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Well Mike did hint that he would be interested in a build article for the Stirling I'm about to start.

First off I have previously requested info on ARC regarding the particular Stirling I am building for a friend. Take a peek HERE

So with this build in the back of my mind I picked up an original Airfix kit at a show for £5 and also some numerals for the serials etc.

stirling_box.jpg

Just had a quick look in the box today and pretty disappointed to find most of the parts with severe warp, to be expected I suppose with a kit of that age.

stirling_fus.jpg

stirling_wing.jpg

So converting this to a Mk.IV I need to replace the front gun with a clear dome and remove the upper turret, plus a few extra bits and pieces. This one will take some time.........

Cheers

Doc

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I'd forgotten all about those pics etc. - I think you may need soem stamina for this one - making your water on the Swordfish seem easy - did you find out what you wanted about Sandy - Tempsford etc etc? I may have some stuff if you like- that converstaion on ARC was so civilised - what made you change??????

David.

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Best of luck with the build. I think it is a great kit for its day. I did one a couple years ago which appeared in SAM. I may have some references if you are interested.

Mine turned out like this:

stirling1.jpg

stirling2.jpg

stirling3.jpg

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John, David & Len thanks for your thoughts.

David if you have any more of those great shots stashed away anywhere they would be greatly appreciated.

Len that is a fantastic build and I have already stored them away as valuable reference material.

Some info I am still after on the Mk.IV version when the upper turret is removed do they just fit a square plate across the void or , like the dambuster Lancs, do they have a circular plate inserted? Also does the rear turret have the guns removed to save weight?

I'm sure there will be many more questions and any help would be great.

Thanks

Doc

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Doc - I have a shitload of references from when I tried to build the Sanger 1:48 Stirling. What an abortion that was! The fuselage halves weren't even symetrical :lol:

One day I will scratchbuild one in 1:48, but not yet...

Anything you need, let me know & I'll have a root through. Also, your buddy Miduppergunner is a bit of a knowledge pot on Stirlings, so you might have to start being nice to him :lol: Actually, I think that's how he & I first got talking... you should try being nice to him... he's quite agreeable most of the time ;)

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OK a little progress update of the 1/72 elephant.

Thanks to Len and David for supplying some excellent reference material I have made a start with this daunting build. I would just like to say here that Len sent me some of his build pictures for his Stirling found earlier in this thread and the level of interior detail is awesome! The photos don't really do the model justice.

Foolishly I had no idea the amount of work involved both updating the detail of the kit and then converting from a Mk.III Stirling to a Mk.IV.

Changes include removal of dorsal turret, removal of nose turret and forming a new nose canopy glass. Also I have just noticed that a majority of the windows are omitted, this comes AFTER I have already thinned the inside of the fuselage of each window to a scale thickness. Also 2 of the forward windows have 'bubble' glass which will need to be made. Some scratchbuilt interior stuff around the nose area is also required.

So to the build:-

stirling_cockpit.jpg

Some detailing of the cockpit (most of which will be covered up) and MUCH more to be added.

stirling_nose.jpg

As you can see this includes a solid bulkhead in the nose behind the dome, I have yet to detail this area with map table, instruments etc.

I then thought I would have a try at canopy molding for the clear nose dome, a pretty easy shape, so to begin with I made a former from good old pine!

canopy_mould.jpg

In fact I had a few attempts at this as I wasn't happy with the shape of this original master. Then my first go at molding using a primative, dirty method of simply heating some clear acetate over a candle and plunging the master into it. After a few attempts and some scorched fingers I eventually got this:-

canopy_form.jpg

Squadron "eat yer heart out! " :wicked:

So after some trimming the canopy looks like this:-

canopy_finish.jpg

which should look something like this: :hmmm:

StirlingIV1.jpg

Thanks for looking more to follow soon..........

Doc

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Nice work on the nose glass!

Sorry I've not presented you with any refs yet... if you could be specific with what you're short of, I'll see what I've got ;)

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No worries Mike,

Both Len and that old geezer from Norfolk have supplied me with a plethora of material. I was mostly looking for cockpit and interior details along with specific Mk.IV stuff, most of which I have covered now thanks to David and Len.

Cheers

Doc

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Oh that is superb.

Fantastic work on that cockpit wall and the plexiglass nose, puts it all into perspective when people moan about bad kits.

Proper modelling this :worthy:

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  • 1 month later...
Wow , I lovbe this plane and you are doing a great job on it.

I want it in 48 scale ;)

Best regards.

Héctor

Excellent, isn't it? If Sanger hadn't stuffed up the moulding of their 1:48 Stirling so badly (upside down wings, assymmetric fuselage halves, mental nacelle halves), I'd have probably finished mine by now... alas it's languishing on the top shelf in my workshop, waiting for me to pick up the cudgel again :(

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Well Mike did hint that he would be interested in a build article for the Stirling I'm about to start.

First off I have previously requested info on ARC regarding the particular Stirling I am building for a friend. Take a peek

So with this build in the back of my mind I picked up an original Airfix kit at a show for £5 and also some numerals for the serials etc.

Just had a quick look in the box today and pretty disappointed to find most of the parts with severe warp, to be expected I suppose with a kit of that age.

So converting this to a Mk.IV I need to replace the front gun with a clear dome and remove the upper turret, plus a few extra bits and pieces. This one will take some time.........

Cheers

Doc

Looking good Doc, I have one on the back burner but will be OOB when I get around to it

good luck

Ted

Edited by tedtaylor
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  • 2 weeks later...
Any more pics??

Unfortunately not Julian, all boxed up for the forthcoming house move. In fact I'm not even too sure which bloody box its in ! :huh:

This and many other projects will hopefully start again when I get straight.

Thanks all for your comments.

Cheers

Doc

Edited by Dr_Fester
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Looking good Doc, I will be following this one closely because I have to build the same kit with the same conversion to a mk VI this summer for a friends dad who flew them in the RCAF during the war.

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Looking good Doc, I will be following this one closely because I have to build the same kit with the same conversion to a mk VI this summer for a friends dad who flew them in the RCAF during the war.

Ron if you need any refs in the future let me know, and if I can find the mold master for the nose canopy I should be able to get one to you if your interested.

Doc

Edited by Dr_Fester
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Ron if you need any refs in the future let me know, and if I can find the mold master for the nose canopy I should be able to get one to you if your interested.

Doc

Very much so, I think I can get a few pics off him of the real bird that I can post

Thanks Doc

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