tnuag

Not until the Argus is finished. That is a big conversion.

MAJOR MASTERS ARRIVE I have just received the SLA masters for the forward fuselage and am delighted with them. These are just as they came off the build, so there is still work to do on them. Anyway here are a few photos. The Argus nose mounted on the Mach 2 Britannia centre section The contours of the Argus nose Weapons bay parts Revised MAD boom Kit fin interface

There were three BAF colour schemes: 1 - Similar to the American Eastern Airlines 'hockey stick'. 2 - White upper half of fuselage and dark blue lower half with diagonal black-yellow-black stripes across the white fuselage and fin. 3 - Red, white and blue colours with red and blue pinstripes on the edge of the dark blue lower fuselage and sweeping up the fin & rudder. Which is the preferred livery for a decal sheet ?

I'll look at BAF photos !

Yes, the first six decal sets are already available from Hannants. They are (with links to Hannants site): British European Airways (BEA) Vickers Viscount 701 - Delivery scheme - circa 1953 - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWL72070 British European Airways (BEA) Vickers Viscount 802 - Delivery scheme - circa 1957 - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWL72071 British European Airways (BEA) Vickers Viscount 701 - Red Square scheme - circa 1960 - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWL72072 British European Airways (BEA) Vickers Viscount 802 - Red Square scheme - circa 1960 - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWL72073 Cambrian Airways Vickers Viscount 806 - Circa 1972 - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWL72074 Northeast Airlines (UK) Vickers Viscount 806 - Circa 1972 - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TWL72075 I agree that BAF would be a good choice, plus I plan on doing Central African Airways, Air Rhodesia and South African Airways when time permits. Other suggestions are always welcome. I normally try to cover all the airlines which bought the type from new, but this is difficult with the Viscount because so many airlines bought them.

FIRST MASTERS PRODUCED For interest, here are some pictures of the masters for the engine, MAD boom and radomes. First glance As with the DC-7 conversion there is the option of open or closed gills on the engines, and with the gills open the power recovery tutbine housings and rocker box covers of the rear cylinders are visible. The oil cooler matrix is also visible and the breakdown of parts is intended to give the easiest access to this matrix and the engine for painting or detailing. The large radome is the Mk.1 and the slimmer radome is the Mk.2. Test Rings These were produced to confirm that the cross section of the conversion parts match the Mach 2 fuselage before the full full front and rear fuselage are produced..

CANADAIR CP-107 ARGUS DECALS Belcher Bits of Canada are producing a decal sheet (which is printed by Microscale). The Argus conversion will not contain any decals as Mike Belcher is far better qualified to do this subject. He has sent this scan of the preliminary design for our information - thanks Mike.

UPDATE The design of the MAD boom is finished and here are some screen shots: Left front 3/4 exploded view Left rear 3/4 exploded view MAD boom assembled And now the rear fuselage is in work.

LATEST UPDATE - ENGINES AND PROPELLERS DESIGN COMPLETE Here are some screen grabs of the engines. Left front 3/4 view of complete power plant with gills open - a closed gill ring is also supplied. Left rear 3/4 view of complete power plant with gills open - it also shows the plug which locates in the front of the nacelle of the Mach 2 Britannia.. Right front 3/4 view of complete power plant with the cowling removed - this makes painting the engine details much easier. Left front 3/4 view of complete power plant with the cowling removed - there is only one exhaust and power recovery turbine on the right side of each nacelle. Right front 3/4 view of complete power plant complete with propeller - the dark grey section to the right represents the Mach 2 Britannia nacelle. Only the design of the rear fuselage and MAD boom now remains, so the kit is getting close!

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