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Contrail 1/72 Vac-form HP-42


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:unsure:, G'day philo, Thank you for showing us your HP.42 model. My Dad saw at least one of these as well as even more ancient Vickers Valentias at Helwan during his time in Egypt. It's hard for us today to think that such anacronisms were still in use at that time. He also saw Bristol Bombays and HP Harrows and Sparrows inuse as transports and air ambulances. He also saw DH.86s used by the RAAF's No.1 Air Ambulance Unit.

:worship:,

Ross.

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Yes and for the time they had a remarkable safety record.Most were damaged by storms while on the ground (which were repaired and put back into service).A very dependable aircraft with a long range!

Edited by philo426
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If it is a reasonable cost I may buy one!

It depends on what you term reasonable. Remember that polystyrene and white metal havea all trebled or quadrupled in price in the last few years.

Neil

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Yes and since you are in the UK the exchange rate will probably cause difficulties also.I may have to try to find an original Contrail kit in the US to make it economically feasible!It is not a super high priority for me just something I would do if the price was right.

Edited by philo426
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  • 4 weeks later...

I hesitate to mention it, because I can see that this is a really impressive build, and I for one would certainly not have the skills to pull it off, but given the reply by Neil about potentially putting this back into production, I felt I ought to.

Now I don't know if this is an issue with the kit, but the dihedral on the lower wing isn't right. On the full size, the inner wing on the lower wing is at a fairly steep anhedral angle, such that the outer wing is more or less parallel with the upper, as seen on this pic;

20100904163529!Handley_Page_HP42.jpg

I really was reluctant to mention it, because in no way do I want to detract from your work here Phil, and I apologise for any offence in advance.

Matt

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Yes that is true!I was freaking out and wondering why the lower struts were too short(I used my compass as dividers to carefully cut them in accordance with the plans)!I discovered too late in the building process that I mounted the lower wings with way too much dihederal!I did not wish to break off the wings as I mounted them with brass tubing and feared I would severely damage the fuselage if I attempted to remove them!I was forced to glue extensions on the lower struts to mount the top wing.The results ,while inaccurate, were nevertheless a good learning expierence.if I am able to locate another of these kits I will be much more careful about how the lower wing is mounted!I will say that the wing structure is rock solid!

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I couldn't agree more Phil, and like I said, it doesn't detract from the excellent job you did of getting it all lined up and solid. But it looks as if the plans need some adjustment if someone is going to re-release the kit at some point.

Can I ask how you did the strut attachment points on the wings? Do the struts have locating pins?

If anyone is going to make this available again, my suggestion would be to include a printed jig pattern which could be glued onto a suitably sized cardboard box and cut out. That would make things easier for fumble-thumbs like me, as I would love to do one of these at some point.

Thinking about it a little more, I'm tempted to suggest that it should be possible to redesign the wing mounting, such that the lower inner and upper inner (together with the lower wing nacelles) could be made as a complete unit, to be glued onto the top of the fuselage. That way, everything could be jigged up fairly easily, and once that unit was complete, it would serve as a reference for the rest of the build.

Then, the outer wings could be attached using brass rod, with a couple of 1/16" ply wingribs slid into each wing half. Thus again, the upper and lower outer wings could be made up as a unit and slid onto the centre section. Or even made removable for transport.

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THanks! Where have you neen Lucien?Haven't seen any posts from you on FSM inn ages! Any progress on the Spruce Goose?

Yeah, I've pretty much migrated from FSM over to here and made ARC my "base of operations", as it were.

My Spruce Goose is still sitting on my floor, in pieces, and it pretty much on permanent hiatus until further notice.. I've started a few other projects since then, and I currently have about 12 planes in various stages of completion, which include:

-Vac Vickers Windsors

-XB-36 Peacemaker

-Zveno 7 (haven't touched that one in a while)

-XF-85 Scratchbuild

-SSW R.VIII Scratchbuild

-He 111Z

-Curtiss Sparrowhawk vacuform

I'm real good at starting projects, but REALLY bad at finishing them.

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Matt there are no locating points on the wings so you have to use the forward view to get an idea where they go.The engines do have small pips where the struts attach so they are helpful when drilling holes for the tapered struts.I devised a angle setter that made attaching the struts on the lower wings in parallel easier. 2010_0322Spock0044.jpg

Edited by philo426
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Neil,

Hope you see this ... :) I have the Contrail kit but would cheerfully buy another if it had updated detail parts. The originals from Contrail were pretty crude.

Philo426, nice job!

Edited by Chuck1945
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New masters were created about 10 years ago for the metal parts, but never used - perhaps we will reissue it, but the vacform mouldings would be as the original on economic grounds. I will look at the metal masters again when I go into the workshop in the morning. Oh yes, we have the decals too!

Neil

Edited by tnuag
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