S1581 Hawker Nimrod MkI

[Danny Fenton]

Thanks Dwain and Gary. When I can get the tedium of the air-frame done then the detailing is the bit I really enjoy and I cannot stay away from the workshop.

I am stuck for KK paint, apparently its taken two weeks to just get across the USA, lord knows how long to get across the pond!!!

Dwaine, the litho is the thin 0.17mm and for the forward two exhausts the tube is rolled from a piece of litho 42mm x 10mm. The ends are not glued but left loose. For the remaining four exhausts the length is still 42mm but they are only 8mm deep. As you can see the exhausts protrude further towards the front, where the cowl curves towards the spinner. Because the hoops are not fixed, they can be expanded/contracted to get a good fit, and to allow them to be teased into the horizontal. They are then locked in place with thin CA and the handle from a needle file holds the band closed while a drop of CA closes the hoop on the underside, hopefully out of sight.

Cheers

Danny

[Martian]

Brilliant Danny as I said much much better job than I did 😟

[Jose L. G.]

Hi Danny.

Nice work on the windscreen and exhaust.

How did you shapend the bottom of the windscreen (Wood part) ?

Thanks.

José L.

[Eric Robson]

Posted by Danny Fenton on 09/06/2020 22:54:57:

Much better than holes though my friend

I had a bash with litho plate, just to see how one would look, next thing I knew I had done all six on one side

Haven't cut the holes in the other side yet.

Cheers

Danny

Brilliant !!! a work of art.

Cheers Eric.

[Danny Fenton]

Thanks chaps, not sure I would call it a work of art lol, but thanks for the kind words.

The bottom of the windscreen is made up of a lamination of hardwood. A Dremel was used to get the basic curvature.

Then sandpaper is placed "face-up" on top of the fuselage, and the frame slid back and forwards over the sandpaper. I still have a bit of a gap and will fill that with a grey-stopper/silicone when I figure out what to use

The hardwood sections were joined together, but would not have been strong enough without a shaped piece of 1/32nd ply.

I have subsequently stained it with a dark oak, which is closer to the original.

Cheers

Danny

[Danny Fenton]

Surprisingly I was able to do the exhausts on the other side, and got them quite similar!

Decided on a break from heavy stuff and do some more lacing. These two shots show the process I reckon.

I find doing bits like this really relaxing. There are loads of laced panels, but I really must resist.

I might look at the carb intake bulges next.

Good news on the paint front, Phil@Fighteraces has found some white KK, wrong shade so I will have to add a splash of yellow to make insignia white. hopefully get the rest of my colours for the weekend

Cheers

Danny

[Martin Fane]

Hi Danny

So impressed with your progress

Interesting stuff on the lacing, just wondering how you get the laced litho strip sitting flush as I assume the lacing is on both sides ???

Also like the cockpit edge lining, never heard of vector board before, did you use 2 prices of the board, one to form an edge then a strip covering it ? Could you confirm what thickness board you used and the best glue for it.

Looking forward to more instalments.

Cheers

Martin

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Martin, and thanks really enjoying the detailing, and there is so much on the Fury, the more you look the more you see, but I do have to reign that in to a certain extent, as it is not for competition, just fun.

yes if you look carefully at the above photo, before the laced strip is attached, you will see a shallow ditch has been filed into the models surface. the masking tape is protecting the extremely delicate tissue right alongside the "ditch" I formed the channel with a round/bent mini permagrit file, running against a steel rule to keep it true and away from that tissue!

The litho-plate has crochet thread on both sides, weaving from one end to the other through the 1.6mm holes, then back again, reversing the thread direction. The channel allows just enough clearance for the panel to sit flush, or should if I hadn't ended it slightly short!.

The Vector Board is strange stuff, and very different to use for modelling, it is not rigid but very light. The surface texture is also odd, and I immediately thought leather when Andy S suggested it. But it is expensive for the small amount we need for detailing. If you want to try it then I can send you some?

I used some 1mm to form the square section underlying padding. This is glued and wrapped around the cockpit edge. Then a very thin layer of the foam, 0.3 mm was glued to the outside of the fuselage, wrapped over the padding 1 mm foam, and glued on the inside/underside of the cockpit wall.

I am really pleased with this innovative use of the really thin vector board for this, because, as you will see it is perfect for all the little leather exits covers scattered all over the air-frame. Then you will see the real revolution this material is.

You can use several glues with Vector board, unlike other foams it is not dissolved by CA nor by celly thinners, so can be painted, with solvent based paints, though I use Tamiya acrylics in this instance. The best glue for vector board, is o contact glue that can flex. Por is one. But the best glue is 3M 66 it comes in an aerosol, and is quite expensive. I spray a little in a lid and use a brush to apply it. As it dries it can be re-constituted/thinned with Ronson lighter fluid. You seem to be the only one that has twigged the importance of this material in this application. you wait until you see the leather cable exits

Cheers

Danny

Edited By Danny Fenton on 11/06/2020 08:41:38

[Danny Fenton]

Managed to do a little on my Fury, added the string wing grips. More of the crochet thread.

Cheers

Danny

[Eric Robson]

Hi Danny, your attention to detail is first class! I will not be doing the hand holds your way. Too much of a bind.

Cheers Eric.

[Jose L. G.]

Beautiful work as usual Danny.

As a side note. Did you see the thread about a 1/4 scale Nimrod in the Scratchbuld área on RCSB ?.

Cheers.

José Luis

[Danny Fenton]

LOL Thanks Eric, yes its a cross I have to bear. TBH I really enjoy all the detail. I have a belief that if you swamp the viewer with detail, then they wont see the errors, and more so they wont dare to question that you got something wrong, which I often do!

I fitted the most exquisitely detailed trim tab on the wrong elevator on one model.

Cheers

Danny

[Danny Fenton]

Posted by Jose L. G. on 12/06/2020 10:37:43:

Beautiful work as usual Danny.

As a side note. Did you see the thread about a 1/4 scale Nimrod in the Scratchbuld área on RCSB ?.

Cheers.

José Luis

Hi José, Thank you sir, I haven't seen that, though I have followed Gwyn Avenell's build of a 1/4 scale Fury, a real lesson in how to build a model. Gwyn is an awesome modeller.

Could that be the build you mean?

Cheers

Danny

[Danny Fenton]

Did a little today, mainly around the tail end.

The rudder horn was fettled and bushed with a bit of brass tube, sanded flush with the airfoil sectioned horn then epoxied into the rudder.

This then allowed the closed loop to be sorted, and the rear lower cover could be finally fitted.

All starting to look quite nice at the back

Cheers

Danny

[Jose L. G.]

Hi Danny.

Ref RCSB I know Gwyn model thread. I`ve seen a new Thread about a1/4 scale Nimrod. Gwyn has helped the builder with developing the new model. The tail parts are those that Gwyn designed (looks familiar).

José Luis

[Eric Robson]

Hi Danny, have you stuck the cover plate on? if screwed on it is very neat , my smallest screws look enormous in comparison. Don't know if Phillips screws were about in the 1930's

Cheers Eric.

[Danny Fenton]

Thanks José, i will find it, thanks for that. The Nimrod tailplane is larger, but Gwyn will know that.

Eric, the plate is glued on. The tail-plane struts are retained with slotted and the dreaded phillips, which as you say werent around. But the struts are anchored with brackets, so its already non scale whatever we use.

Thanks for the comments, following a machine crash I realised that I have lost years of collected miltary fonts

Cheers

Danny

[Eric Robson]

Hi Danny I did have thoughts of making the brackets for the front tail strut, then I thought as you it is a long way off true scale . Mine will probably be no further than the local field. The dreaded machine crash is a disaster if you have no back up files, I have lost a lot of photo's through it.

Cheers Eric.

[Danny Fenton]

Sanity restored, was able to find the missing font folder on the old C drive, which I had kept for emergencies. All missing fonts now installed on the new laptop, the plotter cutter software is working too, all of which is very old software, I will be goosed once it stops working as it is long out of date.

So I suppose I better get drawing......

Cheers

Danny

[Danny Fenton]

Spent most of the day re-learning Illustrator, it sucks getting older, if you don't use software every day its gone.....

Anyway after finally figuring out adding and manipulating anchor points we were off.

These are the fuselage checkers, I will do the white wherever black or white will be then mask the white and do the black. Well that's the plan.....

Then I moved on to some foil parts that are needed and over-painted by the checks.

The footsteps went okay, I think I will fill in the centers.

The foil is cut using my reliable if not a bit old now, robocraft cutter. The foil it likes is cheap Halfords stuff. The blade clogs with quality Flite Metal.

I applied 50 DZUS fasteners on each side, hopefully subtle enough that you don't really see them. Not sure what will happen when I try and buff the foil

Oh I also made a half effort at the rear inspection hatches

So there we have it.........

Might take a peak at the white and see if I can mix me some insignia white from bright white and dark earth, supposed to work.....

Cheers

Danny

[Eric Robson]

Hi Danny, looking good as ever. Is it an illusion with the top hatches or have you offset the fin?

Cheers Eric.

[Danny Fenton]

You guys are just too polite. You should have said something about those footrests, they are way undersize!!

Anyway it made me realise that I had a serious problem with my plotter/cutter. Needless to say it took me all day to finally unearth a one revision later driver that made it print 1:1. I lost almost the entire day to this PITA.

Anyway the Bryant Fury is way out, when you scale the markings from photos they do not line up anywhere near the models reference points. So I adjusted each of the markings to suit this model. My hope is that if they look right, (though I know they are wrong) then they are right..... sort of.

once I had the main fuselage bits drawn I cut them using a cheap masking film which I do not get on with as a test of both size and position.

First up was the rudder:

There then followed correctly sized foot-holds and re sized DZUS fasteners:

Then I tried the roundel and check, the latter had to be greatly altered from scale to fit the Bryant fuselage.

But having said that it is still a lovely model, and getting ever closer to paint.

Next I will play with the wing roundels and the upper wing checks, as well as the under wing registration number.

The nomenclature labels I will worry about later.

Cheers

Danny

[Danny Fenton]

Hi Eric, and thank you yes the fin is offset, for a few reasons, scale, a 20" prop, and control line It will help with all of those parameters

Cheers

Danny

[Danny Fenton]

Thought I would try and mix insignia white from my pure white KK. I added a bit of dark earth, a couple of drips of yellow and a drip or two of black. Colour is always a problem for me, I have difficulty distinguishing shades.

Anyway I think this is close enough for this model

I cut just the outline of the check section and used it as a guide to apply some Tamiya paper tape, this is the best tape I have found and really works well. Once the Tamiya is on the stencil guide can be removed

I roughed up the alloy tape with steel wool, and then after a wipe down with a tack cloth proceeded to add white.

Hopefully it will be okay, really pleased that the really fine tissue rib tapes are still discernible.

I have also done the other side, KK needs 24 hours at least before masking so I shall leave it alone until tomorrow.

Time for more stencil drawing I reckon

Cheers

Danny

[Danny Fenton]

I have spent several hours really trying to make illustrator do stuff that I didn't know it could do. Anyway I think I have reached a point where I will have to do the final bits manually with an eyeball and vinyl lining tape.

But it has been fun in a masochistic sort of way.

Anyway this is the fruit of all that time, this is to scale and would if I could cut it stretch from one wing tip to the other. But the robo lost registration I just did the outer panel and that was 600 mm long. too much to ask it. But it will cut all the squares and using transfer tape should still be a lot easier than completely by hand.

Cheers

Danny