28 Sqn Hunter FGA9. 1/48 Hawker hacking by hendie

[Pete in Lincs]

Yep, Wot they said!

[Biggles87]

Oops, late to the party as usual, please accept an IOU for some ‘likes’.

I’ll go back and re-read the previous posts properly now.

 

John

[hendie]

On 12/28/2021 at 8:17 PM, mark.au said:

I knew you’d find things to do… 😉

On 12/29/2021 at 9:48 AM, Brandy said:

I knew it wouldn't take long for you to find something to drill out/manufacture even though the options are rather limited. Nice exhaust!

 

Ian

 

thanks Trevor & Ian. Currently pondering other mods while pondering is it really worth the bother

 

On 12/29/2021 at 3:32 AM, Max Headroom said:

I must say mine fitted together like a dream. Maybe yours was a Friday afternoon moulding?

 

For mine the gun troughs were not a problem as I decided to do the unarmed version so filled them in. Seeing the wheels reminded me that for whatever reason, Airfix didn’t put in the perforations on the nose wheel. Dentists’s drill sorted that.

 

Trevor

 

A dream huh?   Was it the kind of dream where it scares the bejeesus out of you and you wake up screaming?

That's being a bit unkind to Airfix, though the last session did not live up to the expectations set earlier - see below

 

On 12/29/2021 at 4:27 AM, TheBaron said:

'Something like switching on the lathe'

 

You have no idea how much it upsets my equilibrium every time you say that in one of your builds Alan. Am slowly counting off the years until I can justify one as a retirement  present to self...

 

That pipe looks extremely fine in place there now, or as the tabloid press would doubtless have it: 'Top Scot in Hunter Cut and Shunt Stunt.'

 

As to the patent tyre treading rig, simply: 'Groovy, baby!'

 

 

 

Thanks Tony. I reckon you'll have a lathe within a twelvemonth - you have my permission!

 

you know you really really need one

 

If that fails you can always rely on Purina to sort you out

 

 

you can't say nay to that can you?

 

On 12/29/2021 at 4:37 AM, DonH said:

Already enjoying this build. Some very lovely enhancements that I can only droll over (I have a spare pint glass over here at the bar that is catching said drool). 

 

This kit arrived chez moi yesterday and I have fondled the plastic. I will be interested in your opinion on the squarish slabs on the top and bottom of the wing roots. I don't see them on any hunter anywhere ever. Looks like someone added some antennas left over from the Vulcan.

 

 

 

I'm not sure what slabs you're talking about... can you clarify?  I see one slab on top of the spine, but nothing at the wing roots - though it's probable I'm being a bit obtuse here

 

On 12/29/2021 at 11:50 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

Yep, Wot they said!

 

not even a snurf?

 

13 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Oops, late to the party as usual, please accept an IOU for some ‘likes’.

I’ll go back and re-read the previous posts properly now.

 

John

 

IOU accepted John.

 

In the last episode I had begun to glue the fuselage together then finished off the molecule bonding when you lot went to bed.

I should have gone to bed.

The results weren't great.  They weren't even really that good.

the tail fin, which I had been most concerned about was the least of my worries - it went together reasonably well, but the rest of it?  Not nice at all.  I had gaps, steps and misalignment. At least I had the full set.

Typical example shown here.

 

 

Ironically the best seam/join was along the top of the fuselage in the section that is entirely covered by the wing.

 

I consoled myself by taking most of the morning to paint up the ejection seat.   I'm not entirely convinced I had it right but it's way better then first time around.

There are bits on the seat where I couldn't figure out if they were supposed to be a strap or some other feature, and having never worked on an ejection seat in my life other than maybe an hour at Halton nearly forty years ago, it was a bit of a hit or a miss. I just picked colors and aimed at it.  That black round thing for example... I've no idea.  The harness latching thingy is on the seat base so it's not that. It got painted black just because.

 

 

I used cement (paint color, not mortar silly), and aged cement for the parachute straps.  The "shiny" buckle prings were painted in a light grey as I always think silver paint looks way too shiny at this scale, and the harness buckles were just drawn over with a pencil. The graphite has a nice sheen to it.  My shaky hands just were not up to the task of painting the black/yellow stripes on the release handle without pretending to be Johnny Kidd.   Yup, I know... the upper handle still has to be fitted, but I'll do that once the seat is installed in the aircraft otherwise we all know what will happen there don't we?

 

 

Since I was adding a little bit more weight at the back end with the aluminum exhaust I thought I should take every opportunity to add counterweight up front.

More nose ballast nurse!

 

 

One of the things I'm not too keen on with this kit is that it's very, very organized, and with a very regimented assembly sequence.  There's really not a lot of opportunity to jump ahead and do anything if you're waiting for something like glue to dry.  In a helicopter you could be all over the place and there's always something else that can be done.  Not so here.

Anyways, while the fuselage glue was drying I could play with the exhaust.  Mr Metal Primer was followed by Alclad titanium, then some pale burnt metal with a final sweep in exhaust manifold, all Alclad.  I was quite pleased with this as I thought it captured that smokey blackness quite well, not so my camera which just refuses to do anything near accurate.

 

 

This is about all you can see peering up that back end - just a suggestion of engine and no more.

 

 

Happy that everything fits now

 

 

The tail section was glued together.  Simple but very satisfying.

 

 

It turned out to be one of the better seams on the kit though it still needs some work.

 

 

I sprayed some primer to see how bad the seams were before I even started attacking them - just in case there was a good one somewhere that I didn't need to work on.

 

 

I needn't have worried as it turns out I had to Mr Dissolved Putty from front to rear and back up the other side. 

 

 

I'm now on the second round of puttying and more sanding to look forward to.   The upper fuselage will be fine with a bit of work, but there's a step all along the lower surface, and of course it's going to be HSS so will show off each and every flaw.

 

 

On 12/29/2021 at 3:32 AM, Max Headroom said:

Seeing the wheels reminded me that for whatever reason, Airfix didn’t put in the perforations on the nose wheel. Dentists’s drill sorted that.

 

Did you also notice that the wheel hubs are wider than the tires by quite a bit?  What about the oleo's?  They appear to be molded in the extended position - can anyone confirm?

 

On 12/28/2021 at 9:09 AM, Max Headroom said:

One obvious and very easy thing to do is open up the hole on the starboard side just aft of the wing root. Moulded as a circle, just open it out. No idea what it’s for (enginy thingy?) I then put a short length of tube blanked off at the other end and paint black.

 

A conundrum.

I think I can see it on this one taken at Kai Tak on a colorful day - the furthest forward dark patch adjacent to the spine?

 

 

but it doesn't appear to be present on this shot taken during servicing at HAECO

 

 

One more question - does anyone have dimensions of the 3 inch Rocket used on these aircraft?   

I came across this rather appealing shot of a Hunter about to blow Tsim Tsa Tsui into rice sized pieces.  He must have had a dodgy chow faan the night before

 

 

(just look at how much land is visible in that shot... )

 

It would be nice to add some rockets and do this particular airframe, but the kit has nothing in the way of 3 inch rocketry so if I can get dimensions I can print some 

 

 

 

[Max Headroom]

Blimey you seem to be having a torrid time putting this together. I definitely didn’t have any bother putting mine together. It seems to be one of those things I’ve read about in that one reviewer can have no problems, whilst another fights running battles throughout the construction. One of life’s mysteries.

 

Moving onto the hole, I have taken the liberty of blowing up one of your shots

 

 

and can only conclude that the strut(?) on front of the camera is hiding it?

 

Trevor

 

[hendie]

1 minute ago, Max Headroom said:

can only conclude that the strut(?) on front of the camera is hiding it?

 

If it's the hole I think you are thinking of, I think that's further forward of that strut. I think. 

[Martian]

Another unmissable Hendie build: following!

 

Martian 👽

 

[DonH]

6 hours ago, hendie said:

I'm not sure what slabs you're talking about... can you clarify?  I see one slab on top of the spine, but nothing at the wing roots - though it's probable I'm being a bit obtuse here

My dear old chap, no obtuseness observed at all. As per your request, here are pictures of the offending/offensive areas. In truth, the top wing is less pronounced than the underwing. However, they are raised panels and IMO should not be. 

 

[TheBaron]

11 hours ago, hendie said:

It would be nice to add some rockets and do this particular airframe, but the kit has nothing in the way of 3 inch rocketry so if I can get dimensions I can print some 

 

There's a photograph here on p.99 of the RAF Historical Journal in which they've helpfully  included a mug of tea as a datum point so that you can extrapolate RP  dimensions Alan:

 

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documents/Research/RAF-Historical-Society-Journals/Journal_45_Seminar_conventional_weapons.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwijuK3Eyo31AhWSilwKHeZjCkgQFnoECAMQAg&usg=AOvVaw30EWlPyqnq1sDc-MKkadm6

 

Now all you need are the dimensions of an RAF mug and you're good to go!

 

Unless the RP-3 used  on the Hunter changed dimension post WW2 then there are a set of dimensions up  yonder:

http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/OrdnancePamphlets/OP1665/Part03/Chapter02/Figure190.htm

 

 

 

 

[Max Headroom]

DM incoming.

 

Trevor

[Anthony in NZ]

22 hours ago, hendie said:

 

I bet there is a high chance my Auster T.7 WE552 (HKG-4) was sitting in that hangar

 

Anyway, on to the build, love all the details you are presenting.  Beautiful clean work and attention to detail...loving it!

 

Cheers Anthony 

[hendie]

On 12/30/2021 at 4:00 PM, hendie said:

 

If it's the hole I think you are thinking of, I think that's further forward of that strut. I think. 

 

and once the utter stupidity of my ways were pointed out to me, I now fully understand. Vent holes now drilled - thanks Trevor!

 

On 12/30/2021 at 4:13 PM, Martian said:

Another unmissable Hendie build: following!

 

Martian 👽

 

 

thanks Martian. Hopefully we won't keep you too long from interesting stuff

 

On 12/30/2021 at 9:48 PM, DonH said:

My dear old chap, no obtuseness observed at all. As per your request, here are pictures of the offending/offensive areas. In truth, the top wing is less pronounced than the underwing. However, they are raised panels and IMO should not be. 

 

<snip snip>

 

 

ah.... now I see.  

As best I can tell, that plate would be this one shown here on the Norwich Hunter - would that by any chance, be the airframe that Airfix had scanned?

I have no idea what that plate is for.  I don't see it on any other Hunter airframe of any mark. I can only assume this was some kind of repair.

That's a bit of a nuisance - that's an impossible task to remove from the kit without creating a real mess. I'm going to have to leave that one - annoying as it is now that I know about it.  Thanks for pointing it out though.

 

 

 

On 12/31/2021 at 3:32 AM, TheBaron said:

There's a photograph here on p.99 of the RAF Historical Journal in which they've helpfully  included a mug of tea as a datum point so that you can extrapolate RP  dimensions Alan:

 

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documents/Research/RAF-Historical-Society-Journals/Journal_45_Seminar_conventional_weapons.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwijuK3Eyo31AhWSilwKHeZjCkgQFnoECAMQAg&usg=AOvVaw30EWlPyqnq1sDc-MKkadm6

 

Now all you need are the dimensions of an RAF mug and you're good to go!

 

Unless the RP-3 used  on the Hunter changed dimension post WW2 then there are a set of dimensions up  yonder:

http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/OrdnancePamphlets/OP1665/Part03/Chapter02/Figure190.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone got the dimensions of a standard issue RAF MkII Mod State 1, Mug, Tea, For the drinking of?  

 

thanks Tony.

 

23 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

I bet there is a high chance my Auster T.7 WE552 (HKG-4) was sitting in that hangar

 

Anyway, on to the build, love all the details you are presenting.  Beautiful clean work and attention to detail...loving it!

 

Cheers Anthony 

 

Thanks Anthony.

 

Happy New Year to all.  I trust any self inflicted resolutions aren't too restrictive this year.  I just avoided making any.

Not much has been done over the last few days as I did have to put in some family time to avoid being put out in the cold. Mostly it's been never ending rounds of filling and sanding, more of which later.

A quick dry fit of the upper wing surface showed that I have another step to deal with in my very near future.

 

 

Therefore, in order to avoid that particular task I opened up the boundary layer vents on the upper and lower wing surfaces.  I haven't been able to find a shot that looks down into them which means I don't know if they have spring loaded flaps or whatever in there so this is complete guesswork, but I didn't like the way Airfix had just blanked off the vent and had to do something.  

 

 

This is after round two of the fill and sand routine and there's still a good bit of work to do.   That tail pipe to fuselage joint wasn't too bad, but I found that the base of the tail fin on the tail pipe section was narrower than the actual tail fin so it has to be built up to avoid yet another step.

I also ADDED A GREEBLIE!  I spotted a vent pipe on the underside in shots so drilled the requisite hole and pushed some brass tube into it.

 

 

The pencil mark on that panel on the tail fin is to remind me that there's a sight glass there. I'm still undecided whether to drill it out and fill with pretend glass, or just add a black dot decal (assuming I have one somewhere. Decisions decisions.

 

While waiting on Mr Dissolved Putty to set up it was a case of hunting over the Hunter for missing greebles of which there are very, very few.  I did find a few omissions in the way of vents though. One just above the sabrinas and another in front of the intakes.  On checking references I am convinced that for whatever reason, Airfix have got the position of the emergency rescue window location wrong. Airifx have it positioned behind the cockpit rear bulkhead, and every shot I can find shows that it appears to be almost in aligned with the angle of that bulkhead. MDP to the rescue again and I drilled half a hole a bit further forward.  The original plan was to dab some silver paint in there after the paint job is complete, then add some diluted PVA as the "glass" then to affix the transfer over that. Now I'm leaning towards filling the hole with some clear runner and polishing back.  The jury is out for recess.

 

 

After all that faffing about it was time to add the upper wing.  I deliberated for some time on whether to try and do something with the vents dotted around that upper surface but concluded that I would probably end up causing more damage than good so decided to leave them as is. Hopefully a pin wash or other weathering effect will make them look less toy like. I'm hoping that big-assed clamp at the trailing edge will minimize that step tween fuselage bit and fuselage other bit.  Maybe my new years resolution should be to not hold out hope?

 

 

Next easy job following the kit instruction was to add the wheel bay perimeter bulkheads.  

 

 

A dry fit of the wings was interesting. One wing slid in easily, while the other wing was really stubborn.  I had to chamfer the locating tabs on the starboard wing in order for it to fit. It eventually did, but not the greatest of fits it has to be said, particularly at the wing root trailing edge.  Brute force may be required there later.

 

I did have a go at fitting the horizontal stabilizers but found they were a very tight fit and one push too hard broke the joint between tail fin and fuselage, cracking the nice joint I was working on. Oh flip he said. 

 

 

More glue, more putty, more filling and more sanding.

Looking for something else to keep me occupied I spotted that the sabrinas could be fitted without holding up the build.  Another dry fit showed that some minor modification was required to the bulbous parts to allow them to slip into place.

 

 

That was easily taken care of with a rat tail file

 

 

The airbrake fairing was fitted, sort of.  I found there was a significant gap left on one side and had to trowel some more putty in there.  Note to future builders - be careful as it is possible to lose that fairing inside the fuselage at this point, and will be all but impossible to get back out again without splitting the fuselage.

 

 

I almost fitted the airbrake but came across some other issues.  One issue being the quality of the edges.

 

 

The larger issue being that the hinge points (the two sticky outy bits at the front) don't line up with the two location points on the fairing. Not by much - just enough to make it so that it won't fit.

Despite Airfix' best attempts to foil me we still ended up at this juncture with close of play today.

 

 

and now that I have noticed those armor plates on the wings I can't stop seeing them.  Arrghhhhh.

 

 

I hope yer lums are all reeking well this day, the first day of January 2022, and since this a HK related build - may your rice bowls always be full.

 

 

 

 

[TheBaron]

33 minutes ago, hendie said:

Not much has been done over the last few days as I did have to put in some family time to avoid being put out in the cold. Mostly it's been never ending rounds of filling and sanding,

Somebody got a home chiropody kit for Christmas by the sound of things....at least that's the family's feet sorted now though... 🦶

 

33 minutes ago, hendie said:

I also ADDED A GREEBLIE!

The cry of the huntsman! 😁

 

Now the brass is out there'll be no stopping you Alan. Pretty confident the undercarriage will need attention... 🛠️

 

Lovely update sir.

 

 

 

 

[Max Headroom]

Coming along nicely 👍

 

Trevor

[DonH]

Dearest Hendie, I am mortified to be the source of your angst regarding the raised plates on the wing. The plates are definitely there on the real thing, but not as raised as portrayed in the kit. They look almost flush to me. Perhaps a swipe or several with a sanding stick with the surrounding areas masked off? I think that is the approach I will take. 

 

Thanks for the warning about the speed brake fairing. When I get round to starting mine, I will send pictures of me trying to extract said article, so you can have a good laugh. Do you think there is any mileage in gluing the fairing into one half before joining the fuselage?

 

Your greeblies really add to the look of the model and I look forward to more bashing, filling, sanding, priming, painting, decaling and clear coating.

[sammy da fish]

Those plates gentlemen are strengthening patches to prolong the aircraft life to increase the fatigue life of airframes. The main reason that they do not look  as proud on the surface is that there will be a fillet of sealant around all of the edges called PRC. These would of been fitted sometime into the aircrafts life on a minor/major servicing. Trust me I do know about such things.

sammy

 

[Fritag]

 

Looks like I almost missed a hendie build in its entirety.  Swift work maestro...

 

On 1/1/2022 at 8:16 PM, hendie said:

it was a case of hunting over the Hunter for missing greebles of which there are very, very few

 

That'll be an application of the inverse greeblification rule (i.e. the quantity of greeblies being inversely proportionate to the beauty (and/or aerodynamics) of an aircraft) 

 

On 12/30/2021 at 8:38 PM, hendie said:

That black round thing for example... I've no idea.  The harness latching thingy is on the seat base so it's not that. It got painted black just because.

 

I'm no great historian of such things; but I have a residual interest in things MB and it might well be a second harness latchy thing.  I think it was only on the Mk 4 seat that MB introduced the simplified combined harness - so by the application of backwards projecting logic the Mk 2 and 3 seats fitted to the Hunter didn't have combined parachute and seat harnesses and so presumably needed two separate harness latchy things.

 

Either that or the seats are just badly moulded

 

Of course - what hendiefication has been done has been done beautifully - I'm thinking pipework various in particular but not exclusively.

 

[franky boy]

Nice work Hendie 

 

Im building this one at the moment and am at about the same stage as you. I’ve had pretty much exactly the same issues as you have. Nothing insurmountable just annoying. Nice to know it’s not just me. 
 

I keep looking at those plates on the wings to and debating weather to get rid of them or not. My subject is 19 squadron from 1958 and I’m thinking that maybe they weren’t added that early in the airframes life?

 

James 

[sammy da fish]

I doubt that the plates were added by then, but the fatigue may have been used up by then , which would require them in theory. I would at least trim down chamfer the edges to make them more acceptable.

sammy

[hendie]

On 1/1/2022 at 3:48 PM, TheBaron said:

Somebody got a home chiropody kit for Christmas by the sound of things....at least that's the family's feet sorted now though... 🦶

 

The cry of the huntsman! 😁

 

Now the brass is out there'll be no stopping you Alan. Pretty confident the undercarriage will need attention... 🛠️

 

Lovely update sir.

 

 

 

 

 

Undercarriage?   I just ordered some resin undercarriage doors, and am starting to think I might prefer modding the Airfix blandness instead.  Still time to figure that one out.  As to the undercarriage legs themselves - the kit parts are a bit bleh but nice as this kit is (in some aspects), it's just not getting my juices flowing so I'm not sure how far I'll go on the legs. Time will tell.

 

On 1/1/2022 at 6:42 PM, Max Headroom said:

Coming along nicely 👍

 

Trevor

 

thanks Trevor

 

On 1/1/2022 at 9:14 PM, DonH said:

Dearest Hendie, I am mortified to be the source of your angst regarding the raised plates on the wing. The plates are definitely there on the real thing, but not as raised as portrayed in the kit. They look almost flush to me. Perhaps a swipe or several with a sanding stick with the surrounding areas masked off? I think that is the approach I will take. 

 

Thanks for the warning about the speed brake fairing. When I get round to starting mine, I will send pictures of me trying to extract said article, so you can have a good laugh. Do you think there is any mileage in gluing the fairing into one half before joining the fuselage?

 

Your greeblies really add to the look of the model and I look forward to more bashing, filling, sanding, priming, painting, decaling and clear coating.

 

you should be able to glue a spare piece of runner inside each fuselage half which should prevent any embarrassing follow through with your airbrake Don.

Yup, Airfix have definitely made the plates 'armored' instead of being a reinforcing plate.  What's even more annoying is that they have molded this plate on both the port and starboard wing undersides, but only on the starboard topside.  

I'm very wary of attacking the surface as my clumsy brutish attack would no doubt eliminate much of the surrounding detail.

 

On 1/2/2022 at 5:23 AM, sammy da fish said:

Those plates gentlemen are strengthening patches to prolong the aircraft life to increase the fatigue life of airframes. The main reason that they do not look  as proud on the surface is that there will be a fillet of sealant around all of the edges called PRC. These would of been fitted sometime into the aircrafts life on a minor/major servicing. Trust me I do know about such things.

sammy

 

 

as do many of us on this forum Sammy.  I can still tell you the flavors of each type of PRC having spent 3 years on 3rd line and another 3 years on second line.  I think the question was more around why Airfix decided to mold the part so intrusively, or why they even bothered to mold it on the airframe at all when many of the aircraft being depicted from this kit would never have had these plates fitted.

 

7 hours ago, Fritag said:

 

Looks like I almost missed a hendie build in its entirety.  Swift work maestro...

 

 

That'll be an application of the inverse greeblification rule (i.e. the quantity of greeblies being inversely proportionate to the beauty (and/or aerodynamics) of an aircraft) 

 

 

I'm no great historian of such things; but I have a residual interest in things MB and it might well be a second harness latchy thing.  I think it was only on the Mk 4 seat that MB introduced the simplified combined harness - so by the application of backwards projecting logic the Mk 2 and 3 seats fitted to the Hunter didn't have combined parachute and seat harnesses and so presumably needed two separate harness latchy things.

 

Either that or the seats are just badly moulded

 

Of course - what hendiefication has been done has been done beautifully - I'm thinking pipework various in particular but not exclusively.

 

 

aha... thanks for the insight on the ejection seats Steve - that has given me a degree of comfort.

I prefer the obverse greeblification rule - where the Satisfaction Gained ∝ (Qty of Greebles x n-1)² , where n = (quantity of greebles * scale)

 

3 hours ago, franky boy said:

Nice work Hendie 

 

Im building this one at the moment and am at about the same stage as you. I’ve had pretty much exactly the same issues as you have. Nothing insurmountable just annoying. Nice to know it’s not just me. 
 

I keep looking at those plates on the wings to and debating weather to get rid of them or not. My subject is 19 squadron from 1958 and I’m thinking that maybe they weren’t added that early in the airframes life?

 

James 

 

hi James, I think I agree with you in that it's unlikely Hunters had those plates fitted in the late 50's or early 60's.

 

Today didn't start well for me.  I was on vacation through most of December so I knew there was an email avalanche waiting for me when I fired up the laptop this morning.  I spent a couple of hours trawling through the mindless updates on Xmas office decoration winners and deleting all that nonsense along with all the meeting invites I didn't respond to as I forgot to set up my out of office response. Only after those few hours had passed and I texted one of my buddies did I realize that our company is still on vacation today  

Note to self: sleep in tomorrow!)

 

Not much in the way of progress has been happening of late. It's more of the fill, sand and repeat malarkey.

In an effort to keep Giorgio happy I thought I should at least look towards getting some primer on this airframe so opened up the clear parts bag to grab the wingtip lamps, only to find a nice molding flaw on the port side forward canopy part.

 

 

Oh well, I can always go canopy closed on this one... then discovered a scratch on the closed canopy molding.  Yes, it's a tiny, tiny scratch, but I CAN SEE IT, and there's just no need for it to be there.  I'm not sure whether to try the floor polish and see if it disappears, or whether to just bite the bullet and micromesh... sigh.

 

 

Back in the bag they go and I'll avoid thinking about them for a few days.

Wingtip lights.  That's what I went on there for.  

The fit on the underside wasn't stellar to say the least, but 

 

 

the fit on the topside matched expectations. Several applications of Mr Dissolved Putty were required to make it try and look something approaching part of the wing. There are certainly lots of minor annoyances on this build.  On the up side - I have got my Mr Dissolved Putty application method fine tuned now. 

 

 

Airfix only provide an airbrake actuator if you deploy the airbrake in the open position so left to my own devices, I made a pretend one from styrene rod - remembering to angle it towards the door structure

 

 

which was really pretty pointless as you can hardly see anything there once the airbrake is fitted - but I'm counting it as a greeble and we have to take our small victories as we find them. 

 

 

Browsing on BM prior to Xmas I came across the very enlightening and interesting discussion on the Hunter pylon shape and the kit oopsie where the pylon height is incorrect.

 

 

The fix appeared easy - since the kit supplies extras, just cut and shut to make a pylon of the correct height.   Fairy snuff I thought, but looking at the kit pylon, I was less than impressed with the level of detail, and even correcting the height still left a few inconsistencies with the 1:1.

 

Nothing for it then but to threedee my own.  My biggest concern with threedeeing my own was matching up the curvature of the pylon to the curvature of the wing so I did a quick test print and lo and behold... it was spot on. Lucky or what?  It was even better than the kit part in that respect. 

You'll just have to take my word for it as my camera steadfastly refused to focus on the pylon, much preferring the hugely interesting plain flat surface of the undercarriage bay.

 

 

Anyhoos, buoyed by the huge stroke of luck on the curvature thing I  jumped back to threedee land and finished off detailing the pylon.  This time I printed off two versions - one with the flange on the bottom edge of the pylon, and one without the flange (as I still haven't decided if I'm going to modify the underwing tanks)

Then despite pointing tweezers at the pylon to give the camera something to focus on, it still refused to play nicely. 

 

 

So you can make do with a digital representation instead.  I've added a flange on the upper and lower surfaces - Airfix omitted both these flanges on their offering.

 

 

This was about the best shot I could muster and it's still not great.  There's something about the grey of that resin that the camera doesn't like.  Although it's difficult to see, all the detail has come out okay so as long as I'm not too heavy handed at the paint stage they should look fine.

Bottom flange on right, and flangeless bottom on left.

 

 

After scouring many photos of Hunters various, it seems that flaps and airbrakes were kept in the closed position when on the ground.   As visually unenticing as that may be, that's the way I am going to model the airframe, plus I don't fancy spending nearly as much as I spent on the kit just for some PE bits that will most likely render me a gibbering wreck and not want to play with superglue anyway.  I guess I could have printed them but...

 

Instead I just modeled the flaps closed though I did remember to add (aka scribe) the cutout for the underwing tank, along with more filling and sanding.  I did have to completely remove the small location feature that was molded on the upper wing before I could get the small triangularish piece to fit flush.

 

 

I'm not sure if that bit of scribing actually counts as greebling or not.

I fear the most Sagacious Council of Greeble Elders would be terribly unhappy with me if I attempted to claim that as greeble. I might even get banned from the honorable art of greebling in future as punishment 

 

 

 

 

 

[Anthony in NZ]

14 minutes ago, hendie said:

I might even get banned from the honorable art of greebling in future as punishment 

You're on thin ice....but safe for now 

 

Love how you just 'whip up' a few pylons!  Sheesh I need to get into this new era.  I was just looking at my 32nd Brit Phantom pylons thinking I have a fair bit of rescribing and panel adjustments to do....and you just whip up new ones...amazing!

 

Those drains/breathers and dumps really make a big difference dont they

 

Cheers Anthony 

[TheBaron]

Ace call on getting that curvature down pat first go - talk about a professional eye! 👏

 

I know what you mean about cameras and resin, even more comical when it's covered in black primer aka: 'photographing the void'.... manual focus the only way to go in such circs. Are you shooting with a smartphone or camera Alan?

[Andwil]

1 hour ago, hendie said:

Bottom flange on right, and flangeless bottom on left.

Someone has to say it - Fnaaar!

 

AW

[heloman1]

Back row seat for me Alan, only just come to the lesson. I too know little or next to nothing about Hunters. Ye we in the FAA had a few, some attached to FRADU plus some to FONAC and FONFT in both single and two seat versions.

I'll tag along if only to see haw far you get before.... Oh, you've already got something off the lathe!

 

Colin

 

PS. Large sheet of paper required for the Wessex additions/alterations. I'll offer support.

[mark.au]

11 hours ago, hendie said:

Yes, it's a tiny, tiny scratch, but I CAN SEE IT, and there's just no need for it to be there.

I can see it too so you have to fix it.

 

11 hours ago, hendie said:

but I'm counting it as a greeble and we have to take our small victories as we find them.

…you’re better than this… 😂

 

Otherwise, you’re going well and the Hunter also. 😉

[perdu]

10 hours ago, Andwil said:

Someone has to say it - Fnaaar!

 

AW

Are you sure?

 

I mean really sure?

 

You probably don't know but we are trying to get Ced firing on more than one cylinder but a misplaced fnaaar might just put him back weeks.

 

Still that was a few hours ago, we might still be OK and let's face it..

 

When you're right you are.

 

👍

 

Alan, hat tipped permanently on one eye for the doppelganger pylons, sublime Dee-ery.

 

I am expecting new revised wing roots to emerge from your Elegoo, moins stiffener plates and which may become future part of the Hendiebash™ Hunter set.