Frog DH Hornet (F239) 1/72 - AndrewR and Lancfan

[Martin R]

Martin,
This is how I modified the nose- this fuselage is from a spares box wreck I acquired as part of a boxful of old built models. as kitted it does look blunt but it is not too short but is rather the wrong shape, the top view shows the model as Frog intended and below that is the same nose modified as I did the SB kit (highlighted in yellow) by simply flattening the top edge and blending that in with a smaller nose radius, it now looks more like the correct shape. With the new vac formed canopy it should look the part.


The wings needed filling before I altered them and the demo piece is no different, that will follow tomorrow when I have finished that off.

David.

David,

A good explanation and an effective fix. That does look miles better.

Is the 'point' of the nose at the right height, now? I always fancied that the undernside swept up too much, and I can see that your fix has lowered it a bit. I'm quibbling here, I know, but it seems reasonable to ask the question of someone who knows what they're talking about.

regards,

Martin

[Martin R]

OK, I give up.

I had planned never to build this kit again, because of what I considered 'fatal' outline errors. However, if you guys can get yours looking like they now do, then clearly I was talking rubbish. E-bay, here I come . . .

regards,

Martin

Given what you achieved with the Matchbox Beaufighter Martin, this kit will be the proverbial "Piece of Cake".

Well, "Piece of Plastic"...

It's actually a very underrated kit, I think. Not great, but with plenty of scope for detailing. There are some nice F1 schemes too and some of the F1 were retrofitted with the F3 tail to boot.

Cheers

Andrew

Thank you, Andrew. It's definitely something to think about for the long winter nights . . .

regards,

Martin

[lancfan]

Hi Martin,- quibble away because questions promote enquiry and confirm (or refute) ideas. It looks okay when placed over the Aviation News drawings and compares fairly well to photographs, the nose of the 'proper' model was done with a good deal more care than this demo nose but it gets the idea across of what Frog did wrong, all in all it wasn't that far out it just meant that what little they did do wrong made the whole nose look bulbous and short.

David.

[lancfan]

This shows the changes to the wing best, the top wing is roughly the Frog aerofoil. In the middle is what I changed it into with a sharper leading edge and a gradual slope to the thickest point further back than that of the original kit part. The bottom wing shows the two together with the red being the plastic to be removed and the blue showing the filler needed to replace the plastic lost in the thinning. When I get a second kit to build as a Sea Hornet I will pack the outboard wings with car filler or Miliput on assembly to avoid making the same holes I made in this model.


David.

[ShaunW]

Almost at the finish line by the looks David, a great piece of work with this kit and a very interesting feature on the faults!

[AndrewR]

Here's my solution to the same problem. I didn't want to rescribe the raised panel lines (with the shaky hands!) so I had to avoid sanding most of the top and bottom surfaces.

(I've borrowed your artwork David, so it's easy to compare!)



So I removed the front lip of the lower part of the wing, which was 1 -1.5 mm deep, and sanded the top part of the wing down slightly, carefully avoiding the front panel line. I also had to take out a bit of plastic on the engine nacelles too. Then the wing can be put together, looking considerably thinner. The cross section may not be right, but the leading edge looks much better.



I haven't done any outrageous bodging for at least a week, so it's high time for some. After failing to crash mould a canopy that I liked again I've cut down one of the two P-47 bubble top Squadron vacform canopies which arrived earlier this week. It's a tad wide, but it'll do. I hope to get it installed tomorrow.

I also had to respray some of the yellow prop tips because of overspray of blue from the spinner.

cheers

Andrew

[Stuart]

These are looking great guys!!

[AndrewR]

My assigned duties this afternoon were to wait downstairs to let one of David's therapists in. I took the opportunity to put the decals on at the kitchen table.





The Frog decals are remarkably robust, but I did find that they came off the backing paper much better with warm water!

I have also managed to paint a few blades on the props.



cheers

Andrew

[AndrewR]

And this evening, I sprayed a couple more prop blades and put the canopy on, having remembered to put the pilot it first!



cheers

Andrew

[lancfan]

That's looking good Andrew, these old kits really do scrub up well.

David.

[lancfan]

The flaps are now in place, information on these was thin on the ground but everything semed to suggest that these were of closed aerofoil design and not an open framework. They are now being painted and the following step will be to mould a canopy- I have been unable to find suitable clear material in the house to feed the mattel so will pick something up when shopping on thursday.



David.

[AndrewR]

That's looking good Andrew, these old kits really do scrub up well.

David.

Yes, they certainly do, and they are very satisfying builds too.

How was the undercarriage mounting? Sometimes on old kits things are a little vague.

Cheers

Andrew

[lancfan]

On the Frog Hornet it is very positive with a firm slot that plugs into the nacelle, even when cut back for this model it had a good footing.

David.

[ShaunW]

Excellent work gents. The bubble canopy looks fine from here Andrew - nicely bodged Nice work David - the drooped flaps in conjunction with the elevators have added a lot to the look of the model.

[AndrewR]

The bubble canopy looks fine from here Andrew - nicely bodged

It looks okay at "stand off" distances, close up, it's a little ragged. I have new supplies of plastic putty from the model shop today, so I will try to prettify it a little before I mask and spray the frames. The Vallejo gloss varnish was finally in stock there too, so I'm going to try mixing the gloss and satin varnishes to get something semi-gloss.

Unfortunately I was acting as Nurse Daddy to younger son this afternoon, which means that exam papers have not been marked, which means I'll have to mark them this evening instead of getting much modelling done

cheers

Andrew