next mission - RNZAF Andover 1/72

[Bruce]

With the completion of the Hastings, it is time to start another model to keep me going during the times I'm waiting for parts for my "Big" aeroplane (my homebuilt)
As I am still in vacform mode, I thought I'd make a start on my Formaplane Andover.
Although made by the same company as the Hastings kit, the Andover is decidedly more primitive. The formings are not of the same accuracy, and leave one wondering how the nacelles actually fit onto the wings. The instructions are poor and of no real value, and although a 1/72 scale drwaing is included, it does not show the front view, useful for getting dihedral angles etc. The parts are molded in a thinner plastic than the Hastings, and no internal structure is included. In vacforms this structure is not always scale bulkhead positions etc, but necessary structural formers as the moldings are very light and flexible. These normally do useful functions such as keeping the fuselage straight, and maintaining the wing dihedral!. I have therefore had to create some internal bulkheads etc from scratch. While at it, there is no nosewheel bay, and a suitably firm method of attaching the nose leg has had to be devised (while opening the nosewheel bay itself). Unlike the Hastings, this kit does have detail parts in the form of white metal undercarriage legs and wheels - not brilliant, but at least they are there. No props however, but I have found some Aeroclub Dart props of correct diameter which will do nicely.
here is a view of the kit contents, with progress under way opening the windows etc on the fuselage halves.

between the halves are the bulkheads I have constructed to date, including the nose section formers - I may add some seats to this, but wont be worrying about much more detail as it wont be seen and the model will be enough of a challenge as it is. I would have loved to have an Andover kneeling with the ramp open, but this just isnt going to happen with this kit! I had hoped to get one of the AiM resin Andovers, but this company has effectively ceased production, and thier products are never seen (I still couldnt have done the doors open thing though, as the fuselage is solid resin). I will stooge on with this one though, never one to run from a challenge - and this is definitely one of those. I will post more pics if, oops, when I make further progress.
Warning - do not try this at home....

[Dave Homewood]

Bruce, I have drawings for the Andover in one of the 1980's UK modelling magazines somewhere it you're interested. I think it's Aircraft Modeller or one of those. It's put away in a box but I could look for it if you need it.

Also, have a ook on Airliners.net, there's tons of Andover photos which may help with sorting out any details. None of the crouched wheels though.

Have you decided on a colour scheme yet? My favourite was the latter day green/green/grey jubgle pattern, but it's one of those palnes that looked damned smart in whatever costume it wore.

GOOD LUCK

[Bruce]

I'm fairly certain I'll use the late Green/green/grey scheme - I have some low vis kiwi roundels which should be O.K for it. the darker colours may also hide some descrepancies as well! heres hoping...

[Dave Homewood]

Cool!

[corsair67]

Good luck Bruce: I look forward to seeing the finished product.

[beagle]

You would think if you were buying a model plane that has turboprop engines that it came with the props.
Are we talking a few hundred dollars for the whole thing ?

[Bruce]

yeah I would have thought so too... I paid about $35.00 US for it on e-bay, and in real terms that would be overpriced, but in order to fill another gap in the collection, I sometimes have to pay that much. perhaps the props had been scavenged by the previous owner, I wouldnt think that they would have been that great anyway - the instruction diagram shows 3 bladed props!.
As i am still on holiday and it was wway too hot to work in my workshop this afternoon, i have managed to join the fuselage halves today. with the internal bulkheads and strips of plastic along the inside of the join lines to aid alignment, it didnt go too bad. A bit of filler is necessary, as always, especially under the rear fuselage, and the underside of the wing roots are a nightmare that will require some special treatment, but it does look like an andover. I assembled the tailplane sections tonight as well and have worked out how to shape them to fit the odd curves at the base of the fin, once I have finished filling and sanding the fuse I should be able to attach them - then on to the wing and nacelles

[mumbles]

Wow that looks like some of the old school vac forming I read about as a kid in the early eighties. I've always wanted to try a vac form, but I'm not sure taking one of those on would be much fun. Is there much in the way of panel lines or are you expected to DIY? I'm thinking mainly of the cargo doors.

Well looking forward to seeing how you get on with this!

[Dave Homewood]

I have acquired three vacuum formed kits in my life. The first was a Falcon Spitfire Mk XIV in 1/48th which was bought cheap and was meant to be a practise to get the hang of things. I was going to use Tamiya wings and other bits. i got as far as putting the fuselage together and it was then slung in a box and been there for about 12 years!

The thing the this was a practice for was an absolutely beautiful 1/48th scale kit of the Firefly. I got it in from the UK at the same time as a mate got one too. He built his up quickly (he was a more experienced modeller than me) and his looked superb. Meanwhile I ogled it in the box for a while and after the poor effort on the Spitfire I felt daunted.

Kerry said he wanted another Firefly but they were by then scarce (limited run). I had by then decided I would buy the 1/48th scale Hudson made in vacform in the UK. I did a deal, I'd give Kerry my Firefly and he'd import the Hudson for me as it was about the same value. All was good till the Hudson arrived. What an absolute piece of crap. Never in my born days have I seen such a poor kit. It was utterly tragic.

I'm not normally one to be picky about a slight conture wrong or a mm out on kits, but without even the use of a ruler it was plain to see this was not a Hudson! It was about 5 feet too long in scale, and totally the wrong shape. In fact I concluded the company had instead of buiding a carefully measured plug to vacuum form over, they'd just used a dead fish! That's what the shape looked like.

Unlike the Firefly kit, the Hudson's whitemetal was dire too. The whole thing was a waste of money. It put me right off vacuumform kits.

I have since bought the Classic Airframes injected Hudson, a million times better than the Contrail vac, even if CA isn't up to Tamiya standards on the Hudson.

[Bruce]

collecting rare kits to fill out the RNZAF collection has meant I have quite a few vacforms, and as experience grows I'm not anywhere near as scared of them as when I started! yes they most definitely are a whole different kettle of fish than an injected kit, but the satisfaction of getting one looking good is well worth it, and they certainly arent as hard as scratchbuilding - which would be the only alternative in many cases. I think I just about have my head around them now! Vacforms I have done to date are: Lockheed Harpoon, Fairey IIIF, Lodestar, King Air and Hastings. After the Andover I have a Singapore, Baffin, DH-9 and Gordon in the pile - I need to psych myself up for the other biplanes!
as far as surface detail goes, vacforms tend to have very little - one reason the Hastings looks quite smooth and glossy. I tend to think less is more in 1/72 scale, so I dont put much on as a general rule. the thin vacform plastic doesnt lend itself to engraving lines very much, it risks the plastic splitting if done too deeply. The Andover has depressed marks showing the doors, both side and rear, but they are a little ugly for my liking. The rear door area has needed a lot of filling in this area, so the door outlines will need to be re-marked later. I will need to add the small airscoop on the nose and a few other little protuberences here and there, but I think it shouldnt be too bad when finished.
If you are an experienced modeller, I would recommend trying a vacform for the experience. as Dave points out, some are shocking, and a bit of scratchbuilding will be required for most, but if you choose carefully you shouldnt be too bad. Dont start with something too big, as components tend to twist and trying to sand joint lines accurately is quite hard. A medium sized monoplane is a good start (I did the Harpoon). Rareplanes do some pretty good kits, they would be worth looking out for. try to get something with injected or white metal detail parts, or if that is not possible something you can steal bits of injected molded kit for. vacformed wheels, props and undercarriages just dont work... use a good liquid adhesive, but have some liquid cyano handy as well, likewise Krystal Kleer is the easiest way to do the windows. A possible step in may be a "mixed media" kit with resin and injected components (such as my Cessna Golden Eagle) which give a bit of a start to working with Vacformed bits. The key thing is to become familiar with where to sand the joint lines to - taking off too much is the most dire of mistakes, virtually everything else can be corrected easily, this mistake is not irrepairable, but it is a pig of a job to fix nevertheless. I say give it a go, if it was easy everyone would be doing it! (I can offer advice as you go if needed)

[Dave Homewood]

My bigest piece of advice with any vacuum formed kit is do not buy it till you've seen it. I have seen some real dogs. Basically stay very clear of Contrail, they seem to have been dreaming with a lot of their kits. Falcon kits are good.

That Firefly was made by PP Aerokits in the mid-1990's but it was superb with excellent resin and metal detail too. I see it's now available again from Flightpath
home.clara.net/djparkins/fltpath/fp48pw_firefly_mk5.htm

I think it was about $140 all up. The most I ever spent on a model But worth it. You can see my disappointment in swapping it for a right donkey of the same 'value'

[Bruce]

The "Sows ear" to "Silk Purse" conversion has progressed reasonably well, and I am up to the painting stage:


The fuselage went together alright as the additional internal structure helped alignment considerably. The trickiest bit was getting the nacelles to fit the wing section as there are no markings or templates to indicate where to cut the opening for the wing section in the nacelle sides. Eventually the nacelles were cut into several sections and reassembled around the wings, which took some doing - including making a few errors along the way. Some additional internal structure here (plus a good amount of epoxy resin blobbed around inside) finally got them together O.K. The section below the wing was too long anyway, so a small section was removed near the gear wells during assembly. The wings had virtually no show of attaching neatly, as the wing roots and centre section carry through area on the fuselage was badly out of shape. I did a cunning trick with some plastic card, making "false" bottom skins which carry through to the fuse centre line. with some more epoxy to fill the voids, this worked quite well, but the centre section carry though is now slightly deeper than scale, but this is the lesser of two evils and shouldn't be too noticeable. Compared to the drawings, the model is correct in overall dimensions but the fuselage and wing chord are slightly slimmer than scale. Once again, i can live with this. i have had to make new flap tracks and various intakes etc out of plastic card and "knead it" putty. but I think we're nearly there!

[corsair67]

She's coming along nicely, Bruce.

If at the time you purchased this kit you'd known the extra effort you were going to have to put into making it all work properly, would you have still bought it?

[flyjoe180]

The VIP scheme is much more appealing to me than the camouflage, but having read about what you've had to do to get the model right, I can see your point about the difficulty of hiding discrepencies! Anyway a picture of days gone:

[Bruce]

Yeah I probably would still have brought it, as the only other Andover kit is the even scarcer AiM resin kit. I knew it was a pretty basic vacform, and I expected a certain amount of the additional work. The thing is when you are working towards a set goal, in this case the complete RNZAF collection, you just bite the bullet and do what is required. In this case, knowing there are a lot of Andover fans on the forum, its a really good incentive to put in the extra effort!
I agree Joe that the VIP scheme looks really smart. however it is going into camo, not only to hide the odd discrepancy, but also I have a large fleet of kits already with blue stripes (Herk, Hastings, B170, Friendship, DC-6, Golden Eagle - and the B727 at some stage) and in order to have a mix of shemes a camo example would be good. I dont really like the early ex-RAF scheme, and I already have a Skyhawk and Strikemaster in Brown / Green / Green but only the Macchi in the Grey / Green / Green - nothing at all with two tone roundels. I think that is the nicest of the camo schemes anyway.

[Craig Sargent]

That's a lot of work so far. I thought the AIMs resin kit I saw looked quite good.

Let me know if you need decals.

[Bruce]

Cheers Talon, by some sheer co-incidence I was going to contact you!I checked my Low Vis decals last night and they were cracked (and a bit too big), so I will probably need to order some. I hope to have a look at Wigrams Andover on my way to Ashburton this weekend, so I'll check the dimensions of the roundels etc then and drop you an e-mail next week.

[tonkerxv]

Hi from an ex-RAF electrician in the UK. Great to see the article on the Formaplane Andover, I worked on XS644 for a short while in the late 70's at RAF Wyton when it was part of 51 Squadron. My worst recollection is standing on a chock under the fuselage with both engines running at max while I had my head up in the electrical bay trying to find out why a voltage regulator was sparking like bonfire night!!!

Congrats on getting what must be one of Formaplanes rarest vacforms!!! This is number 3 in their range and is so rare that I hadn't even known that they had released one until I too managed to get one from a guy in the USA on eBay. Unfortunately mine didn't have any white metal U/C so I will have to scratch build them.

Looking forward to following the final phases of your kit build, I've just got to pluck up enough courage to start mine!!

[Dave Homewood]

Bruce, how's the Andover coming along?

[Bruce]

Its been painted and sitting on its wheels now (took a bit of tweaking) and I'm just waiting on some new roundels from Stinger (Talon) and it will be just about done. Got a lot of antenna etc ready to go on once the decals are sorted.
Stay tuned.