Armstrong Whitworth AW 52 Micro-Mir 1/72 - Not one for the faint hearted

[John R]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With many of my other experimentals so you can see its size

This was the future – once upon a time. The AW 52 was originally conceived as a bomber during WW2 but afterwards this was changed to a 6 engined airliner. It was preceded by a glider but as this had its limitations a twin engined version was designed to investigate the higher speed area of the flight envelope. Two prototypes were built. The first had Nene engines and the second had Derwents. The first, TS363, first flew in November 1947 but was lost in a crash after suffering uncontrollable pitch oscillations. Apart from investigating the flying qualities of a tailless aeroplane it was also used to investigate the possibility of maintaining laminar flow over much of the wing surface. To try to achieve this a special aerofoil was used and boundary layer air was sucked into a slot ahead of the elevons but without success.

 

As for the model as soon as I learned of its existence I had to have one. As they say, be careful what you wish for! It has its good points. It’s a kit that I never expected to see and it makes up into fairly accurate model. The engine nacelles and main u/c should be located further outboard and the aerofoil section bears no resemblance to that of the a/c.

The downside is that it is a nightmare to build. It is overly complicated with much internal detail that cannot be seen and almost nothing fits. I cannot believe that anyone tried to assemble one before it was released or if they did it was with the cynical attitude that idiots like me snatch at something that they knew would be unlikely to come along again.

Some specific points…

Starting with the cockpit interior one is directed to fit a component that does not exist.

The hole in the floor for the control column is in the wrong place.

The seat is too low. It is modelled without the support structure underneath. I didn’t know about this structure until later on after I had solved the problem by glueing it to the upper fuselage section instead of the cockpit floor. If glued to the floor the pilot's eyeline would be about level with the edge of the cockpit.

There is a lot of PE for the cockpit instruments and also some 3D decals which appear to do the same job and the instructions are not much help. It's all a waste of time anyway as none of it can be seen.

Joining the wheel halves together it appears that one half should have spigots that fit in to holes in the other half. It doesn’t. Both halves have holes.

There are two quite detailed engine models to be assembled but only enough combustion chambers for one. It doesn’t really matter as only the front section is visible if you look down the intake.

If you can think of a way to fit the engine nozzles after painting the model it would make life easier

Fitting the pieces that make up the internal portion of the intake involved much cutting, Milliput and bad language. There was a CAD drawing of this in the Rumourmonger section showing the parts fitting neatly together so how it got so wrong in real life is beyond me.

The cockpit, engines and wheel bays fit into the lower half of the centre section and the upper section is then fitted…except it doesn’t. Several things prevented this and so I took my sanding block and ground away at the internals until it did fit. The wheel bays were the worst culprit and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had not gone through to their internals.

Once that is done you have to fit the outer sections to the centre section and become aware of two problems. The first is relatively trivial in that the wing section bears little resemblance to that designed by the RAE but the second is close to a showstopper. The wing sections of the centre and outer wing do not match, and not by a small amount either. The outer section is much thinner. (At this point it was all too much and the project was consigned to the shelf of doom for several months). I got around this by cutting away the rib at the inner end of the outer wing until just the wing surface was left. I then replaced the bits I had cut away with several ‘pillars’ cut from thick sheet which forced the upper and lower surfaces apart until a reasonable match was obtained with the centre section.

The wing surfaces have some nicely engraved panel lines which have to be filled as the real aircraft had very smooth surfaces to try to achieve laminar flow. There should be slots ahead of the elevons but there are none. I thought that cutting these would be beyond me and settled for decals instead.

There are a couple of problems with the canopy. This is offset to one side so it means that one side of the cockpit is longer than the other but for the model a ‘normal’ one is provided which means some careful scraping of cockpit and fuselage followed by filler to get it to sit without it leaning. I do not think that the rear of the canopy is correct.

One last problem presented itself. The u/c legs have spigots to fit into mounting holes but there are no holes for them to go into. I was most surprised and relieved that it required no adjustments to sit level after fitting the landing gear - about the only thing that went right.

 

I discovered this website that has a lot of pictures of the aircraft and a copy of the article about it which appeared in 'Flight' in December 1946

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/armstrong-whitworth-aw52.49979/

Thank you to Dave Swindell and David Womby for providing information about the seat. It is here for anyone who needs to see it

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235101803-armstrong-whitworth-aw-52-cockpit/

 

Finally - despite all its issues it does make up into a nice model which looks 'right'. The finish is Halfords 'Appliance White'. It needs as much weight as you can pack into the nose.

All I have to do now is find somewhere to put it. It is rather large. (edit: picture added to show how much space in takes up in my display cabinet)

Time for a lie down in a darkened room

Edit: Jan 2023

I have seen another one built. The builder said that he did not bother with most of the internals as they were completely hidden once assembled. He also fitted the outer wing panels to the centre section before joining them as I did. This left a gaping hole along the leading edge which was then filled with Milliput.

John

 

 

 

[Allan31]

Interesting read. Thanks for persevering with this build for us, great results.

[28ZComeback]

Beautiful build and finish plus a nice diversion from Spits and 109s.  I never knew this plane existed. Anyone who wrestles a Mickro Mir kit to the floor never has to prove his manhood again in any other way! 

[TonyOD]

Quite an undertaking, but a spectacular result. Kudos for your perseverance!

[Remus389]

Interesting model, this one grabs your attention. 🥇

[Dave Swindell]

2 hours ago, John R said:

Time for a lie down in a darkened room

Well earned! Turned out nice in the end though John. Thanks for the link to the ww2aircraft thread, saved for future reference when I get round to mine.

[Hairtrigger]

Certainly different...  Superb build.

 

[BritJet]

Despite all the issues that has turned out very nicely. I would have loved to have seen the real thing flying! You're right about the size, it does take up a lot of space, I scratchbuilt one 30+ years ago and the span is about the same as a Lancaster.

 

Steve

[Billy54]

Thank you for posting, I enjoyed both you images and your write up of this build.

[Pete in Lincs]

Full marks and a gold star for getting through to the end. It looks great! Enjoy your lie down.

[manuel]

Thanks for posting a beautiful plane and to share all the fittings problems. All in all an very interesting plane and history.

[TonyW]

Every pleasure demands a pain.

Looking at that stunning model and reading your backstory backs that theory right up.

A build to be very proud of.

[Adam Poultney]

Mikromir is very hit and miss. Their Victor isn't as bad, only issues are the jetpipes won't go in and they got the photo etch airbrake fins entirely wrong. Oh and they engraved positions for serial decals to go on the fuselage for some reason. Their Valiant is an inaccurate mess but it's buildable. This kit, well I think I will avoid it....

Anyway, you've done a great job on this one. Good finish with the Halfords Appliance Gloss White as well, I use it on my V Bombers. 

[Head in the clouds.]

A very neat and tidy build, well done in climbing the mountain that is Micro-Mir. That is some list there and it will help others in their AW52 adventures, thanks for posting.

[Space Ranger]

Send your notes to Mikro-Mir and demand a refund!

[Andy Dyck]

Despite all the problems that you had you made a gem out of it. Very very interesting plane that I never heard before. Fantastic to see!

 

Andy 

[Spitfire31]

A magnificent build! You've earned a double badge of honour – one for modelling skills and the other one for perseverance!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[Lothian man]

On 12/2/2021 at 1:25 PM, John R said:

 

 

 

The preceding photos had the 'sky' replaced by Photoshop. For some reason Photoshop cold not find the 'sky' in this one.

 

This was the future – once upon a time. The AW 52 was originally conceived as a bomber during WW2 but afterwards this was changed to a 6 engined airliner. It was preceded by a glider but as this had its limitations a twin engined version was designed to investigate the higher speed area of the flight envelope. Two prototypes were built. The first had Nene engines and the second had Derwents. The first, TS363, first flew in November 1947 but was lost in a crash after suffering uncontrollable pitch oscillations. Apart from investigating the flying qualities of a tailless aeroplane it was also used to investigate the possibility of maintaining laminar flow over much of the wing surface. To try to achieve this a special aerofoil was used and boundary layer air was sucked into a slot ahead of the elevons but without success.

 

As for the model as soon as I learned of its existence I had to have one. As they say, be careful what you wish for! It has its good points. It’s a kit that I never expected to see and it makes up into fairly accurate model. The downside is that it is a nightmare to build. It is overly complicated with much internal detail that cannot be seen and almost nothing fits. I cannot believe that anyone tried to assemble one before it was released or if they did it was with the cynical attitude that idiots like me snatch at something that they knew would be unlikely to come along again.

Some specific points…

Starting with the cockpit interior one is directed to fit a component that does not exist.

The hole in the floor for the control column is in the wrong place.

The seat is too low. It is modelled without the support structure underneath. I didn’t know about this structure until later on after I had solved the problem by glueing it to the upper fuselage section instead of the cockpit floor. If glued to the floor the pilot's eyeline would be about level with the edge of the cockpit.

There is a lot of PE for the cockpit instruments and also some 3D decals which appear to do the same job and the instructions are not much help. It's all a waste of time anyway as none of it can be seen.

Joining the wheel halves together it appears that one half should have spigots that fit in to holes in the other half. It doesn’t. Both halves have holes.

There are two quite detailed engine models to be assembled but only enough combustion chambers for one. It doesn’t really matter as only the front section is visible if you look down the intake.

If you can think of a way to fit the engine nozzles after painting the model it would make life easier

Fitting the pieces that make up the internal portion of the intake involved much cutting, Milliput and bad language. There was a CAD drawing of this in the Rumourmonger section showing the parts fitting neatly together so how it got so wrong in real life is beyond me.

The cockpit, engines and wheel bays fit into the lower half of the centre section and the upper section is then fitted…except it doesn’t. Several things prevented this and so I took my sanding block and ground away at the internals until it did fit. The wheel bays were the worst culprit and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had not gone through to their internals.

Once that is done you have to fit the outer sections to the centre section and become aware of two problems. The first is relatively trivial in that the wing section bears little resemblance to that designed by the RAE but the second is close to a showstopper. The wing sections of the centre and outer wing do not match, and not by a small amount either. The outer section is much thinner. (At this point it was all too much and the project was consigned to the shelf of doom for several months). I got around this by cutting away the rib at the inner end of the outer wing until just the wing surface was left. I then replaced the bits I had cut away with several ‘pillars’ cut from thick sheet which forced the upper and lower surfaces apart until a reasonable match was obtained with the centre section.

The wing surfaces have some nicely engraved panel lines which have to be filled as the real aircraft had very smooth surfaces to try to achieve laminar flow. There should be slots ahead of the elevons but there are none. I thought that cutting these would be beyond me and settled for decals instead.

There are a couple of problems with the canopy. This is offset to one side so it means that one side of the cockpit is longer than the other but for the model a ‘normal’ one is provided which means some careful scraping of cockpit and fuselage followed by filler to get it to sit without it leaning. I do not think that the rear of the canopy is correct.

One last problem presented itself. The u/c legs have spigots to fit into mounting holes but there are no holes for them to go into. I was most surprised and relieved that it required no adjustments to sit level after fitting the landing gear - about the only thing that went right.

 

I discovered this website that has a lot of pictures of the aircraft and a copy of the article about it which appeared in 'Flight' in December 1946

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/armstrong-whitworth-aw52.49979/

Thank you to Dave Swindell and David Womby for providing information about the seat. It is here for anyone who needs to see it

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235101803-armstrong-whitworth-aw-52-cockpit/

 

Finally - despite all its issues it does make up into a nice model. The finish is Halfords 'Appliance White'. It needs as much weight as you can pack into the nose.

All I have to do now is find somewhere to put it. It is rather large.

Time for a lie down in a darkened room

John

 

 

 

Many thanks; I'd bought the kit before seeing this! I'll still have a go. 

[John R]

Best of British to you! Seriously drop me a PM if you need help.

The difference between the centre and outer wings is the worst bit. It might be possible to get away with a load of milliput. You don't have to worry about losing the panel lines as the real wings were extra smooth. They did not use roundels in case they ruined the smoothness

John

[Roberto]

What a work! I like it.

[Viking]

Really interesting aeroplane, and a lovely result, well worth all your perseverance. 

Very useful notes too, it is always a bonus when someone lists useful info like this. I like Micro Mir kits, they do need patience and careful building, but as you have shown the results  are a usually a nice model of an interesting type that no one else has done.

 

Cheers

 

John

[John R]

Thank you. Judging by the enthusiasm by which this was received when it appeared in the Rumourmonger a lot of people wanted one. I wonder how many will get finished. It was a close run thing with mine

John

[Lightpainter]

Well that’s MikroMir for you 😬

I build their Piaggio pegna Pc.7 and had the same experience. I had to restrain myself from putting my foot on it. You really did a good job on it, it looks fabulous so you did great! 

[Sky Keg]

Now I know that UFO`s exist.  Great overall presentation!!!!! 

 

Mike

[Horatio Gruntfuttock]

I have one of these kits and am rather loathe to start the beast after reading and saving your build. Thank you for persevering as you have ended up with something quite spectacular, and Idid not realise how big it is - the box certainly gives no indication of its final size.