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Tornado F3


ericg

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3 pages in and the conversions still not available!

 

Not good enough, I want one now :lol:

 

In fact the quality looks that good, I want it yesterday...

You will just have to wait!From the quality of the pre-production parts it is obvious that he wants them to go to the market as perfect as possible.

 

Tim is contributing to this thread, so I am sure he will pass on more details as they come to hand.

 

Eric.

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More work. It was now time to cut the kit up for the major join in the fuselage. Upon first inspection, the join looked a little complicated, but it was relatively straight forward. Here is how I did it.

 

I drew a straight line on the centreline of the fuselage.

 

24-X3.jpg

 

Using dymo tape I then scribed the panel line that exists at the front edge of the main gear bay across to the centreline. This was deepend as per previous methods.

 

25-X3.jpg

 

I then marked out a line on the side of the fuselage ready for cutting

 

26-X3.jpg

 

Once the part was cut out of the fuselage and some minor locating lugs inside it were removed, the new part was slid into place.

 

31-X3.jpg

 

29-X3.jpg

 

The topside, once again, a perfect fit. There is a large rebate engineered into this part, both top and bottom to allow for a large amount of strength in this join.

 

30-X3.jpg

 

The new tail fillet. Notice that the rudder on the kit has a straight bottom edge, whereas the new part is kinked where it will meet the rudder.

 

21-X3.jpg

 

The new part fitted, with a suitable modification made to the kit rudder. The small locating lug on the bottom of the rudder is accommodated in the new part which has a hole that locks into it.

 

22-X3.jpg

 

The tail fillet also requires some modification of the rear lip of the fuselage

 

19-X3.jpg

 

Dry fitted.

 

23-X3.jpg

Edited by ericg
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More work. It was now time for the final plug to be fitted to the tail. Once again this part has been nicely designed and is quite strong. The cut needed to be along the first panel line aft of the airbrake wells.

 

14-X3.jpg

 

Once I worked out where the cut needed to be made, I was left with working out how to mark it out. the fuselage is slanted and also curved, so normal dymo tape or straight edge wasn't going to work. I found that by placing a shim under one half, I was able to make the fuselage perpendicular to my workbench.

 

15-X3.jpg

 

This then allowed me to position a pencil at the correct height and rotate the pencil around the fuselage to give a line in the correct position.

 

16-X3.jpg

 

I then very carefully cut along the pencil line and separated each part.

 

17-X3.jpg

 

The front side of the part fits into the fuselage exactly, and accommodates the undersides of the air brake wells.

 

18-X3.jpg

 

Now the major parts of the conversion are complete. There are still many more small things to address, including modifying the cockpit, extension of the leading edges of the wing roots, sidewinder rails etc etc.

 

27-X3.jpg

 

28-X3.jpg

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You will find the bulkhead with the engine fans will beef up the assembly even more. To be honest, the kit parts twanging all over the place was the most challenging part of this project, nothing seemed to stay put! Looking good so far Eric!!

Edited by wunwinglow
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