Eric Mc Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 Following on from the fairly straightforward and "modern" injection moulded DC-4, I decided to have another stab at a vac form. My last attempt failed miserably but hopefully this one will get to the end. The kit in question is Welsh Models' Handley Page Herald. It is essentially all vac form with the exception of the engines which are cast in resin. Propellers, undercarriage etc are in white metal;. Aerials will need to be made from scrap plastic and stretched sprue. The kit comes with a nice decal sheet for Channel Express who were one of the last users of the Herald, operating them on freight and newspaper flights into the 1990s. However, I wanted to do mine in a more nostalgic (for me) scheme. The Heralds of BIA were a common sight at Dublin Airport all through the 1970s when I was a keen spotter. Indeed, the very same aircraft had been common for a large part of the 1960s as well when they operated in British United Island Airways colours. I'm going to complete it in BIA colours. The 2-6 Decal Sheet shown below contains registrations for all the Heralds BIA operated in the red scheme. The colour instructions are not quite accurate although from what I can see from looking through as many colour pictures I could find on the internet, no two BIA Heralds were painted identically. Some BIA Heralds also had the black and white striped propeller blades which were tried on a number of aircraft in the 1970s - so I'm tempted to do one of those. The smaller sheet shown underneath is the original Welsh Models decal sheet that they originally included with the Herald when it was first released well over 30 years ago. I'm tempted to keep this to one side for use on a BIA DC-3 project. I always had a soft spot for the Herald which I looked on as the plucky British underdog to the much more successful Fokker F-27 Friendship which outsold the Herald by a factor of about 20 to 1. I had cut out the main components ages ago but here's some pictures of the assembly work so far. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringbag Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 Hi Eric. Before you attach the engine nacelles to the wing, have a word with Viking (John) about the positioning of these. I seem to recall that if you attached the nacelle to the wing in the indicated position it throws the thrust lines way out John did have a thread here about these issues but I can't find it at the moment. Chris. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted June 28, 2017 Author Share Posted June 28, 2017 Thanks for the tip. I'll refer to photographs and my trusty Observer's Book of Civil Aircraft 1967 to keep an eye on the angle of the engines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 Hmm.. Inspiring me to get hold of one and do 'PWE of BIA to add to my collection of types I've flown in. Will follow this with interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 Welsh Models now do the Herald in a resin rather than vacform, which should be easier. Hannants have some, or look on the Welsh Models website. However, I'm sure they'd be equally glad for you to buy some of their old stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 Nice start Eric, and a great colour scheme you have chosen. Chris Stringbag is correct, I did build one of these a while ago and listed a few pointers about it In this thread Looking forward to seeing progress on this! Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted June 28, 2017 Author Share Posted June 28, 2017 (edited) Off to look at your build Which I've now done. I discovered I'd even posted a comment on the thread back in 2014 - which I'd forgotten about. It's probably too late now to correct some features as I've essentially assembled the main components now but I'll be mindful of the engines which I have yet to tackle. Did you hollow out the exhausts on the engines and, if so, how did you go about it? Edited June 28, 2017 by Eric Mc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 (edited) Progress has been made. The white metal propellers provided in the kit are not quite right for the Herald. Although they are the types used on some Dart engined aircraft (the F-27 and the HS748 for example), the Herald's propellers had rounded tips rather than squared off tips. So that needed correcting. The resin engines have now been attached to the wings - using superglue - and the resultant fairly large gaps filled and blended in. Next will be yet another coat of grey primer to check if further filling is required. Vacforms are all about filling, sanding, blending, priming and repeating that process until everything looks right. Edited July 11, 2017 by Eric Mc 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 Further to the build, I was wondering if anybody might have an idea as to what shade of red BIA actually used? Although 2-6 decals provide a full set of colours for the tail fin, I am pretty sure it will need to be touched up once the decal has been provided. The red BIA used had a strong orange content and I was curious if anybody such as Xtracolour or even Halfords had a red shade that matched BIA's. The alternative is to do a bit of mixing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 (edited) Double post Edited July 12, 2017 by Eric Mc Double post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 For the red Eric, I think I would use Xtracrylix Red Arrows red because its more orange and not really the Reds true colour Even in model form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 Great tip. My mind was turning towards that even as I was typing and you have confirmed my thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 Undercoating and priming is now in progress. The engines will also receive a coat of Tamiya Gloss Black as they will eventually be painted to represent a natural metal finish. The control surfaces (ailerons, rudder, elevators) have been pre-shaded so that the corrugations have a better chance of standing out when the top coat of white and red gets applied. Black areas have been painted chordwise across the tailplanes because these had a black area painted on them to lessen the visibility of exhaust staining from the two Rolls Royce Darts. In searching through numerous colour photographs of BIA Heralds, it is amazing how much variety there was in the application of what should have been a fairly standard colour scheme. Some of the aircraft had white painted engines and some had the engines left in their unpainted natural metal state. I've gone for the latter look as it makes the model a little more interesting. Other differences can be seen in radio antenna fits. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted August 31, 2017 Author Share Posted August 31, 2017 Here it is as it stands at the moment. The basic colours are on although there is a lot more detail painting and, of course, decaling to do. The tail colours will actually be a decal but I wanted a red tail as an underlay in order to ensure that the leading and trailing edges of the fin were properly coloured as I know from experience that there will be a gap in those locations when the tail fin decal is applied. The next immediate task is paint the propellers in their characteristic chequered pattern and I will also need to paint the undercarriage legs and wheels. Another task will be to fabricate the undercarriage doors from plastic card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbofan Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 Hi Eric, Coming on nicely, but be careful with that tail I think those are laser decals so will need a white background! Unless you are using the old Welsh screen printed decals of course. Cheers, Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murdo Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 Looking good! I do like vacforms, especially in 1/144. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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