This looks complicated. The Special Hobby 1:72 Avro Anson Mk I (late version) - And we're done. Gosh.

[Ed Russell]

Bombs were aimed through the large ventral window right up in the nose - usually covered with a sliding panel. I don't know what those little windows were but many Ansons do not have them. They look like this......... 

Photo from a Facebook group.

[Mark Harmsworth]

3 hours ago, Ed Russell said:

many Ansons do not have them. They look like this......... 

Thanks Ed - great photo. I would guess that I'm not going to find an image from that angle (brave photographer with the props turning) for my scheme so I'm going to follow @galgos advice and not drill them out. SH not providing any transparencies is also a bit of a nudge in that direction.

 

Mentioning the scheme again is prompting me to get a move on and decide.

[Mark Harmsworth]

More work on the resin bits - most of which has come off the casting blocks fairly easily with my little p.e. razor saws and cleans up nicely. 

 

This then is the remaining resin for the cockpit:

The bucket top left is the nose landing light with the internal tubing for the roof next to it - I've removed all the flash but not yet started the cleanup.. Underneath the bucket is a fire extinguisher (oxygen bottle?) and underneath that a row of four seats. First the fold down for the not-at-all-important chap, then a seat with no back for the slightly-less-unimportant chap and then two proper seats for the pilot and someone else quite important. The stick and odd shape in front of the last seat are supposed to form the control yoke which I find rather disappointing - I've seen far better ones in styrene.

 

Then a couple of desks / tables - one with an instrument cluster - and a panel for somewhere in the nose.

 

At the bottom a few sticks. The two L shaped ones are foot pedals for the pilot, then some teeny instrument panels - one of which is so small it looks like a piece of scrap. Lastly three more bits of internal tubing - I can see at least one of those being replaced by plastic rod.

 

Four of those parts added into the nose area:

 

And some sitting on masking tape ready for paint:

Along with the two engine blocks as I think the firewalls will be aircraft grey/green.

 

That leaves the internal tubing. Here are two problem parts:

On the left, tubing which runs from floor to ceiling and is decidedly not straight. That is going in a gentle arc towards the bin quite shortly to be replaced by plastic rod.

 

Then the roof tubing which not only needs careful cleaning up but it is also warped. The section nearest the camera is not touching the mat. The end pieces are also not the same length - the left hand one snapped off from the casting block. My one breakage (so far). Not quite sure what I'll be doing with that. My thinking at the moment is to remove the two end spars, tidy up the rest and attach two new end spars. But I need to check how bad the warping is.

 

I've started on the instrument panel. Have I mentioned this is twelve pieces? Twelve! Anyway - here's four of them:

At the top, on the mucky piece of card, are styrene (painted white and not aircraft grey/green as suggested by SH) with the 'film' part showing the instruments sitting on top. That will be trimmed of course to remove the black surround.

 

The lower part is the p.e. panel (lovely detail) with a resin part attached - where the throttle levers go I think. That resin bit hasn't photographed very well and the detail is actually rather good.

 

I've also started to have a look at the cowlings and removed one from its' casting block:

I'm sure there was a good reason why this has happened but I would have much preferred it if the casting block had been at the rear of the cowling rather than the front. That is going to require some very careful cleaning up and will be very visible.

 

Finally, I've included this image for your delight and entertainment. This is the instruction for attaching one of those teeny instrument panels. I've highlighted the relevant lines and arrows in red:

I'm sure there's a logical interpretation to be found (no, really). I'd appreciate any references as I have my doubts about those lines.  I'm guessing the panel would be horizontal (or vertical?) rather than that odd diagonal.  I'm also mildly confused about the location of part 34. But then again I am spending a fair bit of my time right now being mildly confused.

 

That's all for now.

Back soon

Mark

[TheBaron]

2 hours ago, Mark Harmsworth said:

I've highlighted the relevant lines and arrows in red:

I'm sure there's a logical interpretation to be found (no, really). I'd appreciate any references as I have my doubts about those lines.  I'm guessing the panel would be horizontal

It is Mark. It's a set of instrument repeaters sitting above the Navigator's desk directly, behind the pilot's seat:

There's a few more interior shots over on my RFI here giving some other views:

Hth,

Tony

 

[Mark Harmsworth]

That's great Tony - thanks very much

Mark

[Mark Harmsworth]

A few days have passed since I made the mistake of attaching the cockpit floor to the wrong fuselage side. There's detail in the cockpit that attaches to the floor and left hand fuselage side but I'd managed to attach the floor to the right side. Like this:

My initial reaction was that I could work around the problem by attaching the rest of the interior after I'd glued the two fuselage sides together - after all It doesn't yet have a roof and I could work from the top.

 

But realism set in. I try not to let that happen too often..

 

So with some patient work with a scalpel the floor and rear bulkhead came away with little damage and I had this:

 

Tidy the parts up and try again. This time doing a better job of attaching it to the left fuselage side:

I'm using the right side as a jig to try to get it to sit properly - no locating pins, holes etc. While doing that it was clear that the wing spars (those grey benches on the floor) were too rectangular and not corresponding to the curves in the fuselage sidewalls. So some more sanding than the first time I tried this.

 

I left that overnight and then had this:

Sigh of relief. That seems ok. I can now get back to following the instructions - or as much as that is possible anyway.

 

I've spent a session tidying up the cowlings. This is how the first one looks after removing it from the casting block and some very careful sanding:

I have no idea why Special Hobby had the casting block on the front of the cowling. It would have been a far simpler job if it had been on the rear. Sanding the front I was very aware that any mistakes would be very visible. But it looks ok so no worry.

 

Back soon

Mark

[galgos]

That's looking better Mark, back-tracking will pay dividends downstream!  I agree entirely about the ridiculous casting block on the front of the cowling, but it's also worth checking reference pictures closely to see just how much you should open up the front of the cowling.....I believe it's more than it seems.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark Harmsworth]

1 hour ago, galgos said:

to see just how much you should open up the front of the cowling.....I believe it's more than it seems.

That's a very good point. I think I've gone down to the level indicated by SH by a clear-ish line on the front of the cowling, But that picture does tells a different story doesn't it.

 

Something for the morning.

 

Thanks

Mark

[galgos]

For what it's worth, my 1/48 build from 7 years ago:

 

and a couple of clearer pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Paul J]

I had great fun (not) when I built my SH kit and finished as  Canadian  yellow one with lots of black diagonal stripes! It's been seen in   columns somewhere. But I reckon Airfix should do a new tool. It's about time

 

[Mark Harmsworth]

19 hours ago, galgos said:

to see just how much you should open up the front of the cowling.....I believe it's more than it seems.

 

The Warpaint reference has 1:72 scale diagrams and the cowling opening on that measures 11mm diagonally. The SH cowling opening also measures 11mm:

 

 

However it does look like that resin part is larger overall - which maybe gives the appearance of the opening being too small.

 

So I'm happy that the opening is ok but I've stopped thinking about the cowling itself possibly being too large - makes my head hurt 😟

[galgos]

😄  I wouldn't trust drawings Mark, I always go by looks from reference photos.  Just look how different those bulges are in the drawing's position to accommodate the engine cylinders, much further forward than the kit’s.  But which is right.....and how much does it matter!?  But here's a fine looking build in 1/48 scale which is spoiled by those cowls not being opened up enough:

 

 

I think yours looks ok though so I'd be happy with it! 

 

[Mark Harmsworth]

Masking. What could possibly go wrong?

 

I had a productive session and achieved this.

 

These are Montex masks which I've used on a couple of previous builds. Looking good so far I thought.

 

Montex masks are some sort of vinyl. Completely different from the more common yellow tape.

 

This morning I found:

 

The masks had peeled off all of the curved windows - six masks in total. They had been very firmly bedded down with the top of my tweezers handle. A quick press down just now saw them pop up again.

 

And there seems to be some sort of residue left on the transparency.

 

Various solutions came to mind - not all of them creative. But after two mugs of tea I've decided I'm going to start again with this rather than attempt to press on (ha!) and end up with a result I'm not happy with.

 

So a plan: remove all those masks (being grateful that I hadn't applied the 33 masks to the very curved turret); clean the transparencies - probably with isopropanol alcohol; dip in Klear again (yes, I've still got half a bottle left) and re-mask. I've just ordered a set of Eduard masks from Hannants.

 

Onwards (trying not to be grumpy)

Mark

[galgos]

I’ve always thought Montex masks were a waste of money especially in your scale, they’re too thick and don’t conform easily to tight or complex curves. 

[Navy Bird]

I've never had any luck with that type of mask material either. I much prefer the Kabuki tape.

 

Great progress with the resin interior bits. I never even attempted to use mine, so I salute you! Looks like you've got the cowlings right; I too could not understand why the casting block was on the front of the cowling. I suspect it's due to the shape of the Anson cowling and the need to extract the mould. I believe resin moulds are flexible, but it still might be tough to remove it if the casting block were on the back side of the cowling, as it would have to come out through the front opening. Just a thought, anyway.

 

I used the Eduard masks on mine, and they worked great. It would have been a real drag to have to mask all of that without a pre-cut set!

 

Cheers,

Bill

[stevehnz]

On 7/12/2022 at 4:16 AM, Mark Harmsworth said:

I'm also mildly confused about the location of part 34.

Not sure how far along you got with these interior bit, but 34 is an angled brace to the navigators table, it shows up clearly in this photo. Some other interior shots on that site, & although of a Finnish machine appear to follow the RAF standard pretty much.

Steve.

[bigbadbadge]

Looking good so far Mark, you'll certainly not regret taking the time and effort re attaching the floor to the left hand side.  Ip is looking good too.  Hope you can sort out the interior framing or replace okay, was lucky with mine, I did the 48th scale kit as a Royal Navy ASV Radar trainer and the interior framing although warped slightly cleaned up well and didn't break phew!!!.

Great methodical work so far

Chris

[Mark Harmsworth]

19 hours ago, galgos said:

they’re too thick and don’t conform easily to tight or complex curves. 

That's basically the problem isn't it. Maybe if they were thinner they might work. But they're now all in the bin. 

 

I've just had an email from Hannants saying the Eduard masks are in their way.

[Mark Harmsworth]

18 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Great progress with the resin interior bits. I never even attempted to use mine, so I salute you! Looks like you've got the cowlings right; I too could not understand why the casting block was on the front of the cowling. I suspect it's due to the shape of the Anson cowling and the need to extract the mould. I believe resin moulds are flexible, but it still might be tough to remove it if the casting block were on the back side of the cowling, as it would have to come out through the front opening. Just a thought, anyway.

Thanks. I sanded those cowlings very very carefully. A mistake would be very difficult to recover from. Good point about the casting block - never really thought about that. I'm glad that job's done.

[Mark Harmsworth]

12 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Not sure how far along you got with these interior bit, but 34 is an angled brace to the navigators table, it shows up clearly in this photo. Some other interior shots on that site, & although of a Finnish machine appear to follow the RAF standard pretty much.

Thanks a lot. That first image is great. I think the splendid hats are worth a mention too.

Mark

[Mark Harmsworth]

A short update as I'm waiting on the arrival of replacement canopy masks - this time from Eduard. Royal Mail has had them since Monday the 16th. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

The build is in a sort of hiatus as I like to do all the interior painting in one session and I'd really like to get the canopy masks done before I get into that.

 

I have had a bit more time to fiddle with the resin cockpit and I've tidied up the tubular framework as best I can. Gosh is that stuff delicate. And ever so slightly not straight but I think that will largely be hidden under the upper fuselage transparency.

 

So a coat of grey primer :

 

And some work on the instrument panel sandwich - which looked like this:

 

The four main parts attached to each other and a splash of paint:

The instrument faces on that 'film' are not that clear and, unless you get really really close, they look like black holes. 

 

Next some teeny resin and p.e. pieces to add to that. Probably.

 

@Navy Bird asked if I'd decided on a scheme (my first choice was a non-starter as it was an early Mk I) and finally I have. Unusually for me I'm going for one of the kit schemes - P.O. Peters Mk I from 500 sqn that accounted for two Bf109s on 1st June 1940. Or at least that is how the kit instructions describe it.

 

Being me, I checked the ORBs - which thankfully had more detail. Three Ansons were on a 'Thistle' duty from Detling. I asked about that in the WW2 sub forum and @Selwyn helpfully provided the info that 'Thistle' was the term used for patrolling the Dunkirk evacuation beaches - something new I've learned.

 

The ORB stated that the three Ansons, patrolling at 50 feet above the sea, were attacked by nine Bf109s. Pilot Officer Peters shot down one of the 109s with his gunner seriously damaging two others. Two of the 109s dived into the sea. The two other Ansons landed unscathed at Manston. As a result of this P.O Peters was awarded the DFC six days later. I should think so. That action just sounds incredible to me (nine 109s vs three Ansons!).

 

I just have to do that scheme.

 

That's it for the moment

Mark

(patiently waiting for the postman)

 

 

 

 

[Mark Harmsworth]

The replacement Eduard masks arrived:

 

I'd checked the stash and decided to also replace the vinyl masks that I had previously got for the Academy B-17 - doing that got me free postage from Hannants.

 

On some planes I've done the masking myself but with this one I couldn't face that job. This is one side of the instructions for the Eduard masks:

 

So a few sessions and 75 masks later I am where I wanted to be:

 

And not one of those masks have peeled off. Thank you Eduard. 

 

Time for some paint. I collected all the bits I thought needed Aircraft Grey/Green, got out the airbrush and reached a build milestone:

 

 

Right then. Now I try to figure out what I'm doing next.

 

Time for a mug of tea and some carrot cake.

back soon.

Mark

 

 

[AdrianMF]

I'd say that was mask money well spent!

 

I've got one of these in the stash and I'm looking on with - well, er - trepidation!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[bigbadbadge]

Looking good and hlad the new masks behaved themselves. 

Great work 

Chris

 

[Mark Harmsworth]

18 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I'd say that was mask money well spent!

Yes definitely - one of those occasions where there isn't really a choice. Some of those 75 or so 'windows' are only about 1mm wide. The design of the turret looks bonkers - I don't know how the gunner could see properly with all the framework.

 

18 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I've got one of these in the stash and I'm looking on with - well, er - trepidation!

I like a challenge now and then - although I do get a lot of pleasure from a well engineered kit as well - this one though is a true test of patience along with some forensic skills to interpret the instructions. Having said that I'll be honest and say I'm really enjoying it. Which sort of surprises me.

Mark