Project Pye

[tc2324]

Forgive me whiffers, for I have sinned. It has been at 3 months since my last kitbash........, so it`s back to the madness......    :)

This build is for the What If GB over on BM.

Here are the kits.......





..... this is as far as I have got....



..... ok, it`s not very far. 

Now then, whats going where?? 

[ChrisF]

Keeping a close eye on this one... 

[Brian da Basher]

I'm guessing a biplane Lanc with jets on the bottom wing.

Wouldn't be the first time today I was totally wrong...

Great to see you back at the modeling bench, tc!

Brian da Basher

[tc2324]

It`s good to be back whiffing Brian.  :)

Ok, so I have cut out the bits I needed from the Canberra wings, namely the engines and I`ll now look forward to the hours of sanding down. 

Here`s a concept picture of the engines in place......



..... and some of you will notice that this looks a lot like the Lanc jet testbed from days of old......



Well this was always going to be the basis for my build, but thats where it now ends and I will be changing areas of the fuselage.

The premise of this design is a pressurised high altitude tactical heavy bomber. (Think Tallboys). 

[kitnut617]

Oh dear!  I guess it's a bit late for these then ----   

[GTX_Admin]

Cool!  I have thought in the past that a developed Lanc' with jets and props could have been an emergency stop gap had the Luftwaffe jets actually started making an impact and the war had stretched into '46/'47.

[finsrin]

Like to say something profound.  But its not coming to me.
Cool  ,,, look forward to progress pictures.

[tc2324]

Had a bit of whiffers block on this one as the design and the way this was all going together in my head didn`t seem to work `in the flesh` once I started dry fitting areas together. So the best course of action was to put it down, have a rethink and get a few weird looks from the wife and kids as I sat in the dining room staring at the pieces. 

Anyways, I now have a clear path I`m going to follow so the `surgery` has began.



As you can see, as less `perspex` is going into this design as possible with both ends being solid. I felt that as this aircraft was going to fly into enemy airspace as high and as fast as possible, defensive weapons would be deleted.

[The Big Gimper]

Had a bit of whiffers block on this one as the design and the way this was all going together in my head didn`t seem to work `in the flesh` once I started dry fitting areas together. So the best course of action was to put it down, have a rethink and get a few weird looks from the wife and kids as I sat in the dining room staring at the pieces. 

I find this behaviour generally acceptable except when the A-HA moment hits and I run downstairs, grab my Dremel tool, bring it back to the table and start cutting plastic at 30,000 RPM putting shards of plastic in the kids dinner. They do not take likely to that.

Looking forward to seeing this project though to completion.

 

[GTX_Admin]

... start cutting plastic at 30,000 RPM putting shards of plastic in the kids dinner. They do not take likely to that.

wimps!!!  Tell them to toughen up...

[Jeffry Fontaine]

I find this behaviour generally acceptable except when the A-HA moment hits and I run downstairs, grab my Dremel tool, bring it back to the table and start cutting plastic at 30,000 RPM putting shards of plastic in the kids dinner. They do not take likely to that.

Looking forward to seeing this project though to completion.

 

The joy of high-rpm motor tools.  The first and absolutely last time I used one of those things to sand a fuselage seam (big mistake by the way) I discovered that a sanding disc can and will successfully melt polystyrene at 38KRPM.  Fortunately it was that rather crappy Hs-129 kit from Esci that succumbed to the tool.  Still have to say that I was impressed by what that little tool accomplished in the span of a couple of seconds.  :)

[Queeg]

The joy of high-rpm motor tools.  The first and absolutely last time I used one of those things to sand a fuselage seam (big mistake by the way) I discovered that a sanding disc can and will successfully melt polystyrene at 38KRPM.  Fortunately it was that rather crappy Hs-129 kit from Esci that succumbed to the tool.  Still have to say that I was impressed by what that little tool accomplished in the span of a couple of seconds.  :)

I'm always impressed by the ease with which the attachments will cut through plastic, the table and into flesh without hesitation or warning. And the kickback when it's misshandled and it grabs into metal before flying out of my hand uncontrollably while still going at max rpm, always brings a moment of lightheaded excitement at the escape of yet another "near miss".

Perhaps we should start a thread on modelling mishaps .... there was the time when I set fire to myself with superglue ....

More importantly, this is looking like a great build !!!!

[GTX_Admin]

Perhaps we should start a thread on modelling mishaps .... there was the time when I set fire to myself with superglue ....

Done

[tc2324]

One of the areas that was causing a bit of a drama was how I was going to intergrate the engines into the wings. Well..., I couldn`t. It would have been to risky cutting int the Lanc`s wings for it to go wrong. So as part of the rethink I went for hanging the BAEU`s under the wings on small pylons. Problem solved.

This in turn meant filling the holes in the side of the units so out came a couple of drop tanks from a Hunter and again, job done.



Since the photo was taken, filler has been applied and it will be at least 24 hours before I can go back to work on them.

I also removed the `V` shape fittings for the outer engines on the wings as the positioning of the jets will be midwing.

[Brian da Basher]

I find this behaviour generally acceptable except when the A-HA moment hits and I run downstairs, grab my Dremel tool, bring it back to the table and start cutting plastic at 30,000 RPM putting shards of plastic in the kids dinner. They do not take likely to that.

Looking forward to seeing this project though to completion.

 

The joy of high-rpm motor tools.  The first and absolutely last time I used one of those things to sand a fuselage seam (big mistake by the way) I discovered that a sanding disc can and will successfully melt polystyrene at 38KRPM.  Fortunately it was that rather crappy Hs-129 kit from Esci that succumbed to the tool.  Still have to say that I was impressed by what that little tool accomplished in the span of a couple of seconds.  :)

Some of the best advice I ever got was Mr Fontaine telling me that in most cases I was better off using a razor saw instead of a rotary tool. Maybe it's slower and a bit old-fashioned, but it's certainly safer and I find it much easier to make precise cuts and keep all my fingers intact.

Brian da Basher

[tc2324]

Finally got the BAEU`s more or less the shape I want them, just need to attach the pylon`s and add a bit more detail like the odd intake duct here and there, and then they are done and I can start scratch building this aircraft `special` weapon. The engines incorporate parts from a Canberra, Hunter and Meteor so you can`t argue that they are British built......



Also started on the cockpit section, but to be honest with what I have planned, your really not going to see much of it so this will probably be as far as I go with this.

[tc2324]

So going through the spares box tonight to find two decent solid engine pylons, I came up with zilch.

Then a sprue from the Airfix Vulcan caught my eye. It will need a little bit of re-shapeing, but I think it will work.



The other task tonight was cutting up the Frog Canberra and I somehow have to fit it into the Lanc`s front section. I feel a bit of a headache coming on......

[Brian da Basher]

Another project saved by left-over sprue!

Good thinking, tc!

Brian da Basher

[finsrin]

Like trimming on sides of engines to clean them up.   :)
Sprue pylons sure look promising.  :)

[tc2324]

Cheers guys.  :)

A rather `messy` picture of the new cockpit area as I add bits of plastic to rebuild the area so a less filler is used as possible.

Also had to readjust the pilots seat so it was a little higher and a bit more central.

[taiidantomcat]

Looking good!! I have tried logging into brit modeler, but it won't let me. Says my password is incorrect even though I logged in just 24 hours before that!! 

[GTX_Admin]

This is going to be great!!!

[raafif]

initially I thought a Canberra B1 bubble canopy would work but this does look better!

[tc2324]

Thanks guys.  :)

Raafif, went for the latter canopy as I wanted to give the aircraft the appearance of speed and a fighter style canopy seemed a logical choice.




Todays, or rather this weekends update, shows that the `battle damage` from kitbashing has now been repaired.





Still needs a bit of smoothing off in some places but I think it`s starting to take shape.

[Doom!]

Nice job blending the new cockpit area in.