Strength is Victory: भारतीय ईगल of भारतीय वायु सेना

[Gondor]

Progress is very slow 

Got the noses of the 1,000lb bombs painted so that there is now a nice thin band around each bomb, who knows, maybe tomorrow I will get them joined together into two groups of three so that they can fit into the weapons bay. Yet to decide exactly how I am going to fit them inside but I am favouring a metal pin from the centre bomb up into the roof of the bay so that the attachment point is hidden.

Some PSR was done as well. Also fitted the upper air brakes after the fuselage was all together. I must remember not to do that again though saying that the internal parts were not too difficult to fit as I thought they would be. Not 100% sure that it will be finished by the end of this Group build, but it will be at the Scottish Nationals. Thinking about buying a mirror for it to sit on seeing that I will have put bombs inside the weapons bay so why not show them off?

Gondor

[Gondor]

Finished the bombs that make up the majority of the weapons load. Not perfect but certainly look the part.



Still got to finish the PSR on the aircraft and to make the under wing pylons or I might just "borrow" a set from a Jaguar instead which is the most likely prospect.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Love it. Look at all those bombs ! I love an a/c loaded to the t*ts !

[Gondor]

Love it. Look at all those bombs ! I love an a/c loaded to the t*ts !

It's only ten of them Captain. Six for internal carriage and four to go under the wings.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Talking about hanging some of the bombs from under the wings, I have sourced a set of Jaguar pylons which look a little lost under the wing of a TSR2 

Subtle adjustments have been made while allow the pylons to sit as close to flush against the underside of the wing as I can tell and the bomb beam has had filler applied to the ejector* pin marks that come with them so they will be ready tomorrow for me to apply paint.

Not decided on how or what the aircraft serial number will be yet, better start thinking about that as I will need to have made my mind up soonish.

Gondor

*The description is highlighted because some people believe that such marks are injection marks not from ejection. In other words, they don't know their in from their out and the aforementioned people were not necessarily from this forum 

[zenrat]

...*The description is highlighted because some people believe that such marks are injection marks not from ejection. In other words, they don't know their in from their out and the aforementioned people were not necessarily from this forum  

Possibly related to The Boy who last week informed me People are involved from monkeys.

[Gondor]

Weapons load is almost complete. After a test fit of the 1,000lb bomb in the weapons bay I decided just to glue the triplets of bombs together. So one short session with some super-glue and the results look good.

I am going to have to add some kind of pin and a hole/slot for the pin to go into which will help the bombs stay in position but I have a bit of time yet.



Here are all the weapons laid out as they will be placed on the aircraft. The picture imagines that the nose of the aircraft is to the left. I still have to finish the rocket pods for the outer panels but that's not an immediate problem.



Gondor

[Gondor]

Worked out and implemented, well nearly, my method of getting the weapons bay bombs in the right place and at the right angle.



I have drilled holes in the roof of the weapons bay for the pins to protrude through. A big dod of glue and a gentle finger to hold the triplets of bombs just right and bob's your auntie or something like that 



Unfortunately I could not get the right sized drill to be held in the chuck, 1mm for goodness sake why is it always that size and a few thou more that wont fit any drill I have 

Consequently the hole is a little on the large size but with the glue it will stay as intended, it works for the bombs as I used the same sized drill so it should, fingers crossed, hold when I add the bombs to the weapons bay.

There will be a slight problem due to scale and materiel thickness which means the edges if the fins are slightly proud of the bay, however as the weapons bay doors will be open I don't think the slight difference will be noticeable.

Next stage is to "fit" the undercarriage doors    or what passes as fit for this kit then it's out with the hairy stick and copious amounts of paint 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Looks like your local hardware store has been doing land office business in clothes pegs Alastair! 

I have had a count up Kit, there are another eight wooden clothes pegs on and around the modelling mat that I have found. I use them for a wide variety of jobs. The extra eight have, in no particular order of quantity or preference and with other uses missed out possibly; blobs of Blu Tack to hold parts for detail painting; loops of low tack tape, for similar applications as the Blu Tack but without the residual tacky mess when removing the parts; Tooth pick holders, the centre of the springs or the small round cut out in front of the spring, depending on clothes peg, is just about right for holding cocktail sticks upright when the cocktail sticks have been used to spear an item for painting such as a tyre. Sprue can also be help in a similar way or even gripped by the body of the clothes peg dependant on the size of the sprue.

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

Nice work, great to see it all coming together ! No worries about the fins in my eyes, as you stated, won't even be noticeable.

[NARSES2]

I use clothes pegs for a variety of things. For holding parts whilst painting I get double sided tape/pads from the £1 store. (You get a roll of tape and a fair few sheets of the pads in the pack) Both the tape and the pads are slightly padded, about 1.5/2mm thick and hold most things firmly. The hold is strong enough that the clothes peg + pad can be used multiple times. Have a look in your £1 store stationary section, recommended.

[Gondor]

Found that I have still more clothes pegs holding things such as instrument panels and ejector seats in various boxes too so the count is probably over thirty of them 

Progress has been made though despite all the things going on in real life.

The cockpit canopies are now on and adding the undercarriage doors is in progress. I think I have a problem with paint for the undersides of the aircraft so I hope I can get a replacement tin of paint or I will have to change brand or paint type, I'm using Humbrol Enamel neither of which I really want to do. Mind you the paint is quite old being in a tin with the paper label in the lid. At least all that has been painted so far is the underside of the tail planes and the underwing pylons so it's not a problem, yet.

Working on a method of allowing the vertical tail to be removable while still being strong and vertical. At the moment the plan is to insert a metal tube into the rudders pin which will then fit into a plastic tube which will be fitted into the rear fuselage. Potentially fiddly as the plastic tube has to fit between the two exhaust pipes but I am sure I can manage even if I have to remove the rudders plastic pin and fit the metal tube directly to the rudder rather than extending the pin.

Pictures will follow ........ if it works 

Gondor

[Gondor]

As promised, some pictures of what I am doing with the fin so that it is easily removable for transportation and will not fall over or be at an odd angle when fitted to the model.

First up, shorten the existing pin



Then drill a hole into the fin along the axis of the pin and along its centre line, the pencil lines are a guide. Both the axis and the centre line should be the same, if not you have a problem 



Insert a pre cut length of wire, or in my case brass tube, so that roughly 1.5cm protrudes from the fin.



Because I used the exact size of drill to make the hole, the brass tube was a snug fit, so snug that when drop of super glue was applied to the hole and the tube pushed in I could not insert the tube as far as previously 



This resulted in my having to neatly remove a section of tube with a socking great fin stuck to the end of it rather than simply running the tube back and forth under a reasonably sharp knife to remove the necessary amount.



Here is a roughly assembled picture of the fin in place without any of the supporting parts in place. These will be plastic so that the metal of the pin will not be fixed in place when they are fixed. Below are pictures showing the intended assembly of parts.









Don't worry, I have checked that the external diameter of the plastic tube which the brass tube goes into does fit between the exhausts when they are fitted into the rear of the kit. In fact while writing this I realised that the ends of the exhausts that go inside the fuselage were a little bit tight so I have used a file to slightly open up the area to ease the fitting of the parts.

With luck I will have this all assembled tonight or tomorrow.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I wonder if they had these problems at BAC when they were building it in1:1 scale? 

[Gondor]

Probably not but the 1:1 scale version was not engineered by Airfix where this kit was.

Airfix would have you glue, what I would describe by its appearance as, a plastic washer onto the pin that protrudes from either the fin or tail plains while avoiding glueing the parts to the fuselage so allowing them to move  . Yeah right 

At least my way means I can get the lid shut on the travelling box without breaking anything or making a hole for the fin to poke through!^*

Gondor

^*Other methods are available but may depend on the modellers imagination and modelling ability