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Handley Page Herald


alancmlaird

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`Kit fuselage joints not great - distortion rather than any bad mismatch. Do old kits distort? Since this one might well be 40 years old, I suppose that's likely. Anyway - you can see the evidence here...filing, sanding, finish with 400 wet n dry, then a coat of matt white along the joins and more wet n dry. I'd advise glueing lugs along the fuselage halves (as I did to re-joint the nose) to help keep the halves in alignment rather than depend on the inadequate location pins moulded into the kit. I didn't. Oh well.

Herald%2011_zps2azavdz7.jpg

Herald%2012_zpssvyxlxee.jpg

Herald%2013_zpsz31n5dgp.jpg

Herald%2014_zpsmhylik1m.jpgHerald%2015_zpsn7vovzkg.jpg

I put a little yellow into the matt white primer so I could see what I was sanding. I left the ailerons off as they needed to be thinned down quite a bit at the trailing edge. As you can see, the fuselage joins and the wing-to-fuselage joins needed some work!

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Great work so far. I've always had a soft spot for the Herald, ever since I flew to the Isle of Man and back in them in about 1980.

 

I've been keeping an eye out for one of these kits. Just checked eBay, there's someone on there asking EUR6.99 for an empty Novo box. Just the box. No kit. Beats me why anyone would buy it (maybe nobody will), but good luck to them!

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As I mentioned - I wasn't keen on the non-original font that the berkshire Museum had re-painted 'PWA in. It is in what must be the 'new' regulation typestyle since I have seen in on many modern light aircraft. It seems to be an ill-proportioned variation on Helevetica or Groteque. I detest it - it is a typographical horror. Furthermore, it is incorrect to use it on G-APWA, and 2-6 decals, although faithfully copying the museum exhibit, have produced an anachronism that I cannot use on my model (rant over!).
Soooo...what do do. Since that only leaves the 'red square logos' I could use from their decal sheet (i'd always intended to paint the black line anyway), that meant i'd be as well producing my own with the correct squared-off registration letters. Out with the trusty AppleMac/Illustrator/Photoshop and here you see the first print out on paper to check the scale. I'll match the red to the enamel colour later. Never done this before - no idea if it'll work, I got some clear and some white ink-jet decal sheet at a model show, so here goes!

Herald%2016_zpsixqawyyc.jpg

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Tempus, and aeroplanes, fugit. Lots of progress. Much of it backwards. Might have to get my excuses in early.

 

Lots of Frog Tape (seemed like an appropriate brand name). Good and bad. Need more practice. I'd like to hear of everyone's prefered masking tape.
Herald%2018_zpsvbqxkzve.jpg

 

Home made decals suprisingly successful. Used spray fixative. Floated in cold water (not warm). In water for the least time to release as the water eventually spreads under the edge.
Herald%2019_zpsmvlcbgdj.jpg

 

Nowhere near finished yet. Paint too sticky to continue. Got till midnight tomorrow, right?

Herald%2020_zpsu5ukf9zx.jpg

 

Did I mention I have no matt black paint for the prop leading edges and de-icing boots? I had some. Where did it go?

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Looking really good now Alan. This is one of my favourite stages of model making, airliner models lose that monotone appearance and start to come to life.

 

5 hours ago, alancmlaird said:

 

Lots of Frog Tape (seemed like an appropriate brand name). Good and bad. Need more practice. I'd like to hear of everyone's prefered masking tape.

 

 

My masking tape preference is Tamiya, though I have considered giving this Frog tape a try. Any good?

 

5 hours ago, alancmlaird said:

Nowhere near finished yet. Paint too sticky to continue. Got till midnight tomorrow, right?

 

 

No need to panic, this group build runs until 20th November. Enough time to get a second build in yet. :winkgrin:

 

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3 hours ago, nimrod54 said:

No need to panic yet, this group build runs until 20th November. Plenty of time for a second build yet. :winkgrin:

 

HA! Thank you. As a notorious discalculia sufferer, it would seem I miscounted even the month when I started this. (I rarely know what day it is and once declared myself to be a year younger than i was on two car insurance forms and a mortgage application!). Damn....now I have another month to go. The time for prevarication is now.

 

Frog tape is pretty good if you pay attention to the prep. I've used it for DIY before (window frames, skirting boards) but never a model. It does need burnished down (like every other tape), but the edge is nice and crisp. Is seems to 'grip' better if left on for a few minutes before painting. It has a grip of death on itself unfortunately! Best to start again if its two sticky faces meet. B&Q only had it in 35mm width, but easy enough to cut into little strips. It does go round shallow corners quite well, though I prefer to paint those freehand anyway, as on the nose of the Herald. Where I had a real a problem/fail was in masking the black fuselage stripe - the 'hard' edge of the grey and white held the tape off in places and the paint bled under. Some scraping and retouching will be needed. With hindsight, I should not have masked the edges of the top and bottom colour, just run it over into the black area and softened the edge with thinners as I went - then the black would have been masked on top with no hard edge underneath. Or just bought the TwoSix decals.

 

Despite all this, I am completely delighted with the model as its progressing, and thoroughly enjoying the build. The BEA scheme is a really nice classic design that we didn't appreciate at the time due to over-familiarity.

 

The best bit though is the home-made decals. The number of projects I've not undertaken because of the difficulty of getting the markings right....

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Just a quick note if anyone wishes to do the same with a BEA project;
The red is Humbrol gloss red No.19

To match this digitally, the mix was 9% cyan, 100% magenta, 100% yellow, and a tiny but important 1% black. That was created in Photoshop. Some other programs might give a slightly different effect.

However....back in the day, the BEA colour could be anything from this Post Office red on new Tridents or repainted Merchantmen, to a faded a almost salmon pink on time-served Viscounts - particularly those on the Scottish routes which used the island airports like Stornoway or Sumburgh - or Herons which used Barra beach until they were repainted in the Speedjack scheme - the new paint seemed more fade-resistant.

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1 hour ago, busnproplinerfan said:

If I had a room big enough, I'd buy the real one.

At various times, interesting stuff turns up on ebay - real stuff! I briefly considered (not really) a Lightning many years ago for a mere £2000 but on measuring, the wings would have overhung my neighbours' gardens. An Alvis Leonides (time-expired) was a more practical proposition at £750 (my friend has RR Merlin and Meteor engines, and had a Griffon and Goblin Jet too!) but no deal.
Mind you, a guy in the next village just installed a Sea King as a sandwich bar! ......hmmm.....modeling project? 1/72nd scale crockery anyone?

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19 hours ago, alancmlaird said:

At various times, interesting stuff turns up on ebay - real stuff! I briefly considered (not really) a Lightning many years ago for a mere £2000 but on measuring, the wings would have overhung my neighbours' gardens. An Alvis Leonides (time-expired) was a more practical proposition at £750 (my friend has RR Merlin and Meteor engines, and had a Griffon and Goblin Jet too!) but no deal.
Mind you, a guy in the next village just installed a Sea King as a sandwich bar! ......hmmm.....modeling project? 1/72nd scale crockery anyone?

The stuff you can find these days. I guess it's no different than a Constellation for a bar/restaurant, just to bad these things never survive. Love to have a Sea King sandwich bar, at least the rotors fold up.

Edited by busnproplinerfan
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2 minutes ago, busnproplinerfan said:

The stuff you can find these days. I guess it's no different than a Constellation for a bar/restaurant, just to bad these things never survive. Love to have a Sea King sandwich bar, at least the rotors fold up.

I recall there being a Sea King in Croydon.  It was the name of a fish and chip shop near Selhurst Park football stadium.

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On 10/19/2016 at 3:32 PM, alancmlaird said:

 

Herald%2020_zpsu5ukf9zx.jpg

Alan, sorry to mention this but you need to take the red right to the trailing edge of the wings for G-APWA-D and the trailing edge 'pods' should be light grey (not half red/half grey). It was only G-AODF that had the wings painted as you have done.Look carefully at the photo posted above.

 

Edited by AMB
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1 hour ago, AMB said:

 

No prob AMB....that was one of the reasons why there has been a 'pause' on the model for now. The underside is painted red to the trailing edge (as per 'PWB, C, and D), but the top was painted as per the 'ODF and 'PWA (prototype and demonstrator) - that was when I decided I had to do some more research! I'll detail the differences later. But thanks for your input - keep up the good work - I may have more questions for you!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Herald%20model%2010_zpskjimn1yr.jpg

 

FINISHED?

Well, no actually.

 

Had a slight paint disaster - got debris in the grey paint on the lower fuselage - don't know if it was in the brush, in the paint or on the model, but off it had to come! I needed to leave it a full week till the paint hardened enough to be sanded smooth. Well-used 400grit first, then 1200, then, of all things, final polish with Autoglym - a car preparation from Halfords etc. Smoooooooth! Anyway, that left a final rush paintjob that revealed the third law of painting a model "When you paint one bit, that is the bit you will instinctively hold when painting the next bit." So, I was painting and masking some areas while other areas were still wet - decided to call a halt where you see above when I left red fingerprints on the white areas due to aforementioned third law.

So 'PWB still needs detailing: Not on the kit but visible on the BEA machines are nav and landing lights on the wings. There are beacons above and below the fuselage to add, and various aerials need to go on too - the difficulty is that the BEA machines are not particularly well documented - 'ODF and 'PWA are the usual ones published and these were only demobstrators, not true service machines used on the Scottish highlands and Islands servces. These first two have schemes substantially different in detail from the BEA applied scheme. The museum aircraft 'PWA has been repainted in BEA colours, but I can't trust that to be 100% correct - particularly since it has clearly been updated with a radome and fence-type aerials underneath (I think the BEA machines had them on top).

 

An odd thing is that the main undercart doors are painted black on the BEA aircraft - at least, the outer ones are (I found a pic of an anonomous Herald overflying with this....why would they paint just the two outer doors black? More exhaust staining like the tailplanes? Also, there can be long or short exhaust outlets.

 

So, a bit of touching up then final detailing will go on when I know what that actually is! But to qualify for 'completed' I must at least put the cockpit framing on. The Herald's framing seems to be quite deep - might try some 10thou card, but I'll probably use strips of magazine type glossy paper first, or failing that, just paint it on.

 

Oops. Just noticed the nosewheel doors should carry the 'WB' part of the registration and I've missed it out.

Sorry about the quality of the pic - daylight's gone!

But its Saturday evening - no more whittling and daubing for now....

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Not sure if this is real but cracking shot anyway:

http://www.airplanegeeks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Handley-Page-Herald-copyright-DestinWorld-Publishing.jpg

 

I've displayed it as a link as the copyright bit disappeared when I showed picture.

RG

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