My new project BAC Eagle, 617 Sqn.

kitnut617 · April 20, 2009, 07:06:10 AM

Did a bit of painting to 'da bomb', then decided it didn't have a very convincing nose part for the TV camera so I found something suitable in the spares box. The part was a solid bit of clear so I drilled a small hole in the back of it and then painted the hole gloss black, I'll then give the bomb case another coat of drab sometime today.

As this is a British bomb, can anyone suggest what other paint markings it might have had, yellow stripes maybe ?

This BTW is a converted Tallboy (Paragon) using the fins and nose from a GBU-15 TV Guided Bomb (Hasegawa) so it's a (EDIT) 12000 lb TV Guided Deep Penetration Bomb.

kitnut617 · April 21, 2009, 06:16:33 AM

I've finished the bomb, here's some photos comparing the size of it, I notice that I've failed to tell everyone that this is the 1/72 TSR2 kit I'm bashing, not the new 1/48 one (sorry Daniel), I've also noticed I've given the bomb the wrong weight, this is a modified Tallboy so I should have said it's a 12000 lb'er.

kitnut617 · April 21, 2009, 06:18:33 AM

Here's a comparison to a few other bombs I have in 1/72, top photo shows a 500 lb'er (at the bottom) then a 1000 lb'er and the last two are 2000 lb'ers, with the top one being a GBU-15 TV Guided. Bottom photo shows it against the Grand Slam (22000 lbs) and a T12 (44000 lbs) I've made from info I got from Boeing .

kitnut617 · April 21, 2009, 07:42:22 PM

Well the build is coming along quite well, a couple of snags where bits either don't fit well or plain don't fit. The fuselage is mostly glued together here, except the top half of the forward fuselage and the very bottom of the main fuselage, I'm still working on the cockpits and for some reason this bottom bit goes on almost last. I've rounded off most of the square-ish corners of the Tornado lower part and added some putty on the underside and given it it's first sanding, it looks like how I imagined it would, the Tornado look to the forward fuselage is gradually disappearing, I'm going to sand off the middle framework on the canopy and do something else to it which will make it even less like a Tornado I think.

I did an almost complete dry fit of all the parts and found it's not really a tail sitter, but just to be on the safe side I've added some weight in the forward fuselage by using some Milliput. I needed to put some up near the front anyway because I think that I will slowly sand off the outside corners as I round off the underside more, especially near where the gun ports are and towards the radome.

kitnut617 · April 23, 2009, 03:43:31 PM

small update, I've been working on the wing, some problems here but now resolved. Everything now just falls on after some surgery and careful filing. Added the equipment bay door on in front of the front wheel bay and PSR'd the sh*t out of the undernose area which now looks fairly reasonable, it's taken on a different look altogether. I'm quite pleased with the results so far.

I've been doing a stage-by-stage build of this on the ATF forum if anyone is interested. http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/1_72_BAC_Eagle_GR_7a_TSR_2_variant__about13899.html

chrisonord · April 23, 2009, 04:24:20 PM

This is coming along great Robert

You are certainly not scared to hack that bird to within an inch of its life thats for sure.
My TSR2 will be getting wiffed, but no where near as much as this beauty(cos if I cock it up, I won't be able to replace it), it is going to be modern Canadian, with low viz markings and some of the weapon load off the Revell typhoon on the wings.
I have been looking at it on the ATF as I am a member also, and I will be watching this build closely that is for sure
cheers,
Chris.

kitnut617 · April 23, 2009, 06:36:15 PM

Quote from: chrisonord on April 23, 2009, 04:24:20 PM
This is coming along great Robert
You are certainly not scared to hack that bird to within an inch of its life thats for sure.
My TSR2 will be getting wiffed, but no where near as much as this beauty(cos if I cock it up, I won't be able to replace it), it is going to be modern Canadian, with low viz markings and some of the weapon load off the Revell typhoon on the wings.
I have been looking at it on the ATF as I am a member also, and I will be watching this build closely that is for sure
cheers,
Chris.

Well it's probably because a got two more in the stash Chris

But seriously, I did give it a lot of thought before it got on the business end of the razor saw. My other two will be Canadian too, there's two schemes on the Xtradecal sheets I have. It will be good to see what your's turns out like, looking forward to some photos of it.

Here's a question to anyone who might be able to answer it, did the Tornado GR.4/4a get a different nose cone to earlier ones (apart from the F.3) ? this one doesn't seem to have such a pronounced ogilvy (is that how you spell it) curve to it.

PR19_Kit · April 24, 2009, 12:27:39 PM

Robert,

AFAIK the GR4 nose cone is the same as the GR1s, apart from the dual laser thingies underneath.

I think the differences arise because some of the earlier kits weren't that well moulded. Quite a few aftermarket Tonka noses were around after the original Airfix kit came out, I have one somewhere, I think an Airkits one.

kitnut617 · April 24, 2009, 12:44:45 PM

Thanks Kit, well it's just as well because I'm trying to remove the familiar Tonka look to the nose for this project, I'm going to slowly round off the ledge which runs under the canopy towards the rear, try to give it a gradual transition from round to rectangular look to it. At the moment it's taking on a different look but I'm trying to think what --- I keep thinking F-101A or something like that.

Ian the Kiwi Herder · April 24, 2009, 11:50:35 PM

Brilliant work, Robert. If you need unit markings/codes, let me know I've got some spare.

Ian

kitnut617 · April 25, 2009, 07:47:39 AM

Thanks Ian, and thanks for the offer, much appreciated. Let me dig out the XtraDecals sheet I've got with the 617 Sqn. option on it and I'll see what others I might need

kitnut617 · May 19, 2009, 03:19:15 PM

Got a bit done to this on Monday (yard work has interjected but it snowed here on Monday) The cockpit has been finished except for painting the bang seats, I found a bunch of panel decals in the spares box where I did a mix-n-match. Top of the fuselage is glued on and after a session of PSR I put a coat of paint on so I could see what needs fixing. I've just about got rid of the Tornado look to the front end by rounding off all the corners, the bottoms more than the top and apart from the canopy, the look is quite different. I gave the GIB a joystick on the side console for steering the weapons and not bothered with any aircraft controls in the back seat.

Captain Canada · May 19, 2009, 06:24:00 PM

She's looking a real beauty, Robert ! Good job !

kitnut617 · June 18, 2009, 07:07:50 AM

Progress is slow at the moment, it's spring time and way to much to do around the property but I have got on with the equipment cooling air intakes so I can finish off the fuselage splice. I started off by glueing some card to make a boundry layer space, I cut them into shape and have now started on one side for the intake itself. It's come out somewhat how I was thinking but it needs tidying up a bit.

lenny100 · June 18, 2009, 07:59:45 AM

looks right so it must be right