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Airfix Short Sunderland to Empire


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1 hour ago, Johnson said:

Presumably they will need quite a bit of internal bracing?

They will, although 1mm vacformed plastic is stronger than I expected. Luckily I kept a tracing of all the bulkheads in the master, so they should fit nicely, except for where I sanded past the black edges.

 

50 minutes ago, DMC said:

We are also

I’ve been surprised how much more difficult it gets as you scale up! With canopies you can get away with a large amount of slapdashery, but not at this size.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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That looks great Adrian,

 

I have spent good money on commercially produced Vacform kits in the past that did not fit as well as your fuselage halves do! The circular windows should be fairly easy to cut out, but the rectangular ones could be a pain - or are you just going to paint them on? I suppose it depends how much interior detail you are going to put in given that there is only just over 2 weeks left. 

 

Looking forward to seeing this finished, as I suspect you are too.

 

Pete

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10 minutes ago, PeterB said:

Looking forward to seeing this finished, as I suspect you are too.

It actually feels like two builds: (1) make an Empire fuselage and learn how to vacform big stuff; and (2) build a flying boat from a selection of injection and vacform parts. I'm looking forward to some fun with the interior (I have to add some bulkheads for strength anyway), and the windows will be opened up,

 

I don't think it will get finished by the 22nd December but I will carry on here until then, and move it to the main WIP section after the end. I'm hoping for a 2020 finish, I just don't want to say when!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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4 hours ago, Courageous said:

2mm height discrepancy

What 2mm? Where?? ;)

 

Given that this will go in a sea base I think I can ignore the difference because a big chunk of it will be under the waterline.

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

Regards,

Adrian

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Adrian, yours vacu form looks great really! I am watching your build with great interest, since I have similar plans about my Airfix Sunderland, although when I see how many effort you had to do  I think I will rather choose more direct scratch work (plastic surgery....) on a basis of Sunderland fusalage...- and plasctic plates...

Regarding @PeterB remark on windows in big vacu models

20 hours ago, PeterB said:

I have spent good money on commercially produced Vacform kits in the past that did not fit as well as your fuselage halves do! The circular windows should be fairly easy to cut out, but the rectangular ones could be a pain - or are you just going to paint them on? I suppose it depends how much interior detail you are going to put in given that there is only just over 2 weeks left. 

 

Looking forward to seeing this finished, as I suspect you are too.

There is also possibility of cutting a bit bigger rectagulars and gleue clear plastic plates, only masking windows on them. I did like that in my Combat Models 1/72 vacu Clipper (as maybe you remember)

40087558673_43a568179f_b.jpg&key=2a16dd3 

 

This technique gives advatage that neighbouring windows have the same surface orientation, so they  reflects light in the same way. If you glue windows one by one it is difficult to get.

the final effect was OK I think

46614966235_5420229446_b.jpg&key=f16f67d

 

Good to add curtains behind windows. I think  Short has cloth curtains in more comfortable compartments

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT8nz-lnPtl-6dcj-fQygk

 

But no curtains at all with rounded smaler windows

b1cc6bfc1fe58848fa37db682dc68ef8.jpg

b1e3d4f8ee1cc2297fa646909b67bf8f.jpg

I do hope above photos are really from Empire, as were desribed...

Cheers

J-W 

 

 

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J-W,

 

I might well steal your idea for the squarish windows, because they are in groups and the fuselage side is pretty flat around them - thanks. The portholes are candidates for a clear glue film I think

 

That Clipper looks amazing, doubly so when you know it started life as some bumps in plastic.

 

I don’t think the colour picture is an Empire (is it a Sandringham?), but the other two are, showing the promenade deck and smoking compartment. I’m sure there will be lively debate about the colours and patterns on the curtains! *

 

If you are serious about building an Empire, I should have some spare patterns and parts at the end of this build...

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

* no there won’t - it’s neither VVS nor Luft46 :)

 

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Adrian, thank you! 

Indeed the curtains are in strips, so hard to tell. Maybe some drawing from epoch will solve (or at least suggest) solution.

The scheme I want to do is that one (so far)

105d5e6423fa266b298221c15f92ab4e.jpg

It is Short S-30, so I have to study diffences in engines I think only

Regards

J-W

 

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I had a good friend who flew for Imperial on the flying boats. I only wish he were still around for me to ask. 

He ended up as the flight engineer on the inaugural DH Comet flight to J'burg and trained all the Comet crews. Wonderful man, sadly missed! (Alan Johnson was his name of anyone wants to know).

 

Ian

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I don't usually look over here in the group builds but glad I did this evening when I found this thread. Amazing scratch building here Adrian, I'm most impressed. Will follow this going forward.

 

Terry

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, no surprises I suppose but I’m not going to finish in time! I will be carrying on in WIP. I actually got my first hour to myself for a long time today (after Christmas preparations, which I expected, and clearing the blocked drain outside the kitchen, which I did not). So I made myself another fuselage, just to see if I’m improving:

32-E22-EC1-84-F1-4939-B070-6-BCF60-D6-E4

B7-FFB0-D2-9-FE1-4-B7-F-B4-E6-713177985-

Either I got lucky or I am improving! I used groundnut oil on the moulds, which didn’t stick or get damaged. I used lots of staples and tape on the plastic - it needs both. I had it up in the oven at 125c (ours runs a bit hot) and grilled it for the last 30 seconds.

 

So this is my new best fuselage. Thanks for the GB and all the interest and support, and I promise to choose something sensible for the next FB and FP GB!

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Hi Adrian,

 

Another impressive fuselage. You're going to have to add some wings! ^_^

 

I shall continue to watch and follow with interest. A project as complex as yours couldn't be rushed.

 

Hopefully a peaceful Christmas for you!

 

Best wishes,

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I’m glad to hear/see that this project will be continuing in the WIP section for us to follow - I’m enjoying this immensely. 
 

The fuselages you’ve produced so far would be a huge improvement on what some manufacturers sell as ‘kits’... mentioning no specific brand of course but one that rhymes with ‘wombat’ springs to mind 😉

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