tnuag

Thanks for the offer of help Mark - it is always useful. To answer your questions, yes it will have have transparent resin parts for the windows, canopy, nose and searchlight housing and by coincidence I have just mastered the searchlight (see below). Availability of Mach 2 Britannia kit - The Britannia kit has been issued in six versions (different decal sheets) and Hannants currently have five of these versions in stock. It will not be issued with transfers because Mike Belcher (Belcher Bits) is planning on issuing a comprehensive decal sheet. Anyway, here are the screen shots: Searchlight

The weapons bays are now complete. A typical weapons bay Upper front 3/4 view Lower 3/4 view Three areas remain to be done: - Rear fuselage - Engines - Searchlight on starboard wing. None of which are particularly complicated. The most difficult part of this model were the instrument panels. where it could take a full day to do a panel 15mm long ! Overall it has been fun though..................

Argus forward weapons bay The rear bay is similar.

ARGUS PROGRESS The interior design is now complete and these screen shots show the final design. Interior with left fuselage half removed (with Mk 1 radome - mk 2 will also be supplied) The Pilots positions and instrument panel The Flight Engineer's position and panel The next part is the weapons bays. I have decided not to do a further interior detail set as it will barely be visible and SLA masters are very good, but very expensive. We did some tests to see how well the detail would build and here are two photos of the test pieces: Lower Middle Flight Engineer's Panel Remember that this panel is only 8mm wide. Pilots' Instrument Panel This panel is 27mm wide

The Argus conversion is now in detail design. AIM has released six conversion kits this year and the Argus will be the seventh and possibly the last for this year. It will consist of the airframe conversion (which will include cockpit detail), together with a supplementary set for the weapons bay respectively. The price has been defined and now appears on the Hannants website at https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWC72032 The forward and rear fuselages are matched very carefully to the Mach 2 kit and each piece has a 1cm sleeve which slides inside the kit fuselage to give a strong lap joint with easy alignment. This method has worked well on the Valiant, Viscount, DC-7 and the other Canadair conversions.

Changed priorities: the AEC Mandator Blue Steel transport vehicle and bomb trolley will follow the Argus, then the Carvair will come. I am trying to get some of the kits out which were announced a long time ago. I will create a separate thread for the Canadair Argus conversion. Recent deliveries: More DC-7 decals were supplied to Hannants this week as follows: DC-7B South African Airways - early livery South African Airways - Later livery Dan-Air London DC-7C Alitalia KLM SABENA Scandinavian Airline System

After the Canadair Argus conversion.

Two Rhodesian and three BOAC 7C sets already delivered and I am working on the remainder now. It helps if you put in a back order with Hannants because we then know where the demand is.

They are all in stock at Hannants now, this is the link for the Viscount 800 conversion: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWC72042

Three new items are being produced: 1 - Viscount 800 conversion set for the Mach 2 Viscount 700 kit. This consists of the fuselage plug, four Dart engines with the characteristic bulged cowlings and four transparent windows for the forward saloon, plus an additional two transparent rear windows in the main cabin. 2 - Dart 510 and later engines with bulged cowlings to permit an accurate Viscount 700D to be modelled. 3 - At the request of a friend we have produced a 1:72 Yellow Sun nuclear weapon to go with the Airfix Valiant.

The CL-44D and CL-44J conversions were delivered to Hannants yesterday - 11th June 2019. The Argus is in work and is going to be a large model. I am currently researching the open weapons bays.

To clarify the comment from general melchett, as he said it is under investigation at present. Therefore nothing is definite at this time - the economics are important to see if such a conversion is viable.

Deliveries update The CC-106 Yukon has been delivered to Hannants on 7th May 2019 The CL-44D and CL-44J should be delivered in early June 2019 The CP-107 Argus will follow as soon as possible thereafter.

The plan is that when the Canadair conversions are complete, the next project will be the Mandator transport vehicle for the Blue Steel, and in preparation, I spent my Easter designing the bomb trolley - here are some graphics.

Update 19 April 2019 All masters for the Yukon, CL-44D and CL-44J have now been delivered and the production moulds are now being produced. Design work on the Argus continues -this is going to be a very large conversion set, consisting of virtually a complete fuselage and four engines, The engines will be similar to those in our DC-7 conversion sets. Plus propellers and possibly a new nose landing gear assembly, not forgetting wing mounted items and fuselage interior items...........