Author Topic: 1/72 Avrocar  (Read 132 times)

Offline Frank3k

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1/72 Avrocar
« on: Yesterday at 12:18:30 PM »
I was rearranging the kit stash when the Fly Models 1/2 Avrocar Racer X kit fell and landed at my feet:



When I opened the box, I noticed that the two resin exhaust blade assemblies (one for each side) had lost some of the tiny blades at some point between the factory and my bench. I made an effort to reattach them, but it didn't look good. Instead, I measured the parts, CADed it up and printed it in PLA - it took less time than trying to get the CA to hold the fragile blades in place. Since it's a filament printer, I made the blades thicker. Still, good enough:



The interior bits went together quickly but I noticed that the blades stuck out from the body:



Unless I messed up the interior, the resin parts would have had the same issue. Cutting them down to size fixed the problem:



The two cockpits are barely visible, despite being nicely detailed in resin:



If I had wanted to, I could have sealed everything up and started painting, but the "landing gear"  was just a set of small resin caster wheels. I cut some landing gear bays and found some 1/144 MiG-23 landing gear that I could repurpose. The two saucer halves are glued together and under some weights (the fit isn't great). Tomorrow I'll start painting.

The kit comes with control vanes at the front (like in the final version of the Avrocar) but the original control disk looks better - I may print that up as well. I also thought of adding a tail of some sort. Let's see how I feel about it tomorrow.

Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: 1/72 Avrocar
« Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 12:50:38 PM »
Small enough to hide the fit issues and still look good! 
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Offline Kerick

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Re: 1/72 Avrocar
« Reply #2 on: Yesterday at 08:19:33 PM »
This is different! The Racer X decals are wild! Nice job with the vanes. I bet this would be really cool in 1/48th.

Offline raafif

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Re: 1/72 Avrocar
« Reply #3 on: Today at 05:53:13 AM »
Racers are a neat idea & racers need spoilers at the back ;)

I have some circular stand bases (& hubcaps from my vacuum cleaner wheels) that make great saucers.

Offline Dr. YoKai

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Re: 1/72 Avrocar
« Reply #4 on: Today at 06:21:24 AM »
If this is Racer X, I wonder what the Mammoth Car looks like...

I knew of the kit, didn't realize it was that detailed. Such a nifty little craft; such a pity it didn't work as hoped. Are you going with the Racer X scheme, or something else?

Offline apophenia

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Re: 1/72 Avrocar
« Reply #5 on: Today at 08:08:35 AM »
Cool project! And nice to see design credit for the Avrocar right on the box!  :D

'Jack' Frost was, of course, the head of Avro Canada's Special Projects Group. I wonder who C.J. Williams was?
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Offline Frank3k

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Re: 1/72 Avrocar
« Reply #6 on: Today at 11:04:07 AM »
Thanks, guys. I don't think I'm going in the racer direction; that would be too much of a stretch, unless it was a race against drunk turtles.

I copied was inspired by Zenrat's build over at Whatif and found some skids from a Hasegawa Hughes 300 eggplane that I bought for parts:



and added the modified skids. I also closed off the holes I made for the landing gear. The skids look big, but they'll do:



I was hoping that the eggplane would be closer to 1/35 or 1/32 but it looks very close to 1/48. Since this is 1/72... close enough.

I'm not convinced that this model really represents any version of the Avrocar. Maybe the instructions are so vague that I've put some of the parts on wrong. The molding is OK, but it just doesn't look right - which makes it perfect for whiffing.

@raafif - I have a "flying saucer" that I made from two ancient (mid to late 1950s) Lindberg and Airfix aircraft stands that oddly fit this kit perfectly. I never went far beyond sanding and polishing the two stands, though.

@Stephen - I couldn't find anything about C.J. Williams. Odd.