Avro Manchester Bomber Instrument Panel 1:1

[alzictorini]

Evening BM's

 

To finish off the magneto selector gang switches I decided to go for the chrome look for all 4 knobs. The aluminium mentioned above looked a little too dull when polished so I went for a Chrome finish. I used this product as it goes through an airbrush with ease (no thinning) and dries in about 20 mins.:

 

 

Its the best chrome finish I've come across so far for a paint. this item is in fact a pen refill. Its expensive also at about £16 from amazon:

 

 

The gang selector lever also needed finishing and this was done by heating the face to allow me to put the slightest bend in it. I next added some .6mm plastic sheet to the sides, cut to look like the pivot arms on the real thing:

 

 

It was then all painted satin black and assembled:

 

 

Looks the part!

 

Hope you enjoyed this build:

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Quite marvelous.

[alzictorini]

Cheers Pete

[Cees Broere]

Not again! 🙂 Looking fantastic, although the cages I have are bright and shiny black.

[alzictorini]

Morning Guys

 

Cees - That's good gen, Ill give it a quick splash of gloss.

 

Not the best pic but it is now shiny:

 

 

Live the dream

 

[alzictorini]

Evening BM's

 

Next item on the list is the auto pilot steering adjuster.  You can see it below on the diagram just below the blind flying panel in the left corner:

 

 

Cees Broere in the Netherlands mentioned some time ago that he had a real item which he photographed and measured up for me :

 

 

 

 

From these pics and dims I went to work in Fusion and came up with this design:

 

 

I designed it to come in 4 pieces and so the printing began:

 

 

Once printed the pieces were cleaned up before assembly:

 

 

 

Lastly the lever was painted the same as Cees' real lever:

 

 

Looks the part!

 

Live the dream.....

Edited November 8, 2022 by alzictorini

[alzictorini]

Evening BMs

 

Next quick build is the Outside Air Temperature Gauge Mk2 6A/597.

 

The gauge is exactly the same as the boost gauge but its all black. I used the same mold and cast the gauge in black resin with a few others (and the shorter flap meter gauge).

 

 

The graphic was stuck to the face and put to one side to set in place:

 

 

In all the pictures of the temp gauge fitted, they all seemed to rest at about 10-12 degrees:

 

 

With a little clear glass inserted it was finished in a short time:

 

 

Enjoy

[georgeusa]

Still fascinating work and you make it look so easy to do.  It's almost see an instrument, put the instrument in a program, hit a button and the instrument comes out perfect.  I know it cannot be that simple and the actual input into the computer program must take a bit.  Then there has to be somewhere gremlins rear their ugly little heads to make everything just a tiny little off.  I am thoroughly enjoying this thread even though I don't understand half of what you are doing.  Waiting for the next update.

[alzictorini]

Afternoon BMs

 

Thanks georgeusa, you are correct, there can be a number of prints sometime to get things spot on but the more I design things the less mishaps I make.

The next item is the flap position indicator. This is an even smaller version of the boost gauge. I simply cut one down and now I have a silicone mold which gets the gauge construction down to a few hours, the longest part being painting the luminous paint on the face.

 

Here's the finished gauge made the same way as the Boost and the Air Temp gauges:

 

 

 

RPM gauges next.

 

Does anyone have an Identification Lamp Morse Key No2 Mk3 105C/90? I'm looking at fabricating one of these but need some really good pictures and measurements.  Please private message me or post here, Thanks in advance.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by alzictorini

[Cees Broere]

Another masterpiece, although I would say the rim is a bit high.

[alzictorini]

Hi Cees

 

It is a little high but you wont notice it when I fit it with washers, ie flush with the panel.

[Cees Broere]

I know, but someone needs to keep you on your toes.😊

 

[alzictorini]

Evening BMs

 

Happy with that Cees, keep em comin........

 

RPM gauges x2 (6A/778). I've made these a few times before so I have a mold ready. 20 mins later and I had 2 main bodies for gauge faces. There's only a few items to this gauge, a main body, a face, some glass and a retaining ring. The handles I tend to have a good stock of (when I get low I just print off sets of 20).

 

Here's all the parts:

 

 

The needles are the hardest part to make (just paint and gang together):

 

 

Once the glass is cut just clip it all together:

 

 

Nice quick build:

 

 

Have a good weekend!

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Beautiful as always. Next time I'm delivering in Woodhall, I'll bring a blue plaque to stick on the front of your house.

   Here lives Mad Al 

 The Instrument king

           😀

 

*Teahouse in the woods, Bainland country park, The Golf Hotel and Abbey lodge. 

[621Andy]

Just stumbled across this amazing build😍

 

Stunning work!

 

[alzictorini]

Evening BMs

 

Thanks Andy. cheers Pete, can you make it Red?

 

OK, next i'm looking at the triple brake pressure gauge. I had a look all over the internet and found a pic of an item which would be fitted to an early Lanc and as I cant find anything to say any different, It should also be fitted to the Manc.

 

Here's a pic of me making the face graphic (in Serif drawplus 😎 from the picture I found on the net:

 

 

Once printed off and fixative sprayed I cut out the graphic. I usually print off a face but it would be a 15 min print and there was some plastic sheet just looking at me and I can cut it out in about 5 mins, impatient!! :

 

 

I had a mold for the gauge main body and the glass support which I cast in black resin:

 

 

A quick test fit showed she clipped together nicely:

 

 

The needles on this Triple P Gauge are different to the ones I have so I designed some more in fusion and printed them off on my Creality:

 

 

The picture also pointed out that there was 3 screws on the face. I had some brass screws which I would grind down the thread before fitment:

 

 

Test fit of the hands showed they were spot on for size:

 

 

I cut out some holes for the screws and put them in post painting black:

 

 

It was then just a case of cutting out some glass and putting it all together:

 

 

The hardest part of the build was painting the tiny numbers:

 

 

Hope you enjoyed this gauge build - looks good to me....

 

 

Enjoy

 

[alzictorini]

Evening BMs

 

Just looking at the next items to build and some of them im still researching. One of them is the Fire Button and Engine Button covers, they can be seen in the pic below:

 

 

The ones on the left are the Fire buttons and the ones on the right are the Engine Buttons.

 

From what I can see, the fire buttons were painted red and had words on the bottom in black (I believe) saying "Fire Extinguisher". Was that all? from the pics below there seems to be something that went across the centre (or did it)? Any information on this would be helpful.

 

Engine Starter button covers seem to be the same cover but just painted black, am I correct?

 

Part numbers for both could be 21F/388

 

Any help on these questions would help the build - thanks in advance

 

 

Hope you can help

[Cees Broere]

Great progress as usual. Unfortunately can’t help with the buttons as I only have the later type.

[k5054nz]

On 10/29/2022 at 6:15 AM, alzictorini said:

Any thoughts?

  

On 9/16/2022 at 11:58 PM, alzictorini said:

Plastic Magic

That sums up my view of things. I have to apologise for the flurry of Reaction notifications you'll receive today, I've just read the whole thread in stunned silence. Amazing work! I'm off to check out the Hampden and Spitfire panels.

 

[alzictorini]

Evening BM's

 

I've been sent an interesting PM, following that I was sent an email with this pic. How interesting:

 

 

It looks like the button cover but has a split pin at the top. Good view of the fire extinguisher wording as well.

 

Cheers John for the info and sharing.

 

 

[alzictorini]

Morning BM's

 

With the info above Im now set to have a crack at making a master switch with its cover fitted for an attempts at making a mold out of it.

 

I made a rough print to see how the cap would look and made some changes, here's the prototype and my working build next to each other:

 

 

I next worked the grip that connects to the switch (I have plenty of the exact starter button casts in the bit box - black item in the pic below) and the cap together:

 

 

The lugs (evergreen strip) and the rivet (decor pin) were fitted next:

 

 

 

 

Test fit showed they came together quite well, just need the screw adding to the hing:

 

 

A 2.5mm hole was simply drilled and a screw fitted, looks OK so far:

 

 

A little clean up and some paint, should be good to make a mold from:

 

 

Have a good weekend

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by alzictorini

[Pete in Lincs]

More magic from the home of the Teahouse in the woods. I was there on Friday. They never gave me a cup of tea though.

[Learstang]

Brilliant work! You'll want to make certain you do the fire extinguisher button correctly. It was of some use on the Manchester, I'm led to believe.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[k5054nz]

Magnificent.

[Cees Broere]

@Pete in Lics, they also call it: Flicks in the Sticks.😄