stunthanger.com
Classic Designs => Classic Planes => Topic started by: Tom Niebuhr on April 27, 2011, 06:17:36 PM
-
Finally beginning to shape up.
I am including one picture that has already been posted, to give an over view of the airplane.
I took all the other pictures of my "Sea Vixen" this morning. The bottom details are about complete, and I have started the top. This took a few weeks since I had to make special inking templates for the shape of the doors, and had to make special flexable straight edges to ink the curved areas. I also made properly sized stencil type decals that I used for placards on the doors. (The decals are about 1/16", so us young-ins will need glasses to look at them) Now I have to make some special templates for the upper engine bay doors.
-
Looking good, Tom! CLP**
-
That's looking terrific, Tom. The panel lines make it come alive. You've added just the right amount. Will be anxious
to see the top side when it's finished.
Cheers.
Warren Wagner
-
Tom,
Looking very good. It's amazing when you have a plane that has had finishing issues and you decided to not try to live with it, but backstroke and just do it again, it's surprisingly satisfying.
What did you use for doing the inklines?
-
Thanks guys.
I used a Rapidigraph pen #2 for most of the panel lines. The wing fold lines are drawn with a #2 ½ Rapidigraph pen. I have numerous detail pictures of “Sea Vixens” thanks to Airliner.net, and a poor 3 view, that shows some of the panel and door locations.
The location of door panels is “fudged” due to different proportions of the stunter. The doors are different on the top in the engine bay areas and there are red X’s to indicate no step areas. The red lines will be done with a #4 Rapidigraph pen using Rapidigraph red ink. There is a plastic model of the “Vixen” that shows some of the doors, but it is not even close to the actual airplane. Another option for the red lines is a red Sharpie, but the Sharpie lines tend to get wider as you use them.
Some of the old paint issues showed up, but hopefully I have most of them hidden. The actual airplane is finished in high gloss urethane, unlike so many military aircraft that are flat.
The panel lines are purposely under stated, and the top lettering on the real airplane is black in most cases, but there is some contrast between the black and the blue/gray color of the airplane. Weathering on many stunters is over done. I will never show hundreds of black rivets. I worked in the aerospace industry all of my life and we worked hard to make the rivets disappear. In many case we actual install rivets slightly high and shave the heads to make them totally disappear. I have never seen an airplane with every rivet head painted black!
-
Another picture of a full size "Sea Vixen". Note that the first "Sea Vixens" had lower booms. In order to add fuel capacity most of them were retrofitted and the new production versions also had the tops of the booms enlarged to add capacity.
-
Very Nice, Tom. y1
Bill
-
Very cool, nice job. y1
-
Here are some of the top details. More touch up and fitting to do, before clear coat. Looking at it I think the interior of the inlets should be black. Boy, is this tedious!
-
Awsome detail, Tom! I love it.
-
Very nice, Tom. I like it.
-
I agree, better get some black in those inlets. y1
-
Tom, keep up the good work. It's looking great as I see it.
Oh, Clint, love the jeep....... y1 H^^
-
A few more little details and touchups, then clearcoat. The inlets are now black.
-
That is looking awesome. It should really stand out after clear coat. H^^
-
Heck Doc, it stands out now! ;D
You sure won't see a row of these at the field or at the next contest! Great project Tom. H^^
-
Tom it looks like you have gone way beyond Jacks plane in detail. I think there is a scale builder hidden in you trying to get out. ~^ I like scale but they are so boring to fly in CL .
Ed
-
I am just totally BLOWN AWAY by this bird. It has all the swoopy shapes and grace of the full size, and your paint and line work is stunning. What a great accomplishment - all the more amazing because I know you had to re-do it after the covering split on you.
Now I hope you can take it to Muncie, or Tucson and show it off in its element among its peers...
-
Ed,
I admire what some of the scale guys do, but I love flying. The white coats are about to arrive for this one. If I attempted a scale project. the white coats would have to put me in a straight jacket.
Dennis,
My friend Jack Sheeks deserves most of the credit. He is probably crazy designing an airplane with all those curves. When I saw the only Sea Vixen that is still airworthy that Red Bull returned to the Royal Navy colors when they completed using in airshows, it became a must build. Thankfully there is a lot of closeup details on Airliners.net. Not many closeup details are available for most airplanes.
Attached is a closeup of the rudder on my Vixen. The full size airplane has many of the placards in black stencils on the dark gray.I am also attaching pictures of the Vixen in the Red Bull colors before it was repainted to the Royal Navy scheme.
My plans are to have the Sea Vixen and the OTS Curtiss Swift at VSC March 2012.
-
There is only one glareing problem that I see with this beautiful model.....its not mine! grrrrr Really looking forward to the inflight video and flight report. Congrats on a very tough build. H^^
-
Looks real good, Tom. Can't wait to see it in person.
Chris...
-
Tom, it sure is beautiful. Now that you painted the inlets black, it looks like there are really holes there! But don't you hate it when the canopy fogs in the sun?
-
You know the tip to stopping a canopy fogging up is to drill a little hole in the back of the canopy.
-
PJ,
Thanks for the concern. The canopy is not fogged. It has been sanded in some places. It will clear up with the clear coat. Not to worry. There are vent holes internally, as I have done many times before.
-
You know the tip to stopping a canopy fogging up is to drill a little hole in the back of the canopy.
That rarely works anyway. I do it to all my planes and half of them fog anyway.
-
That rarely works anyway. I do it to all my planes and half of them fog anyway.
I work out a place where the cockpit can "breathe" through a hole in the floor. Covered with a bit of coffee filter and hidden by the pilot, or some such but able to allow air circulation. The coffee filter is to stop any balsa dust from coming in, but allows air to circulate. Any time I have remembered to do this, the canopy doesn't fog up.
I guess this is similar to what Tom N. is talking about with internal vents.
Big Bear
-
Bill,
That is exactly how I vent the cockpit. Been doing it 25 or 30 years. A 1/8" hole in a non-visible area is all it takes. This method works great and I never have a canopy fog. I don't want a hole in the canopy.
-
Gee, maybe we could put a little, tiny fan in it. LL~
-
Randy,
I don't know about a fan, but I forgot to put in a miniature Jepperson approach chart.
-
What's the latest Tom?
-
Wayne,
The "Sea Vixen" is ready for clearcoat. Just have to find more money to buy it. The price of Clearcoat has gone way up like everything else.
The "Swift" has 2 coats of crystal clear dope and that is held up by high humidity. Two more coats and it will be done. But being an oldtimer I am finishing it with dope. The "Hobo" will be hinged and plumbed this week.
So all the current projects are close to completion and then on to new projects.
I will show the "Sea Vixen" again when the clear coat is finished.
-
Tom, your plane is really impressive. You're doing a great job with it. I hope you'll be able to bring it to VSC next March, so I can see it in person. #^
-
I generally no longer add holes to prevent fogging. I found if you seal the internal structure 100% You get no buildup of moisture.
-
I generally no longer add holes to prevent fogging. I found if you seal the internal structure 100% You get no buildup of moisture.
When your models fly in the airliner they will all pressurize the cockpit and shatter the canopies at the cabin altitude of 6-7000 feet. Ask Bob Whitely about his trip to China.
Chris...
-
Even here in KANSAS I have had a canopy pop loose because the air expansion had no where to go. It only takes a pin hole to let the air out and in. H^^