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

[The Spadgent]

Excellent plastic/  thumb nail worrying Bill.

It still brings me great pleasure watching the master  at work. 🤩  pitty you missed out on that pint on Enville mind. 😉

 

 Johnny

[perdu]

No fear Johnny, I managed to get four pints in on Tuesday.

 

Or was it five???

[Martian]

I have to say I am hugely impressed at the way you are turning that Vixen kit into a lightning. Or is it the other way round? Or have I just got things muddled, as usual? Either way, excellent workmanship!

 

Confused of Mars 👽

[perdu]

Blimey Martian, now I'm confused...

[perdu]

 

 

Can you see what it...

 

 

 

Well of course you can

 

 

So, the plan.

 

The Frog tail end is more grotesquely wrong in my eyes than the front so work is under weigh to resolve it to suit me.

 

This revolves round me making a newer slimmer (and lighter) tail after turning the existing boom into a casting buck and providing a slimmer streamlined fin and rudder which in the kit is a quarter of an inch thick.

 

With this surgery I have taken 100 thousandths of an inch off the thickness and am aiming for my target slimmer width at 160 thou instead of the original 260 thou.

 

And here's where the work begins

 

 

Much and then much much more filing and sanding with some wonderful sanding sticks gets us here.

 

 

 

The plan is to cast from the lower fin in this picture with a second 'shapeable' fin in reserve in case of...

 

Once this was ready I stuck a stem into a hole wot I drilled in it

 

 

After cutting to size I then stuck it into the carcase of the modified tail boom

 

 

And decide to call it a job well done.

 

The fin and boom will be Milliputted to smooth out the contours and have a fairing attached to the upper fin for tailplane attachment once I am ready to cast from it.

 

Attached with cockpit glue so it can then be taken off one side and added on t'other for the opposing fin, hence giving me two booms for the price of one

 

 

I would call the jury's attention to the plan I have used to allow placement, then compare  it with our lovely photo of a real Sea Vixen's tail boom which is far slimmer than this drawing shows it.

 

I demonstrate.

 

 

I am aiming to get more representative, slimmer, better.

[Galligraphics]

4 minutes ago, perdu said:

I am aiming to get more representative, slimmer, better.

I wish I could….

[perdu]

5 minutes ago, Galligraphics said:

I wish I could….

Yeah ditto   

[The Spadgent]

Well you know what Basil brush says? 🦊
 

 

🧥. 

 

🤩😉 Johnny. 

[Dave Wilko]

2 hours ago, perdu said:

and have a fairing attached to the upper fin for tailplane attachment

Do remember Bill Sir,the 'Vixen does have an "all flying tailplane" and as such,the "fairings" are attached to it rather than the inner faces of

said fins.

[CJP]

I know 3D printing is part of model building now but it is great to see good old scratch building like this still happening - great work Bill.

CJP

[giemme]

16 minutes ago, CJP said:

I know 3D printing is part of model building now but it is great to see good old scratch building like this still happening - great work Bill.

CJP

I couldn't agree more! Splendid scratch building job, Bill!  

 

Ciao 

[Fritag]

 

20 minutes ago, CJP said:

I know 3D printing is part of model building now but it is great to see good old scratch building like this still happening - great work Bill.

CJP

 

Me three.  

[perdu]

3 hours ago, Dave Wilko said:

Do remember Bill Sir,the 'Vixen does have an "all flying tailplane" and as such,the "fairings" are attached to it rather than the inner faces of

said fins.

Thanks Dave, a timely remind old friend.

Noted!

[perdu]

Entirely because Dave reminded me I will be changing tack on the inner part of the boom/fin.

I will make a fairing on each end of the tailplane, very useful having experts to hand when we're doing these jobs.

 

Now I need a different expertise.

 

Fibreglass, as used to make the radar cone.

 

Kits always say the cones are green don't they?

 

Really?

 

Not the greenest green I've ever seen, how 'bout you?

 

This is how I've always thought about it, more of a faded greenish sandy colour springs to mind.

 

I think I've more to do but I'm aiming for something like this

 

https://i.postimg.cc/Kv4DYZ96/P1010202.jpg

 

 

Pointy silver tip coming along.

 

Not really green but more a greenish tinted sandy colour

[giemme]

13 minutes ago, perdu said:

Not really green but more a greenish tinted sandy colour

Agreed, when researching for mine I had the same impression 

 

Ciao

[perdu]

Thinks...

 

Really must pointy nose that radome more than 'tis now.

 

Now then, Sea Vixen FAW1 we ordered wasn't it?

 

Hows this for starters?

 

Slim booms tapering into the wing fabric so to speak.

 

The wing upper surface is slated to be fabricated from Milliput, given a tad of gentle shaping I think I will get it quite like the ideal presented by Tony @TheBaron

 

For your entertainment

 

 

Aiming for 'Fat at the back, slim at the front' when the upper wing is surfaced.

 

[Terry1954]

There are Fusion experts and very capable 3D printers around these parts, that woo and amaze us Bill, but you just do it old style, no fuss, with results up there with the best.

 

Some lovely skillful surgery going on here, just like the old days ........... 👏

 

Loving this stuff.

 

Terry

[perdu]

"Milli's orf dear!"

 

Colour me desperate, quick try PPP, aaaarrrgh!

 

Aaaarrrggghh even stupider idea stoppit at once but desperate times now the Milliput has become 'endangered, not sure it will ever go off (or even be removable if it's forever gooey.

 

Scrape out  the still sopping wet PPP and try another tack, if it works this side I may be able to save the starboard wing too.

 

Doesn't show up clearly but that's transparency for you

 

Several floatings of UV curing, clear resin in the gaps, I intend testing the plan with SIHRSC on Monday.

 

Let it cure this weekend, what's left of it.

 

If it fails I will pop round to Mike's Models and see if he has any unfestered Milliput for me on Monday afternoon.

 

Off again now to read Page 35 of The Definitive Sea Vixen Modelling by O.U.R @TheBaron

 

He's scoping out the tail booms in what is a truly welcome co-incidence of light bed-time reading and me getting it all Cobbler's in plastic myself.

[Zephyr91]

5 hours ago, perdu said:

light bed-time reading

All that filler and filing stuff was exceeding scary stuff to the likes of me.   If I read that before bed-time it'd be nightmares all round methinks. 

 

Er, sleep well.

 

Rob

 

PS:  I AM enjoying this.  Honest!

 

[giemme]

PPP is definitely not ideal for this kind of task, I'm afraid.... I'm curious to see how the clear resin works on such wide areas/volumes

 

Scratch building at its best anyway, Master Bill  

 

Ciao 

[perdu]

Well now

 

Discoveries made, clear resin files to a white surface.

 

"No Armstrother-Jones I did not expect it to file red or blue, just saying OK?"

 

But as I have found before it likes to flex in the process so a little more aggression with the files than one might have expected was called for, this gets into the 'skin' of its surface and does the job.

 

Yesterday I had a good three hours of therapeutic hacking the hell out of it in the garden aggressively removing some of the invading plants which have decided my little patch of repose deserves massive shrub growth, uninvited so to speak.

 

Keeping a fine sharp edge on the spade helps immeasurably in the satisfactory process.

Lawn cut and the pile of soggy leaf debris dumped into our brown garden waste wheelie, heaved up two very high steps and wheeled round the gulley to the street when I remembered I needed Milliput's input and made the dash to Mike's Models.

 

Phew, fruitful afternoon turned successful.

 

Even picked up a fresh can of TS-79 and a Vallejo Signal Red ModelAir Metallic for suitably timed experimentation, I loves a bit of paint experimenting me.

 

So Milliput-on-the-shelf I got on with the Vixen's upper quarters

 

More of this in a bit...

 

 

What do we see here?

 

Underbelly under consideration.

 

Airbrake down or not?

 

Do I intend taking this as far as Tony did with his bespoke Vixens and have the airbrake down, microcell launchers dropped and possibly flaps down too?

 

Er NO THANK YOU.

 

But the only thing that stands out for attention within the bounds of this Hack-tion is the nose wheel well, it needs opening out like the main gear wells, only right isn't it?

 

So I have had a little go at the casting buck boom

 

I used resin to fair it into its fin and have offered it up to the wing section for a look-see.

 

Until this was done I couldnt really work out how well I have made it or how it would fair in, front to back.

 

See?

 

 

Still plenty to do but it is close to being cast-able from and in place it shows how much more Milliput will be needed on the upper booms when they are joined together.

 

Underneath looks fine though, happy there.

Still plenty to do but it is close to being cast-able from

 

So for reference, this is the Sea Vixen FAW1 I want the Froglet to look like

 

 

This shot shows me what is needed

 

 

Getting there.

[giemme]

Very serious (almost dramatic) plastic hacking, Bill  

 

I should be used to see you working your magic with plastic by now, but each time it's amazing - and refreshing, somewhat  

 

Ciao

[Brandy]

5 hours ago, perdu said:

This shot shows me what is needed

That would be a decent FAW1 kit then!

In its absence though you're doing a grand job!

 

Ian

[perdu]

In the light of that shot's excellent form displaying I have made another decision, the upper booms from sacrificed Hunter drop tanks are to be discarded for upper booms utilising savagely scarified FAW2 tanklet/booms...

 

As in 

 

The nose area of the upper doodahs looks a lot closer to the side on profile than I can get from the Hunter tank.

 

I might, indeed should get me closer to the upper side profile than Hunter ones

 

 

 

But before I abandon the Avon valley for a while, for savage hackery, I did a bit more on the Lightning.

 

I added some useful decals inside the ashtrays, these stay out of sight when the wheels are retracted.

 

 

I mean the main wheel doors of course

 

 

Thank Mr Bufton for the 'humour'...

 

 

 

[perdu]

I was surprised at how much the conformals coincididided with the FAW1's boom section but thinking about it maybe I shouldn't have been

 

de Havilland's would have used the same design data plan for the later parasitic bits so to speak, no point designing a new plane when the one they put on the market did what they wanted.

 

Anyway crude brutal efforts for ten minutes resulted in.

 

I'm sure this will work out nicely after rechecking this one

 

 

Seems a little hollowing out along the boom will do the trick, huh?

 

A better take on the prickly subject?

 

Giorgio raised the subject of how it looks when cured.

 

Well for a start it did not go hard, explains its reluctance to file off .

 

It goes flexible and opaque and pulls out if you destroy the integrity of the joint

 

 

Right-oh, off to do the same to the Milliputted side now

 

And oh yes its steak night