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The great 1/72 Glider build - more Air Cadet flying machines


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On 12/12/2022 at 8:03 PM, Fritag said:

Sounds delightful.  I’ve been to Bergen; very nice, very expensive.  Taking your dinner suit for a nice slow foxtrot on christmas day? And maybe quickstep some of the christmas calories away?

 

And we are hoping it will be delightful. Karen is half Norwegian, so has already warned me of local prices. Yep, dinner suit and posh frocks will be packed, and we both plan much dancing to help with calorie management 🤸‍♂️

 

On 12/13/2022 at 3:46 PM, Brandy said:

Good job you didn't have to CA those windows in!

Enjoy the cruise, Merry Christmas to you and yours, and all the best for 2023!

 

Ian

 

Yes, CA not the best idea in my hands, on delicate matters, without optivors, in a built up area.......🙄

We will try and enjoy the cruise, and all the best Crimble and New Year wishes to you too Ian.

 

On 12/13/2022 at 9:41 PM, Courageous said:

Well, they're finished now, time to move on. Not going to ask about 'that'.

 

Thanks for not asking about 'that'. I peeked through 'that' doorway a few days back and it would appear that Ian @Brandy has already recently snuck in there .............. I may have to post an update there very soon as there has actually been some review work (trying to work out where on earth I was at), including a small repair. New year may well see full resumption of work ......... 🤫

 

On 12/14/2022 at 6:51 AM, Biggles87 said:

Just adding my good wishes for Christmas and your cruise.

 

John

 

Thank you John.

 

This will likely be the last update on this particular WIP for 2022 (no modelling on the ship), so Happy Christmas and Happy New year to everyone following this thread!

 

T.

 

 

 

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21 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

Karen is half Norwegian, so has already warned me of local prices

Have a great time, Terry! My only experience on Norway was a trip to the Sola air show. We stayed in a hotel on the beach and could see across the airfield to the entrance. A £40 taxi ride later got us there ! ;) Having said that, it is a great place! 

 

All my best, Martin

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No glider progress to report but a quick update from Bergen in Norway!

 

Ship's wifi pretty crummy, so this feels like coming up for air after 2 nights at sea. Bergen is delightful, and Steve @Fritag you are spot on re how expensive things are. A couple of bowls of fish soup for lunch a mere £60 and now tea and cake in a cafe at around £40!

 

Back on the ship tonight when we hit the sea for two days to the extreme north and Christmas day at sea!

 

missing y'all

 

Merry Christmas! 🥳

 

T

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22 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Crikey expensive Soup Terry, hope you enjoy Christmas at Sea.

Chris 

 

Thanks Chris. Prices seem nuts but all food on the ship is pretty good and inclusive, so we treated ourselves in Bergen. Won't be doing much of that!

 

T.

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24 minutes ago, Fritag said:

Told ya ;) Enjoy Christmas at sea; and the extreme North :D

 

I think he sent some of that extreme North my way. Temp is down to -13 C and the trend is down with wind gusts to 60 mph. Merry Christmas!

 

Cheers,

Bill

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15 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

 

I think he sent some of that extreme North my way. Temp is down to -13 C and the trend is down with wind gusts to 60 mph. Merry Christmas!

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

Well in the middle of the Norwegian sea here at 63 degrees north its + 2 C, so I think you have all of the extreme North!

 

T.

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4 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Well in the middle of the Norwegian sea here at 63 degrees north its + 2 C, so I think you have all of the extreme North!

 

Thanks a lot. We bottomed out at -17 C last night but didn't lose power. Most of the snow missed us and the wind has died down. Little favours I guess! Have a great Christmas sailing in Hyperborea.      :cold:

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Hope you all had a great Christmas.

 

Another quick update from Norway, no modelling of course!

 

Bodo was a blast (especially the aviation museum), Trondheim extremely picturesque and here in Alesund today we did much exploring.

The ship stays here till 1am and we are promised a mega New Years Eve party, for which Mrs T and I are now preparing.

 

A few of pictures to set the atmosphere.....

 

Bodo around 11am a few days ago

 

Bodo December 2022

 

 

Trondheim yesterday....

 

Trondheim December 2022

 

 

Alesund this afternoon. Our Ship with the twin funnels is on the left .....

 

Alesund Norway on New Years Eve 2022

 

 

Happy New Year to everyone from Norway!!

 

T.

 

 

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Don't forget, we all expect to see a picture of Slartibartfast's autograph on that glacier! And no Photoshopping either!

 

Reasonable of Mars 👽

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, although we got back from Norway on 3rd January, modelling took a big hit due to a chest infection which I came down with shortly after returning, which knocked me for six for a week or so. All good now though...........

 

On 12/31/2022 at 5:41 PM, Paul J said:

Looking forward to the Bodo museum pics. 

 

No pics of the museum to show just yet. I took a lot but need to get them sorted and up on Flickr. Although the museum is brilliant, some areas are quite dimly lit (deliberately I assume) so photography even with modern fancy kit, was not easy. I can say it is one of the best museums I have seen.

 

On 12/31/2022 at 6:35 PM, Martian said:

Don't forget, we all expect to see a picture of Slartibartfast's autograph on that glacier! And no Photoshopping either!

 

We got halfway up the glacier, to find the inscription "Slartibartfast was here" just at the moment my camera batteries failed ............. 😜

 

On 12/31/2022 at 8:12 PM, bigbadbadge said:

Looks and sounds lovely Terry,  hope you enjoy the party and have a Happy New Year. 

Chris

 

Thanks Chris. It was awesome. Apart from the stunning scenery and incredible atmosphere in the Arctic circle, one of the main aims was to see the Northern lights, and we were tremendously fortunate in seeing them on a total of four nights (and days!) in a row.

The best show was around noon in Alta, right in the middle of a brightly lit town centre, light pollution everywhere, but that made little difference. We were treated to a show for close to 30 minutes right above our heads. We were sitting outside on the veranda of a local bar (of course), and just watched in amazement.

I spoke to a local man who had lived there for 25 years and he told me these were by far the best he had seen!

I took many many pictures, these two give a taste of what we saw........

 

IMG20221226153433

 

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Ironically the best pictures we took were on hand held phones. The posh cameras we had were little use without tripods!

 

These two were taken coming into Alta, whilst running up the Fjord (for a couple of hours). Light conditions varied minute by minute.

 

IMG20221226101324

 

IMG20221226100010

 

At those latitudes we only had twilight for a couple of hours from around 9am!

 

The contrast to earlier that week, down south, coming into Bergen........

 

IMG20221223114132

 

And just before new year, in Trondheim there were no postal strikes!

 

IMG20221230123717

 

And for me the most bizarre experience of the whole trip was the contrast of life in a very cold and spectacularly beautiful Norway ............... and life on the rather nice cruise ship during the evenings.....

Yours truly and the ever patient Mrs T on New years eve. That was quite a party in the end!

 

IMG20221231235557

 

But there is modelling to be done!

 

As promised the next up in this brief series of "Air Cadet" gliders, is the Scale Resin Slingsby T.53. The kit is very nicely moulded in very fine resin.

 

IMG20210611170942

 

Obligatory parts picture......

 

IMG20230116200134

 

And Instructions where you can see there are no less than five options to choose from........

 

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Option 1. Privately owned, but emulating the colours used (sort of) when this aircraft served with the RAF Air Cadets

 

IMG20230116200545

 

Option 2. Privately owned, but emulating the colours used when this aircraft served with RCAF Air Cadets.

 

IMG20230116200604

 

3. An in service RAF Air Cadet aircraft as used by 615 VGS at RAF Kenley in 1971.

 

IMG20230116200610

 

4. Civilian example, with modified canopy.

 

IMG20230116200623

 

5. Civilian example.

 

IMG20230116200629

 

It's interesting for me that the 615 VGS example dated 1971, was at Kenley shortly after I qualified in January 1971. I don't recall these being there when I did my course in the T31, so I assume they must have been delivered sometime later that year. Indeed I do recall seeing them a little later (a year or two) up at Kenley and wishing I'd done my course a bit later!

 

The fuselage has some nice internal detail, so the dremel may not be needed ..........!

 

IMG20230116200221

 

The wings are cast on a massive resin "sprue", giving a complete pair of wings, with dihedral already set in, but with a pretty fragile (nevertheless helpful) centre join.

 

IMG20230116200315

 

Working out the best way to remove the wing piece from it's "sprue" without breaking the centre join, led me to conclude that cutting the sprue part in half first, might reduce the stress on that centre part, enabling me to remove each with leading edge separately.

 

So a deep breath and ..........

 

IMG20230116201650

 

IMG20230116201814

 

And it worked............!

 

IMG20230116202006

 

IMG20230116202900_BURST000_COVER

 

Some cleaning up to do, but happy at this stage.

 

IMG20230116202909

 

The fuselage underside showed slight misalignment where the lower fuselage was joined to its sprue

 

IMG20230116202945

 

Measuring each side, from the cockpit lip, to the lower edge of the fuselage, showed them to be different measurements (slightly), which in a way was good news, as all I need to do is increase the depth on one side, or reduce it on the other. Cockpit lip to lip on each side appeared parallel.

 

The winner in that decision was to increase the depth, probably using plastic card shims, given that should be the easiest medium to re-scribe the underside detail lost.

 

The reason that method won is easy to work out when you see the thickness (or lack of it) of the bottom of the fuselage, one half is much thinner, and heavy filing away at the bottom, could end in disaster!

 

IMG20230116203656

 

IMG20230116203608

 

So, lots of cleaning up of wing and fuselage, and some lower fuselage build up to do.

 

More soon.

 

T

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Glad you had a great time  sorry to hear about the chest infection and glad you're feeling better.  The photos are lovely and the Northern lights look amazing. 

Nice choice of Glider kit, that joint looks delicate though, phew, glad that came out well.

Great start

Chris

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Lovely pics of the Norwegian tour.

Moving on to the gliders,  when I started my ATC gliding course it was at RAF Swanton Morley,Norfolk,  November1969. We only got a couple launches in due to the weather not wanting us to progress. So the course was abandoned and while we kicked our heels, we were entertained by a couple films at the station Astra cinema and the highlight was a bus trip to Coltishall. Re the gliders there was one of the very first T.53 in the hangar. I think it was being evaluated at Swanton as it was the base for  the Central Gliding School. I and my buddy were allowed a week off from the school to attend the course as the headmaster was keen for us to go. My buddy ended up in the RAF on Jaguars I think. Don't know what he's doing now. As for the gliding course, we were able to start afresh at Tangmere, January 1970. Much nearer yo home for me.

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Nice looking pictures of Norway you have there Terry.

An interesting glider you have on the bench there, looking forward to watching it progress to the finish line.

 

       Stay safe             Roger 

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Some lovely pics from your trip to Norway, Terry! :thumbsup:  I love the one with the two of you, looks like you were really having a great time! :)

 

Interesting start on this resin kit - or should I say scary?  :frantic:  :D

 

Ciao 

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Ditto on the Norway tour and the chest infection.

This looks like another smooth machine, seems like my involvement with ATC gliding was about 40-50 years too early.

 

Happy New Year ( it’s OK to say it in these parts ‘til the end of Jan. )

 

John

 

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On 12/31/2022 at 5:38 PM, Terry1954 said:

Bodo was a blast

Hi Terry! I went up there (not the museum) in 1978. It was a jump seat ride on one of our Comets. Don Warburton was our Captain (146 types in his logbook inc Mustangs while he was stationed in the Shetlands!) We had four flights to pick up and return cruise passengers to and from the UK. I was really interested to see it but when I got to the airport - it was just a turnaround - there was nothing other than three Wideroe Twin Otters :(. And I got stopped by the Norwegian Rozzers for taking photos! They were good about it. They processed my film and a few weeks later I received my photos minus those taken at Bodo! ;) A friend of mine has promised a trip to the museum sometime but its a long way to go! 

 

Martin

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