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Airfix 1/72 Avro Shackleton WIP - Finished !


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She sure is, I remember thinking that when I did my Froggy one years ago

Are the joint lines likely to be hard to eradicate on the fuselage, they look a bit prominent there and I have seen a build with a huge joint line underneath it

Somebody at my IPMS branch thought there might be a little concavity round the fuselage joints when he held the parts together

I'd love him to be 'not quite right' ;)

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I'm going to give the areas a coat of primer too see if I they are still prominent and still need some attention, although most of what you might be able to see it my choice of filler, which is green and stands out like a sore thumb on an unpainted kit

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Since it is very much on topic with the Shackleton, and building an aircraft that my grand father flew in.

My own home is very much dedicated to the Shack, any guest walking into my living room with me instantly drawn to my two pictures on the wall.

An amazing sketch done purely with pencil

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A mk1, mk2 and mk3 all together

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And last of all, placed in my man cave is WG557, this was the main aircraft my grandfather spent most of his time on, and yet again, thanks to xtradecal I'm going to be able to build this one too.

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I'm going to have a great display for my clubs table at shows, with a built WG557, a frame print of the aircraft, and a log book with hours of flight time in the aircraft. along with this one WR966. A shrine as such to my late grandfather whom passed in 2010, This hobby would not be part of my life without his influence, that is why this aircraft means so much to me, just wish I could show him the kits once finished

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She is a big girl.

Ain't she just. I saw an occasional AEW Shack in the distance early in my career, but it's only when you see that kind of photo that the size / aspect ratio of those wings becomes fully apparent. I think I'd just lazily assumed the wings were Lanc wings with different nacelles.

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Hi mate

"I have managed to get all that interior inside the fuselage halves and sealed, I did sand down the areas suggested the review in the most recent issue of airfix model magazine, but still found a little force closed things up, the force was strong in this one. I did use a little filler"

I wish I'd seen that article in the Airfix mag as I've really struggled to get mine together. I had to reduce the rear area of the interior inc the curtain by quite a lot and as for the front of the Shack I was left with a 1mm gap under the nose which I have filled using a shim, of course it means the clear, bomb aimers window doesn't fit now, too small plus the front of my shack was deformed so I've had to carry out some other minor surgery to rectify that! grrrrr... how ever I'm really enjoying it!

As an aside did you ever manage to have a look at WL 795 Mr Rusty at St Mawgan? Very impressive.

Keep up the good work mate its looking really good.

Iain

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So my plan was to get some work done today on the Shack, but being half term I found myself with not only my girls but also my nephew as my sister has just given birth to my 2nd nephew and I was required to baby sit.

So I took the kids out with the wife and manage to bag a visit to Truro and my local model shop and walked away with a few kits, which also included a couple of a certain kit in question.

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In regards to the shack, I got home tonight and started some work on the wings and engines, I must admit i'm a little disapointed with the fit of the outer engines to the wings, but hey, we are modelers, what is an extra bit of filling and sanding going to do. I also glued the bomb bay doors closed for this one.

She is starting to take shape, though I'm thinking the seams might still need some work.

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I think I've discovered the main cause in getting the rear fuselage to close when the interior is in. The instructions have you insert the complete interior assembly in the left half, but a trial fit into the right showed the base of the installed crew entry door was fouling the floor! Take out about a mm from the base and she closes up a lot easier.

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So, little more work done over the weekend, I'm only working one day this week due to cashing in some holiday before the end of the year.

I've got to the stage of fitting the engines to the wings and the wings are now fixed in place. I'm going to spend tomorrow getting all the windows/canopy in and masked, there is still a few areas where some mr surfacer will be added to fill some smaller gaps, i'm going to give it a little primer in the areas of the aircraft that are white, I don't usually prime my kits, but the undercarriage bays didn't take very well to the white being sprayed onto the bare plastic, while that can be hidden in some cases, I'll struggle with the upper wings and fuselage areas.

anyway, a few pictures

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She is shaping up nicely! Makes me wish my kit were here right now! Being in the colonies does have its drawbacks, as if I were in the UK, I'd have my grubby little mitts on one of these by now. As it is, I'm waiting on the steamship to drop anchor in New York, then the kit will be shipped via barges and mules until it finally reaches my door. I can't wait until we have those new-fangled dirigibles to bring the post across the Atlantic.

Regards,

Jason

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In regards to the shack, I got home tonight and started some work on the wings and engines, I must admit i'm a little disapointed with the fit of the outer engines to the wings, but hey, we are modelers, what is an extra bit of filling and sanding going to do.

Don't worry too much the fit is awful on the real thing too. The nacelle behind the engine is one piece and attaches to the lower surface of the wing using dzus fasteners. It stands proud of the wing as a result. The fillet panel from the wing to engine cowl also sits over the panels on the engine. If anybody gets perfectly smooth cowlings on a model Shack (Revell, FROG, Airfix, Sanger) it always makes me smile, as you can never get them perfect on the 1/1 example. Luckily you don't need to as she's far from supersonic. :)

Great work so far!

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thanks for the tip rich

I've got a few days off work, so managed to get some more done today, all the canopy is now masked. I've also sprayed the black on the front of the aircraft along with the interior color of the cockpit framing, it is going to be interesting getting white to go over that black, but i'm sure it will be ok.

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I've got to the stage when i'm throwing away empty sprues, which to be shows we are going along at a good speed.

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so, again on with some more today, great having a week off work

So props painted, i've decided to go with the decals instead of painting the tips, yes, I am a fool.

I've always had an issue with getting dark sea gray correct, So I decided to use the same mix that Jen Wright used in the recent issue of Airfix model magazine. roughtly 50/50 mix with XF-82 and XF-77 and a couple of drops of X-4. It looks good enough for more so I painted the tailplanes and the result looks ok, feel free to give your views

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Looking good, I'm glad you left the fins and tail surfaces off untill after painting the fus. The scribed detail looks good under a caot of paint. The SAAF builders down here in SA are all champing at the bit for the AEW Mk3 kit...

Colin

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Another update on the shack today, this is moving fast.

First, the masking of the white surfaces, with plenty masking tap.

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I painted the undercarriage bays before the main colour as I found the kit comes with some awesome masks for the undercarriage bay, the close undercarriage doors, these are not glued in, just clipped in place and work out as really good masks for them, as I'll be displaying my kit with gear down these part would have found themselves in the bin, but I found a use for them

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and now some DSG

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I'm going far too quickly here

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This really does have to be release of the year, no, beggar that the century for me.

You're making a good model uberimpressive

The seams seem (oops sorry) to have vanished where we'd need them to

I really like this

(you cant tell can you?) :)

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So all painting touch ups have been done and left to dry for 24 hours, I've added the undercarriage now and she is standing tall.

All painting has been finished, including the few smaller parts to be added later, so all we need to do now is gloss her up for some decals, she is such a beautiful bird

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Looking good! Been following from the start in the background, but had to pop forward and say how good it looks, a very nice job you are doing. The only disappointing aspect is that it is an RAF aircraft when it would look soooo much better as an RN aircraft :winkgrin:. I am sorely tempted with this one, who knows a WIFF maybe? Keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing this in the RFI

Cheers now

Bob

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Thank Bob, it is great to get such positive comments.

On the other note everyone, I had an odd parcel turn up this afternoon from Airfix, 2 Shackleton fuselage halves, I think someone forgot to delete my email, and i've ended up with a spare set of fuselage halves.

One this regarding this build is gloss cote is now on and I've already started going through my stash to decide what is next, I know I've getting closer to the finish line when I start looking for my next build, will be smaller that this mind you.

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It's looking fantastic. I've also come to the conclusion that there is a massive conspiracy at Airfix to take my money. I have to buy every model that has markings that flew in Malaya/Malaysia and Singapore, and now I must buy this Shack. But the Airfix people need to brush up on their geography - Tengah is in Singapore, not Indonesia!

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I'm confused how Airfix made that error. The recent Javelin kit had an option for a tengah based aircraft and they put it down as Singapore which was correct.

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