1/18 Hawker Fury

[Derek B 4,554]

Personally, I always find it somewhat rewarding to see a biplane fuselage at a stage where it can sit on its own legs - it feels like a defining moment!

 

 

Great work on the side intakes Peter - more challenges overcome! I assume that the panel cut out (which appears to be equal-distant on photographs) is simply to allow easy panel removal and installation? I hope that your exhaust repair goes smoothly and without too much difficulty.

 

 

 

Your work is amazing in its ingenuity and I hope that your techniques and experiences are captured somewhere and are highlighted in huge letters so that we will always be able to readily find and refer to them! (not just for me, but also for all current and future model makers as well). Thank you for sharing your inspirational work.

 

Cheers

 

Derek

 

 

[JayW 2,491]

On 4/4/2021 at 10:54 AM, airscale said:

this was a write off of many hours work and the language was most anglo saxon..

LOL!  Oh how I can relate.  I believe we all can.  I'm still not over my last write off!

 

The blisters are a work of art.  You describe them as if they were somewhat easy.  If so can you elaborate?  I guess I still cannot wrap my head around the metal work.   I may have to look into this sport.  What is the material and the gage of the metal sheets you work with?  I am amazed how much they can be coaxed into compound curvature.

 

I would not have noticed the broken exhaust stack had you not mentioned it.  I offer no suggestions yet, but I'll bet you have put some "gray cells" on it already.  I will never ever forget the day I finished the two year long 1/18 Mustang project only to drop it on the floor and destroy the main landing gear and damage a couple other items.  The day of.  It took some serious thought and ingenuity to restore her.  I have no doubts you will have the Fury looking as if it never happened.

 

That brass template looks very useful.  May I ask where you got that?

 

  

Edited April 8 by JayW

[Starfighter 5,056]

A true work of art, Peter! 

[Oldbaldguy 646]

So I ask myself, "Where will he display this wonderous thing once it’s finished?  Surely he’ll not hide his light under a bushel in the attic where mine end up.”

[Out2gtcha 36,393]

Utterly amazing

[KiwiZac 287]

On 4/10/2021 at 5:19 AM, Oldbaldguy said:

So I ask myself, "Where will he display this wonderous thing once it’s finished?  Surely he’ll not hide his light under a bushel in the attic where mine end up.”

In all seriousness, my first thought was a museum. Not to tell Peter what to do but these builds could make up a museum in themselves!

[airscale 11,982]

evening folks

 

On 4/8/2021 at 2:53 PM, JayW said:

The blisters are a work of art.  You describe them as if they were somewhat easy.  If so can you elaborate?  I guess I still cannot wrap my head around the metal work.   I may have to look into this sport.  What is the material and the gage of the metal sheets you work with?  I am amazed how much they can be coaxed into compound curvature.

That brass template looks very useful.  May I ask where you got that?

 

Hi Jay - so the blisters are done by first making an acrylic perspex buck - I find this good solid stuff that is easy to work, but takes the punshment of being worked on

 

I use paper templates to get two of the axis right - plan & side and then just sand & shape

 

 

..then a bit of annealed litho is taped on one edge and the metal worked over the buck with a balsa block until it loosely conforms, then any kinks or ripples are worked out with a tiny hammer, and finally the shape fully tightened to the shape, particularly at the bottom with hardwood coffee stirrers from Starbucks..

 

..then it can be untaped and cut out with scissors and the edges worked with sanding sticks... at any time it can go back on the buck to retain shape, and the final action is to fill it with CA so it doesn't crush..

 

..the Template - I have no idea, but places like HLJ do a good range it might have been there

 

On 4/9/2021 at 6:19 PM, Oldbaldguy said:

So I ask myself, "Where will he display this wonderous thing once it’s finished?  Surely he’ll not hide his light under a bushel in the attic where mine end up.”

 

 

Well, I don't really know - likely my cabinet with the others, but Tangmere is not too far from me and I have been toying with doing a Tangmere bird and maybe they might take it (after I have finished looking at it )

 

so, a weekends work in a few pictures coming up..

 

..the radiator under the fuselage is quite a complex structure and now the PE bits I had made have arrived it was time to start..

 

..complicated nose with cut-outs and gills..

 

 

..rear with some details to capture..

 

 

..I started by translating drawings & pictures into templates to make a buck for a vacform copy..

 

the PE included radiator faces which while they can't be seen here have all the honeycomb detail..

 

..I started skinning the inside here - later I pulled all this off..

 

 

..it was when I cut the rear & front apertures I removed the inner skinning and redid it once all the cutting was done - here the rear first..

 

 

..the front has cutouts and I had made a PE template to get these right - I also left little tangs of litho around these as they wrap around rods each side that can be seen on the front view above

 

..also here I have added a fake central skin as I want to skin the front and back before adding a PE skin with all the rivet detail - the radiator on the real thing is one big unit that is a different colour metal so that works quite well..

 

 

 

..by now the skinning is complete, the rods added and the fake centre panel removed - I made this slightly oversize as there are gaps around the real one..

 

 

..with the centre panel attatched, it's time to start making the 10 cooling gills - the litho in front has been marked & scored on the back and each one was broken off, bent back on itself over a brass pin..

 

there is a mount in the throat with 10 holes to take them..

 

 

..not finished yet, but nearly there - a bit of work needs doing to get this to gel with the fuselage bottom..

 

 

 

 

..until next time

 

TTFN
Peter

[chuck540z3 9,772]

WOW!    Another update from Peter, another smile from me.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

[scvrobeson 3,715]

If you told me that the radiator worked, I'd believe you without question.  Fantastic update.

 

 

 

Matt 

[JayW 2,491]

Superb work.  Bringing the realism and lots of it!

 

[Jaro 53]

Amazing! The border between actual aircraft and reduced scale modelling is getting blurred!  (again)

[dodgem37 8,566]

That is marvelous.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[Out2gtcha 36,393]

6 hours ago, dodgem37 said:

That is marvelous.

 

+1!

[Rainer Hoffmann 1,677]

Whenever I think it can't get any better than this it get's better. Absolutely stunning work!

 

Rainer

[airscale 11,982]

thanks chaps

 

..just a quick one

 

I cut away the under fuselage to allow mating of the rad structure - the roof of the rad intake at the front seems also to have some sort of slat arrangement, but I only have a couple of oblique photos to work from so imagineered this bit..

 

..also the flat panel in front of it was let in by using a template glued on to cut away the skinning and then some work to flatten the underlying structure before adding a more detailed panel..

 

 

 

 

 

 

TTFN

Peter