Sled building time

[bar side]

More bits on the nose wheel.  Pipes, drilled out holes in the hinged leg extension bits.  The wires may be a bit overscale, but won’t stand out as much when painted

 

 

 

Now that wheel well.  Bit sparse isn’t it?

 

 

Compare that to @billn53’s photo

 

 

 

It’s a bit weird as there is nothing behind the wheel well.  The cockpit is ahead of it.  So tempted to cut out the flats area in front of the nose wheel & fit something more like the tanks & some wires, plus add the retaining ‘claws’.  The door inside can get some perforated plates added too

[bar side]

10 minutes ago, Lord Riot said:

Cracking photos! You’re right of course, that last remaining enclave of ‘little America’ in the Brecklands is always well worth a visit. 

I am very lucky to be just below them so on a clear day you get some great sights.  On a miserable day - like most of last week - you have to work by sound alone.  I thought an Osprey was passing at one point & looked out at a gap in the cloud & saw a pair of Wokkas.  Always nice to see.  And a C17 on approach too.  I know I am spoilt with them, but long may it last.

[bar side]

So the wheel well as it comes

 

 

So I cut the section ahead of the nose wheel out & recessed it a bit

 

 

Then added some sections cut from the body of a marker pen, shaped to look like the top of the tanks

 

 

Then add some bits of piping and the nose leg retaining brackets.  Now I have today the bay is nowhere near deep enough to hold the nose wheels.  I guess I should cut it out too & deepen it up a bit

 

[bar side]

Did the forward recess tonight.  The before shot is above, so I cut the flat front section out and recessed it in a new frame.  The is what it now looks like inside - right behind the back of the cockpit

 

 

And from the underneath

 

 

Now I know the whole bay is too shallow to actually close with gear in.  However once the doors are on it will look a bit deeper.  If I was starting again I would have cut the whole base out & moved it further inside

 

 

The main wheel bays look ok & unless I add some more pipework they may stay as they are

 

 

I think next job is sort out the fit of the anti collision beacons.  When the are done I can fix in the leds then close up the body

 

[billn53]

Your nose gear bay looks 1000-percent better than before! 
 

If you decide to add some plumbing to the main gear bay, here’s a photo I found that might help.  
 

 

[bar side]

Thanks @billn53 some extra piping across the back wall of the well would help, and some hydronic pipes on the main legs too.  That photo helps a lot

[bar side]

More fiddling time tonight.  I have plated over the back of the anti collision light holes.  Trying to decide if I should drill the out giving a deeper fitting or cut the tubes down to fit flush against them.  Either way there will be a hole to take the led.

 

 

I need to glaze & box in the camera windows to or the light will shine out of those!

 

Speaking of the tubes that are the pop out part of the anti collision lights, I have glued an end on to them, just need to paint the end & cut them down to size.  I plan to put in some red film too in order to get that red light

 

 

The main wheel wells have had some pipework added too

 

 

 

Also finished the last big bit of scribing now too.  Need lots of filtering, so there will be plenty to scribe back in no doubt

 

 

Can’t be too far off fixing the leds in & closing the body up

Edited December 4, 2021 by bar side

[Alan P]

It's a big old bird isn't it! Really good attention to detail going on here.

 

Waiting very impatiently for the email telling me the Revell kit is in stock...😳

[bar side]

Sure I saw a pre order somewhere the other day for the Revell kit Alan.

 

Anyway here is a look at the front leg post painting.  It’s a bit shiny & needs a Matt coat & a brush over with powders but you get the idea.  Tyres are actually mid grey here rather than aluminium in black rubber.  Also probably more than life size on the screen so all the faults show!

 

[Darth Vader]

Pretty sure the Habu front tyres are black, just the mains aluminium coated

[billn53]

18 minutes ago, Darth Vader said:

Pretty sure the Habu front tyres are black, just the mains aluminium coated

 

That is correct. But, the mains weren't aluminum "coated". Instead, the aluminum was embedded in the tire rubber.

[bar side]

That’s fine - I can get some black on there.  The wheels are not glued on yet.  Quick prime on the wheel wells ties the bits together better

 

 

[bar side]

Been looking at options for the main fuselage camera / sensor apertures and foi d this on a thread on ARC Forums from Woody from Croatia

 

 

He feels that in normal use the rear apertures were plated over and the forward ones are in the wrong place.   As the 1/48 kit is much the same I am happy to plate over the rear ones & move the forward ones.  Then I plan a little bit of the camera to be seen inside the window.  Was thinking a TEOC like this

 

 

Only the gold end would be visible but better than a dead looking window.  Question is, plate back one over and move the front one or plate back window & live with the front location?

 

 

[bar side]

Trying to shape a piece of tube into the lense end of a TEOC unit.  The blutac is for the body,I will make something out of balsa wood as you will never see it

 

 

Inside this is all you can see, whether the aperture moves back or not.  I think it would move back to the panel line behind it.

 

 

You will see even less once the clear panel goes in.  I think the anti collision light case needs to go in a bit further

 

 

[Alan P]

Great job tidying up those wheelwells. Huge improvement on the original kit offering.

 

Nice to see you tackling the payload as well. I'm probably going to just 'black glass' the camera ports ☺️

[bar side]

I was thinking, rather than plate over the aperture & cut a new hole, perhaps cut a rectangle around the hole and turn it 180 degrees.  That would reposition it & probably make it easier to blend it back in.  Then plate over the rear apertures as not in use.  I do still think I will need to box behind the cameras to avoid light leak through from the cabin light and beacons.  But maybe just wrap silver foil behind them.  That will stop the lights and give the feel of insulation behind them.  Now if I can just get some time on the build….

 

So, any thoughts on the next build?  Got Phantoms, a Buccaneer, a nice new Jet Provost, Mirage IV, and the Sanger vacform Shack.  Few more too, but they are the main contenders

[Alan P]

31 minutes ago, bar side said:

I was thinking, rather than plate over the aperture & cut a new hole, perhaps cut a rectangle around the hole and turn it 180 degrees. 

That's probably the neatest way rather than filling the old hole and cutting new ones. 

 

Regarding your next build, I would like to see a Mirage IV get the bar side treatment 👍 precious few of those on the forum!

[bar side]

2 minutes ago, Alan P said:

That's probably the neatest way rather than filling the old hole and cutting new ones. 

 

Regarding your next build, I would like to see a Mirage IV get the bar side treatment 👍 precious few of those on the forum!

Hmm, the Mirage IV would look good with the TSR2 & F-111s.  Really want to start the Shack but that’s a big job.

[bar side]

Well I seem to be spending more time watching @Alan P build his Sled than getting on with my own!  And @Serkan Sen kindly gave me dimensions for the start cart.  Couldn’t resist cutting some card to mock it up, so it now looks like this

 

 

It’s just thick card and I plan to wrap some cereal packet card round the outside.  I had originally intended to either build full in plasticard or skin the frame with it, but I will see how the card looks.  I have some nice brass mesh to put behind the vents too, so could look ok

[Serkan Sen]

I am surprised that I haven't seen this topic before. Maybe I was busy with my ongoing Oxcart builds...

Good progress so far. Regarding to 3D starter cart model you can have a look here:

There you will find the basic sketches as well.

 

Serkan

[bar side]

Thank @Serkan Sen that will help a lot.  I have watched your builds and 3D printing with interest but I missed a separate thread on the start cart

[bar side]

I have put a skin on the frame of the start cart.  The mesh has been added to make the grills on the front.  Will need to have a think about the side louvres and add the control panel, towing bar, connecting rod, etc. but this is now it looks

 

 

 

And just a check that it fits under the aircraft.  The engine is sitting lower than it will when it all goes together, but it looks fine

 

 

[James G]

Cool build. I saw a great talk by an SR-71 pilot a few years ago,  although it was about his time as an F-4 Wild Weasel pilot in Vietnam. I came away with the book below, probably full of once highly classified info! 

 

 

 

[bar side]

That book looks very nice @James G I have heard of an Alconbury RF-4 pilot who came back to Mildenhall flying Blackbirds.  Seems to be a good starting point for them

[March]

@bar side Nice progress, I’ve made a start on re-scribing mine for a SR-71B build and am noticing what appears to be some weird delaminating evident in the scribed areas. Is this something you noticed too? I’m finding that I can take care of it during the sanding process to knock out the raised edges created during the scribing process, but wondered if this was something you’d encountered when re-scribing yours?