Meteor PR19b in build

[PR19_Kit]

Just to show that I don't spend all my time making lists of stuff to sell, or making pedantic remarks about bizarre aviation projects, here's a couple of shots of my Meteor PR19b in build.



GA of the build. You can see the ex-Rareplanes vacform TR-1 wings and tailplane, together with the resin engine fronts and vacform cowlings from the DB RB-57F. The recce pod from a Matchbox Phantom is also in view, plus a few bits and pieces for the cockpit.




Close-up of the front end. The nose is the ASARS-2 nose pod from the TR-1, but if you've read the story you'll know all about that of course. 

[cthulhu77]

Cool concept!

[van883]

I am very impressed!

Van

[PR19_Kit]

Hmmmm....I've got a Matchbox Meteor NF.14 in the stash, and until now not a clue what to do with it......

Duncan,

Only one? 

I have half a dozen by now!

I can send plans for the PR19 original version if you'd like? You'll need a U-2 and a DB conversions RB-57D kit for the engine fronts, plus an RF-4C nose for the camera bay....

[kitnut617]

I can send plans for the PR19 original version if you'd like? You'll need a U-2 and a DB conversions RB-57D kit for the engine fronts, plus an RF-4C nose for the camera bay....

Kit, could you slip a set of the plans in with the Seastar please, I'd like to have a go at one of these myself.

Robert

[PR19_Kit]

Robert,

No problem. It may be in four parts as my printer is only an A4 one, but Scotch tape covers a multiude of sins....

[kitnut617]

No problem there Kit, and thanks very much.

Robert

[John Howling Mouse]

Well, now here's another one I have to go look up on the 'net as I don't know if this is an original Whif idea of yours or a real bird!

Edit: found this cool link:  http://www.avhub.net/MI_u2meteorpr19incirlik.htm

[PR19_Kit]

John,

Join the club.........

That's the 'I've been fooled by the Meteor PR19 story' Club.

If you check 'Alternative History' on here and look for 'Britain's U-2' or similar you can find the same article. That link you found originally omitted the modelling bit at the end, which resulted in loads of people worldwide being fooled into thinking that the PR19 really existed!

Well it does of course, but only in 1/72 scale in my display cabinet, and right now WS773 is laughing it's socks off, and not for the first time. The PR19 is in the user updated version of the 'Harpoon' computer game and the USN Intelligence Library in the US, as well as various web sites etc. At Shuttleworth I was once surrounded by the members of the Meteor Preservation Group who'd heard about WS773 being in the Cosford Collection, and wanted to talk to me about it. It took me almost 15 mins. to persuade them that the model on the stand was the ONLY PR19 anywhere.....

[PR19_Kit]

As you've seen elsewhere I finally finished off the PR19b for Operation Cosford this last weekend. I'm glad I'd done lots of the preliminary work beforehand as the latter stages of the build were a real pain, needing LOADS of PSR work, much more than I'd anticipated anyway.

The wings of the PR19b are Rareplanes TR1 vacforms and have the Super-pod fairings moulded into the upper halves of the wings. Luckily these are just about the right distance apart for the new larger engines I wanted to fit and equally luckily the vacform TF33s that I'm using, from the DB Models RB-57F conversion, are large enough to completely enclose the Super-pod fairings. 

The TF33 engine exhausts on the DB conmversion aren't that impressive so I used two off-cuts from the cap of a handy roller-ball pen. As they're meant to be American engines I used an American pen cap..... After the engine halves had been sandwiched around the Super-pods and the exhausts, the resin intakes fitted nicely on the front and then I filled in the resulting LARGE gaps with Milliput and started a mammoth PSR session to smooth it all out. I used many coats of Halfords Grey Primer at this stage, so much so that I had to go and buy another tin!





I wanted to use the same Meteor landing gear as my original PR19a and that meant having to cut out the main gear bays from the M'box kit and graft them into the TR1 wings. They needed a little packing to get them to sit at the right depth but it wasn't too much of a problem, bar the oodles of PSR needed afterwards.



Attaching the wings to the fuselage wasn't easy, and I pre-engineered the joint before doing the cockpit and priming the fuselage. On the PR19a I used the entire inner wing and main engine section from the M'box kit so the joint was as strong as the original, but using vacform wings required some hefty re-inforcement. I used a thin section of the M'box inner wings to provide a smooth fairing but otherwise cut off the whole inner wing, then drilled two 5 mm holes in the wing root which were aligned with the front edges of the landing gear bays mounted in the wings. Then I made up a 3 layer 20 thou styrene spar which was notched at its outer ends to fit around and above the landing gear bays. Much fiddling and measuring was needed to get the fit correct, complicated by the need to give the wing a slight anhedral angle of about 2.5 deg. before I firmly super-glued the spar in place across the fuselage.




Then I did the cockpit, adding some Aeroclub bang seats and a few other random bits and pieces, making sure it wasn't quite the same as the PR19a interior as it was meant to be an upgrade of course. Adding the upper fuselage decking was the usual M'box Meteor NF14 disaster, needing LOTS of sanding and PSR work before the joint vanished. I added the canopy at this stage and masked it up before any paint work was done. I'd updated my PR19 drawings a few years ago and to match those I enlarged the fin and rudder a bit, as well as lengthened the tailplane fairing to match the TR1 tailplane halves, which had their own small spar fitted through the fin.

The backstory has the PR19b fitted with a large rocket motor in the rear end of the underfuselage recce pod and I used another chunk of the pen cap to model its exhaust, but it needed yet more PSR work to make it blend into the rest of the fuselage.




Assembling the wings to the fuselage took mucho jigging, super-glue and LOADS of PSR work afterward as well, but after a final primer coat it looked pretty good, albeit HUGE compared to its earlier version.



As with the Fulmar PRIIId I used my airbrush for the paint job, although it was all one colour for the top and another for the underside. After a discussion with OGL after he'd seen the model in its early stages I decided to change the colour of the ASARS2 nose cone and also ensured that it was varnished matt while the rest of the airframe was satin finished over many coats of Klear. Decals came from various Modeldecal Lightning sheets plus some home made ones for the 13 Sqdn. fin badge, the Altitude Record plaque and the 'mission marks'.....

Fitting the landing gear was the usual pain with this kit. Although it looks as if it should fit into various recesses it actually doesn't so it needs some creative engineering to ensure that enough surface area is glued to ensure it all stays in place. I had to pack the nose-wheel up by 20-30 thou. as the model exhibited a severe degree of nose down-ness at first, but it's not too bad now. Lastly I added some aerials, again different to the PR19a and the job was done.

It only took me about 8 years from the time I started it! 



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For those who've not read it (and you'll need a while!) the slightly updated backstory is here :- http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,22259.0/highlight,meteor+pr19.html

[RussC]

Thanks for sharing this, Kit.

 One of my fave attractions at the Boneyard and museum down in Tuc' is the long wing RB-57 which uses those same engines as you noted. They are breathtaking to see, even in their fading NASA paint.

[PACOPEPE]

Very good idea!. I like it a lot.

Regards
Fran

[Doc Yo]

 Love that lanky elegance-nicely done! ( And don't feel bad about the time frame-I've got unfinished projects
I started in High School. and I'm fifty-three. )

[Martin H]

Kit has kindly lent the PR-19B to me, so it can be shown at a few shows that he is unable to attend. First up is The Scots Nationals at the end of the month.

[Gondor]

It is always a pity that Kit can not attend the Scottish Nationals, the same for several other esteemed members of the SIG who produce such amazing models that grace this site.

Gondor