Avro Type 690 Leeds - the true story

[McColm]

Stupid question,  will it be a two engine or four Griffons? Could have twin Griffons with a pair of jet pods taken from a Lockheed Neptune. 

[The Wooksta!]

[PR19_Kit]

Stupid question,  will it be a two engine or four Griffons? Could have twin Griffons with a pair of jet pods taken from a Lockheed Neptune. 

All four. With that size of fuselage it needs all the horsepower it can get.

And Neptunes with jet pods hadn't been invented in 1947-48......

[PR19_Kit]

No real progress on the Leeds, all I've done is PSR the blasted thing, with the emphasis on the 'R'. 

The problem with many vacforms is they do need LOADS of PSR, and this is definitely one of them, not the bits where I've extended the fuselage, I expected to need a lot there, but just the ordinary joints on the fuselage. Some are an entire material thickness out of alignment!

The cockpit's slowly coming on, but it's not a simple job adapting the Shack interior to suit the York nose. I'm getting there though.

[PR19_Kit]

I'm back on the Leeds now the Proto PR19 is finished and I'm back in Northants.

The cockpit interior is glued in place in the port side of the fuselage and I've done the same mod on the upper fuselage corners that I did on the other side so that the Shack windscreen will fit, in theory anyway. The instrument panel from the AIM vacform is in place and it'll do for Government work, especially as it'll be only just visible, but it's not the prettiest panel you've ever seen.

The starboard nose section now has it's lengthening pieces glued in place and as soon as I've painted the cockpit interior I'll be gluing the nose in place and skinning the joint.

Then all I'll have to do is PSR the whole fuselage. It should only take a couple of weeks.......

I've started on de-rivetting the starboard wing, and that'll surely total my coarse sanding block. That FROG styrene is just like CONCRETE, it's so hard! Goodness knows why they did the Shacks like that, their other kits weren't that hard IIRC.

More pics tomorrow maybe.

[PR19_Kit]

I've painted the cockpit interior now, nothing special, just seats, belts and instrument panel in contrasting colours, and then added the spacers to the starboard side nose moulding to get it in the correct position fore and aft.

Here's the two parts in their relative positions before gluing.



The longitudinal spacers needed a mini-bulkhead at the rear to ensure they stayed in contact with the inner walls of the rear fuselage, and getting that the correct size was a bit of a trial, but I managed it in the end. Then I glued the whole lot together, and after the structural joints had dried I padded them out with quite a few layers of 10 thou until it was the correct outline shape.

So at last all the fuselage construction is done, and I'll soon be starting on a MAMMOTH PSR session! As you can see it's right dog's breakfast of varying thickness styrene and putty, and there's a LOT of sanding to go before I've got rid of all the raised panel lines on the fuselage, and then the real PSRing will commence. 

[The Wooksta!]

Did you find if the replacement white metal u/c fitted or would you prefer the Aeroclub one intended for the Frog Shatipuss?

[PR19_Kit]

I've got THREE white metal sets for it now Lee. 

The SAC one that's meant for the Airfix Shack, the set that came with the AIM York vacform, and an Aeroclub set that came from the MR2 conversion set.

The Aeroclub one looks much the stronger, and it's made from heavier material too.

[Captain Canada]

Very nice ! Always liked the look of this a/c. Bigger and better can only be, well, bigger and better !

[PR19_Kit]

I built my first FROG Shackleton in the early 60s, and the second one, converted to an MR2, in the 70s, so I've forgotten quite how 'boilerplate' it is as a kit!

I've just put the other three engines together and a RIGHT drama they were too. The front prop of each pair has to be filed and sanded to get it to fit deep enough into the spinner to ensure the rear prop fits nicely up against it. On the real thing there's almost no gap at all, and to reproduce that with the kit's parts you need a fair amount of trimming of the spinner and filing of the front prop, but I've got all four engines sorted now, thank goodness.

I've filed and filed and FILED the fuselage to remove the well over emphasised raised panel lines and window and door lines, and it's as flat as it's going to be now, but the amount of putty I've had to use, both on the standard bits and my extensions is AWESOME! 

Is there a record for the amount of putty used on any one model? This Leeds must be close to it for sure!

LOTS of sanding in prospect later sadly.

[The Wooksta!]

IIRC, I went through about three tubes of filler and about similar numbers of primer when I did the Atlantic.

[PR19_Kit]

IIRC, I went through about three tubes of filler and about similar numbers of primer when I did the Atlantic.

OUCH! 

I'm nowhere near that yet, thank goodness!

[Captain Canada]

Wow ! Alot of work all around, but these big whifs are worth it ! For us, whom are not doing said work.....

[PR19_Kit]

Wow ! Alot of work all around, but these big whifs are worth it ! For us, whom are not doing said work.....

I've been working on this project, without actually cutting any styrene, since The Wooksta and I thought it up at Telford in 2010! Not exactly the shortest build job I've ever done. 

[PR19_Kit]

To show that I really am making progress on the Leeds, here's the various sub-assemblies laid out approximately where they'll be when it's all done.

You can see what I mean about the amount of PSR needed on the fuselage, and in this view you can only see HALF of it!