Parts washed and drying. Detail is very fine and only a hint of flash on a couple of the smallest parts. Bodes well for the build.
Peter Twiss wore dark blue overalls for the record attempt. As the cockpit is all black and the windows tiny, I decided that a dark blue pilot would be invisible so the plane will be displayed unmanned. The plane has a really long pitot tube and this is moulded onto one of the forward cockpit halves. This is the type of thing I would normally wait to apply to the very end of the build and sure enough I managed to break it off within two minutes of joining the cockpit halves together. At least I found it to save for later.
The instrument panel decal is good, but it remains to be seen how much will be visible.
The kit comes with a masking set in grey tinted vinyl. They were straightforward to apply, so let's hope that they seal well. Some of the windows are absolutely tiny, so the inclusion of the masks was much appreciated.
The parts are really well moulded and not an ejection pin mark in sight. There are only a few very small location pins and I had to carefully open up the mating holes for these as they were too tight and holding the mating parts apart. It is possible that cement would have softened the pins enough to fit, but I didn't want to risk it.
I assembled both upper and lower wings and let them set overnight. This morning I joined the main fuselage halves, positioning the thin locating 'spar' to protrude the same amount each side. It is a tight enought fit to hel
The fit of the wings is superb.
Control surfaces added. Intakes and tailpipe masked.
Cockpit, surface detail and PE wing strakes fitted. I also decided to repair the ridiculously long pitot tube while both parts were unpainted. I'm not fitting any other antennas yet, though.
Ready for prime time. Well nearly, I still need to mask the wheel wells.
Black primer.
And a gloss coat. Undercarriage and doors are also painted.
Sprayed with Vallejo Chrome
Gloss varnish applied and masking (apart from cockpit) removed showing little or no contrast between the gloss chrome of the fuselage and flat aluminium of the wheel wells. Never mind, decals tomorrow.
Decals done! I broke the pitot tube again: the yellow decals at the nose are now acting as a splint. I found the decals a bit weird; they separated from the backing really quickly but then seemed to dry out again and were reluctant to slide into position without lots of water. Maybe an extra coat or two of gloss varnish would have helped, but I was impatient as usual.
There was also a problem with scale. The yellow flashes on the side were too short to allow the positioning shown on the instructions. The large lettering on the underside of the wings had a wide gap between the last '7' and '4' which prevented the whole number fitting between the fuselage and actuator. At least the decals were robust enough that I could get the first one back onto its backing sheet and then cut out the 'gap'.
That's it finished! Well as usual the photos have highlighted a couple of issues that I will get around to addressing sometime.
She sure is pretty.
The decals went all wrinkly with Microsol, to the extent that I was afraid to touch them. As they were drying I did use a flat brush and cotton buds to get them to sink into panel lines, but the main roundels and tail flashes dried remarkably flat.
New cover shot. I did use a grey wash to highlight the panel lines.
Port mainwheel is a bit wonky. I may correct that.
Looks good from here. The black panel should go all the way to the glass. I'll paint in the gap.
Its pointier than a very pointy thing.
Front wheel could also do with straightening up, but only really noticeable from this angle.
J35J Me 3, great start!👍🏻
Built this kit some months ago, enjoyed the build. Which version will you go with?
10 May, 19:16
David Smith Hi all, I'm going with WG774 after the record with yellow graphics on.the silver fuselage and the new record speed proudly stencilled under the cockpit. I just hope the yellow decals wrap around the skinny nose OK. The instrument panel and seatbelt decals were fine, which is encouraging.
10 May, 22:43
J35J Great choice! I went with the same version. 😊
A friendy advice, wait with glueing the antennas on the lower part until you have set the yellow ribbon decal under the nose/ front section. I missed this myself and had to do a painful workaround.
Otherwise the yellow decals fits great on the nose and pitot section. Looking forward to see the finished model!!👍🏻
11 May, 20:50
Skyhiker Oh those conservative British lords. They absolutely hate change. They completely stifled the advances in the British air industry because they felt threatened by being on the forefront of anything. If only they had been bolder this jet could have made the UK a fortune.
12 May, 06:42
Robert Podkoński Watching your build log I am more and more tempted to begin work on this beauty too (and I wish that they will also provide us with BAC 221 soon 😉 )
David Smith Hi all, it's finished. An excellent kit that went together really well. There is no filler used on this model at all, due in part to my ability to make the solution look worse than the problem. The only areas that would benefit are the very rear of the fuselage/tailpipe and the canopy to cockpit joint. In hindsight, I should have cleaned this up as with so much of the canopy painted I would have had a good opportunity to cover my sins. Otherwise, the decals were a bit weird, but if I had provided a glossier surface I'm sure positioning would have been easier. The end result looks fine from my usual viewing distance, so I'm pleased to have added this pretty and important aircraft to my speed demons collection.
16 May, 12:46
Robert Podkoński Great job, David! Looks fantastic! (and it is good to know that it is such a modeller-friendly kit 😉 )
This is a significant and very pretty aircraft. It was designed as a research aircraft to investigate delta wing behaviour at transonic speeds and a sleeker more capable follow-on to their Delta 1 (which had begun life with near-vertical ramp launching in mind). During testing it became clear that its performance was remarkably good, going supersonic without engaging reheat. Fairey were keen to make a World Airspeed Record attempt, but neither the UK government nor engine supplier Rolls Royce were supportive of the idea. In the end the Government agreed to loan Fairey one of the two prototypes for a limited period, providing Fairey paid for the use of any Royal Aircraft Establishment facilities and covered the cost of insurance. In March 1956 the Delta 2 become the first jet aircraft to exceed 1000 mph in level flight, clocking an official 2-way average speed of 1132 mph. This was 310 mph or 37% faster than the previous record held by a North American Super Sabre and the largest increase in the record at that time.
Much of the subsequent testing was undertaken in France, due to a ban on overland supersonic flights in the UK. There is speculation that the design of the Dassault Mirage may have been influenced by the Delta 2, but the UK Government's belief that anti-aircraft missiles would render fighters redundant meant no funding was provided to develop the fighter variants that Fairey proposed.
What did happen, though, is the very airframe that had taken the World Airspeed Record was extensively modified in 1961 to become the BAC 221 and successfully test the ogival delta wing proposed for the Anglo-French Concorde at high speed.
J35J
David Smith
Skyhiker
Robert Podkoński
