Frog 1/72 Sea Vixen F.A.W.2

[RangerNeil]

As the Jaguar build is on hold pending decals the next project in the stash is Frogs release of the D.H. Sea Vixen. This, like the Jaguar, was obtained from an on-line auction. This is the first time I've opened the box since it arrived. The box was pretty battered:


Opening it up the first thing seen was the instruction sheet:




Unfortunately under this was the last thing I wanted to see:


The pencilled writing is mine for identifying exactly what the missing parts are - luckily (??) Both seem to be transparencies. At this point I'm working on the basis that these are the only missing parts. Other than the display stand.

The sprues were in a plastic bag stapled closed - luckily as a fair few parts were loose!.




Luckily the decals - seem - to be in good condition. Which, given the age of the kit, is quite remarkable.


So - onto the build. First thing to do was sort out a solution to the missing part #5 - the side window. Luckily I had some off-cuts of transparent plastic sheet and one of these only needed a little fettling to fit the aperture for width. So its been cemented in with TET and left to dry overnight. Next job is to sand it down till its flush with the fuselage join line.


Part #41 is the nosewheel door - again I have another offcut of transparent sheet that will need cutting to shape once I work out what that shape actually is!

[RangerNeil]

Fuselage halves joined, booms and tail plane added.
First of the filler gone on.
Nose cone packed with liquid Gravity and super glue. Lets hope thats enough to avoid a tail sitter!!
Frog seem to be another maker who didn't believe in locating pins for anything....


Now - next big question is wings deployed? Or wings folded???

[digger303]

Are you going to be able to see into the ends where it folds ?

[RangerNeil]

Are you going to be able to see into the ends where it folds ?

No, there are cap/hinge sections between fixed and folded parts of the wing. Interestingly there are two different outer wing sections though (see sprue photos).....




After afew hours with sanding sticks, paper and sore fingers a coat of Tamiya surfacer/primer went on at close of play tonight so tomorrow I should be able to see all the bits that need a rework....

[digger303]

Might be better fixed unfolded.

[RangerNeil]

Might be better fixed unfolded.

That was my basic thought also. So just to be sure I built both sets of wings today and did a test fit:






I going to with open simply because the fit of the hinge section is so appalling it will need filling AFTER both sections have been painted!!

Also made a start on the underwing payloads. The two slipper tanks on the outboard pylons are - OK, fair bit of sanding to do but everything is there. The first option for payload is 4 missiles. All OK there. Option #2 however has a problem. Its a mix of 2 missiles and 2 rocket pods - and half of one of the pods is also missing. So option #2 is out of the window. If I had access to a lathe I could have turned up a replacement body for it but I don't (yet)!!

[Stokesy44]

Looks like another epic salvation job. Great work on a poor kit

[RangerNeil]

Wings are on - in the flight position - together with the slipper tanks. Unfortunately I ran out of Tamiya surfacer/primer so I'll need to finish it with Ultimate white primer before the top coat.
The Frog instructions show the aft nosewheel bay door and inboard main undercarriage door hanging down with landing gear deployed. However a spot of research indicates with the gear down these doors are actually closed. Only the doors attached to the undercarriage legs are opened so I've proceeded to build the kit in this configuration.




The join around the nose coin still needs a little more work before I can think about the top coats.

I solved the problem of the missing part #5 - the one piece closed door has the 3 lights moulded into it - so I measured up the gap between the bottom of the door on the nose wheel and the bay and cut that length off the closed door.

Crazy as this sounds - I'd like to build another Sea Vixen with wings folded - but NOT a Frog release..... Feel free to send the nice men in white coats around!!

[digger303]

They are on there way

[RangerNeil]

Sprayed the underside gloss white today. I am now convinced that spraying gloss white is cursed for me.... First, despite the airbrush being clean, no paint was coming out. Then when I got the paint to come out it dried matt!! Gah.... I wound up dipping a hairy stick into the airbrush pot and doing it old school..... I hate doing gloss white paint. Only time it ever works for me is from an aerosol.

[Stokesy44]

End result still looks pretty good,

And who are you calling an aerosol?

[aur0ra145]

Very cool jet! I feel bad for the WSO that sat in the weird offset seat in the 2 seat version.

[RangerNeil]

End result still looks pretty good,

And who are you calling an aerosol?

Very cool jet! I feel bad for the WSO that sat in the weird offset seat in the 2 seat version.

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen I think - for me at least - acrylic white, be it gloss or matt - is the worst colour to apply. Using a rattle can takes a couple of coats, using the airbrush or hairy stick takes 4 or 5 to get a solid colour. And I always have problems with the airbrush. Either:
* Nothing comes out at all till the trigger is released - then it splats.
or
* the spray pattern is like a 0.1mm needle.
I almost always end up using a hairy stick with the paint mix in the airbrush pot - and this is with Tamiya X2! Humbrol is actually slightly better. Not tried AK yet.

At least the WSO on a Vixen had his own ejector seat if things went pear-shaped. Have you ever done a cockpit tour of a Vulcan? The 3 guys on the lower decks didn't, they had the same problems as a crew in a Lancaster - no central spar to climb over but all 3 had to get out of the access hatch in the floor.......

[digger303]

End result still looks pretty good,

And who are you calling an aerosol?

Very cool jet! I feel bad for the WSO that sat in the weird offset seat in the 2 seat version.

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen I think - for me at least - acrylic white, be it gloss or matt - is the worst colour to apply. Using a rattle can takes a couple of coats, using the airbrush or hairy stick takes 4 or 5 to get a solid colour. And I always have problems with the airbrush. Either:
* Nothing comes out at all till the trigger is released - then it splats.
or
* the spray pattern is like a 0.1mm needle.
I almost always end up using a hairy stick with the paint mix in the airbrush pot - and this is with Tamiya X2! Humbrol is actually slightly better. Not tried AK yet.

At least the WSO on a Vixen had his own ejector seat if things went pear-shaped. Have you ever done a cockpit tour of a Vulcan? The 3 guys on the lower decks didn't, they had the same problems as a crew in a Lancaster - no central spar to climb over but all 3 had to get out of the access hatch in the floor.......

Perhaps the white is a bigger pigment and needs more thinner ?

[RangerNeil]

End result still looks pretty good,

And who are you calling an aerosol?

Very cool jet! I feel bad for the WSO that sat in the weird offset seat in the 2 seat version.

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen I think - for me at least - acrylic white, be it gloss or matt - is the worst colour to apply. Using a rattle can takes a couple of coats, using the airbrush or hairy stick takes 4 or 5 to get a solid colour. And I always have problems with the airbrush. Either:
* Nothing comes out at all till the trigger is released - then it splats.
or
* the spray pattern is like a 0.1mm needle.
I almost always end up using a hairy stick with the paint mix in the airbrush pot - and this is with Tamiya X2! Humbrol is actually slightly better. Not tried AK yet.

At least the WSO on a Vixen had his own ejector seat if things went pear-shaped. Have you ever done a cockpit tour of a Vulcan? The 3 guys on the lower decks didn't, they had the same problems as a crew in a Lancaster - no central spar to climb over but all 3 had to get out of the access hatch in the floor.......

Perhaps the white is a bigger pigment and needs more thinner ?

.
Its a possibility I guess - I think I got to about 20% paint 80% Vallejo thinner with the TamiyaX2 before the airbrush worked - and even then it was the very fine spray pattern - and the needle tip kept drying out too. So I resorted to a 6mm flat brush an coating the surfaces with what looked like white water. I think I'll stick to white in rattle cans in future. Esp. given what came in the post today!

[RangerNeil]

First coat of Dark Sea Grey on. Needs another before the gloss clearcoat.

[RangerNeil]

And final coat on via airbrush! Hhataka Blue line are meant for a brush finish but work perfectly well via airbrush too.


Next step is to remove the mass of masking tape from the underside, rectify the almost obligatory errors and then apply the gloss clear cloat ready for decaling.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Oh this is cool
I thought you were going to have to use a tub of putty for seams, but it looks to be fitting very well
Great project

[RangerNeil]

Oh this is cool
I thought you were going to have to use a tub of putty for seams, but it looks to be fitting very well
Great project

There is a fair bit of filler on this one. Around the join of the nose cone to the nose and where the tail booms join the wings mainly. Certainly not the worst of the builds I've done though.

Back to the build - decals went on last night, for a very old kit they went on well and conformed nicely without need to resort to decal solution!!






To note the panels moulded into the fuselage - the instructions show these raised lines as as being red -I thought yhere was a decal for this but I was wrong, they need to be picked out with paint. Thats going to need a hell of a lot of masking so I'm wondering if I can find an acryic pencil or pen to do it with.



You may notice its sitting tail heavy at the moment - even though the nose cone is packed with liquid gravity and CA. Once the last coat of gloss clear coat has dried and the cockpit masking is off I'll try putting some more in via that way to fill the forward the fuselage. Hopefully that will pull the nose back down.

[RangerNeil]

The finished Sea Vixen.
For the age of the kit it wasn't a bad experience building it. The nose cone and yhe joints between the tail booms and the fuselage were the worst areas, needing a fair bit of fuller. Hopefully the issues can't be see now, gloss being notorious for highlighting blemishes!!
Only real issue is the instructions say the weapons load is either Red Top missiles on the outer pylons and missile pods on the imners or 4 Red Tops. But if you try fitting Red Tps to the inner pylons tbey foul the Laning gear. Personally I think the missiles look too big - but its been nigh on 50 years since I last saw the real things.
Its now sitting on the nosewheel after I almost doubled the amount of liquid gravity and CA!!

[aur0ra145]

Neat little kit! Don't see this subject every day.

[digger303]

Done well. I only just noticed the cockpit is offset. Must have had some bulky equipment up front and I'm not talking extra space for the liquid gravity

[RangerNeil]

Done well. I only just noticed the cockpit is offset. Must have had some bulky equipment up front and I'm not talking extra space for the liquid gravity

Its a two- seater Digger. WSO/Navigator sits alongside the pilot in the fuselage.

[digger303]

Done well. I only just noticed the cockpit is offset. Must have had some bulky equipment up front and I'm not talking extra space for the liquid gravity

Its a two- seater Digger. WSO/Navigator sits alongside the pilot in the fuselage.

Now I see it... after I googled

[Tomcat64]

You're a braver man than I - I remember steering clear of FROG kits even back when I was a kid after a couple of less than auspicious attempts with them.

Great result and really well played retrofitting the nose weight to bring her back down