Childhood Memories: Building a stone-age kit with stone-age tools (Double build)

[billn53]

Cockpit interior is mostly done (just need to add harnesses to the bangseat). I'm using a resin aftermarket, actually for the A-4 Skyhawk (another Douglas aircraft of similar vintage to the Skyray).

 

    

 

The Skyhawk cockpit fits nicely in this old Hawk kit. Just a bit of thinning inside the fuselage needed, plus I had to scratch a combing for over the instrument panel (I sacrificed a drop tank from my spares box for that):

 

    

 

Next, I vacuformed a replacement canopy using the blank I had made from the kit item:

 

 

 

It took a couple of tries before I got one I was happy with.

 

 

 

The vacuform canopy is pretty flimsy, so I added some framing to stiffen it up. This will also help when I glue the canopy into position.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, back in Bedrock, I've begun putting some gray on my "stone age" Ford:

 

 

 

[RichieW]

Lovely vacformed canopy Bill, must have been fiddly adding the framing but we'll worth the effort it looks excellent. Cockpit looks great too, I imagine the neolithic version is not quite so complete! 

 

Richie

[billn53]

3 hours ago, RichieW said:

 Cockpit looks great too, I imagine the neolithic version is not quite so complete! 

 

 Haha! You funny!

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

More craziness going on here, as we get ready for the Thanksgiving holiday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

For reference:

 

 

 

 

🤪

[k5054nz]

I'm really enjoying this build. What a cool concept!

[rob Lyttle]

Ah Man..... What a great read through! 

Just found this one Bill, it's a cool project. I love old kits but I think I'd have drawn the line at this one. 

But when I flicked over onto page 2 and saw that cockpit interior close-up, I thought there had been a glitch with the BM website and it had taken me to a completely different build! 

New Canopy is a vast improvement 👍

[billn53]

16 minutes ago, rob Lyttle said:

Ah Man..... What a great read through! 

Just found this one Bill, it's a cool project. I love old kits but I think I'd have drawn the line at this one. 

 

 

Thanks Rob!

 

As much as I appreciate a well-engineered, "shake box to assemble" kit, I've built a few "oldies" recently (Lindberg Jenny, Aurora USS Nautilus, Special Hobby Electra, Airfix Skymaster, Monogram P-47) and found a sense of accomplishment from exercising my modeling skills to turn a pig's ear into something better. I have to control my appetite with this project, however, as our club's group build is due in a couple weeks and I do want to finish on time!

 

There's lots more I could potentially do with the Hawk Skyray. For example, I found this photo:

 

 

and Hawk's instructions do say the kit can be built with wings folded . . . 

 

I might be crazy, but I'm not "Alabama Crazy"

[rob Lyttle]

OK, I'm gonna see your Lindbergh Jenny, and I'll raise you, 

An Airfix Grumman Gosling...... 😏

[billn53]

4 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

OK, I'm gonna see your Lindbergh Jenny, and I'll raise you, 

An Airfix Grumman Gosling...... 😏

 

Too rich for my blood, I might have to fold!

[billn53]

I spent a couple of hours at the bench this evening, and don't really have much to show for it. Most of that time was working to make the "dropped" leading edge slats. Before I can go any further on that, I'll have to glue the wings together, which on this delta jet means closing the fuselage.

 

A prerequisite for closing the fuselage is to add sufficient weight to prevent a tail-sitter. I first added a big fishing weight to the nose, and then did a balance test. The resulting balance point was too close for comfort (especially considering the forward-slanting main gear), so I added another 1/4-ounce behind the cockpit:

 

 

 

I used 5-minute epoxy for the weights behind the cockpit, but for the nose weight I used Apoxie Sculpt. I also filled the upper nose half with Apoxie Sculpt. A layer of Parafilm M stretched between the two fuselage halves allowed me to separate the parts after the Apoxie Sculpt had hardened.

 

 

 

"What's with all this Apoxie Scupt in the nose?", you might ask. Basically, the nose on the Hawk kit is too blunt, and I plan to do a bit of re-shaping. The Apoxie Sculpt is my insurance in case I sand through the styrene.

 

 

[billn53]

Happy turkey day, everybody! 🦃

 

A bit more work done on my "no holds barred" Skyray . . . Before closing the fuselage, I decided to try a novel idea I found in Georgio's ( @giemme ) excellent build of the Tamiya Skyray kit, to create intake trunking (check page 3 of his WIP).

 

I began by carving a plastic pencil eraser into the shape of the intake trunk:

 

 

and used that to vacuform a pair on inlets:

 

 

Mind you, I was just experimenting with this technique, so getting a "perfect" pair of intake trunks wasn't my goal. Fortunately, visibility into the Ford's inlets isn't great, so my errors will probably go unnoticed!

 

That done, with the help of a bunch of strategically-placed clamps, I glued the top and bottom fuselage/wing sections together:

 

 

She's starting to look like a Skyray!

 

 

 

 

[giemme]

Impressive job, Bill!   Glad that the intakes idea was of some use!

 

Ciao 

[billn53]

Turkey day is over and my company has left, so back to the bench!

 

I re-shaped the nose to make it appear less "blunt". Compare with the original (on the left) and tell me if it looks better? The nose really needs to be about 1/4-inch longer, but that's a bridge too far for this project!
 

 

 

The filing and sanding removed about 0.5mm from the width of the forward fuselage (more near the nose). I didn't break through to my Apoxie Sculpt filler, but it came close . . .

 

 

 

I filled in extraneous scribed lines that were incorrect and/or inappropriate. For example, the kit speed brakes are wrong shape. Also, Hawk thoughtfully engraved painting guides for the walkways. I believe I can get away without them!

 

 

 

Just because I could, I chiseled an air outlet on the left side of the dorsal spine. There should also be a NACA inlet on the other side, but I don't own an NACA-shaped chisel, so choose not to add it.

 

 

 

The little pointy bits on each side of the exhaust nozzle have taken a beating, so I added some plastic stock where they were damaged, and after the glue was set, filed them to shape:

 

   

 

But, by far, my biggest accomplishment today was to add the resin inlet lips that I had earlier cloned from the Tamiya kit. Even after a lot of fettling, the fit isn't very good. But, why would one expect parts from a modern Tamiya kit to fit perfectly on this antique?

 

 

 

That's why I have a monster-size tube of putty 🤪

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

This morning, I sanded back the first layer of putty around the inlet lips, and applied a second, thinner one. While that was drying, I tackled some smaller tasks.

 

First, I added brass pins to the wingtips -- I want these to be totally secure once they go on.

 

 

I also drilled holes for the various pylons I'll be adding (also to be pinned). These are for the underwing fuel tanks:

 

 

 

As you can see, my drilling accuracy isn't always "on point"

 

 

 

I realized that I haven't shown you this, yet. It's my attempt at adding a mount for the arresting hook and "bumper" wheel, totally absent from the Hawk kit:

 

 

 

My first thought was to make this out of plastic stock and Apoxie Sculpt, but I took the lazy way out and sacrificed an old Airfix Skyray sitting in my stash:

 

 

 

That's one Ford that won't be built! But, truth be told, it was only good for spare parts (since I have the much better Tamiya kit in my stash) . . .

 

. . . such as these pylons:

 

 

 

and these stores to go on them:

 

 

 

So, that about wraps up where I am so far on the Skyrays for my local club's December group build:

 

 

 

I'd better get hopping, as I've only a couple weeks left to work on them before they're due.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RichieW]

22 minutes ago, billn53 said:

I'd better get hopping, as I've only a couple weeks left to work on them before they're due.

You seem to be hopping along at quite a rate already! The reshaped nose looks much better than the Fred Flintstone version so definitely time well spent. I love the big, bold modifications you are doing to the kit. The 'pointy bits' either side of the jet nozzle look perfect. 

 

Richie

[rob Lyttle]

Coming on nicely, you're having some fun with these. It's very therapeutic testing yourself against an old timer.... I think you'll find the Tamiya kit a little bit boring after this challenge 😅

 

[giemme]

Heck of a plastic surgery there, Bill!    

 

Ciao

[billn53]

I sprayed my "no holds barred" Ford with white surfacer, looking for flaws in the joins and puttied areas. Other than a few pinholes near the nose (which you can see in the photo below), everything looked surprisingly good:

 

 

I did the same for various bits-and-bobs:

 

 

 

I next drilled a few "dimples" in the wingtips and dorsal fin. Later, I will turn these into position lights using the techniques described elsewhere for my ongoing P-47 project:

 

 

 

Finally, I was ready to glue the wingtips and fin in place:

 

 

 

A bit of stretched sprue and putty should take care of the minor gaps along the joins:

 

 

 

While the putty was drying, I turned my attention to the Jurassic Ford. I wasn't happy with the hard boundary I had between the gray and white on the nose, so made an attempt to feather the colors. That's no mean task using a hairy stick!

 

 

Using a 20/0 liner brush, I carefully painted the framing on the canopy. Note also that I painted the edges of the scale six-inch thick glazing with black paint. I've found that can help make the thickness of the canopy less noticeable. Nonetheless, a test fit of the canopy to the fuselage reveals serious gaps:

 

    

 

I could try using plastic cement as filler, but there are some obvious risks involved with that . . . . Stay tuned!

 

 

 

[giemme]

Great job on fairing in those intakes, Bill!      

 

Ciao

[billn53]

15 minutes ago, giemme said:

Great job on fairing in those intakes, Bill!      

 

Ciao

It wasn’t anything a little putty couldn’t fix. Putty is like the duct tape of modeling. 

[billn53]

This morning (before heading off to classes), I glued the "stone age" Ford's canopy in place, gaps and all, and proceeded to fill in the gaps with glue and paint. What I wouldn't give for proper putty and a sanding stick!

 

   

 

I also painted and assembled the landing gear (what there is of it):

 

 

 

For my other Ford, having glued the wingtips in place I was able to work some more on the leading edge slats. I had originally planned to scratch build the slats, but decided instead to steal yet some more pieces from my Airfix donor kit:

 

 

 

So, here's where I stand now on this project. The "stone age" Skyray is just about finished. All that's left is to add the landing gear, final paint details, and decals. I'm hopeful I can finish this tomorrow or Saturday -- on Sunday I leave for a weeklong business trip and when I return, I'll have just a week's time before my club's group build is due. That should give me enough time to wrap up the "no holds barred" Ford.

[SprueMan]

It's the craziest thing.

I am also doing a deep modification of a ex-Hawk kit, and this evening I was thinking I should buy another identical one, and build it out of the box to show how many changes I have made, and here is someone already doing the exact thing!

I guess I am behind the times...

 

Wonderful work and concept though!

It shows you can create a silk purse of a sow's ear.

[billn53]

2 minutes ago, SprueMan said:

It's the craziest thing.

I am also doing a deep modification of a ex-Hawk kit, and this evening I was thinking I should buy another identical one, and build it out of the box to show how many changes I have made, and here is someone already doing the exact thing!

I guess I am behind the times...

 

Wonderful work and concept though!

It shows you can create a silk purse of a sow's ear.

I hear the Twilight Zone music playing!

[corsaircorp]

Hey Bill !!

Congratulations !! Such a great idea !!

Stone age modelling is amazing....

Now, I feel eager to look at my 2 Fords....

A Tamiya and a Lindberg one....

Knowing that Lindberg reproduced the prototype...

I will just do that.....

Well done Sir !!

There is a huge satisfaction in upgrading an old kit !!

Sincerely.

CC

[billn53]

3 hours ago, SprueMan said:

I am also doing a deep modification of a ex-Hawk kit, and this evening I was thinking I should buy another identical one, and build it out of the box to show how many changes I have made...

 

This is my second time around, building two identical kits (one as per original, the other heavily re-built). Here's my previous one -- Aurora's USS Nautilus submarine:

 

 

 

 

 

(I was a young officer on Nautilus in her final years of service)