bigbadbadge Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Crikey fella, you should have kept quiet and I would have been blissfully impressed with your modelling speed. Still a fantastic job so far, I am impressed with your modelling. All the best Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 (edited) Blimey Chris, you must have one heck of a big workbench .................... Mine is looking like the Handley Page factory at Radlett. Edited April 25, 2020 by adey m 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 (edited) Fuselage with the various fixtures and fittings fitted. First coat of Humbrol Dark Slate Grey has been brush painted on. Wings with engines and undercarriage attached. Struts attached only to upper wing at this point with it all just resting on lower wing ................ a tribute to the Matchbox engineering. Had to replace the struts running from the engines to the fuselage with more suitable items from my spares as kit ones are too thin. Note the wing mounted wind-driven generators which were only fitted to the Mark 1. I replaced the tiny propellers with scratchbuilt ones. The Mark II and III had engine-driven generators. Next stage will be the mating of wings to fuselage .............. Edited April 25, 2020 by adey m 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Great building going on here & thoroughly useful to those of us like me who have one of these in stock. Steve. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 54 minutes ago, adey m said: Blimey Chris, you must have one heck of a big workbench .................... Mine is looking like the Handley Page factory at Radlett. Are you looking at my signature, believe it or not, my temporary work bench is quite small, I have multiple shelves of work in progress (or shame). When the mancave is complete I will have loads of space. Getting excited now about that. Great work on the kit, the fuselage looks lovely as does the wing assembly. What are you going to use for the rigging when the time comes? All the best Chris 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FZ6 Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Hi Adey, I remember you showing me the fuselage at Huddersfield I think it was a couple of years ago. It's great to see it on here. Looks like its coming along nicely and will make for a good reference when I come to build mine. Thanks for sharing. Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
occa Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 I am just looking forward how you will do the rigging. If it's 'easy' enough I'll start my long absence on the model bench with this kit. Wasn't even aware the kit provided the parts for three versions. Anyways awesome build so far !!!! Cheers, Martin from 'Ösiland' 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 (edited) The time had finally arrived to bring it all together. The upper wing was attached to the fuselage first and allowed to set overnight. Next day masking tape was used to strap the wings together while the glue applied to where struts meet the lower wing was allowed to set. At this point I had not installed the two V struts between the fuselage and lower wing because again, the kit's struts are too thin so I decided I would make my own from Aeroclub aerofoil struts once the lower wing was fixed in place. You can see the offending articles in the background. Dictionary of Anglo Saxon swear words at hand and ready .................. Edited April 27, 2020 by adey m 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 (edited) Replacement V struts between fuselage and lower wing inserted one strut at a time with a long-nosed tweezers, a very fiddly task. Aileron and elevator mass balances added courtesy of my spares collection. Scratchbuilt aileron activators under the upper wing and pitot tube under nose. Note the added mass balance on rear elevator. There can't be many parts left in the box now. Time to get painting as that white fuselage is distracting me. Edited April 27, 2020 by adey m 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenCJ Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Crikey this is looking good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltcarBoB Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 I remember building the Heyford it looked like it was going to be a formidable build but I recall it all went together relatively easy. For the time it was a very good kit Matchbox at the top of it's game. All I can remember about the NIVO paint was that it was deliberately shiny supposedly to look like Moonlight reflected off the sea. I used Brunswick green coach paint pinched from a tin my dad had in the shed to patch up rust spots on his Bedford van. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 Looking lovely Adey, great work fella. All the best Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangor Lad Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 Great thread! The problem is that I now need one! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) Aahh, we are back ................ The model awaiting painting surrounded by some of the other contents of the kit. Beautifully clear and well drawn multi-lingual instruction sheet and seperate painting guide for the three optional versions, lovely decal sheet and a selection of the multi-coloured sprues, green, brown and black. One of the optional early wheel spat halves is attached to the sprues................ so you actually get four optional versions in the kit. This is the option I decided to do, a Mark 1 of 99 Squadron Royal Air Force based at Upper Heyford near Oxford in 1934. The draughtsman had mistakenly included the square side window in the nose ( although he has only put one on one side only ), remember the Mark 1 did not have these, Another thing that appears on the drawing which is at odds with the kit is that he has drawn the correct size tailwheel. My notes at the top refer to the Humbrol colours I used, so that I know in the future if someone asks me or I need reminding ................ or somebody ( Valom ? ) brings out an injection Vickers Virginia or Handley Page Hinaidi ............... Edited April 27, 2020 by adey m 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltcarBoB Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 Or a Fairey Hendon. Please manufacturers pretty please I have been wanting a good Hendon kit for a very long time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 29 minutes ago, AltcarBoB said: Or a Fairey Hendon. Please manufacturers pretty please I have been wanting a good Hendon kit for a very long time. Oh yes please ................. and no wing struts and rigging Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 Over a few days during the lockdown I brush painted the model, it was quite challenging at times trying to access parts of the model between the struts and wings. After two or three coats of paint I applied a coat of Klear floor polish to the model The 35 year old decals behaved as though they were new, sliding off the backing paper in one piece with no curling after a couple of minutes in warm water, and strong enough to move around without breaking. I paint on an area of Klear floor polish where the decal is to go just before applying the decal, the polish helps adhesion. The red stripe decals around the wheel spats were amazing, they just fitted perfectly. In the box of parts behind can be seen one of the ladders that are supplied in the kit. And then it was time for the job I was not looking forward too ................ the rigging. I use stretched sprue and here I have layed out my weapons of choice. I have been building models for 54 years so I have lots of spare parts and sprue offcuts. I prefer to use the old silver grey sprues from the older Airfix kits, the plastic stretches better and it is the correct colour, silver grey, so does not require painting. Off course we need a source of heat, the candle, to heat up and soften the sprue before stretching it. The dividers were used to measure the length of rigging required on the model, then add a bit, then try it for size with the long-nosed tweezers, curse a lot as it falls off or you cannot seem to get into that awkward place, cut a bit off, try again, cut a bit more off, apply the glue then curse again because it is too short ............... I use white PVA glue to hold the ends of the rigging, a small blob of glue is applied to where each end of the rigging wire is to go, then apply the rigging to the top blob of glue first and use gravity to help you, while the glue holds the top of the rigging you can position the other lower end with the tweezers. The beauty of using white PVA glue is it holds well, is water based so mistakes can be wiped away, and it dries clear. And after a couple of days she was nearing completion. Guns and underwing bomb racks have been applied. 18 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putty Animal Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 Oh my god. I bloody ache for one of those in my scale. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 Oh yes very nice indeed. Great work fella. I have never had much success with stretched sprue for rigging myself so this is excellent work on your part with the sprue. Lovely model All the best Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet Mike Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 What a great build! Looks superb. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, bigbadbadge said: Oh yes very nice indeed. Great work fella. I have never had much success with stretched sprue for rigging myself so this is excellent work on your part with the sprue. Lovely model All the best Chris Hi Chris, the sprue stretching was the most frustrating part of the build, I probably ended up with less than a quarter of the stretched sprue that was a consistent thickness and straight enough to use. And burnt a finger too ............. regards, adey Edited April 27, 2020 by adey m 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) So much close up detail here in this photo of a Mark 1 of 10 Squadron. Useful details include the Lewis gun and mounting, the pitot tube mast, front navigation light and open bomb aiming window. I scratchbuilt the gun mountings. I used the kit's Lewis guns with extra details like the sights added. The lower dustbin turret is retracted. A small piece of brass rod provides something to pull on to bring the turret down. Lower dustbin turret in deployed position. The gun mounting just clips in place and is removed before retracting the turret. Lower turret rotates as well as retracting. Time now to add a crew and some external bombs. The standing gunners are from the kit and are well detailed with seperate arms that can be posed correctly to the guns. The pilot is from an Airfix kit. I have added masks and microphone leads. The figures are held by Blu Tac to a rubber eraser for painting. The bombs are temporarily glued to a piece of sprue by their tails to allow for painting. Edited April 28, 2020 by adey m 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 Looks bloomin' gorgeous Adey. I might have to have a go at getting the sprue stretched consistently. I have done some cotton bud stems to make some small tubing for rigging 32 scale planes etc. I hope your finger isn't burnt too much. Keep up the good work All the best Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adey m Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) The vacant cockpit and nose turret. Double control wheels column made from brass rod bent to shape and which is pivoted at either end into holes drilled in plastic card cockpit structure. Full crew complement finally in place and kit's bombs clipped onto external racks. Downward identification light under fuselage nose with square opening for camera just behind it. Open crew access hatch just aft of V struts. I have modelled the internal bomb stowage in the lower wing centre section with the doors closed which is one of the kit's options. The kit does contain a full complement of bombs and optional open bomb doors. And finally she is finished. And now the factory production line can be turned over to the Harrow bomber. Parked outside on the airfield awaiting collection by an RAF crew. Thank you all for your interest and kind comments. I really enjoyed building this model, a large complicated looking biplane made so much easier to assemble thanks to superb Matchbox engineering. It will appear next in RAF service on Ready For Inspection. See you there. regards, adey Edited April 30, 2020 by adey m 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltcarBoB Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 Shes a real beauty I think you have done a great job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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