Hawker Horsley, Vacform Tutorial

[LorenSharp]

3 minutes ago, Martian said:

If you had ever visited my attic, you would understand why I used that expression.

I shall plead what you colonial types call the fifth amendment.

 

Martian 👽

I would just grab a fifth and drink it. Let somebody else do the pleading.

 I imagine your attic is like my storage unit. Vast array of large tubs filled  with plastic of all types.

[Martian]

10 hours ago, LorenSharp said:

I would just grab a fifth and drink it. Let somebody else do the pleading.

 I imagine your attic is like my storage unit. Vast array of large tubs filled  with plastic of all types.

Well, it was until they were all piled in a heap by Mrs Martian and her Sister to get at a stranded Martian with tentacles akimbo a rafter. I didn't dare complain as I had just gone through a newly, professionally painted ceiling and considered that I was already injured enough.

 

Martian 👽

[LorenSharp]

2 minutes ago, Martian said:

Well, it was until they were all piled in a heap by Mrs Martian and her Sister to get at a stranded Martian with tentacles akimbo a rafter. I didn't date complain as I had just gone through a newly, professionally painted ceiling and considered that I was already injured enough.

 

Martian 👽

So much abandon ship drill training.

[Gondor44]

Heather, I'll see your Lerwick and raise you a Warwick

 

 

This will probably never be built as I have three Matchbox/Revell Wellingtons to use instead of the Contral kit with the turrets comming from a modern Airfix Lancaster which I have a Blackbird Lincoln conversion set to go with it so the turrets are available.

 

Gondor

[Martian]

2 minutes ago, Gondor44 said:

Heather, I'll see your Lerwick and raise you a Warwick

 

 

This will probably never be built as I have three Matchbox/Revell Wellingtons to use instead of the Contral kit with the turrets comming from a modern Airfix Lancaster which I have a Blackbird Lincoln conversion set to go with it so the turrets are available.

 

Gondor

Come on. hand it over!

 

Martian 👽

[Gondor44]

2 minutes ago, Martian said:

Come on. hand it over!

 

Martian 👽

No chance, what would I use for refference?

 

Besideds I may eventually change my mind and build it, took me long enough to get hold of one at a reasonable price.

 

Gondor

[Murdo]

I've been working on a 1/144 Welsh Models vacform Scimitar F1 for a while... (Possibly a year but Jura came first)...    

 

 

 

 

I'll start a WIP on it.

 

And funnily enough, this arrived in the post last week:

 

 

 

 

As I have a long weekend, I'm hoping to model myself to death if SWMBO will leave me alone and spare me the "Honey Do's".

 

 

[Martian]

5 hours ago, Murdo said:

I've been working on a 1/144 Welsh Models vacform Scimitar F1 for a while... (Possibly a year but Jura came first)...    

 

What? The whisky or the place?

 

Curious of Mars 👽

[Murdo]

Sorry mate, meant the wee 1/350 ship I'm scratch building. Scottish Fisheries Protection Vessel "Jura".

 

And apols for hijacking your thread yet again.

 

I'll keep my yap shut from now on!     

 

 

[Whofan]

I notice it's Saturday night .... and what do Martians do on a Satuday night ???

 

That's right, they go to the hop !

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

4 minutes ago, Whofan said:

I notice it's Saturday night .... and what do Martians do on a Satuday night ???

 

That's right, they go to the hop !

 

 

 

He was "hopping" so much at Telford (I am told) that he was invited to get into his saucer and fly away, pronto!

[Whofan]

Just now, Moa said:

 

He was "hopping" so much at Telford (I am told) that he was invited to get into his saucer and fly away, pronto!

I confess I didn't see that, surprised he didn't wave his blurglecruncheon about!

[Martian]

OK, it has been a few days but we are at what is probably the most the consuming part of the build and obviously it takes me a bit longer to prepare the tutorial.

 

I used the kidney scraper thingy to remove the last bits of unwanted plastic from the mating surface of the upper wing. The tool is quite efficient and I will certainly be using it on future projects. When we are happy that we have removed enough material from the mating faces of the wing, we can give them a final rub down on the vacform board before gluing the two halves together.

 

On some earlier kits there is sometimes a mismatch between the upper and lower parts of a wing. Don't panic, I usually line up the ailerons, glue the wing together and the use the plan to either trim the wing tips to shape or add filler to build them up as the case may be. There was a very slight mismatch on this kit but it took me about two minutes to rectify. We can the clean up our wing in the same way as we would an injection moulded item. At this point, we can also thin the trailing edges from the outside  of the wing if we deem it necessary. Once again, no more than we would do to a conventional kit. 

 

So far, nothing difficult, just a bit time consuming but since when has there been a prize for speed in making a model?

 

As already stated, most of the more recent kits have excellent surface detail and will not need much, if anything doing to them in this respect. However, with vacforms we are most likely looking at the only offering of the subject we wish to make and we may be looking at something from the more basic end of the market. The tutorial kit is one such item.

 

All I do is take a ruler and a sharp pencil and referring to the plan and any vestigial remains on the plastic mark out where surface detail needs to be added. This may be panel lines or, as in this case where rib tapes need to be added. Once again, take your time but its not difficult. Tail feathers are treated in an identical manner.

 

 

That's probably enough to put on you for one installment so I'll go and prep the rest of the flying surfaces and will see you in a few days when they are ready.

 

Martian 👽

[bigbadbadge]

This is great Martian, I have always shyed away from Vacforms and this is helping to clarify things a bit.  Although I do have a Raraplanes Tucano (bought on the bay and all the white metal bits were missing, the seller gave a refund but did not want the kit back so I kept with the intention of a practice mule) you never know I could give it a go one day.  I will add this thread to favourites and use for future reference.

Thanks for posting this thread.

All the best

Chris

[StephenCJ]

38 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

you never know I could give it a go one day.

Make that day TODAY.

[bigbadbadge]

37 minutes ago, StephenCJ said:

Make that day TODAY.

If only I had the time, 1:1 modelling ongoing with the house, earning valuable brownie points from SWMBO!!!

[Martian]

4 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

This is great Martian, I have always shyed away from Vacforms and this is helping to clarify things a bit.  Although I do have a Raraplanes Tucano (bought on the bay and all the white metal bits were missing, the seller gave a refund but did not want the kit back so I kept with the intention of a practice mule) you never know I could give it a go one day.  I will add this thread to favourites and use for future reference.

Thanks for posting this thread.

All the best

Chris

Thanks Chris, if you have a practice mule, you really have nothing to lose by having a bash.

3 hours ago, StephenCJ said:

Make that day TODAY.

Good point Stephen.

3 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

If only I had the time, 1:1 modelling ongoing with the house, earning valuable brownie points from SWMBO!!!

Seeing as how a husband's brownie points are the most ephemeral thing in the known universe, you really might as well have a bash.  You will only be in trouble for something else anyway. Ask me how I know.

 

Martian  (aka The Monster from Outer Space) 👽

[LorenSharp]

10 hours ago, Martian said:

OK, it has been a few days but we are at what is probably the most the consuming part of the build and obviously it takes me a bit longer to prepare the tutorial.

 

I used the kidney scraper thingy to remove the last bits of unwanted plastic from the mating surface of the upper wing. The tool is quite efficient and I will certainly be using it on future projects. When we are happy that we have removed enough material from the mating faces of the wing, we can give them a final rub down on the vacform board before gluing the two halves together.

 

On some earlier kits there is sometimes a mismatch between the upper and lower parts of a wing. Don't panic, I usually line up the ailerons, glue the wing together and the use the plan to either trim the wing tips to shape or add filler to build them up as the case may be. There was a very slight mismatch on this kit but it took me about two minutes to rectify. We can the clean up our wing in the same way as we would an injection moulded item. At this point, we can also thin the trailing edges from the outside  of the wing if we deem it necessary. Once again, no more than we would do to a conventional kit. 

 

So far, nothing difficult, just a bit time consuming but since when has there been a prize for speed in making a model?

 

As already stated, most of the more recent kits have excellent surface detail and will not need much, if anything doing to them in this respect. However, with vacforms we are most likely looking at the only offering of the subject we wish to make and we may be looking at something from the more basic end of the market. The tutorial kit is one such item.

 

All I do is take a ruler and a sharp pencil and referring to the plan and any vestigial remains on the plastic mark out where surface detail needs to be added. This may be panel lines or, as in this case where rib tapes need to be added. Once again, take your time but its not difficult. Tail feathers are treated in an identical manner.

 

 

That's probably enough to put on you for one installment so I'll go and prep the rest of the flying surfaces and will see you in a few days when they are ready.

 

Martian 👽

I've also found that if there isn't any surface detail to be had, locating any information on your subject, especially line drawings, on the wonderous Net may also be an aid. If I can I'll try to find a line drawing and scale to the subject. Print out a copy and use it as a templet to make my panel lines.

[Martian]

This is a slightly unplanned installment as, while working on the fin and rudder and the tail planes, I became aware that the mating edges of the fin and rudder to the didn't even begin to match up. I kept looking at the fin and rudder and I kept looking at the rear of the fuselage and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how they were supposed to match up. I then did something completely outrageous. I consulted the Instructions!

 

Have we all clamed down from that earth shattering revelation? Good, I shall explain. I transpires that the bottom of the fin on the real aircraft was straight whereas the kit part is stepped to a considerable degree. The rudder was also too small, I have pencilled these in in the accompanying picture.

 

 

I was very tempted to ditch the assembly and just knock out a scratch built replacement but I have been determined to do this tutorial using the kit parts as to do otherwise might help me but will not help the tutorial. This led to an all night session at the bench and the dawn was long since up by the time I had cut away the step added some laminations of plastic card to straighten the lower line of the fin. I also flattened out the bottom of the rudder and added some laminations to this area. When sufficiently dry, these were carved and sanded back to the correct shape.

 

While waiting for the fin and rudder to dry and accepting that sleep was unlikely, I cut away the portion of the lower fuselage that needed to be removed to allow the lower wing to be fitted. This time I began by consulting the plans and things went far more smoothly as can be seen form the accompanying pictures:

 

 

 

Although it does not effect the techniques used here, studying pictures of the Horsley, it became clear that, although leading edge slats were supposed to be standard for the type, this was by no means the case in practice. Ideas anybody? Study also showed that the rib and riblet tapes star a way back from the leading edge. It is a small matter to allow for this at this stage and will actually make things easier for us.

 

 

I shall now go and clean up the layers of vacform offcuts and shavings that cover just about every single surface in the Martian cave. I need to do some painting on the Lynx and Triebflugel and I don't hold out much hope for a decent finish as things stand.

 

Baggy Eyed of Mars 👽

[Pete in Lincs]

15 minutes ago, Martian said:

This led to an all night session at the bench

Above and beyond! Sweet dreams. (Do Martians dream of Electric Humans?)

[Martian]

3 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Above and beyond! Sweet dreams. (Do Martians dream of Electric Humans?)

No and Mrs Martian won't let me dream of the flesh and blood kind. Well, at least not those good looking ones of the female persuasion.

 

Hen Pecked of Mars 👽

[corsaircorp]

On 5/23/2020 at 10:02 PM, Moa said:

 

He was "hopping" so much at Telford (I am told) that he was invited to get into his saucer and fly away, pronto!

Nobody dared to invite this alien of our brotherhood to get into his haunebu...

And By Jove !! we were tasting Hop, Barley and so on specialities...

The ones who where there have something glorious to tell to their Grand childs !!

As said on my thread...

I'm in and restart this one 

Sooo Dear Alien

We don't talk about any TT SiG but you've raised a Vac form SiG or sort of....

Ok, I get back to the Nasty corner but with my Rocket fuel...

Sincerely.

CC

[Martian]

5 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

Sooo Dear Alien

We don't talk about any TT SiG but you've raised a Vac form SiG or sort of....

Ok, I get back to the Nasty corner but with my Rocket fuel...

Sincerely.

CC

CC, I note that your location is described as "South of Belgium". Would it not now be more accurate if you gave your location as "The Naughty Corner", given the amount of time you spend there? It would make it easier for people to find you

 

Helpful of Mars 👽

[corsaircorp]

46 minutes ago, Martian said:

CC, I note that your location is described as "South of Belgium". Would it not now be more accurate if you gave your location as "The Naughty Corner", given the amount of time you spend there? It would make it easier for people to find you

 

Helpful of Mars 👽

Good idea !! Martian !! it's done !!

CC

[Martian]

While the Martian Cave is currently configured for air brushing and is therefore out of bounds for anything that will create dust or plastic shavings, I thought that I would tidy up some odds and ends regarding preparation of parts and wing construction.

 

On the Horsley the wings are just two lengths of plastic with little or no flex between them when they are joined. On aircraft with thicker wings, I should mention that a basic system of spars and ribs will probably be required. Once again, there is nothing difficult in this as it is basically no different to adding bulkheads and floors to a fuselage and we will be looking at this in an installment coming to you soon.

 

When building a type of aircraft that has a canopy, I start by cutting out and trimming the canopy. I then cut out the fuselage and carefully sand this down, regularly checking the fit of the canopy to the fuselage until a perfect fit is achieved. 

 

Hope that helps. I should be finished with the airbrush tomorrow and we can resume work on the wings.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Martian 👽