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1/18 Fairey Firefly VX376


airscale

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks everyone :)

 

Can't believe it's been over a month since I last updated - life has got in the way, with a bit of returning to the office in London for the day job (sadly..)

 

On 9/10/2021 at 5:17 PM, Oldbaldguy said:

I’m sure you already have more source material than you can use, but you might want to take a minute to go to www.platinumfighters.com.  They have a late Firefly for sale and the listing has several very clear photos of the airplane that you may find interesting.

 

 

Well thansk OBG, they are really useful and high quality - much appreciated :)

 

 

On 9/11/2021 at 8:19 PM, brahman104 said:

Nothing I can say that others already haven't :) Where do you find those silver electrical sockets though? Or are they made with your magic? 

 

Craig

 

Hi Craig - I wish I could make them! No, I get things like that from RB Motion - they are car bits and the site is worth a surf for bobbins like that

 

So the build has lurched from highly precise focused detailing, to low end agrigultural heavy engineering.. I was getting carried away in the cockpit at a time when there is still loads of basic structural stuff to be done..

 

..first up, there is nothing for the UC bays - these are unfortunately really complex so I am going to have to simplify when the time comes to detailing as otherwise I will be in there for months on end..

 

..they don't look so bad here, but trust me there is a lot going on both structurally and in bits & bobs

 

credit to the photographer shown

r7MIB2.jpg

 

 

kWsHV4.jpg

 

..I started by taking a slice of the plan drawing I have and drawing out the area I need to cut out that sits below the skin - also added ribbing locations as far as I could determine from photo's

 

npoeXg.jpg

 

..then cut into the balsa cores - you can see the brass reinforcement plates put in ages ago to hold the gear legs later..

 

..you can also see how the wheel cut-out area eats right into the fuselage exposing the structure and lego blocks in there (!)...

 

Sdiqlo.jpg

 

..floors were marked out in card with the rib positions..

 

0geK32.jpg

 

..after the floors were added, walls were added and a few gaps & dinks filled in..

 

as the wings slide on and off the wheel bay area is fixed to the wing but slides out from the fuselage as one..

 

msVWqL.jpg

 

 

..and with a shot of primer the basics are there to build on - I have a guy coming from Axminster lathes on friday to fix my little C2 (no power) so hope to start turning the legs and epoxy in the mounting stubs in the next few weeks

 

buKw4y.jpg

 

..the next bit I had been putting off are the mould bucks for the transparencies - if you see the shape of the main hood you can see why I was stalling..

 

2mUkVU.jpg

 

..I also found this drawing which I took as good enough to get some profiles..

 

kck6sM.jpg

 

..first step was to get some outline boundaries from the plans and translate them to 3D so I can see basics like the angle of the windshield and the shapes generally..

 

4pCSyk.jpg

 

..I made up a plastic card frame with flat parts front and back so the blown bit starts at the right point - this is coloured black with a sharpie so I can see my sanding limit after I fill it - if you don't the card is white when you hit it and stays white while you sand right through the boundary (tell me how I know..)..

 

 

 

EJNrw3.jpg

 

fOaIqG.jpg

 

..filled with P38 and first pass sanded..

 

N3VGlq.jpg

 

..primered and nearly done - the blown bits look ok in the end..

 

OJZNRh.jpg

 

..same with the rear - balsa used to save on filler..

 

LJpI5V.jpg

 

YJvppM.jpg

 

..and this is where they are at..

 

JFji1e.jpg

 

kgMpaF.jpg

 

QgJ2CH.jpg

 

..anyone who has seen my build logs will know I HATE doing transparencies - they are my nemesis..

 

I spoke to John Wilkes (Tigger) and got some great advice on how to turn these masters into masters to actually get good pulls from. The main problem now is that these have a lot of filler & primer and the heat of the plastic causes that to melt, deform, delaminate onto your canopy etc. What he said was use them to get one good shape pull using PETG and the fill that pull with Filler like Herculite to make a better master that can take the punishment..

 

so that's where I am at - until next time

 

Peter

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Well that was definitely worth waiting for!!!!!!! :) 

 

It's amazing how a single post can belie the amount of work behind these photos, but that's just modelling to a tee isn't it? Fantastic to see some of the more "heavy handed" modelling elements. Fantastic base work for the sheer awesomeness to follow!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

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