Pellsons Perceivings

[Pellson]

Some minor progress on the Danish Deuce.
- the first backstory concept has been begun
- the first glueing of two parts (seat to cockpit tub) has been made.

I've also painted a little on said components, now contemplating what else to prepare before I close the fuselage. Very old kits like this don't have much on the inside, and that is, from time to time, a blessing.

[NARSES2]

Very old kits like this don't have much on the inside, and that is, from time to time, a blessing.

Very much so 

[Pellson]

A properly shitty day.

The Defender 110 suffered a catastrophic wheel bearing failure rendering it inoperable for at least two weeks, not to mention the amount of work needed to sort it. Outside. In the Scandinavian wet winter.

The eldest youth car came down with brake failure necessitating disc and pad replacement. Added to that, the electronic control unit seems dodgy. I hate it..

The final quarter mile home, which is an already from the start bad gravel road, featuring a 75ft drop immediately followed by a 90 ft climb, didn't take the one ft snowfall with following 2" of rain too well, basically rendering any car that is a a Landcruiser, a Defender or a main battle tank useless. The Jag is currently as useful as a petunia for transport..

And the Defender 90 needs some love before being MOT-able, and said MOT expires next week.

And yours truly is dead tired until ca 3 PM every day.
Not very compatible factors..

But enough whining. I just needed to get it off my chest, awright?

On more important matters, the Deuce is coming along nicely, and as it turned out there were two Deuces in the same Hasegawa box, I'm contemplating building both while I'm at it. There's very little preparation involved before assembly, so why not? I'll then modify both according to my backstory (which has had to evolve to cater for more than one user) and decide later on operator of the second one.

The old (ancient - the casting is a year my senior, and my boxing is The Hale's 1971 one) kit fit is magnificent in most parts, the obvious exception being the weapon bay doors. Of which there are six. Why, oh why couldn't the oh so skilled Japanese engineers had provided for a doors closed option with one, big lid instead of these six flimsy sticks? In the typical brittle old Hasegawa light grey plastic, so "breakable" isn't a description, it's a destiny. 
There'll be PSR, mark my words...

Otherwise, it's a rather lovely build, if I may say so. Quick, well fitting and light on flash and unnecessary detail.
It's also somewhat surprising to me how big an aeroplane the Deuce was, in particular when compared with the European deltas of similar vintage. The Mirage III, very, very similar in shape, is about 2/3 as big. Fascinating!
Also a bit strange is the perfectly triangular fin. We are som much more used to swept fins, or at least (thinking of the Viggen now) somewhat irregularly shaped triangular fins with a cropped tip. Peculiar. As is the snoot. Not your usual balanced conical nose.
But cool. 

[Rheged]

Commiserations on your transport problems.   

[Pellson]

Commiserations on your transport problems.   

One should really have shacked up centrally, max two blocks from the LHS in a Victorian apartment with stuck and air.
But then where would I fit my love for quirky cars..? 

I'll see if I can attack at least something tomorrow.

[kerick]

A properly shitty day.

The Defender 110 suffered a catastrophic wheel bearing failure rendering it inoperable for at least two weeks, not to mention the amount of work needed to sort it. Outside. In the Scandinavian wet winter.

The eldest youth car came down with brake failure necessitating disc and pad replacement. Added to that, the electronic control unit seems dodgy. I hate it..

The final quarter mile home, which is an already from the start bad gravel road, featuring a 75ft drop immediately followed by a 90 ft climb, didn't take the one ft snowfall with following 2" of rain too well, basically rendering any car that is a a Landcruiser, a Defender or a main battle tank useless. The Jag is currently as useful as a petunia for transport..

And the Defender 90 needs some love before being MOT-able, and said MOT expires next week.

And yours truly is dead tired until ca 3 PM every day.
Not very compatible factors..

But enough whining. I just needed to get it off my chest, awright?

On more important matters, the Deuce is coming along nicely, and as it turned out there were two Deuces in the same Hasegawa box, I'm contemplating building both while I'm at it. There's very little preparation involved before assembly, so why not? I'll then modify both according to my backstory (which has had to evolve to cater for more than one user) and decide later on operator of the second one.

The old (ancient - the casting is a year my senior, and my boxing is The Hale's 1971 one) kit fit is magnificent in most parts, the obvious exception being the weapon bay doors. Of which there are six. Why, oh why couldn't the oh so skilled Japanese engineers had provided for a doors closed option with one, big lid instead of these six flimsy sticks? In the typical brittle old Hasegawa light grey plastic, so "breakable" isn't a description, it's a destiny. 
There'll be PSR, mark my words...

Otherwise, it's a rather lovely build, if I may say so. Quick, well fitting and light on flash and unnecessary detail.
It's also somewhat surprising to me how big an aeroplane the Deuce was, in particular when compared with the European deltas of similar vintage. The Mirage III, very, very similar in shape, is about 2/3 as big. Fascinating!
Also a bit strange is the perfectly triangular fin. We are som much more used to swept fins, or at least (thinking of the Viggen now) somewhat irregularly shaped triangular fins with a cropped tip. Peculiar. As is the snoot. Not your usual balanced conical nose.
But cool. 

Interesting how the F-106 was the result of fixing the Deuce's aerodynamic problems and ended up with a clipped tail fin. Even the BUFF had a pointy fin at first and a shortened one on the H model. I guess someone figured out after a certain point it didn't really do much anymore. Size was dictated by the big honk'n engine and lots of fuel for it.
Looking forward to some pics of this beast!

[NARSES2]

But enough whining. I just needed to get it off my chest, awright?

No probs. It's amazing how often that works 

[kerick]

One nice thing back when I was doing surveying was when we did construction staking and I had to spend the morning pounding wooden stakes into the ground. Worked out a lot of frustration that way. Good for the arms too.

[zenrat]

The Hasegawa Dagger is a real putty hog.
There was once a single piece resin door available.  Fat chance of getting hold of one now though I suspect.

[Pellson]

The Hasegawa Dagger is a real putty hog

I dunno about that.. To be fair, these are 1969 molds. Compare that with anything Airfix of similar vintage and I don't think the Deuce is that bad. Basically, apart from the wretched bay doors, everything fits uncannily well..

Built/modified the intakes today, and while I was at it, I did the ones for the second Deuce as well. Easier to be consistent when the pieces aren't glued on, painted, decalled and under half an inch of dust, methinks.. Looks quite good, if I may say so (I may) so I'm rather pleased. Currently dreading the fixing of the weapons bay and considering ripping the doors off again, to reglue them with reinforcements, making PSR a tad easier. It's annoying, though, and exactly such a step that can keep me from finishing a model for years, so I'd better get to it..

No, I haven't bothered fixing any cars today either. A little too much at work and no real geist. I'll get to it tomorrow, if the weather doesn't totally c*ck up.

[Pellson]

Small things only today. It's been a rather slow day as a whole, actually. I managed to reattach most of the sodding weapon bay hatches on the first Deuce while closing up the fuselage on the other. Still PSR needed, but a much better surface to start from.

I also found four new drop tanks for the two Deuces. Two per plane, and we want the two planes similar. Not very easy to find, but somewhat necessary as the existing tanks looks too small and too short. We need loads of fuel for that big engine, and we need a longer tank that might pass for supersonic. I think we're sorted.

It feels as if I'm getting there with the kit, but the backstory still is somewhat lacking. While I can make it reasonable to upgrade the "outgoing" model (F-102) to almost on par with the new one (F-106), letting the old dog surpass the new one, even if only in the STOL capacity without following up with the newer one..? Doubtful..
I'll mull on that while I bring the second Deuce to the same level of completion as the first.

[PR19_Kit]

Not 100% sure who did those one piece, weapons bay doors for the Hase Dagger, but I think was the Modeldecal guys. They did a superb Hunter T7 conversion and the TF-102 conversion kit as well.

I've got a couple of all three of them, one T7 having been been used as intended, but a LONG while ago.

[Pellson]

Thanks, Kit. It seems it was Aeroclub, but it is still hard to get at. I'll PSR..

Pic from KingKit, listing it as out of stock.



Anyway - having mulled overnight, I've decided not to "viggenize" these Deuces. While a pair of Viggen canards really would go on nicely, and, undoubtedly, transform the rather runway intensive F-102 into a proper STOL fighter a la the JA37, I find that I have difficulties motivating it. At the time SAAB had researched this use of flapped canards (1964), the F-106 was already in service, and if any US delta fighter would have gotten such an upgrade, it wouldn't have been the much inferior Deuce. Not even if my suggested improvements had been realised, as the "Six" still was loads better in every way. Rather, there were some canard studies for a canard Six performed, namely the so called F-106X.



So, I'll stick to my original plan for a performance and systems upgrade just to make the existing F-102's viable for transfer to client countries and allies not being able to afford - or allowed - the full Six.

Right. So one of my "Super Deuces" will be Danish. I wonder who'll get the other one. It is a bit tempting to let the Greeks have her, because the "Aegean Ghost" scheme they use(d?) on their F-4E's is/was quite pretty.
Another option would be to - consistent with the Danish Faroes concept - allocate her to Norway for long range Arctic patrols. If so, the all over grey scheme used by the RNoAF on both their interceptor F-104's and later F-16's would apply. Logical, but perhaps a tad boring.  Hmm.. 
Those Greek Phantoms are nice.. 

[PR19_Kit]

Ahah, I didn't think of Aeroclub, thanks and well spotted.

Mine are LONG out of their bags and without the cards on the top of course.

[Gondor]

I have a set of closed weapons bay doors from a Meng F-102A kit if your interested. Kit that TF-102 conversion set is horrible, saying that I have got no further with the small Greek company resin TF-102 conversion .

Gondor