Jssel's Salamander***Finished***

[TobyC]

Just realised its 1/48 scale. I thought it was very impressive for 1/72
Nice work so far.

[jssel]

According to the instructions, the fuselage halves can go together now. Hope they are right. Notice the 12gram chrome ball bearing behind the cockpit? That keeps everything balanced on the three landing gears.

[carlos]

Looking great Jeff - and some of the parts in that look even better than the 32nd scale (Revell) I'm doing.
The instrument panel for one.... yours has holes for the gauges. I'm thinking I might drill mine out and fill with PVA glue.
Nicer shape to the joystick grip too.

On the subject of weight, and closing the fuselage - Is there a gap under where the engine goes?
I'm planning to add my weight through there, once it's closed up and on it's struts, and will be erring on the side of caution (I'm gonna chuck in a ton of plasticine and squashed airgun pellets) - The large Revell calls for 45g in the instructions

[jssel]

Thanks. The instrument panel is actually solid. The engraving is so good it accepted paint and Future very well. The only place for weight as far as I can tell is forward the main gear bay and behind the cockpit bulkhead. The provided weight nestles inside of four pins. In this design the engine sets on a decking which does cover the whole opening. Not a lot of choices.

On another note: have you seen the comet? Weather here is mostly snow and overcast.

[TimJ]

Great work Jeff, looks like a really nice kit.

[carlos]

On another note: have you seen the comet? Weather here is mostly snow and overcast.

Hi Jeff - I assume you mean 'Lovejoy' - or to give it it's full 'Sunday title "C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy"

Yeah. I've been watching it on and off since the turn of the year.... Well, since about the 8th or 9th of Jan when the flippin' Moon shifted it's big BRIGHT carcass out of that part of the sky.
On the 13th, a bunch of us went out to our regular dark-sky site, and from there it was fairly easy to see by naked-eye, even though there was a thin haze way up high.
One of the guys is a pretty accomplished astrophotographer, and took this shot:


Been watching it from my garden whenever there's been a clear night - It's fading now, but still pretty impressive in even a moderate-sized telescope.
A couple if nights ago, I tried various binoculars, and it was still fairly easy to see in only 10x50 binocs, even through moderate suburban light pollution.

[Ratch]

Neat work

[Clashcityrocker]

Great pic. Thanks for showing.

Nigel

[splash]

Nice work Jeff the cockpit looks great.

I sat in one of those at RAF St Athens (the storage area for the RAF Museum) when we did an air show in a Wessex back in the early 80's, I recall thinking it must have got hot and noisy when they fired the guns as the gun barrels ran right down the side of the Pilots Bum and legs, I also recall it had a spring or bungee powered ejection seat (but don't quote me it was a long time ago)

Regards Splash

[jssel]

And as advertised.....it fit. Kind of......sort of.........



It took some tweaking to get the main gear bay into place. It was slightly out of alignment (my fault in construction) and would not initially fit inside the guides molded into the fuselage walls. But it finally went into place.

In this photo you can see the pins that will support either the open or closed cowl display. And that is why we pays the big monies.



The wings are dry fit as they will be painted separately. When a project fits so well I find it easier masking with bigger pieces left off.

[TobyC]

That's very good. I see that your U/C is less bow legged than mine was. Again that's why you pay the bog monies

[jssel]

@Splash. I have read from various sources that it was a highly unstable to completely docile aircraft. Rearward visiblity was zero which would cause fighter jocks to panic no doubt. And due to the "unskilled" labor force it appears that each was trimmed and handled differently. Sir Eric Brown stated the it was like sitting on a volcano but delightful to fly. This was according to Wiki.

[Ratch]

Good work

[ShaunW]

I built this kit a few years ago. However, unless my memory is playing tricks on me, I seem to recall that my boxing came with weight to prevent tail sitting, rather than me having to use stuff such as lead weights etc.

[jssel]

You are correct Shaun. There was a 12gram shiny ball bearing weight that fit nicely into pins inside the fuselage.