1/72nd Italeri Hercules C.3P long fuselage conversion,.....RAF Lyneham Transport Wing 1980`s**FINISHED**.

[tonyot]

Right then,...... a bit of modelling progress today!

 

First I marked out the lines to be cut,...... the rear one is along a panel line,..... the forward isn`t,..... but I chose to use a panel line as it wasn`t so far out;

 

After the cuts,.... the resin sections were removed from their formers. The mating edges had to be trimmed down quite a bit on the resin as the lip was not deep enough;

 

And then the parts were taped together and test fitted,..... it isn`t great to say the least,.... but there is at least something to work with;

 

Some close ups of the plugs,...... all dry fitted so far;

 

I`ll tackle the fuselage in a while,...... but while I had daylight for photography I assempled the wings and test fitted the two different resin engines to decide which to use,..... on the right is an Arma Models engine,...... and on the left a Heritage Aviation engine,...... as you can see the latter is far too narrow and was maybe intended for the ESCI/Ertl kit? 

 

So,.... I`ll be progressing with the Arma engines and propellers.

 

Thats all for now,...... but thank you all fo your help, advice and comments so far,....... seems we all love the old Herky Bird!!

 

Cheers

           Tony

Edited November 24, 2019 by tonyot

[speedy]

1 hour ago, tonyot said:

Hiya Steve,..... when were you at TCW mate,..... were you there in the 244 Sig Sqn (AS) days when we shared your hangar? Your tea bar was great and the takings must have gone down when we were disbanded? If you have any ramp photos,.... especially of the Harvard,..... please post them,.... that was one day that I wish I had film in my camera,... and people don`t believe me when I say it flew o close that you could almost jump onto the wing!

Sorry to hear about your mates on the Herk that was shot down,..... wasn`t that XV179? So bloody sad and quite criminal too.

Cheers mate,

                    Tony  

Hi T.

 

I was there from 2001 - 2007 in the Hangar just as you cross the threshold towards JATE. The HQ element was on the main site just off the ring roads by MT. From there I got posted to Boscombe and redundant in 2010. I don’t have photo’s of the Larkhill trips as it was a no no in those days(86/87) but Peter James was in the back seat of the Harvard along with others. He was secretary of Salisbury IPMS for years and I occasionally keep in touch.

 

Steve.

[tonyot]

18 minutes ago, speedy said:

Hi T.

 

I was there from 2001 - 2007 in the Hangar just as you cross the threshold towards JATE. The HQ element was on the main site just off the ring roads by MT. From there I got posted to Boscombe and redundant in 2010. I don’t have photo’s of the Larkhill trips as it was a no no in those days(86/87) but Peter James was in the back seat of the Harvard along with others. He was secretary of Salisbury IPMS for years and I occasionally keep in touch.

 

Steve.

Thanks Steve,.... yeah we disbanded in 92 and left Brize,... didn`t realise that TCW were turfed out of the hangar too,......  I know which hanger you were moved to,..... quite a trek to the Spotlight for a brew and butty then!! Sounds like your HQ got our old Stores and MT site,.....just across from the station MT and not far from the Knacker Cracker and the Parachute Tower.

I know what you mean about the camera in the 80`s,...... so many things committed to memory only,..... everything nowadays has to be photographed by an i phone or it didn`t happen! I loved my time at Brize,.. first on my jumps course and later on posting,...... just a pity my 3 yr tour was drastically cut short,...... best time of my career and a superb job,.... as you will know.

Cheers mate

                     Tony  

Edited November 24, 2019 by tonyot

[bzn20]

51 minutes ago, tonyot said:

When you are working there you think that it will be like that forever

I was talking to an old Brize workmate the other day about the changes and I said it's 48 years ago since we met there . 48 years before that Brize was all market gardening . Willliam Carter's company ,hence Carterton , roughly bought the farm land (all of it) in the  1890s . The land was sold off in £20  acre parcels to returning soldiers who farmed it and that remained the same ,not many houses, until 1938 when The RAF arrived . So 48 years before we met ,1924 , it was just full of "Crofters" growing and selling fruit and vegatables . How's that for change ?

[isaneng]

bzn20, everyday is a school day, you taught me something new today! Love the explanation of how Cartoontown got its name, thx!! 

[tonyot]

2 minutes ago, bzn20 said:

I was talking to an old Brize workmate the other day about the changes and I said it's 48 years ago since we met there . 48 years before that Brize was all market gardening . Willliam Carter's company ,hence Carterton , roughly bought the farm land (all of it) in the  1890s . The land was sold off in £20  acre parcels to returning soldiers who farmed it and that remained the same ,not many houses, until 1938 when The RAF arrived . So 48 years before we met ,1924 , it was just full of "Crofters" growing and selling fruit and vegatables . How's that for change ?

Wow yeah,.... when you look at it like that,...... and I always wondered where Cartoon Town got its name from too,..... so I`ve learned something to boot!! I`d love to live down there,.... but hey! I remember when my troop were serving on the Greek/Macedonian border when the balloon went up,.... we got a mail drop,.... and we all received a court summons from Oxfordshire County Council for non payment of poll tax LOL,.....Oh how we laughed! The day we got back we had to catch the bus to Oxford and pay up,...... even though we were out of the country and used non of the council services,...but hey!

Cheers,

             Tony

[petetasker]

52 minutes ago, tonyot said:

LOL,..... yeah the Herk had more character for sure,.... but the VC-10 was nice too,...... flying backwards! Deploying to Kenya I remember the groan from the lads who were told they were going by Herk,..... took them about 5 days to get there I think,.... as it broke down en route,..... may even have been the jinxed XV222!! We went by Tristar,.... and came back on a VC-10,.... stopping at Palermo, Sicliy en route. ..... luxury! Mind you, at least in a Herk you can roll your doss bag out on the floor or on the cargo and get your head down. ... so wings and roundabouts.  

Cheers

          Tony 

There was a certain something about flying backwards. Only got to fly on a VC10 the once. Came back from Germany once on a Tristar. Took three missed approaches into Brize due to a heavy thunderstorm. Even then the landing was a bit sporty to say the least - again I think I was the only one excited! Most of the lads had had enough by then.

[Rickoshea52]

56 minutes ago, tonyot said:

the jinxed XV222

We had a Puma on 230sqn -XW222 the trembling two - which spent a lot of time u/s in the hangar as I recall, must be a 222 thing. 

[isaneng]

I operated VC10s for a tour. The backwards seating may not have been its best selling point, but it had so many safety features, system redundancies, so much power, gents, other than the muppets at the front (sorry...) you have never been so safe!!

 

[tonyot]

1 minute ago, isaneng said:

I operated VC10s for a tour. The backwards seating may not have been its best selling point, but it had so many safety features, system redundancies, so much power, gents, other than the muppets at the front (sorry...) you have never been so safe!!

 

I loved the Vicky 10,..... did you know Maurice Bigg`s,..... VC-10 captain? He started off flying Tempest II`s and Vampire`s on 26 Sqn and I have been corresponding with him for years. 

Cheers

          Tony

[tonyot]

7 minutes ago, petetasker said:

There was a certain something about flying backwards. Only got to fly on a VC10 the once. Came back from Germany once on a Tristar. Took three missed approaches into Brize due to a heavy thunderstorm. Even then the landing was a bit sporty to say the least - again I think I was the only one excited! Most of the lads had had enough by then.

LOL,... yeah we had the same coming back from Kenya in the VC-10 due to fog,.....tree tops sticking out of the soup but no runway,...... although the pilot was really trying his best with a few missed approaches we diverted to Lyneham and had to wait ages for our transport to drive over from Brize to pick us up!! 

[isaneng]

No - probably before my time. Pilots loved the aircraft, centreline thrust, balanced controls, and fast as snot! And we always laughed at the noise reduction profile for departure, 4 Conways were never going anywhere quietly...

 

[bzn20]

4 minutes ago, isaneng said:

Cartoontown

Not heard that since 1992 ! Another little thing... Brize was used for glider towing on D Day . After the war Milestone Road bungalows etc. They had partial Horsa fuselages converted to sheds and Chicken houses ,still there in the 80s ! The MOT and servicing Garage ( was called Maryville Garage/ Dowley's IIRC) . Now an ALDI with Carterton Center club behind on Alvescot Road was a RAF hangar in WW2 . They towed small aircraft all the way there and back to the airfield past Frank's Chinese grab shop , that hadn't been invented yet !

 

2 minutes ago, tonyot said:

Cartoon Town

Not heard that since a minute ago !

 

3 minutes ago, tonyot said:

Oxfordshire County Council for non payment of poll tax

Hilarious !

[bzn20]

Spent so much time in the RAF , either on Tens, Belfs and Brits ,I don't like sitting facing forward .

[tonyot]

5 minutes ago, isaneng said:

No - probably before my time. Pilots loved the aircraft, centreline thrust, balanced controls, and fast as snot! And we always laughed at the noise reduction profile for departure, 4 Conways were never going anywhere quietly...

 

I lived in a block right next to the runway and can concur about those Conways being loud!! I arrived there in the dark on a quiet Sunday night,..... got my room sorted,.... got my head down and then thought the world was coming to an end as the early Hong Kong express lifted off level with our block at about 0500hrs,.... I almost fell out of bed!!!

Soon got used to them however those heavily loaded tankers taking off for CAP`s at all hours could get a bit annoying,... but as a Pongo who loves aeroplanes,...... what a posting! We had USAFE F-111`s coming in regularly,.....Concorde used to do circuits and bumps,....we had B-52`s from Fairford, Galaxy`s Victors, Andover`s, Phantom`s, Tornado`s..... I even remember a F-14 Tomcat!  Happy Days!

 

The view from the troop office;

 

And some visiting warbirds outide the hangar for Air Day;

Cheers

          Tony

[isaneng]

Landed at Gander, prob 2003??  VC10, we parked down the ramp from Concorde. It was doing a charter run, following the dreadful accident in France earlier in the year. The 2 fastest airliners in the world, sitting 200 yards apart. And I didn't take a pic. What a fool I was.

[tonyot]

6 minutes ago, bzn20 said:

Not heard that since 1992 ! Another little thing... Brize was used for glider towing on D Day . After the war Milestone Road bungalows etc. They had partial Horsa fuselages converted to sheds and Chicken houses ,still there in the 80s ! The MOT and servicing Garage ( was called Maryville Garage/ Dowley's IIRC) . Now an ALDI with Carterton Center club behind on Alvescot Road was a RAF hangar in WW2 . They towed small aircraft all the way there and back to the airfield past Frank's Chinese grab shop , that hadn't been invented yet !

Crikey the Chinese,.... "I cannot ever remember visiting that establishment,.....Sir!,....!!  I had heard about the Horsa`s used as sheds,... apparently they were originally homes after the war and were retained as sheds when the houses were built? Didn`t know about the garage,.... shame to hear it has gone too. The chippy in front of the garage was good and also has a few stories! 

Cartoon Town used to have a toy shop with a great selection of models,....I bet that has gone too now.

The pub on the married patch  (name on the tip of my tongue) had photos of Brize from the wartime days on the walls,..... loads of Horsa`s, Whitley`s, Albemarles,.... bet they have gone now too! 

Cheers

          Tony  

[bzn20]

1 hour ago, tonyot said:

toy shop

Giles Toys and Cycles . Old Giles has died ,his eldest son is retired . I could kick myself . There was a 5 or even 6 foot stack of Airfix VC10 kits . I'll get one next time ,the time after that ,maybe next month . Never bought one in the 20 years living there . It's not Giles now , Roadroom bikes or Mountainmania  . Giles started with vans selling groceries , Meat van ,maybe fish . Then he opened a shop ,turned that to a supermarket 1970-71 ,sold it and bought the Newsagent and model shop . Sold that to Martins and went back to his Supermarket and sold toys ,bikes and sports gear  . Always packed out and all in the middle of nowhere ..Then he whinged about the noise we made with "those awful 'planes" , that noise made the family very well off .     That pub on Upavon Way ? next to MQs was the Osprey ,changed to The Crusader and shut . Can't understand that was losing money . Packed 6 out the 7 days . Next my flat , oh dear what a shame !

Edited November 24, 2019 by bzn20

[Rickoshea52]

1 hour ago, tonyot said:

concur about those Conways being loud!!

Quite. I did a see-in for a Sea King Onto the SAR dispersal as Lossie as a VC-10 rolled by on the adjacent taxi way and getting the V from a few of the windows from the Tonka lineys off to Davis-Montan for a fortnight, it was lashing with rain and I was miserable as hell. Those Conways could still be heard long after take off, I swear that jet must have been approaching Orkney by the time the noise died down. 

[tonyot]

35 minutes ago, bzn20 said:

Giles Toys and Cycles . Old Giles has died ,his eldest son is retired . I could kick myself . There was a 5 or even 6 foot stack of Airfix VC10 kits . I'll get one next time ,the time after that ,maybe next month . Never bought one in the 20 years living there . It's not Giles now , Roadroom bikes or Mountainmania  . Giles started with vans selling groceries , Meat van ,maybe fish . Then he opened a shop ,turned that to a supermarket 1970-71 ,sold it and bought the Newsagent and model shop . Sold that to Martins and went back to his Supermarket and sold toys ,bikes and sports gear  . Always packed out and all in the middle of nowhere ..Then he whinged about the noise we made with "those awful 'planes" , that noise made the family very well off .     That pub on Upavon Way ? next to MQs was the Osprey ,changed to The Crusader and shut . Can't understand that was losing money . Packed 6 out the 7 days . Next my flat , oh dear what a shame !

Of course,.....Giles,..... a wall full of models and always some rare stuff too!Like you say,... that `noise' made him a lot of money!  The Osprey,....of course,.....thats it,..... not our usual haunt as we went in the Eagle,..... but sometimes met up with the pads over there or had family functions etc,..... I loved looking at the pics on the wall and as you say, it was always full. Sounds like Cartoon Town has gone a bit boring these days maybe?  It was a blast in the 80`s-90`s,..... full of life.

Thanks again for those reminders,

Cheers

          Tony   

[PLC1966]

2 hours ago, tonyot said:

Thanks mate,..... but no,.... it was the Lyneham Transport Wing,....... it wasn`t just a tactical role, the units flew route transport duties too,.... and deployed units abroad on exercise and operations,........ I`ve never heard it referred to as the Lyneham Tactical Wing. This link to AirBritain also refers to Lyneham ransport Wing;

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/military-unit/RAF Lyneham Transport Wing

 

Cheers

         Tony 

Funnily enough Tony, but no, I will agree to disagree !

 

I get that there was not just tactical out of Lyneham,  I spent enough weeks flying on Albert to know that, but as far as I was aware it was always the Lyneham Tactical Wing, from my early spotting days, to Space Cadet Camp there to my time in the mob.

 

I see your Air Britain and raise you RAF Museum and IWM, but funnily enough, the blinkin' photo is missing from the IWM site but it does mention the Lyneham Tactical Wing...and the IWM also mentions a Transport Wing on another photo  

https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1979.aspx

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205190344(I am guessing you need to buy the original)

 

But if I was wrong it is not just me...

 

ttps://www.airliners.net/photo/UK-Air-Force/Lockheed-C-130K-Hercules-C1-L-382/2252503

http://www.c-130.net/g3/c-130-photos/European-C-130-Photos/British-C-130-Photos/acf

http://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=161697

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lockheed_C-130K_Hercules_C3_(L-382),_UK_-_Air_Force_AN1483850.jpg

ttps://www.flickr.com/photos/88867126@N08/22710522740/

 

Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells, Kent, United Kingdom: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-290-4. quotes crash of XV193 Hercules from Lyneham Tactical Wing.

 

So anyway, will stop now, you are doing a cracking job and I will not derail the thread.  Real concern here I can see this costing me money in the future replicating the build.

 

 

[Brizeman]

Hi

    The garage outside gate 1 was Maryville which also ran car services who used to sort out cars that military personnel imported from overseas. Used them to sort out my Escort that I brought back from Malta. The garage in the village was Dowleys which had been a dispersed hangar during WW2. That’s the one that is now Aldi. The Osprey and all of the flats and houses around Upavon way have been flattened together with the garage next to the pub. The Eagle is back to being the Eagle after a brief spell as  The Aviator. As Russ said Giles is now a bike shop with the sports shop bit next door turned into an Italian restaurant. There are no banks any more as they all got closed. The photo of Tony stood by the Buchon is interesting. I was on the organising committee that year and come The day of the show it absolutely poured with rain. That particular aircraft would later claim the life of Mark Hannah in a crash in Spain. Happy days and I still live in Carterton.

 

 John

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

3 hours ago, Rickoshea52 said:

We had a Puma on 230sqn -XW222 the trembling two - which spent a lot of time u/s in the hangar as I recall, must be a 222 thing. 

The opposite of the legendary “Damian”,  XV666, one of the longest-serving Sea Kings - still flying even now as part of the Heliops training outfit at Portland.  Whatever was thrown at that aircraft it just seemed to keep going.  When The Omen came out, the nickname became inevitable!

[tonyot]

4 minutes ago, Brizeman said:

Hi

    The garage outside gate 1 was Maryville which also ran car services who used to sort out cars that military personnel imported from overseas. Used them to sort out my Escort that I brought back from Malta. The garage in the village was Dowleys which had been a dispersed hangar during WW2. That’s the one that is now Aldi. The Osprey and all of the flats and houses around Upavon way have been flattened together with the garage next to the pub. The Eagle is back to being the Eagle after a brief spell as  The Aviator. As Russ said Giles is now a bike shop with the sports shop bit next door turned into an Italian restaurant. There are no banks any more as they all got closed. The photo of Tony stood by the Buchon is interesting. I was on the organising committee that year and come The day of the show it absolutely poured with rain. That particular aircraft would later claim the life of Mark Hannah in a crash in Spain. Happy days and I still live in Carterton.

 

 John

Thanks John,..... yeah the heavens opened the next day for Air Day 92,...... total washout,... which was a shame as the static and flying programme were fantastic. I didn`t realise that was the vey same Buchon,.. RIP to Mark, a fine flier. 

[bzn20]

8 minutes ago, Brizeman said:

Maryville

Knew there was a Maryville Garage ,wasn't sure til I remembered ****** Dowley

 

11 minutes ago, Brizeman said:

Tony stood by the Buchon

I must have missed it but when was that because I can see a red n white 115 Sqn  Andover ? To the left of the photo . looks a bit nose up like it's in Kneel mode too .