The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

It never ceases to amaze me that one can still buy a limited run kit such as this. Why have they not all been built by now? How many are still lurking unopened in attics and garages? When will this finite supply run out?

It's a vacform kit that comes with cast metal parts for the props and some crude injection pieces for the u/c and wheels. The panel line detail is quite crude so I did what I could to sharpen it up a bit, which is not a lot. The aluminium paint applied by brush to the upper surfaces is rather unforgiving but that's all I can do without resorting to an air brush or rattle can. The underneath is in yellow and black stripes. The kit comes with some decals though I had to use scraps for the escape hatch markings.

It's not a model that I enjoy looking at - I find the shape of the aircraft to be somewhat ungainly.Fortunately, only 28 Sturgeons were built. Later anti-submarine versions looked even worse. The model shows it in its T22 target tug configuration.





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Good Lord, that's ugly!

But nicely modelled none the less!

Excellent build from that old vac, Vacant.

I agree this version of the Sturgeon isn't pretty and the ASW prototype is soooooooooooo ugly it wins my ugliest ever aircraft prize, but the original PR version of the Sturgeon was marginally better looking.



David

It is a great model of one of the ugliest looking aircraft ever built.Well tidy mun.

Ugly or not it is very well made. As for the supply of vacuforms, well, how many people actually make them? Judging from the comments that I read and hear, they are still not the most popular medium to work with. Which make yours all the more interesting.

"somewhat ungainly"? It's downright ugly! And you know that any aircraft that ugly means business!
But your model is a stunner!

Cheers,

David

I've never heard of the Short Sturgeon, but it is so ugly I would have to have one for my collection if it were injection-molded. I haven't the faintest idea how you would go about building a Vacuformed model, but I am very impressed by the examples I've seen on this forum. Beautifully done!

Nice rendition of a not so nice airframe.

The Royal Navy were never enthusiastic about operating twins off carrier decks - chiefly because of worries about engine failure during landing and the need to put on power on the good engine to compensate. That's the reason why the engines were so close to the fuselage, in an effort to lessen the effect of sudden application of power on one engine.

It's not even good ugly like the Gannet One of those cases when purity of the original design gets lost under operational requirements. I've got one of these is the shape of a Magna resin kit I got cheap at Telford.

what a great model of a splendidly ugly plane.

As a design it has, shall we say, character! What you've done with it is pretty as a picture though.

I,m very impressed with the modelling and I really like the scheme. Looking at it as an aircraft, though, I immediately thought of Frankenstein.
Well done modelling.

Great work on an ungainly airframe. I had read of this aircraft but didn't know a kit was available. I shall have to mortify the flesh some day and try a vacuform as I have a few in the stash.

The Sturgeon has also been produced in resin by Magna in 1/72. It is currently available for £29.99 (why oh why can it not be £30 to avoid the cynical pretence?) from a well known dealer in old kits - based in Telford.

Very nice indeed!