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Listening to the Solstice


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5 hours ago, giemme said:

Nice progress despite of the lazy mood..

And getting lazier by the hour this evening after a huge curry (Murgh kabuli) with hot chili pickle....

4 hours ago, hendie said:

These days he'd probably be asked to supply his own cushion, and by the way do you have £50 to help with  the Avgas?

Who gave you advance sight of the next Defence Review? Bloody MOD leaks like a sieve these days.... 🤪

2 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I can't help thinking though, they fitted a forward firing, fixed machine gun. That implies that they thought an Anson could actually catch and get behind another aircraft to shoot at it. 

The ring sight must have made it look like the pilot was wearing a monocle in head-on encounters...

2019-03-17_06-47-59

 

2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 Avro’s designers seem to have similar views to Fairey’s...

Might explain the recruitment posters: 'Jockeys wanted - apply within.'

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

It's a lie I tell you! Work uniform is dark black. I'd picked up that blue two piece from the dry cleaners for a lady friend.

Still doesn't explain the hairstyle tootsie! 💇‍♂️ 

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More internals - nice, even though they won't be visible, WE all know they're there :) 

 

Thanks for the link to the saw Tony - on the shopping list…

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18 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Well at least I was wearing steel toecap boots.

You and her both! :laugh:

 

18 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Nice work in the front off Tony.

Just enough to show without being to crowded.

Thanks Simon! :thumbsup2:

Even a shadow of structure tucked away inside and peeking out through a window can be enough to give a sense of 'fullness' sometimes, can't it? 😁

14 hours ago, CedB said:

Thanks for the link to the saw Tony - on the shopping list…

You'll be making your own cufflinks before you know it Ced! 🛠️

14 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Gaahh. Sometimes I just can’t understand youse guys...

No use expecting us to make any sense Adrian! :bangin:

 

 

Bee-zahly, I'd gone to bed last evening oblivious for some reason to the fact that I didn't have to go into work this morning on account of it being a Bank Holiday here. It must have been the endorphin rush from all the chilli pickle last evening!

 

Anyway, jubilate and inner shouts of joy over the early morning cup of tea at this recollection and into the studio for a full-morning of activity, intent on getting the bulk of the remaining fixtures sorted.

 

I needed to be careful about some of these additions (on account of the internal framing) so went round and pencilled the diagonal and uprights in against the fuselage walls to make sure that these correlated with the parts being added. Sitting just behind the rear wing spar to starboard is a large upright electrical services panel. The body was built from some Evergreen channel  and although I did read in the manual what the various gubbins on it were, I  forget exactly - a couple of dials and three banks of what look like fuses (?), which were similarly built from scraps of plastic:

47412011121_6fefab7526_c.jpg

Usefully, once installed this panel become a 'pillar' to buttress the (now rather flexible since thinning) roof section on that side.

 

Also quite prominent to starboard up front on the 2nd pilot's side are a diagonal banks of fuel cocks. These were similarly built from channel and 0.5mm discs punched out with the RP Toolz set:

47412011101_7313619b3d_c.jpg

I know: there should be four cocks not three -  @limeypilot will have spotted this imediately! :laugh: I don't have any sub-0.5mm punches though so only three are available for this mission as a result.

A bijou check-ette with the framing in to see that there are no differences of opinion over placement:

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Looking nicely busy in there now.

 

The radio dept. has been neglected until now so first job in this area was to build the crystal monitor unit that perches on the windowsill beside the radio-op's shoulder like a small bird-box:

32469916197_2613cf31a5_c.jpg

I elaborated the stand for this part beyond the original (on grounds of strength) by soldering an extra vertical strip underneath so that it could be epoxied to the fuselage wall beneath the sill rather than sitting delicately (and courting being repeatedly snapped-off) on top of it. The whole sub-assembly was built from cut-down flap cover from the PE set , which was too small to use on the corrected ones.

 

The Hallicrafters S-27 set that was installed for the Knickebein mission simply has to be present and I'd been wondering for a while how to approach this. I also needed to gauge how big it would be relative to the interior fittings and recalled that the reconstruction of the Knickebein episode from the BBC's Secret War series featured one of these sets in an Anson.

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There's even his Woollardship to scale it against! :laugh:

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From this I noticed that the Hallicrafters set was much bigger than the usual Anson radio fittings on that table, so I had to desolder the middle shelf that I'd built previously if it was to look authentic.

Never mind. 🙄

Plastic looks too 'blurred' to my eye for things with little knobs on at this scale, so I decided to see if I could adapt the original radio from the Flightpath set so similarly desoldered and unfolded, working out that I could re-fold it slightly further along to make it the right width:

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The dial on the Hallicrafters set is quite prominent but thankfully nearly matches that on the PE:

32468432447_a95a61dd50_b.jpg

I'll add a couple of scaps later on to make the sides of the dial more acute.

 

After some further refolding and soldering on of scrap wing flap, an S-27ish block emerged:

47412011151_67813c86b6_c.jpg

One of me knobs dropped off during soldering as those bits are so close together that it's tricky getting the tip of the iron in close enough to make the bond.

 

Test-fit of the port side with the frame in:

47412011071_680da3011c_c.jpg

That interior frame had dropped inside the fuselage when I took this shot btw so ignore the disjointed angle between radio table and spar...

 

With no visual or written documentation as to what other radio elements may have been installed on Bufton's aircraft, I'm going to leave it at that rather than add fictitious guesses that may be completely inappropriate. The only thing I can say for sure is that the electrical supply had to be rewired for DC to work with the Hallicrafters radio, though what this may have entailed for radio fittings and aerials is way beyond my expertise. Luckily the ground crew  are in the process of preparing the aircraft for its forthcoming mission so not everything is installed at this stage of proceedings. ...:phew: ☺️

 

Seat for gun turret and nonslip flooring, relief tube, for'ard parachute stowage...the list goes on...

 

Hope your weeks all got off to a good start.

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

One of me knobs dropped off during soldering

At the risk of being relegated to the naughty step (I now have my own cushion. Splinters y'know) Ahem, F'nar woof bark!

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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

and into the studio for

 

now there's posh!  Most of us have only got basements, or sheds, or tables, and there's you got a full blown studio begads.

 

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

With no visual or written documentation as to what other radio elements may have been installed on Bufton's aircraft, I'm going to leave it at that rather than add fictitious guesses that may be completely inappropriate.

 

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

The only thing I can say for sure is that the electrical supply had to be rewired for DC to work with the Hallicrafters radio, though what this may have entailed for radio fittings and aerials is way beyond my expertise.

 

would googling wartime AC DC converter or summat yield any steampunkish contraptions that may be Baronized?

 

splendid work as always. I'm looking forward to all the headsets and curly wires that should be littered around the internals like McDonalds cartons around a shopping mall 

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2 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Carrots. 

Due to wartime cuts the BBC only broadcast the lightwave during the day, at night it was the darkwave.

(Sorry, I've been listening to the Goon show again)

Did that mean longer programmes during the summer then?

 

Simon.

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Not normally. they had to make allowances for the wear and tear on the announcers evening dress.

This was of course worn as a matter of course, unless they were broadcasting from Submarines. BBC oilskins would then be issued.

Broadcasts while airborne had a whole different dress code which was regularly posted in The Tatler, lest anyone forget.

If the listeners found out about improper dress it could mean a posting to the eastern front. Norfolk!

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The pic Benedikt quoted is absolutely impressive, Tony! :worthy: :clap:

 

And very explanatory of the immense (and artistic) job you're doing on this model :clap:

 

Ciao

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Marvellous detailing on the panel Tony and oh, that radio!

Excellent work, again :) 

 

 

 

 

See, I can read a post without commenting on all the cocks and knobs.

 

Oh, dammit :doh:

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