Airfix Short Sunderland Mk III -(By Request)

[LDSModeller]

Hi All

Sorry for the delay, my son has been occupying my model space to build his models,

since I want to encourage him to continue to do so, my modelling has taken a back seat

for the last little while.

Thanks guys, for the comments, had toyed with the idea of a cut away, but for this one

I'll build enclosed, and maybe one of these day in a future Sunderland build.

Philip have given some thought to "producing" a secondary set in resin (maybe) we'll see

how it goes..... (down the track some)

Well, only a small update today

Continuing on with the flight deck, I have added more items to the area around the main spar

There is still more to add on, but I'll wait until some paint is on.

I have been busy building a Wireles operators suite, in the book by Allan King

"Wings over Windermere" on page 40, there is a photo of the the station, (plus it pays to have

a Sunderland manual too.......)

Again still to add the radio equipment etc but first some paint. The seat for the wireless operator is

attached to the main spar

Both parts on the flight deck

Now you may note that there is a little table type thing, jutting out from the main spar cover.

This is called an "Observers Platform, a photo of the real thing (stowed)

Now when the Engineer or Navigator or other crew needed to either take a sextant shot or needed

to exit out the upper hatch, this platform was used (all Sunderland marks)

A photo of my little helper standing on the platform to illustrate

Now one thing I have noted on some Sunderland builds, is modellers having a set of stairs/steps

attached to the main spar, as you see in the above aircraft photo, there are none.

Now before people start posting photos showing a ladder as in this photo, I will explain

(Photo used for Illustration only)

As you can see, in this photo there is a ladder behind the navigator. This is not for getting over

the main spar (you don't need it) and behind the ladder is the platform (stowed)

What's going on you ask? Well the ladder as you see from the photo is called the following

"Flight Engineers Astrodome Access Ladder" -try saying that fast three times (per Mk III Sunderland manual).

This ladder folded upright (per my drawing) when in use, which allowed crew to climb up to egress the aircraft,

or act as a rest for the Naviagtor to lean against when taking sextant shots etc ( a board was also provided

to rest against the ladder).

Only Mk I/II and very early Mk III Sunderlands had this ladder The WEM set has this and the correct depiction

of the ladder would be to attach to the top of the main spar.

In this photo, I have painted the lower deck colour, the deck is a blue/grey colour, I think it came out

quite well- Why did I paint it blue/grey? NZ4115 has this colour on her lower deck, and more, it relates

back to the days when flying boats were designed with Navel features in mind (Ward room/Galley etc)

Deck of Sunderland (rear)

Finally I have filled in the holes where the beaching gear attaches to the model, I will add some

fittings later

Well that's all for today, more soon

Hope you enjoy.

Regards

Alan

Edited February 8, 2013 by LDSModeller

[crobinsonh]

Fantastic attention to detail. Thanks for sharing your research and techniques.

[woody37]

Great to see it progressing again Alan

[spiton]

Very interesting WiP

[GuidoKM]

Nice! Anymore, up-to-date pics?

[woody37]

Alan,

You have a responsibility to finish this build

If the stern approach didn't work...

Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaassssseeeeeeeeeee

[Hamden]

Looking forward to seeing more of your excellent work

Roger

[Sean1968]

Coming along really nice. I love this aircraft, then again its named after my home town, so I have to have a soft spot for it.

[LDSModeller]

Hi All,

 

Been a while since I posted on this, with Christmas literally around the corner,  a quick update.

 

First off I have to show you all something that is very much prized by me. From reading through my thread, you

get the idea that I grew up on an RNZAF Sunderland base, my Dad with 5 Squadron. Years on, the Sunderlands long gone (50 years next year) and my Dad has also passed on. This year I had the oppertunity to collect a piece of a Sunderland, more importantly a piece of a Sunderland my Dad worked on. Yes it's just a port hole cover but its off any aircraft my Dad worked on/maintained/ Here it is

 

 

Now a lot has happened since I last posted, the Veteran I was building for was getting on in years, so I had to do something of a quick build of another Sunderland.

So now I have a model that I need to finish...... I have decided to finish this one off as  490 (NZ) Squadron also based in West Africa, Jui to be more precise......

In the intrim a house move, getting the model room up and running, time is no freind of mine

 

Anyway where are we at??? Well the Port side of the model had a bench to ground interface and snapped off the stern  turret section ,,,,,,,, grrrrr

I had an old model model I had picked upat an auction, so became a donor kit, you can see where I have grafted the two pieces - still some finishing to do..........

 

 

 

Whilst building the other Sunderland for my Veteran freind, I had a play around with the portholes, as I was not really happy with what I had thus far and the eventual placement of the transparencies. The new system I discovered was to drill out the Non Opening Ports only and add the tubing only part way to leave an inner lip- hopefully you will see in this photo

 

I punched out a 5mm acetate disc and it fits perfectly - yes I have an insane plan to cover this to create the 4.2mm transparent section. The opening portholes are easier to finish.

 

Some time ago whilst measuring the Italeri kit to my Interior section, I discovered something totally crazy, the Italeri kit Bomb bay opening didn't fit  with my Airfix interior. Out came the measuring tape, and low and behold the Italeri offering was correct (mostly) and the Airfix kit is about 5mm too far rearward (measuring from forward door edge).

Needless to say I have had to re-arrange things as in these photos - One might ask why didn't I pick this up earlier?

Well I had  some concerns about the distance between the forward and rear spars, but left it until I was ready - Remember measure twice cut once....... I have cut out the whole of the affected area, to fill in with plastic card and rescribe the door.   photos of the dameage

 

Some work to be in the Engineers station/compartment -need to move the outlines of the fuselage-wing access cutouts forward

More soon I promise, I also have a few other kits on the go such as this 1/32 Revell P 40E building as an RNZAF P40E-1

 

 

Thanks for looking

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

 

Edited December 12, 2016 by LDSModeller
Change some photos

[keefr22]

Good to see this back on the go Alan, lot of work ahead of you, but it'll be a stunner when finished!

 

The port hole is pretty neat too, & a great reminder of your dad, something to really treasure.

 

Keith

[Hamden]

Nice to see this back!

Love your idea for the port holes and having one as a reminder of your Dad is as Keith says something to treasure

 

   Roger 

[Mancunian airman]

Glad you are back on with this  Alan, its been a while since the start date . . . .

[TheBaron]

Ditto on the Sunderland Resurgence! 

Smashing work.

Tony

[LDSModeller]

Hi All,

 

Happy New Year!    Wow 2017 already.

 

Only a short update today, my camera battery died so is recharging, and more importantly my motor tool I use for mini lathe etc has given up the ghost. Makes life a tad difficult........!

Never mind onward and upward.

 

I wa planning on updating more of the bomb bay, but the camera battery put paid to that, so I thought I would show you some other work.

One of the issues with the Airfix Sunderland bow section, is the mishappen tunnel  entry. If you look at this photo below, you see a perfectly rounded upside down "U" on this moored Mk I Sunderland.

(Photo used for illustration purposes only)

 

The Airfix tunnel entry is more a flattened cross section -definately needs fixing

Having measured the tunnel at the base of the "U", the measurement in 1:1 scale is 128.125cm ( or around 4' 2").

Scaling that down to 1/72 scale we get 17.8mm.  The Airfix Sunderland tunnel base is 20mm (the Italeri  ones are 14mm......... ) so need to remove roughly 2mm.

 

Photo 1 shows the base and measurement

 

 

Photo 2 shows my ingenious plan to reduce the size. In reading this through, the red writing is hard to see, so in short to remove 1mm fon the lip of the tunnel housing graduating back to the main canopy lip (edit)

 

 

The end result, though the photo shows my cack handedness on the Starboard side.

Have removed the 1mm of plastic, and when I squeeze the two sections together I have a better shaped "U" (edit)

 

 

Photo 3 (though not really clear) shows the reduced tunnel signature, and more importantly a more correct "U". it's not perfect, but better than it was

I will need to weld the two edges, when I join the two fuselage halves, takes some minor force to close that gap.

 

 

The base distance is now 18mm (I can live with 0.2mm). This of course raises a few issues, one being having to mould a new sliding section. But the real issue is whether the Falcon canopy replacement turrets will fit??? More on this later.

Other updates

Next photo shows the Port stern section puttied ready for sanding (nothing some fine wet & dry and water won't fix )

 

 

Next photos, show some attention needed for the resin replacement "Peggie XVIII's" to fit into the cowlings

 

Cowling front with "moulded" Peggies

 

Rear of Cowling with Resin replacement  seriously, not even a tight squeeze....... will have to remove internal material X's 4 - more on this later

 

That's all for this evening, I plan to have more in the next few days.

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

 

Edited January 5, 2017 by LDSModeller

[Martian]

Great work and great to see this thread on the go again!

 

Martian

[Hamden]

22 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Great work and great to see this thread on the go again!

 

Martian

 

What Martian said!

 

 Roger

[LDSModeller]

Hi All,

 

Thought long and hard about finishing this thread.

First off The Photo Bucket debacle, and posting images - have a new image provider

Second, I have gone off forums of late reasons being: even when you have  absolute correct technical information, someone has to know better.

Modellers who are precious about builds where they are giving erroneous technical information and you point it out, it's tantamount to a declaration of war.

 

With my builds I like people asking questions/participation, to me a build thread is a learning area for all, not for me to be precious about it......

 

Primarily dealing with RNZAF aircraft, I'm fed up with people telling we Kiwis what are Air Force was/was not, Is/is not when they have no idea themselves!!!!

I really don't care if someone paints their RNZAF Corsair pink with purple polka dots if they simply build it, and state this is my take. It's the ones who state our

Air Force did this or that, to justify their build and it's so full of the brown stuff it's not funny......... rant over

 

I like Britmodeller, and really is about the only Forum I participate in anymore these days - anyway I'm going to carry on this thread to finish, and have

a another Sunderland to build with you after this......... with hopefully not so long a gestation period

 

So, after the last post here's where we are:

The Bomb bay doors have been dealt to and moved forward

 

 

 

 

Next up, I dealt with the Flap wells and thinning the wing trailing edges:

 

With the top and lower wing sections together, I need to add a strip to add strength

 

You can see the strip here, it will add the backing for the Flap well inner structure as the red curves denote

 

Note in this photo the very thin fairing section into which the flap slides in/out

What it looks like on the real aircraft

 

Note the cut out flap held in place to show how it would look - though on my model the flaps will be extended

 

Hopefully more soon - hope you enjoy

 

Thanks for stopping by

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

[Mancunian airman]

This is attention to detail, I'm convinced it will be a prize winner.

 

Alan I realised that detailing can be time consuming but the amount of research and progress is reflected in your workmanship, more power to your blade 

[Harry Lime]

Alan,

 

I have to say I agree very much with the sentiments you shared above. These days I just can't be bothered trying to convince the un-convincible of that which they don't want to be convinced of, I'd rather spend time doing something I enjoy!

 

I am, however, glad that you have stuck with this project and am very happy to see it continuing here. Please take heart that there is an appreciative audience here and that I am eagerly awaiting the next instalment of this tour de force.

 

Regards,

 

Mark.

[franky boy]

Nice work Alan

 

Am enjoying the build very much.

 

Totally agree with you on the subject of BM.

 

James

[Hamden]

 

This is a stunning project and the workmanship is second to none! You are providing information to correct/enhance the model to the next level and beyond,

as has already been said a championship winning piece!

Looking forward to the next instalment , thanks for continuing to bring us all things Sunderland

 

  Roger

[bar side]

Always nice to see a Sunderland.  Spent many visits over the years looking at the kit of parts that is now the Duxford Sunderland.  Through the 80s she was always in bits at the back of the hangar.  Earlier this year I was flying out of Oakland airport and on a transfer bus between the car hire drop of and the terminal when a familiar sight came in to view.  The unexpected sight of a Sandringham looking at me.  She did look good.

keep up the good work