HKM Meteor, with T7 Conversion

[Dpgsbody55]

Just less than a year ago, I was all set to start my next project, the HKM Meteor 4 with the Fisher Model & Pattern T7 conversion kit.  I thought I'd tinker with it for a while then enter it into the Multi Engine group build.  Unfortunately, real life hit hard in October last year when I took my little brother off to hospital as he looked ghastly.  I quickly got the news that he had terminal cancer, so modelling got hastily put aside while I looked after him and his affairs until he passed in May.  I'm still trying to wrap up his estate, but at least now I can clear the modelling desk of his affairs and take up the very welcome distraction of model building again.  Life sucks at times.

 

So here's the model, which (if I don't run out of talent ) will be converted to a Mk7 Trainer.  And once again, I'll have another crack at the Profimodeller engine as I wasn't entirely happy with my previous result.

 

 

 

There will, I hope, be 2 engines this time, so fingers crossed it all goes well.  I've never done a conversion like this, so wish me luck.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

I've almost finished the front cockpit.  All that remains is the pilot's shoulder harness.  Here's a few images as I put it together.

 

Cockpit right side.

 

Left side and floor.

 

 

Completed cockpit tub.

 

 

 

Please excuse my rubbish photography.  Looking at these images, I appear to have forgotten how to use a camera .  It's a new camera too, so I have that excuse.

 

That's it for now.  The cockpit tub is now installed in the front fuselage half.  Next stage is to add the nose weight and glue the fuselage halves together.  The built up rear cockpit is inserted into the completed front fuselage once I've built it.  No cutting of the kit parts has happened yet and I haven't touched a part in the kit at this stage, other than the front undercarriage mount.  So if I screw this up, I can still build a Mk4 again.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Good project, Michael. I have the Profimodeller engine set somewhere too, and intend to deploy it in one of my Meteor kits some day. So sorry to hear about your brother, too. My condolences.

 

Kev

[RadBaron]

My condolences to you and yours, mate, that's a tragic story

 

Looking forward to the build, hopefully itll be a welcome distraction for you.

[mozart]

Good luck with your build Michael, it’s one that I was going to do but eventually sold it (foolishly!).  Love Meteors, and the HK one isn’t bad at all. I was looking at one at Moorabbin the other day, it never ceases to surprise me how stubby the wings were!  

It’s worth looking for the G-Factor undercarriage if you can find one.

Edited September 17, 2019 by mozart

[Kagemusha]

Sincere condolences for the loss of your brother, Michael. 

 

Great project, will be following along. 

 

Andy 

[R Palimaka]

I'm so sorry for the loss of your brother, what a tragedy and a shock.

 

This is a great project, and you should end up with something very unique. Good luck masking the canopy on that thing though. 

 

I would love to see a Meteor NF.14 someday...

 

Richard

[Dpgsbody55]

Thank you all for your very kind condolences.  It's very much appreciated and as my brother's death has affected me more than I thought.  Alas I've been through this before, but that experience taught me that I'll get through it again.  But please don't feel too sorry for me.  One thing I've learned in life is that no matter how bad you think you have it, you'll always find someone doing it tougher.  That's life I'm afraid.  Good bits and bad bits.  Enough of this though.  On with the model.

 

After finishing the cockpit, I mounted it in the right side fuselage half, only to find that the kit supplied nose weight would no long fit.  It appears that the T7 instrument panel is different to the MkIV panel and protrudes further forward.  So out to the garage to find a file to make a notch in the weight.

 

 

You can see how the panel protrudes into the nose weight, and the amount I had to take out.  I wanted to take out as little as possible to ensure that the completed model doesn't sit on it's tail.

 

 

But I finished up adding extra weight anyway into the space behind the wheel well.  An old tire weight sacrificed part of itself to the cause, after persuasion from a hammer.  Even though this conversion places the weight about an inch further forward and will therefore provide better leverage to make it sit on the nose wheel, I erred on the side of caution as I'd hate to have it be a tail sitter after it's finished.  This will be a heavy model when it's completed.

 

 

I've painted the back of the cockpit as this will also be the front wall of the instructor's cockpit which will be visible on completion.  After that, the left side of the fuselage was glued into place. After this had dried, I did a little tidy up of the joint and got on with the instructor's cockpit.  Here's the main components.  The rear of the cockpit has already been glued on to the floor.

 

 

Next up, the control column, left side and oxygen bottles were glued and that assembly taped together and left to dry.

 

 

Then the right side and top coaming were added.

 

 

 

You may notice that the instructor's seat and instrument panel have not yet been added.  This assembly is pushed in through the rear of the fuselage, and it's a tight fit which is a testament to the quality of this conversion kit.  The IP cannot be added as it attaches to the fuselage sides and would stop the cockpit being added, and the seat can't be added yet as another piece has to go in behind later.  Here's the two cockpits glued into the fuselage.

 

 

I drizzled some CA glue along the floor ribs where they butt against the bottom of the fuselage, as well as along the cockpit rear wall and fuselage sides, then clamped it all tightly into place.  As is common with resin kits, one or two parts are twisted, but soaking in hot water has largely fixed this, and the clamp was used to further ensure that all was square.

 

The instructions say that this assembly can be glued on to the HKM kit now, and the instrument panel and seat are added much later.  However, I have a very delicate IP sitting around on my desk that I don't want broken and I can't see why it shouldn't be added now, so that is what I've done. Here's the panel.  Those levers and that handle are too easily broken for me to leave lying about on the modelling desk.

 

 

And here it is in situ.  It was quite a pfaff manoeuvering it into place as it's wider than the opening in the fuselage.  I also had to be careful not to break the control column getting it in, as that fowls too as you fit this in place.  Here's the fuselage assembly now.

 

 

 

At this point, I still have to add the gunsight, pilot's seat shoulder harness and instructor's seat and harness.  The instructor's seat and harness can't go in yet as there's another part that slides down into the rear of the rear cockpit which needs to go in first.  I'll do the pilot's seat shoulder harness when I also do the Instructors.  The gunsight can wait until I'm ready to put the windshield into place, and that won't be for a long time yet.  With all the weight added, this piece is very heavy and it's a good thing the joint with the HKM kit is not a simple butt joint.  As Max (Mozart) has suggested, I think I'll need to consider metal after market undercarriage, and I agree that brass is the way to go on this kit as white metal bends too easily.  This model will actually be 4 kits in one model when it's done (HKM kit, Fisher T7 conversion and 2 Profimodeler engines) so it will be very heavy as plastic kits go. That said, my three year old MkIV Meteor is still standing properly on it's plastic undercarriage with no sign of flexing and that had extra weight added too.

 

So that's where the project is presently.  Next up will be to make the engines and put them into the wings, then make up the fuselage.  After that, I'll have to hold my breath as I chop the nose off the HKM kit, and the front off the fuselage portion of the wings.  I'm not sure whether to chop the fuselage nose off each HKM kit fuselage half then glue them together, of glue the HKM fuselage together than chop it.  Still thinking about that and I've marked out the cut with tape as the next picture shows. 

 

 

The cut will be along the front edge of the thin tape, and you can just see tape on the wing bottom where that cut will be.  You also get an idea of how much monger the finished kit will be from this shot.

 

So as I said, engines next.  One day, I'll get to glue some plastic .

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

 

Edited September 21, 2019 by Dpgsbody55

[Dpgsbody55]

Small update on the engines.  I'm about 60% done with the left engine.  Here's the Profimodeler kit, all laid out before assembly.

 

 

Lots of resin with not a lot of detail moulded in.  I won't be using all the parts as I won't be building the dummy right side bits. 

 

A little progress.  I started by gluing the engine centre to the power turbine , then painted the centre in steel.  Then I glued the combustion chamber flanges together, front to back, and glued these to the combustion chambers after cleaning off the fret nibs.  This is very fiddly and you all know what working with superglue and tiny bits is like.  The medium sized brass photo etch at top shows the combustion chamber flanges removed.  Compare this to the picture above and you'll see what I've cut out.  Lots of .  It gets worse.  The combustion chambers have nothing to indicate where to glue the flanges should be glued.  You need pics to compare to.  For anyone contemplating building this add on to your Meteor, here's a link to a walkaround I posted on this site:

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/walkaround/wk.php?wid=181

 

 

You can also see three of the combustion chambers attached to the engine centre.  The pen is only there to stop the assembly rolling on to it's side, but it also gives you an idea of size at this stage.

 

The next shot is the combustion chambers all glued on with some more brass detail glued in, as well as the intake turbine now in place.  The other bits are the blast tube  with it's fins installed,  the rear engine mount, and engine lubrication bits which will go on the front of the engine.  You'll notice that I haven't yet painted the rear power turbine, as I am holding the model engine by this part as I make it up.  On my Meteor 4 build, I painted everything as I put it together and had to do a major repaint at the end as continually handling it ruined the paint.

 

 

Last up is a close up of the blast tube and two of the fins glued inside.  Next up will be to ad a little more detail to the combustion area, then add the four fins onto the power turbine cone, which will be at 45 degrees to the fins on the blast tube which will be carefully added then.  The blast tube will need to be added square on, as there's a smaller blast tube to go on partially inside this much later.

 

 

That's it for the moment.  I'm hoping to get this engine finished and ready to mount in the next week, then start all over again on the other engine.

 

 

Cheers,

[Kagemusha]

Great progress, that engine looks to be a kit and a half, and some, and you're doing it twice..? 

[Dpgsbody55]

That's correct, Kagemusha, which is perhaps a statement about my sanity levels . 

 

I remember building a Meteor as a kid, in 1/72, and wished it was available in a larger scale.  HKM's kit is very nice with parts that fit well and good detail on surfaces and parts, but if you wanted to, you could easily build it in a week.  It needs more parts such as the engines to be included in the kit.  They do provide an upper wing with the engine access panel as a separate part, but if you lift it off, there's nothing inside.  I've previously built this kit and included the Profimodeller engine, and while it's not an easy build, I'm very happy that they make an engine for this kit.  I like to see an engine included in my build as I'm as interested in the plane as what powers it.  But after finishing that kit, I thought that I should have built a second engine for the kit too.

 

When I decided to build another Meteor after seeing the T7 conversion,  I thought I'd correct that mistake, hence the second engine.  I probably won't build another Meteor, so this is my "ultimate" build on this subject.  Both HKM's kit and the Profimodeler kit are a bit lacking in their own way, but put them together and you have a very impressive display.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Kagemusha]

I remember building the Frog 1/72 kit a long, long, time ago. Really liked the box art with a couple of Dutch aircraft flying low. 

 

I've a couple of HKM Meteors in the loft, a T. 7 conversion, and an FR. 9 conversion, have thought about getting an engine for its historical significance, but then I prefer the clean look of the aircraft, so looking forward to seeing your model complete, but needless to say, enjoying the journey. 

[Dpgsbody55]

I think you'll enjoy doing the Meteor and both those conversions, Kagemusha.  I think the engine is worth the fiddle, should you decide to include one, but it may test your patience.  Either way, make sure you have plenty of CA glue on hand, as well as some acetone .  I hope you will share your build when you get to it as I'd love to see what you do.

 

A little more progress to report, after quite a few hours more work.  I've added the interior detail to the engine nacelles, and finished the first engine.  I've also made the first cut in the kit parts to accommodate the new T7 forward fuselage.

 

The lower wing has to be shortened to fit the conversion, and this has now been done.  I used vinyl tape to mark my cut and used a razor saw to slowly and carefully make my cut.  If it's skewiff, the nose will look like a boxers schnoz when you've finished.  Here's a shot of the wing components with some of the brass detail added.  The white plastic is added to help location of the rear engine bearer.

 

 

Next is a picture of the wing top with brass detail added, the engine in progress and the intakes with their resin and brass added.

 

 

 

 

Last up are some shots of the (almost) completed engine.  I still have to add the front engine mounts and finish painting the jet pipe.  The jet pipe is not fully painted as I needed somewhere to hold the engine, and it won't be seen anyway when it's fully installed.  The engine mounts need careful placing once the rear bearer is added to the lower wing to work out exactly how they're supposed to attach to the engine.  I won't be gluing the engine yet as I will be using it for a reference for the second engine.

 

 

 

In the photo above, the unpainted ring around the power turbine is where the rear engine bearer will go.

 

 

Some plumbing is included in the Profimodeller kit for the area around the front of the engine, but I've also added plumbing around the combustion chambers for a little more detail.

 

That's it for the moment.  This week, I'll be making a start on the other engine, but I don't expect to get it finished quickly.  I'm also off to Melbourne for Motorclassica next weekend, so a small break from modelling.  Hopefully the next update should have the engines in place, then I can actually glue some plastic, not resin, which would be nice.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

 

[Dpgsbody55]

Well it's been longer than I expected, for which I apologise.  The trip to Melbourne was great, and I thoroughly enjoyed Motorclassica.  If you're a car nut like me, I can highly recommend it.  And my favourite car on display won the concours too.   This year marks the centenary of Alvis, Bentley and Citroen, as well as the 60th aniversary of Mini, so lot of each of those on display, as well as plenty more.

 

https://motorclassica.com.au/features/concours-delegance/australian-international-concours-d-elegance-2019-winners/

 

But back to the model.  I haven't quite got to where I wanted to in the last update, but I'm close.  This first shot shows the finished engine installed in the left nacelle, and the right engine still a work in progress.

 

 

Next up is the rear jet pipe and exhaust installed, and the right hand engine has progressed.  I've also glued the flap in place in preparation for the top wing to be attached.

 

 

Next, the intake section has been glued in.

 

 

The next shot shows the top wing now glued in place, with the now completed right hand engine laid in place, but not yet glued.  This was done tonight.  The paint is still wet on the jet pipe, and the front engine mounts have only just been glued on and they're presently setting in place before I glue the engine in tomorrow. (I hope!!)

 

 

Here's a shot looking in the front of the left nacelle, showing all the ducting and a little of the engine detail.  This is so much better than the one piece blank provided in the kit.

 

 

Lastly, here's a picture of the right hand engine all complete.  Again, I've added more detail other than the plumbing around the front of the engine, in particular all the fuel delivery pipes to the combustion chambers, as well as a couple of other wires which I suspect are combustion temperature related.

 

 

Hopefully this weekend I'll get time to install this permanently into the wing, together with the rear jet pipe and front intake, then glue on the right hand top wing.  I was going to leave the left top wing off and install the left engine before gluing the top wings on, but an accident with the left engine coming out of the wing while I was aligning the partially complete right engine caused a change of heart.  Thankfully there was very little damage to the left engine and all is well now.  It can't go anywhere once the top wing is in place.

 

The Fisher kit does provide improved re-profiled nacelle fronts (leading end), but with the Profimodeller including intake ducting I decided that it would be too much of a pfaff to cut the front of the nacelle off, line up the new Fisher part while also trying to line up the intake ducting.  I'd need three hands!!  The front ducting has to go in as it also has some of the nacelle inner structure attached which I think adds more to the model than what looks to my eye as a tiny difference in the front of the nacelle profile.  So the decision was taken to leave them out of this build.

 

That's it for now.  Hopefully more in the next week or so.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

Progress has been a bit quicker than I thought.  I've managed to spend a bit more time at the bench and I've now reached a point where I can see what this thing is going to look like, which is very pleasing.   At long last, I get to do some serious plastic work instead of resin and CA glue!!

 

Very soon after the last update, I got the engine mounted in the right hand nacelle.  The rear jet pipe and front intake were added as soon as the engine was firmly in place.  On both wings, I used the top wing to ensure fitment and alignment before gluing the top wing and aileron in place.

 

 

Once this was dry, I spent some time cleaning up all the joints, but thanks to good fitment of the HKM kit pieces, this didn't take too long with very little filler required.  While waiting for the filler to dry, I added a little bit of plastic back to the cut surface of the lower wing, as the resin T7 forward fuselage isn't quite straight.  This is the white strip you can see on the lower fuselage/wing joint above.  I also cut the HKM kit fuselage down in preparation for the conversion.

 

 

At this point, the fuselage has not been glued, but simply taped together.  I've never done this sort of thing before, so a lot of time was spent thinking about making this cut.  I used a hand held razor saw and took my time.  I'm very happy with the result as it's needed very little adjustment.

 

Before gluing the shortened fuselage halves together, I added some extra alignment tabs made from part numbers from the kit sprues.  The upper fuselage joint in particular is very long and there's not many alignment pins.  I remembered from my Mk 4 build that this can be a slightly wavy joint, so this has helped reduce the amount of cleaning up and filler needed.

 

 

The next shots show the assembled fuselage and almost completed wing ready to go together.  I painted the rudder mostly so that I could be sure the rudder spine was properly painted.  I've also added a spreader bar in the front of the fuselage to make up for the distortion caused by the loss of the forward fuselage, as well as adding some spacer to the wheel well to help with fuselage/wing alignment.  On testing, I found that the cut down fuselage sat a little too low in the wing.

 

 

 

Next up is the wing and tail plane going together.  The engine covers are taped in place to protect the engines.  I've wondered if this is what the actual T7 prototype looked like during construction, as it was built by Glosters as a private venture from the remains of their Mk 4 demonstrator that had been crashed while Glosters were attempting to sell the plane to the Belgians in 1948.

 

 

After cleaning up the tape residue and the tail plane joint, I added the elevators.  The wing and tail plane joints on this need very little cleaning.  After cleaning up the excess glue, all that was needed was a touch of Mr Surfacer 500.  This was also used to fill a small sink mark on each side of the wing fillet.  On this kit, I've decided to clean up each of the major component joints before the next is added and have found this a better way to go.

 

 

Late this afternoon, I added the T7 conversion, so now it looks like a plane and you can see how this is likely to look as a finished model.  I had spent a while checking the vertical and horizontal alignment and added a couple of filler pieces from strip plastic, but much of this has been filed away and the joint is reasonably tight.

 

 

 

The ruler starts to give you an idea as to how big it is.  The Mk 4 I built two years back is 395mm long and 355mm in wingspan, but the T7 conversion makes the model 425mm in length.  It's also noticeably heavier than my Mk 4 which has the standard plastic undercarriage legs under it.  These have survived well but this model has the extra weight of two engines instead of one, as well as the extra weight of the T7 resin conversion and the nose weights.  So I've ordered some brass undercarriage legs from Hobbylink USA on Sunday so I hope they show up soon.  I certainly hope so, given the cost of postage from the USA to Aus (more than the cost of the parts....).

 

So that's it at this stage.  Next up will be to clean up the resin/plastic joint and fair it in to the plastic part of the fuselage.  The left side has a gap caused by a variance in the profile of the resin fuselage to the plastic fuselage on that side, so the issue lies with the resin as all panel joints line up and the components also line up properly.  I'm going to take my time with this as a rush job will ruin the completed model.  Then I'll complete the the cockpit.  The instructions for the conversion kit say to do it this way, so that's what I'll be doing.  There is a back wall to go into the rear cockpit, which serves to position a fairing at the back of the canopy.  This fairing will also bridge the joint making it stronger.  After that, I can put the rear cockpit seat in and both sets of shoulder harnesses.  I also have to decide about the gun sight provided in the conversion kit, as to the best of my knowledge, T7's were unarmed so no gun sight would be fitted.  Then it's painting, markings and final assembly.  The canopy is complex so I suspect this will also slow me down some.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael