MDC + Revell car door Hawker Typhoon kit bash

[mozart]

A busy productive day at the bench today cleaning up major parts then a start with construction with the engine bearers:

 

 

25 parts glued so far in this pic and only resting on the firewall to get the angle of the upper arms right, though the fit of the whole framework is very precise with no warping at all, and the engine sits like this:

 

 

Sorry about the old man's fingers inshot!  And a wider view of how most* bits fit in relationship to each other:

 

 

* don't know because I haven't yet looked about the multitude of anonymous cylindrical parts!  And the real thing:

 

 

What is clearly evident from the work so far is how important it is being as accurate as possible in construction; CMK have done their part, I hope I can do mine! 

Edited February 24 by mozart

[dennismcc]

Looks like real quality parts there Max, it will be interesting to see what you can make of it.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[mozart]

Feeling very optimistic right now Dennis, but early days! I knew these photos I took last year at the Jet Age museum would come in handy some when, absolutely perfect for my present needs!

 

 

It’s just such a shame that they have decided not to extend the engine bay further forward due to space constraints.

[mozart]

More bench time today as I work towards this beast:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dennismcc]

That is one impressive engine, a real beast, great photos

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Derek B]

This is going to be good....great start Max.

 

Derek

[wingman777]

This is the most detailed information I've ever seen pertaining to the mythical Sabre 24-cylinder monster.  I'm glad to see all the images and look forward to your progress.

[mozart]

Thank you Dennis, Derek and Wingman.  I watched an interesting you-tube film this morning about the development of the Napier engines that led to the Sabre, I was astonished to hear that Rolls Royce who were working on their Kestrel, Vulture and Merlin engines actually campaigned against the Napier company to the Air Ministry - they didn't want the competition!  Quite amazing in the increasingly desperate times of the late 1930s when it became apparent that war was going to happen.

 

This graph was part of the programme:

 

which shows the specific power in blue and the power to weight ratio in red of the (l to r) Merlin 130, Allison V1710, DB605DC, Griffon 130, Sabre E122 and P&W R2800 engines. The advantage of the Sabre is clear in both respects.

[mozart]

The fit of the CMK firewall inside the Revell fuselage is quite a surprise! 
 

 

I’ll need to do a lot of hacking to the MDC front end to get an accurate fit like this, so I’m going to make a template from the CMK firewall to use for trial fitting later rather than the actual one. 

[Martinnfb]

Most ambitious project Max, will follow with interest. 

Cheers

Martin

[mozart]

1 hour ago, Martinnfb said:

Most ambitious project Max, will follow with interest. 

Cheers

Martin

Some might say foolhardy Martin, but it's the kind of thing I enjoy and usually seem to end up doing!  

 

I'm in danger of getting ahead of myself but once I start a project my mind is constantly thinking around the various options and methods of achieving them.  So, having tried out the fit of the firewall in the Revell Typhoon, I had to see how it fitted into the MDC one, expecting as mentioned above, lots of hacking.  But:

 

 

...not so!  Just a few minutes with a sanding block...promising.  It was a small step from there to:

 

 

I think technically the Revell firewall needs to go, and it may do when a more complete fit is trialled, but again things look quite promising.

 

With the engine exposed and the panels removed, what would the ground crew do with them?

 

 

So I need to have some panels; different ideas came to mind, possibly thinning the panels that I have cut off the MDC Typhoon, or making some replicas out of thin metal sheet or (small eureka moment) start off with the Revell plastic panels:

 

 

The poor old Revell kit is looking very sorry for itself, but it's all for the greater good!

[mozart]

I ordered the Arthur Bentley drawings for the Typhoon, superb of course and a fantastic reference. The cut-away when scaled to 1/32 was reassuring:

 

 

and gives a positive guide for the engine bearers, firewall etc when cutting away the nose:

 

 

The engine is coming together in a series of sub-assemblies….fiddly work….photos later.

[Derek B]

32 minutes ago, mozart said:

I ordered the Arthur Bentley drawings for the Typhoon, superb of course and a fantastic reference. The cut-away when scaled to 1/32 was reassuring:

 

 

and gives a positive guide for the engine bearers, firewall etc when cutting away the nose:

 

 

The engine is coming together in a series of sub-assemblies….fiddly work….photos later.

 

Very reassuring indeed Max - the MDC Typhoon is very accurate throughout. I used his drawings when I mastered a Hawker Tempest kit for MDC, using the MDC Typhoon fuselage as a starting point and a new scratch built wing...I don't think that that particular kit ever progressed with MDC.

 

Regards

 

Derek 

[mozart]

That’s interesting to know Derek, what a shame the Tempest didn’t see the light of day though. 

[dennismcc]

3 hours ago, mozart said:

That’s interesting to know Derek, what a shame the Tempest didn’t see the light of day though. 

That was one of the reasons for me to buy the Typhoon, as encouragement for the Tempest.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis