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Frog Sea Venom, 1/72


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After a visit to the superb Fleet Air Arm Museum recently, I decided to find a few Navy bargains on ebay, one of these being this ancient 1/72 Frog Sea Venom. 

 

It looks like a nice simple kit and a sojourn back to this scale after a lot of 1/48 kits. I also picked up a Wyvern, Gannet AEW and Sea Harrier in this scale, so if the Venom turns out ok I might do one of them next. 

 

Fairly basic Frog fare, reasonable simple decal sheet (hoping they don't break up in the water!) and I even ordered some FAA colour scheme sprays too. All set to go. Well, after Blue Dot Festival anyway.

 

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Who knows how to turn matt into gloss once it's sprayed on and dry? Is it fraught with danger and bubbling/running/changing colour? What do I need - is there a 'magic' spray I can use over the whole airframe? 

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Oh good luck with this one! I started the Novo rendition of this kit what seems like 100 years ago and it has sat on the shelf of doom for the last 20 years!!!!!

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To change the surface finish I use Tamiya TS sprays

80 is matt varnish and they also do gloss (which I think is TOO glossy) and satin which looks right to me on a small model

 

Before you stick it all together do me a favour please

I have one ready to build but have lost the parts round the nose wheel bay

 

A decent photo will give me something to copy so I can crack on with it

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20 hours ago, perdu said:

To change the surface finish I use Tamiya TS sprays

80 is matt varnish and they also do gloss (which I think is TOO glossy) and satin which looks right to me on a small model

 

Before you stick it all together do me a favour please

I have one ready to build but have lost the parts round the nose wheel bay

 

A decent photo will give me something to copy so I can crack on with it

 

Thanks @perdu, I'll have a look for some.

 

Here are a few photos which hopefully you may find helpful. The parts are all quite basic so shouldn't pose too many issues if you're scratch building them. 

 

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Disaster! I managed to lose the nose cone down the plug hole when I was washing the sprues. 

 

Is there anyone out there who would have a spare one they could donate/sell please!? Maybe from a shelf of doom kit or anything?

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Something I noticed on this kit is that the rear fuselage lower nacelle area isn't symmetrical.One half is is more rounded than the other.if you put the the fuselage halfs together and turn it upside you will see what I mean.

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Have mine, better see it used on a model that isnt being built 'just because'

PM your address and I will pop it in the post

 

Save me making that bit where the nose leg goes, with the guns and get the model used properly

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There's no instrument panel so I made one from a piece cut from the trusty old Vulcan bomb door! Painted the basic seats too, and added the usual masking tape belts. I'll give them a dry brush of silver later and see what detail I can add. They're tiny though and the canopy can't be displayed open unfortunately.

 

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Instrument panel painted, it's not exactly accurate but it's tiny and the canopy will be shut, so it should suffice.

 

I made a joystick for the pilot too as there isn't one in the kit.

 

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Fuselage fitted together ok, just needed to sand the join lines a bit and squeeze the halves together.

 

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Don't forget to add some weight in the nose. Twin boom jets are notorious tail sitters. 

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11 hours ago, 825 said:

Don't forget to add some weight in the nose. Twin boom jets are notorious tail sitters. 

and shave as much plastic out of the rear end as you can, to reduce the amount of weight you need to add up front|!

 

Ian

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No, not a steering wheel, but the circular trim wheel that I saw in a photo of a Sea Venom cockpit. It goes on the left side of the cockpit, there's plenty of room in there with no kit detail at all from Frog. I made it from a tiny piece cut from packing foam, a slice through the plastic paintbrush head protector, a piece of fuse wire and a cut part of a 1/72 rocket. 

 

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Adrian, great offer but I no longer need one as my Sea Venom has sent its nose cone to Cheshire

The Venom is now being RTP for wheels and legs

It was never high on my list and I am happy to let Lord Riot have full rein with it

Thanks for that

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So here's the cockpit, with an instrument panel added along with the trim wheel. The control column is fitted to the top of the underside nosewheel bay so I won't have too much room for weights.

 

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The ancient Frog canopy is a terrible fit. The best I can do I think is try to cut the middle section out and display it open. Glad now that I took some time to add to the cockpit! 

 

Can anyone advise the best way to cut this quite brittle, thick plastic please? I can't risk cracking it.

 

Would a small bladed hacksaw do it? Or is a heated knife a better option?

 

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If you have a local model shop get down there and purchase an X-acto razor saw

 

Many forms of modelling tool set can provide a handle for these but to be honest I just used mine without handles for fifty odd years

 

Also, now is the time to consider using the kit part as a mould to make a thinner, better fitting copy from it from acetate packaging

 

You will bless the day you taught yourself this basic skill set

 

I might still have the rest of my kit if you need replenishment

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Thank you! I'll see if I can find the razor saw. There is a local model shop so hopefully they have some.

 

I might try and give that a go, there's probably some videos online about how to do it. 

 

 

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There are replacement vac canopies available for that kit.Both Tasman and Pavla ones appear on a quick ebay search.One of the Falcon canopy sets also includes one.

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22 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

Thank you chaps, for your generosity. I'll try to make a good job of it!

BM spirit in action again, well done chaps!

 

Great to see this old favourite coming together.

 

Terry

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1 hour ago, fatalbert said:

There are replacement vac canopies available for that kit.Both Tasman and Pavla ones appear on a quick ebay search.One of the Falcon canopy sets also includes one.

 

Thank you Albert. For £2 I couldn't resist! Looks easier to cut than the kit one too.

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I managed to cut part of the kit canopy, only the windscreen section cracked. I'll see what the Pavla one is like when it comes as it's probably thinner and easier to cut, or more see-through to fit closed if necessary.

 

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Most photos of Sea Venoms seem to show them without the rockets, so I filled the holes before gluing the wings. 

 

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I also cut out the plastic chunk in the intake so they're now hollow. There are no intake splitters in the kit though so more scratch building needed.

 

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Thanks @perdu for the new nosecone! 

 

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