Hawker Nimrod MkII

[825]

Before anybody says, 'There's no way the Nimrod was an interceptor ' this is a much earlier airframe. The Nimrod was the FAA's last biplane fighter, being replaced just before WW2 by the Skua. The Nimrod was effectively a navalised Hawker Fury with catapult capability and an arrestor hook. It was the Fleet fighter throughout the 1930s serving in all FAA carriers. A number were also sold to Denmark without naval equipment and they were still in service when Denmark was invaded, but none of them saw combat. A valuable and effective fighter that took over Fleet defence from the Flycatcher. 

 

Ive had the CMR resin kit in my stash for a while and as far as I know it is the most mainstream as any others are vac forms. I do recall seeing a conversion from an Airfix Fury somewhere but that was 1/48 rather than my preferred gentleman's scale. 

 

 

A fair bundle of very detailed resin parts, including two fuselages, one FAA and a Danish version, alternative tailplanes, and a variety of undercarriages, including skis for the Danish version. 

 

 

Nice straightforward instructions. 

 

 

Painting options for FAA and Danish aircraft. 

 

 

 

And a full transfer sheet including enough for any Danish airframe. 

 

 

And lots of great pictures - 4 pages of Danish machines 

 

 

[Marklo]

Nice. If it were me I’d go for the Danish one in camo. I deliberately did my fury in a Munich crisis scheme as there’s only so much high speed silver one collection can take  

 

it’s the Airfix 1/48 btw.

[Col.]

Excellent subject choice sir!

[825]

55 minutes ago, Col. said:

Excellent subject choice sir!

Thanks Col, it's beautiful looking plane, isn't it. 

 

1 hour ago, Marklo said:

Nice. If it were me I’d go for the Danish one in camo. I deliberately did my fury in a Munich crisis scheme as there’s only so much high speed silver one collection can take  

 

it’s the Airfix 1/48 btw.

Great looking Fury and a camouflaged Danish Nimrod would be something different but I'm going for a FAA version. Although I'm not sure 'High Speed' silver really applies to a Nimrod. Speedy for its day I suppose. I do have think about painting though. The fuselage fabric and the wings will be silver dope but the CMR instructions (and they're usually pretty well researched) suggest Anodised Grey for the front and upper fuselage metal panels. I'm not sure whether this dull Aluminium, reflecting Aluminium that has got a dull anodised coat on the surface or their interpretation of Cerrux Grey. I don't think it will be highly polished natural metal like some RAF contemporaries. 

 

Any how after an ultrasonic bath some paint on the interior. I've used Xtracrylix Silber for the metal panels as it's a nice uniform dull shade that is close to anodised aluminium which I presume the interior panels would be. 

 

 

A bit more to go.  The mouldings are beautiful but some of the mould attachments will need a lot of care, as well there being a few small delicate parts. 

[Col.]

4 minutes ago, 825 said:

Thanks Col, it's beautiful looking plane, isn't it. 

One of Camm's finest designs. Which is saying something from such a list!

Been meaning to add a few of this type to my own display cabinet with various options already in the stash needing some degree of conversion apart from an Esoteric vacuum formed example so will be watching your progress with particular interest. You're off to a good start  

[Marklo]

I’ve gotten fairly good results with Tamiya silver X11 mixed about 1:10 with XF54 sea gray.  
 

Believe it or not this was brush painted, too.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Marklo

[825]

On 1/8/2021 at 11:34 PM, Col. said:

One of Camm's finest designs. Which is saying something from such a list!

Been meaning to add a few of this type to my own display cabinet with various options already in the stash needing some degree of conversion apart from an Esoteric vacuum formed example so will be watching your progress with particular interest. You're off to a good start  

Go on Col, you know you want to do it. I think there's a few threads out there for converting Furies and Harts into all sorts of Hawker airframes. I did an AModel Osprey a couple of years ago and I think I've still got a floatplane version in the stash. 

 

Lovely job @Marklo mine will be brush painted. The Navy didn't seem to go in for the high polished metal lick the RAF but I'm trying to find out if the later Nimrods had Cerrux grey or anodised aluminium panels. I'll probably use Revell or Tamiya Aluminium for the doped fabric areas. In the pictures in the Warpaint book shows a definite difference in shade between the fabric and metal parts of the fuselage   The fabric is aluminium dope but the unanswered question so far is what colour were the metal panels. 

 

Anyway, some more paint on and a number of parts, small and large removed from pour blocks and cleaned up. 

 

 

 

The detail is nice but the parts are very fine and fragile. There's also a few holes that need to be drilled through and on reflection perhaps I should have done that when still attached to the lumps of resin. 

[Marklo]

I tend to use bare metal aluminium or Bostik plumbers foil for the metal parts.

The other end if the bulldog.
 

My flycatcher.

 

Also the foil can be buffed up or down to make it more or less shiny.

 

[Col.]

17 hours ago, 825 said:

Go on Col, you know you want to do it. I think there's a few threads out there for converting Furies and Harts into all sorts of Hawker airframes. I did an AModel Osprey a couple of years ago and I think I've still got a floatplane version in the stash. 

Oh yes! Yes I do but, as always, there's too many projects and nowhere near enough time 

 

17 hours ago, 825 said:

The Navy didn't seem to go in for the high polished metal lick the RAF but I'm trying to find out if the later Nimrods had Cerrux grey or anodised aluminium panels. I'll probably use Revell or Tamiya Aluminium for the doped fabric areas. In the pictures in the Warpaint book shows a definite difference in shade between the fabric and metal parts of the fuselage   The fabric is aluminium dope but the unanswered question so far is what colour were the metal panels. 

Everything I've read points towards the Cerrux Grey for the metal panels on these.

Nice progress again on this one and your Seafire pair.

[rafalbert]

With regards to the later Nimrod not being an interceptor, I used to work with an ex Nimrod pilot at Northwood who told me a great story. Basically, as they were fitted with sidewinders for self defence, the crews decided they were fighters. There was one incident where an Argentine 707 was spying on the British forces so the Nimrod crew decided to have a go at shooting it down. They gave chase but embarrassingly were outrun by the 707 and had to give up. I don't know if the story was true but it could be claimed that the jet Nimrod was a failed interceptor!

[825]

Great story @rafalbert I hadn't heard that one before. @Marklo beautiful Silver Wings era models, The Nimrod was in the later stages of this era and I think the days of polished metal were passed by then and as @Col. suggests I think the metal will be Cerrux Grey. 

 

Anyway some work done, cockpit assembled and IP installed. A little bit of paint still needed and I'll probably add a black wash to highlight things. Also the instrument dials need picked out. 

 

[825]

The cockpit interior touched up and given a black wash to bring out the detail. 

 

 

The interior fixed into place, looks nice but little will be seen when the fuselage is closed up. 

 

 

Fuselage closed up. Will need a little touching up on the underside but the upper surfaces looks pretty good. You can see there's not much to Ben seen of the interior. 

 

 

When the cyano was out, on went the wings and the empanage, I think the wings need straightens a but. They seem to have a slight downward bend. 

 

 

The Nimrod was pretty small. Here it is beside a MkIb Seafire which is not that big itself. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ForestFan]

Looking good, good luck with the rest of the build

[825]

I've straightened off the lower wings using some near boiling water. Then some seams tidied up with Mr Surfacer. And then the bit that says the build is progressing towards the finish. Some paint on, Xtracrylix Camouflage Grey for the Cerrux Grey and Revell Aluminium for the Aluminium Dope. 

 

 

[Col.]

You're doing this one proud sir and bringing out its beautiful lines in style.

[825]

On 1/24/2021 at 9:45 PM, Col. said:

You're doing this one proud sir and bringing out its beautiful lines in style.

Thanks Col, it is a beautiful aircraft indeed. 

 

The underside needed a fair amount of cleaning up which is not straightforward with resin. There's a fair amount of fine detail so filling and sanding needed to be done slowly and carefully. Now here we are with the grey on the metal panels at the front end. I'll let these dry, mask them off and then finish off the aluminium on the fabric. 

 

[825]

Some more paint on and some transfers. 

 

 

 

Went on well ill and look pretty good. I think the serial on the rudder may be a little on the large side but I'll live with it. 

[Col.]

The Nimrod carried some lovely squadron markings and your chosen machine is a great example

[825]

On 1/30/2021 at 8:01 AM, Col. said:

The Nimrod carried some lovely squadron markings and your chosen machine is a great example

You're right FAA markings in the inter war years were attractive and the liveries simple but smart. 

 

I've managed to get a few little bits done here and there this week but each of them has taken a fair amount of careful effort, and usually followed by some paint touch up. Sorry about the photo quality but they do show the exhausts, radiator bath, oil cooler and struts all on. 

 

 

 

I need to sort out the windscreen and gunsight and then its time time for the upper wing and undercarriage to go on. 

[Col.]

7 hours ago, 825 said:

You're right FAA markings in the inter war years were attractive and the liveries simple but smart. 

It's a shame they've not garnered more attention from kit and decal companies.

 

7 hours ago, 825 said:

I need to sort out the windscreen and gunsight and then its time time for the upper wing and undercarriage to go on. 

Here comes the fun bit!

[825]

On 2/6/2021 at 2:20 PM, Col. said:

It's a shame they've not garnered more attention from kit and decal companies.

 

Here comes the fun bit!

There's a couple of Wings and Waves sheets but only Part 2 is easily available from Hannants

 

 https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ML72181?result-token=mRU4d

 

And a PrintScale sheet of prewar Swordfishes 

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/PSL72043?result-token=4pupb

 

but not a lot else unfortuntely.  There are a number of resin interwar kits (Karaya and Kora) as well as Kora's Fairey IIIF and all of them do have markings which helps. 

 

Anyway first of the fun bits. The undercarriage built and it's not at all bad and the Nimrod looks like it's sitting OK. I also have decided to put the transfers on the upper wing in case they were challenging and that would pose problems with the fragile struts. However, despite the long transfer they went on fine. 

 

[Col.]

Glad to see the extensive upper wing marking went on so well

 

Think that's the same Wings and Waves sheet I have in the decal stash but need to check. Along with the Modeldecal sheet for the Hart/Demon/Osprey there's hopefully enough to do a couple of Nimrods between using the Esoteric vac-form and converting a Matchbox Fury using the spare wing and some scratch-building  

Edited February 10, 2021 by Col.

[dogsbody]

Dang! Another interesting build that I somehow missed the beginning of. Getting old sucks rectums!

 

 

 

Chris

[825]

Finally got round to getting the upper wing on. I thought the jig would help but it didn't really. Took a bit of time and my fingers ended up covered in cyano. There's a little bit of tidying up to be done after the glue sets, as well as getting the cabane struts on. I think I'll use some PVA to start with. 

 

 

 

Being succesful (relatively speaking) getting a resin biplane upper wing on has made me brave so I pulled this Flycatcher off of the Shelf of Doom and had a go at getting the upper wing on. Something I have been trying to do unsuccessfully for about the last 10 years. It's not brilliant and won't win any prizes but it looks acceptable. The next challenge after the cabane struts will be fixing the undercarriage and finding some new wheels which have gone missing over time. 

 

[Col.]

Well done getting the upper wing on not only this one but also its compatriot