Avro Type 690 Leeds - the true story

[PR19_Kit]

Today in my life will always be 'Sanding Day'! I've never sanded so much in one day, ever! 

I did the dreaded 'sanding down the edges' of the fuselage vacform this afternoon. I could only get 400 grit W&D paper, which is too fine for me usually, my home sanding plate has 320 grit paper. Surprisingly it went pretty well, with the aid of a hefty board supplied by my mate Pete (him with the teeny weeny lathe  ) so now both sides of the fuselage are the correct width according to the plan.

Unfortunately, the canopy moulding isn't, it's about 2-3 mm too narrow to fit! 

The injection moulded canopy from the MR3 will fit a lot better, but it's a different shape, with a semi-V shaped windshield, and curved upper windows. The latter can be sorted by painting extra panel lines, and maybe Mr. Chadwick wanted to experiment with better vision canopies with the Leeds?

After all, it IS a prototype.............. 

[PR19_Kit]

Lots more progress on the Leeds.

I've started gluing the two fuselage sides together, but only the two rear sections so far as the front section will have await me building the cockpit assembly, probably from the Shackleton, and that will await a decision on the windscreen. There's no way the AIM windscreen will fit unless I'd sanded the nose down to a fraction of its proper width, so it looks like I'll be using the MR3 canopy.




The port wing is totally de-rivetted and I'm waiting for the first load of PSR to dry off before scribing panel lines on it. It's very bare looking at the moment, very odd after seeing it with all those rivets!




FROG provide a hefty styrene spar that runs across inside the fuselage and into each wing root, presumably to keep the wing centre sections in line, and the outer panel dihedrals equal, but it won't actually fit into the slots in the wings, so I'll have to file something, either the spar itself or the slots. With a vacform fuselage it'll need something to ensure it all stays in line. 

[The Wooksta!]

It'll fit, it's just all the flash.  Both on the spar itself and the holes it goes through.  Cleaned up enough to know for sure!

[buzzbomb]

small but vital step.
Keep up the good work. Pretty sure it will look as Flash as a Rat with a gold tooth once it is done.

[The Wooksta!]

I trust it's going in the transport scheme?  Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Azure blue with type C1 roundels?  Very fetching scheme and one of my favourites.

[PR19_Kit]

I trust it's going in the transport scheme?  Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Azure blue with type C1 roundels?  Very fetching scheme and one of my favourites.

No, because then it wouldn't be a prototype.

I plan an Avro house scheme, probably white over NMF with a pale blue stripe and an Avro logo on the nose, maybe saying it's a Leeds too. It'll have a Type B registration as well, just to prove it's a prototype.

[NARSES2]

I trust it's going in the transport scheme?  Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Azure blue with type C1 roundels?  Very fetching scheme and one of my favourites.

No, because then it wouldn't be a prototype.

As long as it had very large and very prominent Yellow "P"'s it might, I would have thought ?

[PR19_Kit]

The 'Biting off more than one can chew' syndrome has struck again............

The MR3 cockpit, while fitting perfectly in side view, is still a tad narrow in plan, and it's lower edges are maybe 1.5 mm narrower than the fuselage at that point and they taper inwards too.

I think the canopy moulding will bend a little outward so that the lower edges fit, but I'll have to hack off the upper corners of the forward 1.5" of the York fuselage and glue in some tapered blanking pieces so that the shapes match.

If AIM had only made their canopy so that it fitted the rest of the kit that they'd made............ 

[Old Wombat]

If AIM had only made their canopy so that it fitted the rest of the kit that they'd made............ 

Why would they want to do that?

[PR19_Kit]

If AIM had only made their canopy so that it fitted the rest of the kit that they'd made............ 

Why would they want to do that?

Well yes, then anyone could build it I guess. 

[PR19_Kit]

I've seen a few FROGspawn kits that suffer badly from flash problems, but never a real FROG kit that has it as bad as this Shackleton MR3 I'm using as source material for the Leeds! 

These are the two control columns, the top one after I'd laboriously trimmed it all down, and the bottom one as it came out of the box. Just trying to FIND them was difficult enough, let alone trim them down so they looked like control columns. 



The Leeds' cockpit is proving to be a real problem as the vacform parts that AIM supply don't look much like a cockpit, let alone one for a York, and the MR3 bits don't fit of course. The Shack is not only wider than a York, it tapers toward the top, as I've mentioned on conjunction with fitting the canopy. I can see a LOT of 'cutting and shutting' going on in the nose area of this model yet.

[McColm]

What engines will be using on this build?

[scooter]

The Leeds' cockpit is proving to be a real problem as the vacform parts that AIM supply don't look much like a cockpit, let alone one for a York, and the MR3 bits don't fit of course. The Shack is not only wider than a York, it tapers toward the top, as I've mentioned on conjunction with fitting the canopy. I can see a LOT of 'cutting and shutting' going on in the nose area of this model yet.

Save (what's left of) your sanity and black out the transparencies?

[PR19_Kit]

What engines will be using on this build?

The Griffons and contra-props that came with the FROG Shackleton MR3, but with Barracuda resin exhaust stubs.

Save (what's left of) your sanity and black out the transparencies?

I must admit I had thought of that, but I'd still have to use the Shack's canopy and that means I'll have to taper the forward fuselage anyway. I've got much of the cockpit interior assembled now, but I still have to make it fit.

[PR19_Kit]

I've bitten the bullet now and filed off the corner of the RH forward fuselage so the canopy and cockpit interior from the Shack MR3 will fit. (GULP!)

It doesn't look too bad, and it'll obviously need a blanking plate and a pound or three of putty but it's better than I feared it could have been.