Gloster F.5/34 - Magna Models 1/72 - Finished

[AdrianMF]

Well I did some filling and gave it a blast of silver:

 

As one of my friends would say “rougher than a hedgehog’s bottom” but I’m going to go with it. Magna models make it look like hard work, especially with a silver finish, but I think that with decals on it will look fine. And the twin engine Gloster Reaper will be camo, although sadly not in this GB.

 

Still on for a completion by Sunday!

[AdrianMF]

Well I’m getting there I think:

 

 

[Graham Boak]

Just think, but for Dowding's backing for two experimental high speed prototypes, this could have been the RAF's front-line fighter in the Battle of Britain.  Though perhaps RR would have pressed for later batches to have Merlins.

 

PS  Or, of course, the Vickers Venom.

[AdrianMF]

4 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

Just think

By all accounts, it wasn’t at all dreadful, just late to the party due to priority being given to Gladiator production. However, I suspect it would probably have run out of development potential quite quickly in the same way that the Hurricane did.

 

I was rummaging through my spares looking for something to make the spinner - old Airfix He111 bomb was a bit too wide, old Airfix Phantom gun pod was shaping up nicely, but actually - after a lot of sanding and polishing - it turns out that polished metal represents polished metal quite well:

 

The propeller is a bit thick but the GB ends tomorrow! If this kit wasn’t made of resin I would be looking for places to add tail weight…

[AdrianMF]

I raided my stock of Albion Alloys tubing and also used some old-school thick stuff to make the prop mounting. It spins when you blow it round but being metal it takes a lot of puff to get going!

[AdrianMF]

Aaaand done:

 

 

Actually, “done enough”. It’s a desktop model. Sometime, maybe never, I will: check if the backs of the propeller blades were painted black; paint navigation lights at the wingtips; paint landing lights at the leading edges; add shadow around and underneath the cooling gills; pitot tube under port wing; and give it a coat of varnish.

 

This kit was one of the founding members of my born-again stash. I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to build it in the GB, so thank you for that!

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

[Mjwomack]

40 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

This kit was one of the founding members of my born-again stash.

a founding member of the stash- sounds like something that should be on a button badge! Very touched that it came out of hibernation for this build, but hope you've saved something back for this one

It is, after all, one of the few GBs where you can't just go out and build something.

[AdrianMF]

3 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

you've saved something back for this one

Er yes well mumble shuffle cough are you sure my wife can’t hear I might have just the odd one or two lying around…

[dogsbody]

Another great build, Adrian! I say this as my old mind drifts off to Whif- land. I see a later mark with a clear bubble canopy, fitted with a Hercules engine and a couple 20mm. cannons.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[matford]

8 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

 Sometime, maybe never, I will: check if the backs of the propeller blades were painted black

Edited July 11, 2021 by matford

[AdrianMF]

@matford I think we have been looking at the same pictures… 

 

Dammit! Just noticed that walkway strip on the wing root too. It wasn’t there in some of the other pics. And it’s pre/post spinner too.
 

Thanks,

Adrian

[stevehnz]

14 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Another great build, Adrian! I say this as my old mind drifts off to Whif- land. I see a later mark with a clear bubble canopy, fitted with a Hercules engine and a couple 20mm. cannons.

 

 

 

 

Chris

I've been having the same hallucinations Chris. It makes so much sense.  😆

Super job on it @AdrianMF 

Steve 

 

[AdrianMF]

5 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

same hallucinations

Thanks @stevehnz and @dogsbody.  While in WHIF-land, you could always imagine that they decided to upgrade the Hercules to a Centaurus and then have Hawkers do the design because they were busy with jets. Oh, wait...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[dogsbody]

I took a look and found this photo:

 

 

 

I blew it up a bit. It looks like the rear face of the blades were painted, but only on the whatever-you-call-it area, not the whole blade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

 

 

[AdrianMF]

@dogsbody and @matford - don't worry, the black paint pot will be out later today. I wanted to see the photos on a big monitor (self imposed laptop and monitor ban at weekends) to check they weren't just shadow!

 

I'm still calling it "done" though

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Troy Smith]

On 10/07/2021 at 20:32, AdrianMF said:

I suspect it would probably have run out of development potential quite quickly in the same way that the Hurricane did.

 

Hmm, as it's been mentioned...

the Hurricane didn't get more development, as unlike the Spitfire , the Hurricane replacements, the Tornado/Typhoon,  was on the drawing boards in 1937, before the Hurricane had entered service....  There was no Spitfire replacement in the pipeline.   

 

If you look at the prototype Tornado,  especially when first flow with ventral radiator, it looks like a Hurricane on steriods

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It did take a while before Hawker's sorted out the wing, IIRC some UK test establishment had calculated that there was no need need to make a wing 20% thinner than chord,  I think the Hurricane and Typhoon are 19%,  Mitchell didn't believe this, and the Spitfire wing was as thin as possible, IIRC, 12%.

Mitchell was right,  and eventaullt Hawker made a thinner elliptical wing for the Typhoon, becoming the Tempest, and this wing, with a new fuselage and overall lightening up exercise became the Fury/Sea Fury.... 

 

On occasion I ponder on a Hurricane what if with a new wing and cut down spine,  this I am surprised was not done, as the spine was all wood and fabric......

 

A very interesting book that can be got cheaply is Interceptor, by James Goulding, which has drawings of lost of types, and the chapter on the 30 fighter developments is fascinating.

world of book has them at £3.49 posted...

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/james-goulding/interceptor/9780711015838

 

But that would lead @AdrianMF down a path to more Magna resin as they did a fair few of these....    Shame they didn't get done in 1/48 (or perhaps not..) 

 

This thread did make me pull out the 48th Magna Firebrands i got off the sale pages fairly cheap...    mine seem to be on the better end of the quality range.

 

Great build,  excellent result

 

cheers

T

[Graham Boak]

I understand that the National Physics Laboratory was the test establishment, Hawkers not having a wind tunnel of its own, but their results and recommendations were taken out of context.

 

Apart from the wing, one problem with improving the Hurricane would have been the high cockpit position to give a good view over the nose, something else Mitchell ignored.   The fuselage design was generally bulkier and hence draggier that that of its competitors.  I agree that the spine could have been cut down and a teardrop canopy could easily be fitted - as I did on my model Mk.V - Oscar Killer! - clipped wings and all.  But this still kept the larger cross-section/higher drag and because of the reduced side area it strictly would have required either a fin strake, surely anathema to Sir Sidney , or a bigger Typhoon tail.  This is starting to get complicated, expensive, and time-consuming, and you will end up with an aircraft better than the Hurricane but still inferior to the Spitfire or Typhoon.  An easier, better solution (if less impressive) would be to get rid of the Merlin XX and stick in the Merlin 45.   This would have given a significantly better low-level performance - a Merlin 45M would have been even better,  But who is going to give them to Hurricanes when they are useful in Spitfires?

 

The key problem is that once an aircraft design is settled, you cannot make serious changes in one area without affecting the others as well.  Which is why Spitfire changes were incremental, and long-desired changes such as the bigger tail were delayed in favour of quicker less satisfactory changes that wouldn't affect the production rate.

[AdrianMF]

57 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

Interceptor, by James Goulding

I got one from worldofbooks via the Abe books website, for £1 less than buying direct. Strange pricing. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Troy Smith]

5 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

for £1 less than buying direct. Strange pricing

£2.49..bargain     

It was mentioned on here to me, as it has a drawing of the Hurricane prototype with a straight wing, but lots of interesting photos and drawings.  I think it will amuse, and some that are good scratch/conversion project in 72nd,  and a quick check shows that "the drawings have been reproduced at a common 72nd scale unless indicated" but in small type at the bottom of the contents page... 

There are a few browsing now that a enthusistic kit basher could have fun withpage 98/99 are Boulton Paul and look to use a Defiant wing, and the Gloster F18/37b look a lot like a SAAB J-21...but with a 12 x 0.303 nose.... and some of the one for the F7/30 spec are, erm, interesting.

 

cheers

T