Bit of a thread revival here, but there are reasons. Well of course there are.
Firstly Telford came and went, great fun.
A week later SWMBO and I flew of for eleven nights in the Caribbean, Antigua & Barbuda to be exact. We had a graet, and warm, time apart from one incident.
The main camera died, thankfully we had a small digital compact for general photography, although when we visited the frigate bird colony the only camera I had with me was the main one and it died, so no photos of the frigate birds.
So what happened to the camera?
It drowned.
Well, we took a day trip to the island of Barbuda where the frigate bird colony is situated, incidentally it is the largest in the world and very much worth a visit.
The boat we were on was one of these big powered catamarans and a great trip was enjoyed by all. They make a mean Rum Punch on board!
On arrival at Barbuda there is no pier/jetty, they just run the boat nose first up on to the beach and let down steps between the two front bows.
I was first down the steps and although the crewman said “it is a big step” he did not mention that it was about three feet deep and about the same to anywhere that was possible to stand on.
I had already sussed out that it was a bit deepish and I was holding the camera above my head, but that did not help me from going SPLASH!
Great hilarity all round!
Got out the water and checked the camera, it was giving an ERROR message, less than thirty seconds later it was totally dead.
So what with post Telford depression, camera blues, Christmas, New Year (this is Scotland!) I have only just started building again.
Now to what has started to happen here.
The Jetstream progresses.
Martin gave me one of his resin AN/APS 20 radomes but that turned out to be far too large for this project.
The BAe proposal was to fit the Jetstream with a variant of the Marconi AI-24 ‘Foxhunter’ radar as fitted to the Tornado F3, and that is a much smaller unit.
Using the drawings that TSRJoe had provided me with, I scaled these to the right size and produced a master in balsa wood (Allan Hall would have been proud of me for that, and if you do not understand that comment you are far too young). Several coats of Mr. Finisher and sanding/polishing ended with something that was not too bad, in my eyes.
Then make a silicon mould.
Everything going well.
Then get out the resin and catalyst. Oh Oh! Problems.
I think the resin had died with age, it was very thick and granular in texture, and when I tried to use it but it would not set properly.
So I ordered some new resin on-line from a company in Sheffield. That arrived to-day after a wait of a week and a half!
At least it works, Hooray!!!!!!!
The first photo shows from left to right:
The AN/APS 20 radome, the Jetstreams radome, the balsa wood master, and the mould in the background.
The next two photos show the AN/APS 20 radome side by side with the Jetstream radome to give some idea of the size differential.
PS These are the first photos that I have taken with the new camera, thanks to the insurance company. They should get better with time.
Jim
