Jump to content

Yet Another Restoration - A De Havilland Sea Vixen


Recommended Posts

Work continued on the fuselage in putting the top and bottom halves together again.

The alignment by just offering it up was bad. It seemed as though the bottom was one size too big to match up with the top half. 
So I started at the starboard front where the nose cone fits and TET’d the joint to the observers window. This was then taped and wire tied into position and left to set.

Once that was dry I TET’d the next section - from the observers window to the starboard engine intake. That was also wire tied to align the seam where the top and bottom halves met. 
And so it went on. Glueing a section and clamping it into position to get the seams as near as possible and allowing it to set. The boom ‘noses’ were the worst as the bottom half was bigger than the top. I just aimed for the middle with the view of sanding the bottom back to match the top. 
Once the TET had set, I filed and sanded back the seams. It’s a lot better, but some filler will be needed. 
The intakes have a gap between the upper and lower vanes, but I plan to make the red covers anyway, so they don’t matter that much (it gives me an option to add a tab to the back of the cover to hold it in position:idea:.

 

The tail booms were dry fitted to make sure they would fit and they do. More filler is needed around the joint to the fuselage. In my excitement, I pushed a little too hard and the port boom detached itself from the elevator/tail wing🙄. I’ll reset it once the booms are attached to the fuselage.

 

With the observer’s cockpit, I decided to start afresh and insert a piece of styrene sheet to fill the hole and (when I find out how the hatch is meant to be), I’ll cut a new hole (straight  this time as the previous hole angled in towards the front, probably because it was damaged - which made me wonder if this area has been ‘restored’ before - what with the piece of clear plastic just stuck on).

 

The fuselage with the nose cone and tail booms dry fitted and taped into position as more work is needed at the joints/seams. The outer wings were just placed close by to give an idea of the fitment.

u5Z10tv.jpg

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve not disappeared anywhere. I’ve just been fiddling here and there on the model, but not really enough at each stage to write home about.

The tail booms were attached and checked at least 4 times to make sure they were aligned properly before the TET’d joints set - which was left for about a day to do.

Filler was added to the fuselage/tail boom joints to hide the very noticeable line. That was sanded back and while not perfect on one side as the boom oval is slightly bigger than the fuselage moulding it fits into, the filler was tapered as best I could get it to hide that little problem. 
 

I also uhmmed and aahed about the raised detail on the top of the fuselage which depicts the crossed ‘keep off’ boxes. As a trial, I tried using a fine red marker to simply highlight the raised detail - that didn’t work (probably as my hands weren’t steady enough), so I measured the boxes and sanded them back to almost nothing so I would have a reference to place the intended home-made decals once the painting is done.

 

I think I’ve found a useable piece of clear packaging (a Sainsbury’s chocolate topped doughnut box - I only bought them for the packaging - honest!!:innocent:), which has a nice even bulge to help form the observers hatch. A bit more head scratching may be needed to get the shape right and get it blended in.

 

I also attached the starboard wing and let the model sit overnight while the TET did its job. Again some filler is going to be required at the joint to fill the imperfect gap.

 

I will add some photos once the other wing is attached.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Firstly, thank you for your positive comments.

At some point I feel as though there’s going to be a point where everyone thinks “Oh no - he’s doing another one” and not bother looking to see what I’m doing, but I’ll keep going anyway rescuing these old forgotten models from the bin and giving them the attention they deserve.

 

I had to detach the starboard wing as the leading and trailing edges were a bit out of line with the fuselage ones, which was easy as it was only attached with sprue-goo at 3 small points. I used a file in the slot for the tab to remove a shaving of plastic and that allowed the outer wing to sit lower and line up the leading and trailing edges. I used my sprue-goo to set it in position and gave it 20 minutes to set enough so I could tackle the port wing.

The port wing required a bit of sanding of the mating edge to give a flat surface. The fuselage needed the lower half sanding back a bit more to, again, make a flat surface. The outer wing was offered up and it looked ok. It was then attached using the sprue-goo again and held for a minute or two, because the locating tab had decided it preferred to remain in the fuselage when it was dismantled. I found earlier that the broken edge of the the tab (where it attached to the outer wing) had glue on it, which meant it had been previously broken off (honest - it wasn’t me gov!!). 
The now mostly complete airframe was photographed and then put gently on the shelf above the 3D printer where no-one would touch it (hopefully) for the wings to set. I found some 3D printed shelf supports for my Detolf cabinets were the right height to support the wings in the correct position. 
That left me some spare time out of my 2 hour time slot so I sanded smooth the previously reassembled fuel tanks and their mounting pylons. the pylons themselves have sink marks and ejector pin marks which will need to be dealt with before they get attached.


h62hPdF.jpg?1

7RqVCGa.jpg
HRi1Do1.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Brigbeale said:

there’s going to be a point where everyone thinks “Oh no - he’s doing another one” and not bother looking to see what I’m doing

This is the first of your restorations I've seen, and it's obviously (for me) and interesting process and read. And, having looked up the cost of a 'pre-owned' 1/72 Frog Sea Vixen on the King Kit website (£23-£25), I can see an economic advantage - I assume it cost less! And there's the satisfaction of rescuing an old kit from the scrapyard.

 

I'll admit to being a bit of an old (literally) Sea Vixen fan, having grown up in the 60s when the FAA Museum was right next to the A303, free entry (!) and you could walk up to the lovely Sea Vixen then sitting outside. My last recollection may be slightly inaccurate, it may have been behind a low chain-link wire fence, but it was pretty close.

 

Keep up the good work!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it helps you to restore the Observer’s hatch, though they were in fact clear they were invariably completely covered (on the inside), because radar technology of the time meant the screen could only be seen in darkness - hence the “coal hole” nickname.  You could therefore represent it without resorting to clear material, if that helps; just paint it on top.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to my 500th post! :penguin:
Again, thanks for the positive comments, and thank you Ex-FAAWAFU for your suggestion, which I did consider.

However, I did want the revised observers hatch so I set about designing it in Onshape. At first it looked like it was going well, but when I wanted to shape the oval, the program wouldn’t play ball - more than likely me not fully understanding all the quirks of the program. On the second try, I had better success, but still it wasn’t 100% but I tried a 3D print anyway - it was ok, but too narrow so I just widened the print in Cura and tried again which turned out a lot better. I sanded the edges and s/glued it in place.

Once the s/glue had set, I started adding filler to blend the shape better. While the filler was setting, I used a 1mm drill to make holes around the new observer opening, then angled the drill to link the holes until the part came free. I filed the edges and I now have an observers opening a darned sight better than the original.

The filler was sanded and more added to the low spots which was again sanded using 400 grit wet and dry paper.

 

The original idea with the doughnut packaging was good at the time but the bulges were too small - I had to eat the doughnuts though to stop them going to waste!!:eat:

 

The overall bump may not be 100% the right shape and maybe a bit too long, but it is better than the mess that was there before and I’m happy with it. 
Now, to sort a pair of ejector seats🤔

 

I also added some correction fluid to the wing joints (as I usually do) but it’s a different brand and didn’t clean back as the previous brand did using IPA, so I had to resort to the 400 grit paper again. A second application will be required. 
 

One main gear outer door was missing so I designed and printed a pair of replacements. They just need a bit of fettling to get them to fit for airbrushing the underside. 

Which brings me to a question. The larger wheel bay door/cover (the inboard one that covers the wheel when closed). In some photos, it’s shown as fully closed with the landing gear down. In other photos, it’s shown as being, say, 5-10* open - which may be just the weight of the door on the hydraulics from the aircraft not being used for a while. I’m fairly certain they wouldn’t be in the fully open position for landing/take off as they’re too big and would possibly hit the ground/deck on landing, so they would only open to allow the wheel to fold in/out and close again. 
Are they supposed to be fully closed when the landing gear is down or do they sit slightly or fully open?🤯


The observers hatch fairing freshly added

ZNpb4ql.jpg
 

With some filler and the hole chain-drilled out.

GVklZZZ.jpg

 

And sanded back with the wing seams ‘filled’

yX3kZq0.jpg

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to re-manufacture the strakes/vanes on the ‘implied’ air brake. It’s only shown in raised detail. 
I removed them when I was disassembling the model. With some after thought I could have left them in position, but the wierd paint would have probably affected the new paint so it was probably best in the long run. 
One broke when it was being removed from the slot it fits into. The other came away but left a small piece of plastic in the slot, which was an absolute s*d to get out.

The vanes were also overly thick so I copied the dimensions and made them thinner - 0.6mm as opposed to the 0.95 of the originals. They took around 11 minutes to 3D print.

I fitted them and let them set for a while using TET rather than s/glue as I wanted some movement to set the angle.

 

I added the fuel tank pylons, which both still had the locating tabs on them but wouldn’t close up to the wing properly due to the old glue in the slots. This was cleaned out and they fitted as intended.
The other two sets of pylons would have been fitted also, but I was one short. I looked everywhere I could think of thinking the carpet monster had been at it again - why did I fit a grey carpet??? Eventually I found it - in the corner of the resealable bag I put all the loose parts in. It stayed in the bag when I tipped the bits onto a tray and got lodged at the top of the bag under the resealable slider. 
 

The nose cone was fitted after adding nose weight. The cone itself was packed with lead curtain weight nuggets, but it still wasn’t enough. An extra half curtain weight disc had to be placed in the fuselage to get it to sit on the nose wheel (which at the moment is represented by a cut down tooth pick inserted into the locating hole. The main gear’s also replaced with tooth picks as the actual kit gear needs replacing as one keeps breaking off at a weak spot and the other is a bit short).
 

I also filled some more seams along with the slots for the two newly added air brake vanes and sanded them back. 
 

I’m still in the process of finding a suitable seat for the observer’s position.
 

A few more bits of faffing about and it should be getting ready to get some paint on it. 

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another few steps in the right direction.....

I designed and 3D printed replacement main gear legs. They’re nothing too elaborate, but better than the originals. One wheel is covered in dried glue and as a result, shows little or no detail. I’ll make replacements for them as well.


I found one ejection seat for 3D printing - named Soviet Ejection Seat. I can’t find a Martin Baker one.  I printed one off thinking I’d copy an Airfix one if it didn’t fit or look right. Once I’d removed some unwanted parts, tried it in the observers position. It was way too tall. As it’s going to be practically all black in there, I simply cut the back off the seat and s/glued it in position. It looks better with a seat in there now.

 

Next was the pilots seat.

I printed another seat but it was too tall, so I resized the height in Cura by 2mm and it fits in. To make sure all was ok, I placed the canopy on. Oh dear.....

The fit was terrible. The canopy could be rocked diagonally in the coaming. It was also too short and that was before I cleaned the edges up. Once they were lightly sanded, I tried a bit of 0.5mm styrene card under the rear of the canopy. That eliminated the rock. I decided to add a thin strip of card all around the opening and sand it back where needed. Odd thing was, or just luck, the canopy fits almost perfectly. 
I then sanded, buffed and polished the canopy as it had glue finger markers on it. Amazingly it came up clear. I’ll dip it in my Humbrol Gloss Cote to improve it further,

 

The seat was placed in again and the canopy placed back on and it looks about right. It just needs tidying up. I’m also going to see if I can improve the interior of the cockpit.

 

mBArc9s.jpg

Ly3BPFD.jpg

ZftvKcW.jpg
LftyYsN.jpg

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A bit of slow progress was all that happened over the past few days.

The canopy was masked with thin strips of tape and then masking solution which was then left to dry.

While that was drying, I started working out which inner pylon goes where as there’s two pairs and they’re different shapes with different attachment angles. They needed I bit of cleaning up to remove the excessively applied glue. 
I can’t believe that took me two hours😱.

I managed to find instructions online - albeit a Russian printed version, which was useful to confirm which pylon went where. Good job I checked as I was going to fit the two pairs the in the wrong positIon - the perils of modelling when tired I suppose (it was just one of those days).

They were fitted and left to dry.

 

I decided it was time for paint - for the undersides at least. 
Out with the airbrush and the new jar of Mr Hobby Aqueous Flat White. This was going to be just a base coat to check the surfaces were smooth and to act act as an undercoat. There’s a couple of blemishes mainly on the pylons where I missed the sink marks, but other than that it looks good. Coverage was good as well with just the odd patch of grey plastic just visible, but that should cover with a second coat. 

 

The missiles, fuel tanks and wheel bay doors were also painted. Again they’ll need a second coat.
 

When the photo was taken the grey plastic beached out so it’s hard to differentiate between the grey and the white.

 

The painted underside.
3ANA7B5.jpg

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks again for the comments.

The underside was given another coat of white and it looks more even now.

Last night I started masking off the white for the EDSG to go on. I kind of wish I’d left the pylons off as it was a bit of a pain masking around them to get a straight line where the EDSG wraps over the leading edge of the wing, but I managed it. 
For the EDSG, I’ll use Tamiya’s XF-77 IJN Grey as I did on the Phantom. It’s a bit lighter than the EDSG and to me looks more in keeping with the scale of the model and not look too dark. 
Hopefully, tonight, I’ll get the rest of the airframe airbrushed.

I also made the ‘KEEP OFF’ box decals yesterday. Placing them accurately should be fun as they’re all individual. 

Edited by Brigbeale
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used an old Kingfisher fuselage to demonstrate the difference between the colours.

The lighter grey on the left is Tamiya IJN Grey which is also painted on the Phantom behind it (which went slightly darker once the ‘lacquer’ went on).

The darker grey is Mr Color Aqueous Extra Dark Sea Grey - which, in my opinion, would be too dark.

 

MZ2udWu.jpg

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kingfisher / Duck I knew it was some sort of water related bird!😂😂😂

 

I’ve just re-masked it. I wasn’t happy with the leading edge width (too wide) and the nose section didn’t look right.

I’ve temporarily removed the pylons again to for masking and painting. They came away cleanly (with the help of a pair of pliers and tissue to not damaging them)so should go back easily (hopefully).🤞

Edited by Brigbeale
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...