CyberHobby 1/72 DH Sea Vixen FAW.2

[LudvigN]

1280px-De_Havilland_Sea_Vixen_at_Yeovilton_2009.JPG

Information:

The aircraft was designated the DH.110 by de Havilland; a twin-engined all-weather fighter, development of which started in 1946 following discussions with the Admiralty of its requirements for jet all-weather fighters. De Havilland's design shared the twin-boom layout of the de Havilland Vampire, had an all-metal structure and featured swept wings. It was to be powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon engines, each capable of 7,500 lbf (33 kN) of thrust, which would allow the aircraft to be supersonic in a shallow dive. The DH 110 was the first British two seat combat aircraft to achieve supersonic speed. Armament was to be four 30 mm ADEN cannons. In January 1947, specifications N.40/46 and F.44/46 were issued by the British Air Ministry for similar night-fighters to equip the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) and Royal Air Force (RAF), with nine prototypes being ordered for the RAF (together with four of the competing Gloster Javelin) and four prototypes for the Fleet Air Arm. In 1949, however, the Royal Navy decided to buy the de Havilland Sea Venom, which as a development of an existing type was cheaper and available quickly to meet its immediate needs for a jet-powered night fighter to replace its piston-engined de Havilland Sea Hornets, while the RAF cut its order back to two prototypes. Despite this, de Havilland continued with the project.

The Sea Vixen had a twin-boom tail, as used on the de Havilland Sea Vampire and Sea Venom. The Sea Vixen became the first British aircraft to be solely armed with missiles, rockets and bombs. The Sea Vixen FAW.1 was armed with four de Havilland Firestreak air-to-air missiles, two Microcell unguided 2 inch (51 mm) rocket packs, and four 500 lb (227 kg) or two 1,000 lb (454 kg) bombs. It was powered by two 11,230 lbf (50.0 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Avon 208 turbojet engines; had a speed of 690 mph (1,110 km/h) and a range of 600 mi (1,000 km). The original DH.110 design as offered to the RAF had cannons fitted; however the cannons were soon removed and an all-missile armament was developed.

The pilot's canopy is offset to the left hand side. The observer is housed to the right completely within the fuselage, gaining access through a flush-fitting top hatch into his position, nicknamed the "Coal Hole".

The Sea Vixen FAW.2 was the successor to the FAW.1 and included many improvements. As well as Firestreak missiles, it could carry the Red Top AAM, four SNEB rocket pods and the air-to-ground Bullpup missile. An enlarged tail boom allowed for additional fuel tanks in the "pinion" extensions above and before the wing leading edge, and there was an improved escape system along with additional room for more electronic counter-measures equipment. However, the changes in aerodynamics meant that the 1,000 lb bomb could no longer be carried. Visually the FAW.1 and FAW.2 may be distinguished by the tail booms which extend forward over the leading edge of the wing on the FAW.2.

The FAW.2 first flew in 1962 and entered service with front line squadrons in 1964, with 29 being built and a further 67 FAW.1s being upgraded to FAW.2 standard. The FAW.1 began phasing out in 1966. In 1972, the career of the Sea Vixen FAW.2 came to an end. It was planned to replace the Sea Vixen with the F-4 Phantom II, with both HMS Ark Royal and Eagle to be refitted to take the new aircraft. In the event, due to defence cuts and following the decommissioning of HMS Eagle, only Ark Royal was converted to take the new aircraft.

A small number of Sea Vixen subsequently saw service in the less glamorous roles of drone, being redesignated Sea Vixen D.3. Only four were converted to the D.3 standard. though three more were sent to Farnborough for conversion but not converted. The last remaining airworthy Sea Vixen (XP924) was a D3 conversion. Some other Sea Vixens became target tugs and were redesignated as TT.2.



Operational History:

The aircraft did not take part in any true wars during its career with the Fleet Air Arm though it took part in many operations. In 1961, President Abdul Karim Kassem of Iraq threatened to annex the neighbouring oil-rich state of Kuwait. In response to Kuwait's appeal for external help, the United Kingdom dispatched a number of ships to the region, including two fleet carriers. Sea Vixens aboard the fleet carriers flew patrols in the region, and Kassem's aggressive actions wilted in the face of the strong naval presence, thus averting a war over Kuwait.

In January 1964, trouble flared in the East African state of Tanganyika after the 1st and 2nd Tanganyika Rifles mutinied against the British officers and NCOs who, despite Tanganyika being independent, still commanded the regiment. The mutineers also seized the British High Commissioner and the airport at the capital Dar-es-Salaam. The UK responded by sending the light fleet carrier HMS Centaur, accompanied by 45 Commando, Royal Marines. The Sea Vixens, flying off Centaur, performed a number of duties including the providing of cover for the Royal Marines who were landed in Tanganyika by helicopters. The operation "to restore Tanganyika to stability" ended in success. That same year, Sea Vixens of HMS Centaur saw service once again in the Persian Gulf, including the launch of air strikes against rebel forces, this time supporting British forces fighting against locals disgruntled by the loss of tolls in the Radfan. Later in 1964, HMS Centaur's 892 Squadron Sea Vixens stationed off Indonesia, helped to prevent an escalation of President Sukarno's Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.

Sea Vixens saw further service during the 1960s, performing duties on Beira Patrol, a Royal Navy operation designed to prevent oil reaching landlocked Rhodesia via the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique. The Sea Vixen also saw service in the Far East. In 1967, once again in the Persian Gulf, Sea Vixens helped cover the withdrawal from Aden. There were a number of Royal Navy warships involved, including the carriers HMS Albion, HMS Bulwark and HMS Eagle (carrying the Sea Vixens) and the LPD (Landing Platform Dock) HMS Fearless. Of the 145 Sea Vixens constructed, 54 were lost in accidents. Two DH.110 development prototypes were also lost.

A small number of Sea Vixens were sent to FR Aviation at Tarrant Rushton airfield for conversion to D.3 drone standard, with some undergoing testing at RAF Llanbedr before the drone programme was abandoned. Among them was XP924, now G-CVIX, the only Sea Vixen to remain in flying condition, which has now been returned to 899 NAS colours. Formerly owned and operated by De Havilland Aviation, G-CVIX could be viewed at their hangar at Bournemouth Airport in Dorset, southern England, or at air shows around the UK. The Air Accident Investigation Branch published an enquiry into damage suffered by G-CVIX on landing at Bournemouth on 5 April 2012. On September 16, 2014 G-CVIX was transferred to Naval Aviation Ltd., a subsidiary of Fly Navy Heritage Trust. and will be based and displayed at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton.

Source: Wikipedia

[LudvigN]

Here is a special treat I gave to myself. Its a bit pricey, but it looks to be the only decent 1/72 kit of the Sea Vixen. I was always jealous on everyone who got the 1/48 from Airfix which looks like a cracking kit, but 1/48 is just too big for me. I always adored this aircraft cause of its unique appearance and its one of those aircraft that defines my love of Cold War-jets. I also longed to have a decent kit since I returned to the hobby.

Price: SEK 408 / £34.99 / €44.37 / $56.08 + shipping

That price is from Hannants, but I got it alot cheaper on eBay, from the far east (50$ shipped to Sweden).

The Kit:

The kit comes in a big box (for 1/72) and is neatly packed in mostly separate bags. You get 5 sprues and 1 clear sprue. Besides that, you get two sheets of decals, made by Cartograf, and lets you choose from 6 different individuals. The first thing that strikes me, is the recessed detail on the fusilage and wings. It looks great! Not too deep, not too wide. Its not like Tamiyas newer tools (like the F-16) where the details is so comprehensive, it starts too look like a 1/32nd kit. Still, it really holds up on this scale. The kit comes with some ordnance and the options is explained (i think) in the instructions on when/what/where to attach them. Although I adore this aircraft, I dont know a great deal about it, so I cant comment the accuracy of this kit.

Cyber-hobby/Dragon has released the FAW.1 2011, but from what Ive heard, that kit had alot of inaccuracies which are supposed to fixed in this version (only what Ive read). This release is from 2013 and its one of those flash-free new toolings that we love to see. Lets move on to the pictures and we'll start with the non plastic content....






Instructions look like those from standard Dragon-kits. Ive never built a Dragon kit before, and Ive heard some mixed messages about their instructions, and this looks quite complex, to say the least.





The decals looks superb, and, its got a SHARK MOUTH!!!! Lets just say Ive already decided which scheme to go for





Heres the reason why the decals look so awesome:



Lets move on to the plastic:



The clear parts looks the deal with no center seam and crystal clear properties.





The fusilage comes in a top/bottom layout and shows the option of having the wings folded which is a great bonus in my opinion.





An example of the fine recessed detail:









Nicely detailed wheel wells:



The seats looks ok but a bit small? There are some awkward EPMS on the wheel bay doors:



I see some EPMs in the intakes, why this still happens in this millenia is above my knowledge...



Conclusion

The pickings are slim if you want to build a Sea Vixen in 1/72nd scale. The only other options I know of is either the FROG-kit with various reboxes which dates back to the 70s. There is also a newish russian kit from "Ark", but I havent seen any reviews of this kit so far. This leaves us with the Dragon-kit. Im very pleased that this kit exists, not only is it a new tooling, its also a splendid tooling, with no flash, superb details, awesome decals and good looking clear parts. I cant say anything about the fit yet, but as long as its doable, I would not try anything else than this kit when it comes to Sea Vixen. You also get 6 different markings to choose from. The only downside for this kit is for me the price, although, personally I think the details and decals justifies the price, I still think they could've thrown in some photo-etch or resin for this price.

+ No flash
+ Very nice recessed detail
+ Folded wings-option
+ 6 different markings (including shark-mouth )
+ Cartograf decals
+ Nice details (seat, wheel wells etc)
+ Nice clear parts
+ Finally a good Sea Vixen in 1/72

- Strange ejector pin marks on such a new kit (intakes, wheel bay doors)
- Expensive kit, alot of money for a 1/72 model
- Would have been nice to see some photo etch included.
- Confusing Instructions
- Unnecessarily big box
- No weighted wheels
- Small ejection seats


Until next time, cheers!

cheers

[LudvigN]

Before I kick this build into action, I wanted to show one addition that I've made and is the only aftermarket part I added to this kit. The kit seats are too small for the kit. If you use the seats from the kit, the pilot wont even have his head above the dashboard! Shame on Dragon for that and this makes me wonder if they controlled the kit at all before releasing it!



The construction begins:

Starting with the cockpit (Surprise!!! ) wich is very unspectacular. If you watch a reference photo, you will se a huge difference. It would benefit greatly from the photo-etch set wich I think that Eduard makes. Anyway, I settled for the kit itself, I might add more details to it before I actually paint it.


The sidewall that separates the navigator and the pilot. During dryfitting, you could see a tiny strip of light above the wall. That wouldnt be a problem for a normal airplane, but the Sea Vixen is not normal and has a side window for the navigator wich means you would see the strip of light very clearly. To remedy this, I added a tiny bit of styrene plastic.


The resin seats: The seats from Pavla looks splendid! However, one of the bars(or the black and yellow hoop) was broken on the pilot seat and I think I lost it when I opened the bag. I had to make a new one, wich is not very pretty but it does the job! Its made out of brass wire and I had to drill small holes in the seat to make it sit properly.


The air brake: You get the option of having the air brake in extended position. Well, when I say you have the option I dont really mean you have an option, since if you have it open, you can see into the belly of the aircraft... and its not pretty at all!


I decided to add some styrene to cover up the void.




I then tried to add some details myself by looking at reference photos. Its not by any means accurate since I just took some inspiration from the photos and it was impossible to recreate the real thing with the space I had. It will look better anyway than the gaping void since you will see SOMETHING in there.


Then I decided to try the air brake position and I dont know what Dragon was thinking with this one. Take note: This is not the fully extended position of the air brake.


Im not an expert on Sea Vixens by any means, but did the SV not deploy the airbrakes after they landed? This suggests that the airbrake can only be deployed while in flying position if you choose to have it open. From the photos that ive seen however, the air brake is open, so I made some surgery on the rod that holds the hatch open and made it shorter (about 0.5 centimeters) and now it sits on the ground without touching it.


Nose weight-S: After the anti climactic moment in my Vampire build where I ended up with a fat tailsitter despite desperate means, I decided to really go over the top wih this one. I bought some lead beads that fits everywhere wich is really useful when dealing with smaller scales.


I filled the area with acrylic glue(Like PVA or something like that), stuffed in the beads and then crammed some white tack in there aswell, just to prevent any rattling situations.


To be fair, the cockpit also got partially filled with beads in this test shot, but I will show that in a future image. It stands! Just to make sure, I will add even more weight before I glue it all in. Wish the nose wheel where out of metal!


Alot of construction and dryfitting going on here. The instructions are really bad since its full of parts that magically appears on the model and holes that needs to be drilled but isnt mentioned. They even tell you to drill holes in one area and then in the next picture, the holes are drilled somewhere else, the wings are a good example of this.


Dont forget to drill out these holes if you want the wings folded, the instructions "forgot" them.


Started painting and filling parts related to the intakes. The intakes are pretty complicated since its integraded in the sidewalls of the cockpit and the fitting isnt 100% so I will probably go for covered engines and intakes.


On the subject of fit, some items snap together in true Tamiya-style. Other parts, like these intakes had to be very modified to get a decent fit and they will probably need filler anyway.


As mentioned before, the cockpit detail is very mediocre, and when you peek inside the cockpit, you see the totally empty sidewalls. To remedy this I added some random wiring and styrene detail so the walls wouldnt appear as empty.






Its not much and its not pretty, but it does actually help.




I also added some small detail to the wheel wells. The front wheel well is actually quite simple in the reality and the rear wheel wells have some good OOB-detail.




That's all for this time. This kit has alot of inaccuracies and the confusing, and to be honest, horrible instructions doesnt help. But I was aware of this before I started the kit so I shall not surrender! Until next time,

cheers

[Joesdad]

Great choice of subject Ludvig and coming together lovely, I would not expect anything else.
Yes CyberHobby instructions are a big, fat lump of rubbish...

[Nige201980]

Cracking work so far mate.

[LudvigN]

Great choice of subject Ludvig and coming together lovely, I would not expect anything else.
Yes CyberHobby instructions are a big, fat lump of rubbish...

Thank you! Its nice to see that im not the only one having trouble with their instructions, it makes me feel somewhat.... less.. hmm.... idiot

[chief5437]

Great job so far, looks very nice love the details you're adding, keep it up dude!

[martin57]

Nice work so far the added details are great