The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

lancfan wrote:The bomb bay doors were meant to be moveable which doesn't help, there could be gaps around the edges and they may not fit level. You may have to cut the hinge pins away and glue the doors down after the fuselage has been assembled. The engine pods do not fit the nacelles very well either and may need some careful filing down with frequent dry fitting to both parts to get a good fit. The best place to fit the nose weights is the closed cell between the cockpit and the nose section, it helps if you have plenty of lead handy. If you have closed the fuselage up you could fit more weight at the front of the bomb bay before you seal up the bomb bay doors.

David.

Apart from that, it goes together like a dream

Seriously though, great stuff David. Sensible upgrades and nicely done.

Thanks Dazzled.

David.

The IP, cockpit floor, bulkhead/seats and front bulkhead have been dug out of the bags ready to work on, more on those later.


When sorting out the bomb bay parts I found that I was somehow one set short, so as this model will have a closed bomb bay I have copied the parts in plastic card.


The plastic card bomb bay parts glued to one fuselage half with both halves banded together whilst the glue dries. The spar carry through is dry fitted for now and will not be glued in place until later.


David.

Great work David.

Yes very good work, and you didn't make the mistake I did of painting the bomb bay before fitting it!

Cheers O_T, bluesteel.

David.

The kit parts have the cockpit seats moulded to the flight deck rear bulkheads, this is wrong and to correct this and provide a representative crew seat and flight engineers panel I have glued the bulkheads onto the fuselage opposite to the side they are each meant to go on.


This is the cockpit as it now stands, an enclosed undercarriage bay has been built under the cockpit floor and work has begun to the cockpit. The full size Shackleton has the cockpit floor at the same level as the bomb bay roof with the pilots' seats fitted to raised platforms on each side. To give the illusion of this depth when viewed from above I have glued strips of plastic card to each side of the floor.


David.

The basic cockpit ready for paint, control columns and seats.


The seats are moulded from car filler and are based on a seat from the spares box.


The finished cockpit with the forward compartment loaded with lead.


The assembled fuselage strapped up and set aside for the glue to dry.


The joints filled and the fuselage propped up as I wait for the filler to harden.


David.

With the fuselage buttoned up the build should be plain sailing from now on. The next step will be to sand the fuselage seams flush and re-cut the fuselage break points where they cross the filler lines, the wings can then be attached and the tailplanes can be de-rivetted and assembled.


David.

Quickly dry fitting the wings before continuing.


Before continuing as I described above I decided to correct the bomb bay and doors.
To make room for the hinged bomb bay doors Frog cut into the support beams for the bomb bay, to correct this I have used three layers of masking tape as a dam and have applied car filler to the bomb bay roof to build up the greater part of the beams to the correct level.


The moveable bomb bay doors now do not fit at all well and before I could glue these in place I had to sand the edges down for a good fit. This is the bomb bay area with one door in place, the other door (foreground) has been sanded down and is ready to be glued in position.


David.

Fantastic progress mate!
I think I feel the need for a Shackleton in my collection and to display on the Cold War SIG Display.

For some reason I now have a mental image of David carving an entire Shackleton out of a solid block of filler......

Cheers Maverick, The shackleton is an important cold war type due to it's AEW version.
LOL iggie.


David.

Great Build thread as ever David - It's shaping up nicely - I like the extra detail added to the cockpit, it really helps.

cheers

Stuart

Thanks Stuart, it is a product of it's time and it is still produced. the rivets and general style of the kit have always reminded me of Revell kits of the period and it looks nothing like other Frog kits. It is generally accurate but does have faults and we do need a new tool kit of this from Airfix.


David.