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1/32nd scale Avro Shackleton - scratchbuild project


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Great progress with the fins Tom.

I hope you don't mind me mentioning this, but on the third from left vertical row of rivets, on the port side, there are 17 rivets short!!!!! I'm sure that this is an oversight.

Just kidding Tom. This is a monumental display of pure modelling which just gets better with each step..........more power to your scalpel.

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He decided to make the fins and yeah he managed it.

Lol. You make this sound easier than cobbling together an Airfix Spitfire!!!!!!!

I am in awe (still)

Trevor the awed

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Looking great Tom, good to catch up at MK too... It was good to hold it and have a look at what you've produced so far, but it's going to be out this world when complete.

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"Passable"? Tom, your idea of passable would gave me dancing round the room with delight.

Thank you - but we're often our own worst critics I suppose. I can see imperfections as soon as I look at it, but if you can't spot them readily then that's good with me!

Great progress with the fins Tom.

I hope you don't mind me mentioning this, but on the third from left vertical row of rivets, on the port side, there are 17 rivets short!!!!! I'm sure that this is an oversight.

Just kidding Tom. This is a monumental display of pure modelling which just gets better with each step..........more power to your scalpel.

Damn it! I hoped you wouldn't notice... ;)

He decided to make the fins and yeah he managed it.

Lol. You make this sound easier than cobbling together an Airfix Spitfire!!!!!!!

I am in awe (still)

Trevor the awed

Cheers, Trevor! If you're talking about the 1/24th scale MkI, then this'll be far easier! :)

Tom...Awesome as always...going to start the B-17 this week...thanks again for the info.

I'd love to watch your progress, and if you have any further questions then do ask and I'll do my best to help with anything.

If that is just "acceptable". what on earth does "good" look like???

Ian

As I said, Ian, we can be our own worst critic sometimes. Hope fully the rest of the fuselage will look 'good' when done!

Great job on the fins, Tom!

Regards,

Jason

Many thanks, Jason. Glad you're still with me :)

Looking good Tom, the tail fins have come out really well

Thanks, Kev. High praise coming from you.

Looking great Tom, good to catch up at MK too... It was good to hold it and have a look at what you've produced so far, but it's going to be out this world when complete.

Hopefully it'll look ok... still a long way to go yet. All being well I'll being it along to Telford for you to cast your expert eye over it once more.

More fantastic work, now the Shackleton shape is clearly there

It's slowly coming to life and taking on the character of the real thing. I am always apprehensive that the part I'm building won't look right, but I keep comparing it to Airfix and Revell parts to be sure and so far it seems to be working. When the full wing is done I'll be able to tell whether I've been successful or not.

Great progress Tom, the riveting has come out well......was good to see it in the flesh last week, Easy to forget just how big the Shack was. That forward fuselage will be fun !

Cheers, General!

The cockpit and forward nose section are slowly moving up the 'to do' list, and all being well will give it the distinctive look of the real thing.

Thanks for the encouragement and kind words, folks.

Tom

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The canopy area has been giving me headaches since I started this project, but a little delivery today may have the solution...

Knowing someone 'in the know' at HK Models I've managed to source an early test-shot of the soon-to-be released Lancaster cockpit. This one is solid plastic but will be perfect for my needs.

In this picture below you can see the forward quarter and side windows of the Lancaster cockpit:

25908500333_78fda13329.jpg

Which are identical to those on the Shackleton:

25908500273_c3ff00f51b.jpg

So the plan is to use sections of this:

26731049471_1274b7c461_c.jpg

26773350486_55a68b2543_c.jpg

...to make up the cockpit area.

My plan is to drill out and open up the windows themselves, leaving the frames which will be glazed at a later date. The forward quarter and side sections will be used, with the centre-section of the wider Shackleton cockpit having frames made from plastic strip. This will then be blended with filler into the area immediately behind the cockpit and hopefully, it should do the trick.

That's the plan, anyway...

I'll keep you posted.

Tom

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Although I'd noticed the similarity I hadn't realised the identicallity of the two airframe cockpits when I did mine

I just redesigned the Frog MR3 cockpit canopy to represent the AEW2-ness of the old bird

That is a major step to the front Tom, nice one

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Ingenious.

Trevor

The plan may be ingenious... whether it actually works or not remains to be seen...

Although I'd noticed the similarity I hadn't realised the identicallity of the two airframe cockpits when I did mine

I just redesigned the Frog MR3 cockpit canopy to represent the AEW2-ness of the old bird

That is a major step to the front Tom, nice one

There's a fair bit of the Manchester/Lancaster that was carried across to the Shackleton - the original design had a lot of staying power. It's only when you get involved with projects like this and research it entails that you find out so much about the subject. That's why I love builds such as this as you learn something new whenever you undertake new a part of the build.

I just hope the parts I've sourced will do the job - if not it's back to the drawing board.

Tom

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Tom, there are a lot more bits and bobs of the Lancaster on the Shack than I had realised (brilliant find on the canopy!). I had thought it pretty much started and ended with the inner and mid wings and the landing gear (and of course pretty much the entire Lincoln wing). I might have mentioned this before, but looking at my models of the Manchester et al., the leading edge of the outer wings all seem to have the same taper. Another example of commonality across the Lancaster family.

Regards,

Jason

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Tom, there are a lot more bits and bobs of the Lancaster on the Shack than I had realised (brilliant find on the canopy!). I had thought it pretty much started and ended with the inner and mid wings and the landing gear (and of course pretty much the entire Lincoln wing). I might have mentioned this before, but looking at my models of the Manchester et al., the leading edge of the outer wings all seem to have the same taper. Another example of commonality across the Lancaster family.

Regards,

Jason

Indeed, Jason.

No doubt as this build progresses I'll find even more similarities.

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...also the astrodome is in the same relative positions to the cockpit glazing on both Lancaster and Shackleton.

Great idea using the Lancaster glazing. I did this with an old 1:72 contrail Mk.1 where the provided glazing was to awful to use. I used the cockpit glazing from a Matchbox Lancaster. The side windows, left and right windscreen panels, quarterlight, and eyebrow panels are essentially the same, I also use the the the pilots overhead glazing panels. This left only the mid upper and middle windscreen panel to make up from straight styrene. The curved upper panel between the windscreen and upper panels was the difficult bit.

I guess you have to think like the designers really, the Shack was essentially the Lancaster/Lincoln fuselage with an (2-3ft) insert down the middle to widen it, and the decking provided at full height to the top of the cockpit glazing line. Even the point of having contra-rotating props on the Shack was to maintain the inboard engine positions on the Lancaster wing, but allowing for the wider fuselage.

That is one awe inspiring build there Tom, and would love to see it in the plastic when completed!

Good luck with the build

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  • 4 weeks later...

Evening all,

It's been slow going on this project of late due to work commitments, but more importantly having a young baby is seriously eating into my modelling time... wouldn't change that for the world, though.

Anyway, if you recall from a previous update, I've got a test shot of the HK Lancaster cockpit, printed in solid plastic:

26731049471_1274b7c461_c.jpg

Which I aim to get looking like this:

27331964761_9903c5ba93_c.jpg

So the first step was to remove the rear section of the Lancaster canopy, leaving me with a forward section which is identical in profile to the Shackleton cockpit, the only difference being the Shackleton's fuselage and this cockpit is wider than the Lancaster, so I carefully split the Lanc cockpit down the middle. The windows themselves then need to be drilled out, which was done by drilling numerous pilot holes:

26796267303_8c018156c3_c.jpg

The excess, unwanted plastic was then cut away using the tips of some sprue cutters:

27369509416_7efa9e32c5_c.jpg

And after the ragged edges had been carefully files away, I was left with two forward sections of Shackleton cockpit framing. The upper escape hatches were the only modification to the Lancaster framing made at this stage:

27369510306_774207152c_c.jpg

The frames were then carefully glued to the rear upper fuselage removed from earlier in the build. Here you can see the additional width of the Shackleton fuselage in relation to the Lancaster and Lincoln:

27305111512_38794901af_c.jpg

26795239474_9710700d6d_c.jpg

A couple of test fits shows that things are progressing as planned:

26796268163_a457400ce6_c.jpg

26795100244_88b5d66423_c.jpg

It's all a bit rough at the moment and I'll need to do some fine tweaks, but you get the idea. I will now need to finish off the missing framing, fill the gap down the middle and get it all smoothed in to the upper fuselage section. It won't be attached properly until I've done the interior of course.

Until next time,

Tom

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