What distracted me from 1216's

[lancer]

*holding head in hands* *sigh*  As ever amazing work Geoff. Every time I see one of your wonders in progress it makes me wonder how I can barely manage to put together a half decent kit just from the box. Let alone do something like your wonders.

I salute you !!

[John Howling Mouse]

But, but, where are the two dozen junky pieces of friggin' spars held together with CA glue and a prayer----no wait, that's MY weirdo way of scratchbuilding!!   ^_^

Looking great, please keep the pics coming so I can see how it's supposed to be done!

[Geoff_B]

Erm Cheers guys, but come on its not that complicated a build and shouldn't be too difficuly to copy specially if you have done any major conversions or Vacforms.

The nose is off a Mirage F-1 with the cockpit relocated further aft and the sebsequent gap filled in and built up using a bit of a drop tank.

The main body of the fuselage is built up of 60 Thou (1.5mm) thick plastic card. The lower and a uppers surfaces were cut out to match the plan. Then the sides were built up matching the air ducting shown in the drawings the wheel well space was created using 40 thou on top the outer surface of the inner wall. The gap fwd and aft of this was then filled out with scrap pieces before the sides could be attached. The the three engines are based on 12mm diameter tubing with the central one being the jet. The engine spaces were built up so these tubes would be mounted centrally and gaps filled in using filler.

The fuselage was then rounded down on the upper and lower edges using heavy duty files, wet & dry paper and filler to fix any gaffs. The rounding is more pronounced towards the fwd intake from the wheel well onwards. The slight depressions around the engines in the rear fuselage is created using various semi-round files, neatened up with filler and WetnDry. The thick sides and 60 thou card used means the structure is pretty strong and capable of taking alot of shaping, which is why the sides wer built out so solidly.

Wings are my usual laminations using 2 pieces of 40 thou cut to shape (slightly larger for shaping) and a smaller thiner piece pre-shaped in between. Scrap, file sand the trailing edge upper and lower to get a nice thin surface and round off the upper leading edges to get the basic aerofoil shape. Tail surface are robbed from a pair of crap PM Mirage/Nesher kits and the cannards are from a crap starfighter.

The fueslage is then joined to the nose and another part droptank is used to create the coaming aft of the cockpit. Canopy is robbed from a CF-105 and blended into the fwd fuselage (check for alternatives or vacform options).

Details and U/C will come from the spares box.

Not really a complicated build as you can see, if i could do it in a weeks modelling (Sun, the odd hour during the week and Saturday). Stuff like the 1216and FD-IV are much more complicate ddue to the different shapes involved.

The Mach 4-5 version in Joes newsletter is even easier as the fuselage is eveb boxier !!!.

So anybody fancy copying us ?

[nev]

The nose is off a Mirage F-1 with the cockpit relocated further aft and the sebsequent gap filled in and built up using a bit of a drop tank.

The main body of the fuselage is built up of 60 Thou (1.5mm) thick plastic card. The lower and a uppers surfaces were cut out to match the plan. Then the sides were built up matching the air ducting shown in the drawings the wheel well space was created using 40 thou on top the outer surface of the inner wall. The gap fwd and aft of this was then filled out with scrap pieces before the sides could be attached. The the three engines are based on 12mm diameter tubing with the central one being the jet. The engine spaces were built up so these tubes would be mounted centrally and gaps filled in using filler.

The fuselage was then rounded down on the upper and lower edges using heavy duty files, wet & dry paper and filler to fix any gaffs. The rounding is more pronounced towards the fwd intake from the wheel well onwards. The slight depressions around the engines in the rear fuselage is created using various semi-round files, neatened up with filler and WetnDry. The thick sides and 60 thou card used means the structure is pretty strong and capable of taking alot of shaping, which is why the sides wer built out so solidly.

Wings are my usual laminations using 2 pieces of 40 thou cut to shape (slightly larger for shaping) and a smaller thiner piece pre-shaped in between. Scrap, file sand the trailing edge upper and lower to get a nice thin surface and round off the upper leading edges to get the basic aerofoil shape. Tail surface are robbed from a pair of crap PM Mirage/Nesher kits and the cannards are from a crap starfighter.

The fueslage is then joined to the nose and another part droptank is used to create the coaming aft of the cockpit. Canopy is robbed from a CF-105 and blended into the fwd fuselage (check for alternatives or vacform options).

Details and U/C will come from the spares box.

Yeah, not that complicated at all........................

:dum:  :dum:  :dum:  :dum:  :dum:  

[lancer]

He makes it sound so easy don't he?!  

[Geoff_B]

These are the drawings i based it upon. The upper is the Mach 3-4 version and the lower is the mach 4-5.

[Geoff_B]

And here is the 60 thou plastic card marked out with all the main parts the the fuselage. Only bits not done are the scrap pieces used to mount the engine tubes on so they end up centrally mounted and the scrap pieces ysed to box in the wheel well and fil the gaps between the inner wall and the outer wall.

[noxioux]

That is truly awesome.  I had to sit there and drool on that cgi version for a minute before moving on to your scratcbuilding pics.  Very, very cool.

I'm guessing that you're doing in in 1/72 scale, judging from the size of the tools in the pics.

I can't wait to see the finished product.  That's just going to be sweet.  

[Hobbes]

Interesting. What do you use to cut the plastic card? I'm having a hard time getting clean cuts, even in 1 mm stock, so I tend to cut everything a bit too large and then sand it down, which is tedious.  

[Aircav]

I always score the card with the back of the knife blade a few times and then just snap the card which leaves the minimum of cleaning up to do    

[Hobbes]

When I cut the card, the plastic along the cut bunches into a ridge. Cutting takes quite a lot of pressure.  

[Geoff_B]

When I cut the card, the plastic along the cut bunches into a ridge.

I tend to score the card a couple of time with the heavier duty knife then run the flat blade up to remove the ridges. Then snap the card as steve does.

There is a tool called the Olaf P cutter for Vinal Flooring that supposedly removes the ridges as you score. But not tried this yet.

G B)

[Hobbes]

Thanks, I'll try that.  

[Aircav]

Using the back of the blade helps to as it scores instead of cuts

[Davey B]

Sweet merciful Zeus on a Raleigh Chopper!

DADDY WANT!!!!!