Done! RAF HS.125 CC.3

[TheyJammedKenny!]

I really like the austere look of the 1980s-vintage Hawker HS-125 CC.3 in RAF service, painted gloss white overall and a roundel blue cheat line, similar to that shown on the Matchbox cover-art of the CC.2.  To do justice to the type requires kit-bashing using two different generations of kit: the 1974-vintage Matchbox of the -600, and last year's Sword model of the -800.  Sword's kit offers many details that can be cobbled onto the -600 to turn it into a -700 jet, such as the engines, underwing details, and possibly the landing gear.  As others on this board have pointed out, the Matchbox kit isn't bad, but it does have a few problems.  

 

I wanted to do a partial interior and pose the finished product with the door posed open invitingly for little VIPs.  No crew figures on this one, however.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

The Matchbox kit's rudder looks terrible, so I sliced it off the kit and radically reshaped and detailed it.  I'll add it later.  The wings are lacking detail, and the ailerons look like approximations of the real thing.  I believe they're a little short, chord-wise, but I can live with it.  I made minor modifications, including to the trailing edge tab.  On the upper surfaces of the wings I added hinges and bulges for the various pulley and hinge-fairings, as well as bulges for the main landing gear trunnions.  I can always sand these down to smaller size later on if they seem too big.

 

The Matchbox wing approximates where the leading edge and navigation lights should be.  I carved out spaces for the wing leading-edge lights and boxed in the compartments using Evergreen styrene.  The "lenses" are from AK.  I heated up clear Evergreen styrene sheet over a candle flame and as it began to sag, stretched it over the wing leading edge to form the transparencies.  I then used a sharp #11 blade to cut each transparency to where it would fit, and I think the results are fine.  We'll see whether I can sand and polish the transparencies without dislodging them from the wing. 

 

As the Matchbox windshield transparency is a bit "squinty," and doesn't leave much room for error, I gently scored the rear of the center pillar of an Airfix Dominie windshield and gently spread it apart with a styrene so it would fit in the new space.  I also sanded the cockpit sides top and bottom to receive this bigger piece.

   

Edited May 15, 2020 by TheyJammedKenny!
minor word change

[TheyJammedKenny!]

More detail here on the wings and tailplane.  I think the top of the cruciform tail (in dark blue) is a bit too short, so I added about a scale foot of styrene to extend it.  I may need to sand the leading and trailing edges to make it better resemble the top of the fin found on the -600 and -700

The Matchbox lower wing half has a weird fence that doesn't exist on the real aircraft.  I removed it, but will add part of it later to the outboard under-area of the wing nearest the aileron balance.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Here's the fuselage and cabin.  I understand that interiors of the RAF aircraft are furnished in blue carpeting with cream-colored side walls, and with wood paneling in the area of the entrance door threshold.  I used the Sword kit's cockpit, and combined it with some of the kit's modified bulkheads and sheet styrene to create the door threshold, and made sure there was some semblance of central aisle "trench" so the passengers can enter the cabin without stooping too much.  Bear with me here: a lot of these details are speculation on my part and will be difficult to see on the  completed model, anyway.  Since these photos were taken, I adjusted the  "woodwork" in the threshold, so it doesn't look so beat up.  Who knows?  The 1980s were a period of austerity...

  

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Sword's TFE-731 nacelles look good to my eye.  I just need to make some refinements in the air intakes by adding styrene tubing to hide the seams, and metal tubing to the exhaust for the  high-pressure turbine.  Also, the rear contours need slight adjustment, because the RAF's aircraft lacked thrust reversers as far as I know.  To make the engines "mate" with the Matchbox kit, I've created a combined sheet styrene to form short airfoils for the stub wings (appropriately labeled "L" and "R").  I also sawed off some of the Sword kit's stub wings to ensure slight toe-out relative to the fuselage, and added strips of styrene to build up the mating surface.  We'll see how that works out!  Thanks for watching this channel.

Edited May 15, 2020 by TheyJammedKenny!
word changes

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice attention to detail and interior work there. This looks like it will be very nice when finished

 

[John_W]

I remember the matchbox kit. I brush painted it white and lost count of how many coats it took to kill the red plastic.

[Captain Mark]

Some great interior work going on here, keep us posted! 👍

[TheyJammedKenny!]

7 hours ago, John_W said:

I remember the matchbox kit. I brush painted it white and lost count of how many coats it took to kill the red plastic.

Yeah, this is one of the many things that is so "special" about the Matchbox kit. I guess it would be fine if you were doing a "Royal Flight" aircraft.  But RED.  Really?  This will take several layers of airbrushed white Stynylrez to take care of.  Final coat will be from a Tamiya rattle can.  Thanks for your supportive comments on this one.  It's an unusual subject.  

 

11 hours ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

This looks like it will be very nice when finished

Ya know, I'm hoping that's the outcome.  We'll see.  Sometimes these things go nowhere, but I'm cautiously hopeful.  

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Continuing slowly on this project.  Having satisfied myself that everything is as it should be inside the fuselage, I gave everything a wipe-off with a tack cloth to remove dust particles.  The fuselage went together well--parts fit is one of the good things about Matchbox kits, and this one fits together especially well.  I sealed up the gaps left by removing the rudder (below) as much for keeping dust out of the insides as any scale effect.  I'll create the rudder hinges later with plastic card.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

I looked at numerous photos of the real thing as well as some line drawings, and it appears the engines are very close to the fuselage on the -700, so no need to create additional "wing span" on the stub wing for this project.  Matchbox has the trailing edges wrong--they should be 90 degrees relative to the aircraft centerline--so I added some plastic that I'll fair in later.  The elongated, rounded object lurking in the upper right hand of this picture is the conformal ADF antenna array for the top of the forward fuselage.  At least, that's what I think it is.😀

[TheyJammedKenny!]

And here is the pax door with its integral steps.  Matchbox gives a good start, but the door doesn't really plug-seal with the fuselage, so I added plastic and filler putty until I got a better fit.  The idea here is to glue it in place with white glue and paint it integrally with the rest of the model.  I also added bits of styrene to make this detail nearer to the prototype.  I'll create the folding railing for it much later in the process.  As you can see, my cutting board is a mess.

Edited May 17, 2020 by TheyJammedKenny!
minor word change

[TheyJammedKenny!]

I reattached the rudder assembly, which looks much, much better than the Matchbox kit's original monstrosity, and decided that the Sword kit's horizontal stabilizer would be a better substitute for the Matchbox one.  I added styrene to the gaping hole in the Sword part.  It seems that the -700 and the -800 share the same horizontal stabilizer, but the -800 has a wider chord--hence the need to recreate the "shelf" found on the leading edge of the -700 (and earlier versions).  I'll make other adjustments to ensure this fits, and may need to use steel rod to reinforce the join.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Thanks to others' suggestions on this forum, I used Zap 560 Canopy Cement to attach the clear leading edge transparencies, waited 48 hours for it to dry completely, then followed up with a little touch of liquid cement and some cyanoacrylate gap filler.  After allowing another day or so to set, I sanded the leading edge with great trepidation and presto, the transparencies stayed in place!  I then polished them down with sanding sticks and Novus plastic polish, and results are completely...transparent.  So I'm happy with the way this turned out.  

 

I also installed a "stall strip" on the leading edge of the wing, just outboard of the landing lights.  On the real aircraft, this ensures that the wing stalls from the inboard portion only.  I also cemented a strake to the wing underside near the aileron pivot point.  All HS-125s from the Series 1 to the -700 have this feature.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Work on the engines continues on the margins.  Here we see the compressor turbine faces, which came with the Sword kit, and two inlet trunks, which are Evergreen styrene tube that's been sanded at each end to create a wider mouths at the intake and compressor, respectively.  This means that the intake will be a bit smaller than

the kit's, but I'm willing to live with that.  It'll look better, at least.  

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Here's the tail section.  I decided to proceed with the cruciform tail before installing the wings and engines.  Why?  Because the tail serves as a nice horizontal index line against which to eyeball the alignment of the wings and engines.  Assuming that it's really and truly straight, the horizontal stabilizer will show you in a heartbeat how "off" your engines look when viewed from the front or rear, and also make a useful reference point for the wing dihedral.  

 

To keep everything more or less aligned, I drilled parallel holes through the components, inserted steel wire, and stacked them, starting with the horizontal stabilizer, and following with the cruciform upper fin.  At each stage I carefully eyeballed alignment, and twisted things as necessary to ensure the rigging was good.  Luckily there was just enough play in the assembly to do this.  The wire will serve as a useful reinforcement against lateral knocks and bumps.

 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Slow progress on this one.  I refined the shape of the tail fin and sanded and puttied all the join-lines to shape, so it now looks closer to the real thing.  This included narrowing the overall chord of the fin cap and imparting more curvature to the leading edge near the top.  My only regret is that I did not do a good enough job of protecting the elevator line on the right side and had to re-scribe it.  I also worked on refining the wing details.  Not an expert on the real thing, but there are some bulges near the landing gear door hinge-line that I'm trying to capture.  I'll be happy with "about right."

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Also got started on the engines.  These mark a milestone because they are the final sub-assembly before I begin "final assembly."  After masking the nose domes, I airbrushed the fan blades with Alclad II duralumin.  I then carefully cemented the fan faces to the intake trunks, and after giving these a short time to set, assembled the engine pods.  Obviously I need to do some cleanup on the engine intakes, a process that requires gap-filling super glue.  Also, the back-end of the engines will need to be sanded until they are straight up and down.  The exhausts on the CC.3 lack thrust-reverse and thus are a little shorter.  At some point I'll add brass tubing to simulate the engine "core" exhaust.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

I've put concerted work into the engine nacelles, blending the intakes with the styrene tube inserts with a bit of cyanoacrylate and putty.  On the exhaust section, I sanded away traces of the thrust reversers and added short sections of styrene tube to create a more even-looking back-end, inside and out.  I'll blend in these areas later.

 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Pending completion of the engine assemblies, I've started work on the landing gear, using the Sword kit's as a basis.  I added wire hydraulic brake lines, the kit's photo-etch torque links, and scratch-built pivot points for the main gear assemblies.  It doesn't have to look perfect at this point--I can clean things up later.   Those counting the number of brake lines may note that there should probably be two more, but considering the assemblies are tiny, I'm not inclined to test my patience further.  The main gear also need a forward rake, which the kit doesn't supply.  

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Some lovely detail work there TJK!

[TheyJammedKenny!]

RAY: Thanks so much!  It's enough to be make me feel good about it without going completely bonkers.  

[Pete in Lincs]

Lots of lovely corrected detail going into this. It's good to see.

[Jonners]

Nice work - the finished item will look the business. I made one of these  from the box when I was a teenager in the late 80's, brush painted with umpteen coats of Humbrol Gloss White!

Jon

Edited June 7, 2020 by Jonners

[TheyJammedKenny!]

All: Thanks for the encouragement.  I think the real thing is a quite pretty machine and worthy of a good update.  I too built one of these as a teenager in the late 80's, after a false start with an earlier kit, and liked the results "as-is."  That built example is "history," as they say, and personal expectations and preferences change over time.  Like many others, I've decided to go back over familiar ground to see if I can do better (this time).