New project, Avro 684 --- well ------sort of !

[kitnut617]

I've got this idea for a Jet Lancaster.  Yeah, yeah, I know, it's been done before.  Well not quite --- back around Telford time last year, my friend Steve Gardner got me some bits and pieces from Whirlybird and Heritage Aviation while he was there, one was the Heritage Buccaneer S.1 conversion in 1/72.  I was looking at these parts and noticed that it looked like I had two intakes from the same side (it's very subtle), and after a quick email to Ian, I found out that's what I had.  He asked for my home addy and three weeks later a new set arrived, only they were the 1/48 conversion.  An email back to Ian with a photo of what arrived and he just groaned -- anyway I was going to send them back as I've no need for 1/48 stuff but then Ian told me that the 1/72 moulds for the other side were shot and he didn't have a master to create a new one and he didn't know when he was going to get around to correcting it.  So like I said I was going to send the 1/48 set back but then I had a brainwave --- I had been reading the thread about the Avro Alston and the chat had got around to high altitude bombers, Wellington Mk.V's and VI's and how these were going to give the research to the Avro 684, when I got to thinking   

I quite like the look of the Avro 684 and I thought that a jet version would be real cool but for my model I would use these 1/48 Buccaneer intakes (I'll have to scratch build some rear ends for them though).  My idea is to use a Lanc fuselage with Lancastian nose and rear end, add a pressure chamber like the Wellington Mk.V but for a canopy use one from a Vulcan (I've got one left over from the conversion I'm sorting out to make an Avro Atlantic), it would be metal with round portholes along the side, the intakes would be attached to the sides of the fuselage and kept as high as it would go so the tops are flush, then for wings I would use a pair from a Shackleton which I have left over from my Nottingham build.  The main u/c would go in the standard Shackleton inner nacelle but instead of an engine at the front I would make a streamlined front end for them, using a pair of 1/32 100 Gal. Mosquito tanks which just happen to fit rather well to the nacelles.  For the tail I would go with the standard Lancaster location but use Shackleton parts for the tailplane and fin/rudders.  Undercarriage would be tricycle and the only defensive armament would be a ventral remote turret located where the standard radome would be, the radome being moved to the front under the pressure chamber, the main defence would be it's high speed and high altitude.

So that's the idea, what do you think ?

Robert

[puddingwrestler]

I'd be able to give more of a response if I knew what an Avro 684 looks like; Google image search is not being very useful.

[kitnut617]

Hi PW,

If you have access to BSP, Fighters & Bombers 1935-1950 there's a 3-View of it on page 106 --- or you could look at Wooksta's Avro Alston build right here:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,23413.15.html

[Mossie]

There's a blank profile of two versions of the Avro 684 on Secret Projects.  The definitive version had a fifth Merlin in the fuselage, a slave engine to power a blower to keep the other engines pressurised to the equivalent of 10,000ft.
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,642.msg4993.html#msg4993