Dreaming Spires - a Pavla Airspeed Oxford

[stevehnz]

I seem to have been ignoring my homework on this build the last couple of weeks, sorry teacher.  This is looking lovely Heather, I've a couple of the Jays kits, ex Frog I think, by the look of this one, they shouldn't be much more work so your endeavours are being keenly watched.

Steve.

[Heather Kay]

On 03/03/2019 at 09:50, stevehnz said:

so your endeavours are being keenly watched.

I shall be on my best behaviour, then. 

 

Blimey! Where does the time go?

 

 

On things like this, it appears. This is the underframe of a 1930s Southern Railway coach. It’s one of four of the beggars I am building as a commission. If I tell you a set of bogies for each coach take me the best part of a week to construct you wouldn’t believe me... The hair clips are holding a styrene footboard in place on cast brass brackets while the glue sets. The whole kit is a mix of styrene mouldings, brass etch and castings, and is a proper fiddle at times. Did I mention there’s four of them to do?

 

All of which has meant Oxford time has been distinctly lacking of late. Tonight (Friday) has been the first time in a week, and to be honest with you, I really wasn’t in the mood to do a whole lot.

 

 

Not doing a lot chiefly entailed painting the crash bars in the cockpit. Then I turned to fettling and fitting the nacelles. Pavla overcome the compound curves around the engines and nacelles by breaking them down into smaller parts. So, we have the upper nacelles moulded into the wings, but the lower nacelles and wheel wells as separate parts. The fronts of the nacelles are also individual mouldings. The engines and cowling are made up as separate assemblies. Quite a neat idea, I think.

 

As you can see, some filler will need to go into the nacelles. The fit overall is a little gappy, but it’s not disastrous.

 

 

Underneath, you can see the undercarriage doors, which I’ve managed to thin down some more, attached to the lower nacelles. Again, some filler will be needed here and there.

 

And that, I’m afraid, will be it for a while. I may find some time over the weekend, but that depends on quite how knackered I’ll be after two days trolling about around Kent and Hampshire.

 

 

Edited March 8, 2019 by Heather Kay

[Pete in Lincs]

Just done a catch up and am feeling quite impressed. Both with the research and the build.

I have a feeling that I may have a set of FROG Oxford decals, but can't be sure until I check tomorrow.

Would they be any good to you?

 

BTW, Hair clips for modelling? Excellent idea. I'll have to see what the Memsahib has scattered about.

[Heather Kay]

51 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I have a feeling that I may have a set of FROG Oxford decals, but can't be sure until I check tomorrow.

Would they be any good to you?

I haven’t given a lot of thought to markings yet, beyond a desultory search round the usual internet places to see what might turn up. So, the short answer is yes, they would be useful. Thank you. Please drop me a DM if you find them! 

[Martian]

2 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

I shall be on my best behaviour, then. 

I wouldn't bother too much Heather, nobody else around here does! The Oxford is shaping up very nicely.

 

Martian 👽

[Col.]

Your Oxford is looking well Heather and progressing nicely even with all that complicated trainset stuff happening to distract you

[Heather Kay]

The hardest part with most large scale coach kits is the underframe and running gear. The kits are fairly well thought through, but still throw all kinds of problems at you. In this case, the underframe has plastic moulded truss frames. They’re fine, but flimsy, and a s*d to repair if they break. I’ve made the choice to fabricate new trusses from milled brass angle, so that all adds to the time taken.

 

As far as the Oxford is concerned, I let the "leedle grey cells" bimble about with potential issues while I’m being distracted with paying work. The tailplane has bothered me, as the horizontal stabs are butt glued to the fuselage. I’m working out a way of attaching them that will be stronger. Fitting the engines to the firewalls and cowling is also something I am working out. I’ve also got to figure out new parts for the undercarriage (main and tail), plus the glories of the turret gun mount. Mmm, fiddly soldering! Oh, and there are the vac form transparencies. Good job there are spares on the sheet, but what do I do about canopy frames? Ponder, ponder… 

[Col.]

For the tailplanes I'd recommend drilling a couple holes into the mounts then giving the surface a lick of paint, line the tailplane parts up and push into so that the paint is transferred onto their mating surface, the holes should then be visible as no paint will transfer and that acts as a guide where to drill into the tailplanes for some rods getting inserted to give extra strength for fitting them on. That or a lot of careful measuring.

[JOCKNEY]

Lovely work Heather

 

All that filling sanding refilling, reminds me of building a vacform kit !

 

Great to see you showing it who's boss

 

cheers Pat

[Pete in Lincs]

Heather,

Apologies for raising your hopes. I had a search of the packet of Frog decals I have and my others and failed dismally.

The packet was sent to me about a year ago I think, by a fellow BM member but I can't remember who. He did say he has a lot of them,

So there's a remote chance he may read this and respond. In the meantime I suggest you put something in the wanted column.

Sorry

Pete

[Heather Kay]

1 minute ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Apologies for raising your hopes.

Not to worry, Pete. Thanks for the thought anyway. 

 

I shall probably revert to Plan B, which was to raid my generic markings decals. 

[Heather Kay]

I had expected to be attending a model railway show in Hampshire today, but I came down with the lurgy and felt discretion would be the better part of valour. With an unscheduled day for myself I did some housework  and then let myself have some quality time with this build.

 

 

Pavla's instructions explain how the engines and cowlings fit together. What they fail to give is an actual dimension which might prove useful when trimming back the resin block at the back of the engines so the front pokes out the right amount! Some trial and error fitting ensued, but I reckon I got there.

 

 

I had already fettled and assembled the cowlings, but they still need further work. I marked each set of components so it was obvious which side fitted where. Theoretically, either side will fit, but we all know how this works! I set about making the cowling back plates a good interference fit into the wing mounting. This would mean the engine assemblies would be easy to fit later on. Then I spent a while fettling the back plates to fit fairly nicely into the cowlings themselves. 

 

 

I considered drilling and fitting locating pins on the backs of the engines. Then I thought that was too much for my currently addled brain to deal with, so I scored the styrene and resin mating surfaces, applied a drop of slow setting CA, and eyeballed the engines into what looked like the centre of the back plates. The slow setting stuff gave me a little bit of wiggle room before things set. After a coat of satin black enamel, I set the engines aside to dry.

 

 

You may have noticed lots of filler slathered all over the nacelles in an earlier photo. I spent a happy few minutes cleaning that all up and making it look nice. The port nacelle front ring fitted well, the starboard not so well, which needed a fair bit of sanding to remove a hump on the top. 

 

 

Most of the engraved detail remains, and I’ll consider how much might need reinstating after some further witness coats of paint.

 

 

The engine cowlings are made of two parts. I’m not sure how clear it is, but the one on the left in this shot shows a distinct oval shape. It’s not terminal, since the back plate will help the assembly hold a better shape in due course. A slightly bigger issue is nicks at the front where the halves join. As I type, stretched sprue has been cemented into the nicks, and once it’s set nice and solid I’ll tidy them up. 

 

Thoughts turn to details at this stage. Studying photos, I note a small air intake of some kind on the leading edges just outboard of the engines. There are other odd little greeblies (I love that term, and I’m glad it’s entered my vocabulary properly since joining BM) which I will add in various places. The glazed panel under the nose has received some attention from sharp blades, to thin down the moulding somewhat. The aircraft I am trying to replicate appears to have a pair of oblong windows in the fuselage roof just behind the cockpit canopy, but I’m going to ignore them. The kit's exhausts are a bit clumsy, so I shall do some further image digging and look to recreate them in brass tube if I can.

 

I suppose I need to start thinking about brass fabrication for the main undercarriage and the turret fittings. Time for some further armchair modelling, I think.

[Heather Kay]

I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to trimming out the vac form transparencies.

 

 

Pavla thoughtfully provide two of everything, which is reassuring. Anyway, as ever, with care and sharp blades the main canopy and nose glazing were trimmed out successfully. The landing light glazing has also be freed from its clear styrene sheet. The definition of the main canopy frames is good, so I ought to be able to prep masking relatively easily.

 

Tailplane bits next, I think. Then it’ll begin to look like a proper aeroplane.

[stevehnz]

Nice o progress Heather, you've done a good job on the clear parts, Pavla's vac canopys can be a mixed bag, the detail set for a Strikemaster I started was so thick as to be impossible to separate cleanly, luckily the kit canopy was Ok.

Steve.

[Heather Kay]

Domestic stuff interfered, so I gave myself this afternoon to play. The joys of being my own boss!

 

 

After a bit of a faff, I managed to get the engines in the cowlings, and then got them stuck in place on the wings. Happy with that. 

 

 

 

I found some 1.2mm outside diameter brass tube for the intakes or whatever they are on the wings. I also glued in the resin landing lights. 

 

 

Tail feathers attached. The elevators have a peg which goes into a hole in the base of the rudder. That helped me align things, but I also added brass wire pegs for strength. I am led to understand the elevators were actually joined together through the rudder, which does make some sense.

 

 

While peering at piccies, I realised the wheel wells were wrong. I can understand why Pavla did what they did, but it was only a matter of careful slicing away to get a better representation of what I see on the real thing.

 

Some further piccie peering will follow to decide what other little details I can fit. Still to figure out are the exhausts, undercarriage and the turret framework. Thanks to various folk sharing nice photos in @The Baron's Anson thread...

 

… (the Anson, happily, sharing the turret type with the Oxford), I’m confident I’ll be able to bodge cobble scratch build something that will look good enough.

 

[Heather Kay]

A little more done. I feel I’m down to fiddly bits now, and will need to get on with that turret and undercarriage metalwork.

 

 

The props had some paint slapped on them while they were on the sprue, which has subsequently been scraped off again while cleaning them up! The main UC legs are a little flimsy, and, it turns out, too long. The box art shows a profile illustration of the Oxford which always struck me as sitting at a very high angle of incidence. Reference to photos of Oxfords on the ground show the aircraft has a much more "hunkered down" attitude. I am having a good brain cell workout before I commit to hacking chunks off the main gear. Or building new ones from metal. 

 

 

Using the main legs, it became apparent some careful carving was needed around the point where they were supposed to fit in the wheel wells in order to make it wide enough. Once I’d done that it seemed appropriate to fit the oil cooler intake scoops. I might try drilling and carving the openings once the cement has hardened. I was thinking I might create new exhausts, but after some careful tidying the injected plastic ones look okay. I’ve drilled out the ends. 

 

And now, time for me to get on with proper work.

[Col.]

Given how much of a fight this kit is throwing up at every stage your progress is all the more impressive Heather

[Heather Kay]

37 minutes ago, Col. said:

Given how much of a fight this kit is throwing up

Cheers Col! I don’t think it’s been that bad. I am not really doing much more than any normal modeller would do. Just wait until I start metalbashing! 

Edited March 13, 2019 by Heather Kay

[AdrianMF]

Just caught up with this. Pavla do believe in making you work for your model! It is starting to look like a very pretty aeroplane though!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Heather Kay]

On 15/03/2019 at 17:14, AdrianMF said:

Just caught up with this.

Ditto, in case anyone was thinking I might have done a runner! I’m afraid I’ve not had a lot of free time to spend coaxing an Oxford from this kit.

 

Part of the problem has been this:

 

 

After spending all day wrestling with that, my modelling mojo decides to take a break! 

 

I got the plane off the Shelf of Doom last night, to review where I’d got to. A spot of filling and sanding around the engine cowls took place. I’m still wondering what to do with the undercarriage. I think I’ll need to make a mock-up of the main oleos in order to assess how long they should be, as opposed to how long Pavla have made them! Perhaps I’ll find a bit of time this evening to play around with it.

Edited March 28, 2019 by Heather Kay
Fumble fingers typo.

[CedB]

Just found this and now caught up - nice work on a lovely subject. 

Looking good Heather after all your hard work  

[Heather Kay]

2 hours ago, CedB said:

Looking good Heather after all your hard work  

Thank you, kind sir. There’s plenty of time for me to make a right old mess of it!

[Col.]

That train looks like a lot of hard work Heather but all the more impressive for it.

[Heather Kay]

Well, it’s been some time, hasn’t it. I’ve been trying to get the commissioned work further along, and it’s meant I rarely have energy left at the end of the day for this build.

 

 

I masked the canopy, which was a pleasant half hour or so. I felt there was something wrong with the shape of the cockpit opening, because I couldn’t really see any dashboard or coaming on the real thing at the apex of the windscreen. I took a sharp scalpel to the fuselage and carefully pared the front piece away to better represent what I saw on the prototype.

 

The vac form hasn’t really settled down nicely on one side. I am in two minds about taking it off again, but it’s only held on with canopy glue, so there’s no reason not to do some fettling. I had similar issues with the nose panel, and I ended up trimming out the spare. Thank you Pavla for the foresight to include spares.

 

I applied masking fluid to the fuselage windows, and the same will be done for the nose panel, and I’ve started the process of fitting the landing light glazing. Thoughts are, if temperatures are good that I may get primer on soon. I’ll leave the turret out for painting, which gives me an excuse not to start building it yet! 

 

I had hoped this GB might fire me into building several other trainers I have stashed, but I’m not feeling the love at the moment. I’ll get the Oxford done, at least.

[galgos]

It doesn't look like an easy kit at all Heather but you're making a pretty good job of it, Oxfords are such attractive aeroplanes I think though it's clearly fighting you all the way! 

Max