Mike N's Nimrod AEW3 - the ugly variant! *FINISHED*

[Mike N]

Hello folks, for this GB I will be attempting two submissions, the primary one being the 1/72 Airfix Nimrod converted to AEW3 standard using the Cammett set.

 

Begun in the 1970's, the Nimrod AEW3 (Airborne Early Warning) programme has gone down in history as one of the worst examples of British defence procurement (and that's saying something!), with around £1b in 1980's money being spent with little to show for it at the end. The AEW requirement was initially met by converting the venerable Shackleton, while the Nimrod AEW development suffered technical problems, changing requirements, and appalling management. With the plug finally pulled, the RAF adopted the E-3D Sentry, being brought into service in 1991.

 

The base kit:

 

The Cammett set, purchased direct from the manufacturer when it first came out.

 

 

I will also be using the Model Alliance decals that covered the AEW airframes - I'll be doing the Light Aircraft Grey and White scheme:

 

 

For references I have 'The Nimrod - Mighty Hunter' by Andy Evans and Modern Combat Aircraft #24 on the Nimrod by John Chartres. Both have some decent photos and details on the AEW variant.

 

 

I'm looking forward to getting this beast underway and finally adding it to my shelf!

 

Mike 

Edited May 28, 2022 by Mike N

[Adam Poultney]

Love a Nimrod, love a conversion. Great choice. No photos showing though, Village Photos doesn't work anymore

 

[PeterB]

1 hour ago, Adam Poultney said:

Love a Nimrod, love a conversion. Great choice. No photos showing though, Village Photos doesn't work anymore

 

Hi Adam,

 

There has been some discussion on this in other GB and I find it does work, but that you need to take a couple of extra steps, namely clicking on the link then on the small icon on the black screen. However, I seem to remember somebody saying that it does not like certain software such as Google Chrome. Sure enough I have to take the above two steps to get to the pic in Chrome, but the pics are already open when I access the GB via Firefox!

 

My brother in law lives in Nantwich, Cheshire, and when he came down to visit one time when the AEW was on test, he showed me a pic he had taken of a plane flying overhead - just a silhouette against the sky be no mistaking the wing and the bulges at the nose and tail. Whether it would have been as good as the Sentry we will never know, and in the end it was a colossal waste of effort and money. Nothing much wrong with the airframe, just problems with the radar and the usual British political muddle I suppose. Shades of TSR-2!

 

I will be interested to see how this comes along.

 

Pete

[Mike N]

13 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

Love a Nimrod, love a conversion. Great choice. No photos showing though, Village Photos doesn't work anymore

 

Cheers Adam, just hoping I do it justice!

 

 

11 hours ago, PeterB said:

There has been some discussion on this in other GB and I find it does work, but that you need to take a couple of extra steps, namely clicking on the link then on the small icon on the black screen. However, I seem to remember somebody saying that it does not like certain software such as Google Chrome. Sure enough I have to take the above two steps to get to the pic in Chrome, but the pics are already open when I access the GB via Firefox!

I might try to find an alternative to Village Photos as not only do they not show up without some messing about, it is not all that friendly to use on my phone, with which I'm taking the photos. Happy to hear recommendations!

 

Mike  

[Marklo]

Village photos SSL certificate has expired and not been renewed. Personally I've switched to postimage. 

[Mike N]

In advance of starting the build, here's a look at what I'm dealing with.

 

First, the base Airfix kit. Released in 2008, I advance-ordered a couple from Hannants while I was living abroad, my fear being another TSR2-esque shortage and unavailability once I returned. How wrong I was! Within a short time they were virtually being given away, and I ended up getting another as it was almost rude not to! However, moving house made me reassess what I'll actually get built in one lifetime, so I sold one for the 2016 going rate of £20. Lately, and with no sign of a re-release, scarcity has started to drive internet auction prices north of £40.

 

Anyway, on to the kit itself. Two of the reasons I disposed of that kit back in 2016: the box is huge, and the same for the finished model! Here's what is presented upon opening the second(?!) lid to the box - that instruction booklet is A4 for scale:

 

 

The fuselage has foam padding wrapped around to protect the wing root trailing edge fillet - or maybe that should be to protect the modeller? It's not something I recall seeing on other Airfix kits, so well done to them here.

 

 

The same sprue holds the roof of the weapons bay, with precisely zero detail moulded in. Maybe it's not too much of an issue with a bay full of weapons (plenty are supplied), but obviously this isn't a concern for my AEW build.

 

 

The fuselage interior is similarly bare. There is a basic cockpit and that's it, with no moulded detail.

 

 

Here are the 'seats':

 

 

...although three decent figures are provided to hide them:

 

 

Back to the structure, a single part has both lower wings joined by the rather flimsy looking lower fuselage with bay opening. The upper wing halves, like everything else on the exterior, looks nice.

 

 

 

There are a decent selection of weapons included (including Sidewinder missiles under more foam protection), and the main undercarriage legs look acceptable.

 

 

 

Time for some extras...

 

[Mike N]

And now for the exciting bits!

 

The Cammett AEW3 conversion came in a compact and sturdy cardboard box that I can no longer fit the parts fully back inside of! The set consists of the two large radomes plus new tail surfaces to suit the re-profiled back end, all nicely rendered in resin.

 

 

Here are those radomes on the A4 kit instructions for scale. The rear one is commendably hollow to minimise what will still need to be a substantial nose weight. The forward part is solid.

 

 

I also picked up an Alleycat windscreen set, which includes paint masks and etched wipers.

 

 

The new part has different window shapes to the kit part, and is hard to photograph as the recesses are very shallow in comparison with the Airfix plastic shown further down:

 

 

 

I also have a metal nose gear leg I got off eBay several years ago (manufacturer unknown) which will help with the weight of this beast. Somewhere I have the white metal main gear legs and wheels left over from my Welsh Models Comet, which I 'put in a safe place' in anticipation of this build. Answers on a postcard please. Finally, I have a set of Eduard FOD guards that will reduce the amount of blending required in the intakes and exhausts. For decoration, I have the Model Alliance decals covering the AEW as shown in my original post, not that there's much in the way of unique markings.

 

Roll on Saturday!

 

Mike

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Mike N

[PeterB]

Hi Mike,

 

The lack of interior detail is a bit of a surprise but I suppose all the extra plastic would perhaps push the cost up above what Airfix thought saleable, and as it would not be visible they did not bother, unlike on some of their most recent kits and those from other manufacturers - eg Italeri Sunderland I think, speaking of which I remember a build article on the latter kit where somebody was complaining he had been obliged to add the galley as it was not included. All a matter of personal taste I guess - perhaps he was building a cut-away model!

 

Pete

Edited March 1, 2022 by PeterB

[Adam Poultney]

We did see the Valiant return this year so I'm going to hold out hope for a Nimrod reappearance, although a new one up to the standards seen with the likes of the Victor would be very nice... Or even better could someone do this in 1/144 plastic please

[stever219]

@Mike N the flight deck detail really is underwhelming.  On my first Nimrod I built three new seats, avionics rack and engineer’s panel, of which almost precisely nothing can be seen once the transparency is installed.  The flight deck floor also sits too low; mine got raised by installing a new floor which sits on top of the upper locating rib.

 

The kit main undercarriage legs turned out to be better than a proprietary white metal replacement set but the (presently out of production?) Alley Cat windscreen set is well worth its weight in the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[Mike N]

23 hours ago, PeterB said:

Hi Mike,

 

The lack of interior detail is a bit of a surprise but I suppose all the extra plastic would perhaps push the cost up above what Airfix thought saleable, and as it would not be visible they did not bother, unlike on some of their most recent kits and those from other manufacturers - eg Italeri Sunderland I think, speaking of which I remember a build article on the latter kit where somebody was complaining he had been obliged to add the galley as it was not included. All a matter of personal taste I guess - perhaps he was building a cut-away model!

 

Pete

I honestly don't mind missing detail where it can't be seen, and I suspect the cabin of the Nimrod is one of those areas. I have even less to worry about as I think a lot of the windows are not applicable. Like you say, it must keep the cost down.

 

22 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

We did see the Valiant return this year so I'm going to hold out hope for a Nimrod reappearance, although a new one up to the standards seen with the likes of the Victor would be very nice... Or even better could someone do this in 1/144 plastic please

I reckon Airfix will bring it back at some point, maybe as one of their Vintage Classics??

 

In 1/144, there's always the Anigrand resin options... 🤑

 

20 hours ago, stever219 said:

@Mike N the flight deck detail really is underwhelming.  On my first Nimrod I built three new seats, avionics rack and engineer’s panel, of which almost precisely nothing can be seen once the transparency is installed.  The flight deck floor also sits too low; mine got raised by installing a new floor which sits on top of the upper locating rib.

 

The kit main undercarriage legs turned out to be better than a proprietary white metal replacement set but the (presently out of production?) Alley Cat windscreen set is well worth its weight in the greatest thing since sliced bread.

@stever219, at least you have the warm feeling of knowing all that added detail is in there   But seriously, thank you for confirming my suspicions that the cockpit is not very visible once finished. I reckon a little bit of titivation of the seats will be as far as I go in that area.

 

Mike

[Hewy]

The prospect of a superb model mike ,and a great scheme choice, I'm  looking forward to this

[arfa1983]

I'm gonna speak my mind here. What a wonderful way to make a very beautiful aircraft extremely ugly! 😅

 

I will of course watch with interest but I will shed a tear 😢 when that frontal nob gets attached!

[Mike N]

8 hours ago, arfa1983 said:

I'm gonna speak my mind here. What a wonderful way to make a very beautiful aircraft extremely ugly! 😅

 

I will of course watch with interest but I will shed a tear 😢 when that frontal nob gets attached!

🤣

 

I totally agree! It certainly wouldn't win any beauty contests, Once complete I'll be posing it next to my Comet prototype, just to show far the design went - arguably too far...

 

Mike 

[Colin W]

Great idea and good luck with the project. I remember going to the RAF Abingdon airshow in 1990 when all the AEW airframes were parked on the far side of the airfield waiting their destiny. Eventually this was to be canibalised for parts and then scrapped. Obvious to see hy none were preserved for museums!

Dont worry about the basic kit as it goes together very well.

[Mike N]

On 3/5/2022 at 6:55 PM, Colin W said:

Great idea and good luck with the project. I remember going to the RAF Abingdon airshow in 1990 when all the AEW airframes were parked on the far side of the airfield waiting their destiny. Eventually this was to be canibalised for parts and then scrapped. Obvious to see hy none were preserved for museums!

Dont worry about the basic kit as it goes together very well.

Cheers Colin. This is my first Nimrod, so it's nice to know the Airfix side of things should pose no problems!

 

Mike

[Mike N]

OK, we're off!

 

I naturally started with the cockpit, but since that is still in work, I'll leave details of that to another time and instead illustrate the fuselage conversion for the AEW parts.

 

Warning: the following images contain brutal dismembering of a perfectly good kit to create something ugly. @arfa1983, best look away now

 

The rear end of the fuselage requires a straight cut along a panel line. I heeded the advice in the Cammett instructions and cut a little further aft to allow me to shave off slivers to get the best fit.

 

 

In the event, I ended up trimming back to the panel line exactly, as the Cammett part was a perfect fit. Is it just me or does the rear radome resemble a spider's abdomen? You can also see just how much larger it is compared to the standard tail.

 

 

Time for some extreme rhinoplasty:

 

 

Here, a series of 3 cuts are required to form a dog leg joint, which inevitably led to some gaps being evident when test-fitted, but again the resin parts were a great match for the contours of the Airfix fuselage. Here it is after cutting, with the kit nose looking rather tiny in comparison.

 

 

I'm committed to this conversion now...

 

While I was wielding the razor saw, I detached the casting blocks from the tail feathers to save me dealing with resin residue more than once. There was minimal clean up otherwise and the parts look very good.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Mike

[CliffB]

Well done with the surgery Mike.  It's not that easy to get cuts straight and true 

[Adam Poultney]

That's a lot of plastic butchery! Just the way all the best builds start

Now you've got me wanting to do the same crazy conversion already....

[Mike N]

11 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

That's a lot of plastic butchery! Just the way all the best builds start

Now you've got me wanting to do the same crazy conversion already....

 

15 hours ago, CliffB said:

Well done with the surgery Mike.  It's not that easy to get cuts straight and true 

Thanks guys! I was a little nervous of stuffing it up but the clarity of the Cammett instructions and quality of the resin makes it pretty straight forward in reality.

 

I think the most drastic work is done now, but still got to get everything stuck together yet!

 

Mike 

[Mike N]

The cockpit is about done now. The kit's cockpit is, erm, rudimentary. However, as @stever219 mentions above, very little will actually be visible in the end. Here's the step in the instructions for the sum total of cockpit parts, quite reminiscent of kits 20 years earlier:

 

 

I decided to limit my improvement activities to the seats, which are almost laughably simple. I re-profiled the front edges of the base and back, added armrests, and finished with some masking tape belts. Yes, I know some of the arms are shorter! Reference photos suggest that the outboard ones are like that. OK, they're certainly not going to win any awards for super-detailing, but better than how they started.

 

 

There are a couple of decals for the instrument panel, although even viewed from the back at sub-assembly stage the main one is invisible behind the coaming and yokes. The floor of Nimrods appear to have had a fetching claret coloured carpet...

 

 

The final change I made in this area was to adjust the set spacing. This is how the locating holes position them, and even given the extra width I've added with the armrests they are jammed together:

 

 

Reference photos show a generous amount of social distancing before that was even a phrase, so I moved them apart a bit while avoiding a clash with the side walls.

 

 

Still not perfect but better. In retrospect, I think the seats themselves are too wide. Never mind.

 

To finish off the forward internals, the nose undercarriage bay was assembled. The instructions have you do it like this, as a stand-alone sub-assembly:

 

 

This is nearly impossible in reality, as there are no aids on these parts to keep the walls square to each other. Add in that you have to sandwich the two parts for the leg and it's a recipe for frustration. I found it far easier to mount one side and the front and rear walls to the cockpit underside, let them cure, and then add the leg parts and remaining wall:

 

 

 

I substituted a metal leg, knowing the huge amount of weight it will be supporting, and allowed them to be tucked away until last minute to avoid damage.

 

I should hopefully get chance to do a lot more this weekend

 

Mike 

[Mike N]

The fuselage halves are about ready to go together now. The first task was to install the windows. Although most of them are painted over for the AEW variant, photos show their outlines are visible where they have been blanked off, so I installed the kit windows rather than just put a backing piece on and fill them from the outside. They were a really nice, tight fit in the apertures, which is reassuring that they won't pop in too easily during later handling. Unfortunately, they are a little tall such that they protrude if pushed fully home, so, given the fit, I pushed them back to be flush. The ones to be painted over were secured with superglue, the others with Clearfix.

 

 

A couple of other things to note from the above photo. I've masked the appropriate windows, reaching first for the masks provided with the Alleycat canopy set. These are disappointing. The oval masks are small in the minor diameter, so I decided to apply two to each window to try to solve this. I'm not entirely happy so may replace these later on. The set also, strangely, doesn't include masks for the bubble window (I masked using tape), or the door portholes (I found some discs on a set from the stash). The latter omission is weird as although the doors are separate, how many people would leave them off until after painting is complete?

 

The other pointer is not to do as I did and try to razor saw the bubble windows flush while installed in the fuselage - I ended up with scars that needed filling 

 

Next was to test fit the Alleycat replacement canopy. Their instructions state a spacer is need between the fuselage halves (which just suggests they got the canopy size wrong!), but a test fit suggested no issues. On its casting block, the canopy is rigid, but once separated it is like a vacform - which I hate dealing with! To try to support it, I added a lip around the fuselage roof, which was then trimmed back and painted to avoid being seen through the rearmost windows,

 

 

The last thing to sort was the thorny issue of the nose weight. The Airfix instructions suggest 20g for the regular variants: Cammett suggests 75g! It also says to put this ahead of the nose wheel bay, which was not possible with the materials I had. Here's a 25g weight in the nose, which is snug to the bay wall when offered up.

 

 

I didn't fancy trying to remove the casting stub, even then I might only get one more 25g weight in there.

 

I tackled it in two ways. First, I will add a load of these around it at installation:

 

 

I got these from the shop where I went clay pigeon shooting. They are useful for small spaces without being as expensive as Liquid Gravity.

 

The other thing I did was seal off the space behind the cockpit, and add in another 50g of weights there.

 

 

As a contingency to still not having enough weight up front, I drilled a hole in the forward bulkhead of the weapons bay to allow me to pour in some more BBs, leaving the doors off until the end of major assembly.

 

Here's how it is before I go ahead and close up the fuselage. Note how comically small the flightdeck door is! I only realised when it was too late to fix.

 

 

Cheers for looking.

 

Mike 

[PeterB]

Coming along nicely Mike.

 

I had a similar problem with the seats on my ancient Frog Shackleton. By the time I had added arms they were seriously overlapping the access doorway. I sometimes wonder it kit manufacturers don't actually measure seats - when preserved examples are available of course.

 

Pete

[Planebuilder62]

Hi Mike I added a 1 1/2’’ socket behind the cockpit to make mine stand on its nose wheel. Best to check the balance with the tail plane on before sealing up the fuselage.

regards Toby

[Mike N]

59 minutes ago, Planebuilder62 said:

Hi Mike I added a 1 1/2’’ socket behind the cockpit to make mine stand on its nose wheel. Best to check the balance with the tail plane on before sealing up the fuselage.

regards Toby

Ah...

 

I will see how I get on with what I've got...!

 

Mike