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Albatross, Get Your Albatross Here!


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On Saturday, The Martianess thought it would be a good idea if I went and treated myself to something nice at the LMS to celebrate by passing my RYA Day Skipper exams. This was clearly one cunning plan that could not fail and before you could say little green men from Mars, I was down at the local emporium.

 

I was instantly struck by the new Valom De Havilland Albatross and cash soon changed hands. Valom market the seats and tables for the passenger cabin separately but the shop did not have this set in stock. Initially I thought about not bothering to fully furnish the passenger cabin but having taped the fuselage together, could see at once that the large windows and overhead skylights made this an imperative. A swift trip to the Big H website soon saw the upgrade set winging it's way to Martian Towers.

 

So taken was with the kit that regardless of all the other projects cluttering up my bench, I just had to make a start right away (if I'm not careful, I will wake up one morning and find I have turned into Corsaircorp) :yikes:

 

Being a limited run kit, with all the potential fit issues that this might bring, I decided to take a slightly different approach to this kit from the usual "start with the cockpit" and tackle the areas where the fit might be a problem first. I glued the cabin bulkheads to the floor and these proved to be a reasonable fit, certainly nothing that a small amount of sanding won't put right. Having reassured myself that things will be OK with the fuselage I turned my attention to the wings and wheel wells. The part supplied for the wheel well roof was clearly undersize so a larger replacement was cut from plastic card, along with an inner wall to each well. Although the kit provides a sturdy main spar for the wings, I decided to add some locating tabs to ad strength to the join of the centre section to the mainplanes. Next up will be to start fitting the various intakes and outer parts of the wheel wells to the wing parts.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Martian

 

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Comfy chair in place and popcorn at the ready.

I'm looking forward to seeing this one come to fruition.

It's such an elegant looking aeroplane that's been neglected by kit manufacturers for years.

Good luck with the build.

 

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19 minutes ago, cngaero said:

Comfy chair in place and popcorn at the ready.

I'm looking forward to seeing this one come to fruition.

It's such an elegant looking aeroplane that's been neglected by kit manufacturers for years.

Good luck with the build.

 

Thanks Chris. I hope I can do the kit justice, knowing as I do next to nothing about the Albatross. I got a few good interior pictures off Google but will be guessing as regards interior colours and wheel well detail.

 

Martian

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Lovely aeroplane! Looking at the bulkheads it would seem that the cabin was not designed for the wider-than-average figure. I will stick to 747s...

 

I will look forward to seeing what you do with this.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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43 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I'll pop by from time to time too.

Reserve me a bean bag, old bean.

Such a pretty aeroplane.

Happy to have you on board, as long as you are aware that haven't a clue what I am doing.

41 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Lovely aeroplane! Looking at the bulkheads it would seem that the cabin was not designed for the wider-than-average figure. I will stick to 747s...

 

I will look forward to seeing what you do with this.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian. There is always the chance that I will mess this up. I have only ever made two airliners in my entire life and one of those was over forty five years ago!

 

Clueless of Mars

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Nice start Martian and a fine subject.

2 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Initially I thought about not bothering to fully furnish the passenger cabin but having taped the fuselage together, could see at once that the large windows and overhead skylights made this an imperative.

I'm glad you swiftly dismissed this nonsense.

 

Any thoughts to the finish? Were they NMF or painted silver? It seems to be crying out for an NMF to be honest.

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Great to see you building this kit Martian, always admired the superb looks of the Albatross, probably the prettiest airliner ever built I would say.

In your hands this is going to be most tentalising!

 

PS, I do think that marketing the interior separately is a bit naughty, I know some will splash out the extra £8.00 or so but when you consider how much this would have cost the manufacturers to include in the kit and the convenience of buying the whole thing off the shelf, I'd sooner have paid a little more for the whole thing.

Edited by 71chally
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23 minutes ago, Tomoshenko said:

Nice start Martian and a fine subject.

I'm glad you swiftly dismissed this nonsense.

 

Any thoughts to the finish? Were they NMF or painted silver? It seems to be crying out for an NMF to be honest.

It was mostly made of wood but the engine nacelles were metal and pictures seem to show some of that was quite shiny so that will make for a bit of contrast.

7 minutes ago, 71chally said:

Great to see you building this kit Martian, always admired the superb looks of the Albatross, probably the prettiest airliner ever built I would say.

In your hands this is going to be most tentalising!

 

PS, I do think that marketing the interior separately is a bit naughty, I know some will splash out the extra £8.00 or so but when you consider how much this would have cost the manufacturers to include in the kit and the convenience of buying the whole thing off the shelf, I'd sooner have paid a little more for the whole thing.

Thanks Chally, I agree with your sentiments but needs must when the Devil vomits in your breakfast bowl.

4 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

 Tip: it was a wooden aircraft.

 

I briefly toyed with the idea of doing it in it's unpainted state, some of the first ones first flew like that but decided that it would spoil the beautiful looks of the aircraft.

 

Martian

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2 minutes ago, Martian Hale said:

I briefly toyed with the idea of doing it in it's unpainted state, some of the first ones first flew like that but decided that it would spoil the beautiful looks of the aircraft.

 

Martian

And if you ever get fed up with it you could opt to display it thus...

rthjrtjgjhsdfjhsdgjh-jpg.409320

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Actually James, that picture does show an interesting feature in that the windows seem to have a distinctive metal surround. I have a cunning plan for that.

 

Martian

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Hi Martian 

Nice choice . What a lovely looking aircraft.   You are a lucky guy, I wish SWMBO will let me treat myself for doing the house when it's finished. I will go for the Airfix 24th Mossie.

If you do wake up during the night and sneak some modelling don't forget the clothes this time. Especially at the earliest stages with all the cutting etc you could do yourself a mischief!!!

Great work so far. 

 

All the best 

Chris 

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1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Martian 

Nice choice . What a lovely looking aircraft.   You are a lucky guy, I wish SWMBO will let me treat myself for doing the house when it's finished. I will go for the Airfix 24th Mossie.

If you do wake up during the night and sneak some modelling don't forget the clothes this time. Especially at the earliest stages with all the cutting etc you could do yourself a mischief!!!

Great work so far. 

 

All the best 

Chris 

Perhaps you need to show Mrs Bigbadbadge this thread and drop a few none too subtle hints. If that doesn't work, just stop obeying and treat yourself anyway!

1 hour ago, Scimitar said:

OH NO! Martian has moved to the darkside and is building a civvy :(

Unless...

No, it will be in full Imperial Airways colours. Feel free to call in the BM shrink if you are worried.

 

Martian (Running the Mars branch of Relate since stardate 267349-002)

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One of these hies close to mine abode, so I'll follow along with interest. Of course, I'll have to get that blessed interior set separately, and pay the extra postage for it too...

 

Do you have a plan (cunning or otherwise) to deal with the apparently misshapen engine nacelles?

 

The version in warpaint is nowhere near as pretty as the silver civvy version. Mine will be silver.

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This will be interesting to watch.  Nice looking plane, did De Havilland ever build an inelegant or ugly aircraft?

 

Andrew

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Could I?

Should I?

May I?

Ought I to?

 

Ah bugger it yessss

 

I'm in Martian, over here by the biscuit barrel

 

 

 

Handy for the mince pies when they come out of the oven

What?

You think mince is for Christmas...

 

Love the shape of the Albatross, going to be gorgeous

 

😘

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9 hours ago, cashman said:

Once again, the Martian has decided to show me the way to lessen the stash levels ^_^

 

I await the expose with interest.......

Clearly you have about as much willpower as me then!

9 hours ago, Rob G said:

One of these hies close to mine abode, so I'll follow along with interest. Of course, I'll have to get that blessed interior set separately, and pay the extra postage for it too...

 

Do you have a plan (cunning or otherwise) to deal with the apparently misshapen engine nacelles?

 

The version in warpaint is nowhere near as pretty as the silver civvy version. Mine will be silver.

I haven't looked at the nacelles yet. I might do a limited amount of work but I really just want to have a bit of fun and end up with something that looks like an Albatross, rather than embark on a rebuild which is usually the path I end up going down.

5 hours ago, Andwil said:

This will be interesting to watch.  Nice looking plane, did De Havilland ever build an inelegant or ugly aircraft?

 

Andrew

Not that springs to mind although I am sure someone will soon be along to enlighten us on that point.

1 hour ago, Rui Silva said:

One more to follow your Albatross build thread, get to work! ;)

I'm doing it, I'm doing it!

5 minutes ago, perdu said:

Could I?

Should I?

May I?

Ought I to?

 

Ah bugger it yessss

 

I'm in Martian, over here by the biscuit barrel

 

 

 

Handy for the mince pies when they come out of the oven

What?

You think mince is for Christmas...

 

Love the shape of the Albatross, going to be gorgeous

 

😘

The thread wouldn't be the same without your input Bill!

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21 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

On Saturday, The Martianess thought it would be a good idea if I went and treated myself to something nice at the LMS to celebrate by passing my RYA Day Skipper exams. This was clearly one cunning plan that could not fail and before you could say little green men from Mars, I was down at the local emporium.

 

I was instantly struck by the new Valom De Havilland Albatross and cash soon changed hands. Valom market the seats and tables for the passenger cabin separately but the shop did not have this set in stock. Initially I thought about not bothering to fully furnish the passenger cabin but having taped the fuselage together, could see at once that the large windows and overhead skylights made this an imperative. A swift trip to the Big H website soon saw the upgrade set winging it's way to Martian Towers.

 

So taken was with the kit that regardless of all the other projects cluttering up my bench, I just had to make a start right away (if I'm not careful, I will wake up one morning and find I have turned into Corsaircorp) :yikes:

 

Being a limited run kit, with all the potential fit issues that this might bring, I decided to take a slightly different approach to this kit from the usual "start with the cockpit" and tackle the areas where the fit might be a problem first. I glued the cabin bulkheads to the floor and these proved to be a reasonable fit, certainly nothing that a small amount of sanding won't put right. Having reassured myself that things will be OK with the fuselage I turned my attention to the wings and wheel wells. The part supplied for the wheel well roof was clearly undersize so a larger replacement was cut from plastic card, along with an inner wall to each well. Although the kit provides a sturdy main spar for the wings, I decided to add some locating tabs to ad strength to the join of the centre section to the mainplanes. Next up will be to start fitting the various intakes and outer parts of the wheel wells to the wing parts.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Martian

 

 

What flavour is it?

 

Well you are ahead of me, I've not not got further than trying to tape the fuselage together.  I have the interior set too.  Adds a bit to the look.  Are you going to go anything to the shape of the  rear of the engine nacelles? 

Tim (does it come on a stick? (or was that a different sketch)?)?

 

 

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1 hour ago, Fishbed said:

 

What flavour is it?

 

Well you are ahead of me, I've not not got further than trying to tape the fuselage together.  I have the interior set too.  Adds a bit to the look.  Are you going to go anything to the shape of the  rear of the engine nacelles? 

Tim (does it come on a stick? (or was that a different sketch)?)?

 

 

Its B$£%*y seabird flavour, what do you expect!

 

I was wondering who would be the first to come out with that one and why am I totally unsurprised that it was you Tim?

 

I will fair the nacelles in a bit but will leave it at that as I really don't want this to become a long and complicated build. The lack of detailed information on the type should prevent me being tempted down that road.

 

Martian

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I had the log book for Day Skipper but never completed the thing.  Then life and children got in the way and I have forgotten everything I ever learnt.  Congratulations Martian.  I for one would be happy to crew for you!

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13 hours ago, Andwil said:

This will be interesting to watch.  Nice looking plane, did De Havilland ever build an inelegant or ugly aircraft?

 

Andrew

Hmmm possibly the dh93 Don?

 

Looking forward to the build on this as I have two in the stash (intend building them as an Imperial Airways one and a RAF one)

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