TSR 2 Airfix 1/48 Scale

[sartois66]

Brilliant work so far Martin, can't wait to see more progress. Between you and the General's build all the stuff I want to do with my next TSR.2 builds are being laid out in lovely step by step pics!!

Cheers and a Merry Christmas to you and the Mrs

Kirk

[Martian]

Thanks for the supportive comments Kirk. Things took a big step forward today when I began to button up the fuselage. The main undercarriage/bomb bay part still needs a bit of fettling and I have to get the upper surface airbrakes boxed in of course but I can now see the interesting fine detailing bit on the horizon. The nose cone will need a bit of cleaning up and blending in as well.

Martin

[Fmk.6john]

Lovely level of detailing Martin, nice steady progress too, keep it up!!

JB.

[Martian]

Quite a long update today as there has been quite a bit of progress since my last post, I finally bit the bullet and cracked on with boxing in the upper air brakes having successfully resisted the temptation to add to my collection of aftermarket accessories, I did fail, however, and succumbed to a CMK set of exhausts to which I think I can add some extra detail. I have also got the fuselage bottom glued into place and discovered that it needs a spacer to allow the fuselage bottom to fit properly. When all this is completed and cleaned up I shall start fine detailing, building and painting parts as small sub assemblies and adding them to the airframe as and when they are complete. I am still a little unsure as to whether I should drop the idea of having the Palouse bay open and go for XR222 with the reconnaisance pack instead. What do you guys think?

Martin

[Martian]

Finally got round to the fine detailing bit today and started with doing the shelving fronts, support strut runners and the fastener support strips around the edge of the equipment bay. It also occurred to me to quickly assemble the ejector seats and check them for fit. I should have done this much earlier as if I had a pound for every time that I have carefully measured and contructed scratch built parts and found them not to fit kit parts I'd have a small fortune by now. Mercifully the kit seats do fit although I have a lot of detailing left to do on them. The kit nose cone is a bit too wide at it's base and this has been reduced in diameter and blended into the rest of the fuselage. I did begin to get a bit fed up with all the boxing in of areas of the model that my approach to this kit has caused but if today's session is anything to go by the time taken to get it right is about to pay dividends. I'm beginning to really enjoy this kit now........at least until the next crisis rears it's ugly head !

Martin

Edited January 3, 2010 by martin hale

[Fmk.6john]

Looking good Martin, I like the avionics bay, coming on very nicely.

Regards,

JB.

[AnonymousDFB1]

Impressive

[Martian]

Whilst still dithering as to whether to change tack and complete this one as XR222 fitted with a the recon pack I decided to make a start on the wings. These have been glued together and the vastly overscale trailing edges of the tips thinned down. I have also reshaped what I suspect are the fuel dump pipes. Whatever they are they are grossly oversided and the wrong shape as well.

Martin

[Martian]

Well it had to happen; completely unable to make up my mind as to whether to do XR220 or XR222 fitted out in its reconnaisance guise, the only thing for this weak willed and indecisive modeller to do was to retrieve another kit from the stash, spend some more money with Cammett and Hannants and build the two in tandem. This should be fun given the limited space on my modelling desk. I shall do XR222 with the intake and exhaust covers in place and the main undercarriage doors in the closed position both to show off the reconnaisance pack and to vary things a little from XR220. I shall also be fitting long range drop tanks from Cammett. The plan is that the build will be more OOB but we all know what happens to plans don't we? I shall only post pictures of XR222 where the build differs from XR220 already in progress.

Working on XR220 I have noticed whilst dry fitting the wing that the area that sits on top of the fuselage is convex in shape. This will have to be dressed flat inorder to improve the fit.

I have also been spending a lot of time doing the airframe structure in the engine accessory bay. It has been quite a challenge getting the detail to match the moulded kit detail in the main undercarriage bays but I think I'm getting there. I will have to repeat this excersise in the rear of the bomb bay.

In the meanwhile I have opened up the camera ports in the nose of XR222 and begun to box them in.

[Col.]

Been paying close attention to this build so far but now you've added another dimension to it Martin. Been thinking about getting my 72nd scale one out of the stash and doing a reconnaissance fit for the What-if GB so will be stealing tips from you

[Martian]

Have been a bit busy on this one over the last couple of days. The fit of the bomb bay walls to the lower fuselage part is not good so this has been buit up with plastic strip and Milliputed. I also used some of the surplua Milliput to fill some of the incorrect panel lines. Does anybody get the amnount of Milliput they need right? I intend to fit the Aviation Workshop WE177B nukes (painted up as drill rounds) and auxilliary fuel tank as XR220 was to be uised for weapons relase trials and may well have been test fitted with these items before the programme was cancelled. We do know that she was test fitted with pylons at some point. Unfortunately the Aviation Workshop bomb carrier is far too wide to fit the kit so an evening was wasted scrath building an item that does fit. Why can't some maufacturers make parts that actually fit the kits they are designed for?

The parts supplied by Airfix for the ends of the exhausts actually represent the afterburner rings which are set two or three feet down the exhausts. Accordingly these were fretted out, thinned down and added to the CMK exhaust set which most convieniently is split at about the right point.

Whilst the Milliput was setting on XR220 I was going to do some more on XR222 but somehow managed to sand through one of my finger tips whilst sanding down the afterburner rings so its retired hurt for the rest of the day! DOH!

Martin

[Martian]

Following my faux pas of yesterday where I managed to sand through my finger tip I decided to give fine detailing a miss today as my finger is still hurting and to concentrate on getting the wing to fit properly. Much work with a large flat file has reduced the step where the trailing edge of the wing meets the fuselage to a bare minimum. This, of course, will result in a lot less sanding and filling and consequent re-scribing further on down the line so, tedious though this stage might be it will pay dividends later on.

Martin

Edited January 17, 2010 by martin hale

[Daniel]

Neat tip about the exhausts, may borrow that one.

Dan

[Martian]

Tonight's update: One thing that really got on my tits with the 1/72 scale kit was the very poor fit of the intakes. Something that I am anxious to avoid with my 1/48 scale builds. A dry run showed that the fit of the kit intakes is less than spectacular as well as having the auxilliary intake doors wrongly scribed. Accoringly a replacement set was obtained from Cammett. These have a much better fit to the airframe but I did decide to ring the changes with them. I decided to adapt the kit's outer intake lining to replace the Cammett items. the reason for this being threefold. Firstly, I don't like resin and try to limit my use of it as much as possible, Secondly I intendt to fit black plastic card blanks to the rear of the trunking and it is easier to carve plastic than resin, and finally the white plasic of the kit parts will make masking of the ends of the trunking that much easier. Removing the ends of the kit trunking will also make cleaning up the interior of the trunking easier by allowing access for tools form both ends prior to the new blanks being put in place.

Martin

[general melchett]

Martin, nice work, one thing though, I like what you've done with the reheat units, ( I'm hoping to use a spare set of PE rings and exhaust turbine faces I have in the spares box), but in the last pic you show of the complete assembly the rings look a little close to the nozzles, they were set quite a bit back or is this just an optical illusion from the angle of the photo?

Here's a pic that Rich took of the unit at Cosford, (hope he doesn't mind me showing it!)...just shows how complex this area really is, just look at that nozzle detail!!!.....food for thought....

Great stuff, we should have quite a few 'improved models' by the end of all this, whenever that will be!!!!......

[Howard of Effingham]

ahh, general! that looks familiar. i am sure one of the eduard sets in 1/72 includes

the detail on the inside of the jetpipes as etched brass. its frightening just to look at

never mind trying to roll into shape.

btw, martin! well done so far.

Edited January 19, 2010 by Howard of Effingham

[Martian]

Thanks guys. The afterburner ring is just push fitted to give an idea of the process and the whole assembly dry fitted for the same reason. I should, of course, have mentioned that it needs to be positioned a little bit further up the exhaust when it is all glued together. I placed it in this position as my attempts at photographing it in the correct position were less than spectacular and did not really show what I was driving at.

Martin

Edited January 19, 2010 by martin hale

[richellis]

Here's a pic that Rich took of the unit at Cosford, (hope he doesn't mind me showing it!)...

No probs!

[Martian]

Just a short update today as life seems to have got in the way a bit today. Still I have tomorrow off so I can model to my heart's content and while stuff is setting watch the Sarah-Jane Adventure videosI got with some Christmas money. Life can be real tough sometimes! Anyway todayI just did a bit more detailing on the afterburner rings and having fettled the wing taped things together to see how she is coming along. Please note that when they are glued together the afterburner rings will be pushed about 1/3 inch up the exhausts so anybody using this method for the exhausts will need to bear this in mind. Thanks to General Melchet for raising the issue, I sometimes have this terrible fault of assuming people know what I am doing. Daft really as according to my wife I don't know myself most of the time! My photography isn't good enough to get a decent picture with them in the correct position. I think when they are finished I will get my wife to do the honnours as she is far better with the camera than I am. I have to say though that, despite some of the shape issues, I am really beginning to warm to this kit. It's great fun and thats what we are all here for right?

Martin

Edited January 21, 2010 by martin hale

[general melchett]

Nice Martin, coming together well, (at least your fuselage is all put together!!)...you've done a good job on the burner rings, look the part....keep going!!

[TSR2_FAN]

Hello Martin,

Fantastic work on this kit.

I am really enjoying watching the subtle differences in approach that you and the General are employing.

I am a newbie to this level of detail in modelling but my interest levels have been sent through the roof by you and the General's efforts to turn this kit out.

I have got back into modelling as my son's interest has developed and I thought that it would be good fun to start again but at a higher level.

To that end, I hope that you do not mind me asking how you opened up the electronics bay panel and what tools you used to do it? I fear that I have already messed my kit up!

Many thanks and apologies for what is a very basic question I would guess.

-Ian

"Never give up never surrender"

[F111Fan]

Hello Martin,

Fantastic work on this kit.

I am really enjoying watching the subtle differences in approach that you and the General are employing.

I am a newbie to this level of detail in modelling but my interest levels have been sent through the roof by you and the General's efforts to turn this kit out.

I agree with you on that one-and

[Martian]

Ian, thanks for the encouragement. Its not a silly question regarding the electronics bay, there is a first time for everything for everybody. What I did was to drill a chain of closely spaced holes just inside the kit's panel lines. I then joined them up to remove the bulk of the panel, then, using a new scalple blade, I carefully trimmed the hole to meet the panel lines. Be aware though that if you open up the bay the kit's nose wheel bay will not fit and will need a relacement scratch building; no big deal as the kit item is very basic and will need reworking anyway if you plan to have the rear doors open. If you think you have already made a mistake put a photo on here as I would be very surprised if there was not a very simple solution to the problem. I always work on the principle that there is always an answer.

Tom thanks; no pressure for either myself or the General to bring our projects to a successful conclusion then!

Martin

[Martian]

Nice Martin, coming together well, (at least your fuselage is all put together!!)...you've done a good job on the burner rings, look the part....keep going!!

Thanks General but I didn't hack my fuselage to pieces; at least not in the same way as you did so it was always at least sort of in one piece.

Martin

[TSR2_FAN]

Ian, thanks for the encouragement. Its not a silly question regarding the electronics bay, there is a first time for everything for everybody. What I did was to drill a chain of closely spaced holes just inside the kit's panel lines. I then joined them up to remove the bulk of the panel, then, using a new scalple blade, I carefully trimmed the hole to meet the panel lines. Be aware though that if you open up the bay the kit's nose wheel bay will not fit and will need a relacement scratch building; no big deal as the kit item is very basic and will need reworking anyway if you plan to have the rear doors open. If you think you have already made a mistake put a photo on here as I would be very surprised if there was not a very simple solution to the problem. I always work on the principle that there is always an answer.

Tom thanks; no pressure for either myself or the General to bring our projects to a successful conclusion then!

Martin

Thanks Martin.

I have overdrilled the holes and in a "wild" burst of sanding have lost the panel line.

I suspect that I will be backfilling part of the oversized hole to recover. I have picked up that the nosewheel bay would need modifying and have purchased the CMK resin kit as I assume that it matches up with their electronics bay parts.

I may well get around to photographing the kit soon and will say thanks for the offer of help in the meantime.

I am looking forward to the next instalments of your build as I said fascinating stuff!!!

Tom, thanks for the welcome!!!! Let us hope I can do it justice.

Cheers for now

Regards

-Ian