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hampden80

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11 hours ago, hampden80 said:

Hi All,

          Has anyone seen the new Valom Harrow kit yet? Been working on the Contrail vac for some time, but this has to be a better option i would think.

 

 

John

Modelling Sod's law has it that as soon as you finish your vac form Valom will issue theirs.

So come on, hurry up, some of us can't wait. :P

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Hi John,

 

Mine is winging its way to Canberra as I write - should have it in a few days.

In the meantime I've just found this link , which gives you images of the contents and instructions:

http://www.model-making.eu/products/Handley-Page-Harrow.html

 

Cheers,

Matt

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The content looks great! - what can be important - the solid nose of Sparrow is inside together with turrets - so no real problem with decission which box I will buy...The difference is only in decals and ususally I am searching for a not out of the box scheme...In case of Harrow it can be difficult to find any new scheme...

Regards

J-W

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11 hours ago, bombernut said:

Hi John,

 

Mine is winging its way to Canberra as I write - should have it in a few days.

In the meantime I've just found this link , which gives you images of the contents and instructions:

http://www.model-making.eu/products/Handley-Page-Harrow.html

 

Cheers,

Matt

Wow , that looks great. Who thought we would ever see kits such as this and Bombay in any other issue than vacform.

 

John

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On 10/17/2016 at 4:44 AM, Aeronut said:

Modelling Sod's law has it that as soon as you finish your vac form Valom will issue theirs.

So come on, hurry up, some of us can't wait. :P

I`m working as fast as i can, which isn`t very fast,

 

:lol:

John

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I've got mine Harrow already! :)  The Sparrow nose is in, but I wonder, if the Sparrow has additional fuselages in box with openings for side fuselage windows? Or it should be cut off by a modeller? I cannot find in net photo with sprues of Sparrow...

Cheers

J-W

J-W

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42 minutes ago, JWM said:

I've got mine Harrow already! :)  The Sparrow nose is in, but I wonder, if the Sparrow has additional fuselages in box with openings for side fuselage windows? Or it should be cut off by a modeller? I cannot find in net photo with sprues of Sparrow...

Cheers

J-W

J-W

Asked the same question in the rumourmonger thread, Sparrows have long slot windows running along the fuselage. I assume you will have to cut them out yourself? See also my vacform WIP.

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The Sparrow solid nose in Valom kit is 34 mm long and starts right on the front end of windscreen. I do not know how long it is in case of Contrail vacu neither how long it should be...

I have not noticed any different tail in box. BTW - what was the difference in tails between H- and Sp-  arrows?

Cheers

J-W

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2 hours ago, JWM said:

The Sparrow solid nose in Valom kit is 34 mm long and starts right on the front end of windscreen. I do not know how long it is in case of Contrail vacu neither how long it should be...

I have not noticed any different tail in box. BTW - what was the difference in tails between H- and Sp-  arrows?

Cheers

J-W

The vacform Sparrow thread is my attempt at the contrail kit, not sure of the exact length of the nose, I used a plan off the internet and it looks about right.

The Valom kit has a packer between the end of the fuselage and the nose piece whether it is the Harrow or Sparrow nose, look at the Rumourmonger thread and the link to a test fit page. The tail of the Sparrow is a faired over turret shape, there is something on the sprue that looks as though it is the Sparrow tail, again the fuselage stops short and you chose which tail (turret or fairing) to add. I always think its misleading to describe these things as turrets as the didn't move, only the gun mount slid in a channel much like the Bombay

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  • 2 weeks later...

A couple of points about the Harrow kit -  although Valom provide resin & brass for the cockpit I think it still needs some extra work. Pics of the Harrow's interior (there's quite a lot on  Google Images) show  the interior to be a bit of a maze of steel tubes, which the kit doesn't provide. the large window on the starboard side of the nose in particular has  much steel tubing behind it. And the interior of the dorsal gun turret is even worse.

Also, the front & rear gun positions aren't turrets; they're glazed cupolas that fit on to fuselage - the only part that rotates is the 'tray' carrying the guns. And it seems there should be a door between the rear gunner's position & the rear fuselage, which you'll have to make yourself. (At least this will prevent a view down the cavernous length of the fuselage.

There's no bomb bay detail.

 

The kit comes in 3 packagings - a pre-war bomber, a wartime aerial minelayer with a sharkmouth (which Valom calls "toothy version" on the box), and a Sparrow transport.. As mentioned above, the sprues look identical - the only differences seem to be the boxtops, the decals & the instructions.

I bought the "toothy" version simply on price - it was £30 incl. post on Ebay; Hannamt's and others are charging £38 + post.

 

A last thought; I once saw a built Contrail Harrow kit at a modelling Show - it's a big aeroplane. It positively dwarfs it's younger brother the Hampden.

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On 03/11/2016 at 4:20 PM, JohnMacG said:

A couple of points about the Harrow kit -  although Valom provide resin & brass for the cockpit I think it still needs some extra work. Pics of the Harrow's interior (there's quite a lot on  Google Images) show  the interior to be a bit of a maze of steel tubes, which the kit doesn't provide. the large window on the starboard side of the nose in particular has  much steel tubing behind it. And the interior of the dorsal gun turret is even worse.

Also, the front & rear gun positions aren't turrets; they're glazed cupolas that fit on to fuselage - the only part that rotates is the 'tray' carrying the guns. And it seems there should be a door between the rear gunner's position & the rear fuselage, which you'll have to make yourself. (At least this will prevent a view down the cavernous length of the fuselage.

There's no bomb bay detail.

 

The kit comes in 3 packagings - a pre-war bomber, a wartime aerial minelayer with a sharkmouth (which Valom calls "toothy version" on the box), and a Sparrow transport.. As mentioned above, the sprues look identical - the only differences seem to be the boxtops, the decals & the instructions.

I bought the "toothy" version simply on price - it was £30 incl. post on Ebay; Hannamt's and others are charging £38 + post.

 

A last thought; I once saw a built Contrail Harrow kit at a modelling Show - it's a big aeroplane. It positively dwarfs it's younger brother the Hampden.

The large window by the cockpit on the starboard side is for a conversion done for Alan Cobham's 'In Flight Refuelling'. There are some very good pictures on the net of at least two of his Harrows and information in books such as 'In Cobham's Company' by Colin Cruddas. G-AFRH will be the subject of my Valom Harrow kit which I picked up today !!

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That's an interesting point about the starboard window, but the Sparrows also have windows down the side of the fuselage which appear to be absent from the runners as shown.  Perhaps there will be different fuselage halves in the dedicated Sparrow kit.

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It's strange how things work out timing wise. My wife sent me this photograph around an hour ago from our local Salvation Army charity shop:

 

Sanger Handley Page Harrow

 

She also sent this:

 

Sanger Avro Lincoln

 

I advised her to get both. The total was AUD $25 (around GBP 15.00).

 

I realise it's an odd time to buy the Sanger vac-form. Maybe the Valom is the reason someone has given it to the charity shop :shrug: ?

 

As an aside the Lincoln is a nice find.

 

Does anyone know if Sanger still exist? 

 

Looking at the Sanger Harrow, it isn't as bad as some vac-forms I've seen.

 

I wonder if anyone could advise, would the cowls from a Halifax Mk III be at all appropriate for a Harrow? I have some in the spares box from an old abandoned Airfix kit.

 

The decals are missing, so if anyone ends up with spare Valom option ones they don't want, please send me a PM so that I can cross your palm with silver. That will then define what marking scheme and type I go for! :) 

 

All best regards

TonyT

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5 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

It's strange how things work out timing wise. My wife sent me this photograph around an hour ago from our local Salvation Army charity shop:

 

Sanger Handley Page Harrow

 

She also sent this:

 

Sanger Avro Lincoln

 

I advised her to get both. The total was AUD $25 (around GBP 15.00).

 

I realise it's an odd time to buy the Sanger vac-form. Maybe the Valom is the reason someone has given it to the charity shop :shrug: ?

 

As an aside the Lincoln is a nice find.

 

Does anyone know if Sanger still exist? 

 

Looking at the Sanger Harrow, it isn't as bad as some vac-forms I've seen.

 

I wonder if anyone could advise, would the cowls from a Halifax Mk III be at all appropriate for a Harrow? I have some in the spares box from an old abandoned Airfix kit.

 

The decals are missing, so if anyone ends up with spare Valom option ones they don't want, please send me a PM so that I can cross your palm with silver. That will then define what marking scheme and type I go for! :) 

 

All best regards

TonyT

Sanger are still trading and have a website, Google Sanger Models and you'll find it. John Aero supplied me with engines, props and nacelles for my recent vac Sparrow. 

You see Contrail kits selling on eBay for big prices when for similar or sometimes less a new one can be bought from Sanger, nice finds though.

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The above comment about the large window on the starboard side of the nose being a Cobham mod is incorrect. Every pic I have of bomber Harrows shows this window. I suspect its' purpose was to give the pilot (who sat high up in the port side of the cockpit) to have a view down & below to starboard.

The Cobham refuelling test plane did have a large area of glazing behind & below the cockpit, but this was on the PORT side (pics exist).

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