zebra Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 First up from me will be the Welsh Models Avro Tudor IV in 1/144. Fairly simple kit - two vacuum formed fuselages and bulkheads, resin wings, tailplanes and undercarriage doors, white metal props and undercarriage. This will be my first vacform in at least a couple of decades, and first time working with a vacform/resin mixed-media kit. Should be fun. Here's how the parts look: I'll probably make a start tomorrow. cheers Julian 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 Great choice Will be watching Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 Nice one Julian Not an aircraft or kit im familiar with so look forward to finding out about both. Good luck cheers Pat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebra Posted January 1, 2020 Author Share Posted January 1, 2020 13 hours ago, JOCKNEY said: Nice one Julian Not an aircraft or kit im familiar with so look forward to finding out about both. Good luck cheers Pat Thanks Pat. Fair to say it's not one of the British aircraft industry's greatest successes. You might recognise the wings and engines though - they came from the Lincoln. The Tudor arose from the government's requirements, issued late in WWII, for post-war airliners, but was hampered by wartime restrictions which required Avro to use existing parts. Hence Roy Chadwick designed the Tudor with a pressurised fuselage and Lincoln engines and wings, and a tailwheel layout. Meanwhile across the pond airlines were buying DC-4s and Constellations. The Tudor II was ordered in fairly large numbers for BOAC, Qantas and South African Airways. However the Tudor I had stability problems, and the resulting modifications (including an odd high tail) added so much weight that the hot and high performance was inadequate. So BOAC ended up with Argonauts, Qantas bought Constellations and SAA bought DC-4s. Most tragically of all, the Tudor killed its designer - Roy Chadwick, Avro's chief designer and the man behind the Anson, Manchester, Lancaster, York, Lincoln and Shackleton (amongst others) was killed when the Tudor II prototype crashed on take-off from Woodford on on 23 August 1947. The crash was caused by an error in servicing, in which the aileron cables had been crossed. The kit isn't one that I'd sought out but I came across it for sale in a Facebook group for $20 (Aussie $ that is - a little over 10 of your British quid) which seemed like a pretty good price - about a 75% discount of Hannants' price. I have a bit of a thing for Avro aircraft and those built at Woodford in particular - I grew up nearby and worked there for a couple of years - and it's a bit of an unusual subject, so seemed like an easy choice. I (slightly cheekily) asked if I could build it in the upcoming Lancaster STGB but (unsurprisingly) it was deemed to be a stretch too far from the Lanc. But it fits the Anything But Injection bill pretty well. Since Enzo said in the rules that we could start before 1 January I started a couple of days ago. Cutting out and cleaning up the vacformed fuselage was pretty straightforward. The fuselage parts matched pretty well and the two bulkheads seem to have given it enough strength. Here's the fuselage after a bit of the prime, fill, sand and repeat treatment: It's going to be a decent size for a 1/144 model - about 17cm long - would be a pretty impressive model in 1/72 but I have a feeling I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for a kit! Today I've got the wings and tailplanes on. As they're all single piece resin parts it's mainly a matter of cleaning up and test-fitting. I started with the tailplanes. Butt-joining resin tailplanes to a vac formed fuselage seems like a recipe for problems so I drilled a few holes and stuck a couple of bits of brass rod through the joins to support the tailplanes. A little fettling was needed to get the tailplanes to match up to the fuselage neatly, but not much, and the brass rods have resulted in a good strong, stable join. The wings butt-join together in the middle with the fuselage sitting on top of them. It's a pretty smart and simple way to do it and results in a strong join. The wing roots seem to have been cast to the shape of the fuselage - there's a mismatch between the fuselage halves above the wing centre section, but it fits the centre section pretty much perfectly. I'd been expecting a bit of trouble getting the dihedral right, but it was fine. Here's how the wing join looks from underneath: And here it is from above, after some cleaning up: So, all moving along pretty quickly, and pretty straightforward, whilst still feeling like I'm doing some proper modelling. So a satisfying build so far. It's currently sitting in the garage with a coat of primer drying. thanks for looking Julian 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Thanks for the background on this one i thought the wings looked familiar. Very sad history regarding such a famous designer. Your build is looking great already ! cheers Pat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Good start, will keep watching. Looks like an interesting kit, much more modeller-friendly than vacforms are in general. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Swindell Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 11 hours ago, zebra said: Fair to say it's not one of the British aircraft industry's greatest successes. The disappearance of two of BOAC's rejects whilst in service with BSAA pretty much killed it as a passenger plane, and also contributed to the demise of BSAA as well. I've got a couple of Tudors in the stash including this one, you seem to be making short work of it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Fabulous start Julian, it will be a nice addition to your AVRO collection. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stever219 Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 (edited) On 1/1/2020 at 1:07 PM, JOCKNEY said: Thanks for the background on this one i thought the wings looked familiar. Very sad history regarding such a famous designer. Your build is looking great already ! cheers Pat Roy Chadwick’s death was all the more tragic by virtue of him having been thrown from the aeroplane as it crashed only to be drowned in a shallow pond where the wreckage of the fore part of the aeroplane ended up. The Tudor suffered from many problems, not least of which were the constantly changing requirements of BOAC, a habit that they would repeat with the V.1000 and VC-10. Aerodynamic problems included the directional stability already referred to plus excessive, drag which resulted in a protracted test programme which included extending the inboard engine nacelles rearwards and significantly increasing the size of the wing to fuselage fairings. One incredible design feature was that the entire fuel system could be controlled by a single cock under one of the passenger seats. Edited January 12, 2020 by stever219 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 An interesting choice Julian - one that ticks all the boxes for me Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Looking wonderful Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebra Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share Posted January 12, 2020 I keep forgetting to photograph the Tudor! I've got it painted and most of the decals on now. Had to be careful with the masking as the decals are laser printed, I think it's worked out ok. Nearly done - might get it finished in the next week. Cheers Julian 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 The Tudor is looking the part now Julian, nice work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 Very nice job on the Tudor! Regards, Jason 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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