Bluesteels 100,000 rivets

[bluesteel]

The sprue shot of my Shackleton, the Revell Boxing.

But I need to find a set of the original FROG decals as I want to build the RAF St Mawgan based Shackleton as I have a family connection. In the 1960's my father was based at RAF St Mawgan in charge of converting Air Electronic Crews from the Shackleton to the Nimrod which arrived at the end of the 1960's. Both he and I have been aboard the Shackleton depicted by the FROG decals. It was also the second kit built for me by my father, so it has close associations.



The book 'Shackleton: Guardian of the Sea Lanes' by Richard A Franks looks like a useful reference book too.

[lancfan]

PM sent.

David.

[bluesteel]

PM sent.

David.

Thanks David. PM replied

[bluesteel]

Made a start:



Lots of injector marks inside the fuselage. I'm not sure if I'll remove many of them as the majority won't be visible.

[Dazzled]

Always the best policy with injector pin marks. If you can't see 'em, leave ' em be.

[bluesteel]

According to the instructions all the interior is black, but from the photos only the cockpit is mostly black, the main cabin upper half is cream and lower blue/grey, so that's what I'm doing.

[iggie]

You're lucky to have any interior painting instructions......My Shack has barely got external colour call outs!
(And the mouldings look very much the same as yours, pin marks and all

[bluesteel]

That's about as much as I'll get done today. Most of the interior painted and installed. This build is going to be mostly out of the box with just a few tweaks here and there. Also it'll be gear up on some sort of stand if I can find/make one.

[bluesteel]

Made my first error of the build. The dry fit of the bomb bay and working doors was perfect. But then I painted before installing - mistake! Now with the paint layers it's a tight squeeze to fit and I'm having to remove a lot of the paint to get it flush. I want the doors to work as then I can use the stand slot in the bomb bay to depict it in landing or take off mode as well as on it's wheels.



I've put an observer in a seat in the nose and added a large ballast weight in the form of many fishing weights encased in Blutac. Now I'm less afraid it will be a tail sitter and more worried it'll snap the nose wheel leg with all that weight!

[MarkyM607]

The nose wheel leg will probably be fine, it looks quite sturdy. It's the pins that go in the locating holes that might give!!

[iggie]

Agree with MarkyM regarding the nose wheel leg, but have you got enough weight in there? I've stuffed the same section as you with solid lead, and she only just sits properly; a tap on the tail and down it goes
I'm going to put a little more weight in each engine nacelle, and then cross my fingers that the amount of paint up 'forard is more than down aft

[TomW]

The one I built a couple of years ago has 95 grams stuffed in the nose and inboard nacelles and she sits comfortably on all three. The gear is more than strong enough to take it .

Regards

Tom

[JamesPerrin]

Unless you add excessive nose weight it will not put strain on the nose leg. It's the main legs that will carry most of the weight.

[bluesteel]

As everyone has confidence in the strength nose wheel I have installed a couple of dud AA batteries in the cabin behind the pilot so there now about 150g in the nose. Hopefully that will be enough!




It was a real struggle trying to put the two fuselage halves together. It was a good dry fit, but after all the interior work, paint and parts it didn't want to know. During the fight I managed to snap a hinge spigot off each of the bomb doors - grrrrrrr.... So now they will just have to be glued into place. Note to self - next time building a FROG Shackleton fit the bomb bay unit in unpainted then paint after fuselage assembly!

Anyway it's together now and being held together with lashes of tape overnight:

[Martin R]

Good stuff, Julian.

You're winning.

regards,

Martin