So... Bristol Fighter is coming along withthe top wing mounted, but wow have I learned about rigging...

I started this build with the intent to make an aircraft I don't particularly care about that I got for cheap to practice what I refer to as "biplane skills," which are essentially making wood effects with oils, dealing with that second wing and, of course, rigging.

Well, two of three ain't totally bad, is it?

ANd I did learn what I will do in the future regarding rigging, which essentially will be that I will make/buy eyelets/anchor points and attach those to the wings before I rig the thing, as rigging the EZ Line straight to the wing seems fraught with difficulty and I got super glue all over the place compared to the precision builds I see others producing.

Here are the pics of where I am now.

As you can see, there is too much glue, especially on that last pic. I glued the EZ Line to the Glue Looper more than I glued it to theplane, but I have learned a lot, so I will finish this one, then feel more confident going forward on other biplanes.

It's all very fun, inventing new swear words...

-BD-

 

Ah yes, I love those early Brit jets. They are utterly unique and so cool. Can't wait to see it come together!

-BD-

I may have to try this on the Meteor camoflage I’m currently working on...

Well, when use Brits make a mistake, we don't go for half measures. We love to make things hard for ourselves. And destroying our own aviation industry was a right corker.

stikpusher

Yes, the British Aerospace Industry was a match for any on the planet until the ”White Paper” that said manned military aircraft were obsolete and missiles were the way of the future. The EE Lightning had ”supercruise” before anybody else even thought of the concept. The incredible TSR.2 was cancelled, and the Harrier would be the end of the line for pure British warplanes. All that followed would be international partnerships Jaguar, Tornado, Typhoon, Harriers beyond the GR.3...

Just like the “White Paper” that came along later which said aircraft carriers were obsolete and no longer needed. Had Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1983 instead of 1982, many ships (especially Hermès) that were crucial to the near run success of that operation would not have been there. 

Oh yes, I would put the Hawker Hunter on par with the F-86. Although a few years after the Sabre (1951 vs. 1947 first flights) it was a design with more potential and performance.

 

And we had not got rid of The Ark, they may never have invaded. And if they had, we certainly would not have lost the ships we did. And now we have not had a carrier for 7 years. Cleaver.

Yes, the British Aerospace Industry was a match for any on the planet until the ”White Paper” that said manned military aircraft were obsolete and missiles were the way of the future. The EE Lightning had ”supercruise” before anybody else even thought of the concept. The incredible TSR.2 was cancelled, and the Harrier would be the end of the line for pure British warplanes. All that followed would be international partnerships Jaguar, Tornado, Typhoon, Harriers beyond the GR.3...

Just like the “White Paper” that came along later which said aircraft carriers were obsolete and no longer needed. Had Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1983 instead of 1982, many ships (especially Hermès) that were crucial to the near run success of that operation would not have been there. 

Oh yes, I would put the Hawker Hunter on par with the F-86. Although a few years after the Sabre (1951 vs. 1947 first flights) it was a design with more potential and performance.

The UK came out of WWII with some very impressive technology. But for some reason in the next 15 years as technology grew more complex - and nationalism colored sales - they had a hard time putting all of the pieces together. (In some ways victory hurt the British economy more than defeat hurt Germany's.) On paper British airliners could have started the jet age in air travel. They were first off the mark. Maybe the resources spent to be first prevented deeper development - in any case the Boeing 707 ended up with the prize. British military jets were innovative (the Mig 15 prototype was fitted with a Rolls Royce engine) but there was nothing to match the F-86. I remember first driving a Mini Morris around 1964 - the same time the VW bug was entering the US. The Mini was a far better design - one of hsitory's best - transverse mounted front engine, excellent use of space, the heater sort of worked and it could take a corner without flipping over. That's the layout of almost every moderately priced car on the planet now. But the VW was very solidly built, more reliable and the company had pockets deep enough to establish a dealer network in the US and paired it with a classic advertising campaign. I remember reading the owner's manual on my first MGA: it suggested that you check the oil every morning and the company was sure Americans wouldn't mind living without windows. The horn was a button on the dash, and turning on lights an adventure. The third rate Italian designed VW called the Kharman Ghia outsold MGs even though it wasn't half the car. The flimsy dealer system and support even thwarted the incredible Jaguar XKE - I still dream about driving one. But they did get the Harrier right - one of great planes in history.

You fellas really know your aircraft.

Greg

Bish, thanks for the interesting information on the Vampire.

First Jet to cross the Atlantic AND land/takeoff on a carrier....that's impressive.

 

The design later morphed into the Venom/Sea Venom. Like the Wildcat into the Hellcat or Bearcat. Later the twin boom jet was carried to its ultimate development in the DeHavilland Sea Vixen. 

And like its predecessor the Mosquito, the Vampire used the same molded plywood for a good portion of its construction. 

Bish, thanks for the interesting information on the Vampire.

First Jet to cross the Atlantic AND land/takeoff on a carrier....that's impressive.

ISteve: Very nice build of the Vb. (Must say that tropical equipment doesn't help the lines of any fighter. US fighters didn't need them because they were built to fly in Alaska or the Panama Canal.) Encouraging about the Airfix. I've got my sites on their Wellington - ugly plane but one the most important planes few have ever heard of. Eric

Bish

Nice to see another post war build Stik, got you on the roster. From the loks of that PE and decals, this has been in the stash a while.

 

Actually this F.1 has been in my stash only a couple of years or so. I picked it up off a guy at IPMS who was thinning his stash. Now the decals and PE on the other hand I have had for many years longer for a F.3 in my stash for longer than those. I was going to do the F.3 in RAF, but after picking up the F.1, the F.3 is now slated to be a Mexican Air Force bird.

And for such a historically significant aircraft, the Vampire is seldom seen as a build subject.

Greg, the vampire is one of several post war British aircraft that don't get mutch attention, even over here. The vampire was the first jet to cross the Atlantic and also the first pure jet to both land and take off from an aircraft carrier, flown by Cpt Eric Brown. It was in service with the RAF until the mid 60's, having been introduced in 1946. The Sea vampire was the Royal Navys first jet fighter.

Gammy and Bish, no worries. We are in the middle of the Great Lakes snow belt. The weather media tries to scare us, we laugh. Thank you for your well-wishes.

Stik is back, ....cool!!! A Vampire, never heard of it. Looking forward to watching it come together.

Cheers for that info Steve, i'll keep an eye out for that. Will have to find some surpplies, can't say i have seen Round 2 kits here much. If all else fails, i'll try Starship modeler.

Greg, hope the storm doesn't cause any major issues. We are just in for plenty of rain this weekend.

Nice to see another post war build Stik, got you on the roster. From the loks of that PE and decals, this has been in the stash a while.

Ok, now that all my other in progress projects are completed and out of the way, I am turning here. I have not had the chance to pick up what I needed for my Hunter, so I will get on with what I have on hand... this one

 

besides, I have not seen a Vampire in here yet...

Greg: Never thought of using it like that. I pretty much always dunk my clear parts these days beforehand. Hope it works for you. 

And hope the snowstorm isn't too bad and you don't lose power or anything like that. We're just scheduled for a load of rain over the weekend. 

Thank you Greg for the nice welcome! I had signed on to an earlier group build here at FSM, but got too far behind to complete my commitment. This one should proceed nicely as I have plenty of time to finish.

Keep an eye out for new tooled actual 1/72 scale Space: 1999 kits Bish. Round 2 has a Hawk on deck completely retooled and in actaul 1/72 scale as opposed to the whatever scale of the old Airfix kit. After that, the Eagle is planned next, again completely new tool and again real 1/72 scale which should make it a bit bigger than the old MPC/Fundimensions/AMT kit and much more detailed. I've already pre-ordered the Hawk.

One of the reasons why I chose this kit Eric is because of the wonderful experience I had building the new tool Airfix 1/48 Vb (and the new Hurricane tool). It's very well engineered kit (with the glaring exception of the wheel struts), with very nice details and overall accuracy. I highly recommend both kits. You can see my build of the Vb here. My site is very much a "work in progress" right now, so there's not too much else to see there - yet. The kits coming out of Airfix lately have been really great. I have several other subjects in the stash from Airfix that I'm looking forward to building.

I'll be posting more build progress this weekend.

Bish, yes, one big mask not good for 3D contours with curved edges. I have taken for granted how well-designed the Eduard masks are, I guess.

Eric, looked up that punch. Thx. I'd buy one if the punch set was more than 2 sizes.

Gamera, you may have inadvertantly saved my day with you comment about spraying future over masked canopies before spraying color. Here's why, in case you're interested;

I didn't future this bare canopy. Sometimes I don't. I noticed whilst applying liquid mask on the canopy, it beaded leaving bare spots and I had to reappy. Same day, brush painting a clear part, noticed the paint beaded up. So I'm worried about paint adhering to my canonpy.

But since the dreaded Future seems to act as a pretty decent primer, all I have to do is blow on some future and hopefully problem solved. (can't prime 'cuz it'd be wrong interior color.

So long story, but thank you!!

Big snowstorm here, we even closed our work. So if I don't get some modeling accomplished today, shame on me!

Greg: Guilty as charged. Though I did dunk the canopy in Future the night before you posted to get her ready for masking. 

Eric: Thanks for the head's up about the tape punch. I hadn't heard about it. 

I've been using Eduard masks on most stuff. Four-seven bucks for a little square of pre-cut tape is highway robbery but honest to god I hate masking so much I'm glad to pay it. So far I've had very little problems with their masks. After masking I spray a little Future right into the masks. That 'seals' it since if anything is going to leak the Future is what leaks though and it seals up behind it. And since it's clear leaked Future doesn't show. 

Greg

Hmmm, haven't had that with Eduard as I'm sure you have not either.

In fact, sometimes the Eduard masks lay down on those curves as if they know where they are supposed to go.

 

I have never had a problem either. With Eduard i find thay often use to pieces of mask, which usually overlap and you hgave to fill in the middle with liquid mask. This is often on curved sections. So that clearly helps. The problem with the 109 is that the top section corved on both sides of the canopy and just after the curve was the edge of that clear panel, and this was covered with one mask. So its deffinetly some to watch out for.

Tamiya is selling a tape punch - makes 2 or 3mm circles depending on how configured. I'm not sure it will be worth the money, but the tool is for canopy masking. Almost all masks are a little off somewhere. If you have a small circle of tape (or half circle) you can use it to fill in areas that don't take curves readily. In theory you could get very clean lines - might even make it easier to mask your own. We'll see. I don't mask the inside - lot harder to fit in, although most Eduard masks I have do have inside masks. Uber guru Paul Pudzik uses adhesive metal foil and cuts it off with a pointed scalpel. I tried it once and was unsuccessful. If you use acrylic paints however, you can take some chances - maybe even paint a simple one free-style. If it fails, plop the clear part into some Lysol for 30 minutes and the paint is gone. Splendid paint striper and airbrush cleaning fluid - but it's got ammonia so you'd want to use a mask for brush cleaning. I've got the Tamiya tool - will report in when I use it. It sure does make tape circles though so tool is sound - have to see about the concept.

Hmmm, haven't had that with Eduard as I'm sure you have not either.

In fact, sometimes the Eduard masks lay down on those curves as if they know where they are supposed to go.

I like them, thoguh i have just found one weakness on my 109 build. they don't like curves in the canopy, especially when its clse to an edge. I found no matter what i did it would not stick down. I am hoping its just a one off, but i had no issues at all on my Stuka.

Bish, I keep thinking and then forgetting to try Montex mask sets. They sound good. Thanks for commenting.

Gammy, so I beat you on the 'putting it off' dept on this build, eh?

 

Greg: Looks good, I still haven't masked my canopy yet even though with the bubbletop there's not much to mask. 

I've masked the interior I think once, thankfully I've not built many subjects where it was necessary. 

Nice masking job Greg. I use pre made masks for most of my builds now, so much easier. I am surprised Eduard have not done masks for the inside. Some Montex do and its so much nice being able to paint the inside colour on the inside, just have to make sure theyare lined up properly. I am largely goping for the Montex masks now, though i did have an issue with my current 109 build.

I wonder if anyone enjoys masking canopies? I put it off, and off, and more. Then when I start it always amazes me how well the Eduard masks go on (I'm spoiled and pretty much won't buy a model airplane unless it has canopy masks).

I've never masked inside before, I know some folk do. This will be a car door version of the Tiffy and I stupidly chose to build it open so I kinda had to mask the inside of at least the door and the top. If anyone looks at it in real life and complains that the inside of the canopy is unmasked, I'll be very surprised. :)

Eduard was not thoughtful enough to supply those inside masks. I was surprised at how easy they were to cut and install.

I know this is a pretty pointless post, but I've been at it off and on all night and am a bit giddy.

First time I've seen fenders on aircraft landing gear. They look exceptionally cool down at scale, Nick.