- The Airfix Tribute Forum -

Ratch

Ian will demonstrate his skills in this thread

_________________
and was Jerusalem, builded here
The new No. 2
Airfix Club 500287
IPMS 10983

hewman100 · Posted: Mon 06 Apr 2009 10:57 am Post subject:

Cheers Ratch!

I am definitely building myself an Empire 'C' Class Flying Boat using the Sunderland kit as a base.

It will be depicting 'CLIO', G-AETY after she entered service with with the RAF as AX659.

The conversion was completed on 12 March 1941 and she served until 22 August 1941 when she crashed.
_________________
Bubbly!

Lincolnlanc · Posted: Mon 06 Apr 2009 16:02 pm Post subject:

I shall be looking forward to this cos i fancy trying something like this myself ....
_________________
"Well Chaps ... my watch says time to go ..."

AFCBGeorge · Posted: Mon 06 Apr 2009 16:29 pm Post subject:

Heinkel51 · Posted: Tue 07 Apr 2009 03:04 am Post subject:

Looking forward to this one!

Sgt.Squarehead · Posted: Tue 07 Apr 2009 05:52 am Post subject:

Me too!

All the best
Sgt.S
_________________
ATF Unverified Spam Appreciation Society - Founding Member

"The Monkeys Are Going To The Stars!"

hewman100 · Posted: Tue 14 Apr 2009 11:10 am Post subject:

Okay, preliminaries time:

A nice new Sunderland, in grey plastic, and an old 'Spares or Repair' lot from Ebay

Found these lovely plans online, printed them off and then reproduced them to 1/72:

From Ospreys Sunderland Squadrons of World War 2 comes the colour profile of AX659 appropriately blown up to scale to aid with construction of rear turret fairing and general turret positions:

Turrets will be provided courtesy of two Matchbox/Revell Halifaxes that are destined to become a MkI with 'Hudson' mid upper and a MkV
_________________
Bubbly!

Sgt.Squarehead · Posted: Tue 14 Apr 2009 12:10 pm Post subject:

I can't wait to see this one take shape!

All the best
Sgt.S
_________________
ATF Unverified Spam Appreciation Society - Founding Member

"The Monkeys Are Going To The Stars!"

Digs · Posted: Tue 14 Apr 2009 16:03 pm Post subject:

Me too.

And - isn't the box art magnificent?

Paul

XN923 · Bronze Star Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 1176

Are you intending to scratch the conversion?

hewman100 · Posted: Wed 15 Apr 2009 10:18 am Post subject:

Yes, although looking at the hull a lot of balsa is going to be involved. Nailbiting

_________________
Bubbly!

XN923 · Bronze Star Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 1176

Definitely not simples!

I can recommend the White Ensign PE set for the ASV antennae. For the reshaping I'd suggest you are on your own!

hewman100 · Posted: Mon 27 Apr 2009 10:46 am Post subject:

Some comparison shots to give some idea of what's to come!

I've used the new kit as the grey plastic shows better against the plans. however I'll be using the white plastic 'Spares' kit to begin with during construction!

Wings and floats will need very little work.

The fin and rudder need a little more though:

The tailplane need shortening slightly too.

_________________
Bubbly!

hewman100 · Posted: Mon 27 Apr 2009 10:55 am Post subject:

However the hull is a different proposition altogether

Keel aligned on the plan:

Tail aligned:

Wing root aligned:

And the further work needed for the rear turret fairing:

Whilst rooting around I came across this though:

_________________
Bubbly!

hewman100 · Posted: Mon 27 Apr 2009 11:08 am Post subject:

Destruction commences!

First I marked off the cut lines to remove the wing root area with tape:

As the cut line passes below the hull opening and the window line the door was attached and the windows blanked off securely with 20 thou plasticard.
I also added the transparencies ahead of the leading edge and added filler over them.

Using a razor saw the vertical cuts were made. Then using a knife with a new blade the horizontal line was carefully scored along until a clean break was achieved

_________________
Bubbly!

Disorder · Posted: Mon 27 Apr 2009 16:33 pm Post subject:

Really looking forward to watching this progress. I love the Empire flying boats.
Good luck with it.

_________________
Regards Paddy

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a complete fool about it.

thomasweir · Posted: Mon 27 Apr 2009 17:54 pm Post subject:

Looking good Ian

Lincolnlanc · Posted: Mon 27 Apr 2009 18:10 pm Post subject:

If any man can, YOU can .... watching with great interest

"Keep at it ... i think you have something there"

hewman100 · Posted: Tue 28 Apr 2009 11:10 am Post subject:

Next up: the rear upper hull!

A slice was taken out of the rear portion of the hull as shown. This means that with repositioning the lower hull and keel can still be used:

Shot showing where first piece of balsa will need to be placed. Typically it falls slap bang in the middle of where some windows go

_________________
Bubbly!

Vostoc7 · Green Star Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Posts: 489 Location: UK

wow! fantastic work, this is going to be a beauty, a brilliant idea/choice Ian ...one of my favourite planes