Vulcanicity's Stranraer and Heyford dual mega build!

[Martian]

Great work! I know just how you feel about getting two kit parts together!

 

Martian 👽

[Vulcanicity]

Thanks for the support everyone!

 

As promised, here's the Heyford up until I did the fuselage join (earlier this week - no pics yet, I'm still recovering!)

 

Having painted the forward fuselage Interior green, I gave it a weathering wash before hammering away at the details. I was particularly pleased with the instrument panel and bombsight. Since you're wondering, yes, you can see them both quite well through the various cockpit openings!

 

 

The throttle plinth was then painted and installed on the chassis (if you remember, I left the plinth and chassis roof off so I could paint underneath it - no you can't see that bit!).

All my refs are black and white but the greyscale tones suggest different colours for the paired throttle/mixture levers. I went with an educated guess - after all they're for port and starboard engines!

 

 

 

Back in the dim and distant (almost a year ago!) I mentioned that the kit has the window pattern wrong, and filled the forward window on the starboard side, leaving three.

 

 

But it's more complex than that! The correct pattern seems to be five round portholes, two to starboard and three to port, with the starboard forward position blanked off (hence my filling above). Matchbox missed the aftermost pair which are level with each other under the upper wing, just behind the joint between the monocoque forward fuselage and fabric covered aft fuselage.

 

Matchbox aren't the only ones to get the window pattern wrong, so does every plan that I've found, including the Ian Stair set for Warpaint (suggests three portholes in a row on the port side only), and another set I have that look like they might have come from  some modelling magazine in the 1950s or 1960s (Aeromodeller?)(suggests only one on the port side and doesn't mention the other four).

 

This isn't surprising, as the middle pair are hidden by the engines or in their shadow in most views, and the aftermost pair are almost invariably invisible in deep shade. However the artificially lit photos from the AP, well, shine a light on the situation! (Look just left of the prop blade tip for definite evidence of the aft porthole). This is the sort of head-scratching detective work that has really slowed these build up - I think sorting the porthole arrangement out took most of an evening!

 

 

I think this is about the right place, although I did move the hole down by a mm or two after taking this.

 

 

In more window-related frustration, here are the two halves of the "dustbin" ventral turret:

 

But look!

 

Didn't see the windows? Look again, near the top. Dang you Matchbox!

 

I'm not sure how good they'll be, but I cut two tiny sections out of a bit of an old clear plastic turret ring and added them. This job required a great seal of careful sawing and took over an hour. Dang you Matchbox, and dang you again!:

 

 

Back to the cockpit. In went the seat (cut-down from the Airfix Defiant, with added foil seatbelts). You can also glimpse my very desultory seat for the wireless operator (as I correctly guessed, it's almost invisible)

 

 

Having painted the brick-red doped insides of the rear fuselage and painted the stringers, frames and floor in that narrow little trough (via many Mark II Swear Words, Modeller for the Use Of), it was time to add the relatively few details here. The starboard side gets a ladder, which is a cut-down and narrowed version of one of the chunky maintenance ladders provided by Matchbox (both of these kits have inordinate numbers of ladders!)

 

 

To port, a pair of parachutes and a small folding seat for the rear gunner (think I showed this earlier).

 

DSCF9195 by Phil Chapman, on Flickr

 

I also added some of the multitude of Lewis magazines around the top gunner's hatch and around the hole for the ventral turret.

 

 

That's it for tonight! I'll post some photos of the finished sections tomorrow, but for now it's stressed PhD students' midweek bedtime...

 

Edited May 17, 2018 by Vulcanicity

[Smudge]

Blimey, I remember this! Amazing work on those two. 

[TheBaron]

Nice to come back and see progress here Phil. Impressive work all told - those ventral windows may have been a pain but they really add to the sense of purpose and observation.

Tony

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I know precious little about either type, but I’m loving your exemplary work

[CedB]

Excellent work Phil. Good luck with the windows - I'm sure you'll master those  

[MarkSH]

Fantastic build on both kits, especially interested in the Stranraer as I hope to build one for an upcoming GB, I'll nick a few detail ideas if you don't mind. Great work.

[Martian]

The Heyford internals are every bit as good as the Stranraer!

 

Martian 👽

[AdrianMF]

Amazing work. Really nice interiors backed up with some solid research. Looking forward to more!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Vulcanicity]

Thanks everyone! MarkSH: Of course! I've made both aircraft as accurate as possible, and I've shared all these images of the results precisely so they can be a useful reference. Others can no doubt do a neater, finer job but hopefully my humble efforts will help give inspiration and ideas for how to fill the gaping space inside both machines.

 

Some more photos of the Heyford before I closed up. Compared with the previous post, you'll notice I've added some magazines to the nose gunner's compartment, the swing door between this and the pilot, the rather representative reconnaissance camera (I was correct, you can barely see it).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've now done the join, more photos soon!

 

[Martian]

Stunning stuff!

 

Martian 👽

[bbudde]

Wow!!!

[bigbadbadge]

Great work, these are brilliant builds and are very inspirational although I will definitely have to wait to build mine for quite a while as I doubt I will be able to do them to this standard.

 

Thanks for sharing

All the best

Chris

[Vulcanicity]

Aww thanks everyone! The positive feedback is really appreciated, it definitely helps me keep going. I'm struggling a bit with the motivation for these builds sometimes - they seem endless, and however much progress I make it seems like there's still effectively infinite modelling to do. To be honest, it feels much like the PhD I'm (still) doing, and my current choice of reading matter (an 1809 edition of Paradise Lost). In hindsight, trying to do these three things at once might have been a bit much!

 

Anyhoo. Fuselages!

 

 

As you can see, I've progressed the Stranraer further by adding the tail and the insert around the rear gunner's position. The tail goes together pretty neatly with minimal modification, although the way Matchbox would have you build the tailplane is both inaccurate and makes it nearly impossible to clean up the seam between the upper and lower elevator halves: you build the tailplane halves first, then you fit the elevator halves around two hefty plastic "axles" connecting the pairs of "prongs" situated along the rear edge of the tailplane proper. In actual fact, there is a small, mostly hidden hinge on the end of each prong, attaching to the elevator at the end of the cutout slit into which the prong fits (ooh-err).

I cut away the "axles", assembled the two halves of the elevator separately (cleaning up the seam as I did so), then glued the elevator straight to the rear face of the tailplane. I also took the opportunity to give the elevator fabric effect a gentle rub-down, as it's a bit OTT, especially compared to the wings.

 

The separate cut-out for the rear gunner's cockpit is presumably to avoid having a very difficult seam to fill along the centreline where the fuselage dips into the recess for the Scarff ring. This is a nice thoughtful touch by Matchbox, or it would be if the darned thing fit! It needed a lot of fettling and quite a bit of filler, as otherwise it sits too high. To add insult to injury, the panel lines around this area aren't mimicked by the shape of the insert (which would have been very easy to do!). So I had to do some nightmarishly difficult scribing, putting in straight panel lines across a compound-curved surface while crossing into and out of areas of filler. Not a roaring success, as you can see - although hopefully some  of the lines won't need filling and doing again. As we speak a coat of primer is drying on the hull, which should show what's what.

 

 

The last thing I've done on the Stranraer is try and replicate the complex set of reinforcing strips along the "keel", the edges of the hull steps, and the sides of the hull at the steps. My camera battery died while trying to photograph these, so for now this is all you're getting.

 

 

I've also been working on the Heyford fuselage. Ages ago, someone on here posted this amazing photo of Heyford III K6889 at an unknown base (I think it may have been John Aero -thanks!). The reason why I'm repeating it here is to demonstrate that the Heyford had noticeable fabric texture on the aft portion of the fuselage, resulting from two full-length stringers attached to the tubular framing, and two shorter ones which finish around the area of the ventral turret.

 

 

The kit has very delicate raised panel lines representing this - plus the fact that the upper and lower rear fuselage sections taper slightly outward towards the middle, so the seam is on a very subtle ridge. Neither feature really captures the effect seen on the real thing, so I've embarked on an experimental technique to try and capture the fabric effect.

First, I scribed in the lines, reasonably deeply. Matchbox's trench digger would have been proud!

 

 

 

Next, I glued 0.5mm plasticard round rod into the scribed lines. Photos seem to show that the ribbed effect fades away towards the forward and aft ends, so I didn't quite go right up to the joint with the monocoque section, and avoided the area around the window.

 

 

Then the whole fuselage side was slathered in filler to above the tops of the plasticard rods. Then, with very careful sanding, I sanded back to the top of the rods. By using wet sandpaper wrapped around a pliable and rounded finger, I was able to sand the parallel, shallow troughs in between the plasticard stringers, leaving a smooth ridge of filler either side of the stringer. Filler is less resistant than plasticard so once I'd rubbed a slight dip in between parallel stringers, my finger naturally stayed in the trough I'd made.

This made an unbelievable amount of mess and was a bit daunting.

 

 

As for the result, that'll have to wait until the next installment!

 

 

Edited June 7, 2018 by Vulcanicity

[bigbadbadge]

This is great work. The solution for the fuselage sides in inspired fella.   Can't wait until the next instalment.

 

All the best 

Chris 

[Vulcanicity]

Many thanks Chris! If you still think so highly of my work after this week's update I'll be impressed! A Major C0ck-up is coming up at the end of this post...

 

The good news first: the Heyford fuselage sides after sanding back and a stabilising primer coat. A few blips, but this is pretty much exactly what I was after. Once I've filled a few holes I'll mask off the whole front portion abd give it several thick primer coats which should fill in all the faint scratches etc.

 

 

I also primed the Stranraer hull which revealed few problems. It's time to put it aside...and do some wings!

We'll start with the lower wings of the Stranraer. The inner stub portion of the wing on each side is metal-skinned, and on the starboard side this section held an auxiliary power unit, which according to the AP could be accessed by hinging up the entire rear portion aft of the spar. There's also a hatch on the upper side, which I think is unrelated (possibly access to flying controls, although it only appears on that side, so...)

 

Matchbox correctly left this area without fabric detail, although the panel line detail needs putting in, and I added plasticard to represent the raised strip covering the joint between metal and fabric. This is the underside, the raised piece of sprue I glued in is an exhaust for the APU. I'll drill it out later on.

 

DSCF9237 by Phil Chapman, on Flickr

 

Here's the starboard upperside, showing aforementioned hatch - which I suspect should be further back, in between the spars, but would be almost impossible to "move" cleanly. So I didn't try.

 

The area outboard of the plasticard strip has been a bit of a struggle to get references for. It definitely was intended for walking on as photos show a greyish non-slip material here; on the Revell re-release this is represented as decals which are (erroneously) black. This section of the wing has hardpoints on the underside (more anon) so I suspect this section was metal-skinned too, and held mounting points for bomb winching gear. Getting panel line detail to copy is monumentally difficult, of available plans only the old Aeromodeller set shows this area, and they're very vague on detail. It's not covered by any walkaround photoset, largely I suspect because you'd need a step ladder to photograph it .

I ended up copying some (possibly erroneous) on a 2000s-era cutaway published in Aeroplane, and using educated guesswork from photos.

 

That done, the wing sections are finished, surely? Nice clean underside with little else to think about.

 

But wait, what's this? Spot the difference!

 

Another pitfall for the unwary, and more evidence that the condition of 920 at the RAFM Hendon isn't that representative. Service Stranraers all seem to have had these odd cutouts for the hardpoints - one large rectangular hole (with the fore and aft edges faired into a smooth curve), and two odd cross-of-Lorraine-shaped apertures around outboard ribs (you can see the bottom edge of the Duraluminium rib bisecting each outer cutout in the photo above.

 

This sounds silly, but I think the inner cutouts are a streamlining measure! R.J. Mitchell apparently went to considerable lengths to cut down on unnecessary drag for the Stranraer, so my theory is that the large cutout was designed to hold a Small Bomb Carrier, with the carrier itself within the wing. The outer ones wouldn't appear to help recess a larger bomb  rack into the wing, but my guess is that the space around the rib somehow improved access to the mounting and its fusing connections for the ground crew.

 

Anyway, not one plan or three-view or profile drawing alludes to these, which I suspect is a consequence of 920 at Hendon having had them doped over as part of its postwar airliner conversion. If you look very carefully at the excellent photo above (stolen from someone on the Internet somewhere forgotten, apologies if it's yours!), you can just see traces of where they were.

 

Out with the razor saw then! First, some pencil measurements...

 

And the cuts themselves. I did the outer recesses on one wing slightly too wide, so they had to be lined with plasticard.

 

Not the major problem though!

 

 

"Measure twice and cut once", my dad used to say when I helped him with DIY as a kid! To compound the cockup, I've belatedly realised that the inner bays should be three ribs wide not two - otherwise they won't hold a Small Bomb Carrier.

 

After a far amount of "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH"! and a good deal of soul-searching about whether I'd actually notice (I would, unfortunately), we have a plan:

 

 

Out with the saw again. Wish me luck!

 

 

 

[neil5208]

in comparision to the excellent work so far this will be an easy fix for you

[dogsbody]

This one seems to have a cut-out where the inner recess is. This is the only picture I have at this time. My usual source ( Library & Archives Canada ) is doing some kind of update/rearrangement at this time and I can't access their photos.

 

 

 

Chris

[bigbadbadge]

Oh no. We all do it fella. Like said above I am sure it will be a problem that you can resolve.  I still think that these builds are amazing and inspirational. 

All the best 

Chris 

[dogsbody]

Vulcanicity said "  A Major C0ck-up is coming up at the end of this post... "

 

 

Oh! That is a definite OH S%^T moment.

 

I'm sure you can pull off a decent correction.

 

 

Chris

[Max Headroom]

Ouch!

 

But As Bob Ross used to say, “There are no such things as mistakes only happy accidents”.

 

I love the interior work you’ve done on these. Good job.

 

Trevor

[CedB]

I've liked that post Phil as I know you'll sort it soon and the level of detail is up to your usual high standard. Good job  

[Vulcanicity]

Thanks for the confidence Ced, Trevor, Chris, Chris, Chris and Neil!

 

I think I got away with it!

 

 

Comparing to the last post you'll see that I've moved these misplaced bomb cell things outwards by the distance of a single rib gap, which at a stroke cured two problems - the fact the outer cells were a rib too far inboard, and the fact the large inner cell was a rib too narrow. The other side was much easier, and just needed the inner cell widening.

 

Both lower wings are now together! Before putting them to one side, one more addition - adding the landing light. All Stranraers except prototype K3973 carried a light in the lower port  wing section just outboard of the float. 920 at Hendon has the cutout, but for some reason it's doped over. Why exactly is mysterious as it had the glazing while still in storage in Canada before coming to Hendon for restoration! It seems to have eluded the draughtsmen in much the same way as the bomb cells - neither the Cox drawings in Scale Models nor the Mushroom Models book plans show it. Anyway, Matchbox's designers may have copied Cox or gone to Hendon, or both, either way they missed it. It wasn't too hard to cut an aperture afterwards.

 

My spares box failed to yield a likely bit of glazing, so after much faffing I managed to heat form some acetate over the wing to give roughly the right profile. Cut down, and fitted into a suitably lined aperture, it looks pretty good IMHO... I'll leave the glazing off until completion.

 

 

I've also built the upper wing sections, including the outer wings (nothing to report, so not shown here), and the centre section. This needed a few panel lines adding/rectifying and the fabric detail knocking back. As with the elevators which are on the same (dried 💩 brown) sprue, the "starved cow" look is more prominent than on the wings and tailplane (1970s Tower Block Mouse Grey sprue).

I'm blindly following Cox for the upper surface panel lines, as there are no reference photos. I suspect nobody has seen this area on 920 since the 1970s, and even in service, the performance of the Stranraer didn't lend itself to topside passes!

 

 

With the fuselage together I tackled one last bit of scribing I was dreading - the two concentric circles dead on the centreline for the radio operator's roof hatch. As you can see, it came out OK...at least from a distance!

 

 

The tail unit bolts directly onto the top of the rear fuselage, and there's a metal strip covering the attachment points which I made of plasticard. This was fiddly as 0.3 x 1.5mm plasticard needs to be bent sideways (i.e. in the plane it doesn't want to bend), to follow the contours of the tailplane! With that done and cleaned up I could apply the four big struts holding the tail on.

 

 

Talking of tails, I built the Heyford's assembly. It looks intolerably scruffy but it's just that sanding scratches show up embarassingly well on dark green plastic. 😳

 

 

On the Heyford fuselage front, there are a few surface details to add before it gets put aside for later. First up is a strengthening strip above the turret - this also shows the fabric effect I made! You'll have to wait until next time for the rest.

 

 

On to the Heyford's lower wing, which is the last major wing section to tackle. On the real aircraft the centre lower wing was thickened to accommodate four longer and six shorter bomb bays, each with a separate pair of doors. Matchbox has a fair stab at this with a plastic insert mimicking the whole caboodle thusly:

 

 

This is all very well, but of course this i a big fabric biplane, and there aren't nice solid walls between the bays. All there are are ribs like this (from the Heyford III AP):

 

 

While I do want to arm my Heyford the sides of the bays are still going to be quite visible - with one bomb in each bay they cannot exceed 250lb (although the middle ones can take  500 pounders with smaller bombs elsewhere, in theory). It's scratchbuilding time once more!

 

Before that, however, a question that has been bothering me in relation to the bomb bays. You can clearly see that the leading edge of the bay is a straight line from the picture of the kit parts, and the "typical bomb rib" above abuts the spars at both ends. So does this mean that the rear spar has a rectangular kink in it to accomodate the longer bays? In other words, does the back wall of the bays track their shape?

 

Not 'arf. After much poring over my photos from the AP, I found that instead, the spar bends aftwards in a "V", coming to a point on the centre line. To make this clearer and give myself something to work from, I drew a roughly scale diagram...

 

 

Take up thy plasticard and scratch, as they say! I shall be back with more as soon as I have...

 

However,

 

[bigbadbadge]

The recover on the lower wings is fantastic. What a great result.   Great work fella. 

All the best 

Chris 

[Martian]

Lovely work as usual.

 

Martian 👽