Darter

[Weaver]

Well with immaculate timing, the website started doing the 502 Bad Gateway Error thing again last night, so this is the first chance I've had to post my starting pics.

This is the starting point, and what's in it:






Aaaand this is why I can't build it out of the box. The results of an incompetent attempt to deal with some slight wing warping: some terminal wing warping! I'm looking for another Testors XF-91A because I bought bits to do the original idea, which was much more real world than this one, out of neccessity, is going to be.




This is the source of the rest of the bits. This is the "leftovers" box from when I used a Plasticart Su-7 and a RevelloFrog F.6 to make a single-engined Lightning ("English Electric P.7 Thunderbolt"). Three guesses what this will be contributing...



There's also an engine nozzle from an old Airfix Phantom, but I missed photographing that.

The name may turn out to only be a placeholder, but I do like it: it's a portmanteau of "Dart" and "Fitter", of course. I still don't have the backstory fully worked out but I am closing in on concepts I like. For some reason I see the result, in my mind's eye, painted a garish colour scheme and illustrated in 1950s-comic book style, so I'm tending towards a complete alt-universe background rather than trying to slot it into the real world. It has a Tales Of The Trigan Empire vibe, but I don't have any of those books, nor am I that familiar with the background, so I can't really slot it in there either.

[zenrat]

I bought an Airfix MRCA which had wings like that.  Fuselage wasn't much better.
It came from the Northern Territory and I reckon it had been sat in the sun.  Seller claimed ignorance and gave me my money back.

This looks promising and I like the Trigan Empire idea.  When I think about their aircraft schemes I get primary red and yellow with NMF panels.

[Weaver]

I bought an Airfix MRCA which had wings like that.  Fuselage wasn't much better.
It came from the Northern Territory and I reckon it had been sat in the sun.  Seller claimed ignorance and gave me my money back.

This looks promising and I like the Trigan Empire idea.  When I think about their aircraft schemes I get primary red and yellow with NMF panels.

Yeah, the trouble is I don't know enough about the Trigan Empire and I don't own any of the books (I was poor at the time they started reissuing them in inch-thick albums), so I'm going ot make up my own background, which means it can't be wrong...  

[zenrat]

The Weagan Empire...

 

[Weaver]

Progress so far.

The wings and tail aren't glued on yet. I'll have to go out tomorrow morning and get a new tube of filler because mine's gone solid...

I was going to cut out the cockpit and put a simple chair and pilot figure in, but when I realised how little you can see through the heavily framed canopy, I decided to stick with the head-on-a-shelf provided. In order to placate the Gods Of Modelling and make the neccessary sacrifice of time and swearing, I then decided that the Su-7 tailfin looked more appropriate than the XF-92's. Since I've got two sets of Su-7s leftovers, I did contemplate adding Phantom drop tanks to the wingtips with the fins fitted to them, however I couldn't make it look right.

There's LOTS of Evergreen inside the fuselage, to make the halves line up (not enough pins), make it not wobble on it's flying stand, and support the spine which opened up a slight gap when I sawed the original fin off. The original wings had pegs that fitted into round holes and the Su-7 had tabs, so turning the holes into slots was relatively easy. The fin had a couple of lengths of brass rod to make it more secure.

There's a couple of gaps at the trailing edge wing root, where the fuselage tapers and the root doesn't. I'm considering filling them with a pair of rocket booster fairings. We'll see...

[PR19_Kit]

Looks like a Russian version of the DH108.

[Weaver]

Looks like a Russian version of the DH108.

Precisely.