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The Valley Of The Vixens, where Avons love to tread.


perdu

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Omigod, now what is he doing?

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Both sides?

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Looks like somebody showed him a picture...

 

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Yes, somebody did thanks

 

As good for a scratchbuild well as a photograph taken under a Lightning at a show some place

 

nose-undercarriage-orig.png

 

I surely have enough, so plastic has been cut...

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Today a tall man with a reddish waistcoat arrived bearing plunder

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Tiny intakes for the Lightning, fed up twisting my twisted finger whilst whittling tiny intakes, so of course...

 

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The wheels in the Hasegawa kit are, er, hmm, not very nice/good so again...

 

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Because, might as well...

 

Oh and yes more Vixen fettlement approaches.

 

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Now as Ian and several others have mentioned making an Airwaves set fit will try the patience of, well anybody, but as we have no interior worth the label, why not start in Hall Green?

 

 

Decals

 

Not a good day for decals, say no mo'

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Sir,

The much vaunted Aeroclub detail Set for the Sea Vixen,V144.

 

http://www.joesmodels.com/a_aeroclub_Various/V144.jpg

 

 

This site in America may have a set if one cannot locate one elsewhere:

 

http://www.joesmodels.com/AEROCLUB_72_various_accessories.htm

 

The site owner,"Joe's Models",recommends that one e-mail's for availability.

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I decided to go back and see where Tony got us to with the Froglet before we all went Elegoo all over

 

And frankly I decided the cut of his jib would do for me too

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My god that was evil plastic, truly the work of a devil methinks.

 

I have had a rethink from the ideas discussed with our Dave Wilko, not too sure it is worth rebuilding the whole kit when I know I can make a reasonably representative Vixen from what we get in the box, the cutaway I did is very daunting and life is short

 

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I would have to reset the airbrake sections and open the wheel wells to say the least

 

 

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So following Tony's lead I got a hold of another, sacrificial Russki kit to cannibalise cheap off the bay and after cleaning up the lower fuselage I nailed the two halves together with a green Tamiya product.

 

Time for a fresh lock down, hide Boris, before the usual parties complain about parties...

 

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To prove this build is within the time frame of the Hawkers and Trainers builds have a bit of temporal reference

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On screen herewith, the piece of Tony's potential Frog build segment I am about to replicate.

 

The cutting off of the nose.

 

 

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2 hours ago, perdu said:

My god that was evil plastic, truly the work of a devil methinks.

I’ve been trying to chop about an old Novo Hunter Mk1. It is VERY hard and VERY brittle. Already broken about four random bits off… :angry:

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If we had any sense we wouldnt work with this plastic stuff, we'd probably be jewellers at Tiffany or something.

 

After all the properties of sheet gold and silver allow precise expectations of what is going to happen when one puts a crease here or a dimple there.

 

I bet Heather knows precisely how a sheet of brass will 'work', plastic doesn't give us as many clues.

 

Fun though innit?

 

Moving on slowly.

 

Can you see what it is now/yet/soon?

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Yes the sacrificial Vixen has given up more bits for the cause.

 

It's my old depth of wheel wells bogey again, this is never right.

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but I think if I cut it out of the roof of the wing and then insert the new, cut away bits inside the wing halves as a roof to the well enough visual depth will be added to look the business.

 

The outer sections of the upper wings have been added to the lower shell leaving me a little gap to infill, let's find out later whether this idiotic plan has wings.

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Metals can be heated to make them more amenable to shaping. Plastic isn’t quite so easy.

 

Once again, enjoying the art of taking bits of moulded plastic and transforming them into a work of art, Bill.

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Too kind Heather, thanks.

 

You've probably guessed I was annealing metais at work for years, heck most of my basic tools came from my toolroom days after all.

 

Plastic fettling is a bit more taxing but so much fun, specially because I can chuck it away if I can't fix it with filler. 😅😅😂😂

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On 3/24/2023 at 3:17 PM, perdu said:

I have had a rethink from the ideas discussed with our Dave Wilko

One did mention Sir,it was a lot of work for a small gain really..........

The chap on the other forum did say that he hadn't done all the work,merely adjusted certain parts to make it look slimmer and longer

around the cockpit and nose areas.

 

Do press on as one sees fit though Sir,one does like a good Sea Vixen.😄

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16797572348698995196600825335723.jpg

 

Spent ages cutting away number one, preserving the features around the edges of the walls.

 

Just realised they are artifacts imposed to hold the u/c doors at surface level if I built it CedB stylee, in flight.

Sea-Vixen-GW1.jpg

Oh well time for a new Swann-Morton number 2 so I can trim flush-ish like the real thing

 

:( 

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Thanks Ian I did

 

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Because the kit undercarriage legs are designed to sit 'just inside' the well and the most important part of  this job makes the well such much deeper I cut out the hole from the displaced well roof and used it to return the hole to its designed position.

 

With any luck it might do the job without other work.

 

We'll see no?

 

Just messing about with the discarded boom sections I had a minute of thought, would it?

 

Could I?

 

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I think that is a no, we need straight line booms not big pregnant looking things.

 

But there is a lot of plastic I could work with...

 

I think I need a bigger sandpaper block.

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2 hours ago, Brandy said:

That is a HUGE improvement in the wheel well.

Do continue...

 

Ian

I couldn't agree more! And smart thinking re the main struts length :worthy:

 

Ciao 

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I now have to build up the l/e of these upper wings and bolster the bent front edge, due to its having been moulded with the sabrina-like upper tanks and flatten the profile of the underwing edge.

 

For this I have inserted a couple of ninety thou blanks to the l/e which will be brutally hacked about and fillered at to get the lower profile.

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Apologies to Ian and the rest of you for blurry pictures, just dont have the tripod available at the mo'.

 

Now a feasibility study.

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Can I file the upper tankettes flat enough to act as the upper sections of the boom to top face of the wing/boom join?

 

I dont think so, think outside the box.

 

The Sea Vixen box that is, now what other possibilities suggest themselves.

 

In another box there are loads of pieces of unused Hawker Harrier, amongst which nestle these.

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Harrier drop tanks.

 

The right width, as is.

 

And with a curvy lead in to the upper wing fairing.

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In two useful sections.

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The silly money at the mo' is on the more pointy version giving a nicer lead in to the upper wing surface in a bed of green/grey Milliput.

 

I think I've got it, by Jove I've got it.

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This is now starting to get very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with those Harrier bits Bill. Nice thinking!

 

Ian

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