Handley Page Colchester

[RussC]

  Taking a break from my sequence of US flying wing designs, to see what was going on during the period in the UK. While the alternate timeline that I'm thinking of had flying wings as a large part of US design thinking, the British aero industries only made a partial embrace of the idea and combined them with large canard pusher craft similar to the Rutan designs to come later. A large adherant to flying Wing design was Handley - Page after their successful Manx craft. This design from 1940 was meant for operation over the continent with a 8 ton load, using twin coupled Napier engines driving twin massive props as pusher shafts. I know, coupled engines, He-177, impossible gearboxes and inflight fires... but HP had better design processes and did not have to work with the stipulation that the craft had to dive-bomb ! So, start with a delta flying wing with a midpoint downwards gull, like the Germans would copy in the E-555 later designs and a raised cockpit group.
  The planes served during the conflict and were re-engined after the war with underslung fairings holding twin Derwent jets (depiction of my model) and later version doing away with the pistons altogether and mounting four jets, two underslung and two internal. These Colchester Mk 4's were only retired in favor of Vulcans in the late 1950's.
 
  The model used some 1/32 model discarded wings, probably a Zero-sen and parts of a Bugatti racer for the cockpit area and the underslung pods were from a scrapped Addar F3 Skyknight airplane- some of the most brittle plastic on earth, needed safety goggles to build that kit!
  Shown in a postwar paint scheme of upper medium sky grey and undersides in PRU blue. Used standard wartime roundels however, because that was all I had in the decal stash! Posed the model on a UK aerodrome diorama with period machines, all in need of dusting....
 
 
 

[PR19_Kit]

Now we're cooking Russ, excellent stuff!

[Hobbes]

Very nice!

Can we get a picture of the underside?

[brigadyr]

Very impressive!!! 

[Maverick]

Wild looking stuff indeed.

Regards,

Mav

[rickshaw]

I know, coupled engines, He-177, impossible gearboxes and inflight fires...

The poor DB610 really gets a lot of bad press.  It wasn't a problem with the engines which caused the fires, nor the gearboxes.  It was a problem with the cooling systems.  The engine mounts were too short and rigid on the He177 and that resulted in the cooling system pipes to the radiators being bent too sharply and the vibrations from the engine used to shake them loose, with the result that oil leaked all over the inside of the cowlings and the heat would make it catch fire.  This was compounded by the oil filters which caused the oil to foam, with the result that it didn't cool the engines properly.   Ernst Heinkel wanted to fix it but the Luftwaffe wouldn't let him and so the He177 was rushed into service without sufficient development time and carried the faults its whole service life.

Your model though is very nice.   What scale is it?  And what is the silver aircraft on the right-hand side in the second picture?  It looks interesting.

[RussC]

Very nice!

Can we get a picture of the underside?

Not possible. I no longer have the model or a lot of the others, just the photo's existing. Explanation-
 
Last year, I started an effort to gain back some of my living space and also lighten up in anticipation of moving (US economy, and we'll leave it at that). I have always been about the build versus the collecting in any case- as the dust layer on the diorama attests. As a result, I first offered up a large swath of kits including most of the what-ifs to members of KG144bbs and Yahoo Small Scale Models SIG, followed by a general auction on Ebay of the remaining. Close to 400 models built and 500 unbuilt plus a lot of big dioramas too, including the one in the picture. I currently have about 40 models and a smattering of diorama buildings, enough to cover one bookcase shelf. I have parted with large air forces on at least 3 other occasions in the past.
  Another reason was that if anyone else in the US waits too much longer to sell/ship/buy/have delivered a hobby item, you may not have a post office to make it happen.

[RussC]

I know, coupled engines, He-177, impossible gearboxes and inflight fires...

The poor DB610 really gets a lot of bad press.  It wasn't a problem with the engines which caused the fires, nor the gearboxes.  It was a problem with the cooling systems.  The engine mounts were too short and rigid on the He177 and that resulted in the cooling system pipes to the radiators being bent too sharply and the vibrations from the engine used to shake them loose, with the result that oil leaked all over the inside of the cowlings and the heat would make it catch fire.  This was compounded by the oil filters which caused the oil to foam, with the result that it didn't cool the engines properly.   Ernst Heinkel wanted to fix it but the Luftwaffe wouldn't let him and so the He177 was rushed into service without sufficient development time and carried the faults its whole service life.

Your model though is very nice.   What scale is it?  And what is the silver aircraft on the right-hand side in the second picture?  It looks interesting.

With only a few 1/288 exceptions, most of my models are or were 1/144th scale. The Silver plane was a Ftoys twin engine series DH Mosquito in SEA markings and airspeed silver paint finish.

[James]

Great!

[Captain Canada]

She's a beauty ! Love the paint scheme. And with the cockpit glazing, it looks kind of modern as well as old school !

[NARSES2]

Really like that 

[Rheged]

It's a timeless design. This looks right in 1948, 1978 and 2008.  Well done sir!!

[sequoiaranger]

....as a truly British aircraft if it had a four-gun turret behind the cockpit!

Kidding aside, it looks fabulous, maybe inspiring that Indiana Jones Nazi warplane!

[RussC]

She's a beauty ! Love the paint scheme. And with the cockpit glazing, it looks kind of modern as well as old school !

  That is no accident, I did borrow some of the framing pattern from the Victor for the cockpit area!

[RussC]

....as a truly British aircraft if it had a four-gun turret behind the cockpit!

Kidding aside, it looks fabulous, maybe inspiring that Indiana Jones Nazi warplane!

Actually those Martin Baker turrets are on the plane, retractable.