Author Topic: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A  (Read 36287 times)

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #50 on: June 02, 2012, 10:28:22 PM »
The benefits of using the F-18 forward fuselage is there's a ready made u/c bay which solves another problem of where to put the u/c gear which is catapult launch capable.  Now the plan was to use just the lower half originally but then I saw that I could use some of the top half too.  The two parts have a 'Z' shaped mating arrangement where the front thins down so the first thing to do was make the Harrier cockpit fit the F-18 lower half.  I did this by first glueing the Harrier parts together , then carefully measuring a cut line that matched the F-18 mating surfaces (top pic) then I added the cockpit tub to hold the parts together easier (second pic)

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #51 on: June 02, 2012, 10:30:38 PM »
This is brilliant stuff! Concept to execution, I love it. :)

Thank you very much Ma'am!    :D

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #52 on: June 02, 2012, 10:41:50 PM »
After getting the parts matched, I discovered that the nose cone on the Harrier is wider at the fuselage joint than the F-18's, I was pondering how I would make the F-18 part match the Harrier's but then I thought, just make the harrier part match the F-18's.

There's a point on the both fuselage parts where they are the same width so I made a mark on both sides where this was, I then glued a portion of the Upper forward F-18 fuselage to where it should go and then glued the nose cone on.  I then cut a diagonal cut from the top of the nose cone join line to the marks on the side of the fuselage (top pic).  I then cut the Harrier parts to suit (second pic).  What surprised the heck out of me, was the neatness of the join, there was practically no sanding what-so-ever to do after the parts were glued together. Third and forth pics are showing the results, and I've placed the canopy on so I could get a visual of it all.  I've also glued a portion of the F-15 rear canopy fairing in place just behind the Harrier canopy, this will be the beginning of the top of the fuselage going back to the rear fuselage.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2012, 10:58:38 PM by kitnut617 »

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #53 on: June 02, 2012, 11:02:14 PM »
Now that's some brilliant engineering and magnificent work, kitnut!

I really appreciate your analytical approach which seems to pay off nicely!

Wouldn't this look great in a Golden Hawks scheme? All sleek and shiny!

Brian da Basher


Offline taiidantomcat

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #54 on: June 02, 2012, 11:48:45 PM »
I would have thought this impossible if I wasn't seeing it right now!!  :o

Amazing work  :)
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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #55 on: June 04, 2012, 12:06:11 AM »
The precision of the cuts is great. I like to attack parts with a Dremel and a coarse grinding tool. Very brute force. Your work is much more precise and great to follow along on this project.

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #56 on: June 04, 2012, 12:42:57 AM »
Awesomeness !!!!

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #57 on: January 07, 2013, 05:00:35 AM »
Well, now that I've managed to finish a project completely (Seafire Hybrid Mk.45), I'm resurrecting this one.  It's almost complete so shouldn't be much to do.  This has a lot to do with me getting my workbench into my hobby room where I can now disappear into for a couple of hours before going to bed.  I found I could get a model done fairly swiftly this way.

One of the things that I had to work out was the undercarriage.  My initial plan was to use the parts from the Airfix Tornado, but they look terrible undersized and fragile.  I purchased an Aeroclub replacement set, but although they are in white metal, they are also way to skinny for my liking.

After a lot of searching on the internet, I found a few photos of the set-up and then I decided to try and make my own main u/c gear.  In the end I got it to look like this.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #58 on: January 08, 2013, 02:34:39 AM »
Here's a couple of pics of the model on the Airfix landing gear, you can see it looks really spindly.  Third pic is the Airfix gear and the Aeroclub replacement ones, not a lot of difference and photos of the real things show that they're quite a bit more bulky than these.  Forth pic is those u/c legs with the one I've fabricated.

I'm using all the F-18 wheels for this too.
« Last Edit: January 08, 2013, 05:08:43 AM by kitnut617 »

Offline deathjester

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #59 on: January 08, 2013, 02:50:49 AM »
Really nice work!  If only that was available as a kit - I'd buy those for sure!  :)

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #60 on: January 08, 2013, 03:26:16 AM »
Looking good
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #61 on: January 08, 2013, 05:09:28 AM »
Thanks guys --

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #62 on: January 09, 2013, 12:46:39 AM »
OK, I've got a designation for this, AV-19A, now I need a name.  Has to be some raptor type bird that can hover name and American.  I'm thinking Buteo ( which are Buzzards)  at the moment. Or we could go with Kestral II ---  but as this is almost twice as big as the original Hawker Kestral I'm not sure about it.

Offline Logan Hartke

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #63 on: January 09, 2013, 01:34:11 AM »
Well, nobody uses "buteo" in the US at all.  "Buzzard" (the name for buteo in Europe ) has a negative connotation in the US, generally referring to vultures, not hawks.  In short, a US aircraft company is unlikely to name an airplane "buzzard".

My suggestion?  Harpy.  The harpy eagle is one of the largest, most powerful birds of prey in the Americas.  It's not as common a hovering bird as the kestrel, harrier, or osprey, but it can hover for short period of time (as far as I know).  Furthermore, it fits with McDonnell's history of "paranormal" names with its roots in the mythological "harpy".



Cheers,

Logan

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #64 on: January 09, 2013, 04:08:32 AM »
Thanks Logan, that's one to store in mind ---  :)

Offline Volkodav

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #65 on: January 09, 2013, 03:24:50 PM »
Harpy, I like it, sort of implies swooping through trees plucking prey from the branches with impunity.

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #66 on: January 09, 2013, 04:04:19 PM »
Harpy:

All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #67 on: January 09, 2013, 10:02:19 PM »
I had envisions of something like that too Greg --- only much uglier with all the warts and bumps LMAO!

Can you send me a scan of that, I'll see if I can make a decal out of it ---
« Last Edit: January 09, 2013, 10:03:53 PM by kitnut617 »

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #68 on: January 10, 2013, 02:27:39 AM »
I had envisions of something like that too Greg --- only much uglier with all the warts and bumps LMAO!

Can you send me a scan of that, I'll see if I can make a decal out of it ---

It was just something I found on the internet (just did a Google Image Search on "Harpy") - you can probably just download it by copying the image I have shown here.
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #69 on: January 16, 2013, 01:54:18 AM »
I got the engine in but decided not to mess around with it too much.  Although you can see up the tunnel, you can't see very much detail wise (top pic)

Then I got the upper rear bodywork on and after a couple of rounds of PSR, got it to this stage.  A bit more PSR and I can get a coat of paint on the top to see what I have to fix

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #70 on: January 16, 2013, 08:04:29 AM »
I'd say you totally nailed that engine modification, kitnut!

Yes your Harrier will indeed be Super!

Brian da Basher

Offline flappydaffy

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #71 on: January 19, 2013, 08:37:47 AM »
nice plane and challenging build... but what I like the most is how with one plane you are able to significantly reduce the level of your stach ^^

looking forward for the next steps :)

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #72 on: January 28, 2013, 03:07:51 AM »
So in between rounds of PSR, I've made up another major step in the build, I've done the cold air ducts.  I drew out the shape and then developed all the parts.  These I printed off and stuck it to some styrene (top pic).  I decided to make these like this because the ducts are quite large and you can see well into them once they are installed.

So after I cut and bent the shapes I started to glue them together (second pic) and then finished them off by closing the side up and then adding a thin strip of styrene around the open side. This is to represent the frame that the control vanes will be attached to, in my idea this frame is gimbled to rock side to side (third & forth pic)

Offline kitnut617

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #73 on: January 28, 2013, 03:09:50 AM »
And this is how it looks now that the ducts are glued in to the model, I've painted around them so I can see what needs tidying up.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: McDonnell Douglas AV-19A
« Reply #74 on: January 28, 2013, 05:42:31 AM »
Those new ducts look like a million bucks, kitnut!

Following the play-by-play on one of your projects is more fun than cable TV!

I can't wait to see what's next with this one!

Brian da Basher