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Inpact Martin-Handasyde 1/48


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I don’t build a lot of airplanes, but I came across this unusual bird several years ago and thought I’d give it a go.

 

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According to Wikipedia, the Martin-Handasyde was an early monoplane with a slender wood-covered triangular section fuselage and tapered wings braced by mid-span vertical kingposts. Lateral control was by wing-warping rather than ailerons, and the undercarriage consisted of wheels on a cross-axle supplemented by a forward-projecting curved “spoon” skid. It was first flown in November 1910; pilot Graham Gilmour was eventually killed in the aircraft when it suffered a mid-air structural failure on 17 February 1912.

 

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The kit I have is the Lindberg reissue from 2014, but the model was originally released in 1966 by the British company Inpact as part of a series to tie in with the 1965 movie, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

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Aircraft builds usually start with the cockpit, but in this case there basically isn't one, so I started with the figure. Looking like he would be more at home at the controls of a 1911 motor-car in his high socks, jodhpurs and sport jacket, the unusual pilot looks quite the dashing turn of the century Englishman.

 

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The figure is actually quite well executed with sharp detail and even a separately molded arm to grasp the control column/steering wheel. The only change I made before painting him up was to turn the head to the left.

Edited by Tim Reynaga
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3 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Well done figure! With that outstanding start, very much looking forward the the rest of the build. :popcorn:

 

What paint did you use?

Thanks! I thought Inpact did a nice job with the figure - especially for 1966!

 

Anyway, the paints I used were:

 

face             Testors (small bottle) 1170 Light Tan, white

goggles &

shoes          Testors (small bottle) 1185 Rust

cap              Model Master Field Drab enamel

sweater       Model Master RAF Dark Sea Gray

coat            Model Master Armor Sand

gloves        Model Master RAF Middle Stone  ANA 615

pants          Humbrol Matt 29 Brown w/ MM Armor Sand

socks          Humbrol Matt 159 Khaki Drab & Matt 155 Olive Drab

 

The finished figure was sprayed with Testors clear flat lacquer, the face brushed with "flat Future" (Tamiya Flat Base mixed with Future 1:15) for sheen

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5 minutes ago, BillF67 said:

You live and learn! I would have called this a Martinsyde. Cracking figure modelling. Should be a great build.

You are sorta right; the Martin-Handasyde company changed their name to Martinsyde during World War I and were an important manufacturer of aircraft for the RFC. They later switched to motorcycles.

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Initial assembly was a simple matter of adding the cockpit floor to the one-piece triangular lower fuselage and then attaching the upper deck. The seat sits on top.

 

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I love the bright purple fuselage on the Lindberg box art, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t accurate! Instead, the fuselage and other wood components were given a coat of Tamiya Buff XF-57 acrylic followed by Windsor & Newton 074 Burnt Sienna artist’s oil streaking to give the parts a nice “wooden” look.

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The tail and wings were equally straightforward. Following assembly of the tail and inserting the vertical kingposts into the one-piece wings, I gave the assemblies a base coat of Model Master RAF Middle Stone enamel.

 

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After taping off the internal structures under the skin, I then oversprayed the parts with a Model Master Middle Stone/Flat White mix for an off-white linen color.

 

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The results were tidy, but the contrast seemed too stark. I wanted to suggest an inner wood structure just visible through the linen skin, so I went back and misted over everything again with a still lighter “linen” mix. Better.

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Unusually for aircraft of this era, the Martin-Handasyde had some prominent markings.

 

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The kit didn’t include them, but fortunately a generous fellow modeler was able to help me out with some beautiful custom printed decals. Thanks again Paul Bradley!

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The assembled J.A. Prestwich 40 hp engine was painted with Testors Stainless Steel Buffing Metalizer lacquer spray and then detailed with Testors brush-applied copper enamel. This was followed with a thin wash using Windsor & Newton Burnt Umber artist’s oil.

 

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The control column was also shot with the same stainless steel color with the wheel being picked out in Model Master Military Brown. The sheet metal panel attached to the front of the wheel was a field adaptation to shield the pilot from oil spewed from that primitive engine up front.

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This is generally a good model, but the weakest aspect of the kit is definitely the landing gear.

 

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Inpact did the best they could - even molding the wheels as clear parts in the initial 1966 issue - but 1/48 scale spoked wheels are really beyond what can be achieved by injection molding technology. In their later reissues of the kit Pyro and Lindberg simply molded the wheels in the same tan plastic as the rest of the kit.

 

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Fortunately, there are now etched brass upgrades which can bridge the gap! Although there isn’t anything available for this relatively obscure aircraft specifically, Tom’s Modelworks 1/48 scale Set #205 Spoke Wheels for German & French WW1 airplanes can be adapted to fit nicely.

 

At least I think so...  🤔

Edited by Tim Reynaga
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Following this  with interest Tim, very impressed with your detailed work in the wing ribs.  Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines cam out in 1965- still one of my favourite films, great aeroplanes and famous comics- Thomas, Sykes, Hill etc.  I bought the Handasyde kit a year or so later - not a patch on your build.

Colin

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Lovely work on the figure, and the see through fabric work looks very effective too.
 

I built the Bleriot from this series a few years ago and made my own spoked wheels from fishing line threaded around pins on a wooden block - those PE wheels will save you a lot of fiddling. There was an awful lot of rigging to do on the open fuselage on the Bleriot too.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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I started fitting the etched spokes by removing their round outer borders. 

 

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Then I pressed the flat etched pieces down onto the molded plastic parts to replicate the gentle cone shape of the spokes around the wheels. After that it was simply a matter of reducing the excess lengths of the spokes.

 

With the replacement spokes now pre-fitted to the wheels, I set them aside and cut away those awful solid molded spokes!

 

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Forming and trimming the spokes was actually pretty straightforward - although I was a little hesitant to cut the molded spokes out of the wheels. Once that was done there was no going back!

 

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Attaching the spokes to the wheels was a fussy process involving a lot of test fitting and tiny dabs of super glue, but the result is a big improvement over those sad kit parts!

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I've painted the newly spoked wheels with Testors Stainless Steel Buffing Metalizer spray. As for the tires, we tend to think of them as black in color, but natural rubber is actually white. Early rubber tires were often left that color or tinted a medium gray to hide wear. Photos of the original Martin-Handasyde No. 3 show its tires to have been a light or medium gray, so the tires were brush painted with Tamiya XF-54 Dark Sea Grey acrylic.

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Here’s the state of play at the moment:

 

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The fuselage is finished, and the wings, empennage, fuel cells, engine, and propeller have all been attached. The undercarriage is assembled and painted too, though the fragile wheels won’t go on until the very last. I’ve also made a start on the grass field base (right now still just a thin layer of Celluclay). 

 

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Since the pilot figure isn’t really in flight gear, I decided to leave the plane in clean “before flight” condition as well. The J.A.P. engine, which was notorious for throwing oil all over the place, will be left with only a minimal amount of grime.

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