McDonnell Douglas Alternative Harrier Replacement.

[kitnut617]

Thanks guys --

There won't be many photos for the moment, for some reason or other, Photobucket won't let me sign in.  I'm trying to get the issue resolved but their tech help is not too swift.

[kitnut617]

Photobucket is back up and running --- yaaae!

[Gondor]

So where are the pictures 

Gondor

[kitnut617]

Strange -- I've got a missing post.  I made a reply to Gondor yesterday so where's that gone   

[PR19_Kit]

That's happened to me in the last few days too...........

[pyro-manic]

Ok, HOW did you do this!? I have just such an issue for a planned build, and I've been dreading wet-sculpting the trunking out of milliput. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks Alun ---  I worked it out in my AutoCad but I did find this on the internet which is really quick (and neat) --
http://www.sheetmetalguy.com/transition.htm

Just follow the instructions and it will spit out a development for you.  When the save menu pops up, browse for a directory that you have on your computer and save it there. Then change the *.txt to *.dxf.
Once you've done that send it to me (by PM) and I'll convert it into a jpeg using my autocad program.  Or just tell me what the sizes are and I'll quickly do it for you.

Basically, what you do is work out a flat development like this



Then after cutting the shape out, carefully bend along the lines in the corners using some long nose plyers. Like this --



BTW, the more segments in the corners (that's all the lines) the smoother the corner becomes, so less sanding.

Robert

That's extremely useful - I will definitely be using that at some point. Many thanks indeed!

[kitnut617]

For the last couple of weeks I've been pondering how I was going to blend in the Harrier forward cockpit area in between the two F-15 intakes and then attaching them to the rear fuselage, along with the new square-to-round transition I made.  I wasn't planning on using any of the F-15 forward cockpit area at all so the problem went around and around in my head for quite a while.

Things came together a few days ago though because I had decided that I would use an F-18 front undercarriage leg (explanation later) plus all the F-18 wheels and had picked up a cheap Hobbyboss F-18 kit for this purpose.  Then while looking at Eddie M's really neat Strike Eagle/Super Hornet project, it suddenly came on me to use some of the F-18 fuselage too.  It just happens that the Harrier and F-18 have almost the same width cockpit area, but that could just be quirks of the two kits I'm using to bash, but the idea now is to use the lower half of the F-18 forward fuselage and blend in the top half of the Harrier cockpit area to it.

What this means is that I have to down size the F-15 air intakes a bit so taking the plunge, out came the razor saw again.

First thing to modify was the edge of the intake that's against the fuselage, I cut close to the top edge and then added a small wedge of card.  This is to gradually slope up that side of the intake top so that eventually it will blend into the top of the fuselage further back where I'll have to make the engine tunnel extend towards it.



I then modified the F-15 fuselage where the intake attaches to, bending down the top side to match the intake



Then I had to cut 1.5mm out of each side of the intake and glued them back together lining up the leading edges.  I also cut off the wing root fairing from the intake, this was then added to the 1/100 F-15 wings.



As you can see this moved the bottom part about 3mm further ahead so I had to trim the rear of the top off to suit.  This now fits the modified fuselage of the F-15



Here's a couple of pics of how the modified intake matches with the un-modified one




Here's a couple of pics where I've added the 1/72 wing root fairing part to the 1/100 wing.  I had to add a piece of card to get it to line up nicely though.

[kitnut617]

The breakdown of the Hobbyboss F-18 is very straight forward, the top half of the fuselage comes with the complete wings and tailplanes attached, and the bottom half is just that, the bottom half.



As I want the forward part of the fuselage only, it was out with the razor saw.



I also cut out the forward fuselage of the 1/72 F-15 as all I want from this is the intake duct splitter boards and the rest of the rear fuselage.  I've opened up the blanked off air ducts so eventually we'll be able to see the fan front once it's installed.



And while I was going full song with the razor saw, I cut the top half of the Harrier cockpit area off to match the F-18's lower front fuselage.



Now I'm getting a much better idea of how this aircraft will look like, pretty much to how I envisioned it but getting there has been a bit complicated.  The space between the cockpit and the made up rear fuselage is where the fan and transition will occupy



All the flying surfaces are now from the 1/100 scale F-15, I've modified the fins to look a little like a Harriers.  The aircraft is as long as a Harrier T.10 and the fins are about the same size as the t.10's too.

[Daryl J.]

This is going to look very very good when complete!   

Cheers,
Daryl J.

[PR19_Kit]

Pretty darned awesome so far Robert, I love the look of it. 

[kitnut617]

Cheers guys ---

I should add that the nose cone is from the F-18

[kitnut617]

OK, now this is a little more representative of the finished article, I've glued the lower half of the F-18 forward fuselage and the port air intake to the rear fuselage, and taped the wings in the correct position along with the cockpit.

[RussC]

Coming along nicely. 

[Hobbes]

Oh nice! Good to see it coming together.

[Taiidantomcat]

Nothing short of brilliant. You have outstanding vision