RAF FG.1 XV571 WILD HARE Phantom Conversion

[Out2gtcha]

I know all about messy! I can tell the intakes are already heading in a great direction.

[Anthony in NZ]

On 12/17/2020 at 8:11 AM, Out2gtcha said:

I know all about messy! I can tell the intakes are already heading in a great direction.

Thanks Brian, oh and great tip on the JB Weld on your build thread, I am getting some asap!

 

So the next stage in building Spey intakes (well my way anyway, there is probably an easier way to go like engine blanks!) is to glue the resin trunking into the kit plastic parts. Notice the width increased at the inner section up against the fuselage, not midway.  Extending at the bleed vents was how the original mod was done, so I replicated that. Also the gaps were blanked off with plastic card.

 

From the top you can see where I brought the trunking up to and filled with card. Also note the slot on the kit corner part to lower the opening and more accurately portray the corner curve, I think I am within a mm or 2 now of the correct depth.  The top of the intake leading edge is being modified to 'square off' a little as per photo's.  With the kit intake shortened and the last section of vari ramp inside moved back to suit, the slightly shorter middle section becomes evident.  I will fix this when I figure out how to make it and represent the holes to look realistic.  

At this stage there was a LOT of filling and sanding with CA to blend everything in!!

 

Armed with @Derek B measurements of the rearmost part of the vari ramp, I just made one to the actual size in 1/32.  Bit of a risk, but I figured it would show up any issues when I tried to fit it.

Front surface got a line scribed in it for the new plastic piece to sit into on the front edge, then chiseled back to accept the thickness of the card stock.

 

Back surface with a small shim to transition nicely back into the trunking with bending out the straight panel.

 

Will it fit when cut to actual dimensions??

 

Almost perfectly with only minor sanding to fit..what a fluke and thanks Derek for those measurements.  The last section of ramp is quite long compared to the kit one as you can see. I must be close to having the sizing right overall...

I also used my belt sander and corrected the angle of where the fan face goes to match drawings and have both match.

Started priming with Mr surfacer now to find all the little blemishes

Both intakes are now looking really good, their openings are 14mm from the closed splitter to the front edge lip and I believe I have the opening/lip shape correct too.

Well that's the internals of the intakes taking shape, no doubt I will spend a fair bit more hours getting it all internally perfect and painted before gluing to the fuse.

 

Thats where the hard part starts!  There are some tricky and deceptive curves on the outside.

 

Was it all worth it for 1 mm or 2?  Hopefully the finished result will answer that, but you can see they are slightly wider and when placed up against the kit fuselage looks 'spot on' and definitely wider and 'Spey-like' to my eye.

 

Still a long way to go, but it has literally taken many hours to get to this point.  I think this is worth it though as these are the things that make the Brit Toom unique, so it is important to me to get this spot on.  Everyone looks at the intakes and drooping back end and its associated shapes.

 

Thanks for hanging in there chaps...I am still making progress, albeit slow as this is trickier than it looks.

 

Cheers Anthony

[jimbo59]

Great stuff! And merry Christmas!

[Kagemusha]

Those look great Anthony, have you thought about having some cast for those with the conversion? 

[Anthony in NZ]

11 hours ago, jimbo59 said:

Great stuff! And merry Christmas!

Thanks Jim, hope you're having a great day buddy!

 

5 hours ago, Kagemusha said:

Those look great Anthony, have you thought about having some cast for those with the conversion? 

It did cross my mind Andy, but I dont know if there are any LSP'ers with the conversion? I might give it some thought.  The thought of adding more load to me building this kit might be enough to put her on the SOD as I am pretty keen to glue these to he fuse and see progress..... but maybe I could make up another set?  I will give it some thought.

 

Thanks for tuning in gents and hanging in there with me!

 

Cheers Anthony 

[D.B. Andrus]

Beautiful work, Anthony!

 

Merry Christmas,

Damian

[thierry laurent]

Hi Anthony 

 

Great job on the Brit toom. One remark regarding the variramp: Tamiya made a noticeable mistake with regard to the number of hinges. I made a correction that is used by most Phantom intakes aftermarket producers. In your case have a look at AMS as Harold released the front section. This can be combined easily with what you already corrected.

 

Hth 

 

Thierry

 

 

[Anthony in NZ]

3 hours ago, D.B. Andrus said:

Beautiful work, Anthony!

 

Merry Christmas,

Damian

Thank you sir!  Hope you're have a great day yourself

 

7 minutes ago, thierry laurent said:

Hi Anthony 

 

Great job on the Brit toom. One remark regarding the variramp: Tamiya made a noticeable mistake with regard to the number of hinges. I made a correction that is used by most Phantom intakes aftermarket producers. In your case have a look at AMS as Harold released the front section. This can be combined easily with what you already corrected.

 

Hth 

 

Thierry

 

 

Aaaah ok, thanks Thierry.  I hadnt even looked at that to be honest.  Will check it out and modify to suit!  Thanks very much fpr the 'hease up', very much appreciated and what I need help with.

 

Cheers guys

Anthony

[Anthony in NZ]

Hmmm, I cant seem to find a pic of @Harold vari ramps to know what he did and if they are still available??

[Stokey Pete]

Ooo blimey, it’s coming along very nicely indeed. 

[AlbertD]

It sure looks like a lot of work but your accuracy and attention to detail will be well worth it in the end. 

[thierry laurent]

Hi Anthony.

 

This is the set AMS32066. It looks it is not currently available from SB. However, you can contact Harold directly to get them.

 

Here's what I did on the master. If you look closely at the Tamiya variramp and compare it with the full scale part, you will see that they did not reproduce the correct number of hinges (one is missing in each group) and they just reproduced them with oversized dimples. I also made some other minor corrections such as the contours and panel lines on the rear side. The set is made of a front and rear section for each side as I designed it to be usable on the Tamiya or Revell kits in combination with the kit or aftermarket resin intakes. The rear was also corrected (I filled all the holes). All corrections are very easy to do for an experienced modeller except the hinges. This took dozen of hours and or was very tricky to get identical port and starboard parts.

 

Hth 

 

Thierry

 

 

[thierry laurent]

By the way, other producers also used my parts but as far as I'm remembering only AMS released the variramps separately. For instance GT used them in their sets. Look on SB. I forgot I also made the movable sections and added the walls in the holes on the rear side. However, as far as I'm remembering that area was different on the Brit Phantoms.

[Greg W]

Some pics here...

 

AMS vari ramp images

[Anthony in NZ]

2 hours ago, thierry laurent said:

Hi Anthony.

 

This is the set AMS32066. It looks it is not currently available from SB. However, you can contact Harold directly to get them.

 

Here's what I did on the master. If you look closely at the Tamiya variramp and compare it with the full scale part, you will see that they did not reproduce the correct number of hinges (one is missing in each group) and they just reproduced them with oversized dimples. I also made some other minor corrections such as the contours and panel lines on the rear side. The set is made of a front and rear section for each side as I designed it to be usable on the Tamiya or Revell kits in combination with the kit or aftermarket resin intakes. The rear was also corrected (I filled all the holes). All corrections are very easy to do for an experienced modeller except the hinges. This took dozen of hours and or was very tricky to get identical port and starboard parts.

 

Hth 

 

Thierry

 

 

Thierry, the hinges look amazing!  I am going to have to get a set of those somehow, I will PM Harold and see if he can help me out

 

2 hours ago, GDW said:

Some pics here...

 

AMS vari ramp images

Thank you very much, I struggled to find images here.

 

Thanks gents, I am so pleased you pointed this out to me!

 

Cheers Anthony