tomprobert

The main wheels look HUGE but there’s plenty of after market available for those. This was the same with the 1/32 kit. And at least they’ve done a decent job on the top turret this time. I like the look of this - this will be coming my way as soon as it’s available.

Yes the Stirling was massive - here’s a great diagram courtesy of Wiki showing the comparative sizes: In other news, I’ve done something stupid. Really stupid. Here’s the next project for when this one’s complete… No, your eyes are not deceiving you and that is indeed a 1/32 scale Super Constellation. It’s currently residing in my office as I’m too scared to take it home. The Commander in Chief will go apoplectic when she sees it so I’m looking for an opportune moment to smuggle it into the loft when she’s next out!!!

I must confess I was never really a fan of the Stirling’s looks but as I’ve researched and learnt so much about her, she’s really grown on me. From certain angles, she’s quite the beauty!

A few more details added to the Stirling of late. As I’m doing a MkIII, they were fitted with the later FN50 mid upper turret which is a bonus, as I can utilise the HK turret from the Lancaster. However, the fairing around the turret was not provided in this kit so I’ve had to improvise a little… The fairing itself gave a little aerodynamic assistance, but it’s main purpose was provide a runner for cams that provided an automatic cut off to the guns, stopping over excited gunners blasting parts off their own aircraft. I initially wondered if I could use the HK models fairing from their Lancaster kit, but quickly discovered that their shapes were quite different. One day, I’ll get my backside in gear and learn how do design and print such items in 3D, but for the time being it’s back to the old-skool…Milliput to the rescue! Step one was place some masking tape over the area the fairing will sit. Once I’d consulted plans, I transferred the basic outline of the fairing onto the tape. Next, I made some Milliput ‘sausages’ and placed then in position, before using my long-forgotten sculpting skills from my school art lessons and set about creating the approximate form of the fairing. Milliput acts just like clay when wet, so it wasn’t actually hard to get the basic shape - just lots of consulting of pictures and plans needed: With the Milliput given 24hrs to harden fully, I peeled it off from the tape and fuselage, and with some fine sandpaper did the final shaping: This was then glued back to the fuselage, and viola! It won’t be perfect, but it’ll do. Next up was the gear doors. These were cut away as a whole when I made the wings. Astonishingly, I hadn’t lost them: The gear doors are a very complex shape - there are various gaps for the other doors to slot into as they retract as well as an opening for the lower part of that massive wheel to protrude. Again, looking at plans and pictures of the real aircraft, these were cut and shaped accordingly and some ribs added to the inner surfaces: Finally, they were attached to the gear: Here she is sitting pretty on the bench… my kitchen table! I now need to finish detailing the forward part of the main landing gear bays before I can squirt some paint on the bays and the gear to see how it all looks. Until next time, Tom

Good to see you too, Neil. I’ve seen the tape and paint technique done a few times and thought I’d give it a try. It’s one I’ll be using again, too. Im hoping to have this done by next year, but I have a grasshopper mind and do hop about a bit from project to project so no guarantees! Thanks, Steve - and yes it was great to catch up! Cheers, Terry - and good to meet you too. I can only imagine working on these things - it must have been amazing seeing them in the flesh. And yes, the tail wheels were certainly an interesting design and I imagine needed to the sheer bulk of the thing. You’re very kind - but it’s really not that hard…. just a bit bigger than your average model! Thank you, Simon - I’m hoping it’ll look good under some paint when the time comes. It’s all done by eye and consulting plans. Nothing technical I can assure you if that!

Having returned from Telford (which was absolutely fantastic!) I've been all enthused/inspired and have made some more progress on the Stirling... The elevators were my next job - the molded hinge lines are often quite poor vacs such as these so I removed them when I made the stabilisers and planned to try to improve them a little. This also gives the advantage of being able to model them drooped like they usually were when the Stirling was at rest. Thankfully, I saved myself a bit of bother when I cut them away from the sabilisers and remembered to label which part of non-descript plastic was which... These were then sanded to reduce the thickness of the trailing edges and ensure the fit to the sabilisers was as good as it could be - I made a basic spar for each to get the thickness at the leading edges correct with the reduced taper as they progress outwards towards the tips. These were then attached to the stabilisers. The surface detailing is somewhat lacking, but looking at pictures of the real thing there is a very subtle fabric effect on the control surfaces, so I decided to do a little experiment. The ribs produce a very slightly raised line, with the unsupported fabric spaces between then sagging slightly. Therefore, I carefully cut the areas in between where the ribs would be with masking tape, and stuck these to the upper and lower surfaces: Three coats of primer were then applied: ...before removing the taped areas to leave very subtle raised ribs: These will need a very gentle sanding once the primer has cured for a couple of days, but I'm confident that under paint it will have a really good effect. Far better than anything I could have scribed, anyway! With this success I think I'll do the same for the ailerons and rudder... Next up will making the fairing around the mid-upper: Until next time, Tom

Very kind, Neil - thank you. And yes... those flaps are massive and are longer than the span of a Spitfire in 1/72nd scale!

Many thanks. And no, rails not added yet. These appear to be aluminium coloured so will be made and added when painting is completed to avoid complex masking! Many thanks, Terry - and I'd love to chew the fat re. big models! I'll be with IPMS West Kent so at some point over the weekend we'll hopefully be able to catch each other. All the best, Tom

Evening guys and gals! I’ve been working on the huge flaps on this beast of late - they are absolutely massive and I imagine vital in providing extra lift to get this behemoth off the ground. These two pics (used purely for illustrative purposes) show them fully deployed as they often were seen when parked up: I set about them by carefully cutting plastic card to the correct shape for the upper and lower skins, bending the upper surfaces carefully in some very hot water (ouch!) to best replicate the aerofoil shape. I then cut out the runners for the flap tracks and scribed some surface detail - incorrectly at first as the plans I was using were wrong! The uppers and lowers were then carefully glued together over a wooden dowel to act as a spar and help keep the aerofoil correct: As with all scratch building, test fit, test fit, test fit… I then made all the rough edges good with Milliput white and added the distinctive bullet fairings beneath - these were actually old and spare H2S scanners from 1/48th Sanger Halifaxes and with some minor mods did the job perfectly! These will then fit the wing like so: And the undersides: I’m well ‘appy with those! Onwards and upwards! Until next time, Tom

Does yours have the stretched upper deck..? If so you’ll need to do some serious surgery to make it representative of a -200 model…

Superb - the Trident is such a lovely aircraft and you’ve certainly done her justice. The first photo could easily be mistaken for the real thing! I hope that, one day, Didier at Mach2 will give us a 1/72nd scale version - I’d love a larger scale version to add to my fleet. Tom

@Pajarito those pictures are really helpful - many thanks indeed. I've made a tentative start at adding the ribbing to the roof of the bay, and will hopefully make a start on the larger parts of the structure next. I return to the classroom after half term on Monday so things will certainly slow somewhat for a while... All the best, Tom

Good man! Fantastic work so far - and it’s so good to see another of these beasts being done. I built this kit about 10 years ago and what fun it was! I remember getting the spars in the wings a bit tricky - as you know they are rather large and need some serious support. Good luck and I can’t wait to see more! Tom

I’m hoping to, yes - well certainly the squadron badge for the tail. Roundels can be masked and sprayed if needs be - we’ll see when the time comes. Now that’s an idea…! Good point. I’ll make sure I pop in as usual on the way up to Telford.

The boots were regularly, but not always, removed as they were a maintenance nightmare. Also, they were very prone to flak damage and shredding, causing lots of dangerous drag. I’m not certain as to whether Man O War had the boots removed or not, but a tell-tale sign on camouflaged aircraft was the leading edges were then left as natural metal (in most cases) unless a particularly conscientious ground crew repainted them after removal - which when you consider the rigours of war and their numerous other commitments, seems unlikely. Later B-17s/B-24s had thermal deicing systems fitted which drew hot air from the inboard engines and piped it along the leading edges, solving the problem - hence later build aircraft were not fitted with the rubber balloon system of anti-icing. Going on the serial, Man O War would have certainly been delivered with the rubber boots, and in the absence of metal leading edges in photos I suspect it retained the boots. The triangle A insignia was a standard size on both the tail and upper right wing initially, but as formations got larger and assembly more and more complex, they were enlarged on the wing and applied to new arrivals in theatre. I don’t know an exact date for this, but early/mid-1944 seems about right for the larger triangles on the wings to make an appearance. When researching Pistol Packin Muma, which arrived in early ‘44, the smaller, tail sized triangles were in use if that helps. Edit: I have just found this from Superscale stating the boots were removed: I’ll keep digging through my references, and if I find anything further I’ll let you know.

Ha! Now that’s not a bad idea. In fact, the wife was explaining to me earlier that the Vulcan is her favourite plane and therefore we have entered negotiations about there it’s going to be displayed when finished. Having it in the kitchen wouldn’t be ideal, but if all else fails… 😁 I felt the same every time I saw one. Now finally have got my own grubby little hands on one at last! At the moment I’m very much leaning towards camouflage over light aircraft grey - my favourite scheme for the Vulcan. This can be done using the kit decals so I’m hoping they’ll still be useable when the time comes…

Cheers, chaps - appreciated. @bissyboat she certainly is a big girl, and handling it is now becoming somewhat tricky! @Hook a 1/32 scale one would be amazing - the Heritage vac done a while back is on my list of must-haves one day but they are very hard to find. I keep looking… @Pajarito pictures of the parts for the bomb bay would be very much appreciated - this area (and the wheel bays) is next on the agenda so any help would be great! Here’s a couple of quick iPhone pics with the state of play at the moment - wings and tail are done - filled and sanded with success. I’ll get the decent camera out over the next day or two for some better shots. As you can see, it takes up most of the kitchen table! More when there’s more… All the best, Tom

Wow. An absolute masterpiece in every way. Beautiful construction, painting and weathering. I hope this will be at Telford next week..? Tom

It looks lovely in the box - no imperfections or pin holes as far as I can see. I think the Dominator is a newer kit so chances are they have honed their resin casting skills… Lots of sanding and making joints good on the Vulcan today - with a bit more to come - but it’s looking ok. Pictures soon!

That is superb - the Mongram B-17, in my humble opinion, is still one of the best out there in terms of capturing 'the look.' Your metal work in particular is very realistic - what did you use? Tom

Ha ha! Of course I did - it's too hard not to when holding something like this..! Cheers, Colin! Thank you - it's certainly coming together nicely. I'm trying very hard to resist the Dominator - the kit looks really nice and the resin beautifully cast. Having read a few reviews it sounds as if it doesn't go together as nicely as it looks, but it's sure to be less of a challenge the Contrail vacform I have and was considering. When I do make a start, I'll do a WIP thread for those interested and take some 'sprue shots'. Thanks, James - appreciated.

Being on half term (one of the few perks of teaching!) has meant some quality bench time and progress on the Vulcan continues at a pace… I’ve since added the upper wing sections to the lowers - apart from some tricky alignment around the intakes the fit was pretty good and they went on relatively painlessly. Lots of tape required to hold everything in place and then the joints were given a healthy dose of TET and allowed to set overnight: The joints have been given a slathering of Milliput white and are currently curing for some remedial sanding. Whilst I had the wind in my sails I have also added the fin - the usual care to check for vertical alignment with the help of some tape and clamps! Once again I found the fit to be excellent and some more Milliput should make light work of the joint. And as a final hurrah I’ve added the white metal TFR thimble to the extreme nose - again problem free. It’ll now be a session with the wet ‘n’ dry… more soon! All the best, Tom

The Dominator is quite chunky - it looks great in the box with beautiful mouldings but the fun will really begin when it’s time to put it together. I’m doing my best to resist as I already have lots on the go but it’s just so tempting..! Anyway, after a lovely (if not slightly damp) week in Suffolk I returned to the Vulcan with vigour last night. The previous owner had done the majority of the donkey work in sanding and prepping the wings - all I’ve had to do is the final trimming and sanding to get the trailing edges thinned down a little. The wings are big old slabs of plastic and I always feel safer adding spars for extra support and longevity of the model on big vacforms like these. Whilst the kit plastic is fairly thick, the only way to handle this when built will be by the wings so beefing them up is always worth doing - 1mm plastic card to the rescue! I made some span-wise spars and added these to the lower wing surfaces, and these were extended into the fuselage itself and attached to the bomb bay structure I’d made previously with CA glue. The kit’s wheel bays weren’t great, and I felt making my own, again from 1mm plastic card, would be stronger. Once the basic outer shells were made, these too were glued to the lower wing surface. I’ll detail these next, before giving them a squirt of white. I’m amazed at how bare these bays are - I’ll copy the Airfix bays and use them as a guide. With the spars and bays in place, I have now added the lower wings to the fuselage - suddenly it’s got a lot bigger! The next task is adding the aforementioned detail to the wheel bays and finish them off before adding the upper wing surfaces. Test fits reveal a good fit - famous last words..? Until next time, Tom

I have absolutely no idea about the accuracy of the Monogram kit, but what I was referring to was the fact it goes together well - a product of it’s time admittedly but build-wise it doesn’t cause any problems. No doubt this new HB issue will be considerably better in terms of finesse, etc., though.

Indeed. Around the £93-£95 for us in the UK, but no doubt a bit of shopping around might mean finding it cheaper still. In today’s market, that’s not bad for a 1/48th ‘heavy’ - a bit less than the HK B-17s and Lancs, and when you consider the recently re-released Monogram/Revell B-24D is hovering around the £60 (not a bad kit by any means, but dated) this is sure to be a good seller. I’ll certainly be getting a couple of these, and can now sacrifice my Monogram J-model for my Koster Privateer conversion at last! Tom