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Airfix 1/72 TSR2 upgrade.


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On 26/06/2020 at 00:48, Retired Bob said:

Hi Nikolay, are you thinking of building a TSR2, it could be as much fun as your 1/48 Vigilante. :penguin:

I’m not sure if I want that fun again... 😬 I don’t want to start another build before the Vigilante will be finished and stuck with the sanding and scribing. Anyway, a few days ago I applied some putty to the fuselage-to-wing joints, so I have a very small progress on her.

 

18 hours ago, amos brierley said:

Thats all for now, stay safe.   (It’s taken me three sittings to pen this, I hope 🤞 it reads ok and gives some insight into how I operate, especially shift patterns.)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, Amos. I always read your posts to the end, it’s an interesting insight into your life.

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Hello Gents.              Update No 15 - panel lines and scribing.

 

As promised I trotted of to Cosford today. You can’t just ruck up, you need to pre book an appointment, it’s all very Covid friendly. Your pre book time slots are all track and traceable, it will cost you £5 just for the parking. No hot food just sandwiches and drinks. As always just when I was thinking 🤔 things were on the up I uploaded my photos only to find that the camera had copied the photos is the lowest grade quality. 

 

The kit - the panel lines and how the kit is made up are a real problem. The breakdown of the kit parts is fairly attrocious with lots of stuff just not fitting and this kit is full of filler. Between the good panel lines this kit has many that are bogus, they need filling and the rest of them need to be re-scribed. So far it’s tedious and repetitive. 

 

I’m not sure I’ve ever made a mission statement about this build, what I’m trying to do is make a fairly accurate 1/72 kit . Airfix have only done 1/2 the job, what Airfix got wrong CMK and others had assisted in helping. But they can only go so far, the rest is down to the modeller, in this case my modelling skills. As I’ve said before I’m scale deficient, I see stuff but in 1/72 I just can’t can’t replicate it. Stuff in 1/48, 1,32 I can do.

 

Both drawings and photos are a mine field of trouble. I just don’t have enough photos of XR219 and as I’ve found today XR220 has a mirriade of stuff to make me stop and think 🤔. To which I’m going to have to draw a line somewhere between just getting this pig 🐽 of a kit built and total accuracy. I still have a 1/48th build to do and now a what if as well to think about......

 

I’m sure the photo says a thousand words, what you see is what I’ve settled on via years of trying. The latest addition is the Tamiya white flexible tape and of all things is The Trumpeter scriber. Having tried all kinds of scribers, the point of a dividers is now the best. The silver tape / speed tape is relatively good but every now and again it’s too thin and a wonky line appears. I usually start with light passes the press harder, when happy 😃 I sand the line then run a little glue down the panel line. Seal it all in. The Tamiya tape is good for curves/curved stuff.

 

Any normal kit this level of re-work isn’t the norm. The grey primer and pencil ✏️..... To prove that the work is done well I’ve been been covering the white plastic, less of it the better. And then I’ve been using a clicker 🖊 pencil to highlight the panel line, this is proving all is well. It also clears out the panel line of the paint. 

 

Worthy of note is the Airwave  etched razor saw, it’s meant for a craft knife handle , but, they’re way too flexible, so I’ve glued one to some stock plastic. It cuts a nice thin line. Occasionally the razor saw works too. And another thing..... when the wings get glued on only the steel rule will suffice for the spine......

 

That’s  all for now, stay safe .

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Hello Gents.                Update No 16 - airbrakes.

 

Highs and lows of life. Considering I’ve got so much time between shifts in the last few weeks I’ve been getting less and less modelling done, it’s one of those things. After 6 months of playing around with this model I’m getting to the point of ggggrrrrrr..

        On the up side of life the other things are good, computer fixed, Mrs B car fixed, trip to Cosford done, met up with friend from Assention Island yesterday. And of course bought more stuff on TSR 2.

     My shift pattern of Sun, Mon, Tue, has now ended and I’m now off for a week, as we say at work it’s our super seven. Back in work on Wednesday next week. Then I’ve got a week off for my birthday 🎂. This said I now want to crack on, last time I said that it started this down turn in output.

 

CMK replacement airbrake assembly. It’s not often I say something good about this Airfix kit but at least they give the modeller the choice to depict the kit with this unique feature. When I say choice I suspect it’s more ‘Hobsons choice ‘ as having them closed will be a painful 😖 option. 

      Replacing Airfix’s moulding is of all the replacement parts the most complex of all the things I’ve done to this kit. (And for my skills at least an easy process, (I’ve been playing around with resin + brass for the past 40 years.)) 

      The upper airbrakes required the least work to fit, but like I’ve said before CMK’s instructions leave something to be desired. A little bit of plastic to be removed from parts #80 sounded too good to be true, I made the opening a little wider. I used just a craft knife and needle files. Now the rub , CMK’s resin doesn’t fit that well and a big gap is left at the bottom near the side skins. At least I was able to fill it with thick super glue, then there’s where the airbrake legs fit. The picture shows the openings to be massive, and correcting them at a later date will be painful. The profile of the skin surface on the R/H  airbrake is very good, but, the L/H airbrake skin profile is very off, the picture of the model horizontal in the photo shows a small piece of plastic bonded on around the airbrake legs.

      The lower airbrakes required a little more work to make them fit. Firstly I started by chain drilling the kit plastic, now with most of the plastic removed it was onto the craft knife. Finally, a lot of work with needle files. The kit Inner Mold Line is not that good with the corners being substantially thicker, so a lot of work went into thinning the opening for a better final appearance. But at least the leg openings are far better.  Still not happy with what I’ve done...... CMK’s airbrakes just aren’t as good as I want, being poor to piddle poor. A look at reference photos shows up the problems,   the kit has a dimple in the side skins of just a few thou but the real thing is much bigger. Meanwhile, I decided to add some 3mm deep plastic, the green arrow shows what I’ve done to deceive the eye.

      As always the CMK replacement parts are something of a mixed bag, some good results, but some shrinkage of the airbrakes to contend with. ...

 

That’s all for now, stay safe.

 

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Hello Gents.                  Update No 17 -  when resin parts go wrong.

 

Hello Gondor44,  we live in extra ordinary modelling times, but we may forget the past path we’ve take to get here today. Gone are the days of some very talented modellers making masters and taking into account: shrinkage. Nowadays the likes of Quick Boosts can make some amazing stuff all in the per suit of scale modelling perfection. And even 3D printed stuff........

Sadly we don’t have such niceties with this TSR 2 kit. And in my case little knowledge of what will happen when I started this voyage of discovery. The first point to make is that the resin technology and techniques are some 10yrs old and so in this case all of the resin sets are problematic. 

So far everything has taken some time to make usable, cockpit tubs separated and extended, bomb bay shortage lengthened, airbrakes just accepted as good enough for opened. Some of the other things, well....

A few things have come to light in the last few days and are there to grind my gears, as I’ve said before firstly the nose gear rear doors CMK have just supplied a flat sheet of resin - so the Airfix doors are better!! CMK bomb bay doors are lovely, but, only say 10% better than Airfix - so that’s only a maybe.  The last item in the photo is the main undercarriage bay doors, CMK have really starred here. The upper of the doors are just a good 2mm too short and not fit for purpose, and to make matters worse the kit parts aren’t good enough either. In sanding the casting block off the door lost some of it’s size, but the fact the door isn’t to size or shape and the Airfix offerings are too thick means I’m going to have to scratch build these.

Todays thoughts......when I gave up on my last/first Airfix TSR 2 I wasn’t in a good place, but then I had only achieved 1/2 of what I’ve done so far. Trials and tribulations are the normal with this kit, but it’s not going from A to B , it’s enjoying the journey.....so they say......

 

Today the rum and coke is nice, that’s all, stay safe.spacer.png

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This build is really useful so far.

 

I must admit I'm not really impressed with the CMK accessories either as they were very expensive and don't fit the kit very well.

 

See this thread I created a while ago for the short bomb bay!

 

I still haven't got round to correcting it yet!

 

I have used the information on the missing tail fin intake and am quite pleased how it turned out so I'm learning things from this thread.

 

Keep the updates coming and thanks again for sharing,

 

Mark

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On 7/19/2020 at 6:20 PM, amos brierley said:

Hello Gondor44 my best guess you've  modelled you what-if on a Indian Jaguar M. 

The intention was as a Canberra replacement, but I did use the pylons from an Airfix Jaguar as that is the only 1/72 kit I know of that has the bomb beams in it.

 

The build thread is here https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=41670.msg714225#msg714225

 

Gondor

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Hello Gents.        Update No 18 - boundary layer spill ducts.

 

Are we still talking TSR 2 I hear you say?     Yes it’s that nonsense Airfix have created in the centre of the fuselage. What is the problem then? It’s how Airfix have gone about designing the fuselage to wing join and those two all important cheese wedges cut outs.

 

Firstly, the WHOLE of the wing to fuse is a problem and then there’s the WHOLE of upper fuselage panels and fittment and design. Hopefully my photos will show what I want to discuss. You’ve seen my model many times without the wing, part of the fuselage design includes two ‘legs’ protruding which form the front ducts, wrapping around them is kit part #42 which has the two remaining ducts. These are very prominent along with many other vents that make the TSR 2 distinctive. Along with this problem are the following, the wing doesn’t fit the fuselage and required a lot of work so big gaps under the wing were removed. The fittment of part #42 to the main wing was poor at best, and it’s fittment to the fuselage as even worse. When Airfix could have made a straight line they made a curve, neither the left or right side fuselage work here, the right hand side has about 0.5mm more plastic. This rework area will be dealt with at a later date. 

 

Now then the boundary layer spill ducts, the fwd and rear ducts 👀 look like they should be roughly the same size but are depicted anything but correct. The fwd pair are three times the size they should be, and the rears are about 1/2 the size. Then there’s the shape, size and profile are all very wrong. Now, 2D drawings are not good for depicting what I want, and many of them differ so much as to be very unreliable.

 

After much head scratching, procrastinating I fancied doing something different last night and took the plunge. For those following these posts, so far I would say that I’ve not really shown much in the way of my modelling skills, so today I’m showing some scratch building. Firstly the r/h ‘leg’ was cut off (big gulp) then a small piece of plastic stock was cut to fit into the fuselage. In doing so this now shows how the fuselage is already badly tapering before meeting the wing. Whilst I’ve now thrown the accuracies out I’ve fixed two other problems. The little cut out (which I’ve filled) would have been problematic to clean up and it now shortened the overly long duct.

 

Replacement of the ‘leg’. From stock plastic I’ve formed a replacement, it’s got these features. From the photos you can see that part #42 is not a nice tight fit with up to 1mm gaps, so, making my own ducts means that I can make them for a better tighter fit. Next, the new pice has a sharper angled exhaust, the end is now square and the top of the duct will have a sharper radius. When you look at the left hand duct the photo shows all of the many problems that are going on. Finally the ducts on part #42 these are very, very weak in depiction. Not a lot can be done to make them sharper, only a little work with needle files can make the ducts a sharper angle. Now, with a big hole in the wing this will sort out another problem, with the Airfix way you’d have a horrible seam in a problematic area to clean up, this can be done and then the new duct slid in later. 

 

Gondor44, at a later date I fancy doing two what-ifs, whilst building this one I’ve fancied starting the 1/144 , but for now am staying true to just one kit at a time....

 

Thats all for now, stay safe.

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17 hours ago, amos brierley said:

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That one picture explained, to me at least, all that you were talking about in your post. It's the first time I have seen that picture and I shall be takeing that on board when I get around to building my model of the second protatype.

 

Gondor

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23 hours ago, amos brierley said:

Hello Gents.        Update No 18 - boundary layer spill ducts.

And what an incredibly useful update too! Many thanks for the info shared in this one.

 

Mark.

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Hello gents.              Update No 19 - Wing Pt I , flaps (XR219.)

 

Firstly, a shout-out to Devilfish for completing his ‘In service TSR-2’. Nice looking kit.

 

Another detail set from CMK. The decision to depict the flaps down has to be taken before the wing is built, at this point I was doing a little bit more research......

 

Having given up on this Heritage Aviation solid resin kit, I’ve used it for 3D reference material, it’s by far the best reference I have. With no less than 5 sets of drawings to chose from you’d think some would be of use. With no specific period photos Of TSR2 flaps at hand this update will be taken with a pinch of salt. I was hoping to be able to wright a paragraph then insert a photo for better clarity, but it seems I can’t do this......

 

Photo 1 show’s what I think is wrong, I’ll show what I think Is correct Later.

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Work starts with the Airfix upper wing surface, I made simple cuts with the razor saw along existing panel lines. The lwr surface is a vastly different prospect, CMK don’t really show the modeller where to exactly to cut. I aligned the resin replacement with the kits trailing edge panels and took a leap of faith. Job done??
 

What the CMK instructions don’t tell you... The upper wing trailing edge Photo 2 shows that I’ve thinned down from 1mm down to a pleasing 0.1mm, it makes a big difference. The lower wing, I thought about glueing the resin replacement end-on-end, then decided to trial fixing it in place and how the flaps would sit. As always one side assembly fitted lovely with the right hand side requiring some fettling. That entailed shimming the resin piece with some 20thou plastic stock sheet (this was done over Xmas - before I took the decision to post this build). Also the fingers that make up flap actuators need some fettling , I just couldn’t get the sit of the flaps just right. So with a curved needle file I made some small adjustments for the male and female mating surface to properly mesh.

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With the wing built I decided to take a chance and fit the flaps as a means of making the flaps fit with the fuselage, it was just a hunch. Both the innermost section of the flaps required some work this time the left flap needed a lot of adjustments. Whilst the left hand flap stuck first time and in the correct place. The right hand flap on the other hand has and is a pain, it’s been stuck on three times and come adrift. For the moment it’s staying off.

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When I started this detail set, the first thing that struck me was that is only offered the flaps down, and no discernible extra detail. This lead me to look for answers. The flaps have a little re-scribing work the line of the silver. Its a shame I didn’t look harder at my own photos earlier as I’d have noticed that the silver on the leading edge needed a line scribing as well.

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So, what do I know about the flaps of XR219?  The only proper photo is of it built and in primer, and it appears not to have the three square access panels. The centre of the flap being primed so that means the extra silver came later. A recently received piece of information (to me at least) was that XR219 had a one off paint job, that being a new acrylic paint. This paint on XR219 as we know it deteriorated quickly, but that doesn’t answer the questions of why 219 received extra silver area’s, but it does point to other drawings that have been drawn correctly. The four lines of silver appear to line up with a series of bolts. If only the drawings had four lines of bolts....

 

Hopefully the photos will fill in any missing blanks. 

 

This photo shows how I’ve blended the resin and kit plastic seam line. Sadly CMK offer no additional details here.

 

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The only photo I’ve found of XR219’s flaps, shows no access panels, and how I think it must started out as white top coat paint before at some point in time receiving the four silver lines.

 

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This photo I hope shows the four bare metal lines theory.

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It’s not my best scripted post, soz. That’s all for now, stay safe.

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Hello gents.               Update No 20 - the wing box assembly - getting          the basics is no mean feat.

 

The wings are made up of just two parts : the one piece lower wing with the one piece upper wing which includes those evocative wing tips. Build them and you will then think about that monstrosity that’s part #42 the centre fuselage cover panels. Airfix have made it sound good haven’t they?

 

What they, Airfix , should have done is: from the aft cockpit to the last upper fuselage access panel that makes ‘the hump’ make that a single piece of plastic and make part #42 less complicated. Then make the upper wing surface just that, leave off the wing tips as separate items. And finally make the upper and lower wing join line on the bottom of the wing aft of the Lowe wing panels. ...... come to think of it the cheap skate sod’s should have dropped the flaps.
 
I also think the wing tips are hoop as well, I’ve said it before XR219 is the one true TSR2, now if you’re going to make a model of a TSR2 then XR219 is a good starting place. Normally most models box art is very accurate to the infuriation of modellers as it inveviatibly( predictive text not helping me out with this word) shows what’s wrong with the kit. In this case XR219 is depicted with pressure sensors only on the fin and horizontal stabs and not the wing tips. Meanwhile, Airfix have chosen to saddle the model with these pressure sensors ( often called ‘bonkers’ or TUI), great if you fancy building XR220/XR222. Therefore all other TSR2’s not in the test batch are devoid of such scabby looking appendages.

 

Building the wing centre box section and getting it wright .       After surgery for the flaps, you’ll be breaking out the filler (I’ve used nearly a full tube of it on this kit !!) for the leading edge it’s properly bad, wonky, huge gaps and not the slightest bit sharp. Three sittings of filler later ..... You’ll then turn your attention to where the lower wing meets the wing tip, there’s no easy fix, all options are bad. So, out with the filler and some judicious blending of the gap. 
 

And onto fitting the part #42, I’ll have a separate update on this piece of junk next time. I’m not sure if anyone has ever tried to fit this part later? But I went with fitting it to the wing first, as the photos of the tail pipes and there falling apart testified to, the very same happened with this too. Humbrol glue and this white plastic don’t work. To be fair to Airfix some of the many, many, many problems have been in my own making. In this case, myself inflicted adding of screw head detail is over stressing the plastic, jabbing a compass point into the plastic is too harsh. I’ve digressed, but part #42 is junk as well it’s fittment requires a LOT of filler just to match the wing surface. Again like all things concerning this kit, if I’ve done it once I’ve done it twice or three times, so when it came adrift from the wing centre section I Was properly Miffed.

 

Fittment of the wing to fuselage. As the modelling saying goes : ‘ it fits where it touches’. It’s bad at the front, rear and doesn’t come close underneath...... As I’ve already said about the front, and from this week’s update photos, you’ll see the left fuselage half is a good 1/2mm shy of the right hand fuse which is then a further 1/2mm shy of the wing box assy. The rear fuselage to wing fit is all over the place, it’s too tight in places big gaps in others. As for the wing itself it sits too high with a noticeable step. The underside of the wing, now with a set of resin parts, has massive gaps, but the basic design Airfix went with is very poor.  The photos show the extent of filler re-work the centre of the wing has about 1/2mm of filler where the wing will meet the fuselage blended out towards the wing tips . And the very inner bit of the wings ( still bare plastic) has had a few thou shaved of. 
 

Fuselage corrections, to fix the back of the wing step, the fuselage has had a good 10-12 thou shaved off and pinch points eased a little. Fixing the fwd fuselage, I’ll make the r/h side smaller then when the wing goes on fill it with stock plastic. The huge gaps under the wing, where the green arrows are that mating surface have been made deeper by shaving 12-15 thou off .

 

As always lots of work done and some more to do besides..... when Airfix can’t get the basics good then expect to have to go the extra mile. 
 

As I never expected to be here on Britmodeller this unexpected change of mind has bought me time to do weekly posts. With maybe just two free posts left, work done on the wing, if I don’t start achieving soon then when I have to then go live, posts will then become sporadic.

The plan.   It’s always been to get a minimum of the fuselage under the wing done and a minimum of the wing under sides re-worked. Re-work jobs on the fuselage are now progressing and 85% done, good. Nicely-nicely. Only the underside of the r/h wing is good enough so far.  So, when the wing goes on the last massive job will be to re-scribe the upper fuse and wing. ...... at some point in time hard core scribing will move over to making parts, painting and fun detailing......

 

Until next time, stay safe.

 

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Edited by amos brierley
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On 5/23/2020 at 11:03 AM, amos brierley said:

Hello Gents,      Update No 1.

 

I was going to post an update yesterday on the cockpit build so far but changed my mind, this was due to various comments about panel lines, so, with that in mind that where l’ll start. All A/C to some degree are festooned with some form of details such as access panels, join line, raised screws, countersink rivets and so on. For my form of modelling the more detail the better, a Trumpeter 1/48 F-100F was a feast for my eyes. Meanwhile the Airfix TSR 2 IS driving me batty with what they have produced. Firstly this is one of the reasons why I gave away this kit last time, I kept getting wrong my re-working of the task at hand, in my last attempt every time I did an update the model got a coat of white paint. White primer on white plastic did not bode well. This is why the model is a patchwork of grey primer, firstly it shows me that the work done is good and secondly the more grey paint means  one or more less jobs to do. 

       I really don’t have anything good to say about Airfix’s attempt to recreate an authentic rendition of the details. Firstly scale drawings, I have four sets of them and only one comes close to half decent, the rest drawn by someone who doesn’t have a understanding of the TSR 2 . Whilst 55% of what Airfix have produced is correct, correcting the bad 45% is a nightmare. Some of the panel lines are fictional, and what is with panel lines dissecting through access panels? Then there’s the break down of the model parts, how Airfix have done this in no way helps the modeller. As I’ve said before I’ve been at this subject for the last four months. The replacement of all of the international details took a month, the easy bit done, correcting the rest will take at least another 2 months if not more. I recently spoke to a friend and when he heard that I was applying a skin full of screws to a 1/72 kit informed of my madness.

        From the new photos you can see a plethora of re-work areas, and this is what I’ve done,  re-done and done a third time. The roll is ‘speed tape’ or silver tape, this is what I’m generally using to re-scribe with, and just a simple sharp point (dividers). The difference between this and the last build is this thin strip of metal, it has divided segregation and is what is creating the pitch of the fasteners, to some degree it’s a god send. Some basic details of additional work:

 

Nose Radome: panel lines deepened and faired into with lots of filler.

In flight re-fuelling point: panel fasteners added and bolt-on points too.

Structure: the covering over the nav’s instruments now has a missing panel line added.

Avionics bay: screw details added.

Canopy ejection handle (ground use) a small hole drilled into the plastic and a circle scribed around it (both sides of the model), Airfix provide this a just a decal.

Access bay (reconnaissance) and the panel for the roll sensor, screw details added. ( The roll sensors will not be added a the model is to be show with A/C blanks fitted.)

 

 

The sad thing about this (if my memory serves me well) is that during the development of the 1/72 kit  Airfix displayed a 1/48th test model which looked spot on. The resultant 1/72 model sold like a Beatles record in the sixties and became rare very quickly; the errors weren’t obvious until boxes were opened, etc and so on. When the 1/48 version was announced I for one was delighted and had visions of the original 1/48th development model being produced as a full kit. What I didn’t know at the time was that said model wasn’t around anymore and regrettably  the production  kit was even less accurate than its smaller predecessor.

Edited by avro683
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Hello avro683,                 Your right there was a resin master made which was accurate , they say someone was lucky to be given it, I think nobody has seen it since. I fancy a 48th kit but it`s likely to be a Dynavector vacform. Some day, just not any time soon. 

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Hello gents.               Update No 21 - wing box assy Pt III - part #42 ‘the hump’.

 

Ah the famous Airfix hump. What to say about part #42? It’s shockingly bad. The only good thing to say is that’s it’s better than the 1/48 offering.

 

Whats so bad about it then, well, 1) nothing fits  2) are all of those panel lines really necessary 3) the hump is basically the wrong shape.

 

How many more fixes of this white elephant have I got to perform? 
 

A study of photos and line drawings was a starting point. What a difference 10 years makes, I didn’t have this photo whilst building other TSR2’s, I’m always on the look out for stuff on TSR2. This first photo, a very weather beaten XR219 clearly shows many hidden details some of them real gems.

 

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The last of my big fixes starts at the end of glueing the wing on, the reason, all of the spine panels are parallel, so, no speed tape here I think only a steel rule will suffice. My reluctance to use speed tape is two fold firstly it’s thin and over such a long distance these lines have to be totally straight. Any slippage will be a mental blow. Secondly speed tape over such a distance it could drift off line or just distort. 


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Look at the above photo at the word configuration, the drawing shows a straight line upto the letter t.  Then look at what Airfix offers, it’s a big dip at the join of the fuselage and part #42. The fix is likely to involve bonding some 5 thou sheet plastic over the joint and feathering the edges. 
 

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Fixing part #42. The first thing was to 

give the panel lines a coating of filler and where the part joins with the wing. Where the aft bit of the part  meets this is a shockingly bad fit. A coat of grey primer makes the convoluted panel lines less troublesome. One simple fix was to divide the width wise panel into two, just a simple bit of scribing. Now shown with half with added screw head detail.

 

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Fixing the hump. For photo purposes the Dynavector wing and the Airfix 1/48 hump are shown. The 1/72 fix is relatively easy, the yellow tape shows what I’ve done. A little less rounding and tapering off with the last fairing panel being squared off. To do this I used Tamiya white tape, it’s for use with curved surface s. I used my clicker pencil to highlight its shape and draw the Tamiya tape to the corner of the panels with a piece of tape widthways. With filler added this was sanded down to the level of the Tamiya tape, this has given me a nice step.

 

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Screw head detail. It’s a feature I quite fancy, lots of new kits come fully packed with details. But not here, sadly it’s a topic fraught with failure. When I first tried this on my failed TSR2 I was using a pencil and a pair of dividers failure was inevitable, I was never going to get straight runs of screw details. Ten years later and I really can’t remember where I or when I bought it, but of all my model tools this is my best and favourite. The two faults with it, 1) it’s made of steel, so not as mailable 2) it only one piece and not a set so it’s only got two pitches, a set of these with different pitches would be nice. (Also available are ‘ponce’ wheels and riveting tools, I just didn’t fancy using them here.)
 

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That’s all for now, stay safe.

Edited by amos brierley
Forgot to add last photo.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello gents.             Update No 22 - wings Pt IV - wingtips.

 

General update.  Work is getting in the way, so, I’ve just finished my sad seven, including Saturday overtime it’s seven days straight, my month of Wed,Thur, Fri is done. Now it’s a month of Sun, Mon, Tue.  This week has been a real grueller with my days off now going to dedicated to recovering. 
       Modelling it’s dragging lots and I’ve been trying to get the last of the fuselage jobs done, several of these nasty jobs have now been crossed of my lists. Slow progress but in some ways satisfying.....

 

And onto the wingtips.......  Again like a broken record I’m saddened to be so negative about things, but it is what it is. If I sound grumpy that’s because that’s where I’m at.  Anything good about the wingtips? NO!! So what’s wrong? If Airfix had made the wingtips a separates, most if not all of the issues wouldn’t be as bad. 
1) Unless you’ll want to build XR220 and XR222 then the pressure sensors are moulded on and there not that good either.

2) The fuel dumps are some really scabby looking appendages.

3) The panel lines, too many for my liking and what’s there are suffering from run-out (they become thinner) things like the ILS panels are the wrong shape.

4) For me I think the wingtips have too much curved canber?

5)  The very tips seem to be too thin as well.

 

The re-work, firstly I coverd the wingtips in filler taking care not to damage the panel lines that make up the Nav lights. And where the wingtips meets the lwr wing surface the large gap was also filled. With some 400 grit sand paper the fuel dumps and pressure sensing plates were sanded down. Depending on what drawings you’re using and what feelings you have for the level of panel line details you want then it depends on what you’ll want to fill in. 
    Where the wingtips fit the wing that panel line was straightened and screw head detail was added. The ILS panels were deepened and the little panel aft was re-scribed as square. Next the fuel dumps were made up of stock plastic sheet- a small square added to the upper surface then an oblong added over the top to form a step change (I’ve not filled in the edges yet) . Finally from photos a very small oblong panel is missing, this was formed from my thinnest stock plastic and using a scribing template. 
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Fuel dump + small oval access panel.

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ILS panel (instrument landing system) + wingtip thickness.

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Not sure what this series of holes are about.

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That’s all for now. Stay safe.

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Not sure how I missed this one Amos but just had a catch up read of the whole post. You’ve done some amazing corrections on this kit and it really is beginning to look a lot better for it. I have the 48th scale Airfix one as well as a Contrail Vacform which I look at occasionally but not mad enough to start them yet.

 

Pete

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Hi-yer Peter,   as has been said , you blink and a persons post can move down the list quite fast. It’s taken me three months to find some other fine modellers posts. But, many thanks for looking. I’ve never seen anyone build the Contrail Vacform kit, I have other projects that look equally difficult. All for another day. Keep up the good work with your latest project, I was only two hours ago thinking of finding my Jaguar photos showing the flaps down, in a bid to help you out. 

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50 minutes ago, Peter W said:

Not sure how I missed this one Amos but just had a catch up read of the whole post. You’ve done some amazing corrections on this kit and it really is beginning to look a lot better for it. I have the 48th scale Airfix one as well as a Contrail Vacform which I look at occasionally but not mad enough to start them yet.

 

Pete

Don’t bother with the Contrail nonsense. The only resemblance between it and the actual aircraft is the name on the box.

 

If you want a really excellent vacform TSR2 then go for the Dynavector. Superb kit.

 

Graham

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Hi Joseph L          Your right about the Contrail kit and Dynavector being the way forward. Our favour auction site has recently had two of these kits for sale, building a Dynavector kit is a doddle compared to this Airfix kit.  At the end of this build I have various ideas for my future/next build. Thanx for the link, was a blast from the past, it’s been over 20yrs  since I’ve tackled a vacform, my logic is continuity of subject and I’d never have to build another vacform kit.

 

 

 

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Hello gents.                    Update No 23 - rear fuselage spine.

 

Part #23 covers from the rear of the wing to the exhaust cans. This part has been on my radar recently.

 

So, what have Airfix done wrong this time? Well it’s a strange looking piece, making up part of a group around the back end. It’s fit meant is less than stellar, on this note a mistake I made was to only use liquid glue, the part straddles the left and right hand side fuselage parts. What I should have done was to use some Araldite for that rock solid feel. As for the fitment with it’s neighbouring parts, that’s poor as well and requires a little filler. And a lot of sanding.

 

Panel lines and details..... The first port of call is plan’s and drawings, here mostly useless. But my favourite un-named drawing is a starting point and with a little help from some photos. The biggest change has been the removal of the four r/h access panel’s and the arrows show what I’ve been up to. The hardest part and one that I’ve got wrong several times is the additional screw head details. I’ve added two oval panels further down the rear skin. 
 

The research I’ve put into this area is substantial but sadly I can’t give a definitive answer I just don’t have enough photos. As for those two rows of lines near the exhaust there on the Heritage Aviation model and only on XR219....  Another job for another day.


Pesty friend.

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Thats all for now, stay safe.

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