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airfix 1/72 handley page hampden


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Thanks again chaps.

There are some etch seatbelts to be added, but gave up last night. All that small work was driving me batty. It's rather difficult working with small parts, fir me,as I have massive overscale hands.

Come payday, I think I will be ordering the falcon vac canopy set. Need to hold off buttoning up the fuselage, as the vac windows for the lower rear turret require some kit surgery to fit.

Edited by S5 modeller
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Some nice interior work going on! I sometimes wonder if it isn't easier to fabricate small boxes from plastic and stick the PE faces on to the plastic. The etched ribs and longerons look good too. I used plastic strip on mine and it looks like 2x4 Lumber!

Regards,

Adrian

Edited by AdrianMF
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Good work so far on an old favourite. When it comes to the exterior, feel free to sand off as much of the erroneous riveting as you wish, as the Hampden was flush-riveted, and pretty smooth.

Shape-wise the main thing you want to correct is the wingtips, which are the wrong shape, they need to me more squared off than what the kit gives you. It is not a big job. There is a good thread here which includes a useful drawing for the purpose.

http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=2321

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Hi Matt hope I can come on board. I love Hampdens; never made one as I heard they were tricky, so I'm really enjoying following this. I don't know how it works out postage wise but Engines 'n Things in Canada have provided me with some superb resin engines. I dont mind the Airfix rivets too much, but think the Falcon canopies would be very nice.

All the best

Tony

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Thanks guys.

That link you provided, works in progress, is really helpful. Shows up the incorrect wing tip profile nicely. I have seen, according to scalemates, that you can get a resin tip correction set. Don't know if I'm up to that much work.

Thought about sanding the rivets off, but thought it might leave the surface rather featureless. Is it worth using the rivet lines as a guide for scribing?

Also looking into adding the formation lights, as they are conspicuous in their absence.

Any thoughts?

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Sand the rivets off and a re-scribe should see you OK. As to the resin wing tip correction set: it is from Airwaves! Do you really want to go down that route again? I suspect some laminated plastic card would serve you better.

Martin

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Sand the rivets off and a re-scribe should see you OK. As to the resin wing tip correction set: it is from Airwaves! Do you really want to go down that route again? I suspect some laminated plastic card would serve you better.

Martin

The wing tip correction set was by aeroclub Martin, don't know if I could even track a set down.

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I wouldn't bother rescribing, tbh. It's a prime candidate for drawing in what you want in fine hard pencil line over the first flat varnish coat. Which also means if you make a bog of it (which I always do when rescribing) you simply remove the line with an ordinary eraser and have another go.

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The wing tip correction set was by aeroclub Martin, don't know if I could even track a set down.

The set I have is Airwaves set SC72119, I didn't know Aeroclub did one as well. That would be worth asking John Adams if he still has a set for sale as It will almost certainly be accurate and fit as well.

Martin

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The set I have is Airwaves set SC72119, I didn't know Aeroclub did one as well. That would be worth asking John Adams if he still has a set for sale as It will almost certainly be accurate and fit as well.

Martin

Been in touch with john, apparently he never produced a set. The scalemates website must be incorrect.

Do you happen to know if the airwaves set is any good?

Don't fancy buying them if they are of the same quality as the etch set.

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Back again.

Managed to get some more work done.

In my haphazard way, I've been working on the undercarriage.

DSC_0170_1.jpg

DSC_0169_1.jpg

Here's a picture of the part breakdown and assembly.

DSC_0166_1.jpg

DSC_0167_1.jpg

DSC_0168_1.jpg

Here's what I ended up with. For some reason I decided to paint the main units before glueing the rest together.

Now I have a problem. Airfix wants me to fix the legs into the slots in the lower wing then fit a pair of retaining blocks to keep them in.

There are 2 problems I can see here, airfix says not to glue the legs, leaving them to pivot.

They say to fit them before assembling the wings.

If I do as they want, I doubt the kit will stand on it's undercarriage because they are a loose fit, and I'm worried I'll damage them whilst building and painting the rest of the kit.

Can anyone see a way of leaving them out till last?

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That's what I thought, Simon.

It's easy to drop them into the slots, before the wings are assembled, but looks quite tricky when the wing halves are joind.

I would have to slot them in longitudinally ( with glue applied) then perform a 90 degree turn and drop the pins into the location points. Sounds easy enough, but with little visibility, could prove problematic. I'm also worried that,without the caps cemented over the pins, the weight of the kit wight cause the leg joins to break free and pop out of the sockets.

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That's what I thought, Simon.

It's easy to drop them into the slots, before the wings are assembled, but looks quite tricky when the wing halves are joind.

I would have to slot them in longitudinally ( with glue applied) then perform a 90 degree turn and drop the pins into the location points. Sounds easy enough, but with little visibility, could prove problematic. I'm also worried that,without the caps cemented over the pins, the weight of the kit wight cause the leg joins to break free and pop out of the sockets.

That's what I would do... And having just checked it by doing the same on my damaged Hampden your visibility will be fine and they should line up great! My first Hampden was sat in three pieces so I just ripped the landing gear off and gave it a go.

Rob

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Rob, thanks for the confirmation. I had a look, and as you say, it will be possible to fit them after.

Going on that premise I've started button up the wing. Not sure if it's port or starboard ( never drank any starboard).

Hmmm, after googling it, it is the starboard wing.

DSC_0174_1.jpg

Fit isn't brilliant ( I'm sensing a running theme here!) I removed most of the alignment pins as they weren't helping.

DSC_0172_1.jpg

A bit of misalignment along the leading edge, but nowt a tidy up with a file ans sanding stick won't cure.

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I opted to have the misaligned section on the leading edge, so the cutout for the flap was square and true. I've not inserted the flap yet, as I haven't glued the rear of the cutout.

DSC_0175_1.jpg

There is a bit of a gap right at the end of the wing tip. I got this the best I could, each wing half had a positive bump about a quater of an inch inboard of the edge. The bump was that bad it was taller than edge of the tip. I had to hollow it out the best I could so the tips would touch.

I'm leaving it at that, as I intend to slice the end off, so I can graft some plasticard on and correct the tip profile. Funnily enough, airfix got it wrong.

DSC_0173_1.jpg

Engine firewalls are also uneven, tapering in towards the wings, and meeting proud at the joins. Might be a draft angle on the tooling who knows.

DSC_0171_1.jpg

Just an overall view. Thinking hard about sanding off the rivets and re scribing.

You may notice the mole grip on the tab, had to use this as the two halves of the tab wouldn't close up under the hardest finger pressure I could apply!

DSC_0176_1.jpg

Had to run tamiya extra thin into the gap, a bit at a time, and clamp it shut.

DSC_0178_4.jpg

All done now. Just test fitted it to the starboard fuselage, and the tab is a very very tight fit. On the plus side, it looks like the fit will be pretty good. Might thin the tab slightly.

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Careful with the wing when fitting it into the main fuselage, the gap is very tight for the wing spar, I trimmed the opening on mine and gave the wing spar a bit a sand and a very good tidy.

Rob

Good tip Rob.

Martin

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