general Rockets late entry

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general rocket
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general Rockets late entry

Post by general rocket »

Being unable to get to my not quite so LMS, I see that some of what I'm planning to do has already been done by a few of you, but since this my first group build, I'll not let that worry me too much.
The plan is to build it as a vaguely contemporary interceptor or strike aircraft, as yet to be decided.
Image
The progress so far;
1. Cleaning off flash.
2. Removal of wing bulges.
3. Removal of tail mounted Retro-Rocket.
4. Shorten tail mounting boss.
5. Construction of pilots seat ( Italeri Phantom F4S).
6. First coats of paint where appropriate.

Jobs to do;
1. Scribe panel lines.
2. Remodel gun.
3. Sharpen nose.
4. Mount Canards lower (F1 style).
5. Jet spinner inside intakes.
6. Exhaust, vectored thrust(?).
7. 2-3 hard points.
I wish, that I knew what was doing!
MerlinJones

Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by MerlinJones »

Plenty of time left, general, plenty of time.

Regards,
Bruce
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general rocket
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by general rocket »

The progress so far.
Image
1. Filled and sanded wings.
2. Removal of bosses and lumps inside body (parts 3 and 5).
Gluing plastic card across body at point where you would mount part 6.
Placing front jet spinner onto card. Found in spares box (Airfix YF22).
First coat of paint.
3. Engine intake covers cleaned up, tidied, de-lumped and first coat of paint.
4. Cockpit fitted.
Airfix pilot larger than Italeri seat (liposuction with scalpel required on hips).
5. Started scratch building weapons pylons.
6. Nose sharpened and deseamed.

Spares box found to be a lot lighter on anything that I might want than I'd thought,
(I wonder where it all went), hence My building the weapons points with plastic card.

The next jobs on the agenda are;
1. Finish weapons points.
To carry Sidewinders and Harpoons or Sparrows depending on how low they hang.
2. Fit body halves together
3. Paint inside and fit engine intake covers
4. Fill and sand.

Comments, Criticisms and suggestions welcome.
I wish, that I knew what was doing!
MerlinJones

Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by MerlinJones »

Aaaah...I see you've gone for the single-engined version.
Good use of a Harrier fan, there.

Don't forget that you have a nice, flat bottom...just like an F3.

Note that the large locating pins may hinder, more than assist.

Regards,
Bruce
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general rocket
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by general rocket »

"Good use of a Harrier fan, there."


The fan is from a YF22 not a Harrier.

Harrier!

Harrier/Angel hybrid. Shoulder wing. Side mounted vectorable nozzles. Tri-cycle under carriage?

I feel another build coming on. CURSE YOU MerlinJones :boom:
I wish, that I knew what was doing!
MerlinJones

Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by MerlinJones »

general rocket wrote:The fan is from a YF22 not a Harrier.
Wow...it just looked too big for any other 1/72 kit. Was the donor a 1/48?
general rocket wrote:Harrier!

Harrier/Angel hybrid. Shoulder wing. Side mounted vectorable nozzles. Tri-cycle under carriage?

I feel another build coming on. CURSE YOU MerlinJones :boom:
Mwa-hahahaha-haaaaaaa! :mrgreen:

Careful, whiffing can easily become your norm.
It's certainly a fun way to recycle old models.

Regards,
Bruce
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by DH-Drover »

I found that by sanding down the large locating pins a very good fit could be obtained. Also my kit has little or no flash.
I am going to use a Beaufighter "bubble" for the second canopy.

Dai
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general rocket
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by general rocket »

Test fitting the fuselage halves resulted in a very good fit, until I added the glue then the fit went to hell, lots of filler used. Test fitting wings showed a poor fit, until I added the glue, result, an excellent fit, no filler and very little sanding :???:

pictures to follow.
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Brickie
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by Brickie »

general rocket wrote:Test fitting the fuselage halves resulted in a very good fit, until I added the glue then the fit went to hell
It's bizarre how often that happens, isn't it?
"If you can fly a Sopwith Camel, you can fly anything!"

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general rocket
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by general rocket »

The progress so far.

Image

She starts to take shape, build was relatively straight forward, other than stated above, though all the filler does not show on this shot. the main areas where filler was used are large slices of the body halves, around the intakes, behind the nose and around and in the tail plane.

Image

In this shot we can see what will be the vector-able jet pipe, inside is the original pipe which, if everything goes to plan, will be the mounting point for the stand as I would like it in flight if it is practical. this also explains why the front under carriage is held on with Blu-tack.

Image

Not really visible in any of the pictures are the weapons points, since I could find nothing suitable in my spares box, I scratch built them. These will have Sidewinders and Sparrows mounted, with a Harpoon on a centre-line pylon. The weapons points have not turned out as successfully as I would have liked, but they are not beyond correction, and will look less bad when painted anyway, though I suspect I may be being over critical, and I'll leave this for a bit to reasess. The only other physical change is cutting away the plastic below the cut away for connecting the fictitious strake on the nose. This will be the mounting point for the canard that will be lower than original.

Image

The way that the nose pulls to one side has now been corrected, partly by bending and partly by sanding.

Nothing else of interest to say, so I won't.
I wish, that I knew what was doing!
MerlinJones

Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by MerlinJones »

Good progress, General. I like what you've done at the back.

Regards,
Bruce
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by general rocket »

Thanks Bruce, I've now gone as far as can with the back end as you see below

Image

I've now mounted the canards slightly further back as stated above and slightly below the nose Formula1 style. With hindsight, I think it should have slightly lower, but I'm not unhappy with the result. I was going to remodel the gun, but settled for drilling the bore of the gun open instead.

Image

Below, I've fitted a splitter at the base of the intake. It was to have been bigger, but on reflection, I thought that smaller was neater, and didn't detract from the aggressive looks of the aircraft. The weapons points where as stated, scratch built. Originally the wing pylons where to be mounted with 2 sidewinders and 1 Harpoon each, but they would have hung to low, so the Harpoons will be replaced with Sparrows and a single Harpoon on a single centre point

Image

The next stage is paint, which will be R.A.F. grey.

As usual, comments and criticisms are welcome.
I wish, that I knew what was doing!
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by JamesPerrin »

Any more progress as this was looking very interesting?
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general rocket
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by general rocket »

Sorry chaps internet been down, only just got it back. Full update tomorrow (today if you discount my going to bed now).
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Re: general Rockets late entry

Post by general rocket »

Hello all. Don't you just love your I.S.P.
Image
Much progress as you see. Though not finished in the photographs, the Sidewinders have not been painted to match any particular mark of sidewinder, but having looked through an number of books, I chose colours from the history of sidewinders missiles, purely for aesthetic reasons. The same goes for the Harpoon.
Image
The underside has bee painted in Humbrol Authentic HX7 R.A.F. Barley Grey, and the upper surfaces Humbrol 166 Light Aircraft Grey BS627.
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Aircraft markings are mainly from a sheet of Phantom decals that I've had lying around for a decade or 2, and used in conjunction with a couple books I just happen to have, taking their positions from pictures of R.A.F. Phantom's, Hawk's and Tornado's.
Image
Contrary to how it appears, it hasn't been weathered. When I came to matt varnish it, unbeknownst to me, the brush had been used by someone else shortly before hand, and not cleaned properly, leaving streaks of the previous colour, whatever it was. When I finally noticed, I decided to run with it. It will, with a bit of tidying up have not turned out to badly. Though a little more weathering, to highlight the various flaps, is on the agenda
Image
The next job is to mount the missiles. Sparrows have been ditched as they would have hung to below the undercarriage. Then, unless I spot some thing else that needs doing it will be finished (at least for the purpose of this build).
Other than making a stand for it, as I wish to have it in flight. Results will be shown.

As usual, criticism welcome.
I wish, that I knew what was doing!
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