Avro Type 690 Leeds - the true story

[Gondor]

I have a pin glued into where the point of a pencil was. It had very poor lead in it so useing it for something else was not a problem.

Gondor

[NARSES2]

I'm afraid I just do panel lines, and didn't even when my eyesight was far better then it is now. I'm of the Lee school in that "what can you actually see from 72 foot away ?"

Its an individual thing and I admire those who have both the skill, patience and eyesight to do them though.

[PR19_Kit]

Its an individual thing and I admire those who have both the skill, patience and eyesight to do them though.

After doing this Leeds I'm not sure that I have ANY of those requirements!

Having now PSR'd the wing and tailplane joints I now have to re-scribe the panel lines where they came close to the joints, and then re-prime it all.

Ho Hum......

[PR19_Kit]

Having got the main structure of the Leeds pretty well sorted, I've moved on to the secondary bits, like the engines and the third fin.

The latter is a three layer styrene sandwich with a large amount of putty smoothing off the edges, and it's currently on its third bout of PSR.

The engines are all now assembled with props and spinner and stuff, and yes, they all rotate properly. 

Historically the Leeds is meant to be between the Lincoln and the Shackleton MR1 so its engines needed to have the early Griffon exhausts without the extension pipes fitted to the MR2 and 3s, so they had to come off and resin replacements glued on. The gluing went fine but filing off the old exhaust stubs was a real pain, it took maybe 15 mins per stub and there's EIGHT of them! 



Sadly it looks like I have a big job on the engine cowlings under the wings though. Of course they're from the FROG MR3 kit, and it looks as if MR3s had an extra bulged oil cooler or something similar immediately aft of the engine pod, and that's moulded onto the kit parts, but I think I may to have to file them off as the MR1 didn't have them.

Doing that when the whole lot's glued together won't be easy..............

[sideshowbob9]

I too have had the joy of filing off the exhausts from those Griffons. You have made a much better job of it!

A cracking project so far! 

[The Wooksta!]

Those oil cooler things are on the MR1 too, its just the Frog engine fit is somewhat wooly - I've had to sand the hell out of them several times now and frankly, I *really* don't want to build another Frog one again.

[PR19_Kit]

Those oil cooler things are on the MR1 too, its just the Frog engine fit is somewhat wooly -

I can't find a single pic of an RW MR1, 2 OR 3 that shows them.   

And they don't seem to be on the new Revell MR3 either........................

[PR19_Kit]

THREE fins now. 

[The Wooksta!]

Those oil cooler things are on the MR1 too, its just the Frog engine fit is somewhat wooly -

I'm thinking of the louvered vents between the engine and the wheel bay - that what you mean?  Or is it the fit of the engines, because that square peg thing that goes into the bottom of the cowling never ever fits on the Frog Shack, no matter which boxing (the AEW one was definitely Frog given the colour of the plastic) you have.  Hell, it differs beteween engines on a single kit.


I can't find a single pic of an RW MR1, 2 OR 3 that shows them.   

And they don't seem to be on the new Revell MR3 either........................

[PR19_Kit]

I'm thinking of the louvered vents between the engine and the wheel bay - that what you mean?  Or is it the fit of the engines, because that square peg thing that goes into the bottom of the cowling never ever fits on the Frog Shack, no matter which boxing (the AEW one was definitely Frog given the colour of the plastic) you have.  Hell, it differs between engines on a single kit.

Yes, they had louvres on them before the 2764 PSR sessions banished them! I may recut them later if I can prove they exist, but then this is a prototype built
before Mr Chadwick even thought of the Shackleton, so maybe they were there anyway. 

The engines don't fit, as you say. They're too high by maybe 1/8" for a start, and the square peg things are very misshapen and fit where they touch at the moment. A big file, a big hammer and some PSR should sort them out........

[The Wooksta!]

Easier to reduce the inside of the engine cowlings where they match at the top and the lip. on the cowling side. 

Trust me, it works!

[buzzbomb]

Still following with much interest 

[PR19_Kit]

A mini-disaster y'day evening. The port tailplane broke off, that's the one that I was dubious about before as it has no support inside the vacform fuselage. So I superglued it back in position and went to bed with my fingers crossed.

This morning it looked fine and seemed to be a tad stronger, so I went to re-prime the glued area and whacked the OTHER tailplane into a door, and it promptly broke off as well!  (the tailplane, not the door...)

So now THAT'S been re-glued and I'll prime it again in a while. <sigh>

[NARSES2]

These things are sent.......... but that doesn't mean they are any less a P.I.A. 

[PR19_Kit]

I was all set to glue the Shackleton canopy in place on the modified forward fuselage but found I'd screwed up the mods.....

The canopy is about 2 mm shorter than the space I'd allowed for around the cockpit, so I had to add an extension to the forward edge of the fuselage, NOT the easiest job I've ever done, but it's not looking too bad so far.

The canopy's just been dunked in Klear and I'll glue it in place tomorrow.