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1965 Britten-Norman Islander


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Hi Chaps 

Without giving away the degree of my youth I will join this most diverse of Group builds to celebrate the year 1965. Quite a lot happened in '65 but for a builder of 1/48 British Aircraft it has to be the BN Islander. First flight in June '65 and still in production. 

Valoms kit was only released last year and the sprues made it to Thailand in Santa's sack at Christmas. I didn't get the box or instructions as volume and weight is always a premium. I wrote to Valom regarding the latter and they emailed me a set overnight so good service points to them. 

Here's how she is today. No box of course. 

20190729_194129

 

Looks like plenty of work there in the interior. Not sure about the brown plastic though. 

The plan is to build the Augriny Airlines scheme. I used to watch these planes take off from Guernsey airport while on holiday in the 70's. 

Happy days 

More on Saturday. 

 

Colin 

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What an excellent choice Colin, well done. There will be plenty of modellers out there who are wanting to see this kit built (..and my hands up), so are hearty welcome from all of us. You are quite right in stating that this is the most diverse of GB's, which will hopefully gather a large collection of subjects from the wide modelling spectrum. 

 

Cheers and all the best come Saturday.. Dave 

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Good luck with your build Colin. 

Funnily enough, JARTS had an Islander fuse used for crash exercises and a not technically correct ejector seat fitted in the front. It was that light that 4 of us could run it into the trailer with brute force. Don’t have any pictures of it but it was used as wreckage for the pre RIAT crash exercise one year. 

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Well I have made a start on the Islander. Interior undercoat in grey and a top coat of Mr Colour 306 for the fuselage halves and seats. 

20190804_192915

 

I thought the Islander was quite large but actually it's not much bigger than the AT37 I'm just finishing in the 80's Asia GB. 

 

20190804_193100

 

Colin 

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Colin, having made one of these..... 1. best of luck as fit is …. interesting to say the least. ,2. It is a tail sitter even when the nose area is filled with lead., 3. I would suggest you metal pin the undercarriage as it is a weak spot.

 

If I can be of any more help just say.

 

HTH

 

Dick

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22 hours ago, jenko said:

Colin, having made one of these..... 1. best of luck as fit is …. interesting to say the least. ,2. It is a tail sitter even when the nose area is filled with lead., 3. I would suggest you metal pin the undercarriage as it is a weak

Many thanks for your comments Dick. I haven't got as far as looking at the undercarriage yet but based on your comments I'll check it out. 

By 'pin the undercarriage' I assume you mean the top of the leg joining the wing?

How much lead did you use?  If it's a heavy weight on a dodgy undercarriage then I might as well hollow the tail with my Dremel. I've done this before on Canberra models and it works,  Just messy!

Colin 

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Hi Colin,

As for the undercarriage … the olio joining the main legs … the nose is iffy as well .

As regards to weight ….. I just filled every thing in the nose with lead and it still was a tail sitter.. The undercarriage was Ok with this amount of weight when pinned.

 

I found a clear stand to put under the tail. I'm not sure if plastic removal will be enough... you can only try.

 

Here is a link to mine if that helps.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235057689-britten-norman-islander-148/

 

Dick

Edited by jenko
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Good looking build there Dick. Thanks for posting  the link. I have to say that scheme looks good as do some of the Kiwi ones.

 

Colin 

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Managed to get some progress with the interior. 3 rows of seats in the kit painted grey and blue. A very good instrument panel made up of a sheet with printed instruments and a PE overlay. The included control column wheels were a bit small and 1 was missing from my kit. Spares have been found in the bits box though. 

Wing tips are a bit hit and miss so I ended up adding a 1mm shim to get the correct shape.

20190811_154319

 

Colin 

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Here's my finished interior. Seat belts are just painted on as they can't be seen under the wings. Based on the comments above by Jenko I have packed the space behind the instrument panel with lead and PVA. I'll leave the nose cap off for now as I can run some 'liquid weight ' in if needed. Right now the centre of gravity is close to the right place so she can sit on the nose wheel. 

Windows were dipped in Future and then glued in with future. 

 

20190812_165041

 

Colin 

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That interior is very nice Colin and having build an Airfix Beaver and spending quite some time on the internals, I know what you mean about not seeing too much under a top wing. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Cracked on with the wings on the Islander. Wing was basically ok but needed sanding down before assembly to sharpen the trailing edge. Engines fitted ok for a limited run kit. Some bog was required where they meet up with the leading edge. Navigation and landing lights are good.

Tail added to the fuselage to help get the nose weight correct. Some bog was required on the nose and cabin roof. I'll sand this down tomorrow. 

 

20190818_111703

 

Coat of paint next. 

Colin 

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Excellent progress, Colin. I do like the Islander - and plenty interesting colour schemes to pick from. The Aurigny scheme is smart, no doubt. 

 

Pleased to see your wings are a little less "droopy" than on my Airfix 1/72 build (in Scottish Ambulance Service livery) 😉 

BN Islander BN Islander

 

W-D 

 

 

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Great progress Colin, that’s looking very nice indeed. It’s a shame you’re having to trim, sand and bog as you go however we should be grateful just having this kit in 1:48 scale I suppose. Nice Airfix Classic there WD. Does this kit suffer from wonky wings or did something happen to your build? 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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They were wonky as a design feature.... 😂

 

Actually, they were way worse than that oob, and aren't quite as bad as the photo makes it seem, but I ran out of patience to work on them more. It lives on my boy's ceiling (it's his favourite plane at the National Museum of Flight) where the wonkiness is not so noticeable.. 

 

Wonky[winged] donkey 

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Looking good Colin …. front screen was a bit iffy fit if I recall.

 

This kit is never knowingly under filled.:whistle:

 

 Dick

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Well as promised I managed to get a coat of paint on. Mr Colour Surfacer 1000 gives a good solid white to cover the brown. I put some on the fuselage sides and sprayed a top coat of Mr Colour gloss white earlier before adding the windows. This is masked now but I haven't added the windscreen yet. Something to look forward to Dick?   

 

20190818_165317

 

I've added a lot of the PE details to the lower surface of the fuselage. I also added the main undercarriage legs. Each with 1mm brass rod strengthener secured into the engine cover. The main wheel bogies look poor as well so will be replaced with brass rod secured into the wheels. 

 

Colin 

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Yep..I thought mine was from a different kit :analintruder:

 

Stock up on more filler ………………...………….

 

Dick

 

I feel your pain 

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