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1:72 Short Stirling Mk.1 *FINISHED*


Dunny

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Hi All,

 

It's January, so it must be time for a heavy! This time last year I completed my Lancaster B.II, so I figured it was about time I got another 4 engine beast on the go. Italeri's Stirling is oft-built on this site, and it is well-known for its cavernous panel lines. I actually started this kit about 4 years ago, so it's a long-time shelf-sitter - the WIP is a way of motivating myself to get on with it. Here's the box art:

 

20220107-150016.jpg

 

And here's where the build is at the moment, and probably the reason it stalled:

 

20220107-145936.jpg

 

It's not that clear from the photo, but the interior grey green is a most peculiar hue of my own concoction, before I settled on my 'go to' IGG, which is Vallejo 71.305. So I'm going to start it again, and do it properly this time! When I first started the kit I'd intended to complete it as the boxart scheme, 'McRobert's Reply', but the boxing also has decals included to complete as BF372 of 149 Sqn RAF, based at RAF Mildenhall in 1942. This aircraft was flown by RAAF Flt Sgt (later P/O) Rawden 'Roy' Middleton VC. On 28th November 1942 his aircraft was badly damaged on a raid to the Fiat aircraft works at Turin. Despite suffering multiple grievous injuries, including the loss of his right eye, Middleton managed to complete a 4 hour flight to bring the stricken aircraft back to the English coast. Five of his seven crew then baled out (the front gunner and flight engineer remained aboard to try and persuade Middleton to carry out a forced landing). Following his refusal to do so, the remaining crew baled out but did not survive the night in the English Channel. Middleton stayed with the aircraft, which ditched into the Channel, his body not washing ashore until February 1943. Middleton was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross and promoted to Pilot Officer. Here's a picture of Middleton during his flying training:

 

r1-61-638-421-w1200-h678-fmax.jpg

 

And here's the scheme as presented:

 

20220107-150326.jpg

 

I feel compelled to complete this scheme now it has an RAAF connection. Now I know that this aircraft has been modelled before, including this lovely 1:48 Sanger vac form by @woody37:

 

 

I will be delighted if mine turns out half as well as this, but I'm not holding my breath! At this stage it will be mostly OOB, albeit with the addition of an Eduard mask set. I'll see how I go with the infamous panel lines - watch this space! I have not yet found any photos of BF372, but there are a number of other 149 Sqn aircraft which are relatively well photographed. Wish me luck!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

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Oooooo this is certainly a pleasant surprise Roger, I didn't know you were back and hope you had a lovely break.  

Will tag along, what a brave fellow.  Will tag along and looking forward to this progressing. 

Great start fella. 

Chris

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1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Oooooo this is certainly a pleasant surprise Roger, I didn't know you were back and hope you had a lovely break.  

Will tag along, what a brave fellow.  Will tag along and looking forward to this progressing. 

Great start fella. 

Chris

Thanks Chris - yes I think that's why it's languished for 4 years or so, but as they say 'Fortune favours the brave'! We'll see how that pans out 🤣,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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5 minutes ago, Dunny said:

Thanks Chris - yes I think that's why it's languished for 4 years or so, but as they say 'Fortune favours the brave'! We'll see how that pans out 🤣,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

Fingers crossed Roger, although I am sure you will be fine.  Look how the Lancaster turned out, it was a beauty. 

Chris

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1 minute ago, dogsbody said:

Chair pulled up to watch this!

 

 

 

Chris

Welcome Chris - good to have you aboard!

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4 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

Chair pulled up to watch this!

 

 

 

Chris

Welcome Chris - good to have you aboard!

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Hi All,

 

I have made a start on refurbishment (?) of the interior today. First of all I masked up the bomb bay and nose sections, in preparation for repainting:

 

20220108-094524.jpg

 

I then re-sprayed the 'correct' interior grey green ahead of the wing spar, and sprayed everything aft of the wing spar in aluminium. Here's the result:

 

20220108-102147.jpg

 

And here with the resprayed cockpit, and bomb bay roof:

 

20220108-105632.jpg

 

I'll next work on the rear of the aircraft (because I want to!), but this brings me to my first unknown - what colour to paint the undercarriage bays? I've done a little light searching, and here's a pretty crisp photo of the main gear:

 

Stirling-main-gear-149.jpg

 

I shall use this as a guide for painting the undercarriage - note it is also a 149 Sqn aircraft (also the a/c code appears to be overpainted on a window - interesting). Now certainly the interior of the main gear doors look to be Night, but what about the tail wheel bay? Italeri call out interior grey green, but I am not so sure. Perhaps @dogsbody might have the answer?

 

Also, I dug this out from the stash - might be time to get on with this too?!

 

20220108-091550.jpg

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

Edited by Dunny
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Just now, AdrianMF said:

Looking forward to seeing a “non-Airfix” Stirling deployed!

 

Regards,

Adrian

Welcome Adrian - good to have you aboard!

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16 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

What a touching but sad story, and what a wonderful tribute model this is going to be. I have this kit and will be watching and taking notes.

Mike

Mike,

 

Welcome aboard! Yes it is a humbling story of bravery and self-sacrifice to get the aircraft so far with such injuries, and yet not force-land for fear of causing further casualties on the ground. A true hero,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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Hi All,

 

Some good progress on the Stirling today! I started out with the rear fuselage, positioning the Elsan on its P/E pedestal (peedestal? 🤣)

 

20220108-112303.jpg

 

Next the water heater and it's guard were positioned on the fuselage wall:

 

20220108-122035.jpg

 

The next item was called out as being gloss red, so I assumed it was supposed to be a fire extinguisher. Now as we all know at this time extinguishers were of a brass finish, which is what I did:

 

20220108-134324.jpg

 

Sorry for the cr*p photo. After I took this I also created a nozzle from plastic rod which was painted aluminium, which made it look a little more realistic. So here's the rear fuselage looking suitably busy:

 

20220108-140010.jpg

 

I painted the rear curtain neutral grey (I figured I could accessorise with brighter colours 🤣) - I'll also be adding curtains to the cockpit which I'll give the same treatment. I'll give that all an oil wash to pop the detail, but I'm not going to go too much further. As the cockpit had already been constructed and painted, it was just a case of refreshing the detail painting. Here's a shot showing the PE instrument panel (as supplied in the kit), complete with throttle levers:

 

20220108-142205.jpg

 

Not bad for gentleman's scale? Also Italeri provide a set of dividers on the navigator's table, so I picked out this nice detail:

 

20220108-142633.jpg

 

Tomorrow I shall complete the detail painting, add harnesses and give the whole lot a bit of weathering and an oil wash, but I'm pretty happy with progress so far,

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

 

 

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3 minutes ago, mark.au said:

This’ll be fun to follow along with, especially after such a good start.  A great subject airframe too.

Mark,

 

Welcome aboard! For all the teeth-gnashing about this kit I've so far found it to be well detailed and engineered,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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I went with black on the undercarriage bays when I built mine:

 

jaLeTJ4.jpg

 

 @12jaguar from the Stirling Aircraft Project was kind enough to send me a lot of reference material which included a photo of the undercarriage bays, if I recall correctly, and there's also a photo in the Haynes' Short Stirling Owners' Workshop Manual that appears to show it was metallic - but I'm convinced they were painted black on service aircraft (like bomb bay interiors and the inside of flaps like on Wellingtons and Lancasters).

 

Build thread of mine here:

 

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16 minutes ago, elger said:

I went with black on the undercarriage bays when I built mine:

 

jaLeTJ4.jpg

 

 @12jaguar from the Stirling Aircraft Project was kind enough to send me a lot of reference material which included a photo of the undercarriage bays, if I recall correctly, and there's also a photo in the Haynes' Short Stirling Owners' Workshop Manual that appears to show it was black (or night).

 

Build thread of mine here:

 

That's good enough for me - I did think it was most likely! Lovely and detailed build BTW - I'm not sure I have the dedication to cut 588 strips to length but I do commend your dedication!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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52 minutes ago, Dunny said:

That's good enough for me - I did think it was most likely! Lovely and detailed build BTW - I'm not sure I have the dedication to cut 588 strips to length but I do commend your dedication!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

 

Thanks - in the meantime I looked up the photo in the Haynes' book and it actually is metallic on the inside. But I'm convinced they were painted black or night, like the inside of bomb bays, on service aircraft. The photo in question appears to be of an aircraft still under construction.

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36 minutes ago, elger said:

 

Thanks - in the meantime I looked up the photo in the Haynes' book and it actually is metallic on the inside. But I'm convinced they were painted black or night, like the inside of bomb bays, on service aircraft. The photo in question appears to be of an aircraft still under construction.

I tend to agree with you Elger - so difficult to judge a photo without context. I'm going with black, methinks, maybe with interior grey green on the inner wing surface...

27 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Crikey this has progressed well since last night.  Interior is looking great Roger, the peedestal comment made me chuckle 😃

Great work fella.

Chris

Thanks Chris - it's a bit deceptive as I'd constructed the whole cockpit last time round, so has advanced rather quickly. I'm rather enjoying it this time, as the toilet humour (literally) may attest!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

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17 minutes ago, Dunny said:

Thanks Chris - it's a bit deceptive as I'd constructed the whole cockpit last time round, so has advanced rather quickly. I'm rather enjoying it this time, as the toilet humour (literally) may attest

It's great that you are enjoying the kit fella, and does look very detailed inside.  I have the old Airfix one with the White Ensign Models PE set and a rescriber !!! One day !!!

Chris 

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6 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

It's great that you are enjoying the kit fella, and does look very detailed inside.  I have the old Airfix one with the White Ensign Models PE set and a rescriber !!! One day !!!

Chris 

Go on - you know you want to! Ok, maybe not 🙄

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Hi All,

 

A quick progress update on the Stirling. I spent the morning painting harnesses, applying them and then giving the interior an oil wash. Here's the cockpit:

 

20220109-120816.jpg

 

And here's the rear fuselage:

 

20220109-120833.jpg

 

Although there's still a fair bit to happen internally (windows & curtains, tail wheel assembly), I couldn't resist a quick dry fit to see how it all went together:

 

20220109-122024.jpg

 

That all fits together very nicely - a good sign! Back on with it - here's the rear access door:

 

20220109-130216.jpg

 

Some nice detail there - shame it'll never be seen!

 

20220109-130420.jpg

 

See what I mean :banghead:?! Finally, here's a shot of the main u/c wheels mid-paint (hubs sprayed with Nato Black, tyres brush-painted with RLM66):

 

20220109-131338.jpg

 

I'll leave subsequent coats on the tyres until I've joined the halves together. That's all for now,

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

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