Tom's Mid-Ocean Wanderer **FINISHED**

[TomW]

Or as it otherwise known a Handley-Page Halifax GR.II in service with RAF Coastal Command.

I'll be building the old Matchbox kit in its last incarnation from Revell:



Inside are four grey (not multicolored ) sprues and one clear, these show very little flash and no obvious molding defects:










Instructions and decals are standard Revell fare:




And this is the planned colour scheme:




Roll on the start of February

Regards

Tom

[bromo]

Welcome aboard Tom nice choice of subject

[TomW]

And we're off!




At a truly glacial pace I've only made a tentative start this afternoon as Im trying to clear the Wellington from the bench first, but there is some progress:

Interior painting begun



Wings together



Looks like I may have a little more work to do with this one than I previously thought :





I know that the Matchbox Halifax has its faults, nose shape and nacelles/props for the main, and that the interior is pretty much fictitious but it does LOOK like a Halifax when done, especially to the less than knowledgeable such as myself so I'm happy to leave these bits well alone and instead will be concentrating on improving the supplied details. So plenty of drilling out and blanking of intakes in my future

Regards

Tom

[bromo]

Nice start Tom, im doing the new Revell kit and also chose the coastal command version.Turns out my decal option from Revell is 58 squadron as well.I find clothes pegs are good for holding wings together while the glue dries and its cheaper than Tamiya tape

[TomW]

Done a little more this morning. I really need to pull my finger out with this build, you're all putting me to shame

Bit of interior work:




I've also filled the holes in the wings for the fuel jettison pipes, these were a feature of the earliest Halifax's but weren't present on the GR.II:




I'm hoping to finish the cockpit this afternoon and then to make a start on my rear and mid-upper turrets.

Regards

Tom

[bromo]

Cockpits looking good Tom,and thanks for sharing about the vent pipes,its not clear in my instructions whether they were needed for the GR version or not.

[Jagewa]

Great going Tom, nice bit of busy detail in the cockpit, in fact I'd almost say its the most I've seen in a Matchbox kit....

[TomW]

Thanks gents

Bromo, I've got the new Revell tooling in the stash as well and I have to agree that the instructions are a real step backwards compared to these. I mean these are hardly the clearest and easiest to understand in the world but at least they tell you which parts are for which version

Jim, I totally agree that there's a lot of detail inside this one, shame its all a load of cobblers

Anyways, here is the state of play this morning:




Cockpit is finished, or at least as finished as it needs to be:







Something I've discovered with this kit is that the port wing is a very loose fit in its slot whereas the starboard is very tight, so tight it's almost possible not to use glue to keep it in place. To make life easier I've shimmed the port wing with plasticard and fitted both of them before closing the fuselage halves, I've never tried this way of building before so I hope it doesn't cause problems later when filling and sanding the inevitable seams :




Here's to a productive day.

Regards

Tom

[TomW]

Flippin 'eck chaps, two updates in one day Which one of you lots' been putting something in my tea then?

Joking aside it has been a very satisfactory day with lots of work ticked off


Firstly I've made a start with improving the kits supplied radiator housings. This next photo shows the starting point (on the right) and my drilled out 'improvings' on the left:



An hours' work with the pin-vice and a couple of files has left me with these:




Much better now I have to deepen the area behind the spinner and blank off further into the housing to give some scale depth.

I have also managed to wrestle the fuselage together, I say wrestle because you remember the warped wing from a few post ago? well it transpires that the fuselage is twisted as well I've shimmed it out, but it'll never be totally true, better not get too close to this one when it's finished:



You can see the warp if you look at the bottom of the fuselage compared to the wings and cockpit:




more soon chaps.

Regards

Tom

[bromo]

Thats looking really good Tom,the fuselage warp should not be that noticeable when its finished,and thanks for the reassurance over the new mould instructions,i thought it might just be me being thick!!

[Jagewa]

Neat Tom, shame about the warping.

Cheers
Jim

[JamesPerrin]

I realise this is post "horse bolted" advice and I would have not noticed the wings myself either before gluing the fuselage together but a spreader bar placed above the wing roots might have help lower the wings a degree or so.

[TomW]

I realise this is post "horse bolted" advice and I would have not noticed the wings myself either before gluing the fuselage together but a spreader bar placed above the wing roots might have help lower the wings a degree or so.

All advice is welcome James, it is after all the way we learn I've tracked the problem down to that shim I put in place to strengthen the wing joint, it's made the joint nice and strong but a few degrees in excess of the right dihedral angle.

So this morning I removed the bomb bay insert and, once I could gain access, the offending shim. This has made the fuselage more flexible and coupled with an extra spreader at the top I think it looks a bit better. I'm hoping that the nacelle weight once added will pull the wings down into place.

Wishful thinking?? I'll add photo's this evening.

Regards

Tom

[MerlinJones]

I'm trying to remember where I found a site selling all grades of mesh for modelling purposes.
Such stuff would be good in your engine intakes...muttermuttermutterlosingitmuttermutter...

[JamesPerrin]

I'm trying to remember where I found a site selling all grades of mesh for modelling purposes.
Such stuff would be good in your engine intakes...muttermuttermutterlosingitmuttermutter...

http://www.little-cars.com; ? They will be at Huddersfield.