Courageous Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 I think some kind of madness has come over me . With the F6C stopping and starting between bouts of epoxy gluing and the Spitfire skipping along, I thought I'd get this one on the starting blocks. Here is the next build of 'Mr Awesome', a highly modified Yak 11 unlimited racer with a T-33 tail produced by High Planes in 1/72. Never built a High Planes kit and haven't even opened the box to see what its like 'till now... The box, no pretty picture here. The erm...parts...I think, in a pretty light blue plastic. Instructions...I have had worse. A vac canopy, metal undercarriage parts and a decal sheet that doesn't look too bad. Stuart 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 Awesome Your work on the F6C will serve you well for metal undercarriage parts 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted October 26, 2022 Share Posted October 26, 2022 Ooooh a nice choice with this Racer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted October 27, 2022 Author Share Posted October 27, 2022 A gentle start... Parts removed from sprue, cleaned up and washed in soapy water. I am pretty sure that more work will be needed when I start building the thing. Stuart 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry1954 Posted October 29, 2022 Share Posted October 29, 2022 What, another one! I can't keep up!! On 10/27/2022 at 3:26 PM, Courageous said: I am pretty sure that more work will be needed when I start building the thing. Understatement I reckon 🤔 Terry 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted October 31, 2022 Author Share Posted October 31, 2022 The Spit has had another bit gloop added to sort the seems out. The F6C has had a primer coat applied, so 'Awesome' can get a little attention. After working out exactly where the cockpit sits, the I/P and rear wall were reworked to fit. Once happy, I decided to add a little detail, nothing much, just some tube framing and side panels. Seat has been cleaned up and needs some belts, scratch a control stick, do all this and you'll see diddly-squat through the cockpit hole...keeps me on the ball. I'd like to try and open the canopy but it looks a little tricky. Stuart 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 2, 2022 Author Share Posted November 2, 2022 With the tub built as above, I tried fitting the fuselage halves together and you guessed it, they wouldn't. The I/P, floor and rear wall were all filed and eventually the halves joined. With this done, the rest of the tub tubing and panels were fitted. Fitted some 'tape' belts to the seat. Fuselage innards, cockpit tub and seat all got a couple of coats of Humbrol light grey. The I/P had a gloss coat before loads of generic dials were added and later sealed before fitting into the fuselage. Stuart 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 More work... Wing halves joined together eventually. The wheel wells were too think/deep and prevented them from meeting. In the end after much filing, there was no plastic left, so I skimmed the inside of the upper wing with plasticard and filled any gaps with PPP. Fuselage halves were also joined with no real hassle. Although the outer nose is nice and round, not so the inner, a bit of work is required there. The gaping hole is 15mm across and flags another problem. The kit propeller backplate is checked against the hole diameter and its undersize by a bit. See here. I reckon that I need to make a new propeller backplate/spinner... Stuart 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 You seem to be whipping her in to shape in your usual diligent fashion, Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 29 minutes ago, RidgeRunner said: whipping her in to shape Whipping is the operative word... Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 15, 2022 Author Share Posted November 15, 2022 With social life and SMW out of the way, it's back to Awesome... Wings go on. Wing roots need sorting but nothing to worry about though. A new backplate was made out of plasticard and a metal shank fitted. The kit spinner was glued to the backplate to keep the length correct and plasticard fillets were glued to the kit spinner to take up space and keep some sort of profile before lathering on some filler. When sanding was required, the drill was clamped to the bench and fired-up... If this spinner is a fail, then I'll have to produce a 3D image and get a club member to print it, we'll see. Stuart 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ngantek Posted November 16, 2022 Share Posted November 16, 2022 Nice progress! Good luck with the DIY lathe I hope it works out (I'm feeling a sudden urge to try that idea on something random just because). On 03/11/2022 at 10:49, Courageous said: Although the outer nose is nice and round, not so the inner, a bit of work is required there. The gaping hole is 15mm across and flags another problem. I can't imagine many people using the word 'nice' when they're faced with this kind of thing! I guess it's a walk in the park compared with some of your other builds. Not sure if you'll remember, I popped by your stand at Telford on Saturday and had a chat about, particularly the Me209 and Napier Heston, which were immediately recognisable from BM. They look astonishingly good in person, along with the other recent stuff from this GB, which I seem to have mostly missed until now! It was really great display in general. I hope you managed to find some time away from the stand to enjoy the rest of the show! cheers, Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 16, 2022 Author Share Posted November 16, 2022 2 hours ago, Ngantek said: Not sure if you'll remember, Yes, I remember the conversation about the Heston & the 209 but unfortunately the faces become blurred after many faces. Thanks for your kind words about the models and the stand, glad we're doing something right. Yes, I managed to get round SMW, mainly on the Sunday though. As for 'Mr Awesome', it's got character and I'm having to work at it but not as much as that all-metal F6C. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted November 18, 2022 Share Posted November 18, 2022 She really is starting to look great, Stuart. Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 23, 2022 Author Share Posted November 23, 2022 Sorry for neglecting this thread, have been busy with other stuff like wargaming figures/afv's/helicopters, a club group build and generally not firing on all cylinders after my COVID booster. Anyway's... Tail feathers added, just needs a little PPP to fair things in...looking very much a T-33 tail. The kit comes with two exhaust stubs and tell you to make a third which I duly done and fitted. Why make only two . Wing/fuselage joins made good with gloop/filler, then it was time to think about the canopy. The canopy is vacform and there was a temptation to cut off the sliding canopy and pose it open but with only the one, I decided against it and it will stay closed, the glazing is nice and clear anyway. The access doors on the real thing are attached to the sliding canopy, so they slide back with the canopy and are moulded with the canopy and there are separate parts too. The fuselage has recesses for these 'doors' which you can be cut out if you want to pose them open or fill them with with the canopy or parts...talk about complicated. Either way, the recesses need to be deepened and once that's done I'll try both options to see what's the best. I'm still faffing about with the remodelled spinner and getting it to look nice and in between things a drew-up a spinner in F360 and passed it to a club member to 3D print. I'll see which is the best out of the two and go with that. Stuart 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, Courageous said: The kit comes with two exhaust stubs and tell you to make a third which I duly done and fitted. Why make only two . My guess would be the made the kit and then someone found a photo showing the third exhaust. Instead of delaying the production/release they just added the note of making the 3rd yourself. Should look great with some paint on as its taking a nice shape. Edited November 23, 2022 by Corsairfoxfouruncle 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry1954 Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 5 hours ago, Courageous said: and generally not firing on all cylinders after my COVID booster. Snap! My last booster was a while back (well, I am considerably older than thou) and it wiped me out for a couple of days, felt worse in those two days than I felt back in April when I had COVID itself for a couple of weeks!. Still better than getting the real thing, sans protection, from everything I hear from those still alive to tell the tale! Some of these racers look so unconventional, but very interesting aircraft nonetheless. Keep at it, you'll soon be there! T. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 23, 2022 Author Share Posted November 23, 2022 20 minutes ago, Terry1954 said: Some of these racers look so unconventional, but very interesting aircraft nonetheless. And I've recently added... these from Germany . Stuart 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry1954 Posted November 23, 2022 Share Posted November 23, 2022 21 minutes ago, Courageous said: And I've recently added... There's no cure for you us, really is there! 🥳 T. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted November 27, 2022 Share Posted November 27, 2022 On 11/23/2022 at 8:40 PM, Courageous said: And I've recently added... these from Germany . Stuart You're going to be busy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 27, 2022 Author Share Posted November 27, 2022 5 hours ago, Col. said: You're going to be busy To busy, must learn to stop buying. Stuart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted December 1, 2022 Author Share Posted December 1, 2022 It's that time of the year where are to many things getting the attention and the mojo drops but things have been done. I had confused myself with what I thought were cockpit doors, they were in fact undercarriage doors. Anyway, as time allowed, the vacform canopy was cut to shape, the door recesses on the fuselage were deepened and eventually I got to the point where the risk of damage was getting to high and stopped. The glazing was secured with CA, no fogging. In front of the windscreen was an odd recess that I can't see on any pics, so the was masked and some filler applied. Undercarriage and their doors, wheels and blades were primed. Work has continued with the spinner, just can't get it right and have tried another but to no avail. So, I've jumped into Fusion360... and a club member printed it for me Not bad for a first attempt but offering it up to 'Awesome' I found that the diameter was to big and the profile was to round. So a Mk.2 was done. Diameter was reduced and profile changed to produce a more 'pointy' variant. I await the 3D print and filler to dry. Need to experiment with the orange paint and see how close I can gt to the orange in the decal without going OTT. Stuart 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry1954 Posted December 1, 2022 Share Posted December 1, 2022 Nice to see you getting into 3D printing Stuart. I must do the same at some point ...........😬 Looking forward to seeing that second attempt on the model. Looks very smart in picture form. Am amazed that a T-33 tail was fitted to the real thing. It seems to look the part, but I do wonder how they "trialled" such ideas and how they were confident it would "work". Smart aerodynamic engineers I guess! Terry 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted December 1, 2022 Author Share Posted December 1, 2022 1 hour ago, Terry1954 said: ice to see you getting into 3D printing Stuart. I must do the same at some point You don't need anymore distractions Terry and although this 3D malarkey is very interesting but do I really want to go down that rabbit hole... At the moment, I am happy doing the odd draw and ask a mate to print, that way I can still build models as opposed to A model. I was impressed with the Mk.1 print, the striations were minimal and a quick sand/prime produced a nice spinner, pity it was wrong. Anyway, a little bit about 'Mr Awesome' here. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted December 1, 2022 Share Posted December 1, 2022 6 hours ago, Terry1954 said: Nice to see you getting into 3D printing Stuart. I must do the same at some point ...........😬 Looking forward to seeing that second attempt on the model. Looks very smart in picture form. Am amazed that a T-33 tail was fitted to the real thing. It seems to look the part, but I do wonder how they "trialled" such ideas and how they were confident it would "work". Smart aerodynamic engineers I guess! Terry Think thats odd check out Miss Ashley II “Miss Ashley II was a P-51R;[1] a hybrid aircraft consisting of the fuselage of a P-51D fuselage and a P-51H vertical stabilizer, a Learjet 23 wing (without wingtip tanks) and horizontal stabilizer, and Piper Aerostar landing gear. Power was provided by a 2,455 hp Rolls-Royce Griffon 58 driving two 3-bladed contra-rotating propellers from an Avro Shackleton.[2][3][4]” from this wiki page. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Ashley_II 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now