Airfix AVRO Anson Mk.I (A09091) 1:48

[John B (Sc)]

Thanks Paul, I wondered if it might be that; something I have heard of in metal casting work.  

 

There is a slight imperfection in the rear part of the upright canopy transparency on my kit, which can only be seen with the light at the correct angle. That could be the explanation, fortunately it is not significant enough to be noticeable in normal circumstances. 

 

Cheers,

John B

[tonyh]

On 10/29/2022 at 10:28 PM, tonyh said:

I hope Airfix have plenty of spares as I’ve just checked my kit and it has the same flaw.

 

Tony

Just received this from Airfix Spares.

 

Dear Sir

Good news the clear sprues have arrived flow marks gone.

They will be sent out Monday., This is due to Royal Mail strike.

We are sorry for the delay.

Thank you

Regards

Airfix spares

 

 

[Mike]

On 09/11/2022 at 18:14, John B (Sc) said:

Can someone please tell me what a'cold shunt line' is?  Looking at my copy just now, there are some marks, which look like stress marks on the upright windscreen rear section, but nothing semi-circular. The greenhouse sections look perfect, so maybe I have been lucky.

"Cold Shunt Line" is a new term on me, but I think it's the technical term for when two wavefronts of injected styrene meet, but they are cooling too rapidly due to insufficient heating of the mould, so the cold edges leave a hairline where they merge.  Whether that's also a point of weakness in clear styrene I can only guess at based on my experience with grey styrene on a short-run kit of the FT-17 in 1:35.  Many of the small parts simply broke in half where these shunt lines were.  It was a bit annoying, but if they don't go across the whole part, I should imagine it won't be too much of a problem unless you're extremely rough with them.

[Paul J]

On 27/10/2022 at 09:13, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

 

Sorry Julien, I could probably have answered my own question by checking out the Walkaround section first. For anyone who hasn't seen it, there's a cracker of a shot in here showing this feature.

 

This one - hope this is ok to repost @Julien?

 

Looks like Airfix has done a decent job afterall which is great.

 

 

Good enough for me.

[Lothian man]

Had a dodgy transparency sprue - 5 items showed either cold shunts or air bubbles or contamination. But Airfix Spares replied immediately and I had a polite email and a complete new sprue within days, amazing in the current postal circumstances. Very happy. But just as well given the cost of the kit these days. 

[LownSlow]

On 26/10/2022 at 04:45, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

I've seen the first criticism of this kit last night and today, focussed on the relief detail moulded onto the wings:

  Quote

the wings on the avro anson are one-piece plywood and spruce wooden wings. The rippling/stress skin effect in the kit is completely inaccurate. I don't know where they got it from but its wrong and they've done it not only top side but underside of the wings too. Such a major flaw in the kit is not good.

 

There was a bit more personal view about the company stated which I've excluded.

 

I'm no expert on Ansons so did have a look around. Evidence in support of the moulded detail is relatively sparse on Google Images but not non-existent, and it possibly comes down to which airframe Airfix performed their LIDAR scan on. N4877 does appear to be one aircraft which shows similar effects to those moulded, although being painted a matt finish it's not obvious in photographs unless the light source, subject and camera positioning are all just right. I'd be grateful for some more insight from SMEs if there are any here?

 

 

I still think the kit looks like it should be a good kit, and I am keen to hear how it goes together.

 

 

Apologies for commenting late on the above, but the museum I work at has recently started restoring a Mk I Anson and I just came across this thread while researching liveries (plus, despite my limited modelling skills, I'll likely pick one of these up to display what our hoped for result might look like in 10 or 15 years).

 

The original quote is partially correct (if somewhat abrasive) in stating that the Anson Mk I had a wooden wing sheathed in plywood and would not have shown the "cushioning" effect modelled in the Airfix wing. The plywood covered the entire top of the wing and wrapped around the leading edge and the bottom surface back to the front spar; the remainder of the bottom surface was fabric covered. The ailerons were fabric covered and the flaps in aluminum. From looking at the photo of 4877, it appears that what the Imperial War Museum has is actually a composite aircraft of a Mk I fuselage grafted onto the later all metal wings from a Mk XIX or later Anson. This was an easy and not an uncommon modification, performed to keep an aircraft in service as the wooden wings were more prone to weathering, damage and required frequent inspection. It also allowed use of the later more powerful engine variants (with luxuries such as electric starters and engine powered hydraulics). This mod has been done on the sole remaining Flying Anson Mk I located in New Zealand. The thin plywood used for both the wing sheathing and the ribs deteriorated very quickly on post war aircraft that were not stored in hangers, with the result that very few original wooden wings survive (the only ones I know of are on the Mk V Anson in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Ottawa, who's example was delivered directly from its RCAF storage hanger to the museum) It appears that Airfix has used 4877 or a similarly modified metal wing Anson as the basis for its Mk I model, a shame as they have gone to the extra effort of moulding in a very subtle detail that is unfortunately incorrect. Hopefully some high build primer will be sufficient to smooth things over.

cheers

Scott

Edited January 16 by LownSlow

[Hunker]

If you want the wings correct then as far as I know this is the only Airfix kit to have offered them. The next boxing after this they changed to a ribbed wing and it has been the same ever since.

Edited January 16 by Hunker

[NAVY870]

Upper port wing surface on ours.

Looks exactly like what Airfix did.