Airfix 1/48 Sea Vixen FAW.2 build

[DamienB]

Haven't done any kit building for several months so with the arrival of one of these beasts in time for Christmas I've been busy getting back into the swing of things. I don't have the time or inclination to go into any super detailing so I've chosen wings spread, hook and airbrake retracted, and will probably do flaps retracted too. Just aiming to correct any obvious errors enroute rather than try and produce something that is totally spot-on!

Overall I'm really impressed with the kit, I think it's up there with the 1/48 Lightnings in most areas.

Starting with the cockpit, which is a good representation of the unusual layout on this type with most obvious things represented nicely. I didn't add anything other than a few straps and additional padding to the seats.

Then onto populating the lower fuselage half with all of the bits that live here - airbrake bay (basically detailed, ripe for some detailing work, but I'm having the brake closed so no need this time) and nose gear bay (rather shallow but hardly matters when most of it is hidden by a closed door). The brake itself is unusual on this kit in that it doesn't fit perfectly - there's a bit of a gap near the front and the contours don't quite match the fuselage. Nothing a smidgin of filler and some sanding won't fix.

The hook bay is basic; the door is better and the hook itself nicely done. Closing it all off finds no fit issues at this end.

The rear fairing and jetpipes are OK though there's a sink mark and the tip part is a little undersized. The rear faces of the engines are nicely done but sadly have been incorrectly positioned - they should be at 45 degrees to this orientation:

...so cut the bar that joins them, and mount in the correct orientation:

The front faces of the engines are also nicely done, but lack the air starter pipes - on the left, as moulded - on the right, with a basic pipe added (cut from the unused airbrake jack):

...and painted up, ready to be attached to the intakes. The seams on the intake joins aren't too tricky to hide - I always flood seams with liquid poly then press firmly together a few seconds later, squeezing out a layer of melted plastic to seal the seam and then brush on another load of liquid poly to smooth it over. Gets rid of most of the seam without any need for filler. What seam there was left after that got flooded with some PVA glue, which sorted the rest of it out.

[DamienB]

Lower fuselage with all the gubbins added. I like the spars for attaching the wings - great idea.

And suddenly we have an airframe!

...and a problem. With the intake surround test fitted it is evident that there is a large gap between the surround and the interior (outlined in red). On the real thing there is a gap here too, but it is a very thin slot to divert boundary layer air to the spills on the upper fuselage. Before continuing I need to modify the intake surround with some plastic card to close off most of this gap. For any future build I think I'd modify the intake interior instead, and remove the innermost wall and build a new one slightly further inboard (i.e. widen the intake).

I did widen the intake after all, just cut into the plastic at top and bottom of the inner wall and bent it carefully inwards towards the aircraft centreline. Then add some plastic card to the open corners (to stop filler falling inside in a never-ending stream later) and to extend the wall forwards a little...

Add the intake surrounds and here's how it looks prior to clean-up. Now the wall is a little too far inside, but once I add another sheet of plastic card and clean this up it should look the part:

The tailboom halves go together well but on test fitting I noticed a big gap around the flap area. I've decided to have the flaps down and jumping ahead in the instructions I see there are parts to fill the gap, but test fitting them found them to be a poor fit, and very difficult to put in place with the booms already fitted. Accordingly I added these parts (10C and 11C) first - after some fettling to get them to match the forward end of the boom - and then added the tailbooms (more fettling). The result is not pretty, with some gaps to deal with later.

Jumping ahead of the instruction leaflet sequence, the cooling intakes are nicely shaped and fit well but lack the dividing wall inside the intake - these added from a sliver of plastic card.

The all-moving tailplane generally goes together OK, though part 91C is too large for the recess it is meant to go into - basically chop in half, or dig out the recess where it is missing on part 10B, or just fill the small recess in part 9B instead. With the tailbooms in place the tailplane clicks into the mounting holes on the interior faces of the fins with no need for glue and will then move as per the real thing. However, the exterior edges of the rear fairings need to be filled as you can see here (marked with red line). Also, the rudder balance (deep panel line outlined in red) should be present on both sides of each fin so you need to scribe it in on the other side.

Anyway, time for the first application of filler!

[Aigore]

Gawds! I must have that kit! it´s fabulous!

[Ollie 17]

What I have seen here you done a super job. I want to wish you mate all the very best. Keep up the good work up looks like I said super.

[DamienB]

Right, I have been building more than snapping so have caught up with a quick photo session!

1 - this fairing covers a tube tapped into the engine's compressor which directs heated air to the windscreen for rain clearance purposes. The length, for the first time on any Sea Vixen kit, is correct, though the shape is a tiny bit off (should be a little bit wider). It's near enough that I'm leaving it. It's also a fragile part and snapped in two when I was cutting it off the sprue - happily just where there is a break on the real thing!

2 - this semi-circular exhaust grille is a fairly good representation of the real thing but it's too far forwards - should be nearer the mid point of this panel. Too difficult to fix at this late stage I think so I'll leave it.

3 - I will be filling this panel line, it doesn't exist on the real thing.

4 - the tailboom halves fit together very well as long as you take time to prepare them properly, and no filler was needed - also none needed where they meet the wing. On the real thing there is a raised hinge line along the top of the four panels on the inner sides of the boom - this hasn't been represented, and Airfix have only got 3 panels not 4 so I'll be revisiting this area to scribe in the missing panel and add the hinge line later.

5 - I should have been more careful when joining the wings, the wingfold fairings meet quite well on this side, but not quite so well on the other wing and will need a bit of filler/sanding. The undersides on both sides met up perfectly though.

6 - it looks like a flow mark in the plastic on first sight but here, and further aft, there are slight sink marks where the channels for the wing spars sit. Filler due shortly!

7 - there isn't a cooling intake here on the real thing so this one needs to be filled (there's just one inverter in this boom, two on the starboard one hence the starboard boom has intakes on both sides and port boom only has the outboard intake).

8 - sink mark here, and it turns out, also a subtle sink mark running right around the exhaust surrounds

9 - this is one of the four panels that should be here; as well as missing the slightly narrower panel that should be aft of this one, the kit is missing the obvious fasteners that should be at the bottom corners. More scribing to do shortly.

10 - The completed fettled intake. I ended up filling the slot and adding some plastic card to represent the boundary layer diverter.

11 - while I found the main intake surrounds needed little if any filler (and certainly no large gaps underneath as some have found), I did find the forward parts of the surround did need some filler and a bit of test fitting and adjusting too. Also remember to paint the edges of these parts black where they meet the fuselage side or you'll see the bare plastic through the observer's hatch (if you have it open).

12 - hatch and transparency test fitted - they pop into place very well, but you do need to trim down the hinge points at the rear of the hatch to get the hatch to fit in the closed position. I'll be painting the transparency black on the inside as was common in service examples

13 - there's quite a lot of missing detail that you could add if you wish here. Anything aft is hidden by the canopy frame if you are having the canopy closed.

14 - gun sight and windscreen base are OK but no coaming cover is provided. Some scratchbuilding necessary here.

15 - radome, packed with lead weights, was very slightly wider than the fuselage and some aggressive sanding was needed to blend it in. I'll be scribing a more definite seam in now that most of it has been lost!

16 - the little NACA intakes either side of the nose are in the wrong place - a little too far aft and too low - so I've filled them and will be digging them out in the right place

17 - main gear doors are, as the kit instructions indicate, closed when the gear is not cycling (though you can hang them open if you wish as they could be manually opened for maintenance). To mount them closed you need to cut off the hinge lugs and also shave away some of the inner edge - then they just click into place

18 - hard to see but again there are subtle sink marks matching the spar channels on the undersides of the wings

19 - as well as the filler needed to fair in the booms here, there are a few ejector pin marks in the flap bays. I scratched some out of existence with a knife blade, filled some, but I think the best solution will be to cut a square of plastic card for each affected area and glue it on top

And finally for now a quick look at the beast with ailerons and elevator clicked into place temporarily. Now back to work...

[Jennings]

Lookin' good man! Keep us apprised of your progress. What a cool looking bird..

J

[DamienB]

Right, after a few weeks in which work and another Sea Vixen project have taken up all my spare time, a little more progress on this kit...

20 - coaming - made up from thin plastic card superglued in place around the front of the instrument panel with foil and PVA glue making up the majority of the coaming forward of that

21 - you can't see it too well on this photo but I've added various wires to busy up this area

22 - I know I said it was too late, but that vent was just driving me mad. So, I filled it in and smoothed it off, then cut out an appropriately sized hole in the right place. Adding a floor to the new hole was tricky - teasing small bits of plastic card into place and gluing them with the model held upside down - but once done I then had a base into which I could drop oversized bits of plastic card to make up the louvres. These initially stuck out proud of the surface but once the glue was set I sliced them off with a sharp scalpel and sanded what was left to smooth it off.

23 - I know I said this panel line wasn't on the real thing... well... hands up - I was wrong. There is a panel line there after all - it's just filled with a line of rubbery sealant. I think you can equally get away with leaving it in place or filling it as a result!

24 - the prominent hinge for the boom access panels has been added by scoring a deep line along the centreline over the access panels and dropping in a thin section of plastic rod. Once the glue was set this was sanded down until it was less obvious.

25 - scribed in the extra rear access panel as mentioned previously. Took this photo before scribing the fasteners... but as I did an untidy job of those we'll say no more on that subject!!

Since those were taken I've also added the pitot probe collars and the wing fences - these are very slightly smaller in width than the slot in the wings, but I found if I flooded the gap with liquid poly and moved the fences from side to side for a couple of seconds it produced enough melted plastic to fill the gap without any further need for filler.

I've also taken all the various aerials etc. and glued them in place, and then promptly cut them all off flush with the fuselage surface as they're all overscale and very ugly. The mounting plugs at least fill the location holes without me needing to break out more filler!

Next step - a coat of primer.