Saunders Roe SR.187 Thunderbird FAW1

[The Wooksta!]

"Brilliant!"

Just got my hands on this massive project - it dwarves a TSR2 - and I'm itching to get cracking. Photos will follow as and when.

All I've done so far is separate the bits and some of the larger parts have had the scaffolding removed.  Hopefully Alistair has some photos of one just out of the printer, as I haven't taken any yet.

The parts will need a few hours in sunlight as they feel a bit sticky, so it could be a while, but no more than a day, before I get round to doing any meaningful work.

[The Rat]

Sexy beast.

[Tophe]

Is it the same plane as Martin's at https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=25453.825 ?

[The Wooksta!]

Yes.

It's all cleaned up now - the u/c bay section and the fuselage centre section took well over 3 hours to file and sand down so the former would fit into the latter.  Think I need to do a bit more filing on the wing locator pegs, but it's largely ready to go together.  And then there's a great deal of filling and sanding to do.

Photos have been taken of the work so far but it'll be a few days at least before I get them uploaded.

[The Wooksta!]

"What were you doing, saving it for teacher? Trying to keep the doctor away?""

As promised, here's the photos of progress up to about thursday morning.  Please note that as I use facebook for photo hosting, the URLs expire quite quickly, so if you want the photos for reference when building your own, download them quickly.

Woohoo!  It's arrived!  Bits in the box:


The parts before I started cleaning them up:


For comparison with an SR177


And with it's little brother, the SR53


SR177 with SR53, again for size comparison


Two shots of the maingear bay.



Tail section.  The raised airbrakes are a nice touch.  Perhaps the P.8 could be modified in the same way?



Lethality


All cleaned up.  Note the nosegear has become detached.


Mainwheel bay


And two shots of it in situ.  Sanding and filing to get it to this stage took a minimum of TWO HOURS.  Next time, out with the power tools - the drill, the hedgetrimmers and possibly a chainsaw.



By comparison, the rear fuselage and tail was a breeze. The notch in the fin leading edge is not an accident, it's moulded in to accept the pitot tube


Forward fuselage and cockpit. The engine intakes are quite simply fantastic.


All taped up. Wings not quite ready at this stage.




And the wings


And for size with the family


Wings dryfitted



Family shot


And with it's competitor, the English Electric P.8


Fuselage all filled prior to sanding.




And after the first bout of sanding.  Some of the transitions need repeated work. And given the colour, it's hard to see if I've actually filled a gap or not.



Filler of choice - Superglue and baking soda.  The superglue is the cheap garbage bought at Poundland, so it doesn't matter if it doesn't work too well or the tube clogs.


You can see the transition between the forward and mid fuselage needed some work to get it all to blend in properly.

[The Wooksta!]

"Well, what have you brought me this time?"

The filler work on the fuselage is just about done.  May need some on the tail before I an get the wings on, but here's progress so far.


Completed fuselage.  Nosecone is being left off for now as I haven't decided to have it up or down.  The protective tape around the airbrakes and the canopy is removed for now and the residue removed with WD40 on a rag.



Two shots of the nose.  Without the cone it looks like one of those mad BFO insect robot things from "Battle of the Planets" (or Science Team Ninja Gatchaman if you know the original Japanese).
Note the work to blend in the canopy.  The intakes are really superb, can't fault them.




Tail and rear fuselage.  The transition here wasn't too bad to sort out, but using a wide flat file I took off some of the fuselage and had to rebuild it.  Also notice the nasty crack in the fin, evidence of a repair when I dropped it.  D'oh!  Luckily, clean break and it went on easily.  I'll be giving the tail a coat of silver as primer later to fix it.


The transition between the nose section and the mid fuselage.  Needed some work to fix, but I don't think you can tell.


Worst area to fix transition wise is underneath, mainly as the u/c is moulded integral.  I've a cunning plan to do it differently with the next one.


Now the wings are dry fitted.  Could do with some filler.


And now with the nosecone taped on.  Coming together?  Not quite yet.  Evidence of a recent visit to Greggs in the background.  And no, it wasn't donuts!


With a two seater P8 for size comparison.


And with an FDIII.  This is Alistair's older ABS printed one, gifted last year with other models.  I'm going to revamp it at some stage, probably after Telford.


And lo endeth today's update.

[The Wooksta!]

"It looks well on him, though, doesn't he?"

Had to do some running repairs to the model after the long journey back from Telford, but finally, here it is, in all it's green finery, the Saunders Roe Thunderbird FAW1 of 23 Sqn, mid 1970s.  Experimental Dark Green over Aluminium scheme worn for a short period before changing to the more usual Dark Green, Dark Sea Grey over Light Aircraft Grey.



Close up the nose, showing the 607 Sqn zap.  This example took part in an airshow at RAF Acklington, the home base of 607 Sqn.



Another shot, with the Supermarine Shrike FB1 in the background.  That has also received a zap after the aircraft repaired to Acklington during an exercise over Otterburn ranges.



And finally, sitting with it's little brother, the SR53 Cyclone, also of 607 Sqn.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Gorgeous machine. Looking forward to seeing this one done. 

[kitbasher]

Yes it is indeed a looker - in a brutish way - but to me it's more a bomber not a fighter (Lee and I discussed bomber possibilities at Telford).

Were I to build one (and I've no plans to do so) I think a tandem bubble canopy would have to be added.  A Buccaneer's might do, a Javelin T3's would be better, a B-57B's possibly best but let's keep things in Blighty, what, what!

[The Wooksta!]

Gorgeous machine. Looking forward to seeing this one done. 

Erm, it is finished!

[PR19_Kit]

Looking at it next to the Shrike shows just how HUGE the Thunderbird is! 

Was there ever a 'fighter' that big in the RW? I severely doubt it, apart perhaps for the Tu-28 Fiddler?

I checked, and while the Fiddler was longer and wider the Thunerbird was considerably heavier. Plus a LOT quicker!

[AeroplaneDriver]

Gorgeous machine. Looking forward to seeing this one done. 

Erm, it is finished!

See what happens when you're at work and only skip the first part of a thread and reply.  Very nice!  Love it in the green.

[McColm]

Good job 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

What a beast! Good one.

[DogfighterZen]

I can't see the finished product's pics...