Short Sunderland MkII

[Archimedes]

1 hour ago, tomprobert said:

Thanks for the link, Paul - I was aware of the Vector set but it'll set me back a hefty sum to all four engines. I think I have a cunning plan to make something passable using the Hercules cylinders and some plastic pipe for the engine core. The reduction gear housing on the Pegasus is smaller than the Hercules but I may just have to use what I've got. It's going to be very dark in the nacelles, and as long as the number of cylinders is correct I think I can 'fudge' the rest.

 

All the best,

Tom

Hi Tom agreed - it all looks very 'spendy' going the Vector route.  At least for a 9 cylinder engine it is reasonably easy to subdivide a crankcase out evenly to make it look right. It all come down to time vs cost I guess. Your skills are peerless so I think we all have confidence that when you say 'fudge it' the result will be great!

 

Best regards,

Paul

 

[tomprobert]

I’ve put a request in the wanted section for a set of HK B-17 engines as the 9 cylinder Cyclone will be a good starting point. I’m hoping someone has used an aftermarket set and therefore has the HK engines going spare. We shall see. If not, I’ll have to make my own...

[RLWP]

How about finding four people who have fitted Vector engines to their Trumpeter Swordfish?

 

Richard

[KiwiZac]

Brilliant, just brilliant. It's amazing to watch this come together - the engines sound like a real mission but an enjoyable one for us to watch, at least!

[tomprobert]

Good news! I have a set of 9-cylinder Wright Cyclone engines in their way so I can get started on modifying them as soon as they arrive. 
 

In the meantime I’ve done a test fit of the Revell 1/32 Beaufighter Hercules cowlflaps and exhaust collector ring and it looks as if they will fit perfectly - happy days!

 

Hopefully more of an update soon. 
Tom

[brahman104]

Great to hear Tom! You'll have this monster finished in no time!

 

Craig

[Markjames1968]

On 7/29/2021 at 1:27 PM, tomprobert said:

Afternoon guys and gals,

 

Another update for you - can you tell I'm a teacher on school holidays? 

 

I've been working on the last of the major airframe construction which has been the vertical stabiliser. Here's how it comes in its raw form:

 

 

As usual, I had to scribe on the surface details and then I set about making some internal reinforcements. Being such a massive fin, I made some beefy spars from plastic card and used some old scrap sprue to reinforce and help the bonding of the leading edge. The spars were made to protrude from the base of the fin, as they would then be attached through the top of the fuselage and secured to the spar for the stabilisers using Araldite Epoxy glue for a really solid joint:

 

 

 

 

The fin was then blended into the upper fuselage with car body filler, polished and then the missing and damaged panel detail reinstated. Unfortunately, the distinctive curved fairing at the lower rear of the fin was missing in the kit, so I fashioned the basic shape of the fillet from plastic card and blended everything in with filler - see the red arrow below. This will still need some more tweaking when I work on the turret as it's actually quite a complex shape at the back end:

 

 

I've also added some Evergreen ribbing on the rudder in an attempt to match the elevators - this has since been sanded right back and is much more subtle:

 

 

It's now looking more and more like a Sunderland:

 

 

 

 

It's good to get the main construction done and I've been on a bit of a roll... the next logical step will be the engines so I'm off to do some head-scratching about how I can convert a 14-cylinder Hercules engine (from the Revell 1/32nd Beaufighter) into a 9-cylinder Pegasus. Should be fun!

 

Until next time,

Tom

Do a mk 5 instead, engines are a lot easier to come by

[tomprobert]

8 hours ago, Markjames1968 said:

Do a mk 5 instead, engines are a lot easier to come by

That’s true - but modifying and totally reshaping the lower hull and the shape of the planing surfaces won’t be 

[wingman777]

As for the engines, this may seem over simplistic but you need a single row of 9 cylinders.  Could you start with a 1/32 Pratt & Whitney 2800 and just use the front 9 cylinders?  Cut off the back row and start to customize from there?  

[wingman777]

Ooops...I just read the earlier post where you have acquired the engines you needed.  Good to hear...carry on.

[tomprobert]

2 hours ago, wingman777 said:

Ooops...I just read the earlier post where you have acquired the engines you needed.  Good to hear...carry on.

Yeah... a set of single row 9 cylinder Cyclones are winging their way to me as we speak. 

[tomprobert]

Greetings ladies and gentlemen 

 

Another Sunderland update for you - lots of time has been spent at the bench but unfortunately there's not a lot to show for it... just four engine cowlings that have taken a while to make.

 

The parts supplied in the kit are very basic indeed (see picture below) and to be honest wouldn't cut it if I used them as they came. There has been an effort to mold the exhausts, cowl flaps and carburetor intake but the details are very soft and not to a standard I'm aiming for. Therefore, they'd have to go.

 

Over the years I've amassed a good collection of Revell 1/32nd Beaufighter engine parts as they always come in useful for builds such as these - originally I had intended to use them for a 1/32nd Stirling (a project that's stalled) but they have also come in very useful for this build. The Sunderland's Bristol Pegasus engine cowling is very similar to the Hercules in the fact that is uses the same forward exhaust collector ring and cowl flap set up. The cowling itself is slightly shorter front-rear due to the Pegasus being single row and the Hercules twin-row, but other than that there's lots that is interchangeable. 

 

I've also now got a set of 1/32nd Wright Cyclone cylinders (thanks, Mark!) that will form the basis for a Pegasus conversion - as well as the Beaufighter parts mentioned above. Pictured too are the kit cowlings...

 

 

The first, and rather brutal task, was to remove the centre-section of cowling from the kit parts. This will ensure the engine is the correct length front-rear, and was simply done with a hacksaw. The kit exhaust and intakes will also be removed as I will make replacements for these myself:

 

 

I then carefully trimmed all of the cowling parts to ensure they were all of identical size, and glued them to the Revell cowl flap parts, bit by bit:

 

 

I then replaced the missing parts where the exhaust and intakes were molded with plastic card, heated slightly and curved to match the cowling parts, and then added the Revell collector ring which fitted almost perfectly:

 

 

All the joins were then made good with White Milliput, and some raised detail such as the hinges for the cowling covers were added from Evergreen strip. After about five hours of graft some decent-looking cowlings began to emerge:

 

 

You may notice that the engine second from right has its exhaust positioned at 9 o'clock rather than 12 o'clock as the others do - this is because the number 2 engine's exhaust goes into the leading edge of the wing before changing direction and leaving the upper surface of the wing vertically. I believe this is something to do with a heat-exchange system for the cabin heating - but those more in the know about Sunderlands may be able to correct me on that!

 

With the basic structure of the nacelles complete, I decided to give them a quick splash of primer. Finding some way of holding them whilst spraying is often a challenge, but then I stumbled upon an idea:

 

 

Sometimes I even amaze myself at my own genius 

 

Here we have all four nacelles primed:

 

 

And here is how they'll look once installed on the wing:

 

 

 

 

Well 'appy with that!

 

I now need to tackle the engines themselves, as well as paint the interiors of the nacelles before I can install them permanently.

 

Until next time,

Tom

[Out2gtcha]

Wow! Looks really amazing

[wingman777]

Great ingenuity!  Glad to see you Jumping the hurdles and keeping stride.

[alaninaustria]

Just amazing! Great work mate!

Cheers

Alan