Gondor's Grumblings

[PR19_Kit]

As if I'd DARE do anything else! 

[Gondor]

Might have some mojo back. I've been fetteling with an Odds and Ordnance Lightning two seater conversion set and an Airfix Lightning F.2A. Actually did some painting today to the exhausts so I can glue the fuselage together. After that it's a case of using the inner wing parts from a Freightdog Lightning VG wing set which will be added later to help finesse the placement of the new nose. Anyway, that's me actually getting somewhere with something other than just buying more kits.

Gondor

[Rick Lowe]

Might have some mojo back.
actually getting somewhere with something other than just buying more kits.

Gondor

Good to hear, Cool Bananas! 

[Pellson]

..something other than just buying more kits.

There's nothing wrong with buying kits! 

Good to hear of your progress still.

[NARSES2]

There's nothing wrong with buying kits! 

I think that's one of those mantra's that's chanted by the high priests just before the congregation goes back home to "She who must be obeyed" 

[ChernayaAkula]

Might have some mojo back. <...>

Great news!    Insufficient mojo is a right bummer.

[Gondor]

One of the projects that I have planed for the near future is a Single Seat Naval fighter based on the BAe Hawk family. This was sparked by Spinners and then followed up by Dizzyfugu who has built an Indian Navy version so that threw the main idea I had for an operator out of the window. However I realised that Brazil has a sea going naval air arm and I could get decals for one of the types of aircraft they operate in the real world so the plan is back on 
One of the problems that I have found out about is that Itelari are not only the only company to make a 1/72 Injection Moulded kit of the T-45, it's not been updated and may be incorrect in some details 
Google to the rescue and the finding of TIMMY!'S TECH http://www.timmystech.com/ which has some very nice 1/32 scale drawings of the C version which I plan to base my aircraft on as well as improving the Woolfpack T-45C kit which is just the Italeri T-45 A/B? kit with a few extras thrown in. Anyway, drawings can be re-scaled so a set of 1/72 plans is possible which will help detail the build and acuritise the T-45C as well.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Time for a little update I think.

Things are slow, Glacial slow as I put as my build speed and it's certainly that at the moment although some things are making a little progress.

The drawings I referred to in my last blog post have now been converted to JPEG format after being in PDF format, this means I can resize them so I can end up with 1/72 scale plans.

Another plan that is coming together, slowly of course, and did you see what I did there...... 
My first Naval Lightning has been started. The conversion of the F.2A to a two-seater is on-going at this exact time as the inner swing-wing sections have just been added. Now this build is going to be a real Frankenstein's monster with at least three different manufacturers contributing to the basic fuselage. Airfix, Freightdog and Odds & Ordinance. The biggest problem so far has been getting the  Airfix kit's fuselage cut at the right place so that the new nose by O & A fits well. To add to the problems with that, the only guides I have are the recesses in the forward fuselage where the wings meet the back of the cockpit and of course the wing roots are from a manufacturer that the cockpit was not designed for but as Trumpeter don't do a swing-wing Lightning I just have to fettle the wing roots to fit. I do like a bit of a challenge anyway and this is that.

Other projects on-going in my mind are a real world MiG-21FL which is a HAL built MiG-21 PFM (Early) so it has the one piece canopy that hinges at the front. The drawings mentioned earlier will also be used for not only a real-world T-45C but for a single seat fighter similar but different to Dizzyfugu's Indian Navy aircraft although mine will be Brazilian Navy. The back-dating of a P.Z.L. P23 is something that I have in mind to do with the basic parts gathered. I think I will have to come up with another P number other than 23 as this build will look rather different 

That's all for now

Gondor

[Pellson]

Great stuff! Really looking forward to that Lightning in particular

[Gondor]

Recently I have been trying to find out what the difference between two Eduard MiG-21 kits was. Both kits or of the MF version but one is listed as an "Interceptor" and the other as a "Fighter-Bomber"

There is one sprue that is listed differently in each kit although they look identical in the instructions. In the "Interceptor" kit the Sprue with the fuselage, wings, spine & tail and a few other pieces is called "A" and an almost identical sprue is called "B" in the Fighter-Bomber kit. Well a little earlier today I would out what the difference was



Not sure if you can see the difference easily but, on the Fighter-Bomber version there is some extra rivet and panel lines in front of the main flaps, and that's it! No other difference at all other than the decals really and those are different to reflect the operators and the roles that the aircraft were used in. I am going to have some fun, not, trying to work out more about this difference and why possibly.

Gondor

[Pellson]

I am going to have some fun, not, trying to work out more about this difference and why possibly.

I'm sorry. And at the same time very, very curious of what you'll find out.. 

[PR19_Kit]

Perhaps as a fighter-bomber it would spend more time at low altitudes, and therefore undergoing more stressful loadings, thus more rivets holding some re-enforcements in the wing structure?

[Gondor]

The thought has occurred to me that Eduard could have saved itself the cost of a set of sprues by only making the version for the Fighter-Bomber and having the instructions tell the modeller to fill in the unnecessary detail if they are making the Interceptor version.

Perhaps as a fighter-bomber it would spend more time at low altitudes, and therefore undergoing more stressful loadings, thus more rivets holding some re-enforcements in the wing structure?

Very plausable Kit

Gondor

[The Wooksta!]

A lot of what Eduard seems to be doing in their kits is really for show.  "Look at us!" they seem to be bragging what their toolings can do.  I mean, is there any real need for the wheels of a 72nd Spitfire to be in FOUR fecking pieces when EVERY other manufacturer can do them in one?  A seat in four pieces?  The radiators in four?

I'd also wager that some of this is done so the modeller will buy their (admittedly superb) resin replacements rather than build half the kit.

[ChernayaAkula]

Recently I have been trying to find out what the difference between two Eduard MiG-21 kits was. Both kits or of the MF version but one is listed as an "Interceptor" and the other as a "Fighter-Bomber"

There is one sprue that is listed differently in each kit although they look identical in the instructions. In the "Interceptor" kit the Sprue with the fuselage, wings, spine & tail and a few other pieces is called "A" and an almost identical sprue is called "B" in the Fighter-Bomber kit. Well a little earlier today I would out what the difference was



Not sure if you can see the difference easily but, on the Fighter-Bomber version there is some extra rivet and panel lines in front of the main flaps, and that's it! No other difference at all other than the decals really and those are different to reflect the operators and the roles that the aircraft were used in. I am going to have some fun, not, trying to work out more about this difference and why possibly.

Gondor

That's an access panel to (depending on source) the wing tanks, boundary layer control system SPS and/or the aileron booster BU-45. That's not all, though. Some panels and panel lines on the belly are different, too. And I think the tail pipes are different between the two versions (notched part bigger on one version).
It might have made more sense for Eduard to not call them "interceptor" and "fighter-bomber", but rather "Moscow-production" (fighter-bomber boxing) and "Gorky-production" (interceptor boxing). Either "version" could be equipped and used as interceptors or fighter-bombers. There's no technical reason a fighter-bomber couldn't be employed as an interceptor or vice versa. AFAIK, Eduard only calls the Gorky-built MFs "interceptors" because those of the Gorky-built examples delivered to the Czechoslovak AF were purely used as interceptors in Czechoslovak service. Because the Gorky-built MFs were built pretty late (production had already switched to the more advanced and internally different and essentially all-new MiG-21bis), they use wings of the MiG-21bis. These no longer had that access panel on the wing.
I suppose the wing access panel might be puttied for the other version, but the access panels and panels lines on the belly would be much harder to correct. So Eduard made it simpler for the modeller and more difficult/expensive* for them by giving us two kits. Is this overkill for a 1/72 model? Maybe. But, really, ... so what? Those that care about these details will be happy and those that don't, well, won't care anyway. Everybody happy!  And it means we might see a MiG-21bis from Eduard some nice day. 

*Thinking about it.... actually, they didn't make it that much more expensive for them. This basic airframe sprue can - through some inserts for different spines, fuselage halves and upper wing halves - allow for any single-seater Fishbed from the second-generation PF to the fourth-generation bis. Any big intake (compared to the MiG-21F) MiG-21, really.

A lot of what Eduard seems to be doing in their kits is really for show.  "Look at us!" they seem to be bragging what their toolings can do.  I mean, is there any real need for the wheels of a 72nd Spitfire to be in FOUR fecking pieces when EVERY other manufacturer can do them in one?  A seat in four pieces?  The radiators in four?

I'd also wager that some of this is done so the modeller will buy their (admittedly superb) resin replacements rather than build half the kit.

I don't know why the tire part of the wheels is in two halves, but there are two different tires and three different wheel rims, so.... pick-and-mix? The seat and radiators both have detail that just couldn't be done as a single part (unless you go expensive slide mould). Detail on the sides would trap the parts in the moulds. If you want this kind of detail on the radiator sides, it'll have to be more than one part. Nobody - absolutely nobody - does any more parts than they absolutely need to (and certainly not to drive up parts count for sake of parts count ). Tooling time costs money. More parts mean bigger sprues means higher costs. So you either simplify detail (one part radiators) or - if you don't want to simplify - you need either expensive slide moulds or you bite the bullet and do it in more parts.

That's the reason you see so many Dragon armour kits with piles of unused parts. If a certain boxing can use even just two parts from an existing sprue, it's simpler to chuck in the parts from an existing kit than it is to tool the parts on a new mould. Plastic is cheap, a steel mould isn't.