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Vulcanicity's Stranraer and Heyford dual mega build!


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How much did you need to trim off of the rear cabane struts? Both of these are going to be real stunners.

 

Impressed of Mars 👽

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Wish I'd seen this thread before finishing my Heyford and starting my Stranraer.

 

Some impressive modelling taking place here, and I'm following with great interest for the "next time" I turn my hand to these Matchbox classics.

 

Superdetailing it certainly is !!

 

Rog

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Great builds! Watching with interest, I have finished Heyford a couple of years ago and have Stanraer in the stash so both subjects are of great interest to me.

 

May I suggest a couple of aftermarker items for your builds

 

1. Marabu Design "British External Bomb Racks"

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I used this "Marabu Design British Bomb Rack" etched set for external bombs on my Heyford:

 

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2. MiniWorld Lewis guns. there little gems may be used for both planes

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the comments. Alexey - your Heyford is superb, easily the best I've seen in 1/72nd! That's the scheme I'm planning on, and I'll be pleased if I get it that good!

I've already got a full stock of the Marabou bomb racks, although your post reminded me to check how many of the Miniworld Lewis guns I had - only two! So I gritted my teeth and shelled out on some more (£6 each ferchrissakes!)

Limeypilot -A quick check of the SAM modeller's datafile on the Battle suggests it had type-specific bomb racks which fitted into the bomb cells - so you might have to scratchbuild. PM me if you need a copy of the illustrations...

 

After a Stranraer-heavy last post, we're back to the Heyford for this one.

I was again faced with the conundrum of which bit of the wing/fuselage assembly to leave dissembled until after painting. I could either join the fuselage to the top wing and leave the bottom wing off for painting, or do something controversial (yes, me! controversial!):

 

Attach the two wings together with their intervening struts, paint them and the fuselage separately, and slide the fuselage in after painting (what would Dr. Freud say?). The major argument in favour of this is that the wing strut joints were going to be faffy and fiddly, requiring copious rubber bands and clamping, (visions of ruining carefully-mixed NIVO with stray glue) whereas the fuselage slots perfectly into the top wing without a hair's width of gap.  I decided on controversy:

 

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Before this, I finished off a few details with the upper wings which would have required immense contortions of my clumsy mitts if I'd stuck the wings together first. These include the prominent actuator for the ailerons, balance weights and a couple of minor details on the leading edge slats. I generally make rounded knobs on sticks (ooh-err missus) by applying congealed paint to a bit of plasticard strip, which is why the balance weights are red!

 

I also added the interplane struts and filled the gaps left in the wings - these are not a good fit at all!

 

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Now the fuselage really was on the finishing straight - time for one of my favourite modelling jobs, which is adding all the tiny exterior details which make a model come alive. Matchbox supply the strange handrail above the wireless operator's position, and the guards to stop the pilots' hands crossing paths with the whirling 12ft planks on either side of the cockpit! However neither was thin enough for my tastes, and both required cleaning up seams (and inevitable snappage). So out with the 0.5mm plasticard, and here's some better ones!

 

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Bizarrely, MB forgot the prominent pitot tube on the underside of the nose, so I scratchbuilt this plus the dinky little navigation light on the other side:

 

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Almost the last job were these bungees which help to keep the tailwheel centred on landing - I had a good image courtesy of the AP so was able to add these reasonably accurately (although too late, I realised the hole for the tailwheel itself is a couple of mm too far forward!

 

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And all of a sudden, it was masking and priming time!

 

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I've since primed the wings - Next step NIVO!

 

 

 

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Good work on blending U-struts with the wing, however there is one quite visible element that I noticed on the real thing, rigid aileron levers that are attached eccentrically to a disc, look at upper starboard wing

 

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This is how I have done mine:

 

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I'm guessing that the "disk" is a pulley mounted inside the wing for the control cable, and not visible on the outside. Particularly as this drawing is a cutaway.

 

Ian

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24 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

I'm guessing that the "disk" is a pulley mounted inside the wing for the control cable, and not visible on the outside. Particularly as this drawing is a cutaway.

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1972/1972 - 3104.html

 

I think I also had a photo somewhere, going to search my archives once I'm home

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This thread is so good it has forced me out of lurking on the shadows to actually make a comment. Amazing work!

I live in Woolston, Southampton, so Supermarines are a pet subject. I remember attempting to make the Stranraer when it was recently released ... late 70's? I was far too young though and made a hash of the wings. I remember my mum berating me for making her buy a kit that was way above my abilities! And then binning it ... 😢

40 years later I've got the kit again, sitting patiently behind me in it's box. I'm hoping I don't make a hash of this one too ... But thanks for this thread, and inspiring me!

Edited by Quiet Mike
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Congratulations Doctor.  More splendid work, these are going to look very impressive when completed.  Crikey, making the turnbuckles is a great idea too.

Keep up the great work

 

All the best

Chris

Edited by bigbadbadge
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On 01/02/2019 at 16:00, limeypilot said:

pulley mounted inside

The Hart and Fury families have an externally mounted disk with a crank pin and connecting rod to the aileron horn, so I expect the Heyford used the same mechanism.

 

Because the connecting rod is rigid, you only need one aileron horn because it can push as well as pull. On the Harts and Furies the disc is tucked away next to where the rear interplane strut meets the top wing.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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Thanks again for all the positive comments - gosh I really can't make a mistake with you lot looking over my shoulder can I? 😯

Only joking, in all seriousness, I really appreciate people pointing out stuff I've missed and suggesting improvements! Alexey, you're quite right - I'd just assumed the circular feature was a doped on inspection panel and had decided to ignore it, but here's the relevant image from the AP clearly showing the disc-shaped pulley. I'll add it on with some foil before I paint the Heyford. Nice to know that the same feature is present on the Hart/Fury series too - thanks Adrian!

 

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We're back with the Stranraer this time, and in many ways this post mirrors the last one - adding final details to the fuselage and wings before priming.

 

Being a flying boat the Stranraer is festooned with mooring cleats and bollards around the crew positions, which MB didn't make any attempt to represent - although they've made a very passable attempt at the footrail for the ground (water?) crew.

Here we have two bollards, two cleats, and  the hinges for the spring-loaded nose door (this could be opened for mooring, but is mainly for the front gunner/bomb aimer to aim the bombs from...draughty!) The rectangular structure forward of the small round porthole appears to be some kind of ventilation vent and appears on all military Stranraers (but is absent from 920 at Hendon). This was made from two strips of plasticard; I gave it a hollow effect by cutting a very narrow rectangle out of the side of one of them before gluing together.

 

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Months and months ago (summer 2017!!) I chiselled off the vague elongated lumps around some of the smaller windows, these are supposed to represent hinges for these windows in the W/Op and crew rest compartments which could be opened (presumably not in flight as most of them are hinged at the rear edge!). Anyway, here are my plasticard replacements. You can also see the exhaust for the APU in the starboard wing root and a tiny drain pipe next to it.

 

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MB moulded a windscreen for the gunner in clear plastic. The Stranraer did carry such a screen, which folded flat along the fuselage to give a very low profile - so much so that when folded it's very difficult to tell if it's there or has been removed. Careful study of photos implies that it was often removed in service, but I elected to add it as it seems to have been used by the pre-war RAF. The part is much too thick, but as far as I can tell the real thing was made of aluminium and was never clear (could the UK aviation industry even produce a strong, frameless, curved piece of Perspex this size in 1936?), so it was no problem to sand it down on the inside. I also added the rails which guide the bottom corner during unfolding, and the fairing at the leading edge which covers the attachment points. Other details here include more mooring cleats, and four tiny attachments around the large circular hatch forward of the gunner - the AP describes awnings which can be fitted over this hatch, so I guess this is what these were for.

 

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There's little more to do around the tail, but I added mounting points for the radio aerial cables, and tiny actuators for elevator and rudder trim tabs.

 

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Underneath, there are four tiny towing eyes along the keel, two at the bow end for winching out of the water, and two near the stern. Inspection of 920 at Hendon shows these latter were for securing the aft beaching gear trolley:

 

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On top of the upper wing we have these odd lumps on sticks which MB provide. I'm pretty sure they're not DF loops (why have two? Also, a separate DF loop is added on some aircraft behind these lumps) but I haven't got any better ideas. I also added the radio mast to replace the kit part (which I lost). I then snapped it off almost immediately while priming, then re-found the fit part. There's some kind of lesson there, I suspect.

 

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Lastly, we have these lumpy protrusions at the forward end of the cabane struts where they join the nacelle. Again, I'm none the wider as to their purpose, but I suspect they hide some fuel system piping or similar. MB missed them because they seem to be specific to the Pegasus installation, and the re-engined postwar machines (including 920 at Hendon) omit them. This is 1mm plasticard doubled up, then sanded and carved to shape. If you're building the kit and want to add them, I strongly suggest doing so before assembling the whole wing complete with all the interplane struts - the sanding was fiddly, to say the least!

 

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And then - all of a sudden - primer and paint! All together now....aaaaaah!

 

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I tentatively decided to use a rattle can of Humbrol 11, and am glad I did, although it took multiple coats and touch-ups. Pretty pleased with the result, and very pleased with how well my detail additions look under the paint (and with how neatly my sanding and filling has disappeared!)

 

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Next time I shall be battling the Revell decals (spoiler - they're incredibly annoying) and mixing up some NIVO-coloured potion...

 

 

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Beautiful!

Did those "lumps on sticks" have a small propeller on the front? If so I would say they're air driven fuel pumps, similar to the Rotherham pumps on some WWI aircraft.

 

Ian

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