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Short Sunderland in 1/32nd scale


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Evening boys and girls,

 

It's been a glorious sunny day here in my corner of Kent so I got the camera out and snapped some pictures of the recently installed engines.

 

With each 'power-egg' complete it was just a case of adding them to wing-section of each nacelle. The Revell Beaufighter cowl flaps were an absolutely perfect fit for the kit's forward firewall, so it was just a case of applying some Araldite to the inside surfaces of the cowl flaps and sliding them into place. The relatively slow drying time of the epoxy glue meant I had ample time to ensure each engine was aligned correctly, both with the plans and each other. When installing them, I didn't realise that the engines canted outboard at such an angle, but references confirmed this was the case. It certainly looks a little strange that the thrust line is so off central, and I presume there is a valid reason for it, too!

 

Anyway, on to the pictures...

 

As you can see the fit is nice and snug, and engine no.1 looks the part now it's hung on the wing. The early MkII-style straight exhausts will be made and added later:

 

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Engines 3 and 4 - lots of care was taken to align the engines carefully during installation:

 

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When I was hacking about with the kit-supplied nacelles I removed and kept the very crude carburettor intakes in the hope I could make something useable from them - as you can see from the three finished intakes at the top of the picture they scrubbed up fine:

 

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These were than glued in position on the lower section of each nacelle:

 

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She's really starting to take shape now:

 

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Thanks for stopping by folks, and stay safe!

 

Until next time,

Tom

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6 minutes ago, John Masters said:

How big is this thing?  Put something next to it to give it some scale, would you?  Amazing!

Thanks - oh and it's BIG. Here's a picture from a few pages back of my 5 year old daughter taking it for a spin...

 

IMG_1587

 

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The reason the engines are cantered outward is because the wings were swept back to give a better mach number. Only joking, the sweep was to get the CofG back to a decent position after they fitted the power turrets, particularly the rear turret. Fantastic build, I've been following mainly on LSP.

TRF

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1 hour ago, fastterry said:

The reason the engines are cantered outward is because the wings were swept back to give a better mach number. Only joking, the sweep was to get the CofG back to a decent position after they fitted the power turrets, particularly the rear turret. Fantastic build, I've been following mainly on LSP.

TRF

Well you learn something new every day... can't have done much to help the aerodynamics of the beast!

 

Tom

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Small angles as this would have little effect on the forward component of the thrust, and the flow around the nacelles would have been "straightened" by the propeller flow so any drag caused by the angle of the nacelles to the line of flight would be minimised.  So overall perhaps less effect than might be thought.

 

Given the drag of the deep fuselage and hydrodynamic belly, pretty well negligible.

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The S23/S30 Empire boats had nearly the same wings and no tail turret (ad hoc wartime conversions excepted) and had the wings and engines square on, as did the first prototype Sunderland.  I can't find a suitable picture of the prototype online to reference here, unfortunately.

 

It is looking marvellous!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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On 9/6/2021 at 10:24 AM, Graham Boak said:

Small angles as this would have little effect on the forward component of the thrust, and the flow around the nacelles would have been "straightened" by the propeller flow so any drag caused by the angle of the nacelles to the line of flight would be minimised.  So overall perhaps less effect than might be thought.

 

Given the drag of the deep fuselage and hydrodynamic belly, pretty well negligible.

Thanks for this, Graham - and yes with the sheer bulk of the fuselage the aerodynamics can’t have been great. I always think the engines look so small and undersized compared to the rest of the aircraft. 
 

On 9/6/2021 at 11:48 AM, AdrianMF said:

The S23/S30 Empire boats had nearly the same wings and no tail turret (ad hoc wartime conversions excepted) and had the wings and engines square on, as did the first prototype Sunderland.  I can't find a suitable picture of the prototype online to reference here, unfortunately.

 

It is looking marvellous!

 

Regards,

Adrian

I didn’t realise the engine setup was different on the prototype - or the Empire boats for that matter. Speaking of which, did you ever complete that rather splendid conversion you were working on?

 

On 9/6/2021 at 3:25 PM, TonyOD said:

Just stumbled across this. Blimey. There's modelling, and there's modelling.

Thanks, Tony - but I always maintain anyone can do kits like this. It just needs a little thinking outside of the box and not being allergic to filler and sanding!

 

Tom

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  • 2 weeks later...
7 hours ago, bertielissie said:

Here in windy, Springtime Melbourne just wondering how the build is going? Thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts and commentary

Cheers,

Paul (aka Bertie, as in Bertie Lissie of Biggles fame):thumbsup:

I remember being in Melbourne years ago (I think it was in May/June/July and being astonished to wake up to frosty mornings. Frost? In Australia?! I had a lot of fun in that great city...

 

Progress is still being made, albeit a little more slowly, as I'm back at school for the new term and marking books and planning lessons is taking up valuable time in the evenings!

 

However, I've since built the outboard floats and will be installing them on the wings soon - hopefully this weekend and the following week - so I'll post a 'proper' update soon.

 

All the best and thanks for stopping by,

Tom

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On 9/3/2021 at 12:11 PM, Marklo said:

I agree the trick with scratchbuilding is to break objects down into simple shapes that can be fabricated and assembled to get the desired object.  Now I must admit I mostly scratch early aircraft and they tend to be much simpler shapes. But with practice even the most modern planes can be broken down into simpler shapes e.g the Ahrlac I’m currently working on.


273b202d-62f5-40f9-8af0-db49e7fdbf5a.jpe

Thus this breaks down..


resized_5c13ebb3-f653-465b-aa52-62cdf250

Into this 

 

resized_2e2cc16c-1128-45b5-a628-24732985

And this.

Looks like a modernized OV-10 Bronco!

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Afternoon all,

 

Progress on this build has slowed somewhat after returning to teaching for the new academic year, so evenings have been taken up with marking books and planning lessons. It's such a shame when work gets in the way of one's hobby. However I've been working on the floats when time allows, so thought I'd share some pictures...

 

The basic shapes were removed from their backing sheet with a sharp blade. I hold it at a 45-degree angle and score around the part numerous times before snapping it free. It then means there's only a very small 'lip' of plastic needing to be removed which cuts down on the sanding time significantly:

 

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To aid the gluing together of the parts I lined one half of each float with a thin plastic card tab:

 

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The floats are obviously going to be positioned on the outboard sections of the wing in quite a vulnerable position, so I made a trip to my local model shop and bought some alloy tube, helpfully in the shape of an aerofoil like the real thing. This will provide plenty of strength if they inadvertently get a whack! Before joining the floats together I worked out the position of the struts using the plans, before securing them in place using Araldite Epoxy glue:

 

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Here are the floats now together and the struts cut to the correct length. Everything about this model is massive - here's a pot of Tamiya paint as a useful size reference:

 

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I am now going to need to scribe and detail the floats before working out a plan to attach them to the wings and getting a nice and strong join. Stay tuned!

 

Until next time,

Tom

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Really looking good Tom.

 

Remember those days at school. Glad I taught Handicraft. ....... less stuff to bring home. Another plus was a big workshop to play in :yahoo:

 

Retirement is even better :whistle::tease:

 

See you soon

 

Dick

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On 9/17/2021 at 10:29 PM, tomprobert said:

I remember being in Melbourne years ago (I think it was in May/June/July and being astonished to wake up to frosty mornings. Frost? In Australia?! I had a lot of fun in that great city...

 

Progress is still being made, albeit a little more slowly, as I'm back at school for the new term and marking books and planning lessons is taking up valuable time in the evenings!

 

However, I've since built the outboard floats and will be installing them on the wings soon - hopefully this weekend and the following week - so I'll post a 'proper' update soon.

 

All the best and thanks for stopping by,

Tom

Being an ex-chalkie I understand how time consuming correcting work and  planning lessons is. Since retiring I've managed to complete numerous models. Covid lockdown helped a bit. It's Spring here and would you believe  we've had gusty wings,hail and rain, That's Melbourne!

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Evening all,

 

This week I have finished off making the floats and have installed them onto the wings - temporarily. 

 

With the basic structure of the floats done, I removed the head from some nails and epoxied them into the open ends of the alloy struts. After some very careful measuring of plans, I worked out the location of each float and marked this onto the wing:

 

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Just drilling holes and inserting the nails would have meant the join would not have any rigidity, so instead I used some large diameter scrap sprue and inserted this into the wing to act as mounts. These were set into epoxy glue so that they are absolutely rigid and are bedded on to the upper wing surface. These sprue inserts were then filled and sanded flush, before a hole was drilled in each to take the nails and provide a really strong union between the struts and the wing:

 

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Here is a float in situ - not glued yet as there are additional struts to add but these will come later just before paint in case they inadvertently get a whack during the final stages of production:

 

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Here are a couple of shots of the overall airframe:

 

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I've made a tentative start on the transparencies for the cockpit as I want to get this right before I finish off the interior - this will be my next task to complete so hopefully another update in the not-too-distant future. 

 

All the best,

Tom

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