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Sword 1/72 U-125 Converted to Civilian HS-125 - Building my own ride.


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Hello, fellas!! 

It's been a while since I last posted here. Good to see some familiar names. Anyways, I've been posting my builds mostly in FB, but this one I've been posting it in several places and I'm pretty proud of it. Won't be finished until a couple of weeks, though. Man, I remember the day I posted here I was enrolling in flight school. So I guess it is only fitting this build sees some light here.  

Build is Sword 1/72 U-125 JASDF converted to it's civilian Version, the HS-125. Especifically, the plane I fly for a living. Several modifications had to be done, specifically eliminate the Radome in the belly, cut open the cabin door, fill/open several other windows; and most importantly, the windscreen is molded all wrong. 

Build officially started on November 19, 2019.

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Door cut open. Radome removed by this point. Also, note the extremely high position the cockpit windows are. Totally unnaceptable.

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Fuselage/Windscreen seam was sanded until it was in the proper height, but now the width became a problem. Piece was was cut in half to accomplish proper dimensions.

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Much better. Eventually to fill what has got to be filled. And here is where I started planning on replacing the clear part...

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Lowering the Cockpit also required me to lower the cockpit floor by the same amount. Some more surgery was needed but nothing major.
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After that I did some instrument panel work. I drilled the instruments because I planned to back light them with LEDs and with colored plastic wrapping.
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After that, one of my favorite details on this build. The plane has sheep skin as crew seat texture, which was done by brushing white glue into the seat surface and dipped into marble dust. Any large or clumped material was dissolved with the brush and re-done.

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At this point I painted most of the cabin, but it would be a long way to go before I actually detail it. Seat belts were added from leftover PEs.
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After the seats were done, I added Throttle levers, Air brake, Parking Brake, flaps and thrust reverse levers.

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After the cockpit was decently done, I began scratch building the aircraft's galley. Done with Styrene rods and sheet.94867179_10222068037831156_9020972987225

 

After the galley was done, it was time for more surgery: cutting open some windows and filling those large ones in the front.
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After the windows were done, It was time to do more interiors. The step where the seats are place was scratch built with styrene rods.
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On the opposite side both front and rear luggage compartments were scratch built as well. BTW all of these were tape measured from the actual aircraft.

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Next up was cutting open the taxi light cavities - which were non existant in the kit. The build was never intended to have those on, but since you can see through both if you look at the nose sideways, I decided to do the surgery. Also, notice the housing made for them, since the space above them would be dominated by the LED that would backlight the instrument panel.

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Next up I washed the instrument panel and added the pedals - that would never be seen but whatever. Notice the emergency hydraulic pump handle was added as well as the fuel HP cocks and housing for the fuel transfer valves.Seats were removed to ease assembly.

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At this point a very good friend of mine got a 3D printer. So we experimented (both him and me) on modelling and printing... one of the first things we did was replace the Kit's Yoke's with a 3D version. Much more detailed. Seats were added in place as well as the Instrument panel hood. The seat belt on the Copilot seat was incomplete but it would be covered by the rear cockpit bulkhead, so whatever. The panel hood instruments dials were kit decal.
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So now came time for the nitty gritty. I obtained Mini LEDs from ebay some time ago and this was the perfect kit to use them. 

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After this, the LEDs were painted with Tamiya Clear Green and Red.

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Next up, was the Logo lights. This were a pain to add, because I had to carve a channel on the Vertical and horizontal stabilizers, have the wires run through them and fill and sand them flush. The LED itself was to be protruding from the Horizontal Stabilizer.

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After this, One thing led to another, Originally I intended to illuminate the cabin with side glowing fiber optics, but they never gave me the lighting I wanted. I decided to tackle this later with regular fiber optics.

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Next up was the cabin door. Cut out of sheet styrene and bent into shape.

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This picture shows how the wires for the Logo lights were installed. Took me a while beforeI found a speaker small enough that would fit in the kit but at the same time large enough to produce the desired volume. I ended up going to a Cellphone/table repair shop and bought a tablet's loudspeaker for a buck. What's the speaker for, you may ask? You'll see in a minute. 

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So I tried again to light the cabin but with regular fiber optics. There was an improvement but nowhere near what I wanted.

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At this point came one of the crucial aspects of this build. What is the point of detailing this much interior if you can't see it?? So I printed the decal sheet in Acetate sheet. I utilized the kit's windows decals for guides and...
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Took several attempts before I got results that I liked. this is only the first attempt.
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And then the devil came...

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And then MORE devilish ideas...
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Testing Luggage positions. As If I didn't do that on my actual job... Notice this picture shows all the acetate windows clearely in place.
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So what color should I paint the luggage...
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After some detailing it came out like this:

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Notice the PE on the roof panels for the AC Weemacs and seat lighting. THose came out of leftover PE from a MENG 1/35 Merkava Mk.IIID tank Leftovers. Also, the white triangle on the roof is a hack: Like I said,I decided that the fiber optics on the cabin were not sufficient, so I decided to install a Mini LED there. The triangles would hide the wires, and they would be very hard to see from the outside. This was the first attempts to make that work.

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The curtains were made from paper folded in several pieces and stiffened with Super Glue.

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At this point I decided to try another lighting test. I decided that a Mini LED in the cabin roof would give me the lighting I need while being small enough not to be visible. I liked this result better.

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Now back to what to me is the most important modification of this build: the windscreen. Since acetate sheet was much more transparent than the kit's I decided to use it on the windscreen as well. I cut the window parts and left the frames only.

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Notice I did some cutting here as well in order to better shape the front windscreen, closer to the real thing.

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Now for the guts of it. I planned from the start that the actual wires that feed the LEDs would run through the landing gear, particularly the Brake lines. I could have used a GPU on the this, but since the Hawker has an APU, that would be unlikely. Since the lines don't go all the way down to the floor, I had to do some surgery on the tires to make the trick work.
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Filling was done with Tamiya Putty. Also, to give some space for the wires to be properly fixed - and increase detail - I stole some brake pads from a 1/144 A330.

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The kit included a PE set with several minor details, one of them being the strut scissors. An obvious choice.
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Lastly, I used some small tamiya tape to hold the brake lines in place.
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Another PE part that the kit included was the Cockpit Roof and instrument panel. I also added the Switch board (red) where all the exterior light switches are, as well as the fire extinguisher switches. I also added handles on the window frame, those came out of the Merkava PE set as well.

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After soldering everything and double checking everything - and unfortunately a couple of re-solder fixes - I Finally closed this baby, and of course because of all the modifications it used quite a bit of filler. On large parts I used epoxy puty ( green). At this time I installed the windscreen from clear acetate. Wow!
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At this point I noticed the nose shape was a bit off. I corrected it with Epoxy puty. Note the landing gear hanging from the Brake lines, which are the electronic's wiring.

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Final test before I mask everything up.
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Instrument panel :)

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After all clear parts were masked...
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Wing fences were aded from Brass sheet. Kit included plastic parts which only served to cut the shape. Too thick.

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Brass sheet was also used for all the belly antenas. All placed according to reference. Notice the huge epoxy puty fil on the belly radar hole.

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And so we got to primer...
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And paint is on. Decanted Tamiya TS-26
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After the paint dried up, I glued the main gear in place to not let the plane sit on the belly antenas. I also started assembly of the Engines.
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After designing the decals, I got in touch with Jon Ochoa from Ochoa decals who's kind enough to print them for me in silk quality. Obviously all pictures are reference from the bird I fly.

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Using Tamiya Washes I highlighted control surfaces and moving surfaces with dark gray and some panels with gray.
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After this I decided it was time to work on the nose gear. Original kit part was spartan. I removed the Scissor (since the kit PE had this covered) but also did some detail on the linkage itself. Also, the Rear door was included in PE but needed some bending in order to have it in the proper shape.
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At this point the engines were painted.
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Door was also primed and test fitted. There is an LED that will run through the door to illuminate the entrance, the LED must be installed before the stairs are. The LED is visible, the small yellow thing hanging in the door space.

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And Finally, today I assembled the nose gear. It is still missing the Shimmi damper and the hydraulic lines that run through it (I already assembled them, but not installed yet).

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And did some alignment tests on the nose gear. All is well.

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So that is the current state of affairs. Tomorrow I plan to paint the main door as well as the main landing gear doors. Decals should arrive monday and once they do I'll get to work on them right away.

Thanks for watching!!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by MaRiO FDZ
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As an aircraft technician who worked a lot on Hawker Jets, I want to say: Awesome work, I really like your attention to all the details! There's one thing that caught my attention. On the real aircraft, the MLG wheels are staggered in its alignment, with outer wheel axle offset from the inner wheel axle. Seems like this is not considered in the model?

 

Regards

Daniel

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4 hours ago, Pilotace said:

As an aircraft technician who worked a lot on Hawker Jets, I want to say: Awesome work, I really like your attention to all the details! There's one thing that caught my attention. On the real aircraft, the MLG wheels are staggered in its alignment, with outer wheel axle offset from the inner wheel axle. Seems like this is not considered in the model?

 

Regards

Daniel

Hello Daniel

Wait, what?? I had no clue of that. I guess only a serious worker on the aircraft would know that. Heck I've got several hundred hours on the type and I didn't know that!! You have some reference I could chew on?? I may be able to fix it since the wheels are not glued to an axle in the model but rather flat to the brake discs.

Thanks for the heads up.

Edited by MaRiO FDZ
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17 hours ago, Major Walt said:

Now THAT’S what I call model building!

 

Superb!!!! 


Thank you!
 

11 hours ago, Dutch said:

Absolutley jaw-dropping good!  Yes, you are a serious modeler!  Nice work.


Thank you! And thanks to all the other good modellers here. But if I drew some ideas for how to build stuff, I definetly point the finger ScalePhantom Phixer, the Madman Pierre Greutert.
 

On 8/23/2020 at 2:26 PM, Hajo L. said:

Absolutely awesome!

 

 

HAJO


Thank you!
 

On 8/23/2020 at 8:01 AM, martin_sam_2000 said:

Beautiful build. You dont see enough models of coporate aircraft. Love the attention to detail you have. Looks exactly like a hawker!!

Sean


Totally agree on the Corporate aircraft. But I'm defintly detailing the sheet out of whichever I get my hands on!!
 

On 8/23/2020 at 5:09 AM, jenshb said:

Can't see any pics.

 

 

Can see the pics now.  Terriffic work.  Didn't know the windshield was too high up.


Thanks. Yeah, it's very noticeable if you leave it Out of the Box:

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It's like Yes.... but no.
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14 hours ago, MaRiO FDZ said:

Hello Daniel

Wait, what?? I had no clue of that. I guess only a serious worker on the aircraft would know that. Heck I've got several hundred hours on the type and I didn't know that!! You have some reference I could chew on?? I may be able to fix it since the wheels are not glued to an axle in the model but rather flat to the brake discs.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

It's not a big deal, you could leave like it is and nobody will ever notice it. This is just one of the peculiarities of the Hawker, besides some others. If you're interested, I'll try to take a good picture of it in the next days.

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10 hours ago, Pilotace said:

 

It's not a big deal, you could leave like it is and nobody will ever notice it. This is just one of the peculiarities of the Hawker, besides some others. If you're interested, I'll try to take a good picture of it in the next days.

Please do!! I will most definetly take a look at it!!

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I promised pictures from the main landing gear, especially from the "misaligned" main wheel axles. So, here we go:

 

LH Main landing gear. I draw red lines for the axles and yellow lines for the wheel positions.

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Even better to see with both main wheel removed.

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And a close up shot, you can see the off centered inboard and outboard main wheel axles.

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Good question. I got different explanations for that, but the most reasonable for me is this: The axles are offset to get the wheels closer together and to spare some space in the wheel wells. The wheel's wouldn't fit into the wheel well with a linear axle, the outboard (or lower wheel, in retracted position) would protrude out of the lower wing surface, making it impossible to use the inner gear doors. To go into the details: There are hydro-mechanical anti-skid units (yes, hydro-mechanical, no electronics involved) inside the axle bores. Imagine, it's basically 1960s technology and I guess, somewhere back in time, they discovered that an axle with linear installed anti-skid units will be just too long to fit the wheels into the wheel well. So they had the idea with the offset axles which is, in my opinion, really smart.

I don't know if that is the true reason for that, as I said I got different explanations from different people with different technical background. This one it's just the most likely for me and the one that makes sense, from a technical point of view!

 

And now back to the model: Really good job with the windshields! It's not just the position, the overall shape of them was really bad. Glad to see you improved it!

Edited by Pilotace
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11 hours ago, Pilotace said:

And now back to the model: Really good job with the windshields! It's not just the position, the overall shape of them was really bad. Glad to see you improved it!

 

THank you! I enjoyed particularly that.

My money on the gear offset is on for Xwind landings... not that they'd help much.

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Current state of affairs.


Decals were designed by yours truly, printed by Ochoa decals. Panels washed with Tamiya panel line washes, gray, dark gray and black on the ones that have sealant. Next up gloss coating the decals so work on the metallic portions (cockpit framing, APU exhaust, wing and horizontal stab leading edges) can commence.

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On 9/3/2020 at 12:51 PM, Pilotace said:

I promised pictures from the main landing gear, especially from the "misaligned" main wheel axles. So, here we go:

 

LH Main landing gear. I draw red lines for the axles and yellow lines for the wheel positions.

IMG_20200902_080938.jpg

 

 

 

 WHAAAAA!!!!

 

 12 years of working an FBO ramp and countless Hawkers and I have never noticed that! Typical British design. I do like the way you can never install the towbar wrong or forget to disconnect the steering...but why do the nose gear doors have to be so complicated!!!

 

great work on the model BTW.. I have always wanted to build some corporate jets..but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

Sean

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