Life after Fly: 28 Sqn Venom FB4 (Classic Airframes)

[bar side]

It must have taken a special kind of pilot to get in to a plywood box with a jet engine strapped behind you & zoom off in the the wide blue yonder.  Very nice progress there Hendie.

 

Think this is a Vampire but I remember seeing a Venom with the plywood delaminating in a damp museum years ago.

 

[stever219]

44 minutes ago, NAVY870 said:

There's a gap of approximately 25mm (or an inch in old money) between the gear and the inner end of the stub boom. Its the same pivot point etc as the Sea Venom (same wing without the interesting foldy bits)

The four sticky outy things are the link chutes, there should be another one on the rear of the gun bay doors, that's the fuel vent pipe.

There’s an account of early experiences with the Venom in RAF Germany (I think) in a splendid tome on early RAF jets whose title presently escapes me.  At least one Venom had been lost due to an in-flight fire in the gun bay.  Post-accident investigation revealed that the fuel vent pipe had missed its hole in the gun bay door when the door had been closed, allowing fuel to accumulate inside the door until ignition had occurred.  Once this was known about pilots were advised along the lines of “stick a finger in your orifice and if you can feel your ring it is safe to commit aviation.”, the ring in this case being the end of the vent pipe inside the opening in the door.

[perdu]

At the beginning we heard there was a good kit and a bad kit amongst the two, Venom and Vampire

 

We're going to love that Vamp

 

Too

[giemme]

11 hours ago, hendie said:

what filler would folks recommend to fill and bond to plastic and resin ?

 

CA+flour. That's what I do. You can either pour CA on the join and sprinkle flour on top of it, or pre-mix the two and apply with a cocktail stick/toothpick. If you choose the latter, be careful though: add flour sparingly, and beware because the curing time is going to reduce dramatically. HTH

 

Nice progress, BTW.

 

Ciao

Edited January 26, 2020 by giemme

[NAVY870]

8 hours ago, stever219 said:

There’s an account of early experiences with the Venom in RAF Germany (I think) in a splendid tome on early RAF jets whose title presently escapes me.  At least one Venom had been lost due to an in-flight fire in the gun bay.  Post-accident investigation revealed that the fuel vent pipe had missed its hole in the gun bay door when the door had been closed, allowing fuel to accumulate inside the door until ignition had occurred.  Once this was known about pilots were advised along the lines of “stick a finger in your orifice and if you can feel your ring it is safe to commit aviation.”, the ring in this case being the end of the vent pipe inside the opening in the door.

As noted in David Watkins superb book "Venom".

One RAF type referred to the Venom as the only aircraft you had to goose before you could fly it.

[hendie]

12 hours ago, CedB said:

Wow, at this rate you're going to be finished in no time!

 

Nice holes hendie  

 

Good luck with the fit though - looks horrid. Ugh.

 

the fit is not great Ced it has to be said (Ced?).  Was quite pleased wi' me holes though

 

12 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Nice start really like your bang seat

 

      Roger

 

Thanks Roger

 

11 hours ago, Wez said:

Late to the party I'll stand back and watch this British Cold War classic come to fruition in Hendie stylee.  Very informative! 

 

I just wish somebody would pull their bloody finger out and give us mainstream kits of these jets in both 1/72nd and 1/48th!

 

and a Wapiti, and Audax - in 1/48 of course.  I'm going to need those to complete my series

 

9 hours ago, NAVY870 said:

There's a gap of approximately 25mm (or an inch in old money) between the gear and the inner end of the stub boom. Its the same pivot point etc as the Sea Venom (same wing without the interesting foldy bits)

The four sticky outy things are the link chutes, there should be another one on the rear of the gun bay doors, that's the fuel vent pipe.

 

Thanks - wish I could find a decent shot though but none seem to be around

 

9 hours ago, bar side said:

It must have taken a special kind of pilot to get in to a plywood box with a jet engine strapped behind you & zoom off in the the wide blue yonder.  Very nice progress there Hendie.

 

Think this is a Vampire but I remember seeing a Venom with the plywood delaminating in a damp museum years ago.

 

 

 

I think they must have laced the brylcreem in those days.

 

9 hours ago, stever219 said:

There’s an account of early experiences with the Venom in RAF Germany (I think) in a splendid tome on early RAF jets whose title presently escapes me.  At least one Venom had been lost due to an in-flight fire in the gun bay.  Post-accident investigation revealed that the fuel vent pipe had missed its hole in the gun bay door when the door had been closed, allowing fuel to accumulate inside the door until ignition had occurred.  Once this was known about pilots were advised along the lines of “stick a finger in your orifice and if you can feel your ring it is safe to commit aviation.”, the ring in this case being the end of the vent pipe inside the opening in the door.

 

 

8 hours ago, perdu said:

At the beginning we heard there was a good kit and a bad kit amongst the two, Venom and Vampire

 

We're going to love that Vamp

 

Too

 

I have a feeling this might be the good one and the comparison was relative 

 

8 hours ago, giemme said:

CA+flour. That's what I do. You can either pour CA on the join and sprinkle flour on top of it, or pre-mix the two and apply with a cocktail stick/toothpick. If you choose the latter, be careful though: add flour sparingly, and beware because the curing time is going to reduce dramatically. HTH

 

Nice progress, BTW.

 

Ciao

 

11 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

FWIW, I use a superglue and bicarb of soda mix - just don't sand it too vigourously as resin is softer than it...

 

Keith

 

Giemme, keefr - thanks for the tip - which I completely ignored (to my peril, see later) (and I'm still ignoring it!)

 

22 minutes ago, NAVY870 said:

As noted in David Watkins superb book "Venom".

One RAF type referred to the Venom as the only aircraft you had to goose before you could fly it.

 

 

 

Did I mention anywhere that I'm going to be doing a lot of sanding a filling on this build ?  That started this morning with filling in the chasms that were present on the tail feathers

 

 

Followed by gluing in the underside of the front fuselage using 5 minute epoxy.  It's amazing just how long 5 minutes can take when you have to manually hold something in position because there's no decent way to clamp it.

 

 

That was needed as I wanted to finish off the cockpit area and on the upper side of that panel is the mounting area for the rudder pedals - which didn't fit. A gentle push saw them settle down enough to be moving on with. I had to put the rudder pedals in at this stage because I wanted to get the IP in place

 

 

and the rudder pedals sit behind that.  FYI, the rudder pedals didn't fit over the base they were supposed to fit over and they didn't fit between the outer arches of the IP either. Brute force saw the job done though.

 

 

Yeah, you're really going to see a lot once the canopy is on.

 

 

But I went ahead and added the control column anyway.  In for a penny and all that.

 

 

Now, the tip tanks.  I really wasn't happy with that strake at all and had to do something - so it got removed (as did the shapeless fwd light)

 

 

After digging around a bit I found a piece of Wessex that looked as if it would do the job

 

 

and about 20 minutes later I had a new strake which looked absolutely no better than the one I had just removed.

It will get better though, trust me.

 

 

Did I mention filling? No?  well, the join between the intakes and wings is pretty horrendous, so ignoring all the good advice given above - one, cos I hate superglue, and two, because I've never tried it before and this looked to be a bit complicated and I could really stuff things up royal style here - I went ahead and used epoxy glue instead.

 

 

which didn't end well as I tried to sand/file/shape the stuff.  It's great as a gap filler and general adhesive, but useless when trying to use as a filler where you have to feather the edge - as the edges got thinner, it just peeled up off the resin and plastic.

So now I've resorted to trying some tamiya putty and hope for the best.  I've had good luck with this stuff in the past.

 

 

Stay tuned for next weeks episode - filling and sanding for beginners

 

 

 

 

[perdu]

So there we are...

Epoxy glue

 

 

Using it on my S-61N, ah that is regretting using it on my S-61N

 

Rechristened poxy glue round Perdu Towers, a'cos it is

 

If I dig any utensil* into the glue plastic interface I get ribbons of hardened in a theatrical sense glue which of course are not hard at all

 

And will not trim nor smooth out

 

Or do anything but jump out of position at the drop of a cliché

 

 

*includes a hangnail in passing

 

I truly hope the Vamp treats you and thusly, also us, better

[CedB]

I was going to say how about Milliput?

Can I say that?

 

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, hendie said:

I hate superglue,

 

Me too, and I'm alergic to the stuff and have to wear a respirator when using it. But it dries almost instantly when bicarb is sprinkled on it, sands easily as long as you don't leave it dry too long and the edges feather out nicely.... 

 

1 hour ago, hendie said:

looked to be a bit complicated

 

Stick some glue in the gap (I use a piece of wire in an old pin vice to apply the stuff), sprinkle on some bicarb, sand, repeat if necessary till gap gone. Nothing complicated about me mate...

 

Keith

 

 

[giemme]

I'm with Keith here, Hendie. It's a lot easier than it sounds (practicing on an easier bit it's always a good thing to do, anyway). It takes sanding and scribing very well, too.

 

But it's your model and your way of having fun, so I won't insist any further

 

 Ciao

[JasonC]

Just a thought if you haven’t already - it might be worth checking if the kit needs any nose weight prior to closing up the fuselage.

 

J.

[Pete in Lincs]

22 hours ago, CedB said:

I was going to say how about Milliput?

 

12 hours ago, JasonC said:

if the kit needs any nose weight prior to closing up

My thoughts exactly, Chaps.

Also, the square holes on the engine bay doors, Didn't they have sprung flaps (careful now!) as on t' Wessex? (There, see, I got a Wessex mention in) 

And, should there be a starter cartridge exhaust hole on there? I seem to remember seeing a picture of a line of twin boom types starting up amid plumes of black smoke. Or was that Seahawks?

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 1/26/2020 at 11:52 AM, stever219 said:

There’s an account of early experiences with the Venom in RAF Germany (I think) in a splendid tome on early RAF jets whose title presently escapes me.  At least one Venom had been lost due to an in-flight fire in the gun bay.  Post-accident investigation revealed that the fuel vent pipe had missed its hole in the gun bay door when the door had been closed, allowing fuel to accumulate inside the door until ignition had occurred.  Once this was known about pilots were advised along the lines of “stick a finger in your orifice and if you can feel your ring it is safe to commit aviation.”, the ring in this case being the end of the vent pipe inside the opening in the door.

Shades of “Miss Shilling’s Orifice”!

[hendie]

On 1/26/2020 at 4:48 PM, perdu said:

Epoxy glue

 

 

Using it on my S-61N, ah that is regretting using it on my S-61N

 

Certainly has its uses, just not in this instance Bill

 

 

On 1/26/2020 at 5:10 PM, CedB said:

I was going to say how about Milliput?

Can I say that?

 

You sure can but... 

 

On 1/26/2020 at 6:17 PM, keefr22 said:

Stick some glue in the gap (I use a piece of wire in an old pin vice to apply the stuff), sprinkle on some bicarb, sand, repeat if necessary till gap gone.

 

On 1/26/2020 at 6:31 PM, giemme said:

'm with Keith here, Hendie. It's a lot easier than it sounds

    I think I found a solution

 

The Tamiya putty in the last photo in my last post seems to have done the trick.  A quick sanding session removed the excess and it has feathered nicely into the surround resin and plastic.  The Tamiya putty is fairly easy to sand and it polishes up nicely too - though I forgot to take any photos of the polished parts

 

 

Some fine wire was used for the seat pan pull to go whoosh handle - thought I would get this done now and fitted before closing up

 

 

Just about ready to close up, but wait...

 

On 1/27/2020 at 3:07 AM, JasonC said:

Just a thought if you haven’t already - it might be worth checking if the kit needs any nose weight prior to closing up the fuselage.

 

 

The instructions do mention "add weight" but give no indication of how much or how little is needed.  I erred on the side of caution.  

 

 

and erring even more on the side of caution I wrapped the piece of fishing weight in plastic and taped it up.  Why you may ask?  Well aside from the exploding plastic inevitable seen on some models using lead and white glue, or was it lead and super glue?  Anyways - I noticed on some scraps of painted lead wire I had laying about that they have started to turn all weird and dusty - and even expanding on their own.  I can only think it's something to do with the humidity levels here and a reaction with the paint (acrylic of all things). So rather than discovering a new chemical reaction and the demise of a model at some future point, I just wrapped this one in plastic and it fitted snugly into the available space.

 

 

Which then let me close up the fuselage. Well, most of it.  There's gonna be some nasty seam lines to take care of later.

 

 

I've left the engine out at this point otherwise I'd never be able to square up the tail - I did check that I can get the engine in situ after the fuselage is closed up. 

 

On 1/27/2020 at 12:03 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Also, the square holes on the engine bay doors, Didn't they have sprung flaps (careful now!) as on t' Wessex? (There, see, I got a Wessex mention in) 

 

I'm not sure Pete.  Some photo's seem to have a red colored panel in there, but others don't seem to have anything.  I've gone with nothing.  Probably wrong but too late now.

 

Since I couldn't do any more on the fuselage I turned to the tip tanks.  A bit of filler and some fettling brought me to this point. The kit part as it comes (top right in photo below) was too blunt and shapeless for my liking.   The new version is an improvement as far as I am concerned.   Much more defined.

 

 

Happy with the outcome of that, I managed to get one tip tank glued to it's partner wing.  As usual in these cases, I drilled a couple of holes and used wire to help locate the parts and make a stronger join.   Filler has now been applied to that and will be cleaned up at the next session.

 

 

Next up was defining the control surfaces a bit better.  I'd lost a little bit through sanding, but the kit lines are very faint. To help define the moveable surfaces more I used a razor saw with a few swipes in each line to add a bit of depth.  The razor saw makes a lovely clean cut but it does leave some swarf in there which is an absolute pig to clean out. 

 

 

No build is complete without some brass work somewhere along the way, and this build is no different.  A prominent feature on the stationary rotor blade is the wing fence.  CA do provide parts in the kit, but after a dry fit I decided they weren't up for the job. Primarily because they were the wrong shape, and secondly, cos they were molded at .5mm thickness, and the mating slot was only .4mm wide(in places).

I had some .4 mm thick brass sheet lying about so grabbed a scrap or two.  I used a corner of the brass sheet as a scriber to deepen the slot on the wing so I didn't have to be so accurate with the mating brass part.

This looks as though the brass goes right through the wing, but it doesn't - I cut a slot in the brass so it slid over the front end of the wing before it mated with the slot.  I should have taken better photo's to illustrate that, sorry.

 

 

Once I got the brass to nestle into the wing without any gaps showing I started with some rough shaping.

 

 

Here you can see why I didn't want to use the kit part - CLassic have the wing fence stopping in line with the underside of the wing whereas the 1:1 wing fence curves all the way around and back into the lower wing surface.

 

 

Some more fettling

 

 

and things are looking much better.

 

 

The wing fence still needs some more refining, but I'm happy with where it's at.   Once I have wrestled that wing fence into shape I can use it as a template for the other wing

I appeared to spend a long time today for what on the face of it seems like very little progress, but at least it was all progress.  

There's a mountain of sanding to be done on this kit and that is one of my least favorite modeling jobs. I find it a real mojo killer so I'm trying to intersperse the sanding with some other little jobs, not that there's really that many on this kit. 

Helicopters are much more interesting aren't they.

 

 

 

[CedB]

Nice work hendie, coming along nicely. 
 

4 minutes ago, hendie said:

Helicopters are much more interesting aren't they.

Maybe  

[Wez]

8 hours ago, hendie said:

Helicopters are much more interesting aren't they.

I never understood how this plank trash stuff caught on - I liked the comment about the stationary rotor blade.

8 hours ago, CedB said:

Maybe  

Careful Ced, that comment could be construed as heresy

 

Hendie's build threads are always very educational, it never occurred to me that the lead would expand due to moisture contact - surface exfoliation, I guess.

 

Keep it up @hendie

[TheBaron]

Delicious catch up over the morning pint of tae Alan.

 

Too late to be of any use but I'd be another voice in favour of CA/powder matrix for gluing areas that need subsequent sanding to a sharp profile like trailing edges &etc. Nice to see the brass fencing in operation - will be doing same to the SV myself at the appropriate time.

 

Philosophy in action:

9 hours ago, hendie said:

I appeared to spend a long time today for what on the face of it seems like very little progress, but at least it was all progress.  

 

9 hours ago, hendie said:

and things are looking much better.

 

Sometimes I feel that each kit we build can be looked at as a series of time-reservoirs, the different sections of it storing the varying quantities of our lives that have gone into its making.

 

If philosophers were modellers:

 

Heraclitus: You can't make the same part twice and have it turn out looking the same as the first.

Marcus Aurelius: Life is the sandpaper that shapes you.

Schopenhauer: If you just keep sanding, eventually there is nothing left.

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Descartes: I sand, therefore I am a modeller
Wittgenstein: A modeller who does not take part in fettling is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.

Wittgenstein again: A serious and good work on the Fly Wessex could be written consisting entirely of swear words.

 

[I knew that Philosophy degree would pay off eventually...]

 

 

Nice fence on that blade, Hendie!

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[bigbadbadge]

Great work. I especially like the wing fence you have created.  As Tony said the CA and talc mix is an excellent filler, it dries quickly and is very easy to sand too.  

Chris

[giemme]

No philosophy from me, I just have an engineering degree

 

But this is a massive update, with lots of cunning solutions

 

Can I ask how did you shape the wing fence? Just by filing it? TIA

 

Ciao

Edited February 2, 2020 by giemme

[keefr22]

9 hours ago, giemme said:

No philosophy from me, I just have an engineering degree

 

 

Me too, but I've always thought the late, great Spike Milligan was right up there in the top 10 of them, there Philosiphirists;

 

"There are holes in the sky where the rain comes in, but they're ever so small that's why rain is thin''

 

Keith

 

PS nice wing fence hendie!

 

 

[Graham T]

I haven't clicked through this entire thread but in case you haven't got there yet, be VERY careful with the booms!  The tail plane of course is fitted between them with small "stubs" on the outside of each boom.  There isn't a huge difference between them but if you attach the booms as per the instructions, the tailplane will not fit, being "too long".  You need to attach them opposite to they way in the instructions so that the slightly SHORTER tail plane attachment stub is INSIDE & the longer OUTSIDE.

[Troy Smith]

14 hours ago, Wez said:

it never occurred to me that the lead would expand due to moisture contact - surface exfoliation, I guess.

 

Oxidation. The white stuff is Lead Carbonate Oxide, as seen used in Elizabethan face powder,  and exhaust stains when running a lean mix from the Tetra Ethyl Lead added to increase octane rating.

When used outside in the UK, it's treated with Patination Oil,  (basically Linseed oil) which stops surface carbonation.

https://www.britishlead.co.uk/patination-oil

turns out the white stuff is Lead Carbonate....  makes sense, rainwater contains dissolved CO²   which naturally makes rainwater slightly acidic... I digress, but then all the best thread on here do  

 

Neat work on the wing fence @hendie  that is a very good tip.

[hendie]

On 2/1/2020 at 6:47 PM, CedB said:

Nice work hendie, coming along nicely. 
 

Maybe  

 

Thanks Ced.  You know that you are going to have to delve into the rotary world again quite soon  don't you?

 

16 hours ago, Wez said:

I never understood how this plank trash stuff caught on - I liked the comment about the stationary rotor blade.

Careful Ced, that comment could be construed as heresy

 

Hendie's build threads are always very educational, it never occurred to me that the lead would expand due to moisture contact - surface exfoliation, I guess.

 

Keep it up @hendie

 

Thanks Wez.  There's no tail rotor at all so lord knows how it doesn't just spin and spin and spin

 

16 hours ago, TheBaron said:

If philosophers were modellers:

 

Heraclitus: You can't make the same part twice and have it turn out looking the same as the first.

Marcus Aurelius: Life is the sandpaper that shapes you.

Schopenhauer: If you just keep sanding, eventually there is nothing left.

 

 

15 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Descartes: I sand, therefore I am a modeller
Wittgenstein: A modeller who does not take part in fettling is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.

Wittgenstein again: A serious and good work on the Fly Wessex could be written consisting entirely of swear words.

 

 

15 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Great work. I especially like the wing fence you have created.  As Tony said the CA and talc mix is an excellent filler, it dries quickly and is very easy to sand too.  

Chris

 

I must try that recipe.  Okay, next time I'll give it a bash

 

4 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

Me too, but I've always thought the late, great Spike Milligan was right up there in the top 10 of them, there Philosiphirists;

 

"There are holes in the sky where the rain comes in, but they're ever so small that's why rain is thin''

 

Keith

 

PS nice wing fence hendie!

 

 

 

Mr Milligan along with Ivor Cutler would have made for a very surreal after non tea

 

 

4 hours ago, Graham T said:

I haven't clicked through this entire thread but in case you haven't got there yet, be VERY careful with the booms!  The tail plane of course is fitted between them with small "stubs" on the outside of each boom.  There isn't a huge difference between them but if you attach the booms as per the instructions, the tailplane will not fit, being "too long".  You need to attach them opposite to they way in the instructions so that the slightly SHORTER tail plane attachment stub is INSIDE & the longer OUTSIDE.

 

I have a cunning plan for that.  I've already removed the parts from the tree and glued them together without noting which was port and which was starboard. Cunning eh?

I'll have to dry fit them to find out which one goes where.

 

1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

 

Oxidation. The white stuff is Lead Carbonate Oxide, as seen used in Elizabethan face powder,  and exhaust stains when running a lean mix from the Tetra Ethyl Lead added to increase octane rating.

When used outside in the UK, it's treated with Patination Oil,  (basically Linseed oil) which stops surface carbonation.

https://www.britishlead.co.uk/patination-oil

turns out the white stuff is Lead Carbonate....  makes sense, rainwater contains dissolved CO²   which naturally makes rainwater slightly acidic... I digress, but then all the best thread on here do  

 

Neat work on the wing fence @hendie  that is a very good tip.

 

Chemistry lesson in a Venom thread?  Digression you say?   No worries Troy, we're all about digression around here.

 

14 hours ago, giemme said:

No philosophy from me, I just have an engineering degree

 

But this is a massive update, with lots of cunning solutions

 

Can I ask how did you shape the wing fence? Just by filing it? TIA

 

Ciao

 

There appears to be a bit of interest as to how I went about the wing fence.  Well, pull up a sandbag folks, I took a few photo's as I did the second one today so hopefully it will all become clear(ish)

First step is to procure a piece of the magic metal.  Oversized of course, but not too large or you'll spend half the day filing away the bits that aren't wing fence.

 

 

As I already had a decent wing fence on the other wing I used that as a template and just very roughly scribed around it to give me an outline to work to. Yesterday, I used the plastic part for the very same purpose.

No need to be too accurate here - I just need to know what bits NOT to file away

 

 

With a rough outline to work to I used the trusty old sihrsc to hack away.  No need to worry about prettiness here - we're just starting to get a rough shape, nothing more.  Even with a flat file you can still create an inner radius if you stroke it right.  This is industrial hacking at this point - the modelers files come later.

 

 

Before going too much further, I prepared the wing.  Top right in the photo here shows how the kit part arrives.

Using a scrap piece of brass the same thickness as the fence, I dragged a 90° corner of the brass along the slot on the wing - gently at first until I had a little bit of depth, then I could attack it with some more forceful swipes.  It didn't take long to dig myself a little trench as you can see in the main photo

 

 

Then it was onto refining the brass a little bit at a time.  To create the curve that wraps around the leading edge, I just used a small rat tail file to start removing the necessary material.  The key here is a few swipes with a file and dry fit OFTEN

 

 

After some fettling we have the beginnings of a wing fence. Still pretty rough, but I'm just looking for a general shape - the tidying up can come at the end.

 

 

I made sure I had scribed to a decent depth along the wing surface - that meant I didn't need to be too precise with the actual profile of the fence that sat on the wing. If there were a few gaps here and there you'd never see them as they sit below the surface of the wing itself.

That very same piece fitted on the wing...

 

 

Now I can hack away at the top edge of the fence.  I purposely avoided doing that earlier in case I messed up the inner curve - then any work done to the top edge would just have been wasted effort.

Anyways, now that I have a piece of brass that sits snugly on the wing surface, I'm free to hack all the top end stuff off.

One tool I find very handy at my bench is this little vice. It's a cheapo tool, but I can rotate it left and right, and I can also rotate the jaws. This lets me set up the workpiece at the most comfortable angle for working - very handy!

 

 

Again, I used the sihrsc to remove most of the excess material.  Once I got close to the shape I was after, I switched to the modelers files.  Being smaller and finer, they remove much less material per swipe than their big brothers, so it starts to take longer but you have more control over the workpiece.

In the end I had two very similar looking wing fences.

 

 

Rough shaping when required was done in situ... carefully. The shape of the fences and the wing contour helped hold the fence in place while I whacked it with the file.  This is not a practice I would normally recommend, but in this instance it was a suitable plan of attack.

 

 

More shortly, but I'm getting kicked off the computer and forced to make dinner!

 

*edit* Pt II

 

Back to the wings again.  This time to check how successful the Tamiya plastic putty had been. A quick squirt of primer showed that my fettling had been worthwhile and I ended up with a remarkable good join between the resin and the plastic with the join being all but invisible.  Great result.

 

 

The opposite end wasn't as good but not terrible.  A little bit more work is required and should see it alright on the night.

 

 

The razor saw cuts showed up nicely to delineate between wing structure and movable surfaces. A micromesh may do them some good to knock away the sharpness of those edges.

 

 

Easily noticed in the above photo's is the slight ragged gap I have between the wing fence and the plastic of the wing. Whilst searching for a suitable filler, I happened across some Mr Dissolved Putty,  - I had completely forgotten buying that, but it seemed like a good opportunity to test it out. Here, applied with one of my naff paintbrushes - it seems to have done the trick and filled in those tiny little gaps nicely. We'll know more when I sand it back after its set.

 

 

The fuselage which I had glued yesterday got as bashing with micromesh.  The main body looks fine, but that are directly behind the cockpit is going to be difficult to do properly without damaging the seat.

 

 

Sorry for the blurred photo, but I took this to show that the back end is not completely round, though at least I managed to get the edges to join up.  After flattening the back edge I had to thin some of the plastic down again to try and achieve something akin to scale thickness.

 

 

Then I wanted to test my theory that the engine can still drop in from underneath.  It does, but it showed me something that I didn't particularly like - you can see right up the tail pipe!

and all that's in there is a flat surface. Yoikes!

 

 

So, here we go again, the rather naff engine was but apart and I scraped around for some enginey looking bits

 

 

After finding next to nothing I started thinking... what does the back end of a Goblin engine look like?  WIth no decent photo's of the required area at hand, I put my thinking cap on and reasoned that all those noozles (if you've read that thread) coming in at the front, must exit somewhere so I reasoned that if you were to peer up the tailpipe, then you might just see a bunch of pipes. Maybe not, but that's what I went with - and glued some tube inside a piece of Robot B9's unused neck segment. 

 

 

Sanded flush at the back, and trimmed flush at the front, then painted blackish - this is what you will now see of you peer up the Venoms bu  tailpipe

 

 

Just enough to be interesting without being over the top.  If I get really bored, I may do something with the front side of that engine.  The kit part just doesn't do it for me - even although it will never, ever, ever be seen once inside.  That's just the way we roll around here folks.

 

I'm off now for a manicure after looking at the state of my grubby filthy talons on those photo's above.

Catch ya all next time around.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by hendie

[Brandy]

Lovely brass work as usual, and I'm sure there won't be too many around who will be able to look inside the tailpipe and say knowingly "that's wrong" (if it even is). Especially if it never leaves your display cabinet!

 

Ian