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1/72nd Boulton-Paul Overstrand


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Hello, now THAT is what I call an aeroplane! And modelling. You cannot beat a vacform for skill improvement can you? I remember the days well...

I always had a leaning towards the 'odd' aircraft and I must admit I was surprised at the manufacturer being Esoteric, I could have sworn there was another one before that. Ah well, maybe my memory is not too good these days.

Looking forward to seeing the aircraft progress.

Kind regards, Ray

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David, ah yes..the Blackburn Blackburn..even the name is out of kilter, and my initial impression of the trim tab was the same, may well be to with the extra bulk of the nose turret. A popular design, apparently pilots loved it, not sure about the nose gunner though..unsuitable for claustrophobics or those over 4' tall...

Ray, thanks, vac and resin are my favourite mediums by a country mile. I'm a great fan of oddball aircraft too and at one time vac was the only way to go if you wanted to build them, though that's changed in recent years. I just love these old inter war machines, full of character and quirky design features...now if someone would just bring out a Beardmore Inflexible, (oh hang on I think I've got a plank of 4 by 2 and a couple of pram wheels in the shed !!)

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Dermot....'high speed' is used in the loosest possible term here ! 148 mph with a stiff tail wind if you were lucky.......not sure wether they meant the aircraft was travelling at high speed or the poor sap trying to operate the gun !!!

...and with a good head wind 30 knots backwards was probably easily obtainable....fast enough I'd say, eh General!! :D

keef

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As for the engines not fitting the cowls, I was a little puzzled when I saw them as they are Jupiters (Sidstrand only)which are slightly bigger than the Pegasus and the Overstrand doesn't use the forwards exhaust ring. The Sidestrand III had cowled Jupiters.

John

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Ooh lovely. I wholeheartedly agree with your choice of subject and medium. I'm going to enjoy watching this one proceed. Might even inspire me to get that Contrail Blackburn Blackburn out of the stash!

Cheers

John

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General

This is nothing but a blatant attempt to hog the front centre section of our Bomber Command SIG display. Again. First the Hendon now this,you'll be doing a Virginia next. If I remember to give it to you.

Regards

Paul

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A very good choice for a biplane vac-form bomber. I have my kit next to me, & I do not have the detailed interior drawing sheet. I very much wish I had a copy. I will be looking closely at your progress. Also, I think it is Flight Global that has several pictures of this plane on the net. I have forgotten how I found them, I am sorry to say. Carl T :thumbsup:

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Pertaining to the pictures on the Flight Global that I mentioned earlier. I just did a search for them. They are under flightglobal.com. Scroll down to the archives section, & then find military aircraft & 1930s period. There are several in flight pictures of Sidestrands of 101 squadron, one of which is from the right hand underside showing those markings clearly. There is one that I presume is a prototype because of the completely different motor instillation.There are also pictures of the planes on the ground with squadron personel there.There are 118 pictures in the series, including several types of aircraft. Carl T :thumbsup:

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Goshagolly Melchie sir, that is a beauty

Did they really expect that you would cut the fin/rudder and trim tab/flap/barndoor out as a unit?

ee blinkin K!

Murdo pass some of that popcorn shirley you wont eat it all at this time of night

In the immortal words of Field Marshall Getonwithitman "Carry on General

I will be watching!"

bill

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Good ploy Jessica, unfortunately I'm the commander in chief of the Accuracy Police<snip!>

All it means is that you would be obliged to arrest yourself, then be forced to let yourself go for lack of evidence :P

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2624964....report to me first thing in the morning..........tin hat on !!

John, yes only just realized that this morning !...I don't suppose you have any Pegasus, (Pegasi ?), available ? I'm also at a loss with the props as the kit comes supplied with 4 twin blades rather than 2 twins for the Sidestrand and 2 four blades for the Overstrand. Do you have any suitable props as well ?

P1150021.jpg

And yes John you really ought to dig the B Burn B Burn out !

Thanks Radleigh, yes I've contacted Cyril Plimmer at the Project hoping he might have some good archived cockpit stuff he could let me use, Here's progress on their Overstrand cockpit,

Overstrand2-3.jpg

General

This is nothing but a blatant attempt to hog the front centre section of our Bomber Command SIG display. Again. First the Hendon now this,you'll be doing a Virginia next. If I remember to give it to you.

Regards

Paul

Ah, the voice from the wilderness.........told you I'd get one Paul ! As for the Virginia, well you can hang on to that bu**er for a while...one wood and tin contraption held together with string at a time please, (enough going on trying to finish the Lanc !) :P

In between gardening and trying to finish off the conservatory wiring I managed to grab 5 minutes to cut the engine nacelles and trim to fit. I've fitted black blanks inside the rear of the cooling intakes and glued everything together.

As supplied,

P1150019-001.jpg

And modified,

P1150020-001.jpg

Melchie...

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Thanks all, Carl, yes I've seen the Flight global stuff...very interesting too...thanks.

Bill...yes ! I thought that was a bit hopeful when I saw the thing on the sheet !

Wolfie

Dare I mention a part started B-52?

Funnily enough I just started priming the BUFF this afternoon Ian while the sun was shining and Lady M was out having her talons clipped !.............. sat next to the Overstrand there was a slight contrast in size and weapons load !! don't fear it will be done in the not too distant, along with all the others... :whistle:

Jessica..I've not only had myself arrested, charged, remanded in custody, paroled, released and fully compensated for time wasting but also done the ironing for the Memsahib....so I've been cleared on all counts !!

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I seem to have chosen a bad time to start this build as I 'm busy with renovating the house we've recently acquired. However I did manage to get the cockpit started thanks to a very kind gentleman by the name of Les Whitehouse from the Boulton Paul Heritage Project in Wolverhampton, (well not for long as they are moving at the mo), who sent me heaps of information on the Overstrand including detailed factory drawings of the cockpit layout and gun turret details, rigging diagram, engine nacelles, etc ! Excellent and reliable information straight from the horses mouth. Unfortunately I can't show it here as it's copyrighted to Les and he's asked me to respect that, which of course I will but this should make the build a heck of a lot easier !!

Both cockpit side walls done, (only the stuff that can be seen, (sort of !)

P1150031.jpg

The scratch built cockpit tub and controls, all that's used from the kit is the top of the control wheel.

P1150029.jpg

And the parts in situ,

P1150032.jpg

Next I'll be painting the parts and fitting extra detail, belts, instruments, wiring, etc, then start on the 'mid upper' area

Cheers now,

Melchie...

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Thanks Radleigh, the info's pretty rare and will be of great use. (pm sent re the Buccaneer too).

John sent me a nice shiny package this morning, some of his proper 4 blade props for the old beast, that's all I need now, not sure why I didn't have any in the kit.......it was sealed !...oh well.

P1150034.jpg

And with a bit of cleaning up,

P1150035.jpg

While I was at it I managed to get the tail planes and fin done too, next those big old wings !

P1150036.jpg

Melchie

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I spoke to Cyril at the Boulton Paul Heritage Project in Wolverhampton, as my Grandad worked their on the BP Defiants, he said the building has been acquired by an American company and they are relocating to Cosford

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You did well with getting in touch wth Les, Melchie. Not only very well informed B&P expert chap, also one of the finest modellers I ever met.

He was a member of Brum's IPMS branch many years ago and I well remember some of his fabulous models, his minesweeping Aunty Ju (Ju52-M?) was a delight.

The cockpit is very impressive, I love the levers on the side walls. The sort of details I never get right, you must have micromanipulators intead of fingertips.

I'm battling the reluctance of plastic rod to form two identical control yokes, must take lessons...

bill

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Thanks chaps, yes Kev thankfully everything's being put into storage...it would be a tragedy if it were all sold off !!

Bill, Les kindly offered his services straight away and I'm very grateful that he did. The detail photo's that he's sent me are unavailable anywhere that I've looked !

The matter of the props has been cleared up, according to Les the standard production Overstrand had two twin bladed props fitted back to back though due to vibration four bladed ones were also fitted to some machines which although going some way to addressing the problem didn't completely cure it. It would be some time until the navigator could drink his port and bitter lemon without spilling it all over his map books :pilot: !!

Something that did come up though was the fact that only the Overstrand can be built accurately from the kit as the Sidestrand's tail plane and wing ribbing was quite different and would require new parts...(just as well I went for the Overstrand then) !!

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