ho590hm

Call me crazy, but looking into applying the conversion to superfluous Mach 2 kit. That caused me to compare Airfix and Mach 2 offerings, and the differences prompted a measurement against the original drawings in the BAE Systems archive. The Airfix kit is overscale by about a foot in span and length. Whoever said above that the nose of the Mach 2 kit was not short appears to be correct as the distance from the leading edge of the wing to the nose is similar, although the Mach 2 cockpit bulge is clearly in the wrong place and open to replacement with one of the spare Airfix parts. The problem with fuselage length is aft of the wing, by over 4 scale feet, and surgery probably needs to be where the section is closest to parallel in the wing area. Still trying to work out if I am wasting my time....

The kit looks suspiciously like a Tiangong-1 with Shenzhou-10 attached. Some opportunities for adding and correcting external wiring based on images available on the web. EVA shots give correct configuration for wiring between re-entry and service modules. Docking shots show wiring from orbital module to docking adapter - connector blocks moulded correctly. Off-scale taikonauts on way to bin. Correct description would be partly prepainted. Main blocks of colour are sometimes badly sprayed, and painting instructions provide the missing detail. Re-entry module black rather than steel. Some part will need retouching after removing from sprue. Can't seem to load sprue picture.

Now available from Hannants. https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWC72017 still showing 5+ in stock...after I ordered mine.

Pima AEW.2 walkaround at http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/howard_mason4/avro_shackleton/

Started pulling out the original AW660 Type Record and Illustrated Parts Catalogue from the archive today. The kit looks pretty much like an Argosy, and has many of the expected surface features. The only significant external fixes I am doing for an RAF C.Mk.1 are to: reshape the nose radome (neither option is the correct shape), flatten the bulge over the clamshell doors (the upper door slopes up too much), and removing the taper on the inboard engines. Purists might want to remove the spurious cockpit rear bulkhead and move it back to frame 10, scratching the engineer and navigator stations. add the prominent structure in the nose gear bay - maybe even the actuating mechanism for the inner and outer doors Hollow out the main gear bays to the full depth of the tailboom and the wing upper surface so there is somewhere for the wheels to go. scrape out the leading edges of the control surfaces remove the spurious detail inside the main gear doors Howard Mason - BAE Systems Heritage Manager

+1 for me - any indication of when the kit will be available? Howard Mason

Looks promising. I agree the bump above the cargo doors looks a bit prominent. Looking back at a WA from Cosford a couple of years ago, the main landing gear looks better than I feared. Looking at the engines on the sprue and the made up kit, the waisting on the inboard engines appears to be because all the cowlings taper back in towards the rear as moulded, but the inboard ones did not taper back in on the original. http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/howard_mason4/argosy_cosford/ - see images 2 and 3. The same pattern can be seen on the Viscount. Did AW use the same cowlings? I guess I will have to go and look in the Company archive at Farnborough - I was surprised to find nearly 200 Argosy reference documents available including four volumes of Illustrated parts catalogues. Howard - BAE Systems Heritage Manager