book on the Vixen, Neal's article concentrates a superb technical description of the aircraft into just a few pages, augmented by A.Bowbeer's peerless cutaway drawing of the aircraft which contains so much detail I'd previously failed to notice all of its detail.

 

Regarding the small set of intakes on the underside of the wing root (the smaller sets below the main engine intakes), this sentence on p.186 caught my eye;

- and had me scurrying back to the cutaway:

A zoom in on the partially obscured stbd intake:

-reveals the functions of 81 + 82 as:

I'd previously misidentified this feature as something to do with cooling the oil system but this explains the functional nature of the split intake quite clearly.

 

@perdu had previously drawn my attention to the small vents on the inboard trailing edges of the wings - a featurethat scouring of the maintenance manuals could only throw up a graphic of an inspection panel nearby on this section of the flap shroud:

 

However I think I've solved the mystery of the function of these small vents:

Or rather, Bowbeer's graphic is the only source I found that explicitly singles this feature out:

Feature 104 is identified in the Flight index as a 'Wheelcase Breather Vent'

 

At least I know what to call it now, and can emphatically confirm that it's venting something from somewhere....🤨

 

Harking back to my comments above about random sparks of revelation:

you never know what's going to pop out from a book seemingly unconnected to something like the Sea Vixen but in currently reading Mark Mazower's:

- the Rolls Royce Avon puts in a sudden appearance on p.27:

Hope this finds you all hygienic and non-hallucinatory.

It's the best you can hope for these days...

Tony

 

[giemme]

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Ugly stuff, but it seems to be burning through the various stages quite rapidly since waking up with it on Tuesday,

I hope you get past it soon, Tony. 

Ciao

[mark.au]

Hope your experience with C is as brief as possible Tony.  Take care of yourself.

[perdu]

I found it took a day to subside and a couple more to leave the rest of the ancient bod.

 

Fingers x'ed for a rapid dedosing.

[hendie]

Hot toddies. Lots of them.

 

Doesn't do a damn thing for Covid, but after a few, you don't care anyway. 

 

PS. Hope the lurgi passes quickly and you're back to your normal self soon

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Get well soon, old chap. I have a bracing glass of Jamesons' by my side to ward off anything that may leap out of this thread.

And, very learned sounding Sea Vixen vent/intake explanations. Thanks.

[Pete in Lincs]

Here's another picture I found... Probably Eagle or Victorious.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/b3debc2f9f15b89515b0be7789ac275f/74d49917a9845fbf-17/s500x750/dbab45b21f36c60e68c664c06009904e22b24db2.jpg

[CedB]

Get well soon Tony, hopefully without any nasty bits  

 

On 26/05/2022 at 10:56, TheBaron said:

…ameliorated by caring comments from sons and heirs such as: 'How will he know if he has brain fog?'

Threaten to change the will. Cheeky monkeys  

[Dric]

It's just an incredible amount of splendid work... euh no it's much more than "just an incredible amount of splendid work".

Thanks for sharing this inspiring work.

[Brandy]

What Hendie said. Lots of alcohol, and get well soon!

 

Ian

[Terry1954]

Sorry to hear the Covid lurgi got you Tony. I picked it up mid April and it wiped me out a bit for a couple of weeks but then vanished as fast as it came. Hope you make a speedy recovery, and as Alan suggests some hot toddies will help along the way!

 

Take much care.

 

Terry

[Dric]

Oooops sorry for missing the more important previously... take care of you.

Cedric

[The Spadgent]

Gah! Take care dear heart and I hope the C 19 takes itself out of your system without much dancing. 🫥

The work on the little one is fantastic as always but the promise of a bigger one is filling me with wonder and dread in equal measure. Will you make something that actually flys I wonder🤔

 

 

 probably.

 

 Great stuff.

 

 Jont.

[TheBaron]

Dear all,

Just a quick update to say how much I appreciated all of your kind comments: bloody virus knocked me flat for ten days in the end so today is the first day up and about in the house. I suspect the fatigue which people talk about will take a while longer to dissipate yet however.

 

It's been great though being able to enjoy modelling vicariously through watching your own works in progress.

 

Aside from mentally rehearsing the next slew of tasks to complete on XN708, convalesence has allowed me to leaf electronically through maintenance manuals for the Wasp in order to start locking a visual map of the thing into the cranium. One odd/unsettling stores item shown in one of the drawings is a large onboard tank mounted behind the pilot/observer seats which is plumbed in to a horizontal armature of spraying nozzles mounted beneath the fuselage. Would this have been used for spraying down the ship in the case of fallout contamination, or more horribly, dispensing chemical defoliants? I've found nothing so far about any such system, let alone its intended function on a Wasp.

 

As to which exact example of the Wasp to build, am still leafing through photographs to see if a specific helicopter scheme catches the imagination; mercifully there was never a Red Bull one but perhaps a Watneys Party Seven livery ...?

Always associate those cans with tins of Twiglets and Player's No.6 for some reason.

[bigbadbadge]

Hope you're feeling better and make a swift recovery Tony,  looking forward to watching the Wasp emerge.

Chris

[CedB]

Ditto.

 

If you're considering a 1/72 Wasp could I ask you to start a list? 

Pretty please?

[AdrianMF]

Glad you are feeling better Tony. I must say I’m feeling a bit helicoptered out after what seemed like every not-proper-flying-machine in the RAF flew over my house yesterday after showing off to someone’s (great) gran!

 

Chinooks are definitely the noisiest!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Navy Bird]

Glad you're up and ready to get back at it Tony. I just returned from spending Memorial Day at the Indy 500 with 325,000 of my closest friends. If I don't come down with something it will be a miracle. So far, not even a sniffle - fingers crossed.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[perdu]

Glad you are getting betterer Tony, my Covid passed quite seamlessly but the remaining fog of cantbebovvered is acting like it is never going away, bon chance mon ami.

 

 

(I expect Ced is hoping you didnt notice his attempt to diminish your large scale Wopse down to 1/72, but not a bad idea is it once you have it drawn electric like?)

[philp]

23 hours ago, CedB said:

Ditto.

 

If you're considering a 1/72 Wasp could I ask you to start a list? 

Pretty please?

What he said.  I would love to do one of the Wasps that attacked the sub in the Flaklands.

[TheBaron]

Cripes! Thorsday again already.

On 03/06/2022 at 19:29, bigbadbadge said:

Hope you're feeling better and make a swift recovery Tony,  looking forward to watching the Wasp emerge.

Cheers Chris. It's still a slow bounce back from the dreaded you-know-what: you read about the fatigue/lethargy hanging around afterwards but until you have the deuced thing it doesn't sound that serious. Slept 16 out of 24 hours a couple of days back...

On 03/06/2022 at 23:43, CedB said:

If you're considering a 1/72 Wasp could I ask you to start a list? 

Pretty please?

Not sure how to say this Ced but the Wasp will be in the 'one-true' scale of 1/24....

Are you man enough for one that big?

On 03/06/2022 at 23:54, AdrianMF said:

Glad you are feeling better Tony. I must say I’m feeling a bit helicoptered out after what seemed like every not-proper-flying-machine in the RAF flew over my house yesterday after showing off to someone’s (great) gran!

 

Chinooks are definitely the noisiest!

Ta Adrian.

Know what you mean about the cry of the C'nook: staying in a holiday home on the hill above Lyme Regis a few years back and one came bellowing around Monmouth Beach level wiith the house. It felt like an earthquake which - given the local geology -  was rather alarming....!

On 04/06/2022 at 00:54, Navy Bird said:

Glad you're up and ready to get back at it Tony. I just returned from spending Memorial Day at the Indy 500 with 325,000 of my closest friends. If I don't come down with something it will be a miracle. So far, not even a sniffle - fingers crossed.

Bill: I sincerely hope that you remain untainted by the motoring masses and that you had a great day.

On 04/06/2022 at 08:56, perdu said:

the remaining fog of cantbebovvered is acting like it is never going away, bon chance mon ami.

Ditto Bill and thanks. 🤗

'cantbebovvered' sums the enduring lethargy up perfectly! (partnered with 'permanentlyshaggedout' and 'whatdidIcomeinthisroomforagain?'

On 04/06/2022 at 08:56, perdu said:

(I expect Ced is hoping you didnt notice his attempt to diminish your large scale Wopse down to 1/72, but not a bad idea is it once you have it drawn electric like?)

It's a possibility Bill but I think not as straightforward as it first appears due the the likelihood of printed parts failing due to thickness issues when scaled down.

Reckon it'll be easier if I just convince Ced to build everything in 1/24 from now on - he doesn't hang about and would finish one faster than the rest of us would in 1/72 anyways!

On 04/06/2022 at 22:59, philp said:

What he said.  I would love to do one of the Wasps that attacked the sub in the Flaklands.

As long as you'd be happy with a big Wasp Phil.

 

PS. Your 'Flaklands' typo actually sounds like the the coolest title for a military aviation novel ever. Get writing!😁

 

Aside from bytching about health matters I have in fact been trying to get things up and running at the bench again, although the stamina levels mean you can do about an hour at most before the fogtigue comes on. In a way though this isn't a bad discipline to have enforced on you as it's made me pay attention to more of the smaller fiddly jobs that fit within this time window.

 

One of these which I'd been determinedly ignoring was to build a replacement for the smaller outer vane in the stbd intake duct which I'd snapped off way back when stuffing sponge-masking down there to stop paint getting on the fronts of the engines. This time around it as easier to hand-cut a piece to size from brass and jam it in there nice and tight, with some ersin as an adhesive:

Whilst the brass was out I also knocked up the venturi-like fitting that sticks out from the port side of the aircraft just below the nose roundel. I was determined this time around to produce the flared rear to the piece, something I hadn't managed to achieve for XJ481. In this instance I held the piece upright in tweezers on the mini-anvil and tapped the tip of a fine needle into the opening with a hammer, gradually achieving the required degree of 'flare':

I bothered to photograph it simply because this was one of those stupidly satisfying jobs you end up doing, knowing it'll be barely visible on the finished model:

This is just a paint-in-progress shot showing the above brass bits getting coloured, along with the two small VHF whip aerials that stick up like spines behind the cockpit area:

 

I've drilled the holes for these latter items but will hold off installing them until just before the outer wings get mounted.

 

On that film I'd posted previously of XN708 pulling up to the camera I noticed also that I'd fogotten to add the internal framing section that divides the oberver's window in the stbd side of the nose. It looks very prominet here in brass:

 - but after a coat of mixed flat/NATO black has dissappeared completely against the dark background. Another invisible detail!

 

It was always going to be a tricky proposition to find a way of supporting the aricraft whilst working on the wingfold details without damaging the aircraft in any way but a brainwave late one evening meant I was able to adapt the aircraft stand to a slightly unorthodox arrangement tha twould hold everything securely in place:

Unflattering close-up warning:

You've already seen from previous shots of tis region of the aircraft that some structures were printed as part of outboard side of that wing rib - added now are those bits in grey resin for the middle locking structures and 0.3mm brass tubing to create the connecting rods between the middle and rear latch pins. There's also a tiny bitof brass tucked away in that hydraulic actuator between the front and middle pin actuators which drove me made trying to get something that small into the spae with tweezers.

 

With wingfold jack and lift linkage to outer wing dry fitted to the middle section:

Same set of operations carried out on the port mechanism:

 

Next time I come back to these sections it'll be the more demanding task of adding all the fitting such as cable tray and wiring that suture  the outer and inner sections of the wingfold together.

 

Another more cosmetic job that i took on as a break for detailed building tasks was to fisnish off adding fuel and lubricat stains to the various openings in the belly beneath the engine bays:

- along with some modest lubricant leaks around the flaps and inner wheel bay doors:

For these effects this time around, I used a combination of Faber-Castell watercolour pencils and Caran D'ache soluble wax pastels. In the past I used to use oil paints for this kind of work but find now that these materials allow a finer level of detail at this scale, plus being able to sharpen outlines with an eraser straight away gives better definition/control of outlines than I was able to get previously.

 

I'd completley fotgotten about the tail rotor....

 

More in a few sleeps time. Take care of yourselves until then all of you.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by TheBaron
No apology is sufficient for the atrocious spelling. Jesus brain, I thought we were a team....