Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion **FINISHED**

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JamesPerrin
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Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion **FINISHED**

Post by JamesPerrin »

Lots of excitement about Javelins at the moment with the news of Airfix releasing it in 1/48. To be honest I've never found it to be the most exciting of British Jets and when I built the kit in my youth it kind of confirmed it. It's just a big triangle and like the Supermarine Swift only really did what it was meant to after a lot of development and then only for a short service span.

I still however wanted one for my collection and when I spotted this at Telford 2011 I snapped it up at the £8 asking price (bless Heritages cotton socks). I wanted to build a fighter (All Weather) variant this time around. I might have gone for the Airfix FAW9 expect I didn't know it was a re-tool of the Heller T3 and I knew the later to be a good kit and I liked the pen-nibbed exhaust of the gun toting marks. Adding the pen nib to the FAW9 would be an easier choice but the Airfix kit seems to be commanding prices north of £18... and I'm a tight wad! ;-)

Due to my impression as a youth that it was a bit of a blanks slate I decided that I would give it the full "Mike Grant" treatment. I plan to fully rescribe, jazz up the cokpit with some PE and droop the tailplane which seems characteristic of the aircraft when parked and missing from several builds I've seen. There is an inspiring super detail build of the Airfix kit running on BM which helped spur me to make a start on this.

I will be posting when sections of work are complete rather than as it happens. This is partially due to circumstances and partially to try and be a bit more efficient, it probably won't last but we'll see. I have completed the first three areas of work and will post these up when I have the time.

Here are the bits you get. Some reasonable raised detail and some nice crisply moulded cockpit and undercarriage. Though this boxing shows the ubiquitous belly tanks on the front and in the profiles they aren't present in the kit. They were added by Airfix in their re-tool. A big thanks to Old_Tonto who sent me the tanks and the fighters lowered canopy which are really necessary for this to be a goer. I managed to score some old SAM decals for the Javelin one of which I can make work for the FAW6 and have acquired the Airwaves PE for the FAW9.

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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by PaulBradley »

Ooh, this will be very interesting.
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by Stamford »

Not the most appealing of the cold war jets I agree, it always looked like someone had trod on it to me! I´m sure you can turn it into a looker though James.
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by Barry »

I, on the other hand, have always liked the deltas in general and this one in particular. No idea how it performed in real life, but I like the look of it. Looking forward to the ride.
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by Eric Mc »

I've always liked the Javelin. It was a big old beast and probably not the best interceptor in the world at the time.

It was also unique in that it was one of the few fighters that, when you engaged afterburner, it went slower!
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by Wookie13 »

It was also to quote my father the noisiest jet ever. They used to take off from RAF Middleton St George over our house - me I wouldn't know I slept through it in my pram!
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by Nax »

Looking forward to your build Jame's, I like the Javelin, it's one of those planes that, to me look a little out of proportion, the cockpit and nose look a little to big for the rest of the plane and I like that in a build. ;-)
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by Old_Tonto »

Really looking forward to seeing this one James.

I always think 'Gerry Anderson' when I see one of these.

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Re-scribing

Post by JamesPerrin »

The large flat shape of the Javelin with little fuselage on show makes it a good choice for attempted a full rescribing of the panel lines and access points. I've rescribed a few kits over the years to good effect, more recently I've had less success. This seems to be due to trying to use an Olfa P-Cutter which for many years was touted as the tool to use. Well frankly for anything other that doing straight line on a flat surface it's poo, and even then it can have mind of it's own. The clue is in the title, P-Cutter, it was designed for cutting plastic sheet by scoring and snapping. So I've gone back to what I started with which is a sewing needle in a pin-vice, which you'd need anyway if you wish to use access panel templates etc.

The drawback of the needle is that it works best on hard plastic as unlike the Olfa and other proper scribing tool it doesn't remove a slither of plastic but creates a furrow instead. With hard plastic some does come away but with softer plastics it just pushes the plastic to the sides. Either way the ridges it creates need to be removed. The Heller kit is moulded in their quite firm silver plastic which make it easy to work with.

OK enough chat down to the action and here's how I set about it.

Tools

Sharp sewing needle in a pin-vice
Flexible metal rule, the edge of a scribe template, SAM scale ruler or a scrap piece of PE fret
Templates for circles, rounded squares and ovals. Mine are from Lions Roar and were very reasonable
Knife with #10 curved blade.
Dymo tape for surfaces to curved for the metal rule, though I've not need this yet on the Javelin
References: Warpaint Javelin, shots of the Cosford plane are useful as you can see the underside!

Image

Method

You can either reproduce the detail that is already there or put your faith in plans. The Heller kit has got it mostly right but in some areas is quite wrong. The Warpaint plans seem to match photos better and in the main I went with that. I would say this is not something to get too obsessed about. Use your own judgement and be prepared to miss out trick to reach areas or awkward shapes.

When following existing raised detail I left these in place and scribed alongside. Scribe lightly repeatedly rather than hard and once. Mistakes will be easier to rectify. If you do go off course, stop and scribe from the other direction so you don't follow the diversion. Use the flat of the knife to smooth the plastic down of the error, this can 'heal' the mark to some degree.

Try to work methodically doing all the lines in one direction so you don't have to keep switch your tools around. Where lines meet a T junction do the - first so that when you scribe the | it has a definite place to end.

You can sand off the old panel lines and raised furrow but I don't think this is particularly effective as you will just fill the line with dust and using fine sanding paper will leave a bump. Coarser paper will just mean you end up polishing the hole kit to remove scratches and are in danger of damage legitimately raised detail.

My solution was to use the #10 curved blade to slice off the raised detail and ridges of the scribed line. You don't need to push hard and let the the blade do the work. It may seem a bit pedantic but it works well and is rather satisfying when you get a really long curl of plastic off in one go. Even if you choose to sand this method can get in into corners that are tricky to effectively sand.

Image

The Javelin has one particularly tricky area which is re-scribing the perforated airbrakes. This small raised detail is best removed first so as not to get in the way of the scriber. To do this neatly I taped the fuselage halves to the bench and then up the correct rectangle in the template. I then taped the other templates down on the bench so I could slide the rectangle hole along. This made sure the 60 odd rectangles were all properly aligned.

Image

I've done almost all the rescribing now apart from around the nose in intakes which will need to be done with Dymo tape once the fuselage halves have been glued together.
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by DavidWomby »

Looks intriguing. Will the radome need changing to make the FAW6?

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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by PaulBradley »

Some excellent tips there, James.
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by hamden »

Great work so far. I shall follow this with interest as I have a soft spot for the Javelin.

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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by JamesPerrin »

dwomby wrote:Looks intriguing. Will the radome need changing to make the FAW6?
Shouldn't do. The Mk2, 6 and 8 all used an American radar. These had a shorter nose (possible chunkier) than the Mks 1,4,5,7 and 9 which used a British radar. The T.3 was based on the Mk.2 and so is part of the same family. I checked with some back of the envelope calculations.

I should note here that the plans in the Warpaint do not reflect the differences in the nose between the two radar types. Though it shows the two with different panel lines the profile and length of the noses are the same. Further the side profile of the T.3 has been printed underscale! Thankfully the colour profiles which are not based on the plans (presumably these are back from Aviation News days) and distinctly should the differences in the length of the noses.
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by Marek »

That is some seriously fantastic effort going on the Javelin. James, brave and skillful rescribe so far.
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Re: Heller 1/72 Javelin FAW6 conversion

Post by T-21 »

Hello James,
Congrats on the new baby. Looking forward to this build as aged 4 to 8 I grew up at RAF Leeming my mum would take me to the perimeter fence to wave at the Javelins taxiing by . I would like the 228 OCU fin badges from the decal sheet if available ? I could look out a swap from my decal bank.
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