McDonnall F2H-3 Banshee Canadian Navy 1:48 - Early Jets

[Gearup]

Well four days into the new year and I'm starting my new project; A Canadian Navy Banshee.
Having looked at the list of aircraft in the "Early Jets" category, I wanted to make something that had personal meaning. The Banshee I will attempt is the one that I met in my tech school as the "jet" airframe training aid. Of course it was a big thrill for a 17 year old kid to sit in a real fighter with an ejection seat (still is I guess).

So I Selected the basswood for the wing and a nice straight grained 2x2 spruce block for the fuselage.
The wing is far more curvy with the buried engines at the root. Nothing like my previous models. So I am giving it a go in one piece.

I transferred the laser printed pattern directly to the face of the blank using acetone as a solvent. It worked quite well without smudging etc.

I cut the plan view out first and then sanded to the line all around. I then reattached the forward cutoff with hot glue as it has the head on wing profile on to it. I clamped up the wing vertically on the trailing edge using two blocks either side with a wooden hand screw clamp. This gave me a nice square and stable edge to support the work on the bandsaw.

Keeping the front profile glued in place I shaped the upper and lower wing surfaces using an oscillating sander. That worked very well to blend the wings into the engine nacelles. I would markup the wing surfaces with an HB pencil before each sanding pass and this would help show where the drum was removing material. It's now ready to carve the airfoil and engine nacelles.

Next on to the fuselage block.


Regards
Fraser

[lastvautour]

A great subject.

Lou

[Boomerang]

Fraser ,

Love your updates with explanations.

It will be a big model.

Looking forward to further updates

Cheers

Gordon

[Gearup]

Yes, it will be the largest 1:48 i've built . The wing span is approx 10.5" and it is about 12.5" long.
The major parts are roughed out and sanded to the lines. I've made the empennage from maple. It should be able to be thinned down and still remain strong; it will be interesting to work with. The next step is probably to notch the fuselage to fit the wing.

Regards,
Fraser

[lastvautour]

Thank you for the progress shots. The Banshee shows great promise. Where did you find your drawings?


Lou

[Gearup]

Thanks Lou. I used a three view from the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum website. I compared the drawings to many other three views and chose it as this profile seemed to be more accurate than others. I compared the others by scaling overlays of each to this drawing and since the majority of them agreed to this drawing and it was a good clear line drawing I chose it. It also has the correct empennage configuration as many of the aircraft drawings were early American Navy versions. also I'm thinking that a national museum should have accurate reference material available on the aircraft.

https://ingeniumcanada.org/aviation/artifact/mcdonnell-f2h-3-banshee

The drawing is different than what you appear to have used on your Banshee collection, as mine is facing the other way 😜

Fraser

[lastvautour]

Indeed, my rush to completion failed to realize my error. The drawings I initially used compressed the fuselage length as it included the fueling probe in the measurement.

Lou

[Gearup]

I feel unless one is working on the 1:1 versions of any given aircraft, what you see on a plan may vary considerably. in a Boeing drawing I have for a 737 three view, the notes indicate the it is the true developed shape of the wing IE: looking down without the dihedral affecting the span. I looked at the drawing I am using for the Banshee for example and the plan view of the horizontal stab is .125" wider than the front view tip to tip with the dihedral, so perhaps it is the same standard.

Fraser

[Gearup]

So I've taken the scroll saw to the fuselage for the dado to mount the wing. I drilled some centre line holes before the initial rough cuts to allow pins to be inserted. With the dado cut out, it is nice to have the pins align and hold the wing in place while I am marking it up for carving. It is going to be interesting carving the exhaust pipe / wing root area. All compound curves . I'll give it a go and see how it works out. Additionally the basswood plank was about 1/8" too thin so I will laminate some blocks to the bottom.

This jet was built by some skilled sheetmetal workers probably with a bit of "English wheel" experience!

Fraser

[lastvautour]

It will be a great looking Banshee. Keep those photos coming.

Lou

[Model Maker]

Fraser - Coming along nicely. Compound curves are definitely a bear. I found this out when carving the F-4 Toy. But taking things slowly and checking with templates resulted in a good outcome.

Several years ago, I purchased a copy of TurboCad and update it every 3 or 4 years since I only use it for 2D plans. Before I start a model, I always import the 3 views or plans to verify dimensions etc. Some disagreements which I have found are wingspan not to scale with fuselage, section centreline offset to centreline of fuselage, section widths different than plan view width at same point, etc. Because the 3 view is imported as a separate layer, I am able to address these items with an overlay and print out a revised set of plans / views. It takes a little time, but at least provides me with a consistent starting point.

[Gearup]

I've glued blocks on the lower surface to get the thickness required to carve the lower cowls. Looking at Lou's smaller scale Banshees, he made a note about using dowels for the aft engine sections. This sounded like a good idea so I turned a couple of aft sections from maple on the wood lathe to what looks to be the right size (based on photos and the drawing). I cut out the area from the wings that the sections fit into. This now gave me a good reference for thickness of the wings at these points as the exposed tailpipe sections give a bit more references of the shape. Once the wing is shaped and the tail pipes are glued in place, I will use filler to fair into the wing. I used a japanese saw to cut the depth of the material to remove at the roots. I did make a goof by cutting to the wrong line at first, so I will need to fill the fuselage side.  I'm still working the aerodynamic shape of the roots with chisel, knife and file. Bit more to go, but I am happy with the result so far.

[lastvautour]

I know that this is hard to shape that wing, however you are doing very well.

Lou

[Boomerang]

Fraser,
Enjoying the progress shots. I like the way you handle things that crop up.

Cheers

Gordon

[Gearup]

Thanks. It is always fun trying to figure out the way to get the results you need.....

Today I did a little more refinement of the wing shape 
Filed and carved to shape in image 208. Some ripples in the wing surface left over from the drum sander.  The double ended taper file was great on all surfaces, but the palm style carving knife really came into play with detail shaping. Every time I sanded or shaved a line off, I would redraw it to keep track of material removal.

Image 212 shows how I will fit up the engines to the wing. The small filler block is end grain (running chord wise) so it will be easier to shape when finally installed.

Image 220 and 221 are after sanding (and listening to lots of various genre's of music). I am using a large popsicle stick with 120 grit paper double taped to it. Not quite there yet, but the waviness is gone and the shape seems correct.

Regards,
Fraser