Wingco57

That looks impressively tidy for such a difficult job. Well done. A fitting end for a fine build. Cees

Oh yes, That really looks like it should. Great work. Cees

Looking forward to seeing those Tom. You are really going fast with this one, ready in time for Telford. Cees

Tom, Are you planning on the engine nacelles aready? Cees

Looks almost the same in size as the Mancunian. Swift progress indeed. Good to see you have cut away the flaps to prevent those acres of wings to look like football pitches. Cees

Tom, That's looks great, You haven't made it yourself easy by drilling out the windows and keeping the frames, but it really gives the Shackleton feel to it. As soon as you have faired in the canopy you really have achieved your goal of building a Shackleton from scratch. The outer wings must be the easy bit. Cees

Bombay beginnings. Basic marking out of the various bombstations. The lines will be used to fit the many evergreen strips representing the structure. Cees

Assembling the undercarriage. Just glue and putting in place. Which makes a nice change. Cees

Airfix really seems to have made a fantastic kit of an unsung aircraft type. Personally I really like the "Daffy". Your model is a fine example what can be done to it. Well done. Cees

Thanks Tom. I will. Now i have to find some references regarding the bombbay structure. Cees

Both ailerons have received another coat of that magic stuff as have the dorsal turret and central fin fairings. Apart from the nose/cockpit section and engine nacelles the basic structure is finished. Now onto the bombbay and undercarriage. The former needs to be completely scratchbuild, the latter uses the unmodified lancaster assemblies. Cheers Cees

Hi Tom, Have been thinking about that. The bombdoors have been cut away. I did make some triangular stiffeners under the cockpitfloor which are in the way if the doors are open. But although I haven't made my mind up I think open doors would look great. Hmm, so it seems I have just made up my mind. More work, but that will be fun. Will concentrate on the general airframe though for the time being to be able to show at Telford, Cees

Hi Craig, You certainly are not taking the easy route with this project, but you learn a lot along the way, and so do we. Thanks, Cees

Wow Graham, That looks great. Cees

Well the second aileron has been finished too. No duplicate pics though. Cees

After the coat of mr surfacer the aileron was superglued in position and fits very well. Neeeext! Cees

Hehe, the spoils of war, that was after I cleaned up, you should have seen how the workbench looked before that. Like squashed mini-minions. But it took 1 1/2 hours to stick the tapes on (underside too). But with a coat of Mr Surfacer it would look just as good as the elevators. Now on to the starboard aileron (heavy sigh). Cees

Rob, Just replace the tubes with thin walled brass or aluminium (even better) tubing, that would save you a lot of work on the resin ones. Cees

The port aileron is done. Cees

Hi Gus, Nope, it was quickly put back. Due to the size of the airframe it has knocked me around the head several times. You would think the Manchester is smaller due to the shorter wingspan but the wings look more bulkier. Been looking into the tail and dorsal turrets and plan on using templates from the drawings to make a plastic card frame and fill that in with milliput. The plan is to crashform the cupola's. But haven't done that before so should be interesing. For the time being I concentrate on the rear fuselage to finish the detailing of the trimtab actuators and fin bits and then work my way forward. It keeps on growing though. Cees

This is not facebook. Cees

That looks terrific Graham. Always nice to have access to a real object for reference. Cheers Cees

Hé ouwe makker, have a good day today and may you be cuddled pink. Cheers Cees

Typical, I always like to take a peek at a model under construction. And yesterday evening I knocked the port elevator off. So had to do some quick repairs before going to work this morning. Cees

If it's any consolation, the real Heinkel also had huge gaps between cowling panels. But you seem to have conquered the beast. Cees