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Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA.1 in 1/72


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7 minutes ago, nexus11 said:

Milliput was the wrong idea, the stuff didn't harden. Even if after the first sanding, well, rather scraping didn't look too bad formally

Ah, understand! 

Time solidification!

If You have fresh Milliput and correctly mixed the components, while it is written on the box "Milliput goes rock  hard in two to three hours at normal room temperature"

But if 

uncorrectly mixed the components then maybe problem.

Any case all putty at the best withstand at least 24 hours, and then begin to process.

 

B.R.

Serge

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There's been another setback. After I drilled out the landing gear bay and roughly prepared the area with a file, some of the putty I used to smooth the shortened rear end was gone. So I had to do it all again. Also I have to close the whole airbrake cutout.

 

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12 hours ago, nexus11 said:

nice to see that I'm not the only fool around… 

Not at all Nexus11, you are motivated to create a unique model of a rare and wonderful plane!

 

Regarding putty (or filler), have you tried Humbrol Model Filler? After years using Squadron/MMD Green Putty, I've bought some of the Humbrol filler and find it very good. Easy to apply, smooth, not too wet or dry and it dries fairly rapidly with no shrinkage that I can see.

 

Best wishes,

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The crack then gave me the "idea" to use superglue, at least for the small joints at the tail part.

I closed the thick hole at the underbody with Sheet and then White Putty on it. This will be hard and smooth, but it also has small air inclusions, so you have to use Mr. Surfacer 500 again.

 

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The intakes now look more or less as desired, so I'm virtually back to the level of post 43. And now sanding again. Hopefully it will hold and I won't make any nonsense.

 

 

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Quick mobile phone photo in between:

 

Putty, dry, sand, inspect, repeat...

 

Beside that, I closed off a few of the Airfix panel line trenches where the Kestrel had no maintenance ports. But slowly, the mold is getting right. Now I'm going to smooth out the intakes on the inside, and after that I do the finishing touches and the first test coat, then I'll definitely start over again.

 

And that only because I will have forgotten to engrave the correct panel lines and rows of rivets...

 

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Edited by nexus11
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Instead of just showing the result, here is a screenshot of my fiddling on the way to the final decal.

 

  1. Find the original photo on which the desired subject was photographed more or less parallel to the film plane and then photograph or scan it, if it is not yet digitally available.
  2. Load into the image processing program and place on the lowest level
  3. There, use the distortion tools to align them at right angles. Then you can set the corners well and find the right aspect ratio.
  4. Find the right font, which is the most complex part. With stencil fonts you only have to look for a similar stencil font, but with this sign this was not possible, because it was obviously a handmade stencil that was used here. Logically, there were no cutting plotters available yet and with a small series like the Kestrels it was not worth printing stickers. I wouldn't know on which other airplane such simple warning signs were used, otherwise I could have searched for these decals there.
    In this case no suitable font could be found, because the sign painter combined some very own typographical peculiarities, which I don't know of any other font used together in this way. Hence my assumption that this was handmade. But my selection is quite close. Of course, you could still deform each letter individually, but you should keep in mind that this is probably not too visible in the final size anyway. 
  5. Cut out the corresponding part of the image and save it in a sufficiently large size so that it can later be scaled to the correct scale size with a layout program such as InDesign and placed in a layout with the other scaled images.

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I created the fin-flash and the roundel directly in a graphics program like Illustrator, because the proportions were clear. A circle is a circle.

 

I can already say here that it all worked out well. However, next time I would be better off incorporating the three-dimensional nature of the fire extinguisher marking.

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Nice work so far. I find with millilput that if you add a few drops of acrylic paint, preferably a dark colour it’s much easier to tell if it’s fully mixed. Previously I have had issues with it not setting owing to not being mixed thoroughly.

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Progress is being made on the construction site for the undercarriage housing. Just glued sheet in and then cut some fine strips out of the cut-off pieces to at least give some detail.
Or rather, to allude some detail. It is not really visible afterwards anyway and unfortunately I don't have any model photos.
Then cut it off again, fill it and sand it down. Then all the quirks I had when I cut it up will finally disappear.

 

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Now I also have to take care of the wing, if I have to screw open the putty again anyway. By the way I arrived at Mr. Dissolved Putty, which I had made pasty again with a good sip of nitro thinner.

 

Well, I always suspected that the number of vortex generators was wrong. It's like this: Kestrel has 10 per wing, but Airfix has 12 for the Harrier. So you cut off the two outer panels and directly remove the two boundary layer fences (which don't belong there either), and the "scars" will be smoothed out the next time I sand.
Also the bridge between flaps and ailerons has to be removed and the resulting hole filled.
As a last measure the space between the inner saw tooth at the root of the wing has to be filled with putty. The Kestrel only had one sawtooth, not two, and the first one didn't have any, because it still had the wing of P.1127.

 

On this occasion I have closed the superfluous openings at the tail and the attentive reader will have noticed that the vertical stabilizer has now also found its place.

Actually one should insert the horizontal stabilizers before. However, they seem not to fit tight enough for me, and these will only be added when I am satisfied with the tail boom.

 

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I still had to see how much I had to bevel the intakes. Therefore I drew the angle in the drawings and tried to transfer it to the model. So that I don't grind//file/cut too much afterwards, I marked this with Dymo-tape, which of course doesn't stick to the surface. Therefore I used Tamyia tape around it.

 

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Edited by nexus11
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I just had some paint in the airbrush and used it to test paint the filler areas to see how the surfaces turned out. Since there is still a grey Alclad primer coming anyway, it doesn't matter that it has become so colourful now. Some reworking is of course necessary and we haven't even talked about the engravings yet.

 

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But until then I still have to sand the air inlets a little bit inside and finally get the tail boom into the correct shape. The Kestrel had a parachute pack sitting there, which makes for a somewhat odd shape that I couldn't get by sculpting it. So it needs a new approach. First, I take away some material on all sides, about as much as the sheet is thick, and then I wrap it around that. And then I putty/grind it again.

 

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Another idea would have been to try it with a plastic straw. I've been trying to figure out what I could find that would be an oval in the right size. Evergreen certainly has something, but paying 5 € for 5 mm material is a bit more than that.
So I will try the straw if that doesn't work now.
The plan is now to fold it around in drying stages, fill in the back and then sand it down.

Edited by nexus11
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As I have already written, this is a building for a German competition which is currently (January 2020) up for voting. Just because the Kestrel is a bit better known in the UK than in Germany, I am re-publishing the build report here. 

 

That does not help me with the voting. Because in order to vote there, you have to be an active member with several contributions. But at least I can assure to the readers that I will finish the construction report. In the end, there really is a model, even if it doesn't look like that here with all the obstacles.

 

And thanks all for following and contributing.

 

 

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Folding worked quite well:, here you can see the state already filled with putty. Let's see what it looks like after drying and sanding, but it will be better than anything we have seen so far...

 

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And while we're at it, the air intakes from the inside... some sanding to be done.

 

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10 hours ago, nexus11 said:

 

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Another idea would have been to try it with a plastic straw. I've been trying to figure out what I could find that would be an oval in the right size. Evergreen certainly has something, but paying 5 € for 5 mm material is a bit more than that.

Oval in the right size you can find in office supply stores, just look at cheap plastic pens or pencils.

 

B.R.

Serge 

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10 minutes ago, Aardvark said:

Oval in the right size you can find in office supply stores, just look at cheap plastic pens or pencils.

Thanks mate, but I didn't had anything matching at this stage at home, so made it this way.

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Actually model making should be fun, but there are always those moments when you just want to curse. But I avoid the trouble and give in to my fate.

Since the ejector seat finally looks like one thanks to some etched sheet metal from Yahu, the plan was to close the cockpit. At the back of the canopy is a more massive part:spacer.png

 

I'm afraid that's gone. Pity.

 

Now I can I carve something again... great!

 

Ok, then I turn to the back of the plane and attach the tailplane. So I thought...

 

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Whatever the reason Airfix has provided such holes, I do not know. In the typical parking position the hole is not covered. So there will be nothing with finishing the tail and I had close the holes first. So I cut out the sheet and glued it on both sides. After that it should be enough after some sanding…

 

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And then I discovered this:

 

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The Airfix Nozzles don't look anything like the Kestrel's. They're too square, and most importantly, they're 3 slats short. And they're so stupidly arranged, I can't just add three slats. So I have to do it myself... I thought.

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Nevertheless, there is some progress to report:
Ejection seat is in, "windshield" and the elevators are in place as well as the two fins on the belly.

 

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It's starting to look like Harrier. And that's exactly what needs to be changed: Other nozzles, the air intakes are not quite kestrel-like and as a special treat I have to saw the wingtips. The linkage of the landing gear outriggers was also quite different. So there is still a long way to go and the deadline for the competition came closer…

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Now I tried to attach a bulkhead to the back of the canopy so that I can attach the rear end to it. Glue got to a place where it shouldn't be, so I can polish it now. But first I have to get a polish, my experience with toothpaste is not very good. I ordered a Tamiya Compound Polishing Set, it costs an arm and a leg. But it is also an investment in the future.

 

"muss poliert werden" means: has to be polished

"musste ausgefräst werden" means: had to be milled out

 


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And as I wrote in the previous post, the wingtips still had to be sawed, which I also did:
 

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(a bit 3D sawing for the outrigger)

 

 

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10 hours ago, nexus11 said:

The Airfix Nozzles don't look anything like the Kestrel's. They're too square, and most importantly, they're 3 slats short. And they're so stupidly arranged, I can't just add three slats. So I have to do it myself... I thought.

Now I'm quoting myself, which is necessary if you're as stupid as I am. Model making is somehow like playing golf, you yourself are the biggest opponent.

 

Don't I build the thing from two kits? And isn't the one for P.1127? And its nozzles also had 5 lamellas and were altogether rounder, right?


So now I looked inside the box and what did Airfix put in it? Amazingly round five-blade nozzles...

 

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Not exactly the finest aftermarket resin quality, but better than anything I would have built myself from sheet and plate, which was already haunting my mind. A little bit of sanding and a nice paint job, then I am closer to the model than with any other approach.

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Because I lost the part behind the canopy and need a new clear part, I bought another kit for some quids... because the polishing stuff is is still shipping and it would take some time to build the part myself. Time is pressing, and so I easily save 2 days. It's a bit uncool, but for 8,50 € I found an acceptable solution.

 

In the meantime, I try to adjust the cut-outs for the nozzles, and of course, a piece of already sanded filler flies out again. What a joy...

 

At least the air intakes at the fairings can be reported as progress. And the nozzles now look correct.

 

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"Mal wieder Spachtel rausgefallen" -> Filler fell out again

"Lufteinlass neu" -> New air vent

Edited by nexus11
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