Avro Avatar Mk III

[sequoiaranger]

Funny, when I thought this one up two decades ago, "avatar" was not a household name like it is today--in fact it was quite obscure (which is one reason I used it). "avatar" is the embodiment of a concept, so this SuperDefiant is a bold extension of the Boulton-Paul Defiant/Blackburn Roc nonsense propagated by the Air Ministry. But it started out as a "trench-strafer" to shoot down into enemy trenches (clever re-fight of the Great War with lessons learned), but evolved.

The Defiant/Roc's weakness was no forward or ventral armament, and limited manuverability, thus easy prey for fighters coming in from in front or underneath. The Avatar overcomes those with a dorsal four-gun turret (seen in pic only as a hole) AND a ventral four-gun ball turret (out of sight in the pic) AND four wing-mounted forward-firing guns. They are only .303's, but at least there are twelve of them and all angles are covered!! Since maneuverability is not important to this Me-110-sized aircraft, it could be large enough to handle the two turrets.

The plane eventually becomes a "beach-strafer", like the Westland P.12, for use in the feared upcoming invasion of Britain. There is a LOT more backstory, but the above is the gist. Someday I will have line drawings of the Mk I and Mk II, and maybe print the full backstory in pieces.

The bashed whiff is 1/72, with elements of two 1/96 Frog Lancasters (two differently-colored kits), 1/144 Lockheed Constellation, 1/72 Vickers Wellseley, and turrets from a HP Halifax and Consolidated B-24, plus the usual spare parts.  It will have New Zealand Kiwi roundels and a gas patch. Camo will be typical sand-and-spinach/Sky, with some gray, smoky patches and red "IDC" (Invasion Defence Command) letters in the tail and lower engine cowl.

[GTX]

Interesting.

Regards,

Greg

[Maverick]

Sounds like an interesting build SR.

Be aware that no Commonwealth aircraft sported national roundels until after WW2 (ie: RNZAF European based machines had standard A/B/C, etc).

Regards,

Mav

[sequoiaranger]

Be aware that no Commonwealth aircraft sported national roundels until after WW2 (ie: RNZAF European based machines had standard A/B/C, etc).

Yeah, I know.... in the REAL world, but not in mine!! 

The backstory is that the red kiwis in the center evolved--someone put a bill and legs on that tempting center red dot of the roundels, and then a full-fledged (FLEDGED??? on a flightless bird???) Kiwi appeared. The non-regulation roundels were accepted as morale-boosters against the upcoming invasion, and the Brits were happy to just look the other way and have New Zealanders fighting for mother Britain.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

[Maverick]

Ah ok.  Totally plausible.  Us 'colonials' have always had a knack of p!ssing off the establishment!  At least the Kiwi's got a basic shape to work with, our Roos would be a definite stretch.

Regards,

Mav

[Weaver]

How odd - I was looking at various kits on ebay and contemplating a modified "super-Defiant" just this morning; very different to yours though!

Interesting looking project - best of luck with it! 

[puddingwrestler]

Well... a roo would be far fetched, but Uluru? (Ayer's Rock to the not so politically correct rest of the world) That I could see happening!

A very interesting looking machine.

[Brian da Basher]

What a cracking concept, Sequoiaranger! I'm really liking the look of it, expeically how the Lanc canopy adds to ti!

You should consider entering this project in our Styrene Junkyard Group Build.



Brian da Basher

[Rafael]

A very fetching concept.....specially so heavily armed.

I can't wait to see what you come up with for the turrets.

Rafa

[sequoiaranger]

I ran into a problem and cured it by imagineering    (I guess that's just stock-in-trade for whiffers)!

My 1/72 Avatar's wings are cut-down 1/96 Lancaster, and will have to butt up against the fuselage (see "A" in illustration) in a different place than on the "Lancaster". This might be a weak point, especially when the landing gear is on and the aircraft wants to "sag" with the weight of the fuselage. It might break apart here. WAIT! I will make a wing spar! I found some "box" styrene ("B" in illustration) and then cut snug-fitting square holes in the fuselage ("C" in illustration) that were tilted in just the right angle for the airfoil. THEN...I had to put some dihedral in the spar. My attempt at merely bending the box styrene SNAPPED the piece. So I lit a small candle and heated the box styrene oh-so-carefully, and bent the stuff at just the right places and angles (see next illustration) so the fuselage section is level (and will support my cockpit decking) and the wing sections are slightly uplifted. Now the wings will fit snug, at the right angles all the way around, and the plane will be sturdy, too!!  MAJOR construction hurdle overcome!

[sequoiaranger]

Though I got "distracted" by my "Jinpu-Kai" project (and truthfully, I have never before worked seriously on two whiffs at one time), it was only to ponder the predicament of the engineering of the ventral ball turret that is the core of the concept of the model. I ran into multiple agonizing problems of fit, support bracing, and...well EVERYTHING!

My Avatar fuselage was being built in sections like a late-war U-Boat, and internal stuff HAD to be done before assembling the sections. The last section with the ventral turret has been the most difficult. The 1/72-scale Avatar's fuselage is made from two 1/96th Lancasters, and the section that has the ventral turret HAPPENED to coincide with the placement of the main wing of the original model, which had deep airfoil-shaped indentations for the wings, plus bracing for the wing tabs (this puppy was going to be STRONG in its original configuration).

In my original Avatar idea, the ventral ball turret would retract like the B-24's, but I have since found that to be too troublesome for the smaller fuselage so it will be fixed, like the B-17. Still, the internal bracing and the cradle arms to hold the turret had to be just right. I ended up scratchbuilding the u-shaped cradle, and engineered a ball turret that could be attached after painting. The original cradle was way too large to fit into the Avatar's fuselage opening, and had thick, built-in pins to go into holes in the turret. I had to engineer a much thinner setup, and decided to make the "pins" part of the turret instead.

In the picture with the fuselage on the far right, you can see the decking with the hole in it for the cradle post. Once I put the cradle in I have to carefully (with a tweezers like a ship-in-a bottle) glue the retaining ring on top. There were SO MANY things that had to be measured simultaneously to be able to put the ball turret in and allow it to swivel and pivot (important to me) and also to protrude enough to allow the guns to point horizontally fore-and aft. Lots of trial-and-error (as usual, the number of trials exceeds the errors by only one!). You can't see it very well, but there is a white piece of .015 plastic carefully carved to fit the airfoil indentation, plus other fillings-in.  Plus, there is the careful bracing and decking placed so the hole is perfectly centered and aligned (so the turret can swivel in its VERY CRAMPED space.)

The ball turret itself is from....can't remember if it's from an old B-17 or B-24, but it was not meant to have either a person in it or four machine guns. I will have both! Most ACCURATE American ball turrets have a lot more "glass", but this one (from an old, "inaccurate" kit) will do better for the Avatar, as it now has some "shrapnel armor" to protect the ventral gunner from small-arms fire and AA bursts from below.  Also, the gunner can't see behind him anyway, so there needn't be  clear parts there. I drilled out the ends of the guns to have some tubular effect, and knew I needed a stronger support than a thin plastic peg if the turret were to withstand handling once in place. So I used tiny nails poked through the guns, and cut them off so that they would not protrude significantly beyond the cradle when attached. The ball turret is designed to be removable, and "snaps in" to the cradle. I deliberately created some rubbing friction in the setup so that the ball turret would stay where I put it and not spin/rotate to its weight-equilibrium position as soon as I let go of it.

So next is to paint the guns-and-nails a metallic blue-black, glue the fetal-positioned gunner in the tub, Future Floor Wax the clear part (the gunner will be looking past his knees through the flat oval of the clear cover), and seal the thing up.

Once I put the cockpit decking in the front section (which also has to be carefully tweezered in from the cut fuselage end), the fuselage sections can finally be mated together and we're OFF onto the next steps! I have some puttying and fiddling to do with the tailplane positions, and then the engine/cowling can be attached! JEEZ! Progress!

Landing gear will be semi-retracting. That is, the Avatar is a product of that in-between fixed and fully retracting era where the landing gear retracted backwards, but didn't lay flat, and required a fairing. I searched through my considerable stash and found the Italian CA 313 setup suited my vision.

Stay tuned.

[Brian da Basher]

Very well-played, Mr Ranger! Ingenious how you came up with the box spar! It's very generous of you to share your imagineering with the rest of us!

Your projects are always a great delight and I will be keeping an eye peeled for updates.



Brian da Basher

[sequoiaranger]

I recovered my original rough draft drawing (c. 1985) of what I wanted the Avro Avatar to look like. This is kind of the "Mark II" version. The one I'm working on for a model, the "Mark III",  is a little longer (about Me-110 size), with a different fuselage tail terminus, and the cowling is faired into the fuselage. If this drawing is about 6" long on your screen, stretch the fuselage to 8", slide the top and bottom turrets those two inches to the rear,  and that will be about right. Otherwise it is a fair representation of my Avro "Super-Defiant".

As far as progress goes, I have, yet again, suffered setbacks and glitches, but I do anticipate assembling all the fuselage parts together very soon. This will be a MAJOR hurdle overcome! My little ball-turret assembly is complete and looks "cute". Once again, Future Floor Wax made the milky canopy parts clear as clean water. I can see the face of the gunner through the oval ball-turret glass frontispiece (past his feet in his fetal position), but probably can't get the camera to co-operate and let you see what I see.

EDIT: Now we have a picture of the happy crew! The middle guy doesn't have the business half of his gun turret on. The Matchbox Halifax upper turret has scale glass thick enough to stop an '88' methinks!

[jcf]

Your sketch reminds me of the Kalinin K-12:





As originally designed:

[sequoiaranger]

Hmmm. Kinda-sorta. The Avatar has a conventional twin-tail like the Lancaster, the all-important belly guns, and of course only a single engine.

That Kalinin **IS** a strange aircraft.  It would seen the wing end-plates would be hard-pressed to swing the wing around as a rudder would.  Maybe they were just air-brakes that slowed one wing so the OTHER would swing around?! Has anyone tried to whif-it??