Splash's large Wyvern

[splash]

I thought I would be brave and go large with a 1/48 scale Wyvern from Dynavector, the reviews give it glowing write ups and say it makes a good starter kit due to the excellent kit design.

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For those who are not aware of Dynavector kits, they are made by a Japanese designer who makes electronic amplifiers and electronics. The guy has a real passion for naval a/c and makes the kits so that you can build them straight out of the box. You get a mixture very crisp detailed vac form parts plus white metal and resin detailed parts, decals and a very comprehensive set of instructions.

I'm really looking forward to this build.

[Stuart]

It's a strange looking beast isn't it - mind you it's one of those aircraft that look much better with it's wheels up than down - I like it.

Looking forward to seeing this one come together Splash!

[splash]

It's a strange looking beast isn't it

It's what the Fleet Air Arm did best making strange looking beast's, try searching for Shorts Seamew it says it all

As you can see from these photos it's a comprehensive kit, with quite fine detail for a Vac Form kit, with good resin and metal parts.

The only extra part I have bought is Pavla ejection seat as it has more detail than the supplied seat.

[Stuart]

yeah the Seamew... funny thing that - I saw a picture of one at the Midland Air Museum yesterday.

That looks a really nice kit Splash.

[DavidWomby]

Great choice, Splash. It has an excellent reputation. I'll be it's huge in that scale.

David

[TomW]

Ooohh a Dynavector kit there's a reason that certain vac manufacturers have such a good reputation and Alan's photo's show the reason why. It's just a shame that they didn't release anything in 1/72.

Talking of the Shorts Seamew, does anyone have a lead on the Contrail vac kit? its one I'd like to get my grubby mitts on.

Regards

Tom

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As luck would have it I live only 5 miles from the Fleet Air Arm museum at Yeovilton in Somerset, where resides the only remaining Wyvern in existence, unfortunately it's the Prototype Wyvern that had a a conventional petrol engine so is not typical of a production model.

As this build has been on the cards for some time, I have been out to the museum and taken a set of walk around images so here is the link http://cluster8.secure-staging.uk/ashdo ... uk/Wyvern/ when you get up close the one thing that really stands out is its size, it is one hell of a brute.

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It's now just turned Saturday here in the UK so whilst watching Tom Cruise in Valkyrie I have marked out the edges of the parts with a black marker ready to start trimming them later on today.

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I'm now starting to see the enormity of the task ahead, the Wyvern was a big beast. You can see by the size comparison against the 1/72 Harrier in the photo.

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I have found a good use for a sanding tool I originally bought for work on r/c models, it's called a Pema-Grit Tools Tungsten Carbide Abrasive it's made out of good grade aluminium with two grades of grit one on each side, the curved sides make it easy to hold and the flat grit surfaces make it easy to sand things flat, plus being perma-grit it never wears out, they are not cheap but they will last forever.

[AndrewR]

That looks like a very handy sanding block. I don't envy you with that big beast in 1/48 to sand

[splash]

I can now see why people give so much praise to Dynovector, when I heard reviews saying this would make a good first time vac form kit I thought they must be joking as its big and multi media, but having now started the build I can see why they give the kit so much praise, the wings are made up from just four parts the upper and lower wings with two fully detailed wheel wells, the parts have gone together more like an injection kit with very little tidying up work required. Let's home the body goes together the same.

[splash]

The quality of this kit can be seen by the white metal parts that make up the cockpit, the only thing that lets it down is you don't get a decal for the ip but a spot of dry rushing should bring out the detail.







Although the bang seat is nice it does not include any webbing so I have bought a resin seat the has more detail.

[Jagewa]

Man that is some cracking kit, those white metal parts look great.