Darius at home Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 Whilst surfing the 1:48 model kits on eBay one weekend I spotted an incomplete Tamiya Avro Lancaster for sale - just the wings, engines, props and tailplane - no fusleage or transparencies. The possibility of making an Avro York sprung to mind - all I needed to do was scratch build a York fuselage; how difficult could that be? I bid for the parts and won the auction. The easy part was over. The plan is as follows: 1. Carve a fuselage in balsa wood. 2. Skin this with plastic card and filler. 3. Cut off the front end just before the cockpit and use the balsa masters to vac-form two halves in clear plastic. 4. Cut off the tail cone and use it to vac-form a plastic tailcone. 5. Scratch build a cockpit interior. 6. Graft the vac-formed bits onto the fuselage. 7. Use clear plastic to skin the glazed part of the fusleage (surface painted black beneath). 8. Scribe fusleage panel lines. 9. Use those self adhesive circles that you get in stationary stores to mask the fuselage windows. 10. Make the wings etc. using the Tamiya parts. 11. Connect the wings etc. to the fuselage. 12. Mask and paint as per a normal kit (I will probably paint the wings and fuselage separately). 13. Vac-form the central tail using another balsa master. 14. Make some home-made decals for the Dan Air York G-ANTK. 15. Apply the decals and finish off. 16. Make myself a really a long drink and relax for a while. Step 1 was completed today using a Surform to profile the solid balsa fuselage. I used enlarged plans from the Profile Publications Avro York booklet. My arms really ache now and my hair is full of balsa dust!!! Darius Quote Link to post Share on other sites
imwhoim01 Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 This is something you don't see every day... Looks great so far, and I'm gonna enjoy watching the rest of the build Good luck Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Koen L Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 (edited) Wow, looking forward to seeing more on this one! Hope you're going for a nice camo York instead of that civie scheme you have there on your workbench. Edited January 28, 2007 by Koen L Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted January 30, 2007 Author Share Posted January 30, 2007 Jumped ahead to step 15 and made the decals using my inkjet printer. Sorry Koen, but as my original post states, this is going to be a civillian York in Dan Air markings. :) Darius Quote Link to post Share on other sites
miduppergunner Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 Oh yes I like this idea - the York is a very nice aeroplane - I am sure I flew in one in my well spent youth. I was trying to picture where abouts in Worthing you live from the photo of the snow - we used to visit there quite a bit. David. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted January 30, 2007 Author Share Posted January 30, 2007 Oh yes I like this idea - the York is a very nice aeroplane - I am sure I flew in one in my well spent youth. I was trying to picture where abouts in Worthing you live from the photo of the snow - we used to visit there quite a bit. David. David In West Worthing, off Grand Avenue, about 5 mins walk from the beach. Darius Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chappie Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 Darius!? You're killing me! What about the B-47 and the KC-135? <_< Chappie Quote Link to post Share on other sites
madmike Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 Darius This I will watch with interest. I respect immensely those who can scratch build as you are with this project! MikeJ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted February 1, 2007 Author Share Posted February 1, 2007 Very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing the vacforming process... do you have a machine, or a gadget you made yourself?btw - roughly how long did it take to sand the fuselage blank to shape? It looks good Mike I will be using an old Mattell vac-forming machine that should be capable of forming the cockpit area of the fuslage in two separate havles and the tailcone in one. The rest of the fuselage will be plastic card skinned onto the balsa core. It took a day to get the balsa to shape. I still have to "tweak" it in a few areas but using the surform and a sanding block made "relatively" light work of it - although my upper arms ached for about a day afterwards!!! Darius, this I will watch with interest. I respect immensely those who can scratch build as you are with this project! If this works well I have ambitions to try and make a 1:48 Dh Dove... After I have completed the B-47 of course. B) Darius Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Clumber Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 WOW Quote Link to post Share on other sites
silvascoob Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 Oh very interesting. Watching this one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted February 4, 2007 Author Share Posted February 4, 2007 Steps 3 and 4 completed today (yesterday I was watching the England vs Scotland rugby match in a Brighton pub). I cut off the front end just behind the cockpit area using a razor saw and spit it horizontally in order to vac-form the top in clear plastic and the bottom in plain white. Before the vac-forming process I glued pieces of 2mm thick cardboard to the balsa masters to provide some oversail. This will hopefully give me a margin to trim the parts to fit. I had considered splitting the cockpit vertically but the main windcreen does not have a central pillar so it had to be a horizontal split. I use a Mattell vac-forming machine to do the necessary and it worked reasonably well. The tailcone was vac-formed in one go. Darius Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RPG Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Steps 3 and 4 completed today .......The tailcone was vac-formed in one go. What an excellent project - very interesting. I envy your skills, and your initiative - I couldn't emulate this at all. I've often thought it would be great to build a York (and other RAF tansports e.g. Valetta, Hastings) because it would make an interesting project to build aircraft I've actually flown in - and the York was my first. In, er, 1951 or '52 my mother brought me home from Egypt (my dad was stationed at RAF Abu Sueir) to UK via Malta and Marseilles, the only non-servicemen passengers in an RAF York. I too will watch your progress with enthusiasm - do keep us posted. Regards, RPG Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ian lanc Posted September 21, 2007 Share Posted September 21, 2007 hi darius, done any more on the york, need more info... :blink: :blink: ....ian. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cr7driver Posted September 22, 2007 Share Posted September 22, 2007 Great modelling topic.....as usual....I'll be watching this one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kalashnikov-47 Posted September 22, 2007 Share Posted September 22, 2007 Great project!!! I'll be following along as well!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DAR Posted September 22, 2007 Share Posted September 22, 2007 Nice work Darius....again :blink: You make it all seem so easy. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted September 22, 2007 Author Share Posted September 22, 2007 hi darius, done any more on the york, need more info... ....ian. Hi Ian The project is stalled at present. I plane to get back to it just as soon as I clear the 1:48 Airfix Spitfire IX and Airfix/Aeroclub Seafire XVII off the workbench... Darius Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted October 2, 2007 Author Share Posted October 2, 2007 The York was back on the table this Sunday and I made some progress in the cockpit using the one and only photo that I could find on the net of the main instrument panel. I scratch built the seats and yokes and used the balsa vac-form masters for the floor and front console as they strengthen the rather thin vac-formed outer skins. I was going to cheat and use an Eduard zoom Lancaster instrument panel but the York is much different - having both a pilot and copilot. I will therefore have to scratch build the panel in the same fashion as I did for the Sanger Shackleton. Mike Grant's instrument decals make this a much less daunting prospect. Darius PS - if anyone has some Avro York cockpit interior pics to share they would be very useful...(unless they show something completely different form what I have done, in which case I don't want to know ;) ) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ron Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 Looks good I am no expert on Yorks but I can't see the instrument panel being all that much different than the Lancaster? Canadian built Lancaster X's had provisions for a co-pilot. Attached is a link to a photo of one. Link to Lanc Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 Some further progress has been made since last October. I attached the vac-formed tailcone and modfied the balsa fuselage to accept the kit tailplanes. The cockpit was modified to remove the throttle quadrant which is mounted on the ceiling in the Avro York. I also scratch built the instrument p[anel, utilising Mike Grant's excellent instrument decals. The balsa fusleage was then "skinned" with plastic card. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 The cockpit area was then attached and the skinning joints filled... The central fin was carved from balsa and then portand starboard halves vac-formed. Plastic card was also used to form the main wing to fuselage attachment points. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 The cockpit was furnished... The main cabin windows were fabricated from a strip of clear acetate with circular self-adhesive labels of the correct diameter used to mask each "porthole". Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 Cockpit glazing attached and joints filled - ditto for the tailplane attachment points. Cockpit masked and several coats of Halfords spray acrylic white primer applied. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darius at home Posted June 10, 2008 Author Share Posted June 10, 2008 Lower fuselage masked and painted. Almost disaster - the circular labels didn't want to come off. :D Fortunately applying whte spirit broke down the adhesive without affecting the clear acetate beneath and so the windows survived!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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