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Avro Manchester L7463 - Revell / Planet cross kit - FINISHED!


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Looking good as always Neil.

I do like your method of using aluminium rod in that way. I'm intrigued as to how you actually get the accurate position of the holes in the second wing.

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Looking good as always Neil.

I do like your method of using aluminium rod in that way. I'm intrigued as to how you actually get the accurate position of the holes in the second wing.

Cheers Chaddy.

I lined the wings up with each other and drawn lines to get them roughly equal before doing anything. The centre distance height wise was a guestimate by eye, good old engineering! Pilot holes were drilled using a micro drill, then used three more drill sizes to gradually widen the hole to 4mm. This was done using a battery drill and carefully holding the wing to keep the drill square on. This is where the aluminium comes in, they were slightly out from each other after all that, so the aluminium was bent to level everything up with lots of dry fitting.

Something I need to think about apart from the rear turret is the bomb bay. Unlike the Lanc, the bomb bay doors never had a curved profile at the bottom length ways along the fuselage. Neither the Planet kit or the Revell doors in standard form are usable, my plan is to stick a load of car filler inside the Revell doors and sand the hell out of them until they are flat. Of course, they will be in the closed position, but most pictures I've seen of the Manchester are closed anyway. The surface detail can be resribed in to the exposed car filler as it's like plastic when dry.

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The Manchester is coming along nicely Neil,...it should be a real stonker when it is finished and I love those resin Planet wings, the detail on the engines is fantastic.

I`ve got an old Contrail vacform Mancheser built up in the loft and the detail on these parts makes mine look like it is made from soap!

Once you`ve made this you do know that Airfix will add a set of Manchester wings to their Lanc don`t you!

Cheers

Tony

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I hope they do! Also got a 3 fin kit here to follow up with, can't have enough Manchesters!!

Modelling has slipped a bit this week. Been in Coventry with work and was wined and dined by a system provider on Wednesday night. Suffering a second day from a hangover, just a lightweight these days!!!!

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The next step..

The later Manchesters had the intakes inboard of the engines, but these are missing on the Planet kit. Holes will be drilled to fit the box section tube in and the gaps filled, sanded and blended. Also wire cutters will be added to the leading edges too at some point

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Progress on the first engine. Fitting the exhausts and shrouds is going to be a fiddly job, the profile of the shrouds don't align with the profile of the nacelle on the lower units, so some bending will be necessary some how. There are no radiator exit doors on the kit, so I want to do something there, but can't find any good reference pics to see how the exit is shaped at the moment.

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Hi Woody. I hadn't realised you'd got a build going on in this GB. Excellent - will follow with interest. Looks great so far! I was thinking of joining in with a 1/72 Mossie but I'm going to have a go at a couple of Spitfires next.

Edited by PlaStix
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Not much progress this week. Had a lucky escape. Over the weekend I came to look for the intake above the engine and it wasn't to be found anywhere. I presumed it had been binned with the resin stubs left over on the bench so there was no option but to pull the bin bags out of the wheely bin and search for it. Fortunately, it was found which for such a tiny piece was pretty amazing!

Both engines done now except for the exhausts which are suffering from procrastinationitis! The marks along the leading edge are pencil lines as I'll be adding the cable cutters soon.

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Drawings show the little blisters under the wings, but I can't tell if these were there from photographs of real aircraft, so I've gone off the drawing. The blisters were cut from the Revell wings using a razor saw and grafted on. Just need to re-affix one of the radiator doors which the sausage fingers broke off.

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Nice bit of engineering Matey.

The method I have used in the past is to cut out the plastic ribs and sand to the wing profile. Clamp the ribs together and drill the holes for the spars before fixing to the wings. Once you have a perfectly matched pair they can be glued to the wings and used as a template to drill the wings themselves. Eliminated a bit of the guesswork

Cracking job Neil. Looking forward to the painting stages.

Chris.

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Cheers guys.

Had some quiet time last night so got a bit done. Now calling the wings done except for the inner flap rescribe but that's a quick job.

The exhausts went on OK in the end...

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I used some of the bits from the Revell kit to detail the u/c bays. I'll be using the main gear legs from the planet kit and the drag links from the Revell kit which look stronger.

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With the wings as good as done, work has started on the fuselage. The forward escape hatch has been moved forwards. Here's the plan for the fuselage:

1. Front turret will be Falcon part designed for the old Airfix kit.

2. Mid upper will be the planet parts

3. Rear turret will probably be the Falcon Sunderland III vac turret.

4. Bomb bay doors will be closed and flattened by filling in the interior with car filler and sanding the hell out of them

The rest will be OOB!!!

Need to get some work done on the C-47 this week too, there's a Jeep to assemble next.

Cheers

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Actually, Neil, I rather like it with the wings sitting on top of the sanding block. Sort of an avant-garde interpretation of the Manchester - it's up to the viewer to fill in the details of the fuselage as they wish. I have to say that I have quite a few of what I might call minimalist models, or what those with less of an artistic bent might just call partially-completed.

Regards,

Jason

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Exactly, Neil! Why should we modellers be bound by society's preconceptions of what a "model" is? Why should it have to be accurate? What is accuracy? I say put out an unbuilt kit, still laying in its box, and let the viewer "build" it in their minds. Better yet, let them pay for it, so they can truly "own" their vision, then donate the kit to me, as a true artistic modeller.

Regards,

Jason

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That`s it now,.....Neils taken it off to the Tate Modern and put it up for sale for £10,000 and called it "An Impression of Manchester"!

Tony

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