1:72 Airfix Shorts Tucano T.1

[giemme]

9 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

See? Simple - all you have to do is cheat.   

 

Well, you cheat well    

 

Ciao

[Jonners]

2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

BTW, unless on maintenance, the Aircraft should be parked with Flaps and Airbrake up.

I definitely agree about the airbrake being up when parked, Pete, and I couldn’t remember how the flaps were left. I still have my Tucano Student Study Guide somewhere but it would take an archaeological dig to unearth it, so I checked the internet (far simpler) and found that nearly all of the photos of parked Tucanos show them with the flaps set to ‘mid’ ie slightly drooped. 

 

How I wish I’d taken more photos during my flying training days!

 

Jon

[perdu]

I wish I'd had flying training days 😭

 

Bill I am almost inexcusably late on parade, I hope you will forgive me and allow me to sit at the back taking notes.

 

I wish there had been PT6 engines and cowlings around when I built my Shorts C-23A, some of the stress might have been less.

 

🤔 But on the whole I'm glad to watch you with yours.

 

Liquid Gravity, I must have used pints of it on my Gannet.

Brilliant stuff.

 

I wonder if the delightful resin engine could be used as a casting buck for a replacement in lead?

 

My mind does leap and fumble round these ideas.

 

I'm at the back...

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

2 hours ago, Jonners said:

so I checked the internet (far simpler) and found that nearly all of the photos of parked Tucanos show them with the flaps set to ‘mid’ ie slightly drooped. 

Yet the pics of ZF379 & ZF491 in the walkaround section show them up. The flap controls were weird though. Teleflex cables down to a rotary electrical 

connector which looked like it was ex Post Office Telephones. That controlled relays which then controlled the hydraulics for the screwjacks. Complicated!

It looks like either up or mid then, Bill. Your choice.

[Navy Bird]

10 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

The canopy dampers live there. They looked like ex Ford Capri.

 

Hmm...over here, that was a Mercury Capri I think, I built a model of one of those when I was but a wee lad.

 

9 hours ago, stevehnz said:

A bit late/slow to notice this Bill but I'm onto it now, mind, seeing as you've been struck by the resin fairy, some might be lost on me but I'm sure I'll enjoy myself all the same. I'll be to one in the corner miming old songs & wriggling in time to them.

 

You say resin fairy like it's a bad thing. At times, I curse it, but at other times I love it. I guess it's like everything else - there are good kits and bad kits. One thing is for sure though, a proper resin kit can have much finer detail than an injected moulded one. Especially in this tiny scale that I build in!

 

Miming and wriggling, eh? I guess I need to know what old timey song you're using before I can complete this picture in my mind.   

 

9 hours ago, giemme said:

Well, you cheat well  

 

Shhh! I knew I shouldn't have said that. Now the secret is out and my rep is in tatters.   

 

8 hours ago, Jonners said:

I definitely agree about the airbrake being up when parked,

 

Speaking of the airbrake, it is a tiny bit off-center in the Airfix kit, i.e. not on the aircraft centreline. Maybe 0.5mm or so. That has to be a mould tooling fubar, eh? Not so noticeable once the wing is attached to the fuselage, and it's on the bottom so I guess I don't care.   

 

7 hours ago, perdu said:

I wish I'd had flying training days 😭

 

Bill I am almost inexcusably late on parade, I hope you will forgive me and allow me to sit at the back taking notes.

 

I wish there had been PT6 engines and cowlings around when I built my Shorts C-23A, some of the stress might have been less.

 

🤔 But on the whole I'm glad to watch you with yours.

 

Liquid Gravity, I must have used pints of it on my Gannet.

Brilliant stuff.

 

I wonder if the delightful resin engine could be used as a casting buck for a replacement in lead?

 

My mind does leap and fumble round these ideas.

 

I'm at the back...

 

Welcomes, fellow styrene junkie! I think it was you who turned me on to Liquid Gravity when I was at Telford in 2019. My local hobby shop doesn't carry it. I agree, brilliant stuff. I've never done any casting, but some guys in my local club are really good at it. They cast resin though, not sure about lead. Maybe there is an alchemist in the Yellow Pages. No, wait - there are no Yellow Pages any more. Surely there must be alchemists somewhere...

 

Whilst you're taking notes, try to anticipate any foul ups that are brewing. Then let me know and I'll see if I can avoid them!   

 

5 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Yet the pics of ZF379 & ZF491 in the walkaround section show them up. The flap controls were weird though. Teleflex cables down to a rotary electrical 

connector which looked like it was ex Post Office Telephones. That controlled relays which then controlled the hydraulics for the screwjacks. Complicated!

It looks like either up or mid then, Bill. Your choice.

 

Here is the plan for control surfaces:

 

 

Airbrake stowed, rudder neutral, elevators down, flaps mid-down, one aileron up, and one aileron down (I assume the ailerons are linked mechanically). Oh, and canopy open so folks can see my lousy paint job in the pit.

 

Question - is the nose wheel steering linked to the rudder? In other words, could the rudder neutral at the same time as the nose wheel is turned?

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Arghh...I just noticed a plethora of static dis-chargers.

[Pete in Lincs]

9 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

Question - is the nose wheel steering linked to the rudder? In other words, could the rudder neutral at the same time as the nose wheel is turned?

When parked, you really want the nosewheel to be fore and aft on a tricycle undercarriage. Or, wind acting on the fin will tend to swing the Aircraft to one side.

Or strain it against the chocks. Before towing we had to disconnect the Noseleg torque link, I'm sure though that NWS was through a mechanical link to the

rudder pedals. I don't remember a NWS motor. In other words, if the nosewheel is fore and aft then the rudder should be neutral.

Neither can I remember a control lock for use when parked. Though the Pilatus PC-9 has one.

Yes, there is a mechanical link between the Ailerons, Left up, Right down, etc. Oh, it was said, that the rearward facing exhausts added 40BHP in thrust.

As for static dischargers/wicks, Strip a bit of household or car multicore cable. Cut little copper lengths and superglue into position. You can even droop them!

[Navy Bird]

Well, cheating doesn't always work. I packed what was left of the forward fuselage with all those tiny ball bearings, and there is just not enough room for the required weight. What I got in will help, but I can guarantee that she'll still be a tail-setter. So, I'm going to repeat the solution that I used for my Tigercat:

 

 

Namely, wheel chocks. I just so happen to have this PE set:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/pp-aeroparts-ac703-raf-wheel-chocks--183403

 

The question then is - would these be appropriate for the Tucano? The photos I have seem to show just some big chunks of triangular black rubber connected together with a cable. If I use the P. P. Aeroparts chocks, I'm not sure I know how to fold and assemble the PE!   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Jonners]

9 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

The flap controls were weird though.

They were a bit odd in the cockpit, too: Move your left hand back from the throttle and there's the flap lever which you move rearwards to lower the 2-stage flaps. Move your hand further back and there's the Emergency Engine Shut-Down Lever (EESDL) which you move rearwards to shut down the engine in, unsurprisingly, an emergency.

 

Now, can anyone perceive a weakness in that particular bit of cockpit design?

 

That's why the flap lever had a paddle top and moved in an S-shaped slot, whereas the EESDL had a red spherical top, was surrounded by yellow-and-black striping (which you couldn't really see in flight) and moved in a straight slot. And no, it wasn't foolproof. Or completely studentproof. Which, having been a BFT student, often amounts to the same thing...

 

4 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

it was said, that the rearward facing exhausts added 40BHP in thrust.

I do remember that bit, Pete, though the figures I recall were 1100hp from the engine/prop and the equivalent of 50hp from the exhaust efflux. 🤓

 

Jon (remembering happy, carefree- honestly, @Fritag! - days of yore)

[Navy Bird]

Let's see, where was I? Oh, right, Shorts Tucano. (Am I allowed to refer to this as the "Fruit Loop?")    

 

I added the firewalls and engine upfront, followed by the nose and radiator intake. The nose was actually a bit undersize, so I used some filler to blend it in. I also plucked down the rudder in its neutral position. If you recall, when I cut out the kit rudder following the hinge lines, I discovered they weren't the same on each side. This necessitated a bunch of sanding and refinement to this opening so the resin rudder would fit. Still not entirely happy with it.

 

Then the wings were assembled and added. Some dabs of filler were necessary here and there, especially fore and aft of the wing roots. I suspect I will be refining this further after some paint or primer goes down. As I mentioned earlier, the ejection seats were removed to make it easier to mask off the cockpit.

 

 

 

The resin tailplanes and elevators will have to wait until the fuselage has been painted and those decal stripes applied. This seems to me to be the best way to approach the decal application. The resin tailplanes fit well enough that there will be no filler needed, so they can just be glued on. Oh, I decided on this scheme:

 

 

I think you can see what I mean about the stripes around the tailplane. Since this scheme appears to be Aluminium lacquer overall with Roundel Blue on the underside and spinner, I needed to buy a bottle of the blue. So I bought two bottles of Hataka Roundel Blue (future projects may need this as well - hint, hint, tease, tease), but when they arrived one had leaked in shipment. What a mess! Thank goodness they were both in a Zip-Loc bag. I was able to save the contents of the second bottle into a Gunze Mr. Glass Bottle (or something).

 

I notice that there is a lumpy protrusion on top of the fuselage just forward of the windscreen. This is not on the kit (and no, I didn't sand it off). What is this lumpage? Size, shape, etc. Any help here is appreciated. Thanks!

 

Cheers,

Bill

[giemme]

Shaping up beautifully, Bill  

Ciao

[Pete in Lincs]

7 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

What is this lumpage?

I think there were avionics/little black boxes under that panel. My guess would be a GPS upgrade MOD? 

I've had a look through @canberraman's pictures in the Aircraft photo section, and it wasn't there in the early days, but later pics show 

even the lower serial numbered Aircraft got it eventually. You'll probably get away with just a bit of card with rounded off corners.

I have to admire your bravery in choosing that scheme. Easier masking options are available.

[bigbadbadge]

Getting there Bill, Looking good fella 

Chris

[Navy Bird]

6 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I think there were avionics/little black boxes under that panel. My guess would be a GPS upgrade MOD? 

I've had a look through @canberraman's pictures in the Aircraft photo section, and it wasn't there in the early days, but later pics show 

even the lower serial numbered Aircraft got it eventually. You'll probably get away with just a bit of card with rounded off corners.

I have to admire your bravery in choosing that scheme. Easier masking options are available.

 

Thanks - I'll keep researching to see if I can find a good photo of the "lump." About the chosen scheme - bravery or idiocy? Sometimes I can't tell the difference.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Dave Swindell]

17 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

bravery or idiocy? Sometimes I can't tell the difference

We walk a very fine line......

[Pete in Lincs]

I did a search and found some stuff.

This picture is from Newark Air Museum (about 45 Mins South of me). It does show a control lock. the red rod attached to the column.

Also, look top right on the I.P. That blank black dial is interesting. Earlier pictures show a Turn & Bank indicator there.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D90_smKXUAApcO9.jpg

 

This one is ZF169 in earlier days. 

https://cdn.jetphotos.com/full/1/92238_1118429216.jpg

 

Meanwhile, they were nesting in Arizona!

https://www.skippyscage.com/ssp_director/albums/album-1130/lg/kdvt20091216-014.jpg

[Jonners]

20 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

there is a lumpy protrusion on top of the fuselage just forward of the windscreen

I think it's part of the TCAS mod (Transponder Collision Avoidance System - presents the relative bearings and altitudes of other transponding aircraft on a cockpit display), which is why you won't see it in older photos of red-and-white aircraft and early photos in tbe black scheme.

[Jonners]

6 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

That blank black dial is interesting.

I suspect that it's the TCAS display, Pete, associated with the bump in front of the windscreen. 

 

The rectangular display on the coaming is also a later mod. It says 'PFLARM' underneath it; FLARM is a system that displays the relative positions of other FLARM systems using GPS and is quite heavily used by the gliding fraternity. Gliders are notoriously difficult to spot, generally being small and white against cloudy backgrounds; there are some very active gliding clubs in the vicinity of the Vale of York so I can understand why the mod was fitted. It is a traffic position information system, not a collision avoidance system, hence the placard.

 

For interest, both Leeming and Linton ATC radar rooms received FLARM displays to increase controller situational awareness of traffic that may not be transponding.

 

Jon

[Pete in Lincs]

New to me and it makes sense too. Another day, another bit of knowledge to stow somewhere. Thanks.

[Navy Bird]

Weird, I step out for a cup of coffee and when I come back, the Toucan is aluminum lacquer. Huh.

 

 

Doesn't look like much at this point, but there's still a LOT of work to do and almost all of it is painting and stickers. Which just happen to be my two favourite parts of modelling! So why do I have this feeling of dread? Right, those swooshie stripey stickers...which I have to cut because of the lowered flappy things.

 

Oh, you can see I added the lump. I'll probably wait a day or so before I spray the blue on the underside.

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. I tested all the dark blue paint I have to see what is the closest match to the blue in the decal sheet - I think if it looks different than that it will stick out like a technicolor modellers thumb. So far, the choice is Hataka Roundel Blue, but I can see a difference. Maybe I'm just too picky?  

[Navy Bird]

As Claudine Longet once sang during the Spider Sabich ski-shooting competition: "Blue, blue, my world is blue..."

 

 

 

Needs a bit of touch-up here and there, but that's par for the course. This is the Hataka solvent-based Roundel Blue acrylic lacquer, and it is just a wee bit lighter than the blue in the sticker swooshes. That is most likely due to the printing process used to produce the decals. The Hataka paint sprayed like a dream, thinned 50/50 with regular old lacquer thinner.

 

To get the proper upward curve of the blue beneath the tail, I first scanned the decal sheet at 1:1 and printed it out. Then I cut out the decal printouts for the tail swoosh, like so:

 

 

I taped these in position and used them as a template for my masking. I wanted to get this as close as I could, since I suspect that if the white portion of the decal overlaps any of the blue it will be noticeable due to the opacity of the decal. We'll see! (Famous last words.) The upward curve at the front of the airframe was made by "winging" it. Hey, it's an aeroplane, right?

 

Lastly, the funky eye exam propeller. Airfix provide decals for the psychedelic markings, but they are sized for the kit prop whose blades are too narrow in chord. I used them anyway, and simply used a detail brush with four and a half hairs on it to fill in the rest.

 

 

It will look much better after the final varnish, since this should cover up the blending of decal and paint. The back side of the prop blades is the more traditional black with yellow tips.

 

There is a small issue with the canopy, but that's putting it nicely. The canopy is about 6 scale inches thick and will have to be sanded and polished prior to skinny-dipping in floor wax. And, just for fun, there is a nice divot on the underside edge where Airfix thought it would be a great idea to put one of those ejector pins in the mould. Several Anglo-Saxon expressions came to mind. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if the canopy were closed, but I want mine open. Got to fix that somehow. I could just sand down the edge until the divot is gone, but that will remove about half of the canopy frame up front. I suppose I can fudge that with paint. We'll see. (Famous last words redux.) I can't fill the divot with putty, but maybe some molten clear styrene. Hmm...

 

 

So, she's coming along. I'm really going to like the red, white, and blue on the silver airframe. I don't know if any other Tucanos were painted this way, but if not they should have been.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Hamden]

 

Coming together nicely Bill will look superb when finished

 

  Stay safe         Roger

[bigbadbadge]

Wow this looks good Bill and has progressed well, shame about the canopy thickness. There is an Aeroclub  vacform canopy which is a bit hard to find now (unless the guy, who's name escapes me, over your side of the pond has one for sale, he sells lots of Aeroclub bits). I have had a quick look at the Premiere kit as this look nice too and the canopy is slightly thinner but has a slightly more rounded profile for the front where it meets the top of the fuselage.  The Premiere kit is cheap and I wondered if it could be modified to fit perhaps??? May be one if the BM massive has already looked at it?

Chris

[Navy Bird]

Today was "getting her up on her legs day." I have the resin tyres from CMK, and they are quite an improvement over the kit parts. I'm not too crazy about the attachment method for the nose wheel, but I think it will hold.

 

 

CMK also provide a resin torque link, but in addition to my breaking it when removing it from the casting block it decided to go "zing" when I attempted to glue it back together. Somewhere in my workshop there is an ethereal Zing-Land where there is a considerable quantity of small photoetch and resin parts. Probably enough to make an entire model. But where is it? Another dimension I'm afraid. Although Rod Serling was from upstate New York, he's dead and can't help me through that door.

 

At the end of the day she's up and, with a fresh coat of nice and shiny GSI Mr. Color GX UV Cut Gloss, she's waiting for her stickers tomorrow. Despite the fact that she is setting on all three tyres, she is precariously close to tipping back on her tail. I'm sure as soon as the tailplanes and elevators go on, over she'll go. My plan to make sure she stays on all her wheels is to add chocks to the main tyres. Works like a charm, and doesn't require me to make a base to glue her to. Or put a barrel under her tail to keep her upright.

 

 

 

I painted up the engine details - everything you see is cast into the resin, I didn't add anything extra gubbins. Since this was a display aircraft, and looks quite clean in the photos, I won't bother with any weathering. Besides, if I do one of those famous "panel line washes" it would just make her look like a die-cast. I can see the panel lines just fine as she is - can't you?

 

I finished sanding the canopy edges to remove that divot - it wasn't as deep as it looked. Then I micro-meshed the canopy for about a half hour, and dipped it in Future. I'll let that dry overnight before I mask it off for painting. Thank goodness Airfix provide decals for the detonator cord - I really wasn't looking forward to painting that! The canopy has several handles in real life, both inside and out. I "think" I have some spare photoetch handles that will work. We'll see.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Jonners]

3 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

if I do one of those famous "panel line washes" it would just make her look like a die-cast. I can see the panel lines just fine as she is - can't you?

Good call, Bill - it definitely doesn't need a panel line wash. That would make it look like the groundcrew had gone over it with a marker pen! (Pet modelling hate...)

 

The engine looks good. The detonating cord decals are quite fiddly to apply, IIRC, but look the part once in position.

 

Going back to the chocks, I remember them as being the almost-universal black grooved rubber items roped together in pairs. I think only one pair was generally used, on the port mainwheel, but my memory is hazy and you'd better check references. I'm pretty certain that the groundcrew chap/chapess stood on the left for the after-start flap and airbrake checks, anyway. 

 

As well as chocking my blue Tucano, I drilled and pinned the nosewheel which keeps it in place nicely. I didn't add any noseweight as that nosewheel leg isn't overly strong.

 

It's going to look great when it's finished.

 

Jon

[Pete in Lincs]

Bill, Sorry, I seem to have missed your thread for a few days. I'll report for KP in the morning.

 

Chocks. Yes, big black rubber and linked by grubby white nylon rope. Usually just on LH side.

That is where the groundcrew stands on startup. Go around to the RH side to disconnect the Ground power cable. Why was it that side?

Back to the LH wing tip and at the correct signal, Walk out to the front to watch the control surfaces.

Then go back to LH tip to await seat pins and chocks away signal.*

 

*I once had a Student who forgot that bit and who wondered why it wouldn't move even with lots of power. Not pretty.

 

I (we) seem to have forgotten the footstep. Clearly visible in lots of pictures at the LH wing root.

It is linked to the LH maingear by Bowden cable. So gear up, step up. Etc. It is spring loaded to the down position.

Nice paint and good luck with the masking. Pete