1/10th scale Blackburn Beverley.

[Bob Thompson1894]

Curious, John. What would you use? I have some microfibres, would they work?

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Had a fun day today. I made the Clam Shell doors rear end block from scraps of balsa block glued together, mustn't waste anything! I messed about getting the centre line for the door closure detail and cut a groove for this. It is a little oversize to allow for glassing and gunging. The glassing went very well having decided that doing half at a time would be prudent, other side tomorrow with a bit of luck!

For those interested, as things are I will ID this model as XB263 84 Squadron. It was originally with 47 Squadron at Abingdon, but ended up with 84 Squadron in Aden. The ID could change if I cannot get some good detail of the markings etc for this particular aircraft, and if good detailing of another aircraft pops up, then I will need to change the ID to ensure correctness.

[Alan Cantwell 1131]

image.jpg (10.85 KiB) Viewed 9584 times

Some nice detail on that particular machine, but be carefull of the silver, so many shades, the guys have just sprayed a chipmunk silver, with rivet and panel line detail, it looks the business, but with no detail, silver looks flat

[Dave Hayfield]

Hi Malcolm, there was a bit of discussion going on in Flight International a while ago where pilots of the Beverley were reminiscing, with great affection, on flying the aircraft. Of course, being pilots, they came out with the usual fun comments. A couple which made me smile were that the Beverley was not allowed to be put into a spin because its mass could affect the spin of the Earth and its speed meant that it was the only aircraft that could show birdstrikes on the trailing edge of the wing. Hope this gives you a smile as well!

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

I haven't done much so far today, just trimmed up yesterdays glassing and sorted out the other side. This required a little bit of delicate trimming at the centre and creating the seam between the (closed) doors. All I can do now is to sit it out whilst the gunge goes off.

The Clam Shell doors themselves had personnel doors which I will represent with some scoring. This just needs to be sufficient to make it look like a door, the same with the passenger door at the front port side.

There were about 44 port hole windows in these aircraft, I will not be spending time glazing these, but rather represent them with paint, perhaps a dark grey colour and some squiggly lines to look like glass?

Dave, thanks for your anecdotes, I must confess to L'ing OL after it sank in, the birds flying faster than the aircraft, brought a tiny tear to the eye.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Having rubbed down the glassing, I had a weigh in. As you can see the weight so far is 27. 1/2 lb, less than a quarter of the predicted finished weight. It is possible that this could come in under 120 lb?

I have made some "pegs" for the model to stand on in lieu of undercarriage when displaying it at shows in the near future. Standing on these temporary pins requires front end ballast at about 4 lb. at the mo. I would not be surprised if this reaches nearer 10 lb. when completed?

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Started fettling the frames of the boom today. I began by marking the edges with a marker pen and using a long and straight sanding stick carefully rubbing the edges to establish the low spots, easily noticed where the ink is not removed. Once I am happy that most are in line, I will need to build up any low spots and then repeat the exercise till all frames are in an acceptable line. So far, doing the top is an easy task, but when I move onto the fairings and underside of the boom, this is likely to cause a bit of well worn lingo to exude from my voice box! I suspect that I will need to rub down the frames individually due to their shapes, with repeated use of a straight edge and employ the 'tilt the head and shut one eye" method? A long and boring task in all, but necessary! The diminishing frames at the rear need some attention as I knew they would, but these lines can only really be established once assembled, it was a very difficult task on the drawing board. I also need to consider the junction between the tailplane and the fuselage when attending to these frames. There will be some fairings to create but need to decide whether these go on the fuselage or the tailplane assembly, a bit of each I suspect? I also have to establish the exact position of the tailplane assembly, not too difficult to do but I want it to be correct!

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

My "get up and go", got up and went today! Perhaps it's this crappy weather causing this? However, I glued on a few extensions to the frames, very small pieces of lite ply to bring the frames in line for the skinning. I have established that some of the rearward frames need both extending and shaving down. The fairing is definitely going to be a pain in the bum. I would like to know if it is worth getting one of those Dremel wotsits. Do any of you use these things?

[Bob Thompson1894]

I have had a rechargeable Dremel for years. One of the most useful bits of kit ever. The sanding tube thingies are great!

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

I've just ordered one of those re-chargeable Dremels and a chuck. This will reduce the swearing I think?

[paul needham]

I've just ordered one of those re-chargeable Dremels and a chuck. This will reduce the swearing I think?

Possably one of the best investments ever.

[Bob Thompson1894]

Yes, the chuck is a must. The bloody collet thing is a pain.

[Phil Clark]

The flexi shaft is well worth it as well.........makes getting into awkward spaces much easier.

Phil

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

My 'get up and go' is still 'got up and went' at the mo. However, yesterday I did a practice run at getting the Beverley into the car. I pulled the passenger seat forward and dropped the backrest (removing the head rest) as low as it would go, and then managed to get the front half of the fuselage onto the seat. It could have done with being hinged half way along, but I managed to jiggle it into place. At this point I realised just how big this model is! I had visualised that the back half would sit on top of the front half, well perhaps it might have done if the car was about two feet taller? These assemblies are five foot long so will not fit across the car anyway. The well worn expression "Oh bugger" sprang to mind. I had hoped to take this to East Kirkby at Easter, but this is not to be! I will take it to EK in May (and Gaydon in October), but will need to hire a van, not something I want to do too often! I will need to get a hatch back next time I change the banger.

Perhaps the progress will continue once my new Dremal wotsit has arrived. I have now added the flexi drive thingy to my order, thanks to Phil's suggestion, seems a very good piece of kit. As I mentioned earlier, This is a scratch build model, so nothing is absolutely definite and much of the shaping and detail has to be done on the hoof. The shapes of the boom frames are complex to say the least, nothing unusual for any aircraft, but there is nothing to refer to other than photos and intuition. I will get it right but not without a little 'bodging' and adjustments along the way. As things are, I am not overly worried about the finished weight as long as I get close to the 120 lb suggested by several people, including John Rickett. I recon 10 lb either way will not be a problem for this model.

"Bodging" is the new word for "modification". You must believe this!

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Managed a little bit of work today. Continued fettling the frames on the right side, the picture shows the frames that need building up a little, where the ink remains on the edges is clear to see.

I also put in place the two conduit runs in the boom, these will need fixing in place at some point soon, prior to skinning.

[Peter Siggins]

Malcolm while your spending hard earned dosh on Dremel kit- the 90 degree attachment is brilliant - gets a drill or sanding drum inside awkward places .I've had two rechargeable Dremels for some years - great kit.They also produce a diamond cutting wheel which is superb on fibreglass cowls etc.
Better get an overdraught


Pete

[Bob Thompson1894]

If you want to spend money, Ian Richardson does some Perma grit tools for Dremels. Superb.

[MalcolmDouglasPorter]

Peter, I will look at the possibility of an angled attachment wotsit once the kit has arrived. I have ordered one of those sets with several attachments included, I am not too sure of which gadgets are included, so better not to buy anything else just yet. As for those Perma-Grit wotsits, Bob, I would need a mortgage to buy those?

However, been messing about with bits and pieces today, boring things that I won't bother telling you about. The picture shows the frames with the fairings nicely out of line. You can see from this just how much I have to do. When I made the frames, I had no real idea of where the fairings would be, so I included them in "about the right place", and planned to fettle them by the traditional method once assembled. I will be removing quite a lot of material, and possibly adding a bit here and there. This will be done with the aid of many photographs and modellers licence (whatever that is?). Now you can understand why I need the Dremal kit?

[Steve Ogden]

Permagrit tools are an investment. Although the initial cost is quite high they last for years. I have a tool set that is more than 10 years onld and other items even older and they work like new Go on treat yourself you wont regret it.

[paul needham]

nice to meet you today Malcolm.