Full Monty TSR-2

[General Melchet]

Sorry chaps, been extremely busy with work and magazine reviews...a fair bit of progress, will post new pics tomorrow, when I surface...(on run of night duties at the mo so a bit cream crackered to put it mildly!!!!! )

Don't worry its still on the factory floor, and progressing well.....

Cheers,

Andy

[chrisonord]

Sorry chaps, been extremely busy with work and magazine reviews...a fair bit of progress, will post new pics tomorrow, when I surface...(on run of night duties at the mo so a bit cream crackered to put it mildly!!!!! )

Don't worry its still on the factory floor, and progressing well.....

Cheers,

Andy

Bloody hurry up so I can see that SR-75 being built!!
Looking forward to seeing the TSR2 when its done Andy I keep looking at my 1/72nd scale one tucked under the display cabinet and wondering what to do with it.
Cheers,
Chris.

[nev]

Sorry chaps, been extremely busy with work and magazine reviews...a fair bit of progress, will post new pics tomorrow, when I surface...(on run of night duties at the mo so a bit cream crackered to put it mildly!!!!! )

Don't worry its still on the factory floor, and progressing well.....

Cheers,

Andy

No probs mate - I imagine the weather is keeping you busy?  Especially as there are a lot more places now that only you can reach.

[General Melchet]

Thanks chaps,
Chris...don't worry it's underway...as is the Thunderdart, (as well as a few others, just a case of rotation, keeping the interest fresh!!)...

Neil, yep not the easiest conditions but as you say, we are capable of reaching folks inaccessible to normal means.Sadly the weather also means no flying, although the rain has arrived and the temp is up..hoorah!!!!...still the rapid response unit keeps us busy enough!

Cheers,

Andy..

[General Melchet]

OK several updates here,



The undercarriage bogie carriers are a bit basic on so a little research and some added detail enhance this areas quite a bit. Several  prominent struts and jacks are missing and take only a minute to add.....The locating points for all the hydraulic lines are now in place and will be fitted after the units are fitted to the main leg units.



Top is the kit piece as provided, below both modified units ready for attachment...these will look a lot busier when all the lines are fitted.....












Able to find a little time to do some more work on the main gear...the bogies are designed to hang in trail when raised off the ground, using two diameters of brass rod and a strategically placed 'stop', so when she's airbourne it hangs at the correct angle, (just a little'extra' feature I thought I'd add for fun).  the wheels look a bit neat and sterile at the mo so next step will be weathering the bogies and wheel hubs with oils and white spirit before airbrushing the tyres with a very thinned med sea grey to lighten them and give a more used look, finally adding an acrylic matt varnish. Wiring will be added to the brake discs to make them more realistic and more hydraulic wiring will then be added to the bogie/main leg section using plastic tubing as it will have to be flexible to move with the bogies....

The centre brass axles will be covered with small plates to hide them at the end of this stage.....

This section is just taped together at the moment while I work out the amount to be adjusted at the front end..

The cutting and re profiling of the intakes and mid section will start this week....just double checking the plans, before surgery!!










I've been tinkering around with some of the more mundane but necessary stuff, namely detailing the nose wheels, which unlike the main wheels have no detail whatsoever!!..strange because the mains are nicely done...what would have been so hard about putting some holes in these??....anyway, it gave me more to sort out, so those are now done just awaiting painting and hub detail.

This problem is also a bit odd!!...after all the effort of detailing the main gear bays, Airfix seem to have lost interest again and completely forgotten the side bays, (by the main gear legs). So out with the scalpel, plasticard and Evergreen strips and on with detailed side bays. This enhances the area a lot, as it's very noticable should anyone peer inside!.

Next is the curious gap at the top rear of the gear bay, (behind the gear leg), a good 5mm all round which quite frankly looks awful, again a simple case odf Plasticard and strip and it's gone. Beats me why they allow this as it would have been quite easy to have extended the bay walls up 5 mm surely !!!



Here's a few pics,

Cheers all,




Modded wheel on the left, Airfix frisbee on the right...







Side walls under construction...











Ready for priming with wiring added .....notice cut outs at the bottom, this is necessary to help the thing sit squarely ......









Painted and weathered...this area on the real aircraft would get very dirty, very quickly, just going by the position, geometry and retraction sequence of the main gear........











In situ........snug fit, the extra thickness of the bay side will be carefully reduced before fitting the doors...









Check for alignment...














Main wheel detail, light oil wash, (burnt umber and lamp black plus white spirit), and rear brake lines added...











Rear side view of main bogies, just need hydraulic lines fitted once attached to the main legs...














Again checking for hang and alignment, making sure/ praying that the legs don't splay too far out..









Front tyre , port side looks a bit odd coz I forgot to turn the wheel , so what you're seeing is the flattened side!!.. :blush:.









Finally under 'load', resting on the main gear...angle correct and no splay .....phew!! :pray:

The underside is not yet glued in place, so please excuse the gap!!!



















The wings are now fitted, just a bit of blending needed here...

Just out of interest here is the huge 1435 gal belly tank dry fitted to the underside....If I use it on this one then it's certainly going to alter the flowing lines of this bird.........just how I like em 















Right, not a huge amount done over this time but managed to get the instument panel coaming done, just awaiting the lens for new reflector HUD and PE circular surrounding shroud plus a bit of wiring. The Airfix part is abysmal and yet again I cannot understand for the life of me why no effort was put into even attempting to replicate the real thing, surely it wouldn't take much more effort to get it right than to just knock something out like this !!. :hypnotised:


Made in about 5 minutes using reference photos from original brochure and some Plasticard!!, just need to clean up the holes, prime and paint...












Also started the engine exhaust pack, initial Alclad semi-matt aluminium to be followed by duralumin and hot metal violet and sepia to give it that just burnt look!



















Here's the unit in place, checking for alignment and fit....nice and tight and a big improvement on the kit parts!! (The instrument panel included in the Eduard set fitted to the coaming top will be added after the matt black and dry brushing has been completed..




















A bit more progress,

Apols for the poor quality of the pics but the lighting system is undergoing a bit of an overhaul at the moment.

Things are starting to come together now and it's starting to look more like a TSR-2 at last....

The coaming has been done and painted matt black with an acetate lens in placw....next problem will be the cruddy windscreen/fuselage join..

The problem with the odd humped shape of the top plate really comes into its own here so I've left it off until the thing has been sanded right back to the correct profile, also giving me a chance to get rid of the 'trench like' panel lines.















This shows the very much improved 'Odds and Ordnance' resin replacement parts.









These pice show the main difference in the size of the trim actuator housings on the tailplanes and the RAM air intake on the fin....

(Couple of small air bubbles to be cleaned up)...






















OK things a bit less hectic around here so was able to do a little more on this one...
Other than the forward fuselage shape, the undersize intakes and the naff cockpit coaming and windscreen another area of mystery is the hump on the top of the main wing area. For some reason Airfix have chosen to over emphasise this area as a well defined hump which it shouldn't be. The real thing is relatively flat as shown in Chris's plans and all the photos I have of the area. I'm beginning to think that all these mods are inter connected as everything centres around the intakes!!!.

First the plans showing the section in question,




Then a nice shot of the top of XR222 , showing that there IS definitely a smoothly faired area but no sign of the kits defined hump!! it's more a case of the wings blending into the fuselage shape...





Another showing the smooth flowing lines of the top side....





As fitted OOB with everything lined up correctly, now the 'hump' creates a very noticeable step, so it's going to have to go!








So the first thing to do was surgically remove the offending article,







then build up the underside with some stock 2mm card,






Now its fitted, all we need now is some 5mm stock carved to shape and blended. This has two things going for it 1), it allows the making of correct vents to be built into the root area rather than the vague Airfix thing and 2) it allows me to get rid of the trench like panel lines, which is a bonus!!







Now we are getting somewhere near to the excellent Dynavector kit!!!




More soon, hopefully have the fairing done soon, then I can get the pesky intakes sorted!   

Cheers,





This piccy shows clearly the shape of the top fairing which is very subtle when compared to the Airfix 'hump'.....luckily I've been given some nice BAC production shots showing this in closeup so at least I have something nice to work with!!









Well that's almost up to date folks.....more very soon,

Cheers all,

Andy

[Mossie]

Chuffin' 'eck!

[thedarkmaster]

Glad your back mate, love your work really inspires me   

[Cobra]

Great Work i can Tell You're going to have a KA aircraft when She's Ready for Roll out!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the Great Work

[PR19_Kit]

Andy,

The more I see of your outstanding work on this, the more I wonder how Airfix can have got the 1/48 kit SO wrong, when many of the faults were not present on the 1/72 kit.

And that was mastered in 1/48 anyway! 

[General Melchet]

Thanks fellas, I really do appreciate the comments


Kit, I must admit having spoken to Joe and Geoff and after seeing th test shot on the table at SMW 08 I knew that we were in for a bit of head scratching with this one..but now that I've had time to examine the thing more thoroughly I am amazed at the sheer number of mistakes when compared to it's little brother. Don't get me wrong I'm very grateful to Airfix for making the effort in the first place , it's just that like you I can't understand for the life of me how it has ended up so out of shape when the thing was 1/48th to start with and presumably accurate , (if the 1/72nd was scaled down from the master at any rate!!)...
It's all very strange, and the more you look the more you find.
I've just wimped out of using the kits cockpit glazing as I believe there are a few issues with accuracy there too , and have just ordered the brand new CMK vac set which supposedly has the correct shape parts including internal bracing !!...we'll see. All the attempts I've seen so far at folks adapting the kit's windscreen seem to disrupt the smooth profile of the real thing......anyway I've got plenty more to be getting on with as more little things turn up daily!!!

Cheers all

Andy

[GTX]

Ok the peasants are appeased...

Regards,

Greg

[NARSES2]

Inspiring stuff Andy 

[lenny100]

this will be a true scale work of art

[ChrisF]

Have we decided on a paint scheme yet lad? Or is it still a secret ? 

[nev]

A masterclass in modelling and a masterpiece in the making