Jim's Big Fin...

[Jagewa]

Hi folks,

I'm going to doing an Tornado GR4 with the 70th Anniversary tail art, ZA412. http://globalaviationresource.com/v2/20 ... unveiling/;

The kit is a kit, that came in various issues of Take Off magazine, I've actually acquired a couple of these, not ever seeing the Take Off magazine, I saw on the interweb that it's the Italeri GR1 kit.



Not planning of doing anything to the kit, apart from adding the extra lump under the nose, and making the tail decal. In fact that will be the first thing I tackle, as it's the make or break for the subject...

Cheers
Jim

[rob_van_riel]

I'm going to doing an Tornado GR4 with the 70th Anniversary tail art, ZA412...
.. and making the tail decal. In fact that will be the first thing I tackle, as it's the make or break for the subject...

I'm more than half tempted to take a stab at that myself (have a Tornado lined up anyway). How would you go about producing those decals? If our approaches are sufficiently similar, there might be room for cooperation.
I'd be firing up my old Corel Draw 11, and once the artwork were done, printing it on an ALPS.

[Jagewa]

Rob sounds great, I've scanned the kit fin, and started drawing it up in Inkscape (sssshhh don't let the GBL know)...

I thought the plane profiles would be difficault but found a SVG of a tornado 3 view on Wikipedia, and traced a dambuster lanc.


It that stylised broken dam will take the work, but that Globalaviation resource site has some good side on photos of the fin..

As I've got an inkjet, I'm thinking of painting the fin white and printing on clear decal film.

Cheers
Jim

[rob_van_riel]

Rob sounds great, I've scanned the kit fin, and started drawing it up in Inkscape (sssshhh don't let the GBL know)...

From your screenshot it looks like Inkscape has progressed quite a bit since the last time I looked at it, several years back. Building it now for a renewed look..

It that stylised broken dam will take the work, but that Globalaviation resource site has some good side on photos of the fin..

That's what pushed me over the edge and into some drawing as well.

A computer hickup stopped me from any drawing today, but even so, if you're willing to wait and see if we can transfer data between us, I should have the dam for you by the end of the weekend (early monday for you, due to the time differential)

As I've got an inkjet, I'm thinking of painting the fin white and printing on clear decal film.

Should work, but make certain you print some spare black decal to cover the rim of the tail. Getting it just right with a 3D object can be very challenging..

[Jagewa]

Rob, great idea about the black decal. This will certainly be the largest decal I've had a go at, and conforming to the bottom of the fin, looks to be interesting

Super idea with the dam, here's the link to my svg file currently. http://bit.ly/14WYCU8;

Cheers
Jim

[rob_van_riel]

Super idea with the dam, here's the link to my svg file currently. http://bit.ly/14WYCU8;

Just ran a few tests. Inkscape can handle my coreldraw files well enough (embedded bitmaps might be a problem, but who needs them anyway..)
My coreldraw, on the other hand, being over 10 years old(*), doesn't like svg very much. There is svg support in there, but I guess that would be a very early version of the spec, and with the newer ones, any attempt to load just hangs the program. On the brighter side, inkscape can export to wmf, and from those wmf files I can get all the relevant bits. I'll certainly be stealing your Tornado and Lancaster outlines

(*)Last version that runs on Win98, and Win98 is the only version for which good quality drivers for my ALPS exist. Thus, I'm doomed to work with antiques. They're nice antiques though

[Narayan]

That looks good Jim, look forward to seeing the kit.

_________________
Narayan

The force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet.

A:B 2013 11:04 2012 20:05 2011 11:10 2010 44:12 2009 19:16 2008 16:03 Overall 204:55

[Jagewa]

Oh dear that's a shame having to run on Win 98. I use Ubuntu Linux, and have Canon Multi function printer, unfortunately Canon don't support Linux very well, but there is active support from the Ubuntu community and the drivers have continuously got better and more robust.

Cheers
Jim

[rob_van_riel]

Oh dear that's a shame having to run on Win 98.

98 is not so bad, provided you install it once and then leave it alone. The only problem is hardware support, but it runs nicely in a VMware image, and I have loads of old hardware should I need to run on bare iron (intentionally; I am not losing the ability to run 98 anytime soon).

I use Ubuntu Linux,

Your screenshot told me as much. Gentoo over here..

and have Canon Multi function printer, unfortunately Canon don't support Linux very well, but there is active support from the Ubuntu community and the drivers have continuously got better and more robust.

The Linux community is notoriously bad at taking 'no' for an answer in these matters. One of their finer qualities, if you ask me.

[Jagewa]

Plastic has been bashed, cemented the fin together, got a big fjoint to fill.

So started on the cockpit..

A couple of plastic pieces to hide the fuselage joint in the rear cockpit, and added a bulkhead behind the fromt cockpit, otherwise she's open all the way through.


Cemented the undercarriage bay doors and airbrakes in the closed position. Not a bad fit, a bit of thinning required for the main undercart doors to fit.

Cheers
Jim

[rob_van_riel]

So started on the cockpit..

Am I the only one who thinks the cockpit is so similar to the Airfix one that it just screams "Copy!"..

[Jagewa]

Yep Rob, that is what sprung to my mind, I was thinking this looks familiar...

[ShaunW]

Interesting Jim and I look forward to your efforts with the tail markings. I vaguely remember Take Off magazine, but never bought a copy either. I agree, that kit looks very much like the Airfix offering if the cockpit interior is anything to go by.

[Jagewa]

Got in a big painting session yesterday, so crew and cockpit are painted.

Next session back to some plastic sticking together.

Cheers
Jim

[PaulBradley]

Looks good, Jim. The pilots look as if they've come from different kits.