Hawker Siddeley P.1121

[Gondor]

Thought I had better start this so I can finish it in time to pass it on for the journey south to Telford later this year as per this idea.

The box and its contents.





This is going to be interesting for several reasons

• I have only had a go at one vac-formed conversion set many years ago
• The vac-formed conversion set was thrown away as the technique I was recommended didn't work
• This kit will probably involve a lot of my pet modelling hates other than the fact it's mainly vac-formed
• I am working to a deadline which for me means I will usually add the last few touches at 2am of the morning of the show it's for or I will realize that I can't paint it by 7am of the morning of the show 

The vac-formed method I am referring to is the marking of a line around the part then sanding on a flat surface until the line is gone. The line somehow was raised as I sanded the fuselage half to the point that there was a large discrepancy between the two half's which included part of the curvature of the fuselage side so the only thing I could do was to throw the whole thing away. That was years ago and now I have a little more confidence so I might manage this far better. Having a clean cutting mat as a work area might be a benefit as well.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

Is that going to be OOB Alastair, or do you have Whiff style plans for it?

I have the original Maintrack vacform, from whence yours grew, and I ought to do something with it I guess.

[Gondor]

Is that going to be OOB Alastair, or do you have Whiff style plans for it?

I have the original Maintrack vacform, from whence yours grew, and I ought to do something with it I guess.

Pretty much Kit. As I said in the first post, vac-formed is not my favourite medium to work with so the less mucking around with it the better. May well change the stores though.

Gondor

[van883]

Here is mine from 2007: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,15661.0.html
Good luck with it!

Van

[lancer]

I built that one a few years back. It's a great kit! My first vac form and I had a lot of fun building it. The resin parts came in extremely useful as well.

Mine got wiffed into an FAA machine

[Captain Canada]

Looking forward to seeing this one...love the look of it ! Guess I'll go search the FAA one, can't recall seeing it but I probably did !

[Gondor]

I managed to get some work done on this today. Trimmed most of the excess resin from the parts and filed back the rough edges. I decided to cut off the horizontal beams on the fuselage formers that go to the front and rear of the undercarriage bay as I didn't want to go to all the hassle of trying to remove the puddle of excess resin that is on the top of the part especially as it is not to a uniform depth and its sloped from one corner to its opposite corner. I am using a scribing tool to remove the excess plastic from around the parts, easy to use and control and not as dangerous as using a scalpel. So far only one fuselage half has been removed but its a start. I expect to have the second fuselage half free tomorrow and maybe starting on removing the excess plastic from the edges.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Progress is progress and pics are always welcome ! I've yet to tackle a vac kit, but it's on my list of to-dos !

[Gondor]

Just a little progress over the last couple of days. All the major parts of the aircraft have been separated, I will tackle the under wing stores later. The resin parts have had a wash to remove any releasing agent and dust from them and are now drying overnight.



Next on the to do list is to start removing the plastic around the edge of the pictured parts. Not exactly looking forward to that. I will have the resin parts on hand to make sure that the fuselage half's are not reduced by too much.

Below is the only implement I have used so far that is out of my usual tool set



Unfortunately the close up didn't come out well so I will have to try again tomorrow



Not sure why but the camera would not auto focus 

Gondor

[Gondor]

I realised that the camera was too close to the subject for the auto focus to work so today I have tried again. Below is the business end of the scribing tool I have been using to separate the parts from the plastic sheet that surrounds them.



Here is a picture of all the resin parts washed and dried and ready to be painted, at least those that will be difficult to paint later



With luck I shall get some work done on the fuselage half's in the near future

Gondor

[Hobbes]

The autofocus has trouble focusing on small, reflective objects. There are several ways to solve this:
1. hold the camera further away from the object.
2. focus manually, if possible.
3. put a high-contrast, non-reflective object (a thick black line on white paper) underneath the object
4. some cameras have a 'hold' mode where you can point the camera at one object, half-press the trigger button to lock the setting, and then move the camera to point at the object you want to photograph. This works well in combination with method 3, you can put the high-contrast paper next to your object rather than underneath it.

[Gondor]

Thanks Hobbs, the fact that the item is shiny doesn't help matters.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Looking good ! Looks like a lot of work so far and you've only just begun ! That single tool sure did get a workout as well eh ?

[Gondor]

Looking good ! Looks like a lot of work so far and you've only just begun ! That single tool sure did get a workout as well eh ?

Not much left for it to do either Captain, Now it's a pencil and a sanding stick that are getting the work out. The pencil to mark the edge between the part and the waste and the sanding stick to remove the waste.

I know its not the method described in countless articles in magazines etc, but working by hand I have control over how much I take off and from where. I did try the sanding paper on a sheet of glass method but it failed for me which is why I am using the method I am.

Gondor

[zenrat]

Scriber looks a bit like a dental pick.
My dentist has offered me the pick (sic) of his old tools and i'll be taking him up on it next time I see him.