The great 1/72 Glider build - more Air Cadet flying machines

[Terry1954]

On 6/19/2021 at 8:49 PM, T-21 said:

These builds are inspiring to past and present Air Cadets.

 

Thanks for that, I hope that is the case!

 

On 6/19/2021 at 9:54 PM, Robin said:

Please excuse my joining the view. 

 

Not a problem Robin, welcome!

 

On 6/19/2021 at 9:54 PM, Robin said:

I am not sure what type of glider it was, but it had side by side seating and it had a high wing, I think we were launched by a winch. 

 

Most likely a Sedbergh?

 

20 hours ago, Phone Phixer said:

Ooohh, now you are talking! I got my wings flying a Venture. I did a weeks intensive course (a week off school learning to fly a glider, can't beat it). We were accommodated at RAF Newton, but did the flying from RAF Syerston.

Mike Throssell, he was my instructor too. Great bloke.

 

Epic project, this. Now a Venture is added, I'm on board.

 

Thanks and welcome!

 

16 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

PS: I'm really waiting for the 'Grasshopper'

 

Welcome John, I wondered when you'd show up! I had been tempted by the old Phoenix vac-form of the Grasshopper, but this Special Hobby one should be much easier to build ............. we hope

 

13 hours ago, Fritag said:

Terry, this looks like the thread we’ve all been waiting for  So many memories being re-awakened.

 

 

It certainly looks to be popular Steve, and nice to think you cut your teeth on a glider like many of the rest of us!

 

12 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Morning Terry, another here playing catch up, really enjoyable thread - again!

 

Great you found the thread Keith and welcome. I've flown close to Lasham a few times in a powered aircraft but never been there. I live near the Dorset Gliding club and that's all aerotows as far as I can tell. Will be trying that myself in the next few months hopefully.

 

10 hours ago, 621Andy said:

I'm tagging along on this one too...

 

Welcome Andy and thanks for posting some absolutely superb shots of the Prefect, they will be excellent for reference. As for the Swallow, Vanguard, Valiant and Janus, I'm not aware of kits of these, but having looked at the plans for the Swallow, I reckon that could be scratch built 🤔 

 

Well, back to the Viking briefly. A little more work on the cockpit, mostly getting the seats right really. I've realised from reference pictures that much needed to change inside to better reflect the seats etc.

 

Completely removed the seat backs this time and put in place some thin plastic card backs, which appear to span the cockpit on the prototype. Things look wonky as the seat pans and I/P's aren't fixed yet, just placed there. On the prototype the areas at the side of the pans are built up with conformal arm rests it seems, so they will be added, most likely from milliput.

 

 

 

 

And this last shot shows some seat backs being fashioned, that will need trimming back to seat back height. Have found some further reference shots of the seats showing headrests and seat straps which will be added, plus the side arm rests and various controls for spoilers and cable release.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I now have some decent plans of the Prefect, and can see that wintips, main wheel and tail fin, will all require adaptation on the Granau Baby.

 

Thanks again, all who are following.

 

More soon

 

Terry

[keefr22]

Big difference to the 'pit now Terry, nice work in there!

 

Keith

[Cookenbacher]

This is a great project Terry!

[bigbadbadge]

You've certainly filled the cockpit space once you get the seat backs sorted and the other associated bits it will be very impressive. 

Cracking job 

Chris 

[Terry1954]

16 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

This is a great project Terry!

 

Thanks Cookie, I'm enjoying it immensely!

 

14 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

You've certainly filled the cockpit space once you get the seat backs sorted and the other associated bits it will be very impressive. 

Cracking job 

Chris 

 

I'm getting there with the cockpit Chris. Next update should show marked progress ............ we hope!

 

Terry

[Terry1954]

A busy week in the garden building composters, strimming and putting up trellis, but I did manage to get some time on the Grob today.

 

More work in the cockpit, trying to emulate what I can see in reference pictures. The seats in particular.

 

Also did some more dremelling. The area behind the rear cockpit needed to be hollowed out as one reference picture shows quite a void behind the rear seat. This is what we had:

 

 

And this is after dremelling. 

 

 

Next I fashioned a flat shelf behind the seat and also made the seat side "cushions". These seem to be a combination of padding and moulding as part of the seat. The plan here is to smooth these side pieces into the seats with putty, probably very wet milliput or perhaps PPP.

 

 

Then, having dremelled out the nose, a small bulkhead was needed which sits just in front of the front I/P

 

 

The I/P's themselves are getting further refined. The ones supplied are IMHO too large, so I'm trying to fabricate something more to scale from the existing ones, plus scrap card.

 

 

The decals provide two very neat I/P's which should look fine on the modified panels.

 

 

So things are starting to look a bit better in the very small tandem office.

 

 

Work still needed here includes:

 

1. Various sidewall and other additions in the form of cable release and spoiler/air brake levers.

2. Rudder pedals added from scrap.

3. Joysticks.

4. Side pouches.

5. Headrests.

6. Seat harnesses

7. Finish of I/P's and fabricate a fairing for the front one to merge into the new bulkhead to look something like this:

 

 

Meanwhile I noticed that the tail fin seemed to have an unnecessarily steep drop away angle at the top rear:

 

 

Compared to the drawing:

 

 

And the real thing:

 

 

It looks like the answer is somewhere in between, so a small plastic card fillet is needed I reckon.

 

That's it for now, more soon.

 

Terry

[bigbadbadge]

More very precise dremel work there Terry.  Seats and consuls look good too.

Great work

Chris

[keefr22]

That's some good progress Terry, those seats look like they'll be nice and comfy when finished! IP's are looking good too.

 

Keith

[Major Flannel]

Fascinating. I have two gliders waiting to go but they're Polish gliders, both in 72nd. SZD's 'Gil' and 'Zefir', I believe 2 of the 6 offered by PS models, the Gil being a single specific machine IRL. Both need just that little bit extra inside the fuselage so am really interested in your techniques.

 

Well played.

[621Andy]

Here's a not very good pic from 1985ish showing the rear end of a Viking...

 

[621Andy]

And a couple more recent shots. I don't know what era you're planning on doing, but we didn't have the dayglo everywhere when we got them new. It seems to have come in sometime in the 2000s.

 

 

 

The large tail codes were only on 'Centre' based aircraft initially I seem to remember but I suspect they came in at the same time as the dayglo.

[621Andy]

Oh and the cockpit in your reference pic looks horribly worn, but then I suppose they are 35+ years old now😳

The airbrake lever was anodised blue(big one on the left) and the trim lever was anodised green I think🤫 The stick was black, but looks chromed or polished in that pic. I have some pics when they were new but they're in a photo album 1200km away🥺

[RidgeRunner]

Very nice work, Terry. I’m sorry I haven’t picked up on this before. 
 

Martin

[Terry1954]

On 6/27/2021 at 11:30 PM, bigbadbadge said:

More very precise dremel work there Terry.  Seats and consuls look good too.

Great work

Chris

 

Thanks Chris, I feel like I'm getting there with the internals, but some fiddly work still to do in there.

 

On 6/28/2021 at 8:11 AM, keefr22 said:

That's some good progress Terry, those seats look like they'll be nice and comfy when finished! IP's are looking good too.

 

Keith

 

Thanks Keith. Hoping for the comfy look. I must say gliders of this era, plus the more modern ones look a lot more comfy than the old T31's I trained on!

 

 

On 6/28/2021 at 8:22 AM, Major Flannel said:

Fascinating. I have two gliders waiting to go but they're Polish gliders, both in 72nd. SZD's 'Gil' and 'Zefir', I believe 2 of the 6 offered by PS models, the Gil being a single specific machine IRL. Both need just that little bit extra inside the fuselage so am really interested in your techniques.

 

Well played.

 

Thanks Major. I checked out the Gil and Zefir, they look neat. As for my techniques, it's a bit of make it up as I go along I must confess, just trying to better replicate from the reference pictures.

On the Belgian Air Cadet Astir CS-77 I will be using these which I found on the big H site. Part number 2 is actually a very nicely detailed bucket seat and the I/P is very well done, although you can't see either that well in the picture.

Will reveal more when we get to the Astir build.

 

 

 

Excellent reference pictures Andy @621Andy, thank you! Great shots of the tail area. As regards colour, I think I'll be going for the later scheme with dayglo additions.

 

13 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

Very nice work, Terry.

 

Thanks Martin!

 

Hoping to have more time this week as Mrs T is away for the rest of the week, so I'm Billy no mates with lots of spare time! Main focus will be on these plus finishing off a 1/48 Meteor, and a couple of other 1/72 builds.

 

Stay tuned everyone!

 

Terry

[Major Flannel]

It may or may not be of interest but there's a nice build regarding the Zefir:

https://www.modellversium.de/galerie/18-flugzeuge-zivil/10874-szd-19-zefir-2a-.html

 

Once one gets into gliders I suspect the draw increases exponentially.

 

Best wishes to you.

[Terry1954]

A little more progress on the Grob..........

 

A recap on the cockpit with test fitted modified I/P's :

 

 

I managed to get some milliput into all the areas around the seat and side "cushions" and then smoothed it in very wet, a bit like you would with PPP. I just like the way milliput dries rock hard. I also fashioned some seat belts from very thin aluminium tape. This shot taken before the rear lap straps went in:

 

 

I also fitted some very thin plastic strips into the left hand sidewall which will accommodate what I think are the spoiler levers on the real thing. These will probably need shortening. The reference pictures I have are limited in this area at the moment.

 

 

Next came a couple of side pouches for the right hand side walls, again from aluminium tape:

 

 

Fitted into the right hand sidewalls. Both crew can now put their charts and check lists securely away!

 

 

This next shot shows a plastic card addition to sort the rear upper fin, ready for final shaping:

 

 

Heritage give you two vac form canopies, which is fortunate, as I thought I'd have a go at cutting one to shape and test fitting, but I've managed to cut it a fraction undersize I think. So I now get a second chance which should actually will be easier to do, as I can sit the undersize first attempt on top of the next one, and mark it out slightly bigger. If that fails, I reckon I'll be able to fashion two canopy covers to sit in the open position - that will drive the decision on open or closed cockpit canopy! 

 

Meanwhile, a start has been made on the second Grob, the Astir, from the KP kit. Some pics of what's in the box:

 

 

 

 

And a sprue shot, with the resin Viking for comparison. The Astir is a single seater, and noticeably smaller.

 

 

For this one, I'm also going to use the Brengun resin cockpit and accessories, all six parts shown here!

 

 

The I/P is especially nice, given the scale we are dealing with:

 

 

And the very nice seat, off the resin plug and cleaned up a bit.The front bit is where the I/P should neatly fit .........

 

 

And finally, for the glazing, some masks!

 

 

 

All the parts cleaned up and ready to go together:

 

 

And a quick test fit and comparison with it's bigger brother:

 

 

 

More on both soon.

 

Terry

[Paul J]

Love seeing these gliders. I have built a great many specially a fair number by Dujin kits now long gone as are most of the ones I've built. I still have some and pics of those I don't. This thread is inspiring me to dust down a couple from my stash.  Incidentally , I got my wings courtesy of the ATC via  623 GS at Tangmere 1970. Though started the course at Swanton Morley but got weathered out. It was middle of November 1969.   

[621Andy]

Further to your 'rails' on the cockpit walls for the airbrakes: https://www.airliners.net/photo/Aeroclube-do-Rio-Grande-do-Sul-ARGS/Grob-G-103/286680

 

The levers for the brakes and the trim come up through the side of the seat.

 

Google 'Grob Twin II Acro' as that's actually what the Viking is, and internally apart from instrumentation, they're exactly the same.

[Martian]

This is impressive! So much so that I might have to track down that 1/48 Blanik that has been in my stash for too long.

 

Impressed of Mars 👽

[Hamden]

 

Great progress Terry, will they be at Bovington in September?

 

   Stay safe               Roger

[Terry1954]

2 hours ago, Paul J said:

Love seeing these gliders. I have built a great many specially a fair number by Dujin kits now long gone as are most of the ones I've built. I still have some and pics of those I don't. This thread is inspiring me to dust down a couple from my stash.  Incib=dentally I got my wings courtesy of the ATC via  623 GS at Tangmere 1970. Though started the course at Swanton Morley but got weathered out. It was middle of November 1969.   

 

Yes, the Dujin kits seem to be very rare these days. Sounds like you were qualifying for your wings around the same time as me. I was in 1924 squadron based in Shirley, Croydon, so did mine at Kenley.

 

2 hours ago, 621Andy said:

Further to your 'rails' on the cockpit walls for the airbrakes: https://www.airliners.net/photo/Aeroclube-do-Rio-Grande-do-Sul-ARGS/Grob-G-103/286680

 

The levers for the brakes and the trim come up through the side of the seat.

 

Google 'Grob Twin II Acro' as that's actually what the Viking is, and internally apart from instrumentation, they're exactly the same.

 

Thanks Andy, that's helpful. I've already shortened the side bits to conform to the seats. So it looks like an airbrake lever (we called them spoilers in my day), and a trim lever on the left, red canopy release (?) on the right, and I reckon the ubiquitous yellow cable release toggle in the centre?

 

2 hours ago, Martian said:

This is impressive! So much so that I might have to track down that 1/48 Blanik that has been in my stash for too long.

 

Impressed of Mars 👽

 

Thanks Martian, we always like to impress our local colleagues. I looked up the Blanik on Scalemates, and discovered 1/72 versions too ................ there's a thought .....

 

1 hour ago, Hamden said:

 

Great progress Terry, will they be at Bovington in September?

 

   Stay safe               Roger

 

Thanks Roger. I am planning to be at Bovington in September, and if any of these get finished by then, they will be there.

 

Terry

 

[bigbadbadge]

Oooooo that cockpit detail you have created in the twin tub is fantastic Terry,  that has really come together, fingers crossed for the canopy cutting.  The single seater looks nice and the extra details you have will step it up a notch or two. 

Great work. 

Chris

[Martian]

7 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

Thanks Martian, we always like to impress our local colleagues. I looked up the Blanik on Scalemates, and discovered 1/72 versions too ................ there's a thought .....

Now the smart Earthling of which I still entertain hopes you are one; would, in addition to signing Mrs Martian's application forms (thus avoiding the press gang) slip the 1/72 Blanik in question into that large red box that you know you need from the big H (other suppliers are available) and Mrs Terry need know nothing about it!

 

Martian (Cunning plans a speciality) 👽

[Hamden]

2 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I am planning to be at Bovington in September

 

Hope to see you there

 

  Stay safe           Roger

[Cookenbacher]

Wonderful interior scratch work Terry, those futuristic rounded IP consoles look great and can't be an easy shape to scratch/modify.