John's Mk.III ** DNF ** but still working away

[PaulBradley]

....famous last words....

[JohnRatzenberger]

At last, vaguely visible progress ....



I have to say the wing and tail planes fit wonderfully, I'll only have a tiny bit of fill.

My biggest task is to figure out how to do the canopy from my limited stash of kits and parts of this era - it will look close, but ....

BTW, for something else new, this is the first photo out of my new camera -- now to go read the manual and figure out what I'm doing ....

[Martin R]

Looking good, John.

Keep it going!

Re the canopy, something like an early Typhoon windscreen may be close?

regards,

Martin

[JohnRatzenberger]

Thanks, Martin -- I don't think I have one of those. I do have a vac-form Malcolm hood for a P-51 that might work, if I trim it right. It strikes me that it would be easier if I showed the canopy open, it would hide any profile issues, but then there is nothing (except weight) in the cockpit ....

[bluesteel]

Coming along nicely John. I hope you get the canopy sorted, I'm watching with interest...

[JohnRatzenberger]

Still working the canopy.

I'm not happy with the modified Malcolm hood.
I have a FROG Typhoon from which I could steal the canopy, but then I'd have none.
A Wellesley canopy, from a Falcon vac-form set, may work.

Other than that, I'm doing OK. I'm ready to paint, but holding off until I'm sure I've done all the cockpit surgery - I'm trying to fit drop tank halves as the back section, that takes more thinking than I'm capable of right now.

[Martin R]

Still working the canopy.

I'm not happy with the modified Malcolm hood.
I have a FROG Typhoon from which I could steal the canopy, but then I'd have none.

John,

I think the FROG Typhoon was what I was thinking of when I made the original comment. Would it fit? If so, I may sacrifice my stash queen (which I'm exceedingly unlikely to build as a 'car door', if at all) for your Meteor.

Also, how would the Academy / Hobbyboss Tiffy windscreen fit? I have one of those I'd be happy to sacrifice too.

regards,

Martin

[JohnRatzenberger]

I do have a Falcon vac-canopy for the Airfix Typhoon.
In all cases, it seems rather tall, so I have to do some fitting.

I appreciate your offer, Martin, but time suggests I should go it with what I have on hand.

Today turned busy for no good reason, but I hope to spend some real bench time tomorrow ....

[JohnRatzenberger]

OK, here we are. I have taken the "Wellesley" canopy from a Falcon vac-sheet and done some fitting.



Sits a bit tall, but I'm thinking it will be OK. I have only one so I'm reluctant to trim an awful lot and have an Ooops. I think I will work on the rear section for a while and think about it ....

[jssel]

You are getting there John.

[JohnRatzenberger]

In between dinner and a town board meeting, I managed to trim up the fuselage so the canopy sits a bit better. I can now move on to fredk's suggestion "The rear solid area has a concave flute on each side [this solid portion could be fashioned from a bomb half]" and see what I can accomplish. I misread it first time and was trying to work with drop tank halves and simply didn't quite have the vision of how to carve things up, so I'll start from scratch on it.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Here we are ....

I have decided to build up the solid canopy rear, kind of working my way along to see what happens.



And I've got the gear doors on, although I am not all sure I got these exactly right - the instructions provide no clue how to orient the slightly curved surfaces ....



Probably another day fooling with the rear canopy; I can start checking seams and joins so I'm ready to paint as soon as I finish the canopy ...

[PaulBradley]

Interesting idea with the rear canopy, John - I'll be curious to see how this turns out.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Almost zero bench time ....

I have the semblance of the rear canopy done, needs to be spruced up a bit.

I have yellow undersides (on the model).

I'll try to get pix up, and more progress Sunday. I'm off tomorrow to our club contest and good/bad news, it seems like we'll be swamped ...

[JohnRatzenberger]

I am painting; underside done, 1st coat of DE on, but I may have made a tactical mistake on paint selection - I was trying to use up some Mr Kit acrylic but I must have thinned the bottle for airbrushing ....