Shackleton MR.3 wheel wells etc

[Meatbox8]

Can anyone tell me what the colour/s of the Shackleton MR.3's wheel well, undercarriage door interiors, undercarriage legs and wheel hubs are?  None of my references are clear enough to say for sure.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[Vulcanicity]

I think all Shackleton wheel wells were White, although they rapidly weather and get filthy. The legs and hubs are a pale grey colour, I think I went for something around Medium Sea Grey.

[aerotechi]

Wheel wells are white but get dirty beige look with some tanks and bottles inside the mains. Legs are a light grey and wheels are a dark grey. I’ll get you some pics tomorrow as I’ll be around one. 

Edited February 28, 2022 by aerotechi
Added pic

[Julien]

White bays from the ones I’ve seen

 

 

[Meatbox8]

That's great chaps.  Thank you very much.  I didn't think to look in the Walkrounds section - duh!

[Meatbox8]

1 hour ago, Vulcanicity said:

I think all Shackleton wheel wells were White, although they rapidly weather and get filthy. The legs and hubs are a pale grey colour, I think I went for something around Medium Sea Grey.

 

1 hour ago, aerotechi said:

Wheel wells are white but get dirty beige look with some tanks and bottles inside the mains. Legs are a light grey and wheels are a dark grey. I’ll get you some pics tomorrow as I’ll be around one. 
 

 

21 minutes ago, Julien said:

White bays from the ones I’ve seen

 

 

Ditto as above.  Just worked out how to do multi-quotes.

[aerotechi]

17 minutes ago, Meatbox8 said:

That's great chaps.  Thank you very much.  I didn't think to look in the Walkrounds section - duh!

Any other areas you want ref pics of as I have unrestricted access on ours?

[Meatbox8]

4 minutes ago, aerotechi said:

Any other areas you want ref pics of as I have unrestricted access on ours?

Thank you.  Are you anything to do with the Gatwick Aviation Museum?  I noticed you are in Sussex.  If so I wonder if you could answer a question for me.  Do you have two Shackleton MR.3s there?  I found a photo of an MR.3 undergoing engine runs and there appears to be another with the code 'K' behind it.  The Wik entry for the musseum says you just have the one, 'J' WR982, which is the one with the engines running.

[aerotechi]

3 minutes ago, Meatbox8 said:

Thank you.  Are you anything to do with the Gatwick Aviation Museum?  I noticed you are in Sussex.  If so I wonder if you could answer a question for me.  Do you have two Shackleton MR.3s there?  I found a photo of an MR.3 undergoing engine runs and there appears to be another with the code 'K' behind it.  The Wik entry for the musseum says you just have the one, 'J' WR982, which is the one with the engines running.

Yes I’m one of the engineers there. We have J. K unfortunately had to leave as the council limited us on outside airframes. 
We still run engines on J. We also run engines on a Saudi F53 lightning. Current projects are to get the bucc S1, sea vixen, and sea Prince running again. 

[Meatbox8]

That's a shame and a strange decision by thew council.  Can't see why it would be any skin off thier nose.  What happened to 'K'?  I've been meaning to visit the museum for some years.  A Bucc S.1 is an aircraft I'd really like to see 'live'.  Quite a rare bird.  Sounds like you are all doing great work there.

[aerotechi]

10 minutes ago, Meatbox8 said:

That's a shame and a strange decision by thew council.  Can't see why it would be any skin off thier nose.  What happened to 'K'?  I've been meaning to visit the museum for some years.  A Bucc S.1 is an aircraft I'd really like to see 'live'.  Quite a rare bird.  Sounds like you are all doing great work there.

Long drawn out disagreement between council and previous owner. Council thought it looked more like a scrap yard basically. 
K I’m not sure where she is now as she went before I joined. 
The lightning has taken our time away the last 12 months plus covid delaying projects but we hope to do a major restoration on the bucc as she’s looking very tired. 
Just as a teaser a vid of the last maintenance engine run.

https://i.imgur.com/POohsnK.mp4

Edited March 1, 2022 by aerotechi

[Meatbox8]

23 minutes ago, aerotechi said:

Long drawn out disagreement between council and previous owner. Council thought it looked more like a scrap yard basically. 
K I’m not sure where she is now as she went before I joined. 
The lightning has taken our time away the last 12 months plus covid delaying projects but we hope to do a major restoration on the bucc as she’s looking very tired. 
Just as a teaser a vid of the last maintenance engine run.

Took me a while to track her down but 'K' is MR.3 WR974 and I'm glad to see she is still extant at the South Wales Aviaiton Museum, St Athan.  Seems she was at Bruntigthorpe for some years before all the aircraft were kicked out.  You may be surprised to know that WR982 is listed as scrapped in the Dalrymple and Verdun book on the Shackleton!  It seems reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

[aerotechi]

https://imgur.com/a/ZuTt0tV
 

link to gear bay pics. @Meatbox8

[Meatbox8]

25 minutes ago, aerotechi said:

https://imgur.com/a/ZuTt0tV
 

link to gear bay pics. @Meatbox8

Great photos. Many thanks.

[71chally]

On 3/1/2022 at 2:33 AM, Meatbox8 said:

Took me a while to track her down but 'K' is MR.3 WR974 and I'm glad to see she is still extant at the South Wales Aviaiton Museum, St Athan.

Helped reassemble it on site,

 

Avro Shackleton MR.3 Phase III WR974 K by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

 

In the MR.3s earlier service career, the undercarriage legs and wheels could be seen in aluminium finish aswel.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by 71chally

[Paul J]

That must have been quite a logistical nightmare moving such a big airframe.

[Meatbox8]

6 hours ago, 71chally said:

Helped reassemble it on site,

 

Avro Shackleton MR.3 Phase III WR974 K by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

 

In the MR.3s earlier service career, the undercarriage legs and wheels could be seen in aluminium finish aswel.

 

 

 

 

 

i

Great to see she's in good hands.  So many of these larger airframes have got the chop over the years.  She looks in pretty good nic too.  Do my eyes deceive me or are here undercarriage legs and wheel hubs in Light Aircraft Grey?  It would be great to motorise her like this to zum around in. No trouble parking her!

[Selwyn]

9 hours ago, Meatbox8 said:

i

Great to see she's in good hands.  So many of these larger airframes have got the chop over the years.  She looks in pretty good nic too.  Do my eyes deceive me or are here undercarriage legs and wheel hubs in Light Aircraft Grey?  It would be great to motorise her like this to zum around in. No trouble parking her!

The Undercarriage is painted in BS381c 967 Light Admiralty Grey which was the standard colour  on all RAF aircraft undercarriage.

 

Selwyn

[71chally]

Just the lighting, it's as Selwyn says.

 

She's is in pretty good order and fully assembled now.

[Meatbox8]

2 hours ago, Selwyn said:

The Undercarriage is painted in BS381c 967 Light Admiralty Grey which was the standard colour  on all RAF aircraft undercarriage.

 

Selwyn

Thanks. Applied later in her career?

[71chally]

36 minutes ago, Meatbox8 said:

Thanks. Applied later in her career?

Going through some MR.3 pics in my archive, it looks like the silver finish (guessing unpainted alloy, but might be painted aluminium) seems to have been replaced by the grey later in service, possibly as an anti-corrosion effort.

I thinking mid sixties but it seems to vary a lot, there are some pictures of MR.3 Phase III with Vipers with silver wheels.

 

This lovely shot gives an idea of the look,

THE ROYAL AIR FORCE, 1950-1969. © IWM (RAF-T 4757) IWM Non Commercial License

Edited March 4, 2022 by 71chally

[Meatbox8]

1 hour ago, 71chally said:

Going through some MR.3 pics in my archive, it looks like the silver finish (guessing unpainted alloy, but might be painted aluminium) seems to have been replaced by the grey later in service, possibly as an anti-corrosion effort.

I thinking mid sixties but it seems to vary a lot, there are some pictures of MR.3 Phase III with Vipers with silver wheels.

 

This lovely shot gives an idea of the look,

THE ROYAL AIR FORCE, 1950-1969. © IWM (RAF-T 4757) IWM Non Commercial License

Is yours a phase 3? I can't remember whether phase 3s were new builds or conversions. If converted perhaps they were repainted during the process. The model I'm building is a standard MR.3 from the old Frog kit (and what an odyssey it has been) so will probs go with white.

[71chally]

Phase III was a major equipment and interior update to existing airframes, all RAF MR.3s received the update at some stage, from late 1963 -'66.

I don't think the grey painted legs / wheels followed that same logic, more likely they stemmed from a service directive to paint them when they were serviced.

 

The undercarriage bays always seem to have been white.

Personally I would go with silver wheels/ legs for your era of build, always worth trying to find references though.

 

I still like the old Frog Kit, which is basically a Phase II.

 

[Meatbox8]

21 minutes ago, 71chally said:

Phase III was a major equipment and interior update to existing airframes, all RAF MR.3s received the update at some stage, from late 1963 -'66.

I don't think the grey painted legs / wheels followed that same logic, more likely they stemmed from a service directive to paint them when they were serviced.

 

The undercarriage bays always seem to have been white.

Personally I would go with silver wheels/ legs for your era of build, always worth trying to find references though.

 

I still like the old Frog Kit, which is basically a Phase II.

 

So phase 3 wasn't related to fitting the Vipers then? I was under the impression some MR.3s didn't get Vipers so assumed that was the case.

[71chally]

The Viper fit was a separate programme to the Phase updates, for example XF707 depicted in the Frog kit was in for the Phase III update over most of 1965, it received the Viper fit over late 1967.  XF704 was a Phase III, but was unfortunately lost before it could receive the Viper jets.

With a small number of MR.3s (XF701 for example) the Phase III and Viper programmes coincided which meant that the aircraft were away with Avro/HSA for just one period.

The Phase updates added an awful lot of weight to the aircraft over the years, so they did ultimately cause the need for the jet assistance.

 

The Revell kit rather nicely gives us WR975 as a Phase III, and XF703 as a Phase III Viper.

 

All Shackleton MR.3s that were still in service with the RAF received Vipers, only SAAF and trials aircraft didn't.

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by 71chally