Army_Air_Force

The fuselage side walls were quite thick and so this allowed me to carve out material from the fuselage without having to alter the cockpit seat casting. I used a rotary "Permagrit" grinding wheel in my mini drill, at a slow speed so it didn't melt the plastic. I was then able to slowly grind out the fuselage side, thinning the cockpit wall to about half of the original thickness. Both sides were thinned until they looked close to the required thickness. The halves were then taped together and the cockpit trial fitted. A bit tight at first, so it all came apart again for further grinding, then taping back up for trial number two. It took about three attempts to get the cockpit to sit in place neatly.

Step one was to cut out some of the major componets, both for a photo and to check the fit, look for twisting and any other things to note. It was quickly apparent that the fuselage sides were a bit warped and the cockpit too wide, preventing the sides from meeting along the join. Before I did anything else, rectifying this fit was the first job.

The Miles Messenger is one of two new customer projects that have recentl;y landed on my bench. Like many of the other models I've made recently, this one will be mounted in an A4 box picture frame for desk display or wall hanging. The aircraft is G-AKBO, a Miles Messenger Mk 2A, serial #6378, based at Breighton Aerodrome near Selby in Yorkshire. Here's a picture of the fullsize aircraft seen during a practice display at Breighton in mid July. The kit was unknown to me and is a Pavla Models kit from the Czech Republic. It has the main components from injection moulded plastic, with resin cockpit details, some small brass etch details and two different vac-formed canopies.

Model choices have been based on interests and simplicity of the model. The first was a Revell Red Arrows Hawk, started when she was 3 years 11 months. She'd seen the Arrows at shows and so it was a memorable aircraft to choose. Being a girl, pink was a popular colour, so I suggested a pink Spitfire and the RAF BoB set gave the opportunity to make a diorama in effectively lots of smaller projects. Snoopy verses the Red Baron was my suggestion, but Snoopy was a popular character. This was an introduction to scratch building. The 1/144 scale B-17 was a spare kit I had which also had a fairly low parts count which made for an easier project. The current Battlefront set was a prize from Airfix in a Christmas competition. Growing up with my 1/1 scale toys, she has little choice than to learn about WW2 history!

I got the rest of the diorama back out too, just to show her how far we'd already come on this project. It also reminded her how great it looked and how much of it she had done herself, albeit still with lots of step by step guidance. To finish the session, the rest of the Jeep body was given its first coat of green and while she did that, I gave one side of the windscreen its first coat of green. Masking or painting that freehand was still beyond her current skill level. The parts were all placed in the curing cabinet and we left it to do other stuff. Not massive progress, but another step along the road.

The Jerry can on the back was added next and left to dry. The wooden handles of the axe and shovel were also painted and left to bake in my curing cabinet.

After what felt like weeks of inactivity due to school work and other after school activities, my daughter got back to her diorama today. Having given the front of the Jeep a coat of paint last time, we got the headlights cut out and glued into the back of the grill. This would allow the hood and instrument panel to be fitted - almost! The instructions called for the screen arms to be trapped under the hood as it was glued in place, but as it wasn't yet painted and was fragile, I didn't want it fitted just yet. The pivot arms were quite long so I cut them about 1mm shorter and this allowed the screen to be fitted later by stretching the arms around the Jeep body. So with the screen adapted and able to be fitted later after clear coats and decals etc, the way was clear to attach the hood. It was left clamped to dry while we went on a model shop trip for some supplies for other projects. When we got back, we had lunch and then went back out to the workshop. There were some other small parts that needed to be painted, but that I didn't want to attach straight away, so things like the steering wheel, mirror and spare Jerry cans were painted and left to dry.

By Saturday evening, the weather had improved giving us blue sky, though still quite a stiff breeze. My Jeep was joined outside the hangar by "Hocus Pocus", the Jeep belonging to Patrick Smart who also had his Bristol Hercules aircraft engine on display. There was a DJ, a band, food and a bar set up, plus one of the pilots doing a stand up routine. The party continued until 2am. On Sunday, the wind was steady and more gentle and allowed much more flying. Both Beechcraft flew again and the Miles Messenger flew a practice display for an airshow next weekend. Three Taylor Monoplanes were passing through on their way to Malta, but one was damaged in a forced landing three days later on the French/Italian border.

Several military vehicles also attended the event. There were several Jeeps, a few Land Rovers and a Volkswagen 181, the military version of the VW Trekker. The vehicles were displayed at various locations along the airfield. Arrow Active II The oldest Chipmunk still flying, serial number 11. de Havilland dH-87B Hornet Moth Beechcraft C-45 Auster Piper Vagabond Piper Super Cruiser and Super Cub Midget Mustang

2019 marked the 30th Anniversary of the Real Aeroplane Company at Breighton Aerodrome. This year's Summer Fly-In was to celebrate this anniversary along with the 4th International Buckerfest Fly-In ( covered in a separate report ). Leading up to the event, the weather forecast wasn't great, but it slowly improved closer to the weekend. Saturday was gusty and had some heavy showers, so flying was a bit slow paced, especially in the morning. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance was one movement, there to collect a cheque for over £8600 raised by a Breighton pilot in a sponsored sky dive. There were a number of twin engined aircraft there for the weekend, including an orange and white Beechcraft which was a new addition to the Real Aero collection. A de Havilland Rapide and another Beechcraft C-45 were there, both of which have visited before. The C-45 gave an impressive display upon arrival. There was a great variety of aircraft there, both home based and visiting aircraft. Due to the weather around the country, the arrival of visiting aircraft was slow until later on Saturday when the rain showers reduced in number. Miles Messenger Fw 44 Stieglitz Falco F8L Ryan PT-22 Recruit ( ST3KR )

I have no idea what my first aircraft was. It would have been some time in the early to mid 1970's with the assistance of my dad, but what it was; not a clue! It may well have been one of the models in this picture from around 1979/80 ( I think ).

With the model fixed to the studding, it was slotted into a piece of wood with matching holes which held the model upright. I was then able to position the model over the background picture and while holding the wood still, remove the model. This gave me the drilling position for the mounting holes in the background picture. With the holes drilled, the back of the frame was nailed onto the box frame. The model could then be bolted into the frame. The glass was then cleaned before adding the mount card, glass and front of the frame, which are held on with metal tabs pushed into the box frame and screwed into the frone frame.

The pine box frame was made from some 8mm cladding, cut to a suitable height and mitred at the corners. The Broussard frame can be seen in the corner clamps, and was glued and also uses 'V' nails in the corners to hold the frame together. The deeper frame parts were for the framed Sea King. A closer view of the clamps and the 'V' nails can just be seen in each corner joint.

A couple more pictures of #002 first, before moving on to the frame.

I don't have any pictures uploaded of the Sea King mounting, but here's one of a 1/144 scale Lancaster during the build. M3 nuts are built into the structure to fix the model into the frame. The baseboard/background is drilled to match the nut/studding positions. A box frame is made of a depth to suit the model size. I buy the frame and glass, but make the box myself. While the model is bolted to the back of the frame, I use brass tube spacers to support the model at the desired height off the base. This allows the bolts to be tightened without crushing the landing gear against the backboard. After tightening the nuts on the studding, a spot of glue holds them in place.

This is the second framed Sea King I've built. The first was made for a friend who wanted it for a gift for a Sea King pilot. He liked it so much, he asked for a second one for himself! The kit was made with two M3 nuts built into the starboard side. Brass tube spacers hold the model off the backboard while M3 studding hold it in place. The background is a 12x8 photo print with the graphics done on my laptop. The starboard side sponson is fitted directly to the fuselage, omitting the small wing, in order to reduce the overall depth of the model and frame. The rotor head was modified to allow the rotor blades to be stowed.

The cabinet is basically a wooden cupboard, lined with foam backed insulation foil. In the roof of the cabinet is a 60watt filament light bulb to create heat. Once the door is shut, it brings the temperature to around 27 degrees centigrade in about 8 to 10 minutes. I use slow set resin, and stir the pot slowly to minimise the introduction of bubbles. You could of course make a vacuum chamber to extract any air, but for limited quantities of casting, it's probably not worth it.

Once fully cured, a bit of a twist of the mould brings the parts out no problem. Wings are simple shapes to extract. The mould had around a 1/2 to 5/8 inch wall of rubber around the outside of the wing surface and was easily able to support itself and the wing cavity straight. I usually lay the model on a small board with short legs, so that once poured, I can get my fingers under the board and lift the whole mould and resin, undisturbed to the curing cabinet where it is left to bake.

The model sat on its tail again for the fitting of the prop, the second last detail to go on. The last part, yet to be added, is the small black aerial on the fuselage spine. The part is already shaped from a piece of scrap sprue and is painted, just awaiting fitting. The end of the afternoon was nice and bright, so I took the Broussard out doors for a few pictures. After adding the aerial, the final stage will be building the A4 frame and mounting the model.

Today, the engine was painted, all three wheels fitted, the step fitted to the fuselage side and the pitot attahed. There were also a couple of small spots of green to touch up on the ends of the wing struts where they were chamfered for fitting. Almost there now.

We managed a rare free afternoon today and did a little more on the Jeep. The grill was fitted, the gearbox and transfer case levers, and the three seats.The clear headlight moulding was meant to be attached to the grill first, but we left that off. Adding it now would then cause difficulties painting without painting on the clear part. The instrument panel was attached to the hood and then the front end of the Jeep was painted a first coat ( still drying here ). When the paint is dry, the lights can be fitted without needing to repaint around them. Once the lights are fitted, then the hood could be attached.

I cast all the components on my scratch built 1/72 scale Broussard model. Here's the patterns for the wings, fin/rudder, prop and tail wheel. The wings are attached into the mould by their leading edges by thin styrene sheet on a wider runner.. The silicone was mixed by hand and the mixing pot then given a shake by an orbital sander to shake out air bubbles. The wing mould can be seen in the middle of this selection filled with resin. I used a piece of thin wire to brush along the trailing edge of the wing inside the mould to remove any bubbles in the resin from sticking in the narrowest part of the casting. I also used slow set resin which gave around ten minutes of working time. The final castings, removed from the moulds and ready to be cleaned up. The leading edges needed the runners cut free, sanding and some micro air bubbles filled. Vacuuming the resin before pouring would of course remove the micro bubbles. With practice, gentle stirring of the resin minimised the introduction of air bubbles. The finished model.

I've got two Iwata air brushes she could use at some point, but right now, her face is to small for a good fume mask!

To give a bit of audience participation, I had printed out pictures of all the ponies, along with a number next to each one. Beside the layout, I had a 20 sided dice and gave the kids four rolls of the dice to pick random numbers to decide which ponies had a ride in the train. That too was popular. We had a great day and the railroad and locos performed faultlessly.

By about 12:30pm, my daughter turned up and took over the operation of the layout. There had already been lots of interest from children and parents alike.