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Handley Page Herald, British Midland - Welsh Models 1:144


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Finished this one yesterday, the rarely modelled HP Herald.

It is the Welsh Models Vacform kit with resin engines and white metal undercarriage. I used my usual method of a keel in the fuselage halves rather than transverse bulkheads, it is so much easier and stronger too.

Ther are a few things to watch for if you are building this kit.

1) The resin engines attach to a 'plinth' moulded on the underside of each wing. I attached mine nice and precisely, but something didn't look right when I dry fitted it on the fuselage, the starboard engine was off the centreline with the front being further from the fuselage than it should. Finally I traced it to the 'plinth' on the underside of the starboard wing. On the vacform sheet measure the front of the plinth to the wing root. Then the rear of it. The rear is just over a mil closer the root, kicking the engine out of line. No problem now that you know about it, you can correct it when gluing it on. I tried removing my resin engine to correct it, but the vac wing started to split, so I have to live with it.

2) The Upper wing has constant dihedral, resulting in a 'V' shape in the above fuselage section. This is not right, it should be a flat airfoil section. Simple to fix with milliput and sanding.

3) The undercarraige was too long. Whan I fitted mine it looked awfully 'stilty' standing way too high. I trimmed the legs down until I was happy with the sit, taking probably 3 mil off each main leg.

4) The white metal props are broad blade, square tipped, I filed mine down to thinner round tipped ones used on Heralds.

The decals come in the kit and are laser printed by Twosix decals, and go on very nicely. My only query is with the painting instructions which show pale grey tailplanes. The pictures I can find all show black or dark blue. I went for the dark blue to match the fin & rudder.

Herald1_zpsba3125a1.jpg

Herald2_zps81c95e48.jpg

Herald3_zps6ec575c9.jpg

Herald4_zps816f487f.jpg

The starboard (left hand in this picture) engine is a touch out of line, as explained above. You can correct yours if you build one!

Herald5_zps5f173274.jpg

And finally my usual 'two ship' picture, this one with is more succesful rival, the Fokker F-27 which outsold it by more than 10 to 1.

Herald6_zps5cc1f7d9.jpg

Thanks for looking,

John

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Wow, that really is a beautifully finished model John.

Thanks for the heads up on the plinth issue; although I haven't got this kit yet, I will be forewarned ready.

cheers

Mike

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Another fine model there John, and thanks for pointing out the problems with the nacelles which I hadn't spotted! Aeroplane Monthly, which landed on the doormat Saturday morning has the Herald as the subject of the monthly in depth Database article - some nice large shots of the 4 x Leonides prototype from various angles for anyone interested in a conversion. This lead to my two part built kits being spread over the desk yesterday with a view to making some progress on them, your timing is impeccable!

Did you thin the wings beyond what Welsh intended? I noted a while back they looked too thick and did a bit of research into the airfoil used which proved it was. I'm planning to take about 1mm off the front lower edge of the upper wing part at the centre, tapering to about 0.5mm off at the tip. This should go a long way to reducing the incedence angle Stringbag mentions, but it may still need a bit more of a tweek.

I'd come to the same conclusion re the tailplanes, they're the same dark blue as the fin & lower fuselage.

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Thanks guys.

Dave, I forgot about the wing incidence until Stringbag reminded me. (He has an unbuilt Herald still on the backing sheet. We found the 'plinth' problem by measuring his kit).

I did also find that the incidence was bit severe, making the engines point upwards. I sanded down the front of the upper wing part where it rests on the fuselage (and thinned it all as you are thinking of doing). Then I shimmed the fuselage cutout where the trailing edge of the wing locates, to lift it up a bit, until the nacelles in side view were level with the fuselage. All this might be sounding like this is a bad kit, it isn't, it just needs fettling a bit to get everything into line. All part of the fun of building vacforms. I also drilled and filed out the cockpit windows and glazed them with krystal kleer. I have photos somewhere but can't find them!

Cheers

John

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I measured one of my unstarted ones as well this afternoon, same result as you. Thanks for confirmation of what you did with the wing mods, we're obviously thinking along the same lines, just you've actually completed yours. I'd also agree it's not a bad kit - in fact it's quite good, just a bit of tweeking to make it better. I'll probably stick with the decal windows on mine though. Watching your Snipe build, I'm sorely tempted to buy one of WNW's kits!

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Great job John

Really appreciate the heads up on the kits issues, that's why these forums are so useful to avoid the hours of trying to find the root cause after a problem appears rather than avoiding it in the first place.

Cheers Pat

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Really nice Herald, beautifully modelled. That Friendship looks so much sleeker, even on just aesthetic grounds it would have outsold the Herald!

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Quality build.

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  • 10 months later...

Hi, thanks for very useful info on this kit. Seen one

in Loughborough market for a fiver (!!) . Would be

very surprised if its been sold so will try to get it

if still available when next see the stall.

PS he also had Viscount and Fokker 70.

Cheers, Paul

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Great build.

I am very fond of the Herald. In the 1970s, British Island Airways examples were a very common sight trundling in and out of Dublin - usually going to and from Blackpool, Liverpool and the Isle of Man.

I have the older version of the Welsh Models kit (alll vac form with no resin) which I will build - one day. The version I have came with Channel Express decals but I would prefer to build it as a BIA or a BUIA aircraft.

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Thank you guys, It's almost a year since I posted this and it is still on a bookshelf in the living room waiting to be found a space in my cabinet!

Cheers

John

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John,

That's a great looking model - something a bit different for you as well - normally WW1?

Regards

Dave

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