A slight 1/700 departure from our usual programming.....

[scautomoton]

To say I've now tested the lower limits of my 3d printer would be fair. 

My normal forté is 1/72, and designing and printing in this scale is both difficult and easy. Difficult due to the time investment required to create appropriate detail and realism; easy because once printed its easily handled, assembled and painted etc. Recently, @Thorvic asked me if 3d printing could generate 1/700 scale aircraft for the CVA-01 he's deep in the middle of. Never one to shy away from a problem/challenge I said I'd see what could be done. 

The chosen subjects? the BAC/Dassault AFVG and the Hawker Siddeley P.139B. In scale both work out around 20-25mm long, which means the thin bits would be 'really' thin. The plus side was that all of the usual detail, cockpit stuff, inlets etc etc could be either dispensed with entirely, or paid lip service at best.

So here's the P.139B. It only took about 2-3hrs total for all the design work, with most of that being the couple of iterations to ensure the prints didn't fail due to poor orientation and support location. I generated 3 variants: AEW with unfolded and folded wings, and the COD version.








As you can see, its pretty basic in terms of design, and seemingly agricultural with thick struts and chunky wheels. Anything less means it a) is a pig to print and support, and b) unable to support it's own weight. Plus, even with the best magnifying glass it looks OK in reality.

On to the AFVG. Similarly, I generated 3 variants: Unladen with unswept and swept wings, and carrying stores under unswept wings. Although it occurs to me now I missed a trick by not having one with the radome folded too. Easy enough to do another time.






Again, pretty basic really, but again, for something an inch long viewed from even a foot away it looks good. Although the swept wing version is on the brink of being a tail-sitter, but I'm not messing about with it now. And yes, amazingly the pitot actually prints. It doesn't survive handling but I guess you can't have everything....

And here it all is laid out in the Slicer SW prior to print. The bed is as full as possible.



And the finished article, one of each variant on display (ignore the sanding marks from cleanup)




Pardon the ones in the last image, they were in the Wardroom until late....

So there we are, all of that in under a day! Soon to be available from the store if anyone is interested.

Cheers, Stuart

[NARSES2]

Amazing 

[PR19_Kit]

Stone me, what SUPERB work Stuart! 

I can almost see Geoff's CVA 01 with a full Air Wing on the deck already. 

[Gondor]

That's good to know how small you can print. Fantastic work 

[Thorvic]

I had asked Scautomoton about the feasbility of 700 aircraft after buiding the excellent AW169 ehere the level of detail and precision wee superb for 3D printed kits. I was flabergasted after sorting out suitable images on Thursday night to see not ony test images but picks of printed examples too !!   

The reason for these types you may ask, well CVA-01 was at the time of cancellation the Airgroup was to be Phantom FG1 Interceptor, Buccaneer S2 Strike, NAST6166 (P139B) AEW, Sea King ASW, plus SAR. Given the AFVG was at the time envisioned to be RN as well as RAF then by 1974/75 then we would probably see the first squadron start to replace the Buccaneers.

[Weaver]

Those are great - well done! 

I'll bet some people would be interested in 1/72nd scale versions of both those aircraft too (and yes, I do understand that that would be a massive amount of work).

AFVG was more "fightery" than MRCA/Tornado (lower-bypass, higher-dry-thrust engines mainly) so it's possible that it could, in time have replaced both the Buccaneer and the Phantom. There's a certainly an excellent case for VG in a fleet interceptor, as the F-14 (and the F-4VG proposal) demonstrated.

[frank2056]

Another member of the "I paid for this build plate and I'm going to fill it up!" club! They look great! Is there a reason for printing them with the upper sides facing the build plate?  The other direction would have minimized supports on the top surface.

[PR19_Kit]

Given the AFVG was at the time envisioned to be RN as well as RAF then by 1974/75 then we would probably see the first squadron start to replace the Buccaneers.

Haven't you done an AFVG in 1/72 already Geoff, or did I imagine that?

[scautomoton]

Another member of the "I paid for this build plate and I'm going to fill it up!" club! They look great! Is there a reason for printing them with the upper sides facing the build plate?  The other direction would have minimized supports on the top surface.

It's because the cleaning up of supports is less onerous than the breaking of undercarriage when trimming supports 

[Thorvic]

Given the AFVG was at the time envisioned to be RN as well as RAF then by 1974/75 then we would probably see the first squadron start to replace the Buccaneers.

Haven't you done an AFVG in 1/72 already Geoff, or did I imagine that?

Yeah I have scratch built both in 1/72nd over the years Kit 

Those are great - well done! 

I'll bet some people would be interested in 1/72nd scale versions of both those aircraft too (and yes, I do understand that that would be a massive amount of work).

AFVG was more "fightery" than MRCA/Tornado (lower-bypass, higher-dry-thrust engines mainly) so it's possible that it could, in time have replaced both the Buccaneer and the Phantom. There's a certainly an excellent case for VG in a fleet interceptor, as the F-14 (and the F-4VG proposal) demonstrated.

The Royal Navy were interested in the AFVG to replace both,  as they had envisaged with AW406 with the Supermarine 583 replacing the Sea Vixen and  then the Buccaneer, as they along with the Phantom were 50s designs, using 60s tech thery could match performabce with a smarter, lighter more aerodynamic types.

As to 1/72nd versions, thats up to Scautomoton, as he's already committed to the Hawkers P1103 and successors, the MDD 265 plus his own builds  and of course further F155T types. I suspect to more detailed drawings may be required to create the AFVG, as the design developed to more RAF needs after the CVA-01 and RN carriers were canned in 1966. The P139B should be easier to get data for but thats a bigger buildto create and print, plus the big factor is do either inspire Scautomoton to develop and produce them  !

[Gondor]

May I be so bold as to suggest a two-seat P.1154?