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Hi folks! Ages since I've done a WIP, but here we go. Welcome to my latest (and particularly barmy) build! I'm going to be attempting to clear the logjam of biplanes in my stash by tackling these two Matchbox beauties (alright, the Heyford is a Revell repop, but still a beauty)! It feels like a nostalgia trip back to the 1970s, apart from the fact I'm much too young to remember. I have always imagined the 1970s as being a sort of beige decade, and my mind is filled with visions of Status Quo, AC/DC, striking miners, institutionalised sexism, raging unemployment and violently awful moustaches. A decade perhaps only brightened up by new heights of luridity (is that a word?) in model kit plastic: I've had these two for years while slowly trying to scratch together references - which is a remarkably difficult task. What's worse, the longer it's gone on ( since 2009, in the case of the Stranraer), the more determined I've become to do some kind of superdetail job on them, hence more internet trawling, hence more time the kits languished in the stash. There's plenty of big hatches and holes to see into, but Matchbox provided very little to fill them with. "Why couldn't I pick some nice P-51 or F-16 or something else with references falling out of the trees?" you might well ask. Well, that just wouldn't be as fun as eight years of on-off research. Honest. With my Borneo field seasons done, and a good stretch of time ahead, I decided the time was ripe to up my research efforts, collate all the data I could get, and crack on at last. So I spent an afternoon in the National Archives perusing maintenance manuals and evaluation reports from the 1930s - oh, and purchased these: I've also got scans of the Mushroom Modelling Publication Walrus and Stranraer, 1930s excerpts from Flight, and the Profile Publication on the Heyford, which I think completes more or less all the available information known to mankind. Honestly, it's easier to find out about lesser-known ancient civilisations in Asia Minor than the internal equipment of a 1930s flying boat! I quite often start a complex interior detailing job by drawing sections in large scale with colour-coded bits - it helps disentangle and present complex information much more understandably. This one is a bit rough, and there are a fair few errors, but it's a start: I've drawn out the necessary structure inside the fuselage halves. I think my sanity will walk a fine line throughout these builds, so I've already cut myself a little slack and decided to have the nose hatch closed and the bow compartment undetailed - this is the area for which references are thinnest and I think there'll be more than enough to do already! But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Before I can start adding structure, the Stranraer in particular needs a fair amount of panel lines adding. The only panel lines which the kit provides are a longeron under the window (which is wrong for about 3cm at its rear end) and one other horizontal line above the porthole in the bow. Take up thy scriber and scribe... The starboard side will be tougher as I've got to remodel the access arrangements. RAF and RCAF Stranraers did not have the large access hatch surrounding the smaller door - this was a more commodious postwar modification applied to Stranraers operated by Canadian civil airlines, and MB clearly copied it from the survivor at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon - so I've got to grind off the raised area to the right - fun fun fun! Hopefully by next time I'll have either achieved this or written off the kit - so long for now!