1/32 Short Stirling

[mozart]

Excellent work Tom, I used a similar method with my Anson:

 

Works a treat! 

[Derek B]

Great work Tom. Many modellers are shocked by the size of the Avro Lancaster in 1/32 scale. Although the Short Stirling had a similar wing span to the Lancaster (as did all of the British four-engined bombers due to the maximum hangar door width during WW II), it had a considerably longer and deeper fuselage, which makes this model a real monster in 1/32 scale!

 

 

Derek

[JayW]

8 minutes ago, Derek B said:

Great work Tom. Many modellers are shocked by the size of the Avro Lancaster in 1/32 scale. Although the Short Stirling had a similar wing span to the Lancaster (as did all of the British four-engined bombers due to the maximum hangar door width during WW II), it had a considerably longer and deeper fuselage, which makes this model a real monster in 1/32 scale!

 

 

What a stunning picture.  It dwarfs the Lancaster and the Halifax.  Which means it would really dwarf the B-17, although the B-17 had a longer wing span I believe.   

[Grunticus]

Fantastic what you are doing here Tom! The pinnacle of modelling.

[tomprobert]

5 hours ago, JayW said:

Tom - this is so fun to watch.   I love scratch building efforts.  Man - that is one large model.  with a 100 foot win span, that works out to be just short of a full meter.  How can you work on such a monster without knocking it against something?  I remember with my 1/18 P-38  (34.5 inch wingspan), I could not find a place to put it down much less work on it.  Thankfully the outer wing sections could be removed. 

Thanks, Jay. I’m a big admirer of your work and enjoy the magic you conjure on your big builds. The Stirling is quite a size - handling it is not easy. That’s a reason why I leave the finer details until towards the end and as they’re likely to get bashed against something at some point. Using the kitchen table does give a bit of extra space though - but the fridge has a few battle scars 

 

4 hours ago, mozart said:

Excellent work Tom, I used a similar method with my Anson:

 

Works a treat! 

Indeed! I knew I’d seen it somewhere before with great effect - now I know where!

 

1 hour ago, Derek B said:

Great work Tom. Many modellers are shocked by the size of the Avro Lancaster in 1/32 scale. Although the Short Stirling had a similar wing span to the Lancaster (as did all of the British four-engined bombers due to the maximum hangar door width during WW II), it had a considerably longer and deeper fuselage, which makes this model a real monster in 1/32 scale!

 

 

Derek

Yeah it’s massive. It stands considerably higher too. One day I hope to have this, my Halifax and a Lancaster on display together - it’ll make an interesting comparison for sure. The HK Lanc is in the stash ready to go when this one’s complete. I may need a hall all to myself at Telford for the three of them though… 

 

1 hour ago, Grunticus said:

Fantastic what you are doing here Tom! The pinnacle of modelling.

I wouldn’t go that far… you only need to look at the masterpieces on here by modellers far more skilled than I, but you’re very kind indeed. 

[geedubelyer]

Wow! I had no idea that the Stirling was so much bigger than the other four engined British heavies  Short it's definitely not 

 

I built all three in 1/72nd scale as a kid and the Stirling was always my favourite build. Millions of yellow bombs from memory 

 

I can't wait to see your heavy bomber line up one day Tom. I'm pretty sure someone will provide a couple of pasting tables at SMW to see your collection together.

Brilliant stuff. 

[Trak-Tor]

Fantastic built!
Can't wait to see it for myself.
 

Juraj

 

[mozart]

Going from memory of Murray Peden’s book, I believe the pilot sat 23 feet above the tarmac in the Stirling. 

[Jaro]

Fantastic craftmaship!

[TheBaron]

Craftsman. You're a total craftsman Tom.

Such a pleasure to return to this work each time.

[Biggles87]

Extremely impressive stuff, I admire your dedication and perseverance.

Also impressed by the size comparison, it’s not surprising that they couldn’t make a decent cruising altitude after several feet of the wings were chopped off to fit inside the hangars. I have heard that on a raid to northern Italy ( Turin I think ) one of the Stirlings  could not make it over The Alps due to lack of full power on one engine, so flew through them. Whenever I have flown over that area I always think of a lone Stirling making it’s way between the peaks at night, and shiver.

 

John

[tomprobert]

14 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

Extremely impressive stuff, I admire your dedication and perseverance.

Also impressed by the size comparison, it’s not surprising that they couldn’t make a decent cruising altitude after several feet of the wings were chopped off to fit inside the hangars. I have heard that on a raid to northern Italy ( Turin I think ) one of the Stirlings  could not make it over The Alps due to lack of full power on one engine, so flew through them. Whenever I have flown over that area I always think of a lone Stirling making it’s way between the peaks at night, and shiver.

 

John

Hi John,

 

It’s quite amazing when you consider the skill and bravery needed for such missions: basic (by modern standards) navigation, flying in radio silence in the dark, no pressurisation and limited heating, enemy fire, the weather… and still they went out night after night. 
 

I’ve been doing lots of reading and research about the Stirling (and the RAF’s night bombing offensive in general) for this build and the appreciation and respect I have for what these chaps did is immense. And as you say, imagine making it to Italy, thousands of miles away from base, and then having to navigate your way home in a damaged aircraft and have the largest mountain range in Europe to cross on your way back. Incredible. 

[tomprobert]

A few more details added to the Stirling of late. 
 

As I’m doing a MkIII, they were fitted with the later FN50 mid upper turret which is a bonus, as I can utilise the HK turret from the Lancaster. However, the fairing around the turret was not provided in this kit so I’ve had to improvise a little…
 

The fairing itself gave a little aerodynamic assistance, but it’s main purpose was provide a runner for cams that provided an automatic cut off to the guns, stopping over excited gunners blasting parts off their own aircraft. I initially wondered if I could use the HK models fairing from their Lancaster kit, but quickly discovered that their shapes were quite different. 
 

One day, I’ll get my backside in gear and learn how do design and print such items in 3D, but for the time being it’s back to the old-skool…Milliput to the rescue! 
 

Step one was place some masking tape over the area the fairing will sit. Once I’d consulted plans, I transferred the basic outline of the fairing onto the tape. Next, I made some Milliput ‘sausages’ and placed then in position, before using my long-forgotten sculpting skills from my school art lessons and set about creating the approximate form of the fairing. Milliput acts just like clay when wet, so it wasn’t actually hard to get the basic shape - just lots of consulting of pictures and plans needed:

 

With the Milliput given 24hrs to harden fully, I peeled it off from the tape and fuselage, and with some fine sandpaper did the final shaping:

 

This was then glued back to the fuselage, and viola!

 

It won’t be perfect, but it’ll do. 
 

Next up was the gear doors. These were cut away as a whole when I made the wings. Astonishingly, I hadn’t lost them:

 

The gear doors are a very complex shape - there are various gaps for the other doors to slot into as they retract as well as an opening for the lower part of that massive wheel to protrude. Again, looking at plans and pictures of the real aircraft, these were cut and shaped accordingly and some ribs added to the inner surfaces:

 

Finally, they were attached to the gear:

 

 

 

Here she is sitting pretty on the bench… my kitchen table!

 

I now need to finish detailing the forward part of the main landing gear bays before I can squirt some paint on the bays and the gear to see how it all looks. 
 

Until next time,

Tom

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Just superb, Tom!

 

Kev

[fab]

Never realised the size of the beast...My Lord...

 

...."Short" Stirling...I will never measure the size of the British sense of humor also

 

Amities

 

Fab