Gannet Scale Models Saunders Roe P.187 - 1/144 Test Shot

[Mossie]

Alistair (Lost Cosmonauts) of Gannet Scale Models kindly agreed to let me have a crack at a test shot of his Saunders Roe P.187.  The final model will be 1/72 and an impressive 35cm (nearly 14 inches).  This test shot is in a smaller scale so as the reduce the printing time.

F.155T was an ambitious project that was one of the victims of the infamous 1957 white paper.  The largest designs were in the MiG-25 class and the P.187 had the potential to achieve Mach 3.5 (although 2.5 was more likely) with two huge jets plus four rockets.  It was by far the heaviest and highest performer of the designs.  It's my favourite for sheer bulk and performance, although the powers that be were probably right to prune it from the competition at early stage.

So here's the model.  It's a simple model construction wise, with three large parts making up the fuselage.  The forward part includes the intakes and front landing gear moulded in.  The main wheel well is provided as a plug that sits in the middle fuselage part with the doors and gear moulded in place. The wings are tabbed, fitting into slots in the mid fuselage part.  The rear part includes the jet and rocket engines with the T-Tail incorporated.  There's a  sepereate canopy part with no internal detail for the cockpit.  On the P.187, the nose piece raised to be flush during flight and lowered for a better view during landing and you can pose this in either position.  The large Red Dean missiles attach to the wingtip rails.  Alistair has mentioned that underwing Red Tops will be available for the final version but weren't available for the test shot.



Simon

[Mossie]

First impressions.

The main thing is it looks like it'll go together fairly well once cleanup is done.

There's a large air bubble in the canopy part.  It's probably best as a either a solid piece or a more hollowed out, as the air bubble only covers some of the windows and the difference in the opacity shows up.  I'll probably have a go at reaming it out a bit.


Right main landing gear has come out at wonky angle.  A bit of hot water should sort it out, failing that, cutting it off, pinning and re-mountining it.


Several fins on the missiles are missing or broken.  My only real option is to try and recreate them from thin plastic card, a bit tricky in this scale but will probably be less of a problem in 1/72 as the parts will be thicker.


I think the burner cans need representing.  Not too much of an issue in this scale but in 1/72 they'll be large items.  In the drawings, the cans sit within a shroud (similar to TSR.2) unlike the other F.155T contenders that are external.  I might see if I can find something from the spares box that fits.

[Tophe]

Interesting...

[The Wooksta!]

From recent experience with my second P.8 which is in the same resin:

It's hard stuff, very hard.  It resists sawing and apparently most 3d printed resin is hard to drill.

All the mating surfaces will need sanding and constant test fitting.

The pin ports for the wings may be misaligned and will need some grouting out.

I'm really looking forward to getting the 72nd one, as if it arrives in time I'm hoping to have it ready for Telford.

[Lost Cosmonauts]

From recent experience with my second P.8 which is in the same resin:

It's hard stuff, very hard.  It resists sawing and apparently most 3d printed resin is hard to drill.

All the mating surfaces will need sanding and constant test fitting.

The pin ports for the wings may be misaligned and will need some grouting out.

I'm really looking forward to getting the 72nd one, as if it arrives in time I'm hoping to have it ready for Telford.

Is this worse to work with than the grey? If so I'll switch back to using that for opaque parts

Really useful feedback so far, first 1/72 one just finished printing - the missiles and canopy will need adjusting if 1/144 is going to be a regular option rather than a one off

[The Wooksta!]

TBH, they're both kind of the same.  It sands easily, the clear more than the grey, but it does chip somewhat like china.  Reminds me of the polyester resins used in the past rather than the more soft polyurethane stuff we use now.

[Mossie]

I've found that with horizontal tail, it's probably got knocked on other parts in transit and there are little nibble like chips in the trailing edge.

I might forego trying to rectify the canopy if it's difficult to drill, I was thinking of grinding it with a mini drill dental burr.

[Mossie]

First round of sanding, there's going to be a lot more.  Like Lee mentioned, all of the mating surfaces required sanding.  Some don't need much attention while others are very blobby with excess resin.  I found it useful to colour the surface in with marker pen, that way I could see where effort where was needed.  Sand, check, repeat, repeat, repeat...

Left is the complete forward section, that was pretty flat and needed moderate attention to remove artefacts, you can see a little bit of marker left on the edges where there's some pitting.  In the middle is the centre section which is in progress, probably the surface that required the most attention.  Right is the undercarriage unit that fits into the centre section waiting to be done with a fair amount of excess material.


A whoops moment.  I was test fitting the undercarriage to the centre section, it was nearly there but wedged firmly part way down.  Despite efforts to avoid the sticky-out-bits, I managed to snap one of the undercarriage doors off as I needed some light force to prise the part out again.  Like Lee's mishap with the P.8's wing, it's broken very cleanly so shouldn't be a problem to fix, although it'll be tricky to fill and sand the inner surface with the wheels being in the way.  There's a silver lining, it should make it easier to clean this part up and it might worth taking the other one off with a razor saw to reattach it later.