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DH 114 Heron 'Channel Airways'


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Flaps and u/c fairings have been fixed in position, for the moment the legs with the wheels on them are just push fitted in place into the fairings. Now, when making the u/c fairings, I noticed something that had not registered with me before and on first looks at the main u/c legs is not immediately apparent. On aircraft with the non-retractable undercarriage, the main u/c legs with the fairings exit from the very rear portion of the inboard nacelle tips. Aircraft with retractable undercarriage have the main u/c leg attachment points exit from the flat wing underside, just to the outboard side of the nacelles. It is possible to just see the difference if you look closely at pics, for example scroll through the pics on the Heron Walkaround section on here on Britmodeller and you should spot it. In the walkaround section there are aircraft with both types of u/c legs, link below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can make out the fixed main u/c leg attachment points in this pic too, of a Heron landing:

 

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Jersey-Airlines/De-Havilland-DH-114-Heron-1B/2097125?qsp=eJwtjc0KgzAQhF9F5uxFLIXm1p%2BDt3roC4RkUal1w2ahDeK7N7G9ffPDzArHi9JHHykQDCJZcSNqBCv2FWFWPCm9WXxm3LqqaQ5VR8JL6YysfLVKA0uCaU81IoteMsNn%2B%2BwcBSWPn38XT1Iiim5/GMpjW5Ck/6tjln6KYbb7CqmdZmzbF3QBNr0%3D

 

 

 

 

A few pics of the flaps and u/c legs and fairings. As I mentioned above, note the main u/c leg positions on the rear of the nacelles ....

 

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B)

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Superb.The replacement wheels have given the model the right "sit" for a Heron and look so much better than the originals.

 

I never realized the difference in main gear location between the  mark 1 and 2.

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On 21/06/2019 at 17:44, Neil said:

 

As a bit of a niggle regarding this boxing of my particular example, when they do reissue it I hope that they use a different plastic, the one on this one I am building is very soft, and a bit awkward to sand down and rescribe, a harder plastic would of been so much nicer to use. A Lycoming Prinair one would look rather nice, particularly the Orange scheme! The engines would not be too difficult to make.

 

 

 

 

 

Nope, not producing my own decals, got round that problem by ordering a couple of 1/144 decal sheets from Classic-Airlines, of Channel Airways subjects. Things like fuselage letters/numbers and also cheat lines etc are not an issue, I can sort those out quite easily, the real issue are the words 'Channel Airways' on the upper fuselage sides of the Heron, above the windows, and the smaller 'Channel Airways' wording on the lower fin sides. Pic below shows how I got around this, the large 'Channel Airways' wording on the Viscount 800 sheet are ideal, size-wise, for the wording I need above the Heron fuselage windows, and the small 'Channel Airways' wording, in White with the Black border, on the fin of the HS 748 sheet is perfect for the fin wording on my Heron! 

 

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I kind of know what you mean about the resin components I have made for this Heron, there probably would be a market for them. I used to run my own business (Paragon Designs) for many years, manufacturing accessories and conversions for model aircraft kits in resin, photo-etch, vac form etc, although I only concentrated on military subjects, mainly in 1/72, 1/48, 1/32 and 1/24 scales. I never ventured into the civil/commercial aircraft type of model subjects, although judging by the reaction to these bits I have made for the Heron, maybe I should have  :D.  If I started the company up again, it would probably pay me to do so! 

 

 

B)

Please do Neil! As you can gather from the comments you're receiving, there's a whole chunk of the modelling fraternity that would love you to turn your skills to civvy machines! I'm loving your Heron work here. Top class

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On 19/05/2019 at 10:21, spaddad said:

Airfix are releasing this kit again later this year.

 

I heard somewhere (on here somewhere maybe?!) that Airfix are re-releasing this Heron kit in December 2019. I just wish they'd up the scale to 1:48 or even 1:32!!

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On 6/22/2019 at 7:48 AM, jyguy said:

I never realized the difference in main gear location between the  mark 1 and 2.

 

Neither did I, and very nearly missed it myself, until I looked very closely at as many pics as I could. I suppose all these little differences and subtle changes are what keep things a touch more interesting really!  Quite a challenge to spot some of them, when trying to research some aircraft.

 

 

B)

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On 6/20/2019 at 1:26 PM, Neil said:

Not fixed the nose u/c doors in place yet because I still need to find out how much, if any, weight will need adding inside the nose to stop it tail-sitting. Because of the solid resin engines and some of the internal resin seats, I may not need to add too much weight in there, because they are forward of the main u/c legs.

 

Forgot to add, my assumption that I would not need much weight in the nose was completely wrong, it still needed 10g of .22 lead airgun pellets in the nose to stop it tail-sitting. Added a few details on the wheel hubs and u/c legs with some tiny discs in 0.25mm plastic, using a Waldron punch and die set, the torque links will be added once the legs are fitted permanently, and while rummaging around in my stash of spares from my 'Paragon Designs' days, the etched brass fret from one of my 1/72 A-26A / B-26K Counter Invader conversions quite handily has one of those pointy horseshoe shaped aerials that I will need for the top of the fuselage, and also a couple of windscreen wipers which are just the right size. Bonus! :) 

 

Because I removed all the rivet detail from the kit, and drastically thinned down all of the trailing edges of the wings/tailplanes/fin, not surprisingly all of the ribbing which really should be on the ailerons/elevators/rudder was lost, so I have a plan to put it back again. I have not tried this before, but have wanted to see if this works for a while now, and what I intend to do to replicate the ribbing is to use the Raised Panel Line set from Archer Fine Transfers cut into small lengths, and applied to the control surfaces. This set contains three different widths of fine raised lines, which are actually very thin beads of resin on a clear decal backing. I will probably use the thinnest lines, to see how it looks. Fingers crossed ...... !

 

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8 hours ago, Neil said:

what I intend to do to replicate the ribbing is to use the Raised Panel Line set from Archer Fine Transfers cut into small lengths, and applied to the control surfaces. 

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out. 

It's a tricky subtle effect that I have failed with on a few occasions! 

 

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On 6/30/2019 at 10:33 PM, rob Lyttle said:

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out. 

It's a tricky subtle effect that I have failed with on a few occasions! 

 

 

Me too, and I have kind of scratched my head once or twice wondering how to achieve it. Still, I hope to apply these decal-backed raised resin lines from Archer Fine Transfers in the next few days .... and see exactly how it turns out. I'm very curious myself actually, never used them before!  :D

 

 

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Been going through the thread and it is going to look very good!

 

Also read that you were the man behind paragon, still have some paragon laying around and being worked upon..

Thank you for that👍

 

cheers, Jan

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All the lengths of decal-backed raised resin lines have been added to the control surfaces, decals never adhere too well to bare plastic so I gave the ailerons, elevators and rudder a quick coat of gloss first, Zero Paints clearcoat lacquer which is pre-thinned for airbrush use and dries quickly, two or three lightly misted coats gave a good enough finish in order to apply the decals onto it. The decals are fully dry now and I can feel noticably raised lines when I run my finger over them, so hopefully they should have the desired affect, although I will not really know until a coat of paint is sprayed over them. So far so good though.

 

Also managed to finish off the master patterns for the new prop hubs and prop blades, so these should be thrown into some silicone rubber in the next few days in order to make moulds from them and cast them in resin. Just need to polish the clear areas which will be the fuselage windows, and attach the canopy, and the airframe will be almost ready for some paint at last.

 

 

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On 7/7/2019 at 6:40 PM, rob Lyttle said:

This is shaping up very nicely! 

 

Hopefully the last of the moulding and resin casting is finished too!  The new prop hubs with cut-outs for the blade locations are finally in resin, as are the replacement prop blades with a broader mid-section to each blade profile, in comparison to the kit blades. Decided to mould the front and main wheels in resin too.  The kit exhaust pipe is in the r/h foreground, the rear section of the pipe has been tapered (from the kit, it is a straight, parralel section of pipe, which is incorrect) and a very tiny, tubular section of plasic has been added to the very fron of the exhaust, as in the pics in the Walkaround section of the Heron. 

 

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Overall view of the new resin prop hubs/blades and wheels temporarily in place.

 

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You're going to be inundated with more requests for these! . 

We got  Airfix in attendance at our club annual show in Romsey tomorrow, and I'm hoping to get some info on the release of their "Classics" including this one. 

Although your build has made obvious the serious shortcomings of the old tooling. 

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This topic continues to make fascinating reading Neil. Great detailed descriptions. I just wish that SOMEBODY COULD PLEASE MAKE A 1:48 OR 1:32 HERON II!!

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/19/2019 at 1:14 AM, Fazzman said:

Not sure if I've missed something here, or maybe the holidays have got in the way. Any Heron news at all Neil?

 

You have not missed anything, just not had the opportunity to do any additional work to the model.  A little sidetracked with other things that seem to crop up. Hope to get something done to it soon though. Close to being ready for some paint actually, once I have finished the canopy and such.

 

 

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Canopy finally attached and blended in, so now the DF loop housing on top of the canopy could be made.  A piece of PTFE tape was placed on top of the canopy (so the next stage will not bond onto it just yet) and a small piece of tooling block, roughly to size of the DF housing, was placed onto a small dollop of automotive car-body filler which had been applied to the DF location on the canopy top. Once the filler had set, approx 20 mins depending how much hardener had been mixed in, the tooling block was popped off from the canopy roof and then shaped and profiled to the final size of the DF loop housing, and a tiny piece of copper wire was added to achieve the aerial attachment 'hook' on top.  Because the tooling block, with body filler, was placed onto the PTFE tape, the 'footprint' of it is a precise match to the profile and curvature of the canopy outer surface, and so was then simply glued in place.  Everything will blend in once a coat of paint has been applied. 

 

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Rear passenger entry door is pretty much done, and various small additions to exterior points on the airframe, such as access panels, latches, tiny intakes, hinge and pivot points on small doors and such, and a circular light position on the front of the nose leg fairing, are finished too.  The really delicate things such as pitot, aerials, antennas etc will be added once the painting and decals are all finished.  Just need to mask up the canopy and fuselage window transparencies, then the airbrushing/painting can begin.

 

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B)

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4 hours ago, Neil said:

Canopy finally attached and blended in, so now the DF loop housing on top of the canopy could be made.  A piece of PTFE tape was placed on top of the canopy (so the next stage will not bond onto it just yet) and a small piece of tooling block, roughly to size of the DF housing, was placed onto a small dollop of automotive car-body filler which had been applied to the DF location on the canopy top. Once the filler had set, approx 20 mins depending how much hardener had been mixed in, the tooling block was popped off from the canopy roof and then shaped and profiled to the final size of the DF loop housing, and a tiny piece of copper wire was added to achieve the aerial attachment 'hook' on top.  Because the tooling block, with body filler, was placed onto the PTFE tape, the 'footprint' of it is a precise match to the profile and curvature of the canopy outer surface, and so was then simply glued in place.  Everything will blend in once a coat of paint has been applied. 

 

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B)

Cool technique. But what is PTFE tape? Is that what we Former Colonials refer to as "Teflon tape"?

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Space Ranger, PTFE tape is a sort of thin, normally white sort of stretchy tape that is usually used as a sealant on tap threads, pipe unions etc., anywhere you don't want system leaks on pneumatics, water, etc etc. Hope that helps.

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This is looking really nice! I'm looking forward to the next steps. Interesting tip regarding the PTFE tape. I have the white variety in the basement somewhere, but have never thought that it could be useful in modelling. Definitely something I will try one day.

 

Ragnar

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