Colin Leighfield

That is very, very nice.

Here’s a nice photo of one of the Spanish planes, from the BAe web-site, showing clearly the louvre detail I mentioned in the previous post.

The undercarriage is nearly finished. In the photo you can see the key differences between the Spanish plane and RAF versions, in the undercarriage, engine cowling detail and radiator. There is also some interesting louvre detail I will have to contrive. It’s impossible to do the sprung wheel detail without having one, but otherwise the undercarriage is reasonably accurate. The Dubro wheels are accurate in diameter and tyre section, but have light spoke outlines moulded in. I’m making conical discs from 1/64” ply to cover these. I did think about making some lighter wheels, using the tyres off the Dubros, but decided against it. The weight is in front of the c of g and they are robust. Coming along nicely.

Thank you for going to that trouble Danny, I’ll take a good look at it. I’ve found out today that the AOP6 is now in the Czech Republic! It was built in 1946 and originally served with the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, I think 664 or 644 Sqn, something like that. We were allowed to fly it in its original military markings.

Looking good again Simon!

This is the AOP6 I owned 1/5 of for a while. The flaps are the obvious difference to other versions. Perhaps I can do this one day, converting a DB kit would certainly be the easiest route. It look’s interesting.

I’ve never had that happen on these little geared motors. The cyano might do it but if you’re in no rush I’d be inclined to speak to Jon.

Congratulations David, you must be chuffed with that.

That’s a fantastic build of a great subject. Good luck with the maiden David.

Fascinating stuff. There’s always something to learn.

The trickiest part of converting to the Spanish version of the Fury is the undercarriage. Because the low drag was achieved by using a rigid cantilever leg, with all springing and damping provided by the clever Dowty sprung wheel, it’s hard to replicate. The perfect solution is a sprung wheel and that’s not an impossibility, but I don’t have the engineering skills to make that. The leg is too slim to accept an oleo and it’s not a practical solution. Therefore the compromise solution was to make a rigid leg from lengths of 8swg wire, triangulated and soldered. At the front the cross-member is hinged to the bulkhead in the same way as on the original Bryant design. The vertical shock absorption is limited, but comes from the very good low-bounce rubber DuBro tyres, which provide 1/2”. There is a little lateral spread but not much and it has to be limited because all bending forces are transmitted through the point where the leg joins the fuselage and the fairing there is a problem. The horizontal shock reaction is transmitted through the rear part of the leg assembly in to the cast rubber box that I have formed inside the fuselage. The difficult bit is getting a reasonable looking fairing at the undercarriage/fuselage join that can accommodate the lateral and rearward movement without splitting. The photos show that I’m working on that now. It won’t be perfect but I hope reasonable.

Thanks Danny, Eric had very kindly got in touch via Messenger. The radiator shape is quite different, as I’ve already ordered the fine mesh I’ll use that when it comes. It should be easy to cut to shape.

The radiator is finished now and I’m satisfied with it. Scratching my head about how to find a suitable mesh to put inside it for realism and to avoid a gaping hole, I found stainless rodent mesh on Amazon, 16 LPIx1.19mm hole x 0.4mm stainless steel wire 210x150mm for £2.99. That looks handy so I've ordered 3, enough to do the job and leave some stock. It should arrive some time next week, so while waiting for that to arrive I’ll get on with the undercarriage fairings. They’re quite tricky. Because I’ve had to create a narrow cantilever undercarriage to visually replicate the Dowty sprung wheel arrangement, all of the fore and aft movement is concentrated at the point where the leg joins the fuselage. The shock load is absorbed by the cast rubber box I’ve epoxied into the fuselage. That means that the leg fairing has to have enough space inside it to allow for the limited movement. That’s going to be interesting.

Andy, this one is late in the Fury builds, there are some already finished that are more skilfully created than mine. Have a look at those as well. The differences with this one are the changes made to represent the version used in the Spanish Civil War, on both sides. These are mostly apparent in the engine cowling because of the Hispano Suiza engine used instead of the Kestrel and the undercarriage, similar to that on the Gloster Gladiator with Dowty sprung wheels. Also there are some interesting paint schemes that will give me a chance to improve my air-brushing!

Danny, could you put a T-piece into the tubing that connects to the exhaust for pressure? Take another piece of fuel tube from that to somewhere you can conceal, with a plug in the end that you can remove when you fill up?

Thank you Andy. It's getting there.

I’ve put a couple of hours into this every day this week and it’s nearly done. I want it be accurate as I reasonably can. I’m not averse to using lightweight filler here and there, it will be ok when finished.

The radiator cowl is different to that on the Kestrel planes, more like that on the Hurricane. I thought about carving it in one piece from blue foam, but decided to build it up like this.

Thank you Dwain. I don’t think it matches the build standards of some of the others, but hopefully it will turn out ok and represent a version of the Fury that we don’t normally see.

I’m pleased with this, the differences to a standard Kestrel Fury are apparent here. I’m working on the underside of the lower wing centre section and radiator now. I want to see if I can use air from that route over the ESC and let it out through the cockpit.

The drawings that I have show some of the Spanish Fury detail. They show a flatter line along the top of the cowling blisters than I’ve deduced from other pictures, it’s easy to sand the blue foam to a flatter profile, I’ll think about whether I want to. The under-nose air intake is also clear. One of the fibre-glass off-cuts from the blisters I’ve altered is co-incidentally spot-on for that, when that’s done (today) the cowl is finished.

Jaguars and Land Rovers are wholly designed and production engineered in the UK, most are also made here in Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry and Speke. The EPace and IPace are assembled in Graz, Austria and the new Defender in the Czech Republic. Some cars are assembled in China because if you don’t agree to do that, you can’t sell there. All (very good) engines are made at the specialised plant in Wolverhampton, they stopped using the (very good) Ford built engines from Bridgend some time ago. There are German components in there, particularly electronic, that helps to balance the effects of differing international exchange rates. I made my mind up, particularly after a bad experience with a lousy BMW 520, that if I was going to spend thousands on new cars I’d keep our blokes in jobs, not Germans (no disrespect) any more than I can help it. After half a million great miles in Jaguars and Land Rovers over twenty years I have no regrets at all. Must get around to building the Spitfire, it’s been in the queue for two years and I’ll get to it eventually.

I’ve cut out the exhaust holes, which are different to those on the Kestrel planes. As the Hispano Suiza engine is a similar V-12 to the Rolls Royce engines, I think the most likely explanation for the odd looking exhaust arrangement must be that the manifolds on cylinders 2+3 and 4+5 in both banks are siamesed in pairs, I don’t know why. I’m quite pleased with this so far. The only remaining job on the cowl is to fit the small air intake in the chin position on the underside, which only exists on the Hispano Suiza version. Although not large, it is ideally positioned to push air in and around the motor, to vent through the exhaust holes.

The longer valve gear cover blisters associated with the Hispano engine are taking shape, using blue foam.

If I remember rightly, Ceconite has been around for a while as a full-size covering material? In this case I’ve got more than enough Solartex to do the Fury and I want to get it finished now. I bought some nylon for this project, but I’ll use that for something else now. One of the problems that lead me to park the Chipmunk was warping of the ailerons using silk, tissue and dope, among other self-induced mishaps! One day I’ll take a deep breath and have another go with it. There’s a lovely un-run OS62FV in that, mustn’t waste it.