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

[perdu]

Gottit Alan!

 

 

 

Now, oh hell.

Somebody said mattress to Mr Lambert...

 

Somebody decided not to put on socks and dress tidy like see, to wander to the pub for a pint of Enville but instead, nobody hid the wide razor saw and the sacrificial Sea Vixen kit...

 

I had decided, on wakening as you do, to cut the fuselage before the cockpit insert gets made up and inserted.

 

Rather than cut the fuselage where the canopy insert is to go and then lose the windscreen reference point I would cut it as a stepped shape which will let me extend the nose by 90 thou and add extra as we go along.

 

Then I thought about this image which was unearthed during Tony's epic roll your own kit Sea Vixen build, possibly ISTR by James @71chally and which made just about every kit before Tony's, obscenely obsolete and ungainly.

 

My thoughts here were taken up by lots of differing issues, the microcell rocket packs were obviously not even similar and the tail booms.

 

Oh boy the tail booms.

 

Having already filed pounds of excess plastic away with the uberfile and achieved this, only this, I decided to bring the 'other' sacrificial kit into play as an experiment.

 

Other experiments may be involved later.

 

Obviously this is not acceptable for my tastes and something MUST BE DONE.

 

You have probably noticed the cut plastic over there, on the left of the picture.

Yes an experiment is underway

 

The rather big saddle tanky bits are cut off 

 

And the non tapering tail booms are prepared to be tapered.

 

If it all goes titzzup I still have the original booms to use in an emergency, this work will proceed this week.

 

But not today huh?

 

Time to play catch up on the F6 today before the footie.

[Galligraphics]

2 hours ago, perdu said:

Somebody said mattress to Mr Lambert..

I can sing Jerusalem but I haven’t got a fishtank… 

[giemme]

From plastic surgery to actual transplant- amazing! 

 

Ciao 

[AdrianMF]

11 hours ago, perdu said:

couple of ninety thou blanks

Ninety thou??? That's not card 😳😱, that's a block! Marvellous hacking.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[perdu]

A block Adrian?

Well yes it does tend to be intractible stuff, gods thank SIHRSC for its aid.

[perdu]

I am still taking inspiration from @TheBaron's work

 

Wonder if I ought to see if he has any substandard bits to sell, i.e. 

 

Wouldn't one of those make me smile...

[Fritag]

4 minutes ago, perdu said:

Wouldn't one of those make me smile...

 

But in their absence, your plastic surgery is raising a smile of appreciation in many of us, Bill.  

[perdu]

Thank ee kindly young Steven

 

I have been studying Tony's studying for the tail booms which weigh two tons each in expensive polystyrene with a view to moulding them both in vacform lightness

 

 

 

 

Tony's extensive tome gives me the impression that each boom is essentially identical so a couple of suitable bucks ought to give the world lightweight Sea Vixen booms, I might mould a dozen of each and flog 'em down the Rag Market if it works.

 

 

As if...  

[perdu]

 

 

OK a clue.

 

 

 

 

I have been puzzling over this, the kit just had a slight recess with a suitable hole in which to bung a reasonable for its time front leg/wheel combined device

 

This one

 

To  be fair its a decent effort but this came with a set of improved wheels so...

 

 

If the Laminate Monster ever surrenders the anti shimmy device which took a very rapid break after being released from the resin block this will be amazingly better.

 

This left me with the problem of housing this device though.

 

The old test piece model had a radar cone inserted to improve the look down the freshly opened hole

But I didnt get it right with that humungeous pointy nosed thing so I have had another go using the radar cone from this kit and a piece of (Probably) Airfix Phantom nose cone to replicate the back shown in this metal kit

 

The new one sits much nicer in the 'ole.

 

And gives me scope to make a wheel well for the nose gear

 

 

Leaving me a hole to add some minor detailing to

 

Aiming for something similar to but not necessarily identical to

 

Please do not expect hydraulics or total ribbing and box structures therein.

 

Please

 

I probably wont bother with the relief space for the wheel to nestle within

 

Here are the pair of radar bullets to choose from

 

I am using the one nearest the camera, ciao

[hendie]

Who needs modern kits when you can have this much fun

[giemme]

1 hour ago, hendie said:

Who needs modern kits when you can have this much fun

Indeed!

 

Shaping up properly,  I'd say

 

Ciao 

[AdrianMF]

4 hours ago, perdu said:

Aiming for something similar to but not necessarily identical to

It looks like they've bolted big lumps of nose weight all around the wheel well. Those Avons must be heavy at the back...

[AdrianMF]

I'm not (intentionally) trying to be a jackass with the nose weight comment - if I look at the third picture in the undercarriage section here, I see the same bay, without the big slabs of stuff bolted to the walls. And the "stuff" looks like it might be pretty heavy.

 

[edit] or it could be dirty expanded foam of some sort?

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Brandy]

However, if it was for weight it wouldn't be drilled out to lighten it.

At least I assume it wouldn't be!

 

Ian

[perdu]

I did notice it, I wonder if it was part of fitting out for weapons packs or the like when different formats were operated.

 

We need a Lightning techy to advise I suppose, but I intend using it as an excuse to leave the sidewall details alone because the entire well is sorta flattened with them in on the walls.

 

(look its the kind of excuse to leave the walls flat anyone would ask for if they were not making 'a masterpiece', like me)

 

I suppose we need somewhere for the driver to sit, I think this was a Pavla piece 

 

I have had an interesting time making the Pavla cockpit insert fit the fuselage

 

 

But eventually its job done.

 

I am sure the cockpit came with a control column but since I have owned this for ten years or more it is a miracle that it's only the stick missing,

 

Ten minutes with needle files produced a reasonable facsimile thereof.

 

Done.

 

Hence now closed up, filing of seams ensues and 'pully like hell to get out' handles now in place

 

 

I think that will do for today, ciao

[giemme]

2 hours ago, perdu said:

I think that will do for today

Agreed, you've brilliantly done your part for the day!

 

 

Ciao 

[perdu]

This morning it was time to insert the wheel well and radome item

 

to be fettled

 

Tidying up inside the tunnel

 

And outside it

 

 

 

The tailcone/jetpipe assemblies on this kit are awful

 

I mean...

 

I wonder if it will respond to a coat of clear UV resin, suitably hardened?

 

Find out presently huh?

 

 

We might need a couple of goes...

[giemme]

Shaping up like a proper Frightening, Bill   I had the same issue on my Sword kit about the tailcone fit (resin part, in that case, but came with the kit). Maybe not as dramatic as yours; I ended up filing off a small bit of the fuselage end, thus altering the geometry, but it was barely noticeable. 

Clear resin sounds like a good idea, looking forward to see how it worked

 

Ciao

[perdu]

Hi Giorgio, I found it stayed too soft for proper refinishing and in order to get anything done I had to layer it with cyano and bicarbonate of soda to get a working surface I could file.   

 

 

Which was cool and worked out OK

 

Eventually

 

 

Any further point filling can safely be left up to PPP now I think.

[Space Ranger]

On 3/27/2023 at 2:57 PM, AdrianMF said:

It looks like they've bolted big lumps of nose weight all around the wheel well. Those Avons must be heavy at the back...

Life imitates (modeling) art!

[Dave Wilko]

Bill Sir(if one may call using such an appellation),the Great Ronald McDonald's finest plastic straws

(are such a thing still available one wonders)

once made(20 odd years ago) superb "jet pipes" ,nicely Avon bore for such of Rolls-Royce's quality "noise makers".

 

Please do note,other brands of similar sized "noise makers" are available to suit Ronald McDonald "Avon bore" straws.

Edited March 29, 2023 by Dave Wilko

[giemme]

2 hours ago, perdu said:

Which was cool and worked out OK

Yep.

 

Ciao 

[perdu]

Confession time for a Sea Vixeneer.

 

Although I have ben determined to try to use as much Frog stuff as possible the actual act of filing the tail booms down to a more scale look has been frightening me, there is a huge amount of polystyrene to file away and the possibility of getting it wrong is daunting.

 

Colour me daunted.

 

Anyway today I did a bit of 'nettle grasping' and began.

 

 

 

Yes this better illustrates the size of the task

 

Here we are part way through the job

 

Hmm?

 

 

That's a bit more like.

 

Let's see how they go together

 

 

That should do, now to work out how to get slimmer fin and rudder units.

 

I feared this would happen when filing slim items, it did.

 

 

Good job my left thumbnail is thickened...

[perdu]

It's OK lads, superglue is good for one thing at least

 

Two layers will stop it splitting off too soon, it would take a lady to see the difference.

 

I have used to to protect the nail bed before when the nail got a blister infected

 

 

Not good to my hands, me...

[giemme]

Well, at least it was a quick fix... to your fingernail, I mean....

 

Superb filing job, Bill

 

Ciao