Lock down mega build Week 6 Finished!

[ianf]

I have been lurking in here too long, after I slowed down on my modelling. I've been watching Arab, Derek and Seamus impressive builds of late and when Derek built Tamiya's beautiful Heinkel 219. Which I built many years ago and thought it was one of the best designed I had seen. I decided it was time to start up again. With a lot of time on my hands and a fair stash to dig into I decided to do something I used to do when I started building, namely building a group of models at the same time and to a rough time scale. So I am not building one kit I am building ten and trying to do them all in 4-6 weeks!

The first 5 are all Airfix Harriers.



The next 4 are Airfix's Me 110, Swift FR5 Then Sword's Lightning T mk 5 and finally MPM's lockheed Vega "winnie Mae"



The last kit just had to be done as I am currently stopped from working on the real thing! Namely Airfix's Victor K2 Lusty Lindy this is my 3rd kit of her The first was pure white B2, the second was camo as the K2 development aircraft and this will be as she is today in hemp.



I also will try to push one of my models that has been on my build table several years along. It is the NX-01 version of the Enterprise. It is largely built, but the paint job is intricate and I lost patience on it hopefully I can push it along. From the 2 pics you can see the upper surface is more complete than the undersides.






Prepping the info for this also made me think of reference work, well in Lindy's case zero problem I have thousands of shots plus the actual aircraft to work from. Here's the last shot I took of her before lock down.



I also have a shot of the Op herrick Harrier. I wanted the aircraft but it alluded me till the final day of service, So before I did this thread I dug up my pics and cleaned them up, which means I will post them else where as well as here!



Wish me luck I'm gonna need it!

Ian

[ArabJazzie]

Jealous as hell you have a 1:1 scale kit to work on when this madness is over!

I built all the Harriers you have and loved all of them. Reminds me i have some gaps to sort there. One i am most looking forward to though is the Vega.
Arabest,
Geoff.

[ianf]

Lindy does keep me busy! I also helped look after the Mus GR3 Harrier and GR4 tonka! (Pre production converted to 4 standard for testing.) So you can see why my modelling has waned! Been painting the cockpits this afternoon, did not realise there was quite a difference on the interior cockpit colour on the Harriers. Also I weakened I came across my 1/72 Hobby Special Bristol Beaufort. With Airfix's due this year I decided I needed to build this now or it won't get done, So I have added it to my build!

Ian

[DerekF]

Good to some much needed model building going on. Sadly my builds are on hold for now due to a re-arrangement in our house. Hopefully short-lived.

[IATthenRIAT]

Nice kits.

[ianf]

Well one week in, Have I kept my mojo and done some building? The answer is yes, but it has been an interesting start. Building so many at once you need to set your stall out on how you do it. This I did, one thing getting started after so long was finding all my tools!
So once I had decided what I was doing and did my research I started pre painting parts. Here I got a surprise in just how much difference the 5 Harriers had in their cockpit schemes, It was also interesting seeing how much difference the designs were considering all are Airfix kits.

So this weeks progress is.



These 3 are still in the pre painting stage.





So you can see I have progressed!









I also found the carpet monster still exist (but he's failed so far!) The Vega is actually a very nice kit with no location pegs , you can get ill fitting pieces. That is not the case indeed, the photo exaggerate the amount of filler required. Harrier wise the quality varies if you look at the MK 9 and 7 kits you can see the quality and much more refined lines on the 9. I also like the fact the 9 has a split forward fuselage. I found lining up all the other ones quite fiddly to get everything in line in one go.

The Victor was always going to be the last built, but should be started this week. The Beaufort and Lightning have a lot of resin and photo etch parts so will take a bit of care building. Hopefully by next week some should be in painting and some at a near built stage. fingers crossed I keep going! I admit though I have enjoyed doing this again.

[ianf]

Well week 2 comes to an end so time for an update! Progress this week has been slower than I thought, through a few unexpected snags. First one stopped my Lightning and Beaufort was my super glue had dried up. I only do one big food shop a week so waited till I went to that to get a new glue from a store I was already in so no extra trip! The second came as a complete surprise The Harriers caused no end of snags, The quality varied quite a bit. The best one was the GR9 followed by the GR1 The 3 and 7 are the crudest and the three the worse fitting. The swift and Me110 went together without fuss. The biggest surprise was the Vega. This is a limited run kit with no injection lugs to line stuff up. But it went together beautifully a real joy to build. I have got some paint on too. So real progress.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7. The reason the post is later today was I have made some progress on the Lightning. But this photoetch stuff is tiny and takes a fair bit of concentration.


8.


With luck, next week should see a few of these finished and hopefully the last three will be built or well on the way.

[ArabJazzie]

Great progress but, keep it going!
Arabest,
Geoff.

[ianf]

Well week 3 was interesting, So what progress? Quite a lot, but with one major set back. more of later. The major project this week is Lindy. Having built Airfix's B2 I had a good idea what issues I would encounter. I wondered if some were me last time or not? The fuselage fit was a problem last time with the cockpit and nose wheel bay being a problem. I also found the air brakes difficult to align on the finished model. This time I took greater care with the wheel bay in its construction and fitting. I also fitted the Air brakes before joining the fuselage, this eliminated fitting issues.



The next shot gives you an idea how big a Victor is when I compare my Lightning which you see has jumped ahead since last week to the tail plane of the Victor.



Next the cockpit.



I then joined the fuselage. The only other non standard thing I did was leave the bomb bay floor out, you will see why later. The fuselage fitted much better, a tip have this op planned with plenty tape pre cut. The fit was much better but I cannot figure why this happened last time the nose wheel bay sits slightly to the right in alignment. not a problem, but something I will sort next build. Then I offered up the wing. This I had prebuilt taking much care on the alignment. I also installed the intakes. Last time I had problems fitting the intake vanes. So I was more careful and the lined up nicely.



The complete wing ready to join the fuselage.



Then the hard bit fitting the wing to fuselage. Because the fuselage was better aligned this went much better. That said next time I will test fit the wing more and file down the top of the fuselage under the wing fitting as it still stands slightly proud, but nothing like last time.



After this was cleaned up progress was rapid, with the fit of parts good. As you can see from the pic I have built the photo pack and added it and the bay tanks to the roof of the bay. I think they will look good as a stand alone model.





The model is almost ready to paint, but there is one thing I want to alter on the kit. Something I think Airfix missed. In the next shot you see the housing for the HDU (hose drum unit) you can see I have highlighted a ascribed panel.



Well on the real thing it isn't a panel it is this.



This is the under wing flood light, it illuminates the trailing edge at night. I intend to scratch build this. So for starters I will drill these panels out. The rest of the kits have not been neglected. The 110 is finished.





I did no work on the GR 7 & 9 but the rest have seen some painting with the Lightning closest to being completed.













Last one is the one I had an unexpected set back on. The swift was almost finished when I looked at it Thursday morning to find the canopy all clouded. It appears like it was caught in a superglue vapour. this was a puzzle as I have not used any on the swift. I had used superglue the day before, but not very close, I can only guess a cloud of vapour blew that way. unlikely but I do not know. The forward canopy is a right off, far to crazed. I could probably save the rear one. but I decided was their another option? So I looked on the Hannant's site and found they do have replacement vac formed canopys. I checked they are still open so I order them, the delivery time will probably be a lot longer than normal, but to be expected.



Quite an update this week, by next week quite a few will be finished and the 11th model I want to build the Beaufort should have been started. So far so good.

[ArabJazzie]

Great to see a setback didnt stop the flow!

Keep it up bud as i am taking notes on the Victor.
Stay Safe,
Geoff.

[ianf]

Geoff I will help any I can on Victors no problem. Well I have had another set back! I was prepping the swift and Lightning for decal-ling and was gloss varnishing using a spray can, which is usually neat enough. Remember I haven't modelled for a while. Anyhow I started to spray the nozzle a little stiff then the can let go and would not stop. I got the spray on as best I could then had to put hands round the can to get it outside to cool down. I think the polish is on even enough I won't tell till it dries. That is a first for me!

Ian

[ianf]

Week 4 and UKAR is updated! fingers crossed I can post the update ok
The start of the week started badly with the varnish, which did effect the finish on both the Lightning and Swift. I cleaned them up as best I could and had some success on the Lightning. The Swift less so, as you will see in the pics, which exaggerate the effect. You get a "bitty" type finish. Thursday I got some good news this arrived.



I had progressed the Swift to completion, it was only awaiting the canopy, which was sanded to shape and fitted and painted. So the end result was better than I feared it would be. But not what I wanted.





Next up was the Lightning. I intended to build the model to represent the last Lightning T5 I saw. This was in the static at Mildenhall in May 1988. I was without my normal transport that day and was relaying on a coach. They told us back by 5.pm Rumour went round said Lightnings were leaving for base at 5. So last time I would ever see one fly. No prizes for guessing back to coach by 5 was ignored! In fact even the coach driver did so! Sure enough out the came from the static and prepped for flight. The wait was worth it. Anyone familiar with a Lightning take off knows what happens next, low down the run way, select very loud button and go vertical!

This is the Lightning I intended to build.



So I was pleasantly surprised to see the decals were for the very same aircraft.



One thing the kit got wrong was the size of the Sqn emblem on the tail.





The Vega is also finished and was no problem at all.





The first of the five Harriers is finished namely the GR1





Three of this weeks finished aircraft.



Steady progress on the other Harriers mean they are likely to be finished, by next week.



The Victor has taken a back seat this week, but does have some paint on it. Like the real thing I am am putting paint on in sections.






I also started the Beaufort, but not enough progress to show yet. The next week should see the bulk done and I can concentrate on Lindy and the Beaufort.

[Ant.H]

Good progress, Swift doesn't look bad at all. I really like the Vega too, well done mate.

Just one crunch question -will the Victor have intake bungs that fall out if you blow hard enough??

[ianf]

Hi Ant ty for the comments. An interesting question you pose? I will answer for you, no there will not be any bungs added to my model of Lindy. The reason? If you look on the last picture, you will see the Artouste air intake door is open. This is because our houchin is not powerful enough to run our hydraulic pumps. I intend to model the HDU down, so we would have Artouste running. Although we can run it with main engine blanks in, we don't as a safety practice. It also allows us to dry or wet spin the engines at the same time.
Either you worked on them in service or have seen her minus a blank at some time at the museum? No matter how well you put them in the wind always wins in the end.
I do have the tools to do blanks though, I am also threatening her crew they may make an appearance in the final build

[Ant.H]

Hi Ian,

No hands on experience mate, I used to follow the Lindy diaries on "the other forum" and the one recurring job for you guys seemed to be hunting around the apron looking for the intake blanks after a stormy night!

Thanks for the HDU/Artouste explanation, alas I've never seen the Victor run although did catch a Nimrod run last year.

[ianf]

Ah Myself and Blue ran that thread. Blue moved on to the Meatbox. I'm still a Lindy lad. I stopped doing the thread because it appeared no interest was there for it, and I had ill health at the time. I have been pondering whether to bring it over here as we now have a location for it. I can tell you we still chase blanks, indeed some escaped during the shut down, so I am told. The folk looking after the site put them back in. Trust me when we get back to the museum we will be running again and will let you know.

[Ant.H]

I think the problem with the "other" forum, and forums in general, is that they often lack a "like" button, ie. there's lots of people appreciating the content but unless they actually post a reply you don't know it's appreciated.

With the likes of the Brunty Lightning thread (which also stopped on "that" forum), the Lindy thread, Meatbox, Newark etc, there were lots of great updates, questions, answers and perhaps most importantly of all a real appreciation of what actually goes into preserving and running these things.

If a Lindy thread made an appearance on UKAR I'd be very glad to see it.

[Fumbles]

Great work on the two seater Lighting cockpit! The photo etch that small would have drove me nuts and probably binned. The Vega I can only imagine being about the size of £5 coin at 1/72 So for the amount of detail I can just say wow! Looking forward as usual to seeing how the Victor finishes up in the end.

[ArabJazzie]

Some great models there bud, but that Vega!
Stay Safe,
Geoff.

[ianf]

Thanks guys. I also liked the Vega it built very well. Rod it isn't that small and we do not have £5 coins except for commemorations! Your right the photo etch stuff is very time consuming, gone are the days I can see them unaided.
I've another one finished to show you. This took 2 days to do the decals, because the big decals had to go on first as you will see the small ones went on top. Also there is close to 150 decals on the kit so kept me occupied!

The FA2 Sea Harrier


A Pity I never saw the real one.


The two small wing harriers.


Just for you Rod the Vega with the harriers, so you can scale the size.


I am slowing down a bit as they are needing a bit more attention, but the good news my eye is coming back too. Remember if you guys need any info on Victors and the model I do have the ultimate reference to work from!

[ianf]

Week 5 update, more progress. The majority of the week has been taken up putting the decals on the Harriers. So much so I know locations quite well! To start this update I will start with the only model not built, and as you will see there is a reason why I have left it till last.
I asked a friend who has built the Beaufort what was it like and he said not good. On opening the model I see what he meant. The quality of parts wasn't to bad, but they are basic. The instruction sheet is also quite vague, and it took a while to sort a few issues out. The first one was the rear turret. It gives you an option of one or 2 guns to go in it. and indeed there are both gun options in the kit. But the twin guns are also shown in the nose, but only one set of twin guns are in the kit. So the rear takes one the nose two. But here is something I have not encountered before, you have to cut the slots in the transparencies yourself.



I also thought something else wrong with the rear turret. It does not fit in the rear location. The turret should stand proud of the fuselage. Well here is were experience helps. I collect the Warpaint series of books originally started by Alan Hall. They are very useful for photographs and profiles, plus they have scale drawings in them. No 50 is the Beaufort and the first profile in the book is the one I intend to make. So armed with that I have modified one side to the correct profile, as you see in the picture of the fuselage taped together to show how wrong the original was. I will now profile the second side and final clean up the shape.





I have now a plan and an idea what I am doing so progress should be steady from here on.

The rest of the week I have been completing Harriers

First the 1/48 GR3






Then the GR9a






Finally the GR7






All 5 Harriers together.


So one week to my "deadline" and I have only 2 aircraft to finish. The beaufort should at least progress to being built. Lindy has a couple of modifications I wish to do before completing painting. Touch wood I won't be far away!

[ExVulcanGC]

Looking good and well done , how you managed to do all those models concurrently I will never know, I had enough problems with 3 and one is not yet finished as I am awaiting some decals and extras that I should be able to use for detail extras.

[Ant.H]

Nice builds, love the "mismatch" paintjob on the GR.9.

The Beaufort looks challenging, that turret aperture is the stuff of nightmares. I'm about to start a Fulmar from the same company, hoping it doesn't have any nasty surprises...

[ianf]

Week 6 already! The good news is I am still building and did not stop. But my goal to build and complete 11 models in this time failed. But for good reason. This week I started the Beaufort and hoped to finish Lindy. After a few days in this changed, because as I feared I keep thinking of more to add to Lindy! The other reason was the Beaufort. Special Models generally make good kits, extra care needed but good kits. This one mainly doesn't work because the instructions are vague. My guess is they are a mix of two different versions separately boxed.(there are parts in for a Mk 1) So I had to fall back on the scale drawings and photos I had. There was also the fits problems I encountered, more of later. So first Lindy. Airfix did not add the next item because it is totally unique to Lindy. She was the K2 prototype and as such had many different items on her at first. This item you will see below.


These plates you see below the serial are on both sides and was were the camera pylon for the trails was.

I cut some 10 thou plastic card to size which if interested is 1/2 inch by a 1/4 inch or actual size 3 feet by 18 inches Remember Lindy is an English jet built in imperial measurement times! and so was I I then added a second piece which you can see in the photo. and Thinned them down and attached.





Once they set I then thinned the smaller piece down even thinner, This was done after these shots. I also drilled out the underwing floodlight housings.



It was at this point, the Beaufort was starting to take up a lot of time. So I decided to concentrate on it. Once I sorted the turret opening out the main kit built reasonably well.



The undercarriage is 7 pieces and is particularly fiddly, these took time to assemble.





The propellers was a challenge as they came as separate blades and a resin hub. As you can see this was tiny and with no shaft was always going to snap on a finished model. So I drilled out the shaft, Drilled the engines out and made a new a shaft. I wasn't bothered about the props turning, but experiences shows a prop that move is less prone to snap a blade and in this case are removable for transport.







I was building a Mk 1a that had served on Malta and all the pictures showed them heavily weathered. Indeed the profile of the exact aircraft showed it in a very battered appearance. So I decided that was what I was doing. Which was possibly a blessing. I had finished the aircraft and put decals on before adding the canopy, when I did It gave me another shock, the canopy is wider than the fuselage and the starboard side window which is an extra piece was way to small! leaving a good 2 mm gap. Which is why in Blackbirds thread I mentioned Clearfix. I managed to "squash" the canopy in a bit but please don't look at the fit too closely without a major rebuild It won't be fixed. Still inspite of all this I have finished it and did enjoy building it as it was a real challenge.












So I actually built 11 models and finished 10 in 6 weeks, better than I thought I would do. Lindy should be done this week I hope. So at least one more update!

[Blackbird]

Great work again

Andy