Percival Puffin

[kitbasher]

Proctor development, competitor to the Miles Gemini and using the Airfix dH.88 engines and main u/c.  Combined age of the donor kits is 121!!

[JayBee]

Just don't add the age of the builder that would realy shock us. 

[NARSES2]

Just don't add the age of the builder that would realy shock us. 

Probably look better in Roman numerals 

[kitbasher]

OK.  Birth certificate-related abuse aside, some progress with the Puffin.  First off the component parts, then following a spot of messy play getting sub-assemblies together (rear bench seat, engines, wings, finding I don't have a rudder and one of the tailplane halves is exactly the same as the other (thanks Lee for the other Proctor, solved those problems!), then a rough idea of what the finished item will, I hope, look like. 

EDIT 1: The Meteor nose works pretty well as anticipated, a bit of reprofiling either of it or the lower fuselage ahead of the wing root but noting too drastic.  Have found some replacements for the awful Airfix Comet wheels.  And speaking of the Airfix Comet, just after slapping the engine nacelles together I'm back on the 'never buying one of those again' wagon!

EDIT 2 : The Photobucket logo is annoying so back to Flickr.  Some relearning (it's a faff compared to Photobucket) but got there.

[NARSES2]

I still use Photobucket and don't get that logo. Often wondered why you do ?

Neat concept by the way 

[zenrat]

I misread this as Percival Putin...   

[kitbasher]

I still use Photobucket and don't get that logo. Often wondered why you do ?

Neat concept by the way 

Maybe cos I don't pay?  And thanks for the thumbs up!

[Tophe]

Good new silhouette.

[NARSES2]

Maybe cos I don't pay? 

Probably. I pay £9 a year or so for more than enough space for me. I was paying before the great price hike/reduction again debacle and they kept my contract the same as it had always been, touching all the wood within range whilst I type that. I'm happy enough with it

[ericr]

 nice idea

[kitbasher]

Interior put together.  All very simple - keep the two front seats, add a bench seat for the rear of the cabin.  Medium Sea Grey interior, red/brown seats to create a leathery look, strips of black coloured masking tape as seat belts.

Rear windows added, seating attached and fuselage halves mated.  Meanwhile rudder and tailplanes prepped.

Wings assembled, Comet engine nacelles added, gaps filled and sanded, bit of extra filler needed.

[The Rat]

Good idea, everything I've read seems to indicate that the Proctor was rather underpowered, I'm surprised it got as much use as it did.

[PR19_Kit]

Good idea, everything I've read seems to indicate that the Proctor was rather underpowered, I'm surprised it got as much use as it did.

You're  not kidding, only beaten by its stable-mate, the Prentice. 

Having flown in both types, large amounts of will-power on the part of the crew was an essential part of the aerodynamics with both of them!

[kitbasher]

Nose faired in (PSR went well), wings with pre-mounted and faired engines attached, ditto tailplane and rudder.  Some PSR needed round the joints of the flying surfaces and the gaps where Proctor's wing lights go will need filling in.  Probably will replace with a nose light.

[Rheged]

I misread this as Percival Putin...   

So did I.  This led to further research and produced the following information on the Percival Putin

The archives of one of the more secretive organs of state security show that the Leningrad Oblast of the PVO-strany acquired half a dozen Percival aircraft by dubious means from a dealer in Finland in 1958. The plan was that they could assist  in the design  of the next generation of Soviet training aircraft. They were immediately examined for signs of dialectical materialism and counter revolutionary tendencies by politico-technical researchers from the local university.  Having been found free of any specific capitalist vices, they were placed in storage to await collection by the military.......and completely forgotten about. In the early 1970's, the Leningrad University Aviation and Borscht Making Society discovered the stored airframes whilst searching the outbuildings for an engine to power their beetroot chuntering mill.  A certain degree of decay and confusion had affected the components and the  society members, led by a law student by the name of Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin, assembled not only a unique de Havilland Gipsy Queen powered beetroot mill but an aircraft constructed from a wide variety of stored components.  The 200 horse-power beetroot mill was not an unqualified success despite being used by the Glorious 27th of April Soup Kitchen  in 1975 to establish a world record (which is unlikely ever to be beaten) for the highest tonnage of beetroot puree produced in a 24 hour period. However the strange composite aircraft, named the Putin after the society secretary and deputy commissar, has been included in several Mayday fly pasts and identified by various experts as :-

1) a light communications aircraft
2) an ab-initio trainer
3) a clandestine agent-dropping machine
4) a stealth drone
5) an interloper which should not have been included in the official flypast.

Any further data on this unique machine (or on the 200hp beetroot mill) would be welcomed.