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SUPERMARINE SCIMITAR **RFI posted**


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Hi - I have to admit that I have had this kit in my stash for over 20 years, looked at it a few times but never got any further until I recently started reading our resident Martians Hawker Horsely build in WIP on Vacforms

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I felt compelled to get the kit out again and revisit it as well as the books I have collected over the years on the Scimitar & magazine articles.

 

I logged onto Britmodeller and had a good look at three beautiful done Dynavector Scimitar models -

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23706-dynavector-scimitar-148-vacform/#comment-259175

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235063907-148-dynavector-scimitar/

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234932803-supermarine-scimitar-f1-148-dynavector-vac/#comment-1212044

 

I spent the last week looking at the mouldings and the available plans I have as well as some kits one of which is the CMR resin Scimitar( also not built).The first thing I noticed is the amount of variation in the plans that I viewed some of which captured the subtle shapes better than others

I enlarged  the 1/72 plans I had by 150% to get 1/48 scale and then enlarged the tailplane by 153% to get it close enough to the 17ft 2.5 inch span of the modified tailplane (MOD 746)

After scrutinising the vacform sheets I felt that the fin looked too narrow in chord and the tailplane looked more like a slab to my eyes & did not capture the slender lines of the real thing as in the photo below.

As discussed in other articles on building Scimitars on Britmodeller the Scimitar initially had a tailplane span of 15foot 6.5 inches and there was a mod 746 that increased the tailplane span to 17 foot 2.5 inches - I don't know when this was applied but I chose to model the increased span tailplane. After looking at scale conversion sites I worked out this span was close enough to 109mm.

 

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The trailing edge of the main wings has a straight section near the tip which looks to be a gentle curve in photos - the photos show my initial sketching out of my outlines of the fin and tailplane.

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I spent many hours/days  looking at photos and eventually came up with my own sketches that I’m reasonably happy with below but will tweak them as required.( note: I have an updated sketch a bit further down this post)

 

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I will also look at the shape of the canopy at some stage and  the subtle curves around the windscreen & the slope down to the nose of the aircraft – I’m currently feeling that I might eventually need to vacform a new canopy shape but will decide later in the build.

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Before all of that happens I will do some more reading of the Martians post as well as the link to this article -

 

I also have a few other articles on building the Dynavector Scimitar that I have collected over the years from Scale Aircraft Modelling August/September 2005 by Jim Howard & one by Bill Clark in Scale Aviation Modeller (year unknown).

 

I had a lot of trouble the last two days posting up the links and direct link photos in this build from Postimage as they would not open in BM but they finally worked this afternoon so hopefully all is ok now

 

CJP

 

 

 

Edited by CJP
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12 minutes ago, StephenCJ said:

Good to see you have got it out to make a start.

Take your time and it will come together well and in no time you will become a Master of the Dark Arts or even a Wizard.

 

Stephen

Thanks Stephen , I have always admired the lines of the Scimitar so if I can get this one together I will be a happy chappy

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Well I grabbed my scalpel and  had my first tentative go at cutting out on this kit - I was actually quite easy and the plastic was a lot thinner around the black outlines - the kit is moulded from about 40 thou plastic sheet so after scoring about three times it was easy to snap the part off - I have not sanded them but the outline is already pretty close and wont take too much cleaning up.

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I placed the cut out parts on my sketch plan and it shows the front edge of the fin needs about 2mm added to bring it outwards - the tailplane was also laid on the plan & the chord at the root is about  5mm too long but too short at the tip - not sure how to tackle the tailplane but will probably cut it into sections to reshape it.

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When I placed the rear fuselage part on my plan the fuselage was deeper by a couple of millimetres - this looked fine to me so I adjusted the plan to reflect the deeper line of the lower fuselage - In lieu of an accurate 1/48 Scimitar plan I will just keep tweaking my plan like this as long as it looks ok - the detail on the vacuform moulding is certainly impressive so it's a shame these kits are no longer in production.

 

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CJP

Edited by CJP
updated sketch plan
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I think you have put your finger on the nub of the issue; there does not seem to be a readily available accurate plan of the Scimitar so going by what looks right for you is the best way to go. The issue is confused still further in that there a few iterations of the basic design before the final layout was settled upon by the manufacturer. 

 

I almost went and bought the old Contrail kit of the type before I remembered that I had built it and the pain that went with it. A rare burst of Martian common sense then set in and I decided to keep my Dynavector kit instead.

 

Relieved of Mars 👽

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18 minutes ago, Martian said:

I think you have put your finger on the nub of the issue; there does not seem to be a readily available accurate plan of the Scimitar so going by what looks right for you is the best way to go. The issue is confused still further in that there a few iterations of the basic design before the final layout was settled upon by the manufacturer. 

 

I almost went and bought the old Contrail kit of the type before I remembered that I had built it and the pain that went with it. A rare burst of Martian common sense then set in and I decided to keep my Dynavector kit instead.

 

Relieved of Mars 👽

We are pretty lucky to have had a Dynavector Scimitar in our stashes I think - you'd think someone at Airfix would decide a Scimitar would go very nicely with their Sea Vixen🤔

CJP

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6 hours ago, CJP said:

We are pretty lucky to have had a Dynavector Scimitar in our stashes I think - you'd think someone at Airfix would decide a Scimitar would go very nicely with their Sea Vixen🤔

CJP

I know this, you know this, the world and his dog knows this; everybody apart from Airfix it would seem.

 

There was a customer survey at Telford a couple of years ago as to what subjects people wanted to see kitted. You have one guess as to what was near the top of the list or at least that was the word doing the rounds at the show.

 

Martian 👽

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4 hours ago, Martian said:

I know this, you know this, the world and his dog knows this; everybody apart from Airfix it would seem.

 

There was a customer survey at Telford a couple of years ago as to what subjects people wanted to see kitted. You have one guess as to what was near the top of the list or at least that was the word doing the rounds at the show.

 

Martian 👽

That is interesting to hear of that survey at Telford Martian- we can only live in hope

 

CJP

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1 hour ago, CJP said:

That is interesting to hear of that survey at Telford Martian- we can only live in hope

 

CJP

Or mindless optimism!

 

Pessimistic of Mars 👽

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Hi - a small update to show my Scimitar is still progressing slowly - I navigated my way through cutting out the first parts and carefully sanding the edges - I was a bit apprehensive sanding the edges but with care It was not too hard at all - like someone said just take your time.

This is the right hand rear fuselage cut out and sanded - the instructions say to leave the waste at the front of the part but I did not read that did I so I cut it away? - don't anticipate any problems though as a result😬

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After a bit of mulling things over I decided to tackle the reshaping as per the following photo- the edges of the fin were cut away so they could be reused for the new fin outline & plastic from the kit scrap inserted in the resultant gap - the irregular shaped panel was cut out and reprofiled to the correct shape - the leading edge of the tailplane was cut off to conform to the new plan and a new plastic card tip inserted & shaped to the profile - the left  hand tailplane shows the kit part original shape.

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The parts of the fin were glued together and sanded to conform to the new fin outline - puttying and more finer sanding will be done later when both halves are glued together.

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some reinforcing was added to the inside of the shell

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Below a sketch plan of the methods used to reshape the kit rear fuselage & tailplane.

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Starting to feel like my outline modifications might just work out.🙂

CJP

Edited by CJP
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8 minutes ago, StephenCJ said:

Good to see the has begun.  You will love it.

Thanks StephenCJ - now that I have got things underway I feel a lot more comfortable with the kit & starting to enjoy it - the Scimitar has long been a favourite of mine

cjp

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Excuse my digression, I recently caught the tail end of the documentry whilst flicking through the cable channels about carrier bourne aircraft and there was a piece about Scimitar and one of the comments made from an US perspective about it was:

 

"Only the British could make an aircraft as powerful as the Scimitar but not make it supersonic capable". Most likely urban myth, but I thought I would pass it on.

 

Dynavector are up there with the very best vacs, so it should turn out a very nice build indeed.

 

Tommo.

Edited by The Tomohawk Kid
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6 minutes ago, The Tomohawk Kid said:

Excuse my digression, I recently caught the tail end of the documentry whilst flicking through one cable channels about carrier bourne aircraft and there was a piece about Scimitar and one of the comments made from an US perspective about it was:

 

"Only the British could make an aircraft as powerful as the Scimitar but not make it supersonic capable". Most likely urban myth, but I thought I would pass it on.

 

Dynavector are up there with the very best vacs, so it should turn out a very nice build indeed.

 

Tommo.

Thanks Tommo I had already heard of that quote - I think the Scimitar performed well down low but struggled at altitude due to the wing design I have read - it certainly did not lack for power & it sure is a handsome looking machine.

CJP

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55 minutes ago, CJP said:

Thanks StephenCJ - now that I have got things underway I feel a lot more comfortable with the kit & starting to enjoy it - the Scimitar has long been a favourite of mine

cjp

See, I said you would be fine. Its not scary at all is it? and the satisfaction you will get from building this will be enormous.

 

Martian 👽

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46 minutes ago, Martian said:

See, I said you would be fine. Its not scary at all is it? and the satisfaction you will get from building this will be enormous.

 

Martian 👽

 

 

Already feeling satisfied with what I'm doing Martian thanks to your article which pushed me  over the hump - good old fashioned modelling

CJP

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I Logged in for another small update and there were three Scimitar posts at the top of the Works in Progress page, two of which were Dynavector builds -

The left hand rear fuselage got similar treatment but his time I did not cut out and make the irregular panel deciding it was just making work and could just be rescribed at a later stage

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I added a strip to the lower edge of the fuselage to help locate the two halves and to provided a bit of strengthening - also decided I needed to make a stiffening former to go in the front near the jet pipes to strengthen that area seeing I cut out the waste area I was not supposed to.

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Glued in the arrester hook bay and dry fitted the tailplane support

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CJP

Edited by CJP
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A little more progress on the Scimitar - the  forward part of the rudder and the fuselage area near the bottom of the rudder were built up with CA and talc and sanded to shape - the joins in the fin were filled with Tamiya putty and sanded with wet & dry - a small strip was also added to the bottom of the rear fuselage to make the line vertical and needs blending in

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finished sanding the tailplanes to their basic shape and dry fitted them to the rear fuselage - happy with how they are looking so far

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I'm leaving the rear fuselage aside for now and will move on to the main fuselage next

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CJP

Edited by CJP
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Great thread. this (along with many other great vacuform builds on BM) give me motivation to get a couple of my vac kits out of the loft and onto the cutting board..........once clearing away my backlog of ongoing projects!

Good work readjusting the tail shape.  Ill be following this thread with interest! 

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Seeing this and other vacform builds on this forum is making the tutorial very much worth the effort that is going into it.

 

Martian 👽

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28 minutes ago, Martian said:

Seeing this and other vacform builds on this forum is making the tutorial very much worth the effort that is going into it.

 

Martian 👽

You seem to have cleared a vacform logjam & generated a lot of interest Martian -

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