AlexM Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 (edited) Hi folks, having finished the SM.79 last year, I started work on the Handley Page Hampden (also a vacuform from Tigger Models). After a promising start, it didn't make any progress the last few months. Now, since I have vacations and since weather is bad (today fell snow, though I thought winter was over ), I hope I can make some progress with the Hampden. Talking about the kit, all you get are some styrene plates where the main parts are molded in, and first have to be cut out by the modeler. There are no surface details (at least at the Hampden kit, though there are other vacuform kits that have some kind of surface detail). Other “minor†details like the whole interior, defense weapons, engines or decals are absent. There are parts for the main wheels of the Hampden, which look nice from the inside, but very soft on the outside. The basic parts look like this (check out the website of Tigger Models for more pics): Unfortunately there were some issues with the fuselage parts. Viewed from above, the rear fuselage did widely spread away from each other at the end what made some heavy surgery in form of large cuts along the upper and lower side necessary. Also viewed from the side, when I aligned the two fuselage halves, the rear ends didn't match well (one of the rear ends showed upwards respectively the other one downwards), so I had to cut away and later glue back the right rear fuselage halve. Then, the difference in height between the upper main fuselage (I mean the area behind the cockpit) and the area in front of the cockpit was way too small, so that the canopy wouldn't have matches, respectively the Pilot wouldn't have seen much more than the struts of the canopy. To solve this problem, one could either raise the main fuselage rear the cockpit, or lower the area in front of the cockpit. I went for the second option. After that I realized that the height of the (untouched) fuselage was a bit smaller than on the drawing in the in the Warpaint Series book, so maybe it would have been better to raise the area behind the cockpit (of course I don't know if the drawing in the Warpaint book is accurate). Nevertheless, wheatear my model is accurate or not (probably not ), it still looks like a Hampden in my eyes. Another small issue concerns the fuselage at the upper rear defense strand. On the real thing, the fuselage was raised to house the defense turret. On the kit, the fuselage is totally straight, so I had to cut out this and insert some plastic sheet to create that raised area. Finally, some curious issue: There was lots of whatever dirt melted inside of the rear thin fuselage area (looked like hay?). No real problem, since this area won't be visible on the final model. Just wonder what was going on during production of this kit… The interior was made according to some cut-away drawings, but I'm pretty sure it's not 100 % accurate. Though, too much will be seen on the final model. Here after some paint: Btw, does anyone know the correct color of the flame floats stored at the front? I painted them red, but thats pure speculation Cheers Alex Edited August 12, 2017 by AlexM sandokan, Bill Cross, Learstang and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexM Posted April 1, 2015 Author Share Posted April 1, 2015 (edited) So, here are some pics of the current status. Assembling the tail and gluing it to the fuselage was a bit tricky, and I went a bit out of symmetry, so please do me a favor and don't look too close Cheers Alex Edited August 12, 2017 by AlexM sandokan, Starfighter, Lee White and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardcore Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 It's a silly bomber but I applaud your effort!:-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Paul Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Great work so far on a very unique aircraft. I wish you the best of luck for your project, keep up the great progress! Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Boillot Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 (edited) Good work so far. As you say, it looks like a Hampden, although there are some significant accuracy issues (like the total height of the fuselage for instance. Another issue is the too-small diameter of the engine cowlings, which should be in the 44 mm area. I did turn a new cowling master out of aluminium, and pulled a few vac-form cowlings for my own (future) use. I then sent the master to John, if he wants to use it. Of courses changing the cowlings implies changing the nacelles shapes. Anyway, if you are interested (with this correct dia, you can fit - tight -a Vector engine) by the new cowlings, let me know. Either I have enough spares for you, or I can at worst cast a new resin master from my own vac copies for more vac-forms. I'll watch this one with interest. Hubert. Edited April 2, 2015 by MostlyRacers Iain and Kagemusha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loic Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Oh . My . God !!! Amazing work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Fantastic work, Alex! An ambitious and impressive project, and I'll be following along for sure. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Alex Wonderful progress on the Hampton ... interior detailing looks just fantastic Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexM Posted April 1, 2015 Author Share Posted April 1, 2015 (edited) It's a silly bomber... Maybe, I don't know the exact IQ of the Hampden, couldn't find any info on Wikipedia Solving the issue with the engine cowlings will be at least "interesting"... The kits parts will fit nicely with the nacelles: But the diameter is in fact too small. I have Vector resin engines for the build, and it's impossible to pull the kit's cowling over them (besides the fact that it won't be accurate). For comparison, I placed the cowling of the SM.79 to the Hampden wing (the SM.79 cowling has about 44 mm diameter, those two planes had in fact the same/similar engines as the Alpha Rome 128 was based on the Bristol Pegasus): Changing the cowling for the Hampden won't be the problem. Adjusting the shape of the nacelles will be (did someone say putty orgy ) Edited August 12, 2017 by AlexM Starfighter, Kagemusha and Jack 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kagemusha Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Very impressive, looking forward to more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Neat! Its a different looking plane for sure..................and can really appreciate anyones efforts to make a nice looking vac! This is the last frontier for me as I have not yet taken the plunge with vacs yet, and its pretty much the only area I havnt tested the water in. Looking forward to more of this! Joel_W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Boillot Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 I don't want to hijack your thread, Alex, as you seem ta have already thought this through. But for illustration, here is a side by side set of pics of the kit's cowling (on the right) and my new one. Hubert. Out2gtcha, allthumbs, Joel_W and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Cross Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 This is REAL modeling: turning a sow's ear into a silk purse. My admiration is extreme, though I would never do a vacuform kit myself. Joel_W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexM Posted April 1, 2015 Author Share Posted April 1, 2015 Thank you all for your interest. "Unfortunately" the weather became better, the snow melted away, and I was able to roll out the summe-car with season license plate of the garage, so I hope this won't divert me too much the next days To Hubert: PM sent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Lund Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Looks great. It makes me think I need to do something to my Ki-45 tigger vac too... That one have the same nacelle issues - pita ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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