Handley Page HP42/45, Contrail vacuformed 1/72

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The cockpit/radio area is a bit vague in the instructions, and does not match well with I can see in photos. This assembly is a bit provisional, so I can put it in place and see how things work. As usual, the side of the kit parts that face the cabin should be smooth (the kit's parts show a wobbly surface product of the corrugations molded on the other side) and a doubler has to be glued on. The cockpit floor is oversized and will have to be trimmed back:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

11 minutes ago, Courageous said:

...and maintain the correct wingspan. And yes, nail biting it is 

 

Stuart

Hi Stuart

The span is correct if you do it the proper way (i.e. over-mounting the wing a bit), meaning that most kit builders I can see slid the lower wings out due to that butt joint, but perhaps only about 5mm, nothing that will lead to committing sepuku with the kit box.

Cheers

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, pheonix said:

I am entirely confident that you already have a cunning plan and will reveal all to us mere mortal modellers in due course...

 

P.

Or do I, P.?

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

That particular corner of the cabin -because of the configuration created by the partition angle- had an odd, smaller, asymmetrical seat, that needs to fashioned:

[Martian]

1 hour ago, Moa said:

Or do I, P.?

I have no doubt that you do Moa, the only question is what sort of cunning plan? Is it a genuinely cunning plan, so cunning that you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel, or is it one of General Melchett's Baldrickesque type cunning plans? We await the answer with baited breath!

 

On tenterhooks of Mars 👽

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

¿Où est le radiateur d'huile?

 

Research provides responses to many questions.

I was looking and looking for the second pair of oil coolers, and couldn't find them until today, because they were located on the plane's armpit:

[AdrianMF]

7 hours ago, Moa said:

Trembling and biting nails yet?

Well, we aren’t  because we are sure you will have a Cunning Plan. Splendid work so far and I’m sure you will manufacture a corrugated fillet that looks better than the vac!

 

I guess you could overlay the fillet onto the fuselage to get a correct outline, albeit a little thinner. I can’t see rounding off the fuselage  as a viable option...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Moa 

Great work so far, wow it is a huge beastie.  The lower wing issue looks a bit of a nightmare, especially to us mere mortals, however as Phoenix stated, I have every confidence in your abilities in solving this issue. Although I am still biting my nails.

Keep up the great work

All the best

Chris

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Several ebil plans are taking form.

To start with, there is no problem with normal modeling on shaping and thinning the plastic, it can be brought to adequate gauge sanding the corrugations on the wing root from underneath, and the rest of the root can be carefully conformed to the fuselage shape (besides, the area that it covers can be lightly sanded a bit too on the fuselage roof):

As per the spar, I will try to circumvent the kit's solution of a flat 1.5mm spar made of sheet, and instead will try to apply what I used on my Rohrbach Roland, aluminium spars within aluminium sleeves:

(Link to the Rorhbach post and below images of its alu spar)

 

 

 

 

 

This arrangement has the advantage of self-alignment, i.e. the dihedral is set as well as at the same time the wings can not deviate back or forth, nor change their incidence (they can't "twist") a movement that a round spar/sleeve could have allowed.

Just in case, I pulled from the bottom of the magic drawer some corrugated aluminium sheets I bought about 12 or 14 years ago. One has its label, the other I have no idea. Both were bought from model train stores that are no more (like all the hobby shops that were in my area). This in case I need to change the plan and use something like that:

 

The pitch does not match (nor does the kit match reality very well, for that matter), being finer, but in a pinch and because of its location I will use it without hesitation, if need be.

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Preparing the spar and sleeve of adequate size:

 

Sumarizing: this is what most builders did, butt joint and leaving all corrugations outside the fuselage. Again, not a mortal sin, but ideally those corrugations should have mounted on top of the fuselage:

 

This is approximately the incidence of the wing, the leading edge more or less coincides with the stiffener that runs the length of the fuselage, whilst the trailing edge "drops" to a place about mid-way from the stiffener and the top edge of the windows' panel:

 

Viewed from the top, we can see that some sizeable amount of material will have to be removed for those corrugations to mount over the roof. If that happens to have a not very pleasant finish (being the corrugations too thick and not blending well on the roof), then the real corrugated aluminium sheet will be used):

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Accordingly, a spar and sleeves are fashioned following the angles on the plan, BUT not the measures on the plan, that do not correspond to the actual kit parts (i.e. width of fuselage):

 

The exit points are measured and cut on the fuselage sides, with just a bit of wiggling, to have some adjusting latitude:

 

The spar will attach to that partial bulkhead and divider:

 

Then, eventually, the sockets/sleeves are going to be epoxied inside the wing roots before any assembly, that is: the sleeves will slide on the spar (the loose spar, that is, off the fuselage), epoxy applied to the sleeves as the wings are rigged on the board at the proper positions. Once the epoxy is set, the wings are removed from the spar, and eventually the spar glued in the fuselage. At a later stage the wings will rejoin the assembly, with their sockets firmly in place and correctly pre-aligned:

[Courageous]

Great work, very ingenious.

 

Stuart

[pheonix]

So you did have a cunning plan (and the materials to bring it to success) all the time! Congratulations on a very ingenious solution to a tricky problem.

 

P

[Andwil]

Fantastic work and as Courageous said, an ingenious solution to the problem.  It will also make for a very strong wing/fuselage joint.

 

AW

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The front emergency hatch is removed, to provide yet another visual and illumination access:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The tail assembly is completed. I'll leave the rigging and a couple of structural members until paint is applied:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Interesting how it looks when you provide scale:

 

You could live inside that tail, it's bigger than some places I have stayed

[Courageous]

One BIG mother!

 

Stuart

[kev67]

Coming together really well

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Now it's time cut cut away the cockpit window panes. Instead of cutting three individual panes, the area is removed and the frames will be later added as decals or aluminium strips. The first side panels are carefully cut with a new blade:

 

 

The front panels are approached in a different way: a hole is drilled, and then an then a bit on the rotary tool is used to enlarge it:

 

 Then an Xacto or files can be used to remove the rest:

 

The roof windows are incorrectly depicted in the kit, so they are re-traced in pencil:

 

The same procedure is repeated, some drilling, some carving and the refining. At this point the are has been weakened, so caution is needed when carving, cutting and filing:

 

If you commit a mistake, vacs are in general more tolerant, and you just simply glue a piece of styrene where you carved too much and wait until is completely set before re-carving or cutting again.
Another approach will be to remove the whole area and build the glazing up with clear material sections, or carve a master and vac the glazing. I have done all of these in other models, but here, given the astronomical amount of work still needed in this model, I will keep it simple.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

All the openings that can or need to be practiced are already done:

 

 

Now it's the turn of the landing gear. The metal rod provided with the kit is too big and can't, in any way, be wrapped by or inserted in the leg parts provided. Yet another aspect of kit fantasy here. There are two solutions: to make the "wraps" in embossed styrene and keep the thick rod or to get another, thinner piece of metal, which I did, with some brass "Strutz".

 

The legs as they come are very long (intentionally?) so eventually they will have to be cut to size:

 

The mounting holes are drilled and the metal part tried out, to good result:

[JosephLalor]

Can't wait to see this one emerge from the chrysalis. Great work modelling one of the first aircraft I knew anything about at all.  I'm not that old, but it so happens that when I was growing up in the 1960s nearly all the books about aviation in the house were Boy's Own type publications from the early 1930s.  The most modern airliners depicted were the Douglas DC-2 and the Short Atalanta.

[Britman]

Great work again Moa. Interesting how " modern" the cockpit glazing looked for the time.

 

Keith

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

20 minutes ago, Britman said:

Great work again Moa. Interesting how " modern" the cockpit glazing looked for the time.

 

Keith

Hi Keith

Timelines and fads (aka engineering tendencies) in aviation are as interesting as they are puzzling.

Look at this enclosed cockpit on a four-engined, mostly metal monoplane airliner, in 1919.

They literally dismantled the plane and forgot about the concept for about two decades, favoring biplane (or even triplane) stringbags with open cockpits. Go figure.

This plane from 1919 is more advanced in many aspects than the lumbering, double biplane (wing and tail), fabric covered ungainly beast that I am building now, conceived 10 years later.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

17 minutes ago, JosephLalor said:

Can't wait to see this one emerge from the chrysalis. Great work modelling one of the first aircraft I knew anything about at all.  I'm not that old, but it so happens that when I was growing up in the 1960s nearly all the books about aviation in the house were Boy's Own type publications from the early 1930s.  The most modern airliners depicted were the Douglas DC-2 and the Short Atalanta.

Hi Joseph

Being a native of the South American pampas that spent much of his youth on trees and eating coconuts, I was unfamiliar with the cultural reference. They seem interesting.

Cheers