Tom's Fiddler on the roof

The one you have all been waiting for - Vac(u)-formed kits. Any subject, any kit, so long as the basis of the kit is vac-form (no, you can't enter an injection airplane with a vac-canopy). Started kits are eligible, within reason - this is a learning GB to introduce members the variety of kits, what can be accomplished with them, and to overcome any reluctance to add them to your modeling repertoire.
This is an extended GB, running 4 April to 31 May, and your hosts are Lancfan, SJPONeill, and Splash.
rob_van_riel
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by rob_van_riel »

rob_van_riel wrote:With any luck, I'll have master for the AA-5s ready tomorrow
Well, that was asking for it of course...
Digging into some details, I found that the AA-5 had a slightly bulged forward section, and being something of a masochist, I've decided to try to replicate that. That master is not going to happen this weekend, but it should produce a better result.
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by rob_van_riel »

Making Ash without burning stuff...

The first step was to clip the wings of the donor AA-6 (not as simple as it sounds, assuming you want a smooth missile body). I then glued sone strips of 0.4x1.0mm Evergreen to the nose, to serve as the base for the bulge. The space between the strips was then filled with acrylic gel medium, and sanded smooth. This took several iterations before I was happy with it.
Image
Several iteration later I shot primer over the nose, filled up any remaining blemishes with a more dedicated, finer grained filler, and sanded again. The styrene strips can still be seen in the result, but some of the white showing is actually the filler, while the green is the gel that still touches the surface.
Next up were shortening the body by a few mm, and the wings, cut from 0.5mm sheet and stuck on by eyeball (couldn't think of a neat trick to help me here...)
Image
The small control surfaces at the rear were actually a lot trickier to get right than the main wings, due to the more complex shape and smaller dimensions. I think 'best guess' supported by the Mk1 Eyeball did a fair job of getting the shape and alignment right though...
Image
This will now sit for some time to allow the plastic to recover from all that glue, and give me a chance to work up the courage to stick this possibly fragile missile into clay and rubber.

The missile as shown here it the SARH version, with the bullet point nose. The heat seaker does has a far more pointed nose, from the widest part forward, and this will need to be filed down on the castings. I recon that anyone brave enough to tackle vacform should be able to handle a bit of sanding ;-) The castings will also need a strip of 0.4x1.0mm attached to the body, starting about 1mm behind the end of the missile, and extending to a bit forward of the wing on the heatseaker, and to some point hidden between the wings on the SARH.
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by rob_van_riel »

rob_van_riel wrote:I think 'best guess' supported by the Mk1 Eyeball did a fair job of getting the shape and alignment right though...
Alignment, yes, shape, not really, although the eyeball isn't to blame for that.
I found out that I'd been working from two slightly different drawings of the missile, and combining the body and main wings from one with the control surfaces of the other was rather sub-optimal. So, I recut the control surfaces

Image

The blue one in the picture above is the old control surface, the white thing peeking out from behind it it the new, beefier part. New, and in my opinion imporved rear end of the master missile on the right.
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TomW
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by TomW »

That is some proper good modelling Rob, I need to pull my finger out and make some progress of my own! :shock: Building four kits at once does stretch me a little thinly at times :oops:

Regards

Tom
Veni, Venari, Vamoosi

Coastal Command SIG Leader 2012 - 2016

We'll call him Dinghy Watts...... - Paul Bradley

2016 A:B = 29:11
2015 A:B = 38:14
2014 A:B = 25:9
2013 A:B = 20:17
2012 A:B = I didn't keep score
2011 A:B = 39:11
2010 A:B = 51:10
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splash
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by splash »

TomW wrote:Building four kits at once does stretch me a little thinly at times
I know the feeling Tom I have three GB kits on the go and find trying to balance the builds a real headache but seeing all three come together makes it worth while :-D

My Vacform build is the build that has taken me furthest out of my comfort zone but has also given me the most pleasure.
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by rob_van_riel »

TomW wrote:That is some proper good modelling Rob
I'll take that as an indication the missiles have been approved for production. :-D
I need to pull my finger out and make some progress of my own! :shock: Building four kits at once does stretch me a little thinly at times :oops:
That's one of the reasons I tend to stay clear of GBs outside my vacation perriods; getting carried away by ambition and enthousiasm takes time ;-)
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by rob_van_riel »

rob_van_riel wrote:I'll take that as an indication the missiles have been approved for production. :-D
Missile production has started; the foto below shows the first off the line, before proper cleanup.

Image

It looks like I may finally have found the edge of the envelope of the resin though; two of the rear control surfaces (the ones sitting inside the blocks) will not fill properly unless I resort to some trickery, that is, push open the mould half from the outside (opening up the cavity wider), dribble some resin into it, and allow that to sit for a while while I use the rest of that batch of resin for something else. Then shut the mould as usual, and fill as usual. The dribbled in resin will bond seamlessly to the main cast that way, but it does make casting just a bit more involved.
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lancfan
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by lancfan »

Brilliant casting work Rob.

David.
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by rob_van_riel »

With a pair of missiles now available, I cleaned them up, modified one of the nose sections to the heatseeker's shape, and added the (different length) strakes along the bodies. I have no idea if the SARH strake is the correct length; none of the pictures I've found show where it ends, as this part is always hidden by the wings. The extension beyond the end of the body is intentional.

Image

That concludes the AA-5 scratchbuilding part, all that's left now is series production.
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TomW
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by TomW »

I have a feeling that the strake was the mounting point for the pylon adapters. These are looking fantastic Rob, I only hope my work on the Fiddler is good enough to carry them.

Regards

Tom
Veni, Venari, Vamoosi

Coastal Command SIG Leader 2012 - 2016

We'll call him Dinghy Watts...... - Paul Bradley

2016 A:B = 29:11
2015 A:B = 38:14
2014 A:B = 25:9
2013 A:B = 20:17
2012 A:B = I didn't keep score
2011 A:B = 39:11
2010 A:B = 51:10
rob_van_riel
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by rob_van_riel »

TomW wrote:I have a feeling that the strake was the mounting point for the pylon adapters. These are looking fantastic Rob, I only hope my work on the Fiddler is good enough to carry them.
Thanks. In case of serious trouble, you can always knock the camera out of focus a bit, judging by the images found on the net that's the thing to do when taking pictures of Fiddlers anyway :sad:
As to the strakes, that would be a logical assumption, if it weren't for the fact that all pictures I've found show the strake directly opposite the pylon (ie the missile body is sandwiched between the pylon and the strake)
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splash
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by splash »

Have you seen this link for the missiles? http://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/10755#186639
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by rob_van_riel »

splash wrote:Have you seen this link for the missiles? http://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/10755#186639
Good link. Hadn't found it (at least not consciously), but Google coughed up those pictures in various combinations (everyone seems to have a different subset of a fairly limited total).
Seems to be an interesting site, both the forums and the rest, but sadly, my Czech is not up to reading it all :cry:
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TomW
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by TomW »

Unfortunately this will definitely be a DNF within the timescale of the GB :oops: I'm currently out of work (7 weeks and counting) and all my efforts are going into finding a new job. As you can imagine ,my modelling mojo is pretty much non-existent at present but I hope that it'll return soon.

Regards

Tom
Veni, Venari, Vamoosi

Coastal Command SIG Leader 2012 - 2016

We'll call him Dinghy Watts...... - Paul Bradley

2016 A:B = 29:11
2015 A:B = 38:14
2014 A:B = 25:9
2013 A:B = 20:17
2012 A:B = I didn't keep score
2011 A:B = 39:11
2010 A:B = 51:10
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MarkyM607
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Re: Tom's Fiddler on the roof

Post by MarkyM607 »

Good luck finding something bud. :grin:
Hoping to return to modelling sometime this year!! :lol:
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