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Avro Shackleton AEW Mk. 2 Details


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The wooden strips held strips of spongy lead which was porous, de icing fluid was dispensed via a cyclic controller. I think it was glycol de-icer.

Thanks LightningMk6. Interesting way to do it - unless the spongy lead was very carefully produced I imagine the glycol flow could be quite uneven, depending where the pump outlet was!

John B

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Chally,

Please post your build pics on here as every little bit of gen helps and thanks for the flap info, looks like I will have to re-paint the flap interiors on my DSG Mk. 3 then!

Ian

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I asked the SPT to check out the boxed brand new flap sections in their store; they are Dark Sea Grey. WR963's are also the same colour; though faded!

John B; the deicing pumps are in the rear of each inboard nacelle and are about the size of an old typewriter. There's about 16 connections come off each pump to ensure an even spread to several points in each deicing strip.

Edited by richw_82
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Those photos of the AEW are brilliant, one thing I have noticed is that you can't even see the rivets even on some of the close up shots

Thats always one of my bugbears when people trot out the old line "100,000 rivets etc". Yes, there's tons of rivets. But they're a standard size found in many other contemporary aircraft. They don't really stand out any more unless you paint your Shackleton white and it gets dirty..

..

Oh. Whoops. :P

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It's a matter of preference I guess, It's not photos that I go off or I wouldn't have panel lines and other details on many models I've built.

I remember the Shack (and it's well known as) a rivety beast and that's how I wan't to depict it.

My personal view point - I love the original Frog MR.3, it is overly riveted but looks naked if sanded smooth. The Airfix MR.2 is too clean with overly accentuated panel lines. The Revell AEW.2 gets the appearance just right, surface detail is so subtle that you could choose to lose the rivet detail quite easily under a thick coat of paint.

Having said that, I do get the point of why the Shack should be treated differently to other types of the time, ie the Revell Lancaster doesn't have the same rivet detail, where as the original airframe had them as much as the Shackleton.

I guess some of it comes from a 1940s design soldering on into a far more modern design era.

BTW, excellent video walkthrough of WR960s' interior here,

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I should make it clear that I'm no expert modeller, or model photographer. I build the subjects I'm interested in, straight from the box with minimal extras.

My build here is no different, but it is of one of my favourite types and one that I'm lucky to have had close contact with, I'm aiming to show the small details that can be removed or replaced to make small improvements.

The cockpit interior that comes with the kit is good enough, but the nose gunner position parts are completely non representative, and there is nothing in the flight engineers & signallers positions which are quite visible through their windows. This prompted me to basically use the Airfix cockpit, gunner position, flight engineers & signallers bulkhead, and crew seats to improve the Revell interior.

My Shck will be fully closed up, so I won't be adding any more interior.

25818304495_c42f276445_b.jpgrevshack 1 (2400x1600) by James Thomas, on Flickr

This shows the fuselage together, the pile of unused Revell parts in grey are to the left, the used Airfix parts in light blue/gery to the right.

25723204631_c76c403221_b.jpgrevshack 2 (2400x1599) by James Thomas, on Flickr

25697344902_a5a6232150_b.jpgrevshack 3 (2400x1600) by James Thomas, on Flickr

These show the parts incorporated together, along with a plastic card cockpit floor, signallers desk and forward bomb bay bulkhead.

25818303275_090fb475eb_b.jpgrevshack 5 (2400x1601)e by James Thomas, on Flickr

The red rings show the two external bits to remove, the forward raised scoop, and the trailing aerial. Be careful when removing the latter as the plastic gets very thin here.

Edited by 71chally
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Thanks James excellent explanation and good photos too. That's an expensive model you're building there but I guess you're getting the best of both worlds and interesting to see how the cross kitted parts actually fit okay. Please keep posting.

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Can somebody help me please?

I'm looking for information as follows:

Location of ... ... ...

  • Undercarriage locks.
  • Any intake covers/blanking plates etc.
  • Any other RBF tag uses on AEW.2
  • AEW.2 weapons bay - pix of Lindholme Gear plus flame/smoke floats etc. and anything else carried in the weapons bay.
Thanks. Edited by Highlandsniper
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I asked the SPT to check out the boxed brand new flap sections in their store; they are Dark Sea Grey. WR963's are also the same colour; though faded!

John B; the deicing pumps are in the rear of each inboard nacelle and are about the size of an old typewriter. There's about 16 connections come off each pump to ensure an even spread to several points in each deicing strip.

Thanks Rich - that would solve that one, though not cheaply.

I tend to forget that military suppliers didn't do stuff by halves. "Weight? Complexity? Hah - you ain't seen nothing yet!" Probably they still don't.

Regards,

John B

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Undercarriage locks -

Large red telescopic items that you can see above each leg, going to the knuckle joint.12745907_963338467094559_108182979375012

The tailwheel lock is a small red collar that fits around the top of the hydraulic ram.

Many thanks.

What about other covers, plugs and blanking plates?

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They're all in the AP that I can't find!!

Basically all vents on the fuselage have a small plug made of silver rubberised fabric with a foam centre and a red remove before flight tag. The two heaters on the lower fuselage have a fabric cover that goes over the mouth of each of them, and there's two remove before flight tags that have small rubber pins to plug into pressure points in the fuselage just below where "Royal Air Force" is written - these two stay attached by a press stud thats fixed to the fuselage.

I'll try and get what I can from the MR2 manual and post it up as most of the main covers are identical.

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Just as an aside - back in the 80's I was at 30 MU Sealand and worked on the same line as the Orange Harvest guys.... It seems the aerials were all slightly different (hand built?) as far as I can recall; involving a lot of interesting language getting a particular part lined up inside (shades of 3D chess chess...). All very fascinating when you spend your day modifying Nimrod intercom boxes (miniature co-ax wires in a 158 way plug anyone?)

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They're all in the AP that I can't find!!

Basically all vents on the fuselage have a small plug made of silver rubberised fabric with a foam centre and a red remove before flight tag. The two heaters on the lower fuselage have a fabric cover that goes over the mouth of each of them, and there's two remove before flight tags that have small rubber pins to plug into pressure points in the fuselage just below where "Royal Air Force" is written - these two stay attached by a press stud thats fixed to the fuselage.

I'll try and get what I can from the MR2 manual and post it up as most of the main covers are identical.

Fantastic - thanks.

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Probably the most obvious RBF flags were the ones fitted on each of the underwing pitot tubes.

One cover they used fairly regularly, even at airshows, was the main wheel covers. There was mention on another thread of someone possibly producing resin versions of these for the kits - which would be nice!

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That's an expensive model you're building there but I guess you're getting the best of both worlds and interesting to see how the cross kitted parts actually fit okay. Please keep posting.

There is a logic behind it, the Airfix MR.2 interior is actually that of an AEW.2 while the Revell AEW interior is that of an MR.2!

AEW.2 WL795 is the aircraft that I want as a really nice model, so the best option is to use the Revell kit incorporating the Airfix interior, I've now decided to use the radar console area aswel. Pics to follow.

At the very least this leaves the Revell MR.2 interior to use in the Airfix kit. However, I've had another idea for the Airfix kit, which will be a bit more long term.

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Probably the most obvious RBF flags were the ones fitted on each of the underwing pitot tubes.

One cover they used fairly regularly, even at airshows, was the main wheel covers. There was mention on another thread of someone possibly producing resin versions of these for the kits - which would be nice!

I hope someone will produce the wheel covers - analternative could be PVA and tissue paper or similar.

There is a logic behind it, the Airfix MR.2 interior is actually that of an AEW.2 while the Revell AEW interior is that of an MR.2!

AEW.2 WL795 is the aircraft that I want as a really nice model, so the best option is to use the Revell kit incorporating the Airfix interior, I've now decided to use the radar console area aswel. Pics to follow.

At the very least this leaves the Revell MR.2 interior to use in the Airfix kit. However, I've had another idea for the Airfix kit, which will be a bit more long term.

I was thinking about using the Airfix interior in the Revell model.

Now hoping someone will produce weapons bay contents for the AEW.2, otherwise I guess I'll have to make my own, but good reference seems a bit scarce.

Edited by Highlandsniper
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Can somebody help me please?

I'm looking for information as follows:

[*]AEW.2 weapons bay - pix of Lindholme Gear plus flame/smoke floats etc. and anything else carried in the weapons bay.

Thanks.

There is a photo of this installation in Chris Ashworths Shackleton book, page 166.

Will try and scan if needed.

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