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Handley Page O/400- O/700 civil passenger transport


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9 minutes ago, DMC said:

Bought this because I liked the label.  Not always the best way to buy wine.  Not bad, however, and as tonight is pasta night.

 

Salud!

 

It's from Argentina and it's a Malbec, you are safe, especially for a weekday nice table wine with a correlated dish.

For special occasions, a Catena Zapata malbec may be a good choice. At the price of several kits, though 😉

 

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Since now I will go for the full cabin, instead of the earlier fore and aft the fuel tanks arrangement, the detail in the area is deleted to make way for the new furnishings:

IMG_6612+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

Now to the nacelles, that need to be extended to accommodate the tanks removed form the fuselage:

Four bulkheads are made slightly smaller than the cross section of the nacelle, to allow for a styrene skin to be wrapped around later on:

IMG_6609+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

IMG_6610+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

And why not use the kit's tanks which I already assembled as spacers:

IMG_6611+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

A styrene stick section completes the structure:

IMG_6613+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

The skin will begin and end at the bottom, where the stick is. When doing this type of structure that is enclosed, it is a wise measure to drill some venting holes, so the cement solvents can escape freely. Otherwise the skin may wrinkle and the assembly may take a while to properly dry:

IMG_6614+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

 

 

 

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The is how the parts play:

IMG_6615+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

Meanwhile, the locations for the inverted "V" struts are blanked off and the new ones drilled:

IMG_6616+%25281280x960%2529.jpg

 

Two things to consider:

a) The rigging holes on all surfaces have to be revised to accommodate the double flying wires.

b) The exhausts varied from plane to plane, even for this long nacelle conversions, and some times went along the length of the nacelle, and some times went "the other way", and the exit was a at the front of the nacelle, in that case the curves of the manifold went also the other way, instead of arching backwards.

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41 minutes ago, busnproplinerfan said:

Wonder if it's a good thing to have the gas tanks right behind the engines, guess none ever burnt.

It's incredible what they will do in their folly, they even ignited that fuel inside the very engines via a high-voltage spark in a confined space shaped like a cylinder, in many of those cylinders, several times every second, for hours at the time, and in the middle of the air!

Reckless madmen, I say!

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Not really that much more dangerous than locating the tank on top of the engine (as on almost all motorcycles). Filling the tank and dripping petrol onto a hot engine at the end of the process can be quite interesting (but not actually that dangerous)! I once saw a rider accidentally drop a lighted cigarette into his tank while filling it - I don't think I have ever seen someone move so quickly (though nothing happened because the tank was full and the vapour was not confined)!

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1 hour ago, mdesaxe said:

Not really that much more dangerous than locating the tank on top of the engine (as on almost all motorcycles). Filling the tank and dripping petrol onto a hot engine at the end of the process can be quite interesting (but not actually that dangerous)! I once saw a rider accidentally drop a lighted cigarette into his tank while filling it - I don't think I have ever seen someone move so quickly (though nothing happened because the tank was full and the vapour was not confined)!

 

It's not the full tank that's dangerous. It's the partially full ones that are. My Dad showed me this when I was a kid and he was refueling the tractor.

 

 

Chris

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What is the problem with kits and struts? They are usually too long/short(take your pick). Don't align properly or fall off/move as soon as they are glued. Try the airfix walrus and see what I mean

Biplanes love em but mounting the top plane aaaarrrrrrrrr!

 

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2 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Yes. My kit was the same. Wing struts just didn’t fit. I re drilled the holes and re fitted. All good in the end. 😇
 

Johnny

I think I failed to clearly point at and explain the issue clearly enough.

It is the first and second inverted "V" struts (or "A" struts if you wish) that unite the wing and fuselage at the centerline which are wrongly clued in the kit (and therefore in all models).

In your model, and every other Airfix model I have seen built, they are 4mm ahead of where they should be.

Nobody's fault but the kit's They should be aligned, as marked in red in one of the photos above, with the struts immediately out of them, and every strut in the wing for that matter.

This is just minutia, doesn't affect any model at all in its general appearance and value, but since I spotted it looking at photos, I will correct it.

No big deal.

I understand that there are other strut issues, will deal with them as they pop.

 

 

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All looking good Moa, a quick heads up though. The undercarriage on this kit is rather fragile and you may want to be thinking about strengthening it. I have already had to repair my model twice and it needs a further repair.

 

Helpful of Mars 👽

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43 minutes ago, Martian Hale said:

All looking good Moa, a quick heads up though. The undercarriage on this kit is rather fragile and you may want to be thinking about strengthening it. I have already had to repair my model twice and it needs a further repair.

 

Helpful of Mars 👽

Thanks Martian, that's useful information.

I was wondering about it as I was cleaning up those parts.

Speaking of weaknesses:

I still have to read all my main references (saving them for an upcoming trip), but I am looking for the restroom data.

I found a sketch that seems to have a little closet-like area for it (but not sure) but alas for the civil O/400, and a photo of the O/700 that reveals an aft compartment on the cabin, accessed through an angularly-shaped door that could be it.

We live in hope.

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As Stuart has said, lovely work on lengthening the nacelles, and a useful tip to drill vent holes - I'd not thought of that!

This is going to be a very useful reference build when I get to mine!

 

Ian

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Really lovely work. This all makes my life easier on my O/400 thank you.

 

Will move the struts and probably scratch an undercarriage from brass, or maybe that carbon fiber rod I've ordered off ebay...

 

As for biplane struts, some kits are great, my gladiator  and BE2c, Fury and Flycatcher all went together easy, my Heinkel 51 was a nightmare, my various home brewed builds have been mixed, pup difficult, Gamecock ok, Pfalz  upper wing difficult (all probably due my own flawed model engineering :) ). But I still love them.

 

Whiskey hmm, while I’ve been known to drink the odd Burbon I’m much more of a red wine drinker.🤪

Edited by Marklo
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18 hours ago, Stevejj said:

What is the problem with kits and struts? They are usually too long/short(take your pick). Don't align properly or fall off/move as soon as they are glued. Try the airfix walrus and see what I mean

Biplanes love em but mounting the top plane aaaarrrrrrrrr!

 

Struts on model biplanes are a way of teaching us humility.

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Oh yes I’m guessing you won’t be as silly as I but somehow I managed to glued the UC assemblies on backwards the first time around. Seemed easily done.

 Hurst’s thoughts I’d mention it so you look for it when you get there. By the way, what are you planning on rigging with?

 

 Johnny.

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2 minutes ago, The Spadgent said:

Oh yes I’m guessing you won’t be as silly as I but somehow I managed to glued the UC assemblies on backwards the first time around. Seemed easily done.

 Hurst’s thoughts I’d mention it so you look for it when you get there. By the way, what are you planning on rigging with?

 

 Johnny.

Hi Johnny

Thanks for the heads-up.

I will be using ceramic fiber as with the HP42, and in some limited way the horrible stretchy thing for the control leads and such.

Cheers

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There will be a hiatus now as I attend to other business and take the opportunity to dive into the references.

 

Meanwhile, I am puzzled by a detail I spotted in several photos, a control bar (as seen for example in the Blackburn Kangaroo) appears now on the right side of the foremost position, most likely associated with the control column elevator function.

The cockpit position is described (and presented in the kit) as being immediately after that nose position, which in the O/400 civil conversion seems to be the case, but I wonder if that control bar on the side means that the control column (and cockpit) was moved to the foremost position? The control column WAS indeed on the right hand-side. Or is it that just some linkage goes there and exists on the spot? the fore position is reduced in size, but since the nose was also used to carry passengers, may be that was privileged so the bigger space after it is now a passenger space?

The bar is visible only on the right hand/side of the nose:

48833660177_8eae317087_c.jpg

 

48833117193_c15b97ff20_c.jpg

 

I say this just as uninformed head-scratching, since, as I mentioned above, I am now about the start the deep digging on the references, which may shed some light on it.

 

 

 

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When the fuel tanks were relocated in the nacelle, did they move rearward? If so, the cockpit may have been moved forward to what used to be the gunner's position to maintain the cg position. The passengers positions are fairly central so would have minimal impact....

Just a thought.

 

Ian

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On 10/2/2019 at 9:24 AM, limeypilot said:

When the fuel tanks were relocated in the nacelle, did they move rearward? If so, the cockpit may have been moved forward to what used to be the gunner's position to maintain the cg position. The passengers positions are fairly central so would have minimal impact....

Just a thought.

 

Ian

Hi Ian

The tanks ended up behind their original position (but in the nacelles, of course) therefore most likely introducing the need of re-balancing the CG. Not sure about the nacelles moving ahead, have to study the references, but seems not to be the case.

But the shuffling of pilot/passenger positions would have had no impact weight-wise, since the same number of people in the positions would be the same anyway.

Although the removal of the tanks from the center fuselage and extension of the cabin allowed more fore seats ahead of the CG.

Will be sure once I have gone through the material.

Thanks for your thoughts, though.

Cheers

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