Rare Planes Vacuformed Airacuda 1:72

[JMac]

I'm building this as a skill builder and partially because I was challenged to by a local club member. This is my first vac-formed kit. Should be interesting...

The packaging.

Instructions included in the kit.

And the kit contents.

Let the adventure begin...

Jason

 

[JMac]

As a test I've begun to cut out parts from the sheet(s).

First I roughly separated the parts from the sheet. The fuselage halves are the largest parts and seemed like as good a starting spot as any. I then out lined the parts with a Sharpie brand marker.

Using a new blade in my hobby knife, I cut the parts free. I angled the knife approximately 45 degrees and made light scoring cuts. When the cuts were deep enough I "snapped" the part free.

Jason

 

[zappa]

Boom! I think you already won the bet ;D

Zappa

 

[JMac]

Boom! I think you already won the bet ;D

Zappa

;D Thanks for the vote of confidence, I'm not so sure that Fred would agree... ;D

 

[smokeriderdon]

I have never seen a vacuformed kit before. I am not at all sure what passible advantage there is here. I see way too many problems actually.

 

[rookie]

Good luck with this one. Can't say I've ever seen a vacu form kit either, watching closely .

 

[JMac]

Not much picture worthy progress this week.
I'm still separating parts from the sheets, then I have to sand them to get good fitting joints. So the near future activities for this build will be more "trim and sand". Also the clear sheet is not polystryene, so I've been trying to figure out just what it is, and what solvent I'm going to use to bond the engine nacelles together; Acetone is my current winner.

Good luck with this one. Can't say I've ever seen a vacu form kit either, watching closely .

I have never seen a vacuformed kit before. I am not at all sure what passible advantage there is here. I see way too many problems actually.

I'm happy to have you guys following along.

I've seen a number of vac-kit builds online. Our local aviation museum even used to have a few for sale in a model consignment section of the gift shop. For me it's like a little step towards doing more scratch building. A bit of a skill builder with new challenges...
That aside, a modern injection moulded kit is way better detailed and should fit together with way less effort (unless a modeller goes totally after market crazy).

One advantage that the few vac-kit manufacturers still offer over the main-stream kits is subjects - the Airacuda is a great example, the only injection kit was a limited run. If you're interested, check out Airmodel, Falcon, Sanger, AIM and Tigger Models to get a feel for some of the vac-formed kits still available. If this build goes well (or even if it doesn't) - I'm thinking I might pick up an Airmodel Me-209 or F8U-3 (Super) Crusader III...

Hopefully I'll have a better update next week.

Jason

 

[JMac]

Quick update.

I've got most of the parts removed from the sheet. Some of the transparent parts and props remain. Not sure if I'll use the kit props, they are in pretty rough shape...

Also, I've started sanding the joints flat. I'm planning to sand using a sheet of wet/dry sand paper taped to my bench until I reach the black trim line. After that I'll fine tune with sanding sticks. Once I've pretty much finished sanding the fuselage halves I'll trim out the windows and openings in the fuselage - I've left them closed to help give the parts more rigidity as the plastic is thin and the parts twist during sanding - I've barely started and already I'm concerned that too much has been sanded off of the fuselage nose; have to wait and see when I fit the cockpit...

After sanding the fuselage and opening it's windows, I'll start on fitting and painting the cockpit.

Thanks for stopping by.
Jason

 

[zappa]

Wow, that's some good progress Jmac! Looking good

Zappa

 

[meatball]

Very nice so far, i am exited to see more of your work with this model.

 

[JMac]

Very nice so far, i am exited to see more of your work with this model.

Wow, that's some good progress Jmac! Looking good

Thanks Guys.

I've got a small update - sanding (including part of my thumb and nail). That is all.
Well not really. I've got most of the airframe pats sanded down, and I've started dry fitting parts together.

Major components sanded down,

Cockpit assembly started. The openings for the wings, fuselage blisters and can-o-pea also started. I'm going to have to scratch some small cockpit parts. The seats are ready to paint also.

First dry fit of the airframe, more sanding to come...

The red arrow might be a bit of a problem, I'm not sure yet; according to the kit instructions the wings should touch inside the fuselage - but I have a big gap. The wings roots look not bad however. I might just shim the inside...

The gap at the blue arrow is due to wing dihedral (both wing tips) - it's only moulded into the top wing parts. When I'm ready I'll have to cut the bottom halves of the wings (and fill in the resulting space) to get the bottom to match with the tops. The dihedral gap doesn't look equal on both sides also - I'll have to look closer at the fit.

Thanks for stopping by.

Jason

 

[Quaralane]

Interesting to watch the progress here

 

[Papermodder]

Interesting build Jason.
It has been a long time since I have seen any of the vacuform kits around.

Jim

 

[JMac]

Thanks for the positive comments Papermodder and Q.

Not a lot of building going on again. Been busy with the end of the fall semester at work. I've been picking at this build here and there, so it's been slow going.

I have managed to fully fit the two fuselage halves together. As I feared when I got into the fitting - I did find out that the nose had been sanded down too much. It was not obvious at first, but when I cut out the vac-formed canopy and offered it up to the fuselage, the canopy was quite a bit wider. I made some tapered shims for the nose and glued them in place. Next I installed the cockpit and made some rough bulkheads from sheet styrene. Last I made and installed some tabs to locate the two fuselage haves against each other.

Tomorrow morning I plan to prime the inside and soon begin interior painting.

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look.
Jason