Vulcanicity's Stranraer and Heyford dual mega build!

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

11 hours ago, Vulcanicity said:

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.

 

I'd say they were pretty accurate, TBH (if selective).  

 

Still, as a life-long Nottingham Forest fan who was a 19-year-old student at the time, I'd say 1979 was a pretty stonking year.

 

I have to disagree with my learned Baronial friend, however.  The green is not improving.  Couldn't you prime it or something?

[Old Man]

Excellent start on the Stranraer, Sir!

[spaddad]

Wow, that green is very, well, GREEN. Matchbox colours were something else. Looking forward to your dual build,

spad

[Vulcanicity]

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!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2017 by Vulcanicity

[stevehnz]

I'm really enjoying watching this come together. I've a Revell repop of this kit I picked up at Solent Sky (as you do  ) when we were over nearly 3 years ago. At least it is in a sensible grey plastic. I'm finding your tips very helpful & they're being filed away for the future.

Steve.

[TonyTiger66]

Very nice interior detailing; that takes a great deal of patience. 

 

Of course, you know a full reference, probably with photographs, for every aspect of the interior, will become available as soon as you close it up?

 

Great stuff, looking forward to the next instalment

 

Best regards

TonyT

[CedB]

Great stuff Phil - I admire your patience sticking together all those bits of strip... and it's certainly paid off  

[perdu]

Hmm

 

Anyone want an original Matchbox Stranraer?

 

I just cannot see me devoting this much love to the poor wee Beastie

 

You have done a stonkingly good job in there, the Heyford is in for a treat with you detailing it

[zebra]

Great work so far Vulcanicity, looking forward to seeing how this goes - I think it'll be great. I have one of these (Revell version at least) in the stash, every once in a while I toy with the idea of making it. One of these days...

 

As for the 70s - I was 6 when they ended so I can't remember much of it, but the word I most associate with that decade is brown. Brown in various shades was a common colour for cars in our street - there was a dark brown Mini on one side of us, a beige Marina on the other. I remember seeing a small photo exhibition in Brent Cross shopping centre a while back, celebrating the anniversary of its opening, showing scenes from the year it opened (some time in the late 70s) - nothing but brown. There must have been some kind of collective colourblindness going on.

[HomerJ_757]

I can't believe that no one has mentioned the two highlights of the 70's for teenage boys, Linda Carter as Wonderwoman and Trisha Yates in Grange Hill!  

 

Oh, the plasticky stuff looks good as well. 

[woody37]

I built these a few years ago, so enjoying your progress, two of Matchbox's finest IMO. My heyford took off at Huddersfield show thanks to the high winds and bit by bit, the Stranraer is getting smaller every time the cleaner comes in as it's sat on top of the unit in our living Room! Really must glue it all back together and put it away!

 

popcorn stocked up

 

[Fritag]

Lovely work Phil.  I can't put it better than Bill did - so I'll just copy him......

14 hours ago, perdu said:

You have done a stonkingly good job in there, the Heyford is in for a treat with you detailing it

 

[Vulcanicity]

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!

 

 

[CedB]

Great stuff Phil. CD cases, who'd a thought it! I have some lying around somewhere which will now get moved to the stash!

[bbudde]

As above. I like that style of modelling and recycling very much; great tip.

[Martian]

Nice work and a great tip about the CD cases.

 

Martian

[Tomoshenko]

Brilliant. Further underlines my maxim of never ever throwing anything away.

[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!

 

 

[moaning dolphin]

Forgive me but I am very late to this so will just look in from afar. Love this kit, I picked one up that someone had tried to make into a waterline and cut off the entire bottom surface, suffice to say it wouldn't sit well in water! The bonus was there were two kits in the one box, so have two potentials. I see in your first post the box has a free kit offer sticker, Ive got one of them as well but don't know where to send it.......I wonder if its still valid

 

Great work so far!

Bob

[Michael51]

On 14/08/2017 at 10:00 PM, HomerJ_757 said:

I can't believe that no one has mentioned the two highlights of the 70's for teenage boys, Linda Carter as Wonderwoman and Trisha Yates in Grange Hill!  

 

Oh, the plasticky stuff looks good as well. 

The seventies were a dead loss. My teens disappeared with the Beatles and one had to grow up, get a real job and other dreadful things.

 

The Stranraer looks great.

 

Michael

Edited September 19, 2017 by Michael Enright

[Murdo]

           

 

 

   

[Fritag]

Impressive interior detailing work Phil.  That pilots seat is a mini work of art and probably deserves a thread all of its own.......

 

Edit:

 

BTW - I've only just found your Hunter and Swift via your signature and they're both lovely.

Edited September 20, 2017 by Fritag

[71chally]

Superb detail work going on here.  Great tips with the cd cases, and learnt something about the Heyfords structure.

[CedB]

Great work on the internals Phil, I'm amazed at your attention to detail. Good stuff

Have you visited the Stranraer 920 at the RAF Museum in Hendon - worth a trip?

Have you seen the walkarounds here and here?

HTH

[Nigel Heath]

Great work, following along with interest.