The Gloster Lance FAW3

[PR19_Kit]

Right, we're off! I need every minute I can get so I'm starting as soon as possible!

The Lance was Gloster's backup for the Javelin, their Airships being a tad doubtful about those new delta wing things, so the Lance was pretty much like a Javelin but with straight wings.

I've started with an Airfix T3 as it has a longer fuselage than the FAW9s and I have three of them anyway. But the wings have to come off and that leaves a socking great gap to be filled.



Most of the bits prior to any gluing, and you can see the blanks already cut to shape, approximately anyway.




You can see the size of the gaps! 




My process for cutting out the blanks, not exactly straightforward......




I detest that massive fin on the Flatiron, so I minimised it somewhat by chopping a lump out of the centre.




And at a few seconds past midnight I glued the first blank in place. I see LOTS of PSR in my future.......

That's it for now, more tomorrow.

[Tophe]

Interesting, we will see the result of this dream...

[kitbasher]

Cool

What are the donor wings from?

Looks like they may be from an f-&9 Scorpion - the one that gave up parts for the Canberra F10 perhaps?

This looks as though it may look like a beefy CF-100 when finished.

[PR19_Kit]

Cool

What are the donor wings from?

Looks like they may be from an f-&9 Scorpion - the one that gave up parts for the Canberra F10 perhaps?

This looks as though it may look like a beefy CF-100 when finished.

Right first time Dave.   

Without those monster tanks on them the wings look a little undernourished on a Scorpion, but it does raise the question of what am I going to do with its fuselage.................. 

[PR19_Kit]

Having done some work on this already I now find some bits of the kit are missing.........

So much for SMW's Kit Sale being 'all complete kits'. 

The intakes, four half round styrene tubes, are totally absent from the sprues, although they're mentioned in the instruction sheet. I'll see if my mate Pete has some suitably sized tubing anywhere, he's got pretty much everything else here. 

[PR19_Kit]

Cool

What are the donor wings from?

Looks like they may be from an f-&9 Scorpion - the one that gave up parts for the Canberra F10 perhaps?

This looks as though it may look like a beefy CF-100 when finished.

Right first time Dave.   

Without those monster tanks on them the wings look a little undernourished on a Scorpion, but it does raise the question of what am I going to do with its fuselage.................. 

Ah now I see, and the stabilizer with the small fin piece is identifiable as to being from the same source also 

Exactly, but that fin extension may not end up on the Lance, or may end a different shape, it's so obviously 'Scorpion' as it stands.

I said that my mate Pete would have the solution to the intake tubes, didn't I? 



Two lovely lengths of ali tube EXACTLY the correct diameter are now superglued in place. RESULT!

[NARSES2]

So much for SMW's Kit Sale being 'all complete kits'. 

That's why I don't support it anymore. One fairly expensive Olimp resin kit was missing both the vac-form canopies. The previous owner had obviously bodged them and decided to sell it on. Last thing I ever bought from there.

[kitbasher]

Cool

What are the donor wings from?

Looks like they may be from an f-&9 Scorpion - the one that gave up parts for the Canberra F10 perhaps?

This looks as though it may look like a beefy CF-100 when finished.

Right first time Dave.   

Without those monster tanks on them the wings look a little undernourished on a Scorpion, but it does raise the question of what am I going to do with its fuselage.................. 

Well, you know those Javelin wings.....

[PR19_Kit]

Cool

What are the donor wings from?

Looks like they may be from an f-&9 Scorpion - the one that gave up parts for the Canberra F10 perhaps?

This looks as though it may look like a beefy CF-100 when finished.

Right first time Dave.   

Without those monster tanks on them the wings look a little undernourished on a Scorpion, but it does raise the question of what am I going to do with its fuselage.................. 

Well, you know those Javelin wings.....

I tried that, visually, about 6 months ago and it looks TERRIBLE! The Jav wings are just too clumsy for a Scorpion, sadly.

Maybe on a Canberra though? 

[PR19_Kit]

I'm in the 'I can't go any further without painting up the cockpit' situation.

I bought some more detailed bang seats for the Lance, MB Mk 4s as were fitted to Javelins of the period, which were advertised as having seat harnesses, and so they have.

Pre-painted MINUTE etched ones! 

They're so small I can only just see them and each part of the belt is a separate item. Thank goodness for magnifiers......

The wings are assembled, and now have tip tanks, and the shortened fin is all in one, it's PSR'd and the panel lines are re-cut. It's an early Heller kit really so it's all raised panel lines, but I'll sand them off and re-cut some of them anyway.

[PR19_Kit]

The cockpit's painted and installed now, albeit with only one seat, but that's all I needed to get it positioned correctly. That one seat has most of its harness in place, but I'm damned if I'm going to do them all, they're just too fiddly, and one of the ejection firing handles has gone into orbit so NEITHER of them will be in place! Life's too short.

The two fuselage halves are now glued together, but with some hefty gaps around the wing blanking plates, but nothing that some styrene strips and some PSR won't sort out. The fin's installed too, and the original fin platform has been filed and sanded to match the new, smaller fin, and all the raised panel lines on the fuselage have been sanded off.

Lots of progress today, but I have been at it since about 7.30 this morning. 



Assembled fuselage and wings placed approximately as they will be when it's finished.




The single seat, so far, with its belts in place. It only took me an hour...... 

[TallEng]

I'm liking those pre-painted seat belts, they looking very good.
And  the rest of the airframe looks pretty good too. I'm just wondering if the fin is a bit too swept?
To me it doesn't quite fit in with the 'conservativeness' of the rest of the airframe if you follow what I mean?

Regards
Keith

[zenrat]

I'm liking those pre-painted seat belts, they looking very good.
And  the rest of the airframe looks pretty good too. I'm just wondering if the fin is a bit too swept?
To me it doesn't quite fit in with the 'conservativeness' of the rest of the airframe if you follow what I mean?

Regards
Keith

Looks OK to me.
Illushyn used straight wings/swept tail on the Il-28 for a specific reason which I can't remember ATM.  Something to do with stall transitions maybe?  An airflow reason anyway.

Kit, you say "wings placed approximately as they will be when it's finished".  I knew they looked too short.  What are you using to fill the gaps?

[The Rat]

This looks as though it may look like a beefy CF-100 when finished.

Exactly my thought as I pondered the result.

[PR19_Kit]

I'm just wondering if the fin is a bit too swept?
To me it doesn't quite fit in with the 'conservativeness' of the rest of the airframe if you follow what I mean?

It's actually the same sweep angle as the normal Javelin, I just sawed a section out of the middle of the Jav fin so it didn't look so HUGE!

Illushyn used straight wings/swept tail on the Il-28 for a specific reason which I can't remember ATM.  Something to do with stall transitions maybe?  An airflow reason anyway.

Kit, you say "wings placed approximately as they will be when it's finished".  I knew they looked too short.  What are you using to fill the gaps?

I can't remember what Illushyn gave as his reason either, but it made sense when I read it......

As for the gaps, they won't be there because those short wings will be glued directly onto the fuselage sides I'm afraid. I don't have any spare wing material with me, but the tip tanks will help to nullify the tip vortex generation.

[Science speak mode off]