Scratchbuilt 1/144 Handley Page Hyderabad resurrection

[Jonners]

A bit of stretched sprue to form the outer undercarriage struts:

 

 

Once the cement has cured properly the apex ends will obviously be trimmed. Hopefully (!) that will allow me to add axles that are vaguely horizontal from more stretched sprue.  The Hyderabad had double mainwheels on each side, with one wheel on the outside of each V-shaped undercarriage leg. I musn't forget to put the inner wheel and tyre onto the axle before I try to glue it to the legs!

 

Another view of how it's looking at the moment:

 

 

Feeling quite pleased with myself, to be honest, and trying to convince myself not to think about adding some token rigging after it's painted. That would be a silly idea. I think. Wouldn't it?

Jon

[Britman]

I would love to see it , but you probably won't enjoy the experience and it could put you right off. What you have is something very pleasing to the eye and I look forward to more of your craft.

 

Keith. 

[Jonners]

Each of the Hyderabad's forward main undercarriage legs had a faired-in shock absorber. I've tried to replicate these using plastic strip:

 

 

I cut a piece of 20thou plastic card into a 3mm wide strip, then shaped it into a streamlined section. I then scribed a groove down its length at about 1/3 chord, deep enough to recess the paper clip undercarriage legs into - well, nearly deep enough; the plastic wasn't quite thick enough to fully recess the legs, but it's very close. Once that was done, the strip was cut into 4mm long sections and glued to the forward undercarriage legs with the recesses on the inner face. They will need a smear of filler, but I'm satisfied with how they look in this scale. 

 

At the same time I stretched some sprue, heated it in the steam from a kettle spout (ouch!) and wrapped it around the shank of a jeweller's screwdriver to set the right diameter for the tyres.  The spirals were then cut to create 4 circles. The resulting 4 'tyres' can be seen in the photo above. The joints need a bit of smoothing and I need to create some hubs from plastic card discs.

 

Still slow progress, but I'm getting quite hooked on this small-scale scratchbuilding lark!

Jon

[Marklo]

Quote

 trying to convince myself not to think about adding some token rigging after it's painted. That would be a silly idea. I think. Wouldn't it?

IMHO you have to rig it, however to be anything near scale it needs to be very very fine. As a rough guess you need to be around .05mm (~= 8mm IRL) to be near scale I'd suggest stretched sprue either clear or painted silver, very fine wire  or very fine monofilament, but that would require drilling and i wouldn't go there at that scale.

[Putty Animal]

I reckon you need to have a crack at rigging it too.  I can recommend this company for ultra fine wire:  https://www.wireandstuff.co.uk/products/Superfine-Wire---Long-Lengths-for-Coil-Builders-1-p1.html

 

I bought some of their .025, 0.05 and 0.07mm wire and it works beautifully.  Just make sure you do not get the stainless steel as it is too hard to straighten.  Get the nichrome/nickel ones and you will be good to go. ;)

[SUB-SAM]

I also think it is definitely worth testing rigging on it, as if it isn't working out you can just strip it off.

 

I agree the fine nichrome wires are good.

I am currently searching for an alternative however, something with a little stretch, high strength and UV resistance.

I'm going to find it before I attempt to rig my Taube as I have a feeling nichrome wire will be impossible to get taught with such complicated rigging. 

 

I've been looking at nitinol alloy wires and looking at various polyamide or even organic sources.

 

I was looking at uschi line but the guy selling it doesn't even list the sizes properly and from what I've read it's not quite perfect for CA adhesion on small models. 

[Jonners]

Hmm, thanks for the advice / persuasion! I have some wire that I believe is (or at least was) used for medical and dental repair work. It's very fine and, if I'm careful, should stay straight. I'll give it a go, and I've just ordered some measuring dividers specifically for this task.

[Jonners]

I've had a search online for aftermarket 1/144 4-bladed propellers and, probably unsurprisingly, haven't been able to find anything even remotely suitable. I think I'm going to have to resort to carving individual blades and attaching them to a central hub, which will be a bit of a faff. 

 

More challenging, though, will be reproducing the large-ish white underwing serials in the interwar style. They are just visible in this photo:

 

 

Meanwhile, I had another bash at carving tiny props for the DH11 Oxford. The result is hardly going to win awards:

 

 

...but the result looks like this:

 

 

I have no idea whether or not the wood finish is accurate, and it's probably a bit 'orangey' anyway, but I'm happy with it. The mutant pilot will have to wait to fly another day!

 

Jon

[Jonners]

Inner wheels and roundels on:

 

 

The wing roundels are very slightly undersized, and the red centre on the fuselage roundel is too large, but it's the best I could do from my spares box. I can live with it.

Jon

[Andwil]

On 11/20/2018 at 1:08 AM, SUB-SAM said:

 

I was looking at uschi line but the guy selling it doesn't even list the sizes properly and from what I've read it's not quite perfect for CA adhesion on small models. 

I tied using the Uschi line, but could just not get on with it.  CA made the ends curl up, and if a piece happened to stick the line was so elastic that when stretched it would want to snap back like a rubber band, pulling off the glued end.

 

AW

[Jonners]

More slow progress. I'm having a bash at the rigging using some very fine steel wire given to me by my father-in-law. Apparently it was used for securing dental work and for other facial surgical uses, so it's quite strong but is also very pliable. This makes straightening it easy, but makes it very difficult to keep straight!

 

I also bought a reasonably good pair of dividers to measure the precise lengths required:

 

 

This is where I've got to so far:

 

 

I'm pretty disappointed by how rubbish the engine radiators look in the photo; in reality they are only 7mm high and will be partly obscured by the props, but I'm going to have to do something to make them look less 'bodged'.

 

Jon

 

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Jonners

[Andwil]

Great work on the rigging, looks spot on.

 

AW

[Bandsaw Steve]

On 22/11/2018 at 06:17, Jonners said:

 

 I can live with it.

 

I find that the ability to ‘live with things, is a great asset when scratchbuilding.

 

Your Hyderabad is looking Hypergood! 👍

[Britman]

The rigging is looking great Jon, carry on. The props on the Dh11 look fine , although a tone down as you suggest would be good. 

 

Keith 

[Marklo]

I'd agree on the props.  Shape is good, orange is dayglo   Still a 4 bladed prop in 1/144 is challenging. Then again two identical 4 bladed props in 1/144 hmm, I just about manage in 1/48

 

 

[Jonners]

Right, I've had enough of wire rigging.  And of green biplanes, for that matter. And especially Hyderabads. I haven't yet 'unbodged' the Hyderabad's radiators, but I have knocked up the first of its 4-bladed props:

 

 

I've also toned down the DH11's prop blades! Not perfect, but a bit better.

 

The 4 individual blades were shaped from a toothpick/cocktail stick that had been scraped and sanded to a thin aerofoil section. The hub was simply a short section of another cocktail stick (useful things!) onto which the 4 blades were superglued. A sliver of plastic rod on the hub finished it off. Not especially accurate, but good enough for me. I'll make another when I refill my enthusiasm tank...

 

This is as far as I'm going with the Hyderabad's rigging:

 

 

Nearly there. Now I'm going to have to work out what to do with those radiators.  In the meantime, here's another pic to give an idea of the model's size. I know, the 1cm squares on the cutting board are as good a point of reference as any, but here goes:

 

 

Jon

 

Edited December 1, 2018 by Jonners

[Jonners]

At last - pretty much finished. Virtually the only thing left to do is add a small black decal rectangle on each fuselage side to represent a window:

 

 

I searched through my spare decal folder for white underwing serials and found absolutely nothing that would suit, so I got round the problem by ignoring it. As it's in 1/144 you would have to try quite hard to see under the wings anyway. The other decal 'issue' is that the serial, which was displayed in black on both the rear fuselage side and rudder, is missing from the rudder: I managed to make one complete set (J8810 was a genuine Hyderabad) from the remains of my Aeroclub 1/72 Gamecock decal sheet, but couldn't manage 2 serials. Ho hum.

 

I now need to create a small display base for it, then it will be off to the RFI section before deciding on my next Braille-scale scratchbuilding subject. 

 

Jon

[Bandsaw Steve]

On 02/12/2018 at 05:20, Jonners said:

 

I know, the 1cm squares on the cutting board are as good a point of reference as any, but here goes:

 

 

 

 

Technically speaking that’s true. Technically speaking nothing could serve as a better indication of size than sitting the model on a 1 cm by 1 cm grid.

 But in terms of passing an impression of size to the reader, nothing beats putting it next to an everyday object that we are all familiar with. When I saw this model next to that Revell cement bottle I was - once again - ‘blown away’ by what has been achieved here at this tiny scale! 👍

 

[Britman]

Have you looked at the Modeldecals pre war white serials sheet? It might help , and just underscore what a great job you have pulled off here. 

 

Keith. 

[Putty Animal]

Well done and terrific work.  There can't be too many people about who can boast having one of those in their collection.  Truly unique.

[Jonners]

23 hours ago, Britman said:

Have you looked at the Modeldecals pre war white serials sheet? It might help , and just underscore what a great job you have pulled off here. 

 

Keith. 

Thanks Keith. No, that hadn’t occurred to me as I didn’t know that MD had produced a pre-war set in white. A quickish online search has thrown up the black serials as still available but I can’t (yet) find the white set. Good steer though - I’ll keep looking as I can go back to the model and add them later.

 

8 hours ago, Putty Animal said:

Well done and terrific work.  There can't be too many people about who can boast having one of those in their collection.  Truly unique.

That’s very kind, PA. That’s the main reason for my decision to try this small-scale scratchbuilding lark! Actually, there has been another big motivator: I have visited two of the last three Driffield model shows and have been extremely impressed by the 1/144 display.  A large proportion of the models have been scratchbuilds, with a strong emphasis on Blackburn subjects.  I found the breadth of subject matter (and my brief chats with the chap behind the table) to be quite inspirational, and the concentration on form rather than detail to be refreshing. So, to whoever is responsible for those great displays: thank you!

 

My next effort will be about half the size of the Hyderabad, and silver. 

 

Jon

[Putty Animal]

Can't wait to see what you do next!

I think I saw some pictures of the Blackburn collection posted on Kampfgruppe144's forum.  I had exactly the same feeling.  Congratulations to him on such a superb effort.

[Britman]

Blackburn Blackburn,  you know you want to ( I know I do ) . It would go nice with that little Bison.

 

Keith. 

[Jonners]

17 minutes ago, Britman said:

Blackburn Blackburn,  you know you want to ( I know I do ) . It would go nice with that little Bison.

 

Keith. 

Yes, it would (pretty awkward shape, though), but I have a unique and equally esoteric subject in mind. Here are some reference photos, my 'instruction sheet' and my always-fascinating Putnam's 'muse':

 

 

[Britman]

That would be interesting.  That book is a revelation isn't it, lots of information. 

 

Keith.