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Sanger 1/48 Airspeed Oxford


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Since there is a little time left in this GB I would like to enter a little vac from Sanger, a 1/48 Airspeed Oxford.

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As usual the vac exterior detail is sparse at best and non-existent, but I'm going to take a page from @Martian s biplane build ,and see if I can do the Oxford justice on the exterior and stuff what I can on the Interior. I know the part that nobody will ever see. But thats the fun part about vacs, It's a blank canvas that one can nuts with. And I'm about as nuttier as they come. Enough of the long winded speechafin' lets cut some plastic. Into the fog and damn the martinis , full speed ahead!

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1 hour ago, Mjwomack said:

We're here until July: though I can't see that you'll be needed a fraction of that long. 

Probably, but I do want to do the stressed ribbing on the exterior and stuff as much of the interior into it as I can.

This is one subject that I don't have much reference material as I usually do. A few web sites of Oxfords being restored. and a handful of pictures. Two areas I'm still looking  for are the bombardiers Station , rear gunners turret and gear wells.

Cockpit, navigators, radio stations i have the most of.

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The turret was the same as the Anson IIRC. Tony’s @TheBaron  build of the Airfix Anson a while back had some useful turret references.

 

FWIW the nose looks very pointed to me. I think there were some militarised Envoys around as well, which had smaller noses. The FROG Oxford had a similar problem.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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50 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

The turret was the same as the Anson IIRC. Tony’s @TheBaron  build of the Airfix Anson a while back had some useful turret references.

 

FWIW the nose looks very pointed to me. I think there were some militarised Envoys around as well, which had smaller noses. The FROG Oxford had a similar problem.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian I'll give those a look. I know. there are more than a few irregularities being a Vac and a Sanger/Contrail vac to boot. It will be interesting to see how many I can "fix"... and keep my sanity.:wall:

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On 27/04/2021 at 01:16, AdrianMF said:

The turret was the same as the Anson IIRC. Tony’s @TheBaron  build of the Airfix Anson a while back had some useful turret references.

 

On 27/04/2021 at 02:11, LorenSharp said:

Thanks Adrian I'll give those a look.

Outside of photographs, these were the three most useful refs. I came to rely on for visualizing the Anson turret Loren:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uh764f977yms2m3/Loren.zip?dl=0

HTH,

Tony

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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

 

Outside of photographs, these were the three most useful refs. I came to rely on for visualizing the Anson turret Loren:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uh764f977yms2m3/Loren.zip?dl=0

HTH,

Tony

Thank you Tony Thats a BIG help! You wouldn't happen to have an idea of what the wheel wells might look like. The closest I've found was a small picture from a Special Hobby build, and I know how accurate that probably was.

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28 minutes ago, LorenSharp said:

Thank you Tony Thats a BIG help! You wouldn't happen to have an idea of what the wheel wells might look like. The closest I've found was a small picture from a Special Hobby build, and I know how accurate that probably was.

Do the Oxfrod and Anson have the same undercarriage Loren? (I've some Anson stuff but no specific Oxford material...)

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Now that I have all these lovely little parts separated from the plastic and sanded. Time to start work.

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First since I will be putting an interior in the oxford I've cut 2 small blanks to fill the mould impression for the wing roots.

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A little hard to see but I used .40 thick sheet to bring it up level to the interior wall then a little putty to smooth it out. This will also help when it comes time to attach the wings with rod. more to attach to.

 

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This next part I've never done before, I've seen a current build by @Martian where he's used this technique on a biplanes wing to make the ribs stand out.

You can read in further detail here

It's a good instruction on this and other vac techniques. Though not a a biplane this will have the same effect I'm looking for.

 

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The plastic didn't want to take my pencil marks so I'm using a extra fine tp permanent marker.

Once I have the marks in place I scribed a line(more like a trench) to put the rod in. There is a sharp break down the fuselage from the cockpit back half way down from the top just below the windows. You don't see this in the vac but it is prominent in photos so' I'll see if this will work with this.

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The rod I'm using might be a little thick but I'll be able to see what I'm sanding. down.  For gluing the rod on I'm switching to brush on Plastuct Plastic Weld making sure coat the entire length especially the ends, so they don't pull up and off while sanding.

 

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Once dry I'll coat the top as well with a light coat before sanding. The sanding for me will be the tricky part. it's real easy to be sanding away and take one swipe too many and lose everything.

I get these sorted out then I'll begin on the interior.

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Just a quick update, the glue dried much faster than I anticipated. so  I carefully sanded with  220 grit paper then to see what it looked like I gave a shot of primer and..... SUCCESS! Not only got the ribs to look ok but the sharp crease on the fuselage side worked as well. I  probably should have used .020 rod instead of .030. less sanding and probably would get a finer rib line. That I will remember for the future.:yahoo:

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There is still a couple of spots, just in from of the door and just under the tail. But I'll take that Thank You @Martian O Great Tenatcled One!

See theres nothing to being afraid about doing a vac. If this klutz :stupid: can do this then anyone can. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.... Placido Domingo sings Marcel Marceau's Greatest Hits.

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48 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

This is looking great! :thumbsup:

 

Hopefully, watching enough of these will enable me to get to that Wings 48 N9M

That sounds like a fun project. I built the Sword 1/48 some years back. I have a feeling your Wings N9M would be easier. I've built some of the Wings kits before. They're not too bad. Quality wise, somewhere between a Combat Models and a Rareplanes.

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Speaking of building vacs, its time for another exciting episode of Diary of a Mad Vac Builder😜 I had to redo part of the interior flooring as i got one side right and mirroring it to the other would  be logical. Vacs are anything but logical. Not only didn't mirror but was off about 3mm so corrections were the order of the day, actually the week but no matter. Other issue the edges of the vac once separated curved inward. To fix this and give extra strength I made sections following the curve and once I glued the floor in place, too care of the folding issue. I have one other area in the cockpit where the instrument panel goes, for that when the time comes I'll do the same and this will also be something to attach the panel to. I may have put too many sections in, on a plane this small its already pretty sturdy because of the plastic thickness but if nothing else it will be solid.

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Extra interior bracing at the opening to the cockpit.

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A rear bulkhead just aft of where the upper turret goes..

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And some open girder work just underneath the bomb aimers position.

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I'll finish up laying out the ribbing on the starboard side then begin adding navigators/ radioman's equipment and follow up with the cockpit. So until next time and comments, suggestions, or ideas are always welcome.

 

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On 5/10/2021 at 8:20 PM, AdrianMF said:

That’s a great interior! 
 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian, Its coming along slow but sure.

 

57 minutes ago, Colin W said:

You're doing a great job with this Loren.

THanks Colin, As usual with vac it has some "features" that I'll explain about in the next update.

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This past week mostly has been spent taking care of the interior and improving the parts that are supplied. Fist got the interior painted

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Then began running cables and electrical lines and various boxes on the starboard  side.

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I did the same for the port side plus added the main electrical box. unfortunately I deleted that picture,. It had more busyness to it than the other side.

Constructed the radioman;s position with the rack and the directional aerial post from rod and sheet stock.

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Then as usual with a vac, there are parts that at best marginal. Case in point the seats for the cockpit. They are closer in scale to 1/72 than 1/48 . So Time to make new ones. this time rather than card stock I'll print them out.

along with the seat bases, instrument panel and compass.

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The first set I made a bit too large as I forgot to halve the width of the cockpit measurement and as sure made seats that were about 1/32  in scale:oops:But since the parts only take a coupe of hours to print out wasn't all that bad.

As you can see a tad bit of difference in size between the two,

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I then used masking take and some spare P/E for the harness'.

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Putting it all together it comes out like this.

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51181365504_abaf82e56f_c.jpgAirspeedOxfordBuild-26 by 

I made a new throttle control quadrant Adding small rod for the leavers ,and added a navigators table. I still have the oxygen bottles to add but they are printing at the moment.

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Now time to turn my attention to the turret. Of all the pictures I've found of this kit in the net being built I've wondered why the turret wasn't used. There is a good reason. IT's too BIG. No granted I do at times trim the fuselage halves a tad too far but I know I didn't trim it THAT much.

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51181365489_63585147bc_c.jpgTo remove enough plastic for the turret to fit I would have to remove half the fuselage. Nope ain't happenin'.

So to the printer I go. Of course at this point I had issues occurring with the printer, New print didn't want to  print right. turned out a mixture of resin get past its use-by date, the FEP film in the bottom of the tank clouding up and the build plate slightly off level.

Again wasn't taking long per print time, but had to redo them a few times to work out all the errors. resulting in this...

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I over exaggerated the frame to compensate for the clear vac and also the turret is slightly smaller for the same reason. Once "Vacced" should, in theory fir just right. I am printing out a new turret rig, /brace assembly, " thanks to @TheBaron", to add to it so all that and World War II will be for the next update. with luck by tomorrow. Then seal the fuselage up and start on the wings and under carriage. So until next time any comments, suggestions or ideas let me know. Stay safe and Stay Healthy and Model On!:pilot:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Little bit longer in time since last update. A comment from Adrian about the nose of this little Oxbox led me to notice  that it was way out of shape from the what it should be. Not too difficult of a modification especially if there is a suitable amount of Milliput on hand.

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But there in also lies the rub of a quandary I've been mulling over. Not only did the nose have too high of a slope from wind screen to nose tip, but from the rear of the cockpit to the tail instead of straight and level, it slopes BACK with about a 4 MM drop.

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As I see it I have 3 options

1, Slather more MIlliput back straightening out the slope. on the + side this is the easiest modification. The only areas of issue would be the 2 windows above the Navigators station, and the area around the turret. these spots would show the additional thickness.

2. Major surgery involving cutting the top of the fuselage from the back of the cockpit to the tail  and pivoting it up 4mm using plastic card to fill the  gap. Issues with this scenario would eviscerate the work done on the interior wall of the fuselage because of the need to add tabs to hold the sections together. But the thickness of the turret and upper windows would be correct.

3. And finally do noting and just ignore the discrepancy and go on.

The jury is still out on final decision. Had I caught this before assembling so  much, I could have made the mods and not had all this mucking about:wall: But hey at least the nose now looks REAL good!

 

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Speaking of mucking about,  Further along, I did make  strengthening blocks for the main wings.

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Then I did some work on the wings. Modifications,(Naturally) I want to add lowered split flaps and adding the nacelles will require some "fixing" to get correct.

First I removed the ailerons and the flaps from the lower wing. I will have to fix the area on the lower fuselage to compensate for the flaps as they go all the way across. Not too insurmountable just another thing to change on the fuselage. That I would have done earlier but all the pictures I did find of the lowered flaps  this area was indistinct. now that've found better reference images I can doo it without much issue(I hope)

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The underneath of the nacelle will have to be moved back to the leading edge of the flaps

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The top of the nacelle needs to be moves even farther back and add  the distinctive "pinched" look at the back. So there is where we are at this moment in time. Sometimes this is part and parcel of working with a vac, JUst when you think you have it worked out, the model goes "Nah, think again and tosses another ball into your juggling act." Hopefully I'll get to show some better progress in a few days. So stay safe and stay healthy and model on. :drink:

 

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