Paul's Oxford

[PaulBradley]

The Frog Airspeed Oxford was first released in 1963 and wasproduced up until 1973; it also appeared as a Novo bagged release, and, as here, in the Air Lines range of Frog re-pops in North America. These were part of a programme to release them in the US; to avoid high import tariffs, 24 moulds were loaned to the Lines Bros of New York, and the kits were pressed and boxed in the US by Pyro.

Artwork was by Jo Kotula, who is much-revered by some, but I am not a fan - his artwork is very early-sixties and, I feel, rather wishy-washy, though better than the psychedelic crap produced for Airfix USA! Roy Cross is THE box-artist as far as I'm concerned....

Anyways, back to the Oxford.






Another simple kit, with little in the way of detail, inside or out. The engines are quite nice, it has to be said, certainly adequate for this build! The cockpit glazing is interesting - the whole of the canopy and surrounding roof/cabin sides are moulded in clear, which means that all those tiny windows will not have to be faired in. It'll mean some fiddly masking, bit will look better when its done. I have an RS Models Airspeed Envoy kit - I need to check if there are any spares I can rob from that to tart up this kit! The Oxford was based on the Envoy, which was a small airliner of the early/mid-thirties.



Just a single, unidentified decal option. As you can see, the decals are quite shot, so I shall be doing something different with this one - stay tuned!

[airjim]

These were part of a programme to release them in the US; to avoid high import tariffs, 24 moulds were loaned to the Lines Bros of New York, and the kits were pressed and boxed in the US by Pyro.

Interesting. I knew Air Lines was the US range of Frog. I had no idea they were molded in the U.S.

Jim

[Molly-new]

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this old bird.

[fredk]

Ah, a build with education too

[PaulBradley]

There you go, guys - you learned something new, now take the rest of the day off....

[airjim]

There you go, guys - you learned something new, now take the rest of the day off....

Thank you sir. I would like a day off...

Jim

[PaulBradley]

Been playing with the parts today, getting them de-flashed and otherwise prepared before making a start later. The canopy had what I thought were nasty cracks on each side but were, in fact, just moulding flaws - I was able to sand them out pretty well and have now dipped the canopy in Future. Overall, moulding quality is pretty poor - I don't think the transition to the US went too well for this kit...

The decals are hopelessly shot, so if anyone has any spares from their AZ Models Oxford builds, please let me know and let's work out a deal!

I'd hoped to pull in some spare parts from my RS Models Envoy, the type from which the Oxford was derived, but there were few useful spares available - all I was able to transfer were a set of props to replace the rather weedy ones from the kit.

[PaulBradley]

Made a quick and dirty interior:



I extended the floor, moved the seats back about 5mm, added a couple of spectacle-wheel control columns, made a rudimentary IP and added the bulkhead behind the pilots. Oh, and the seats got painted tape belts. The canopy section was sanded out and given a coat of Clear, and looks a lot better for it! Just glued the fuselage halves together and waiting for them to dry to clean up sink marks and seams.

Next up are the wings. Can't do a lot with them, bit will scribe a couple of panel lines and some rough detail in the wheel wells.

Still not sure what scheme to paint it in. If anyone had any spare Oxford decals of any denomination, please get in touch!

[PaulBradley]

Got the fuselage together last weekend, and it was obvious that there was an issue. Turns out that the central fuselage is not deep enough and it has a pronounced bulge between the wings, rather than the flat area depicted. I have tackled this with three layers of 30 thou plastic card, blended in with filler.





Attaching the wings also required some filler.

I had previously dipped the clear parts in Future, thus giving me a barrier against superglue fumes. The clear parts were glued in place and sanded to fit:



Still plenty of sanding to do..........

[Martin R]

Wow! Lots of accurising going on here!

regards,

Martin

[bluesteel]

Great hard work. But I think you're winning the battle so far Paul

[PaulBradley]

Cheers, guys.

I hadn't intended to accurise it at all, but the fault on the undersides is so obvious - check out Chris' photo in James' build thread at the old forum:

http://gregers.fr.yuku.com/reply/111278 ... ply-111278;

I have to scribe on the flaps once I'm done reshaping the bulge. Strictly speaking, the nose is too shallow in depth as well, but I couldn't come up with an easy fix for that......

[PaulBradley]

Little progress yesterday as we were at a dog show all day; mostly seamwork and other tidying up.

[Martin R]

Coming on nicely, Paul.

regards,

Martin

[Clashcityrocker]

Little progress yesterday as we were at a dog show all day; mostly seamwork and other tidying up.

Some of these dogs are ill fitting creatures that's for sure.

Nigel