Colin Leighfield
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Posts posted by Colin Leighfield
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Since the last post, I’ve been to the Isle of Man on my bike for the Manx GP and although I’ve been home for nine days, chaos around the house caused by building work is causing problems, so I’ve only got back on the case today. The pilot is unfinished business. I’ve given up on the idea of giving him legs, they wouldn’t be visible anyway, but decided a torso with arms should work, so I’m on with that. I notice that Martyn has a WW 2 style pilot, which fits with his SAAF choice. My pilot is closer to a WW1 subject, which might be nearer for a Spanish Civil War choice. Some tidying up to do here, it’s a mess at present.
I’m keen to do a good job on the spinner, so spent some time on this to get it right. The adapter nut for the spinner needed tapping out to match the 10mm propeller shaft. The thickness of the prop hub means that I’ve got to countersink it to get everything on, that’s tricky but I’m trying.
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Here’s the 1/6 scale pilot from Dave Banks. It looks like a WW1 figure, but that’s probably ok and I can perhaps add a moustache or something! When I hold it in position in the cockpit, it looks right, albeit too wide for the seat. I’ve compared the dimensions with those on Matty B’s scale dimensions chart and they look right. However, when I sketch out a body to fit to it and make a 5’8” equivalent height, it’s clearly too big to fit in. Nor sure what to do about this, I can see why Danny has just used the bust.
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Looking more carefully, I was wrong to say that some of the controls are attached to the fuselage surface, in fact some of them are fixed to the tubular fuselage structure. I've had another look at the 3D printed frames that Tony made to see if I might be able to cut bits out of them and stick them in places where they could be seen. However, I decided it’s not worth the trouble, when the full length pilot is in place they’ll hardly be visible. I think this is as far as I’m going to go with the cockpit interior, it’s fit for purpose. Although there is a lot of excellent detail in the Guerrero book, I’m still not clear about cockpit interior colour. However, I struggle to believe that in the desperate, hard-working combat struggle of the Spanish Civil War, that it would have been silver. I’m happy with cockpit green. There are some amazing photos in this book, some of them here. I really think that the Spanish Hispano engined Furies were the most business-like of them all. Loads of detail, such as the exhaust stubs, louvres etc, which I will reproduce. The last photo shows one of Tony’s 3D printed parts, I’ve failed to work out where it goes. Next step is to carefully cut the aluminium spinner to fit the 20” prop.
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5 hours ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:
It's looking good, you could always put a small Led in the cockpit to make it stand out.
That’s an idea Paul! Not so sure it would it any favours though, it’s not that good! A problem is that in the full-sized plane, the cockpit skin is the plane’s outer surface and controls are attached to that. In practice, particularly with a pilot in situ, you’d hardly see them anyway. In the model, the internal structure is different, with the “inner sides” forming the interior. Therefore, I’ve focused on the instrument panel and gun breeches/cocking handles. I’ll do a bit more, but only what would be normally easily visible.
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I confess that I always use a starter!
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35 minutes ago, Danny Fenton said:
Sadly i ended up in the same boat Colin. With hindsight, maybe the cockpit should have been fitted out before sheeting?
Probably Danny. However, the model’s internal structure limits the ability to match the full-size. Also, some of it will be hard to see, so I’m not going to try and do it all.
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Hard to believe this took me two evenings! There was no way of getting the guns inside without cutting them up, sadly. I tried all roads to wiggle them in with the instrument panel in place, no chance. In the end the answer was to cut the breech blocks right back and fix them to the instrument panel. Even then, I had to relieve some areas inside to get it in, but finally, success! The rest of the cockpit should be easy now. Waiting for the pilot from Dave Banks.
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Thanks Martian. I’m going to cut the barrels of at 60mm and fit them into the troughs, then fit the breeches inside the cockpit, lined up with the barrels, either side of the panel with the cocking handles and spent cartridge chutes inboard. Had a few minutes tonight and I mixed some Matt black with a bit of silver, for a “gun-metal” finish. Should look ok (I hope).
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Instrument panel fitted. As mentioned previously, interior detail won’t be very visible in there! Vickers guns assembled, I need to mix a suitable colour. Perhaps black with a bit of silver mixed in. Looking at previous build threads, the length of gun barrel in the gun channels is 60mm, so I probably need to cut them appropriately. Thinking about how to ensure that they line up with the breeches inside the cockpit. I note they are fitted with the cocking levers inboard.
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I bet it will fly very well. I’ve always liked the Skyray, another great design from Ed Heinemann (I think).
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Hopefully you will be able to visit before too long, there is much to see! I am sure that Guerrero is right about the 109G, that makes absolute sense.
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It’s interesting to know that, thank you Jesus. We’re in Spain a lot, have a place in Calpe, and although I don’t speak Spanish, I understand it quite well, so can read the book without much difficulty. Looking at it, I’ve noticed the oil-cooler in front of the radiator for the first time, so I will make and fit that.
We were in Cadiz on Wednesday for a few hours, with a cruise, not far from Seville, but we didn’t visit it because we had a week there a few years ago. That’s a wonderful city.-
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Just got home today and amongst all the post was the book recommended by Jesus Cardin, thank you Jesus. Everything that I need, a few photos here as examples. Tony B’s 3D printed Vickers guns are spot on. I’ve decided that the “sand and spinach” finish is a step too far for me, so I’m going for the camouflaged finish on the plane captured and operated by the Nationalists, which I think is interesting in it’s own right.
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I think Ron and Cymaz have hit the nail on the head. When I flew this originally, the motor was pretty much right “out of the box”. Later on I decided to tinker with the settings to “improve” it, but leaving it running for too long without realising that it was overheating, lead me to set it up too rich and causing it to run evenly and cut when I throttled up for take-off. I haven’t flown it for a long time, but now that I’m flying again, probably will, because it’s a brilliant flyer. However, next time I’ll set it up with the close fitting radial cowl removed. There’s no question that the FA82 is a good motor, it has a great reputation.
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I’ve got a Saito FA82 in a Mick Reeves Fw190D9 and never had any vibration issues. I have found though that I can have problems in setting it up on the ground if I take too long over it, because it tends to overheat and that messes it up.
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Dave Banks has confirmed he can do the pilot figure. Order placed! I need to decide whether to use it as a bust, or to attach it to a body made from blue foam. That can wait until after we get back.
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17 hours ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:
I found Rome ok,,,
watch out in Marseilles if the have fish on the menu, it's not the price of the fish but probably the price for 100 grams and you will be paying for the whole fish,,,😱
I think I’ll stay on the ship!
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4 minutes ago, Jesus Cardin said:
If you visit Cadiz, do not forget to ask for "pescaito frito" at any bar you may go into. It is something like your "fish and chips" but at the South Spain style. There we even eat a type of shark we call "cazón".
Wish you to enjoy a good holidays!
Thank you again for the advice Paul!
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2 hours ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:
I found Rome ok,,,
watch out in Marseilles if the have fish on the menu, it's not the price of the fish but probably the price for 100 grams and you will be paying for the whole fish,,,😱
I think I’ll stay on the ship!
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I’m wise to the pickpockets and other criminals, I’ll be careful in Rome as well. I like bouillabaise very much, I’ll try very hard not to fall into it!
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Thank you Chris and Paul! No, we’re cheating this time and taking a Mediterranean cruise from Southampton. It does include Marseille, Barcelona and Cadiz, but I’m hoping that getting ashore there won’t be too much of a problem!
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10 minutes ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:
2 weeks off, one to get past the french customs 🤐 and one week off in Spain ?.😅
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Running out of time before we’re off on holiday, but I’ve done a bit of work on the cockpit and put an instrument panel together using Tony Bennett’s 3D printed parts. There are variations and I don't have specific information on the Spanish plane’s detail. Also I note that Airfix show it as black, not natural aluminium. This will do for starters, I can alter it. Tony included fuselage framing in his printed parts, but the difference in the fuselage structure of the model makes them impossible to use accurately. However, the restricted view inside the cockpit with a pilot in place probably reduces the importance of a lot of detail. I will certainly at least use the guns though. I’ve painted inside with cockpit green, not knowing what else to do. Tony did a nice job of the seat and I’m using that. I’ve emailed David Banks to enquire about a pilot but had no reply yet. A while ago I bought a 3D printer and did a few test pieces, but didn’t persevere. I’m in the process of setting that up properly now, so if necessary, I’ll make my own. Otherwise, it’s a case now of waiting for the book from Spain and the paint from Fighter Aces.
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On 24/07/2022 at 10:09, Graeme Poke said:
Yes please Colin. I'm still waiting for your article. I love the Seafang/Spiteful. Cheers Graeme
I’ll see if I can do something about it, although it’s likely to be September.
Colin’s Spanish Fury
in Hawker Fury Mk 1 - RAF's Finest Biplane!
Posted
Thanks Martyn, so much still to do. Exhaust stubs, Hispano exclusive louvres, lower wing root fairings, tailplane struts, rigging detail. The paints arrived from Fighter Aces this week, so the ducks are getting lined up in a row.