Making A Flannel Hanky Out Of A Sow's Rear OR a T-33 Twin Tail!

[TheRealMrEd]

Hello, back once again!

 

This next project was one that I had in mind for some far-off future date.  However, whilst browsing through the ol' stash, I found something to move this build to the front of the line.

 

Let me digress a bit, and state that during the 20 or more years when I was out of modeling, due to extreme burn-out from all the super-detailing craze that many of us did (and some still) gravitate towards,  I used to spend the odd, aimless moments here and there, scribing kits for future use, as the scribing was also the incessant rage back then.  Also I did other odd jobs, such as starting kits, doing the cockpit areas, but never with enough enthusiasm to keep going and finishing anything.

 

Fast forward to a couple of days ago, and what did I find, but an old, started 1/72 Heller Lockheed T-33 trainer kit.  I opened the box, and there was a build started back then, with the cockpit finished and installed, and the fuselage halve joined, and some filling already done.  Right there I decided that this was the perfect time to make a.... well, the title pretty much says it all!

 

The twin-tailed T-33 was an effort by Lockheed to create a jet trainer for the navy, before they finally gave up and just built the T2V-1/T-1A Seastar.  Only one T-33 was modified, and even the records on it have been lost.  There are precious few photos of the beast, so building the conversion is not the problem, but making it look like the pictures is the problem!  Fortunately in this case, a couple of other models have gone before me, leaving enough information to make my job much easier. But, more on that in a moment.

 

First, the kit, and the assembled fuselage look like so:

 

 

The fuselage is so old that it still has remnants of the old Squadron Green Putty, which I haven't used in forever:

 

 

So, the highlights of this kit are 1) it's cheap, 2) I already own it, and 3) it's already half built!  Win, Win, Win...

 

Now, as for the other modeler's that built the beast, and whose works I stole from shamelessly, are listed below:

 

A 1/72 Hasegawa build: Click Here

 

And a 1/32 Conversion build: CLICK OVER HERE

 

I recommend that you peruse both these builds at your leisure, as you might find their methods even better than mine.  That being said, it's a simple conversion, once you get to the shapes and sizes needed.

 

One build had a photo, that I downloaded,re-sized  and cropped,  taking care to also flip the photo to get images to make up both left and right sides of the tail, each of which I copied a few times, ended up thusly

 

 

Above right, using another image that I swiped, I have taken the liberty of inverting the colors (to save on black ink when printing, as I am somewhat of a cheapskate).  When I printed out this exact photo at 66% the size of this original, it turned out to be the exact size needed for 1/72 scale.

 

I used rubber cement to glue the cut-out paper shapes to a sheet of around 1mm thick plastic card.  One could also use contact cement or white glue, if preferred.  When done shaping, then scribing on both side of each piece, I peeled off the paper as much as possible, and used Goo-Gone, followed by a soap-and-water bath to remove the glue residue.  If using contact cement, then probably mineral spirits would be required, as anything stronger would probably deform the plastic.

While white glue doesn't hold up as well to the abuse, but at least it cleans off with just soapy water when done.  Your choice!

 

Part way along, the process looks like so:

 

 

While I used a 1/10th mm Tamiya scriber blade for this, (or whatever their smallest one is), I found it useful to first scribe gently along the line with the tip of a #11 blade, otherwise, the Tamiya tip just tore the paper.

 

Anyway, I've started.  Feel free to follow (either me or the other modelers!) as you wish.

 

Ed

 

[billn53]

Okay, I'm in!

[TheRealMrEd]

Hi Bill,

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Ed

[Andwil]

Hmmm, a T-33 with P-38 tailfins, a strangely attractive bird.  Interesting and with the Ed treatment, I think I’ll tag along.

 

AW

[TheRealMrEd]

Welcome aboard Andwill!

 

Actually, I first thought about using the tailf-eathers from an old P-38 kit.  After all, duck soup.  But after comparing, I decided, like the other modelers linked to above, that it was about as easy to just make 'em from scratch.  Your mileage may vary...

 

Ed

[matti64]

An excellent start, These T-33 based experimentals are  really something else. I'm looking forward to following this.

[RidgeRunner]

2 hours ago, matti64 said:

An excellent start, These T-33 based experimentals are  really something else. I'm looking forward to following this.

Me too

[Gondor44]

I'm following, decided to do so as soon as I saw who had started the thread, hadn't got past the title at that stage

 

Gondor

[TheRealMrEd]

7 hours ago, matti64 said:

An excellent start, These T-33 based experimentals are  really something else. I'm looking forward to following this.

For the most part, these are all reasonably simple conversions -- just require some sanding work.  Of course, I do HATE sanding, but what are ya gonna do?

 

Ed

[TheRealMrEd]

3 hours ago, Gondor44 said:

I'm following, decided to do so as soon as I saw who had started the thread, hadn't got past the title at that stage

 

Gondor

Thanks Gondor.  I've always liked the weird and unusual.  The hard part is figuring out HOW to do each one.  After that, the work is mostly secondary.  Hope to keep you entertained, however!

 

Ed

[stevehnz]

This looks a bit interesting, & different, & weird. I think I'll keep an eye on it.

Steve.

[TheRealMrEd]

6 hours ago, stevehnz said:

This looks a bit interesting, & different, & weird. I think I'll keep an eye on it.

Steve.

C'mon in Steve, the water's fine!

 

Ed

[Jackson Duvalier]

13 hours ago, TheRealMrEd said:

I do HATE sanding, but what are ya gonna do?

 

 

Motor tool, usually ends in tears.

 

I was unfamiliar with this T-33 with Ventura tail, leave it to you, Ed.  😎

[TheRealMrEd]

13 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

 

 

Motor tool, usually ends in tears.

 

I was unfamiliar with this T-33 with Ventura tail, leave it to you, Ed.  😎

Hi Jackson!

 

About the only time I dig out the moto-tool anymore, is when I have to hog out very poorly cast wing inlets, in some older resin kits, and then I usually use a spiral grinder or some such.  But, you are right, it's really difficult to sand molten plastic...

 

Ed

[billn53]

13 hours ago, Jackson Duvalier said:

 

 

Motor tool, usually ends in tears.

 

 

Tell me about it!

 

 

 

😭

[TheRealMrEd]

Hello again,

 

One thing that I failed to mention earlier, is that prior to scribing panel lines on the new tail-feathers, I had sanded the leading edge of all parts rounded, and sanding the trailing edges to be as thin as possible.  The few pictures that I could find of this aircraft did not show whether there was any "airfoil" to the parts or not, so I just did what I could.

 

Anyway, leaving the tail-feathers behind (no pun intended) for a moment, I proceeded to the next item on the agenda, removing the T-33's vertical stabilizer.  While the other build threads pointed to above did it slightly differently, this is how I chopped it off:

 

 

Crude, but crude.  My thought was that I could just shim it as needed, but that turned out to actually cost a little more work than I initially intended.  Probably, the other guys got it right.

 

But, before we can get on with THAT part, another item needs attention, the fact that there is an odd, sort of cut-out with thinner metal, with random holes in it.  This is shown clearly in the other build threads, as well as speculated upon, so I won't repeat that here:

 

 

Above left, I used a small rasp, some sanding twigs, and for final clean-up, a tiny modeling chisel to clean out the cavity from side to side, all around the bottom half of the tail-pipe area.  The random holes, I'll add later.  Above right, the shimming process has started, using bits of scrap plastic card.

 

I forgot to take a picture, but the next step was to sand the entire rear fuselage back to a cylindrical shape, before adding the scrap plastic sort of "box" that the horizontal stabilizer will rest upon.  If you ever build this model, the goal is to locate the stab just below the surface line of the top of the rear fuselage, so that when you fill the gaps at the front and rear of the stab, to top line will be even, all the way back to the rear edge of the stab.  After that, the rear end sort of curves down a bit, over the tail-pipe.  This will become more clear with later photos.  Anyway, I eventually added the "box", with a cut-out for the stabilizer:

 

 

Above right, before going further, I filled the joint where the box meets the fuselage.  PPP or such would have probably worked easier here, but I didn't think about it, just slapped on the old go-to Bondo Spot Putty.

 

I'll be back later, when this has dried and been sanded.  Stay tuned.

 

Ed

[billn53]

Some real McCoy (or, should I say RealMrEd) modeling going on here. 😊👍

[TheRealMrEd]

On 8/15/2021 at 2:03 PM, billn53 said:

Some real McCoy (or, should I say RealMrEd) modeling going on here. 😊👍

Just a poor ol' plastic slasher tryin' to muddle through...

 

Ed

[TheRealMrEd]

Back yet again...

 

Next up, a bit of very thin plastic card is glued to the back of the new "boat-tail"?:

 

 

Trying to get close to the real thing:

 

 

 

Which reminds me, I never posted a picture of the real thing!  (Above right).

 

But it still isn't quite right.  The real thing appears to be flat along the whole rear end of the fuselage (I think!), while mine still has a couple of bumps:

 

 

Above right, the little "cut-out" also is not yet correct.

 

After some more work, it's getting a bit closer:

 

 

When I got everything reasonably well-shaped, I attached the wing:

 

 

Above right, the ancient Heller kit still fits very well, with only a very slight gap at the front of the wing at the bottom.

 

Now, I can add the vertical stabilizers/rudders to the horizontal stabilizer/elevator part.  Before assembly, a pencil line is made, marking the horizontal line where the verticals stabs need to be mounted, and a vertical line is shown to denote the hinge line, which of course, is where the rudder would need to swing.  The biggest thing here is to make sure that the horizontal line drawn is perpendicular to the rudder hinge line, and that, when mounted to the horizontal stab, the rudder hinge line is perpendicular to the aircraft's fuselage:

 

 

When all is done, she now looks like so (above right).  I just used a good amount of Weld-On #3 liquid glue, no pins to attach these, as they are relatively thin.

 

Still some more fiddly bits, and she's almost ready for the paint shop.

 

Don't touch that dial!

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

 

[Bozothenutter]

Who else was expecting a twin fuselage T-33, not unlike a F-82?

[billn53]

You’re making quick work of this, Ed. I think your choice of using Bondo for the tail mods was the right one, I doubt PPP would have been up to it.

[Pete in Lincs]

I just found this build. An interesting looking change to the good old '33. 

[TheRealMrEd]

2 hours ago, billn53 said:

You’re making quick work of this, Ed. I think your choice of using Bondo for the tail mods was the right one, I doubt PPP would have been up to it.

You're right on that Bill, but I was thinking I should have used the PPP type to fill the tiny joint seams -- definitely I use the Bondo for more structural type stuff.

 

Ed

[TheRealMrEd]

True Pete.  Had it been around a few years earlier, they might have even tried to make a bi-plane with it!

 

Ed

 

On 8/18/2021 at 11:07 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

I just found this build. An interesting looking change to the good old '33. 

 

[heloman1]

An interesting build, the fins looks like they came from a Ventura and Lockheed may well have gone that route.

Have you ask Tommy Thomason at Tail Hook Topics, he's a font of knowledge re US Navy?

 

Colin