John's TB.1 * * * Finished * * *

[JohnRatzenberger]

Here is the photo I rely on most.



The smaller 3rd of the doors, the "outer" door, is shown, and what appears to be the other 2/3rds (the inner door) appears to be slid up into the outer about half. My thought is this was made "permanent" and accounts for whatever garbled descriptions we have. This indicates the doors are opened to load up the torpedo.

I, like Julian, wish fervently for the clear picture of a Hampden with torp and doors closed, but haven't found it either. I do suspect that since pictures I do have, and even drawings, show the bomb bay doors are "closed" when the torp is in place, or when returning home -- unfortunately they are from the side. Add to that is the modified gunner station that gives the *appearance* that doors are hanging down, when in reality they are "closed".

It would really have been nice, if some kind soul had preserved a couple of these aircraft post-war .... I do wish the Canadians would go back and look at all the pieces they found to see if the real doors are there ...

[bluesteel]

I might drop an email to the restorers at The Michael Beetham Conservation Centre at Cosford to see if they have or know anything about the bomb doors of the Hampden TB1 they are currently restoring. I have a couple of photos from my visit to Cosford in 2009, but it was in a very early stage of restoration and the few fuselage parts don't show much. But they may have someone on staff with some better knowledge, and they were very helpful when I was there in person.

[JohnRatzenberger]

I think all I have accomplished since the last post is to paint the interior green and to sand down the cowl flaps .... I'll try to get started again on Thursday, I've had a few other things going on. I'm in a bait of a pinch as I start my cataract surgery plan next week with the right eye. Unfortunately the holidays may stretch the left eye into January and that means I have no clue what I'll be able to see, if anything ....

[JohnRatzenberger]

I decided it would be best to continue the bomb-bay & torpedo fit with the fuselage together but I seem to have screwed up and forgotten interior photos before I put it together. It's not a problem -- the Airwaves set isn't spectacular, the strip stringers and formers aren't that wonderful ... maybe it's best to move along.

I get cataract surgery on right eye in the morning, so I'm not sure when I'll be back to this, but it's time to get moving ...

[PaulBradley]

Good luck with the surgery, John.

[Jagewa]

Yes, John, all the best with the surgery.

Regards
Jim

[bluesteel]

Yes, good luck with the surgery. But at least it will be easy to locate the Hampden fuselage with that colourful array as your sight returns...

[JohnRatzenberger]

The right eye is done and seems fine, albeit probably not 20-20. Due to the holidays I cannot get the left eye done until early January so I'm wandering around with one good eye & one old eye. I can't put on my glasses, that just reverses the eyes. I bought a pair of drug store cheaters to help with close-in work. Otherwise I have times when I can see clearly and times when I can't ....

Anyway, today is the first day at the bench, fortunately I didn't drop anything.



The fuselage seams are all sanded down. I tried to make the hump at the upper gunner station a bit more obvious, but may have to give it another shot. I modified the old pieces of the lower gunner staion by chopping off about 1.5mm from the top then partially filling the side glass by about the same amount. Tomorrow will be spent trying to fit the new station to the fuselage, then I can go back to modifying and fitting the bomb bay doors, etc.

In the meantime, I started on the landing gear, fixed the wingtip shape, and started taking gaps out of the control surfaces. I hope to put the gear & wings together tomorrow also. The cowl flaps are sanded down closed and appropriate seams made. Once I get the wings built I can start fitting the new engines.

In short, back in the saddle .... although it'll be a race to the finish line ...

[PaulBradley]

Glad to hear it all went well.

[JohnRatzenberger]

No work Friday or Saturday due to other things, and what work did get done is in spite of my vision ... seriously behind, and now Bruce has arisen and will probably knock out two of them in the waning days while I struggle on ....



I put the reduced lower gunner station on. I have taped on the Airfix closed bomb-bay door just to show what I believe to be the correct representation. Tomorrow, it'll be back to work on fitting the torpedo, the mounts, and the doors just to see if it's OK, then onward.

I also spent time cleaning up other little parts, shown in the little pile of nacelles, props, etc. I also have the main gear assembled and glued into the lower wing halves, so tomorrow I can get the wings together.

My eyes are not helping, especially on handling, cleaning, painting of little parts, a combo of distortion and faulty depth perception I think ... it is going to be a long time until January 6th and the next operation ...

[bluesteel]

Hang in there John, it's looking good, and the bomb bay profile looks very similar to those photos of Hampden TBs, so yours is shaping up to be the most accurate TB Hampden so far.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Only a bit done today.

I fit the torpedo crutches into the bomb bay at an angle to hold the torp approximately right, I think. I also modified the Valom doors by taking off the outer part and then replicating it in the slid open position with plastic strip (see picture in my 30 Nov post).





However I see a problem and I think it is the Valom torpedo -- I think the torp fins are too big because it does not fit snug enough to the modified rear gunner station and I think the torpedo should sit back just a bit more. Thus I don't know if the partially open (closed) doors are going to look right. I do know there may be a conflict between the torp and the doors and I'll have to shave about 1/16" off the rear of the doors. It's going to have to do.

Meanwhile, I mounted the landing gear and thinned out the gear doors so they'll look good. The tail structure has been mounted and I took another shot at getting the shape of the fuselage at the upper gunner station right. I think you can see that in the torp assembly picture.

Tomorrow is supposed to be uninterrupted but Wednesday is close to fluttering over the horizon, so I don't know ...

[Jagewa]

Great to hear the op went well.

Smashing work on the torp and bomb bay, it's a poser how those torps were mounted with that air tail, the only goodish shot I've seen of a torp with an air tail is this one, a Beaufighter but a good shot of the air tail...

ROYAL AIR FORCE 1939-1945: COASTAL COMMAND.". ".© IWM (CH 9769)IWM Non Commercial Licence
I wonder if its the same type as the Hampdens' carried. I do notice the the fins are not square to the horizontal but angled, looks the same on this Beaufort..
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/album/ ... photo=6127

Great fun, nutting out this stuff.

Cheers
Jim

[JohnRatzenberger]

Thanks, Jim. Yes, first thing I noticed was the non-square fin mounting. What few photos I have suggest the fin was square mounted on the Hampden, but that indeed may not be true. What I do see however is that the size of the fin in this photo matches with what I can see in Hampden photos which confirms (to me, at least) my statement that Valom's is far too big and justifies my trimming it down.

[JohnRatzenberger]

If it is at all helpful, I measured the torpedo to be approx 5m long. I suppose you need a more accurate length meausurement, though.

I don't think it is the torp length in this case but rather the diameter across the fins being a tad too much ... although it could simply be that I am not working from drawings much less any sort of decent photo. Or it could be the length of the Valom fins, after all they did get the MAT size wrong.

I am tempted to do a bit of surgery to one fin on the assumption that it'll be hidden away .... that would allow me to move the torp back a bit and it'll look closer to what I think it should.