Avro Type 690 Leeds - the true story

[Old Wombat]

 

[buzzbomb]

Very Dapper.

Lovely work

[sideshowbob9]

Looks absolutely natural!

[kitbasher]

Excellent, Kit.

Clever wing tip balancing there 

[McColm]

Super build 

[Rick Lowe]

Looking very swish in that scheme, and awesome modelling.

[PR19_Kit]

I just can't believe that NO-one ever took a colour pic of a Shackleton MR1! 

I'm trying to paint the early, non-shrouded Shackleton exhausts that I've used on the Leeds, but I can only find black & white pics of an MR1. There's ZILLIONS of colour pics of MR2s and 3s but they all have the shrouded exhausts with the down-turned extension pipes so the exhaust gases went under the wing.

I'll just gave to guess at it I reckon.

The Leeds now has it's landing gear fitted, and I chose the Aeroclub Shack MR2 set as their wheels fit much better and the legs don't need any mods to fit the old FROG engine nacelles. It's got dual tailwheels as it's meant to precede the Shackleton of course..... 

[sandiego89]

Fantastic!

Seat 8A may have gotten a bit noisy....

[PR19_Kit]

Seat 8A may have gotten a bit noisy....

Yeah, I was thinking the same just after I'd put the port side portholes on. Perhaps that's where the galley was?  Or the toilet? 

[Gondor]

I just can't believe that NO-one ever took a colour pic of a Shackleton MR1! 

I'm trying to paint the early, non-shrouded Shackleton exhausts that I've used on the Leeds, but I can only find black & white pics of an MR1. There's ZILLIONS of colour pics of MR2s and 3s but they all have the shrouded exhausts with the down-turned extension pipes so the exhaust gases went under the wing.

I'll just gave to guess at it I reckon.

The Flight Craft book on the Shackleton has a few colour pic's of MR1's from the MOTU but they must have been refitted with the down pipes. The rest of the pictures of MR1's are difficult to work out what the end's of the exhausts are or any difference in colour due to either the angle the picture was taken from or the colour the area surounding the exhausts were painted 

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

I did find one pic of an MR2 with the early exhausts, except it was labelled as an MR1. 

As you say, trying to figure out what bit is what isn't easy as the RAF seemed to splash various paint colours around all over the nacelles. I'm going with a red/brown/black mixture with matt black on the exhaust ports themselves.

Trying to get the Aeroclub retraction jacks to glue in place was a nightmare. They just didn't want to fit the landing gear bays, but much superglue has persuaded them otherwise..... 

[The Wooksta!]

This may help

[PR19_Kit]

It does too! 

Magic stuff, thanks Lee.

[PR19_Kit]

I've got all the decals on now, every one of the 54 portholes (!) and all the small stuff too. The landing gear doors are on now as well, so that's all the major items in place.

Only a few aerials to glue in place, then paint the exhausts and all 48 yellow tips of the prop blades. That's 6 blades per engine, both sides, and four engines. I'll wish I'd never started after THAT lot.

But to add more to my woes, I've just found that the port wing joint has cracked right up against the fuselage. 

I've run some superglue into the crack, and I'll leave it overnight, but it'll need some touch up painting tomorrow.

[PR19_Kit]

I'm not sure I want to paint another yellow propeller tip as long as I live! 

So far I've done it 48 times on the Leeds, and that's just the first coat. Yellow is THE most diabolical colour to paint, it doesn't cover well and needs at least two coats. And yes, I know all about the pink undercoat business, but that would have needed two coats, and then two coats of yellow (at least...) which would have meant 192 blades-worth to paint!!!! 

Only now, of course, I remember the technique used by a fellow club member of mine in Trent Plastic Modellers back in the 70s. He was Don Spicer and he built the most exquisite models, all of which had perfect yellow tips. He showed us how he did it once, which was to pour an amount of yellow paint into a shallow container, just deep enough for the tips, and then he just dipped the prop blades into the paint. Simples, eh? 

But that only works if you paint the props before you assemble the model, and the FROG Shackleton is almost designed to make that difficult, naturally.

In passing, while doing all this yellow tip painting I noticed that the aft props of the FROG kit have broader chord blades than the front props. I'm not sure if that true of the real thing or not, and it's only slightly noticeable, but it is the case. Weird................

Almost there, final pics later today. I promise.