Handley Page Herald; 1/72

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vacant
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Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by vacant »

This is the current state of my play table. It's a mess. How can anyone possibly work like that? Beats me.

Image

I bought a Herald at a recent model show. It cost me the grand total of £10. Yes, I know that a decent Herald can command almost ten times that amount, but how could I not buy it at that price? The seller said that it was complete. Nobody sells a complete Herald for £10, but I was in no position to do an inventory of the parts. It looked like a poor eastern bloc moulding of the original FROG kit with markings of a Malaysian troopship.

When I took it out of its ripped polythene bag, it did seem a little 'light' on pieces. Some of the sprues were stripped almost bare. The first missing part I noticed, or rather did not notice since it was not there, was the underside of the port wing. Alarm bells started to ring. But nil desperandum, I reckoned I could make a replacement. In the photo, you can see the replacement in the lower of the two photos. I edged the leading edge with curved plastic, made a core of balsa wood, skinned it with 20 thou plastic card, scribed it, ran a rivet roller along some lines, cut a hole for the undercarriage then cleaned it up. It's far from perfect, but it's not too bad.

Then I noticed that there were only 5 transparencies for the multitude of windows. Replacing them is going to be a fairly tedious process. Making curved windows to fit in the curved fuselage will be great fun.

When I came to look at the tail wings, there was also a missing piece, i.e. one half of one wing. That is easy enough to replace.

Then I noticed that someone had cut one of the nacelles in two and the end part was missing. I used a complete piece to mould a replacement. It is in the photo with a strip of masking tape holding it together while glue dries.

By this stage, I was starting to feel confident that I could crack this one. At least the two fuselage halves were there. My optimism rapidly changed when I came to look for the engines. There were none. Not even one part - total zilch. Barely visible on the left of the photo is the front of a piece of balsa wood that I have carved to make a replacement engine. I can make another in the same way. At the moment, I have not decided on whether to coat the balsa with a sealant then paint it, or to use the balsa to mould a skin in plastic card. I may try the latter . If it doesn't work, then I will resort to plan A.

There was only one set of props in the bag. There were no spinners. These will have to be replaced somehow.

I am feeling like abandoning this project so in order to supress this feeling, I am putting this information and the photo on the web site. It's a form of commitment. The humiliation of not completing it would be too much. Besides, someone may have the odd few spare bits that might be useful.

This one has quite some time to run.
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Eric Mc
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Re: Haandley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by Eric Mc »

You could do it as an in-flight travel agent style model and leave off the props completely. OK, you still need a spinner so you would have to use your ingenuity there.
From memory, I think the FROG kit was of a Series 100 and lacked the slightly pointier radar nose.
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Gregers
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Re: Haandley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by Gregers »

Nice find. We have seen you produce miracles from far less my friend. I am sure it will be a beauty when done.

All the best.

Greg
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PaulBradley
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Re: Haandley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by PaulBradley »

A long time ago, I was able to purchase a cheap Eastern European knock off of this kit - and also found many pieces missing. Shortly thereafter, I purchased a Novo boxing, also with some missing pieces. So I combined the two to make a complete kit. I just checked the box, because I knew I had kept some of the duplicate pieces and, lo, I discovered that I had kept both extra engine nacelles fronts and propellers. They are yours for the asking. I'll also inventory the rest of the kit later to see what other duplicate parts I have left over.
Paul

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MarkyM607
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Re: Haandley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by MarkyM607 »

Is this really Vacant here??. He's amazed us with stuff built from far fewer parts!!. :ha: :ha: , surely he's got too many here to complain!! :ha: :lol:
Hoping to return to modelling sometime this year!! :lol:
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by Lone Modeller »

This reads more like a scratch build than a kit build. But how does one distinguish between the two on a Vacant build?
vacant
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by vacant »

'But how does one distinguish between the two on a Vacant build?'

By the blood sweat and tears etched into every scratch built part.
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lancfan
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by lancfan »

vacant wrote:This is the current state of my play table. It's a mess. How can anyone possibly work like that? Beats me.
I do quite often ! :grin:
I will always have a soft spot for the Herald, it was the first aircraft I flew in at 13 years of age and a few years ago I built the Maquette version of this kit as the very aeroplane I rode in all those years ago, G-AVEZ of British Island Airways. I look forward to see you work your magic on this example.

David.
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vacant
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by vacant »

It's over a month since I started this one. The build was interrupted for various reasons, the got back on track a week ago.

The decals came from a Maquette kit that were for a cargo version of the Herald, i.e., with no windows. Channel Express also flew the Herald as a passenger version. I did not change the registration letters from the Maquette kit.

Photos of the Channel Express aircraft show that it had numerous variations in the details of its markings. On many of the aircraft, the word 'express' is crossed by a series of white lines. Where the word 'express' has a capital 'e', the white lines are absent. Some had the words ' Channel express' on the fin and rudder - others did not. The colour of the engine nacelle also seemed to differ. So what I ended up with is a bit of an amalgam. That's another way of admitting that the model is not absolutely right for any specific aircraft.

I tried to match the hand painted green on the fin with the green on the cheat lines, but failed. I may revisit this, but for the moment, I am not feeling the motivation.

I am much indebted to Paul Bradley for providing me with several parts and the decal sheet to go with the scratch built parts I made.


Image


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Eric Mc
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by Eric Mc »

Very nice - one of my favourite airliners (even if it was a bit of a flop).
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iggie
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by iggie »

Really nice looking build of a nice looking aircraft!
Best wishes

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PaulBradley
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by PaulBradley »

Lovely stuff! That turned out rather nicely, sir!

Glad to have been of help.
Paul

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JamesPerrin
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by JamesPerrin »

What's the name for a beautiful bird that rises from a mess of a workbench?

Great work.
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Gregers
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by Gregers »

That's a beauty. Very nice work.

All the best.

Greg
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Old_Tonto
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Re: Handley Page Herald; 1/72

Post by Old_Tonto »

Now that is an outstanding build. Especially when you consider what a jigsaw of parts it started out as. :lol:
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