Vulcanicity

Hello biplane fans! It's been a while, and I haven't done a vast amount because I've had a fairly manic couple of weeks at work. But I have soldiered on with the Stranraer's interior and made a bit of progress. Having finished the sidewall structure, it was time to get to work on the fixtures and fittings, one compartment at a time. So I've started with the pilot's cockpit. First, it was time to attach the bulkhead that forms the rear border of this compartment - the pilot's seat attaches to this on one side, and this complex creation sits on the other - this is a series of connecting rods and mounts for the throttle controls, which run along the roof of the navigator's compartment behind the pilot. On the other side, I added the four linkages running up the bulkhead behind where the pilot's seat attaches, and a couple of diagonal members which brace the bulkhead and support the seat. Matchbox mould the rectangular "chassis" on which the pilot's controls sit into the floor part, but there's several problems with it. It should seamlessly join onto the bulkheads in front and behind, however MB moulded it with tapering sides, so there's big gaps. It also has a angled downwards floor in front of the control column, which Matchbox missed. Lastly, it's a proper angular box, but Matchbox's representation has rather soft edges. So I cut it down in front, and plated the side and part of the top with plasticard-this both extended it fore and aft so that it joins the bulkheads, and sharpened the edge. I also added the semi-rectangular access panel on the chassis side, behind which is the autopilot machinery. Then, it was time to add the rudder pedals and tread boards: This section is almost done, just needs some foil toe loops on the pedals. Having added the bearings and rods below the control column, I prepared the kit part. The wheels look too small, but the Mushroom Models box quotes the diameter, so out came the calculator and callipers, and lo and behold, they're perfect. However. MB mould them as complete circles, whereas in the real thing one quadrant is cut out. So I've cut them down by removing the top left quadrant, but I'm going to have to remember to deflect the ailerons! I made a pilot's seat from scratch. It has 29 parts, but being all white plasticard, it's rather difficult to show off in a photo! I'll try and remember to take a picture when primed, next to the meagre kit offering. Now it was time to crack on with the sidewall equipment, a task I've been dreading. My only reference is this plan from some antique modelling magazine (October, 1959), drawn by G.A.G Cox. It's wonderful, or at least it would be if it were better quality, and you could see what those tiny blobs on the sidewall actually looked like, or indeed trace which arrow was pointing to what. I'd kill for one of those doctored-for-clarity black and white photos with labels you get in APs of later British aircraft, but the Stranraer AP has none-or at least the edition in the National Archives doesn't! This is my best guess, cobbled together from this, the grainy photos of the gutted RAFM aircraft in the Mushroom book, and one helpful line drawing of the throttles in the AP. I defy anyone to find any more references than I did to do a more accurate job! At least you can only glimpse it through a relatively thick canopy! The last thing I wanted to do on this side was replicate the massive elevator trim wheel between the pilot's seat and the throttle. Cue head-scratching, and scratching around in the spares box like a chicken in a yard. Out came two DF loops, two spinner backplates and two sets of radial engine pushrods (the latter are from the Academy Storch and Heller Gladiator if you really need to know). With much huffing and puffing, I made this: Unfortunately, there's precisely zero space for it to go in! I think the pilot's seat is about 1mm too wide. You also can't really see into this area, and conveniently the Heyford also has a massive trim wheel in plain view. So I'll just keep it for later, I think!

Hello fans of ungainly 1930s biplanes, Matchbox kits and brownness! I've left the Stranraer to one side for a bit and tackled the Heyford. This aircraft has an odd kind of hybrid fuselage construction a little like a Hurricane or Typhoon - the nose section is an alloy monocoque, while everything else aft of the wireless operator being wire-braced steel tube construction covered with fabric, which is attached onto stringers bolted to the tubes. This is shown here in this extremely handy diagram (from the Heyford III AP which I photographed in the National Archives :)) Matchbox more or less copied this, although the moncocque section is in left/right halves while the fabric section is one piece, with a top decking piece which covers both sections. I decided to make a start on the rear section, a large chunk of which can be seen though the mid-upper gunner's Scarff ring. Matchbox made a half-hearted attempt at representing the detail here, with two vague lumps to represent the gunner's firing steps, and some raised lines on the floor. These are almost impossible to remove cleanly in the narrow trough-like fuselage part, however I had a cunning trick up my sleeve, as the floor is actually raised here - with the height gain being well above the level of Matchboxes firing steps - the real steps being supported on top of this raised level. So all I needed to do was put some low bulkheads in, then glue a floor section over the top. But more of this in a moment! The design of the kit here means that there's a big horizontal joint visible through the Scarff ring, where the upper decking piece joins the lower rear fuselage section. However, I used some cunning in the placement of the longitudinal stringers which hold on the fabric, positioning the second one down on the bottom edge of the decking part less than a milimetre above the joint, thereby completely hiding it from view from above. The end result is stringers that are only slightly inaccurate in placement, and no visible join: Having sorted this out, I built the framing either side of the fuselage bay holding the upper gunner, and a few details either side of this, including the guide rails and lowering mechanism for the ventral "dustbin" turret which is in the bay aft of the upper gunner. You can see here the mini bulkheads I built either side of the slightly raised floor structure: Now, both the gangways and raised floor structure here, and the full-wiidth floor in the monocoque nose section appear to be constructed of a strongly ribbed alloy sheet, presumably to allow good grip in clumpy flying boots. I was at a bit of a loss as how to replicwte fine ribbing in 1/72: all the corrugated plasticard I could find either had too broad corrugations or didn't specify how big they were on the relevant webpages. Then I had a brainwave, and headed off to a well-known online auction site to buy some relics of the 1990s! That's right! Someone, somwhere, still makes quadruple CD cases, edged top and bottom with lots of finely-ridged plastic! I was uncertain as to how easy this stuff would be to work with, but I needn't have worried, it sands and cuts almost as easily as normal plasticard, although of course needs CA to fix it. Thus I could put in the last pieces of the structural jigsaw forming the Heyford rear fuselage: This section is fairly near complete now, I'll just need to add copious spare Lewis magazines, two ladders, some parachutes and the odd control for the dustbin when I come back through here adding equipment later on, as well as the wire cross-bracing. Having finished this simple bit of flooring, I tackled the complicated job of cutting a symmetrical curved section to floor the monocoque. This is the bit where I needed the full width of the quadruple CD cases: You'll notice that I've also filled some ejector pin marks and started to draw out the positions of the fuselage framing. This is much simpler and lighter than the Stranraer or indeed most other aircraft of this size, I suppose that the construction of the Heyford meant that nearly all of the stresses of landing were absorbed by the bottom centre section and not transmitted to the fuselage. In particular the only horizontal members are four tubes which connect directly to the four corners of the rear fuselage framework, and carry on almost to the nose. Again the top ones on each side more or less cover the horizontal join. Here we are with one side complete! You'll notice I've added a half-bulkhead which separates the pilot's and gunner's cockpit, the other half being covered with a folding door that I'll make presently. The pilot's seat bulkhead is also about half-wdith, and so requires cutting down from the complete one Matchbox give you: Lastly for today, some detective work! Matchbox provide four portholes, two on each side of the monocoque. I have some plans (which look like they might have come from a Warpaint book) which stipulate three, all on the port side, with the rear one in the forward part of the fabric-covered bit, and none to starboard. Photos are ambiguous because of the fact that this area is invariably in deep shade or hidden behind the engines, although I established that the front position on the starboard side was definitely porthole-free. In the end, I scoured through my scans from the AP, which is full of helpful artificially lit diagramatic photos! This showed one monocoque porthole to starboard and two to port, and crucially two in the rear section, one on each side. So both Matchbox and the plans were wrong! You can kind of understand why though, not one of the photos I could find on the Internet or in the Profile Publication showed this area in anything other than near-black shade. Anyway, I filled in number one to starboard with some sprue, and I'll drill out the other two in the rear section. I'll need to delve in the spares box for a fifth porthole though - so until next time, so long!

Looking pretty good! Any news on release date? Would love to struggle back from Telford with one of these beauties!

Hurrah!

Thanks folks! This is for a 1:72 Heyford and Stranraer, the AP documentation for both of which specifies Lewis III guns and copious spare magazines - the Heyford rear gunner's cockpit/ventral turret area has at least seven scattered around on various mounting pegs! Probably the wrong sub-forum but both types just about made it into WW2! I hadn't realised that there were two sizes of magazines, but I'm pretty sure that the 97-rounder is what was used here. I think I will have to just make some, but thanks Procopius for the tip-off re. SE5A - I might raid my kit for a couple of the more visible magazines!

Hiya, Does anyone know if once can buy such a thing as aftermarket Lewis magazines? Not the guns, just the spare drums. I need about 20 in 1/72 and was wondering if any companies made such a deeply useful thing?

Thanks all, and apologies for the delay. Time has been short and there's not been much in the way of Rapid Visual Progress. I have, at least, covered over the green with lots of bits of white! This is as accurate as I can possibly make it, and draws both on plans and internal photos featured in the Mushroom Models book. You'll notice I studiously avoided doing bits of interior that won't be visible from any angle, even with a torch-thus the starboard side has much less done on it than the port. I wouldn't want you getting the impression I'm crazy or anything! Also, in order to keep this pleasant non-crazy state of affairs, I've definitely decided to give the front gunner's/anchor-tosser's cockpit a miss. It's the place where the structure is most complicated and I have sweet bu66er all references for it. These internals were nearly done in photo, and since I took it they're completely finished, apart from the small amount of detail on the bulkheads. Thus I've finished the mid-upper and rear gunner's position and the cabin roof on the starboard side. Also finished, for now, is the ongoing saga of the starboard door area. Compare this to photos in the last two posts, and you'll see I've ground away the large cargo hatch leaving only the small door, added a window, and reinstated the slightly recessed section into which the cockpit side windows slide backwards to give our intrepid aeromariners some fresh air. I'm planning to pose the windows open in this way so you can see the controls a bit better, hence the effort here! I'm afraid that really is all I've managed over the past few weeks. Getting all that structure right takes much umming and ahh-ing, and is much slower than just making it up! Now it's onto the Heyford for the same treatment. Until next time!

Hmmm... as others have said I think we'll be waiting several years. Thematicallty related kits seem to come with several years of gap between them, look at 5-6 years between the Valiant and Victor, and 2+ years between Whitley and Wellington, or Spitfire I and Hurricane I (in 1:72 at least). As for those saying that the old one is good enough, well, in my opinion if you have to break open the DIY-grade tools (in my case rasp files to thin out the exhausts) it's time for a new moulding! The fit really is very bad. At any rate, as a bit of food for thought, the old Vulcan has 108 parts. That's fewer than the new Blenheim If (156), Stuka (110), or Swordfish (125). It really is a very crude kit by today's standards, and as has been said a new mould could cater for both exhaust types with jetpipes and compressor faces, a full weapons loadout with several options plus bomb bay, a range of different underwing lumps and bumps, a bit more cockpit detail (not that you really need it, but some serviceable ejector seats, and a bit of detail around the crew door would be nice at least), and some decent wheel bays.

Yum! I love the Brigand and this looks the part! You can't blame Valom too much for making stuff up - the only surviving remnant of this aircraft is a battered and gutted fuselage in store with the RAF Museum

Superb! I don't think I knew that the USN flew gun-nosed B-25s. I particularly like your weathering of the dark blue around the wing centre section

Superb!

Thanks all! Gosh, what enthusiasm, I'd actually better show something! I'm glad nobody took my comments about the 1970s the wrong way. I'm a mere 27 and can't help thinking it was all like it was in Life On Mars. Thanks Dogsbody for the plans, I've got a paper version of same (they're in the July 1979 Scale Models) which was my bible for the panel lines. Unfortunately things have got off to a bit of a slow start, but I've managed to get going a bit more on the Stranraer. Firstly, I attacked that cargo hatch (compare the last post) and managed to sand it back to the natural hull shape. I will need to cut out a window here, as the hatch replaced one. I've also finished all the hull panel lines. I left a load of dust in them for this shot so you can actually see them in all of that barf leaf green. If you've spotted a wonky one, then you're just wrong please go to Specsavers try and be polite about it Several of them involved long, compound curves which needed to match either side of the centreline, and I think I did not too badly, although of course this shot doesn't show any of them! Lastly for today, I've also got quite far with the structure inside the port fuselage half. I'm going to have the crew door open which exposes the whole navigator's compartment. There's also a surprising amount that shows though the pilot's canopy. Oh, and I'm having the mid-upper and tail gun positions open and sans crew, so, more structure to go... It's all as accurate as I can make it from the Mushroom Models book and various sets of plans Until next time biplane followers!

Hi folks! Ages since I've done a WIP, but here we go. Welcome to my latest (and particularly barmy) build! I'm going to be attempting to clear the logjam of biplanes in my stash by tackling these two Matchbox beauties (alright, the Heyford is a Revell repop, but still a beauty)! It feels like a nostalgia trip back to the 1970s, apart from the fact I'm much too young to remember. I have always imagined the 1970s as being a sort of beige decade, and my mind is filled with visions of Status Quo, AC/DC, striking miners, institutionalised sexism, raging unemployment and violently awful moustaches. A decade perhaps only brightened up by new heights of luridity (is that a word?) in model kit plastic: I've had these two for years while slowly trying to scratch together references - which is a remarkably difficult task. What's worse, the longer it's gone on ( since 2009, in the case of the Stranraer), the more determined I've become to do some kind of superdetail job on them, hence more internet trawling, hence more time the kits languished in the stash. There's plenty of big hatches and holes to see into, but Matchbox provided very little to fill them with. "Why couldn't I pick some nice P-51 or F-16 or something else with references falling out of the trees?" you might well ask. Well, that just wouldn't be as fun as eight years of on-off research. Honest. With my Borneo field seasons done, and a good stretch of time ahead, I decided the time was ripe to up my research efforts, collate all the data I could get, and crack on at last. So I spent an afternoon in the National Archives perusing maintenance manuals and evaluation reports from the 1930s - oh, and purchased these: I've also got scans of the Mushroom Modelling Publication Walrus and Stranraer, 1930s excerpts from Flight, and the Profile Publication on the Heyford, which I think completes more or less all the available information known to mankind. Honestly, it's easier to find out about lesser-known ancient civilisations in Asia Minor than the internal equipment of a 1930s flying boat! I quite often start a complex interior detailing job by drawing sections in large scale with colour-coded bits - it helps disentangle and present complex information much more understandably. This one is a bit rough, and there are a fair few errors, but it's a start: I've drawn out the necessary structure inside the fuselage halves. I think my sanity will walk a fine line throughout these builds, so I've already cut myself a little slack and decided to have the nose hatch closed and the bow compartment undetailed - this is the area for which references are thinnest and I think there'll be more than enough to do already! But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Before I can start adding structure, the Stranraer in particular needs a fair amount of panel lines adding. The only panel lines which the kit provides are a longeron under the window (which is wrong for about 3cm at its rear end) and one other horizontal line above the porthole in the bow. Take up thy scriber and scribe... The starboard side will be tougher as I've got to remodel the access arrangements. RAF and RCAF Stranraers did not have the large access hatch surrounding the smaller door - this was a more commodious postwar modification applied to Stranraers operated by Canadian civil airlines, and MB clearly copied it from the survivor at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon - so I've got to grind off the raised area to the right - fun fun fun! Hopefully by next time I'll have either achieved this or written off the kit - so long for now!

Brilliant stuff Eugen, if there's a 1/72 Vega Gull available at SMW you shall have my money!

Looks like definite demarcations on the cowling, aft of the "N" code, and forward of the Swastika, so I'd say camo. Also, as you're new to the forum (welcome, by the way! ;)) you might not realise that the best place to post a query like this is in the "aircraft modelling discussion by era" subforums (eg. WW2 at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/23-wwii/) rather than here in Rumourmonger, which is all about not-yet-released (and in some cases not-yet-anounced!) new kits.