Wingco57

Teeny tiny update. As the fuselage halves are so flimsy I wanted to make sure the wingroots gave suffient strength so I glued shaped pieces of plasticard into the root recesses. These effectively serve as a filler between the root and the floor.

Thanks Master.

Everytime you think of something new, I like it. I thought you were doing uncovered elevators? Cees

I think the operation is succesful and the patient is in hood health. It even looks like a panelline. Cees

Nope, the Mk 1 eyeball. Works every time I hope.

Noise

Today went much better, apart from cutting and fitting various interior bits I made a start at correcting the area in front of the windscreen by glueing a thick piece of plasticard . This will later be sanded down to shape.

Total off-day this evening, where nothing seemed to work. I ripped off frame 7 as it was too shallow. But making another one didn’t work with knives cutting to far etc. Did manage to make a floor though. Oh well, next time better I hope. Cees

Some more work on frame 7 and the early stage of the engine control box. Cees

actually 6176 + prototypes were produced. After the bugs were ironed out it was a very good bomber. Cees

Working on frame 7, the pilot’s bulkhead. Cees

Go on then, you know you want to.

Pencilling in missing panellines. Cees

Hi Neil, Nope, they are a butt joint and I agree that the nacelles need to be modified. IIRC the FM cooling flaps do not fit as the diameter is too narrow. Perhaps a combination of thinning the insides of the Tamiya cooling flaps and tapering the FM stubs will help. But I need drawings to see where the flaps locate on the nacelles. I only have the Mk II drawings and have asked around for some MK III ones at Britmodeller. Cheers Cees

Some more work. I managed to get rid of the bananashaped fuselage by gentle bending. Also tried to get the typical assymetrical windscreenshape as seen in the drawing posted earlier. The area forward of the windscreen was filed flat and at an angle. Also a start had been made at frame 7, the pilot’s bulkhead compared to the kitpart.

Sooo, with Telford behind us, I felt the creative juices flowing (or could have been the beer) and was itching to start on the Halifax again. I got some useful spares such as a Tamiya Beaufighter for the cowlings, engine, prop etc. ( loosely fitted here) With a second set to follow from a friend. And an Airfix Defiant for the dorsal turret, which luckily has a duplicate cupola. I cut away the previous work done on the bombbay and fuselage stiffeners. Must replace that by something more elegant. Also started rescribing and adding panellines. Having seen Neil’s work (Woody37) over at Britmodeller I hope to do some rivetting too. Cheers Cees

By the way, the engines, props and cowlings of the FM kit are terrible. I plan to use either Tamiya or Revell Beaufighter parts. Does anyone have any spares they would like to part with? Cheers Cees

A new 1/48 Halifax would be fantastic but will it ever happen? If the same fate my scratchbuild HP 0/400 suffered after WNW announced their kit, then by all means I am happy to suffer again

Of course you can, never doubt that.

You like em big

Cut the chit chat and get to the building!

Here’s the only drawing I have left from the full size cockpit project. I used to have 750+ of these. This one shows the Halifax canopy. The asymmetric layout is obvious. Also that the windscreen lower line as seen from the front is horizontal. Something that is wrongly depicted in the FM kit ( and the 1/72 Revell kit). cheers Cees

I did some years ago but had to repair it afterwards.

Me too but don't forget that the pic of the turret under restoration is in fact a completely new built replica. Cees

The crew entry door fitted actually not at all. To solve this I created some structure near the opening to represent the sill and kept the door open so that the fitproblems are not noticable. Some aftermarket Lancaster tyres will replace the donuttype ones FM provide.