On Heather's Workbench - Strike Hard, Strike Sure: RAF Bomber Command 1940

[Martian]

M13 is Light Aircraft Grey according to my Airfix paint chart. I keep a large stock of Airfix enamels for when I want to use enamels. Partly for nostalgic reasons (Oh that smell when you open the tin) and partly because they do what it says on the tin.

 

Martian 👽

[Killingholme]

I've said it before and I'll say it again- good raised detail and rivets will always trump the modern trend for engraved trenches.

 

Will

[Andrew Patmore]

I made this kit about 50 years ago.

I remember that tractor!

Heather, you are not allowed to forget the tractor. 😀

[dogsbody]

If you should need any spare parts, I've got this kit in the stash. It's far from new, though. I think I bought it in the mid to late 80's.

 

 

 

Chris

[AdrianMF]

Just had a bi-i-ig catch up. All looking super, including a yellow biplane...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[dogsbody]

On 14/03/2023 at 07:50, Heather Kay said:

 

 

 

I forgot to ask, when you first posted this, what kit is that Fordson tractor? I've got an old Lead Sled cast metal kit but I'd like to kit a plastic or at least a resin one.

 

 

 

Chris

[Heather Kay]

8 hours ago, Killingholme said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again- good raised detail and rivets will always trump the modern trend for engraved trenches.

I think I tend to agree with you, but it can be a right pain repairing or reinstating raised work across seams after sanding. Still, it’s not impossible. For the Stirling, I think I’m going to lightly scribe a few panels and an occasional seam line for the effect, but I don’t want to go completely overboard. Less is more, as they say.

 

7 hours ago, Andrew Patmore said:

Heather, you are not allowed to forget the tractor. 😀

If anyone wants the tractor, they’re very welcome to it. It was always one of the joys of this big kit that it had the added extra parts to give lots of display options.

 

6 hours ago, dogsbody said:

If you should need any spare parts, I've got this kit in the stash. It's far from new, though. I think I bought it in the mid to late 80's.

Thanks Chris. That’s very kind. Hopefully everything I need I have, but I’ll keep your offer in mind.

 

6 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Just had a bi-i-ig catch up. All looking super, including a yellow biplane...

So much yellow! I might find time during the rest of the week to paint the camo on the Tutor. Hairy stick time!

 

6 hours ago, dogsbody said:

I forgot to ask, when you first posted this, what kit is that Fordson tractor? I've got an old Lead Sled cast metal kit but I'd like to kit a plastic or at least a resin one?

The Fordson is from Flightpath. It’s whitemetal and PE, and a bit of a fiddle round the front axle. Worth it, though. I’m planning on acquiring another couple at some point. You can never have enough Fordsons round your airfield, I think.

 

 

[Hamden]

 

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the old Airfix Stirling Heather

 

   Stay safe            Roger

[perdu]

You will see a plethora of catch up 'likes'  this morning, I have a tendency to scroll on without attaching them generally but I think you may see many more soon.

 

My dad got very involved with it when I bought mine back in the sixties and the story came out.

 

Mild Scottish accent sounds "I used to work on these on the squadron" he was an armourer at that stage of the conflict.

 

"I recall that winter when we were up on top of her sweeping snow off before we could send them out to Germany, I was top sweeping when the snow gave way and dropped me to the groond"

 

"Twenty two feet of free flight and a broken arm in sick bay!"

 

Yet I say dad had a lucky war, when he was sent to Norway with his Gladiators he got appendicitis and went into hospital instead, later when he was arming Hurricanes at Hawkinge he and a mate were walking across from a dispersal to get to the next machine when they were bounced by a bomber at some height.

 

It dropped his bombs and dad thought his number was up because they were coming straight at them but his mate said "Come on Jock run, we've just enough time to get in the slit trench."

 

Following the Stirling with a more than vague interest, just because.

[Heather Kay]

8 minutes ago, perdu said:

Yet I say dad had a lucky war

The RAF was the only armed service that sent their officers off to fight while the other ranks stayed home. A generalisation, I know, but amusing nonetheless. Thanks for sharing those memories, Bill. 
 

Some of you may know, I live not far from what is now Rochester Airport. The site where Short Brothers built the first batch of Stirlings - and where the Luftwaffe destroyed them during the Battle of Britain - is now occupied by BAE Systems, or whatever they’re calling themselves this week. The Wingleader book has several photos of Stirling flight tests being undertaken from the grass strip in 1940, and the background beyond the perimeter is little changed to this day.

[dogsbody]

9 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

The Fordson is from Flightpath. It’s whitemetal and PE, and a bit of a fiddle round the front axle. Worth it, though. I’m planning on acquiring another couple at some point. You can never have enough Fordsons round your airfield, I think.

 

Ah! Sounds like it's the same as my old Lead Sled. Oh well.

 

 

 

Chris

[Brandy]

I'm really looking forward to the Stirling as I have very fond memories of building it as a kid. It had pride of place in my bedside cabinet on a piece of green cloth with the tractor and bomb trolleys lined up.

 

Ian

[Zephyr91]

On 02/05/2023 at 20:35, Brandy said:

I'm really looking forward to the Stirling as I have very fond memories of building it as a kid. It had pride of place in my bedside cabinet on a piece of green cloth with the tractor and bomb trolleys lined up.

 

Ian

Me too.  Nostalgia eh?

 

Rob

[Keeff]

Ooh, another bomber ..... I'll get a fresh brew and my chair! 

 

Keith 😁 

[Heather Kay]

I was in the mood to steadily just finish this beast.

 

 

Almost there. Still to fit are the bomb crutches under the wings and the radio antenna wires, oh and the serial numbers.

 

Paint got touched in where it was needed. The collector rings got painted, and those bare metal cooling gills unique to the Hampden. I installed the undercarriage (another of Valom's least finest hours but I got there without major breakage, and it’s not collapsed yet so that’s a win in my book). The rear compartment glazing went on and more paint got retouched. A replacement gun bead and the nose machine gun, the shaped shield thing to deflect the mid-upper guns from the tail, aileron balances and the antenna mast have been fitted. All the bits that were likely to be broken earlier in the build were done. Those odd T-shaped things on the nacelles have been quietly ignored because I could not work out how to best fabricate them.
 

Then I decided to go for broke and took all the masking off. It could’ve been a lot worse, and those areas that had a tiny bit of overspray were dealt with by sharpened cocktail stick. Other bits I decided to leave well alone. I’ve brushed a light coat of W&N Galleria Matt over the wings and markings on the fuselage and tail. That seems to have flattened the slight sheen enough to satisfy me. I’m probably not going to attempt weathering, partly because I don’t know how battered this aircraft got before the flak hit it.

 

So, tomorrow then, official pictures, then into the display cabinet to make room for the Stirling. Exciting times.

[Samuraiwarrior]

Heather,

That is a thing of Beauty. It looks fantastic, and your probably right about the weathering. Hampdens apparently suffered quite heavily on operations, and how many sorties this one managed is anyone's guess.

'Less is more' so the saying goes and this is one case where it applies (depending on your point of view)

Look forward to the final finished pictures, before it heads off to rest in the display cabinet.

Thanks for sharing.

Kevin

[Gondor44]

Looking forward to the Stirling as I have plans to build one. Bought the Wingleader Photo Archive for the Stirling I/III while at the Scottish Nationals last weekend, very useful book.

 

Gondor

[davidl]

I attempted to post a response to a question someone asked about the internals of the Hampden but my login must have timed out and the text got lost

 

To make sense of what follows you need to decent cutaway or three of the Hampden - Search "Hampden cutaway" on line

There's also the Canadian Air force museum site and there's a Hampden being restored now in the UK

 

No kit I have seen does a correct representation of the Hampden's internal layout

Beginning with the pilot's seat -

This seat is mounted on a small platform with two rails running to the rear of the elevated pilot's position

These narrow side rails create a lengthwise space under the pilot's seat which is a little narrower than the width of normal man's shoulders

This lengthwise gap allows crew to move between the bomb aimer's position in the nose and the W/Ops - Nav compartment on the rear side of the mail spar.

The climb up from the bomb aimer's position and over the mail spar is facilitated by a set of set of 4 steps (this is not a spindly little ladder) which are fixed to the front side of the bomb bay forward bulkhead 

When you get those details correct the logic of the Hampden's internal layout makes sense.

 

As I say,  you can see all this on a decent cutaway

Hope that helps

 

Regards

David

Edited May 5, 2023 by davidl

[davidl]

Great job on the stencils

Dinna fash about the over spray

Photographs clearly show that a lot of war time makings were not as mathematically perfect as we see them represented in today's decals - D Day stripes are prime example

There's some other interesting contemporaneous material available on YouTube showing how markings like roundels were applied on the production line and in the field and the results of that work

When you see the heavy masks they used it's not at all surprising there was a little bleeding

to be fair I'd say the result you have achieved is pretty much spot on !

Regards

David

[Heather Kay]

12 hours ago, Samuraiwarrior said:

probably right about the weathering

 

Ta. I think I will apply a little chipping around the port wing root, as that's where ground and flight crew generally clambered around the plane. I don't know how often the access under the wing, where the rear lower gun position was, was used for getting in and out. I've seen the access ladder propped in all kinds of places! A bit of exhaust muck under the wings won't go amiss, either. 

 

Just had a mild fail printing the serial numbers. I must buy in more clear decal sheet.

[Terry1954]

Quite special to see this Hampden finished so well Heather. T'was always meant to be this way I reckon!

 

Will watch out for the official pictures.

 

Looking forward to the mighty Stirling. When I started work many many years ago in the MOD, my first boss was a superb old gentleman, who had worked with the Air Ministry (as was when he was younger) and Shorts Brothers before and during the war. He had much to do with the Stirling as an Aeronautical Engineer. Many interesting stories were parted with over (the occasional) lunchtime beers!

 

Terry

[Heather Kay]

 

Final fiddly bits attached. I’ll clear the bench after lunch for the official photographer to set up.

[marvinneko]

Something I'd admire about this level of work is the tone (is that the right word?) of the paint and decalling. How it seems harmonious and dialled down in saturation and feels real rather than plasticky. I've read about how scale models can be manipulated to produce the illusion of reality in that way. Lovely shot in the natural light.

[Heather Kay]

3 minutes ago, marvinneko said:

How it seems harmonious and dialled down in saturation and feels real rather than plasticky.

Thank you. I don’t do anything special. Halfords acrylic grey primer as a base coat, ColourCoats enamels airbrushed for the colours. Any variation has been down to slightly variable density of the top coats as I apply them. I don’t subscribe to preshading, more because I don’t think I am capable of executing it well.   I usually have difficulty with varnishing, but this time the planets aligned and it worked well, with just a hint of variability.

 

Still waiting on the official photographer to get themselves organised.

[Heather Kay]

Right folks, RFI for the Hampden is up.

Now to get into research for the Stirling.