1/20th Scale Jaguar GR3A

[Timmy!]

Hello all,

I would like to share this project on this site as it is a Brit subject. I hope there is room for a Yank here.

These are screen shots of the drawings I am creating to build the model from. I'm using VectorWorks and a Beta version of Rhino for Mac. Starting from basic drawings from a Koku Fan book, I am redrawing the entire plane in 3-d and using that 3-d model to produce 2-d drawings that I will cut parts from. There will be custom decals and photo etch parts made from these drawing as well.

On to the screenshots - they tell most of the story.

This shot shows the scanned drawings with the wire frame of the 3-d model overlaid.

Rendered shots of the cockpit area and ejection seat.

These are the 2-d drawings that were taken from the 3-d parts.

Close ups of some of the decal artwork.

The photo etch artwork.

That's it for now. I hope this build will be welcome here.

Timmy!

[avro683]

You are most wecome, sir. I'm jast jealous that I shan't be able t see it for real. Will be watching with serious interest.

Tony

[Andy Mullen]

And we are off on another adventure of extreme modelling

Looking forward to this one Timmy, and

[JakeEaton]

Nice to see you here Timmy. I loved your build on ARC (my favourite thread infact) and I'm glad you chose the GR.3 next.

Looking forward to more!

[tornado64]

now that shuld be awesome.....especialy in the jaguar patern retirement scheme

[DamienB]

Timmy, are you interested in criticism/feedback from a Jag fan with an absolute stack of detail photos to consult?

If you'd rather not hear about errors in shape etc. then I'll keep schtum - wouldn't want to 'steal your joy' - but if you do want to get it as right as you can, happy to help.

[Timmy!]

Timmy, are you interested in criticism/feedback from a Jag fan with an absolute stack of detail photos to consult?

If you'd rather not hear about errors in shape etc. then I'll keep schtum - wouldn't want to 'steal your joy' - but if you do want to get it as right as you can, happy to help.

Damien,

Thanks for the offer! Absolutely I want feed back! Now is the time. On my previous project I had many more resources. If you see something let me know now - it's easier to fix the plans before I'm committed with plastic.

Timmy!

Edited November 26, 2008 by Timmy!

[brooksy]

Hi Timmy,

I'm glad you posted your Jaguar on Britmodeller as it will bring a lot of pleasure to many Jag fans over here. It will be closely followed by me that's for sure. I'm looking forward to seeing her taking shape.

Best wishes

Andy

[DamienB]

Thanks for the offer! Absolutely I want feed back! Now is the time. On my previous project I had many more resources. If you see something let me know now - it's easier to fix the plans before I'm committed with plastic.

I can get really anal though... you've got 'PANNEL' instead of 'PANEL' on one of your instrument decals for instance, and the box for the safety pins should have 'AUXILIARY BREECH' not 'AUXILIARY SEAT'. Mind you the stencilling on this box varies with individual aircraft!

On shape, it would be good to see more angles of your 3D model.

The intakes don't look right - bottom edge seems further forward than top?

The bulge over the engines seems to extend too far forward in a diagonal, it merges gracefully on the real thing and the diagonal disappears around the airbrake area:

On the extreme tip of the nose the difference between the pitot fairing and the LRMTS windows is a bit too pronounced:

Your spine looks a bit off:

On the canopy, the triangular fillet at the base of the windscreen where it meets the canopy looks a bit too pronounced:

If you want a very, very good guide to the 3D shape of the real thing the Hasegawa 1/72 kit is very close to being spot-on. It misses out the cannon breech bulges and ejector pipes on the fuselage underside, and has a spurious bulge forward of the nose gear bay, but overall the shape of the kit is very good.

[Timmy!]

Damien,

Thanks for the feedback - please keep it coming. Some of those problems I am aware of, but I am grateful that you pointed them out. Please do not take this as a defensive reply. I should explain that the 3-d model will not necessarily be 100% accurate, due to some program and personal 3-d modeling limitations.

Several areas where multiple complex surfaces join are really tough to replicate, and maintain the accuracy I need for the production of 2-d plans. I have to strike a balance between what looks good on the computer screen and what is dimensionally accurate. There will be some adjustments that will be made once the model is built. The blend at the engine fuselage and the canopy are perfect examples. My primary goal is to use the 3-d model to create sections that look like they will work and make sure that things like the cockpit, ejection seat etc. will fit and are in scale relative to each other.

I will be working on the spine - you posted and extremely good photo to work with, thank you!!! I'll fix the cockpit data - you must have been in one these birds a time or two. Some of the data gets hard to read from my reference photos. In fact, there are panels that I had to completely make up. I'm counting on that if the panels are tough to see in the reference photos, they will be tough to see on the model.

Thanks again for you help!

Timmy!

[xffw45343tg]

Jaw dropping. Watching with interest.

[TonyT]

Superb, one thing the Green bit on the left side of the seat is the pilots PCU which is part of his equipment he wears and clicks into the seat side to connect his oxygen, G suit and Intercom systems, so that part would not be on the seat.. Looking Fwd to this as I did 3 years on Jags and flew in one too.

Edited December 1, 2008 by TonyT

[Guest squezzer]

Go ahead! Go ahead!

[regulus]

Nice to see a fellow Vectorworks user putting it to good use.

Have you had issues creating shells from solids?

Lee

[Timmy!]

Superb, one thing the Green bit on the left side of the seat is the pilots PCU which is part of his equipment he wears and clicks into the seat side to connect his oxygen, G suit and Intercom systems, so that part would not be on the seat.. Looking Fwd to this as I did 3 years on Jags and flew in one too.

Tony,

Thanks for that. Looking at my photos, it looks like the pilot's PCU plugs into a block on the seat is this not correct? Most of the photo's I have of the seat show a connection point on the seat with female plugs, that the pilot connects to. Thanks for the input - clarification from someone who has been there done that is very valuable to me.

Timmy!

Edited December 3, 2008 by Timmy!

[Timmy!]

Nice to see a fellow Vectorworks user putting it to good use.

Have you had issues creating shells from solids?

Lee

Lee,

I have definitely had problems with VectorWorks. If I didn't post it before I also used Rhino to create some of the shapes, the intakes, fillets at the gun ports and the tail area at the engine exhaust. I was able to build model in Rhino and export it to VectorWorks. The imported model is a collection of surfaces, which then I used the shell solid to add thickness. Some of the surfaces have been easy some not so. There are places where I have had so accept some inaccuracy in the 3-d model that I will correct on the real model.

Timmy!

[JagRigger]

Superb, one thing the Green bit on the left side of the seat is the pilots PCU which is part of his equipment he wears and clicks into the seat side to connect his oxygen, G suit and Intercom systems, so that part would not be on the seat.. Looking Fwd to this as I did 3 years on Jags and flew in one too.

The pilot has one part of the PEC on his kit ( man portion ) and it marries to the seat portion that is, indeed, fixed to the seat. You have the seat and man portion on the seat, with no pilot.

Damien certainly does have a lot of pictures.........I was there when he took most of them

I spent 22 years on Jags - any help I can offer, please ask.

[keefr22]

Wow!! Looking forward to seeing this one progress!! Can I ask what materials you will be working in when you build the actual model? I'd love to be able to build a 1/20th Jag (but then I'd also love a big enough house to keep it in)!!

I found this interesting too;

Several areas where multiple complex surfaces join are really tough to replicate, and maintain the accuracy I need for the production of 2-d plans. I have to strike a balance between what looks good on the computer screen and what is dimensionally accurate. There will be some adjustments that will be made once the model is built. The blend at the engine fuselage and the canopy are perfect examples. My primary goal is to use the 3-d model to create sections that look like they will work and make sure that things like the cockpit, ejection seat etc. will fit and are in scale relative to each other.

- does that help explain why even the big kit manufacturers still seem to allow shape issues to blight even their newest models?

As I say, looking forward to watching this one!

Cheers

keef

[TonyT]

The pilot has one part of the PEC on his kit ( man portion ) and it marries to the seat portion that is, indeed, fixed to the seat. You have the seat and man portion on the seat, with no pilot.

Damien certainly does have a lot of pictures.........I was there when he took most of them

I spent 22 years on Jags - any help I can offer, please ask.

Ohh I Escaped after 3

As said above... PEC where did I get PCU from lol........

I think what is confusing is the seat here has the blanking plate fitted to protect the connections.... the one you have has the hose attachments on it by the looks of it.

The protective cover we fitted between flights does not.

see

http://sepecat.info/b/2007/10/19/ejection-...tin-baker-mk9b/

Edited December 3, 2008 by TonyT

[Timmy!]

Ohh I Escaped after 3

As said above... PEC where did I get PCU from lol........

I think what is confusing is the seat here has the blanking plate fitted to protect the connections.... the one you have has the hose attachments on it by the looks of it.

The protective cover we fitted between flights does not.

see

http://sepecat.info/b/2007/10/19/ejection-...tin-baker-mk9b/

OK I think I got. When I get back home I'll post a closer shot of the seat and point to what we are talking about. I suspect sloppy 3-d modeling is confusing the issue. But I want it right!

Timmy!

[Timmy!]

Wow!! Looking forward to seeing this one progress!! Can I ask what materials you will be working in when you build the actual model? I'd love to be able to build a 1/20th Jag (but then I'd also love a big enough house to keep it in)!!

I found this interesting too;

- does that help explain why even the big kit manufacturers still seem to allow shape issues to blight even their newest models?

As I say, looking forward to watching this one!

Cheers

keef

Keef,

While I'm not 100% sure, most will be vacuum formed. Built over styrene, balsa and filler masters. If you are familiar with my Bronco project, construction will be similar.

As for manufacturers - not really sure. While I am sure there are more capable 3-d drafters than I and better programs out there - it is tough for me to make 100% 3-d models with this many compound curves.

Timmy!

[keefr22]

Keef,

While I'm not 100% sure, most will be vacuum formed. Built over styrene, balsa and filler masters. If you are familiar with my Bronco project, construction will be similar.

As for manufacturers - not really sure. While I am sure there are more capable 3-d drafters than I and better programs out there - it is tough for me to make 100% 3-d models with this many compound curves.

Timmy!

Thanks Timmy. I saw mention of your earlier project on ARC, I didn't realise it was that stunning Bronco! Really can't wait to see the Jag if it turns out like that one!

Cheers

Keef

[Alan P]

Very much looking forward to this. Your Bronco was one of my all-time favourite builds.

[Daniel]

Very much looking forward to this. Your Bronco was one of my all-time favourite builds.

Anyone post a link to the Bronco please?

Dan

[Timmy!]

Anyone post a link to the Bronco please?

Dan

At the risk of tooting my own horn .... here you go.

Finished Bronco

In-Progress

A lot of the early stuff has vanished - but you'll get the idea.

Timmy!