1:24 Airfix Hawker Typhoon Car Door Build

[Builder 2010]

Oh my… that's sounds terrible. Was the engine salvageable?

Didn't do much today. Spent the hours wrestling with my resin 3D printer. But I did get the first coat on the Saber. Filling those joints paid off.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Crimea_River]

Oh my… that's sounds terrible. Was the engine salvageable?

It's being pulled apart now and replacement parts are in hand. Remains to be seen if it runs again.

 

[Builder 2010]

Thanks guys! The missing fuselage parts arrived yesterday so I can actually complete this kit now that it has a fuselage.

Building the engine has been just what I wanted. I also found some good photos of a Saber (albeit cutaway) which is why I'm painting mine green. I got the engine installed and lots (although not all) of the piping. People always say I'm "patient", but I'm really not. I am persistant. I don't give up, but I do make mistakes by rushing. If I do anything wrong (and I do a lot wrong... just ask my wife) is wanting to glue something together before the paint is dry. I do that too many times to mention.

The ignition wiring is sort of an orange tan so I mixed some of that. I needed to make a filler piece between the port side ignition distributor and the tubing for the spark plugs. I made it out of a small piece of 1/16" aluminum. It was caused by the harness not quite fitting tight enough to the block.

I picked out some bolts to use the Molotow pen on. Again, I probably shouldn't have handled it so quickly because it wasn't completely set. I didn't glue the front harness in yet when I took this. It was fitted just for the picture.

The engine has no weathering yet. I'm going to do mild weathering. I want this plane to be almost factory fresh, not a beat up hulk. It's how I do it. I have to do some more very fine back-painting to cleanup the black taping around the cross-engine ignition harness.

The engine truly is a model unto itself with almost 100 parts for it alone.

 

[Airframes]

Nicely done.
Don't know if this will help, but here's a pic of the Sabre engine from the World's only complete surviving Typhoon (at the moment !), taken at RAFM Cosford, when the aircraft was being prepared for shipment to Canada, on short-term loan, in 2013.
The colour is as the original, black, although it's possible other colours may have been used at some point, especially after a refurb etc.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good progress and I like your photography.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Builder 2010]

Thanks guys! Yes it's helpful, but I'm leaving the green because I like it. But I notice that the radiator head tank is also black… hmmmm. The picture also shows a lot of smaller wiring. If I could get some good references I may want to add some of that too since at 1:24 you can do some pretty small work.

Work continued on the superb Saber...

Finished all the topside appliances and piping. You have to pay explicit attention to the instructions. They WILL show you exactly where the start and end of the tubing goes, but you may have to massage it a bit to get it to settle in. The two intertwinning ignition harness is an excellent example of this. I had to use Bondic to get the lower junction points completed. I know I've mentioned Bondic before, but it's worth repeating. It great to have something that cures rock hard in 5 seconds and doesn't require additional chemistry like CA and accelerator. I still use CA since Bondic doesn't work on junctions where the UV light can't get to the resin. I changed the 2016 (2) batteries recently and it's brighter and cures faster. I went back and retouched the harness to make the color transitions as crisp as I could make them.

Some of the added details were very annoying. One in particular was an apparent throttle linkage that glues to too holes in the firewall and also glues to the supercharger. It probably took 20 minutes to get this thing in place. The lugs were slightly larger than the holes so I had to fix that. iIt was just an awkawrd location and the part should have been installed before the engine was installed. And as you know, the more you fuss with something, the more you screw up the paint, and risk breaking other stuff while you're manhandling the model.

But persistance paind off and it finally settled in so I could apply liquid solvent cement. So now the entire entire top is decorated with appliances and tubing.

The other side:

Up next is all the piping and stuff on the bottom. Being a water-cooled engine, all the bottom stuff is about feeding the radiator which sits prominently below the engine. This engine produced 2,400 hp which was one of the strongest during WW2 and required a lot of cooling. Just for comparison, the F-35 produces 45,000 hp from a single F-135 turbo-fan jet engine. One of the biggest challenges faced in designing the STVL F-35B was creating a clutch to engage the lift fan that could repeatedly engage and disengage 45,000 hp without disintegrating and do it for 2,000 hours between major overhauls. It was a daunting challenge for Rolls Royce. They did it! The Harrier didn't have this problem since all they did was rotate the thrusting elements to go vertical like the F-35's tailpipe. But the lift fan was a totally different animal and needed to be fully enclosed so the aircraft could also do Mach 2.

 

[Airframes]

Great stuff, and regardless of colours, the added detail is more than enough to produce a convincing final product.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far!

 

[Crimea_River]

Lots of additional wiring/plumbing can be seen here. Just Googled it.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Builder 2010]

My oh my, that's a boat load of wiring. I don't know what I'm going to do about that. I also notice two tanks behind the firewall. I wonder what that's all about. The plane has the four-bladed prop and is therefore a later model than this kit. That could account for the added tankage. It's a packaging job like the way laptops are built. If you ever had the opportunity to take one apart, it's a sight to behold. The model's engine is so big, that you must leave parts off if you intend of fully cowling it. Since I displaying it all open, I put on everything. If you have a chance to want Don of eModels.com's entire build which is noteworthy. But, he really doesn't know what he's talking about. He called the ignition harness the "injection system" and the radiator surge tank "some kind of generator. I added a comment to his video (10 parts) to educate him.

Work begins on the engine's bottom regions. The model wasn't very stable upside down so I cobbled together a holder to support it well when upside down. Some scrap ply and two piece of 1/4" square strip wood did the trick. I used CA to hold it together since I needed it "right now" and didn't want to wait for wood glue to dry.

Here's the airframe on the stand. It works! I could have 3D printed this if my printer was actually doing what it's supposed to.

It had to be stable because the piping that had to go in was a real bear. There was a four pipe manifold, with two being on one piece and the third added. This got glued to the firewall with two of the pipes and their manifold setting in a rectangular slot and that third pipe going into a round hole below it. The other end with three pipes just float there to be added to the radiator. Then a fourth very curvy pipe tied into the manifold on one end and wound its way underneath one of the intake pipes to settle into the engine way out of sight. After these were in, a two-piece injection system went in to the top of the supercharger intake pipe. YES! This engine did not have a carburetor. It was fuel injected.

This picture attempts to show these parts. They're black and they don't stand out, but trust me, it was quite a challenge to get them all settled into their proper locations.

IMHO it would be criminal to close up all this detail with the skin. As it stands, most of the cockpit will be out of sight. The car door version offers a little more viewing of the interior. The teardrop canopy version basically closes off everything.

I assembles all the radiator and induction parts that I could based on the instructions so I could paint them in their assembled condition. It calls for flat aluminum. The induction pipe has a straight shot right into the injector's throat. It would also have quite a ram-air effect. I'll be adding some more metallic effects and some weathering to these prominent parts.

BTW: Since I got the ultrasonic cleaner for the 3D printing, I'm using it regularly to clean my airbrushes. It works great. I clean it with water, then IPA, and then drop it in the cleaner for about 5 minutes. It comes out sparkling and it gets inside as well. The nozzle comes out quite good. The two-part induction pipe add a minor seam which I filled with Tamiya fine filler. The instructions have a specific illustration showing the cross-braces of the intake bezzle set at 45 degrees.

The baffle plate got airbrushed RAF medium Sea Gray which I bought with a full 4-color AK set for WW2 British aviation. I tried them on for fit in this image. There are water pipes that extend through those holes in the baffle.

By tomorrow the engine compartment will be ready for a little weathering.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far!

 

[Builder 2010]

Thank you for following:
The engine bottoms was completed today with the beginning of winging the beast. First up was the weathering of the baffle. I used Tamiya brown panel accent and then removed the excess with a Q-tip lightly dampened with low odor mineral spirits. Much to my dismay, the solvent removed some of the AK acrylic gray. It's not very noticeable and I'll retouch. I think I needed to seal the surface before applying the panel accent. After installing the baffle, which needed some enhanced gluing with some medium CA, I installed the induction pipe. If you're building this plane, apply glue to the induction pipe injector end before putting it in. It's almost impossible to get solvent cement to it afterwards.

Added to that are two coolant pipes that wend their way through the baffle and tie to the rectangular notch in the main wing spar on both sides. I needed needle nose pliers to twist the pipes after entering the baffle holes so it would orient correctly into the notches. It didn't go easily. I don't know where the back end of the pipes went after leaving the spar. Perpaps a cabin heater?

The radiator was partially glued together before putting it on the model. And then it's glued in place where you have to connect it to five points simultaneously: the two lugs on the front of the engine, the induction pipe, and then those two coolant pipes. It just took some patience to keep working it. I used solvent cement and then some CA to finish the job. The bottom and side panels went on with some light sanding so they fit between the radiator walls. When all was in place I went over all the ducting and radiator with AK Silver Buffing Cream that gave more of a metallic sheen to the surfaces. I then used Tamiya Black Panel Accent to pull out the details. Again, some paint got pulled and I had to touch it up. I did the same thing on the simulated grill surfaces on the radiators and after removing the excess I dry brushed it with the flat aluminum.

The arrow shows one of the most ridiculous pipes to install in the whole deal. These pipes (R & L) are the coolant inlets to the two water pumps put on many steps ago. The outside connection is a breeze being a squared off lug so it only connects in one orientation. The pipes had pins on their inboard ends that are supposed to drop into the holes in the pumps' center. The biggest problem was seeing inside. I had to keep maneuvering the model to get light to play inside so I could see where the pipes were in relation to the pumps. They seemed like they wouldn't fit, and then, like one of those crazy bent wire puzzles, they just dropped into place. That was after about 10 minutes of fussing with them.

Here's another view showing just how difficult it was to see if the pipes were actually entering the pump. I was concerned to get it there not just to be prototypically accurate (you really can't see the darn thing), but to make sure it was glued on both ends for security. It was just as hard to get a picture of it as it was to see it. When you see how inaccessible those innards are, it makes me wonder why I bothered painting it at all.

The last radiator pieces was the surge tank that sits in front of the engine. It too ties to the radiator and to the ends of the remaining two pipes. These tanks are found all all the merlin powered craft too. The radiator set up on the Typhoon is pretty compact and very intuitive and required less pipe runs than those in Mossies, Spitfires and other water-cooled craft.

So here's the entire engine installation. I don't think I'm going to add any smaller wires unless you guys talk me into it. Enough is enough.

The Saber weighed about 2300 pounds and then you add the cooling system and coolant. It explains why the wings are as far forward as they are. Center of Gravity would be far forward.

With the engine in it was time to start on the main wing. This was an exciting milestone. The bottom wing glues to three points under the fuselage (the firewall bottom and two large lugs reward) and then to the entire length of both wing spars. Before you glue it on you have to attach the upper mounting point for the main gear.

I went through the entire instruction sheet before starting to highlight every page having an optional step based on the version (D) that I'm building. My version has these variables: landing gear extended, engine and radiator exposed, late version with full invasion stripes, rockets and external fuel tanks. This choice required drilling specific holes in the wing for the rockets, tanks and i.d. lights specific to this plane.

I glued the fuselage connections first and clamped it so it set up. I used tube cement since I wanted to be sure that it bridged any gaps. You can't really get into there with CA after its together. I then clicked into place the spars. They do align pretty well... good engineering. I used tube cement to hold in the gear base and then solvent cement for the rest. I clamped it so it can dry properly overnight. The rubber band is applying pressure to the top half of the expansion tank. The piping was putting some negative bias on this while it was drying and it needed some help.

The next steps involve a lot of inside wing constructions before the top skin goes in: more ribs boxing in the two gun bays and the wheel wells, plus four Hispano 20mm cannons, ammo boxes and feeds, and fuel tanks. There are access hatches that can be open for the guns, but the fuel tanks will be forever hidden unless I cut over the wings just for fun. Without a doubt, this is the most complex plastic model aircraft I'll ever built. You absolutely have to pre-fit everything, and even then, you'll get a few wrong.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Almost like working on the real thing.