Short Sunderland Mk III - Italeri 1/72

[Biggles87]

I’m sometimes tempted to build some 1/72 bombers, but I know I would be defeated by the fiddly bits with my sausage fingers.

Does Klear come in different viscosity?  I have two bottles ( old and new formulas ) and both  look much too thin to be used for filling.

Keep up the good work.

 

John

[CedB]

Thanks John  I'm not sure the fiddly bits are any smaller than the bits you have on your larger scale models; if my experience of 1/48 is anything to go by it encourages the manufacturers to include more fiddly bits!

I'm not sure about different versions of Klear - mine is 'Pledge Multi-surface wax - Formerly known as Klear' and it's not especially thick, but it runs along the trenches and fills them nicely when you 'top it up' from the brush. Trouble is it shrinks, hence the need for three or four applications.

HTH.

[CedB]

More turrety stuff:

 

 

Bill's Dad has had his uniform painted:

 

 

@perdu what colour hair?

[Martian]

23 minutes ago, CedB said:

Bill's Dad has had his uniform painted:

 

 

Yes but what's he doing with that a giant loo seat behind him? 

 

Martian the Curious👽

[perdu]

Black as mine but I amn't sure he'd be lugging  0.50 cal belts around inside the 'boat Ced

 

He was liable to reload depth charges and bombs onto the wing mounted racks when the skipper had let 'em go

[LDSModeller]

4 hours ago, perdu said:

Black as mine but I amn't sure he'd be lugging  0.50 cal belts around inside the 'boat Ced

 

He was liable to reload depth charges and bombs onto the wing mounted racks when the skipper had let 'em go

Ammunition would be in canisters/boxes. - Mk III .303 ammo

Reloads for Depth Charges while on sorties, probably not.

WWII Sunderland crew I have spoken to or read after action reports of,

the aircraft only carried a standard load of 8 depth charges.

Standard bomb on run on a Sub, was 6 DC's (maybe 7) leaving a couple/one

for on the way home.

Smoke flares/floats absolutely as needed.

Regards

 

Alan

 

[perdu]

I suppose when he talked about using the racks I should have listened closer

 

How  dreams fade...

[CedB]

Morning chaps!

Not a lot done yesterday as I visited the Clifton Suspension Bridge to see the the hidden chambers of the Leigh Woods Abutment. I'll do another post to 'share the experience'.

 

9 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Yes but what's he doing with that a giant loo seat behind him? 

 

Martian the Curious👽

 Thanks Martian. The loo seat is, of course, there for his convenience

(It's the top current surround, but you knew that didn't you)

 

9 hours ago, perdu said:

Black as mine but I amn't sure he'd be lugging  0.50 cal belts around inside the 'boat Ced

 

He was liable to reload depth charges and bombs onto the wing mounted racks when the skipper had let 'em go

4 hours ago, LDSModeller said:

Ammunition would be in canisters/boxes. - Mk III .303 ammo

Reloads for Depth Charges while on sorties, probably not.

WWII Sunderland crew I have spoken to or read after action reports of,

the aircraft only carried a standard load of 8 depth charges.

Standard bomb on run on a Sub, was 6 DC's (maybe 7) leaving a couple/one

for on the way home.

Smoke flares/floats absolutely as needed.

Regards

 

Alan

 

6 minutes ago, perdu said:

I suppose when he talked about using the racks I should have listened closer

 

How  dreams fade...

Thanks Bill and Alan  Phew, tough crowd! I'll need to do some more research but according to the Wikipedia entry the Mk III got some more weapons:

 

"Despite the 14-hour-long patrols expected of their crews, early Sunderland gunners were provided with only 500 rounds of ammunition each. Later 1,000 round ammunition boxes were installed in the turrets. The beam hatch guns were removed from Mk II aircraft but Mk IIIs and then Mk Is gained much more capable .5 guns, one each side.

Offensive weapons loads increased too. The introduction of the hydrostatically fused 250 lb (110 kg) depth charge meant that additional weapons could be carried on the floor of the bomb room in wooden restraints, along with ammunition boxes of 10 and 25 lb anti-personnel bombs that could be hand launched from various hatches to harass U-boat crews otherwise manning the twin 37 and dual quadruple 20 mm cannons with which U-boats were fitted."

 

The kit comes with bombs so they'll have to go. I'll have a look for details of the 'hydrostatically fused 250 lb depth charge' and see what I can come up with.

[CedB]

So, the suspension bridge.

Of course I've visited the bridge before but, like most people, was unaware that, although the Clifton side tower was build on rock, the Leigh Woods side stone abutment was 'hollow'. I was surprised to hear that the vaults weren't discovered until 2002 when the Bridge Master decided to replace the paving stones. I was going to waffle on about this but, if you're interested, have a look at this ten minute video:

 

 

Featuring Laura (who took us on the tour) it explains the history too.

 

Great tour.

[giemme]

1 hour ago, CedB said:

Great tour.

Amazing!   Still, I don't get the point for building those hidden vaults ....  

 

Ciao

[CedB]

Thanks Giorgio  Amazing isn't it? The guide told us that cost was at a premium so I guess the vaults reduced the amount of expensive stone they had to use. Amazing engineering though eh? That Brunel, what a bloke - he designed the bridge in his 20s!

 

British Explosive Ordnance guide says the Mk XI hydrostatic DC had an overall length if 54.8”, body 37”, 11” dia. Tail 17.8”, 11” wide. Simple drum open at both ends, strengthening ring welded at front end with three brackets. Tail breaks off on contact with water. Painted Dark Green overall with .5” red band and another band for contents just in front of the suspension lug.

 

I also found this picture of the racks:

 

I shall ponder more…

[perdu]

They will have been built in boxes to provide structural locations for the bridge foundations, I reckon

 

Our houses here in my road are built on a lateral slope and the footings* for across the road's ones all have large brick built cavities below them

 

Several of those neighbours have opened their garage floor the allow them to use them as cellars

 

My mate Dave has a small workshop inside his

Lathe, saw and pillar drill having sold his little used milling machine

 

 

*  footings = foundations

[perdu]

I think I many have a few of those, or reasonable lookeylikes

 

I will search this afternoon

[keefr22]

That's a brilliant video Ced, makes you wonder what else lies awaiting discovery elsewhere - amazing stuff! Didn't know IKB had never seen the finished bridge - those Victorians were proper engineers though! Looks like that's a great tour!

 

Keith

 

 

[hendie]

6 hours ago, giemme said:

Still, I don't get the point for building those hidden vaults ....  

 

because we'll all know they're there!

 

 

 

3 hours ago, CedB said:

guide says the Mk XI hydrostatic DC had an overall length if 54.8”, body 37”, 11” dia. Tail 17.8”, 11” wide.

 

hmmmm.  Them don't look like those or was that not what you meant?

 

 

hend the obtuse

 

 

 

 

[perdu]

Those devices are no more than twenty four of your ancient imperial inches Ced

 

Could be smoke or flares I suppose, dad's no longer available to ask, regrettably

 

Our Hendie ain't bad at estimitation is he? 

[hendie]

I'm thinking that at 4 and a half feet long by a foot in diameter and probably not built from NERF material, those things are going to be darned heavy and prolly not manageable by one person. 

 

At least not until they've had their Weetabix

 

 

Edited October 2, 2019 by hendie

[perdu]

Two

[keefr22]

10 minutes ago, hendie said:

At least not until they've had their three Weetabix

 

Corrected that for you h....

[hendie]

Does that mean that our Ced now has to make a 1940's Weetabix box with a couple of weety's lying on the counter in the galley ?

 

 

 

 

just askin'

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I found these awhile ago when doing my RAAF Catalina.  These are definitely a  Sunderland though. 

 

i dont remember where i found them or if a member here sent me the photo’s. I also found that eduard and CMK make set’s in 1/72.

http://www.hyperscale.com/2017/reviews/accessories/cmk7352reviewmd_1.htm

 

I hope these help in some fashion ? 

 

Dennis

Edited October 2, 2019 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[dogsbody]

From British Bombs and Fuses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[hendie]

2 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I also found that eduard and CMK make set’s in 1/72.

 

do they make Weetabix sets in 1/72 also ?

[Whofan]

12 hours ago, CedB said:

22 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Yes but what's he doing with that a giant loo seat behind him? 

 

Martian the Curious👽

 Thanks Martian. The loo seat is, of course, there for his convenience

(It's the top current surround, but you knew that didn't you)

I knew it.

 

I absolutely knew it.

 

Ced used to write scripts for Carry on Films.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Whofan
clarification

[Whofan]

8 hours ago, CedB said:

Thanks Giorgio  Amazing isn't it? The guide told us that cost was at a premium so I guess the vaults reduced the amount of expensive stone they had to use. Amazing engineering though eh? That Brunel, what a bloke - he designed the bridge in his 20s!

You're absolutely right. I remember the Clifton suspension bridge very well from my childhod days when we used to visit my father's relativces who lived in Brizzle, and we would often be taken on trips over the bridge in my uncle's car. And in recent years, if we flew from Bristol airport, we'd drive along the river under the bridge to the airport.

 

(Fully expecting someone to say no, you shouldn't have done that coming from the midlands, you should have gone along ...... )

 

In a rather spendid book about Railways - called, oddly enough,  The Railways, by Simon Bradley, he discusses Brunel's work on railways, and while in general terms he was an amazing bloke, he did come up with the occasional stinker - his atmospheric railway in South Devon and his insistence on using of the broad gauge rather than the "standard" gauge.

 

As it happened, neither of these things actually mattered and they are now just a somewhat curious footnote to the man's career.

 

I really must get myself a good, solid biography of Brunel, he's one of the giants of British technologyand I've read very little of him.