1/72 Short Stirling BIII - Heavy Hitters II GB

[T Bolt]

I was tempted, but I had not sprayed the dark green on two of the engine cowls yet (totally forgot about them) and I wanted to spray them black with the rest of the aircraft. I took care of that this morning so I should be spraying black when I get home tonight.

 

[T Bolt]

Finished applying the black tonight. It was actually black with a touch neutral gray added so it wouldn't be quite so black. I striped off the masking and will start the Future after a day or two for the paint to cure.

 

[meatloaf109]

Yes, an excellent idea! I am looking forward to the finish.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Man that looks nice, well done!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far Glenn!

 

[Crimea_River]

Don't ya love it when the masking comes off nice and clean with no paint on it? Look great Glenn. I agree with your technique of toning down the black and will do the same on my Mosquito.

 

[Catch22]

Nicely done. I'll also probably steal it for my Lanc.

 

[T Bolt]

It does seem to make a difference.

Wile the paint cures a bit I've been working on the engines.

 

[pattle]

I don't want to sound as though I am finding fault but weren't the exhaust collectors steel at the front, copper behind and pretty much equal in width? sorry.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Lucky13]

Looks fantastic G-Man!

 

[T Bolt]

I don't want to sound as though I am finding fault but weren't the exhaust collectors steel at the front, copper behind and pretty much equal in width? sorry.

I've looked at a lot of pictures and it seems that there was a lot of variation. Some were apparently painted over, Some were just copper with no band, some had a wide light colored (steel?) band at the front, and some had a narrow band at the front and rear of the copper. This last was what I was trying to do. I had the rear band painted but the masking for the front band didn't look right no matter how many times I redid it so I gave up on it rather than do something that looked sloppy.

 

[pattle]

From what I have learnt the exhaust collector ring was made from some type of high temperature alloy that was originally almost pewter in colour but would discolour and take on a copper coloured hue after being heated up. The silver coloured ring at the front of the collector ring wasn't part of the collector ring itself but some kind of a shield, on early Hercules engines you will noticed that it has been spaced ever so slightly away from the collector ring while on later engines it seems to be flush with the collector ring. I think this shield was installed to protect the collector rings leading edge as they were expensive and difficult to manufacture. At some point during the war all night bombers were ordered to have all reflective or shiny parts such as the undercarriage painted over black, this was a problem with the collector rings because the heat would take the paint off, I think a special heat resistant black paint was finally used.
If you look at bits of recovered crashed Sterling you will notice that the Hercules collector ring hasn't actually rusted but has kind of gone a funny corroded white colour with perhaps rust showing through it. If you look at earlier Bristol engines fitted to museum aircraft like the Swordfish, Gladiator or Blenheim they have mostly been polished into a shiny pewter colour.
As a result of all this it is very difficult to know how best to paint these collector rings, in the old pictures the rings appear to be copper but were not, but neither were they rusty, they just never seem to look quite right when modelled. I hope that wasn't to boring.

 

[T Bolt]

Not at all. I've been looking through my pictires again and the larger lighter areas do seem to be on Stirlings with the earlier style exhaust and they do seem to stand out quite a bit from the cowling. The ones on the later Stirlings seem to have either a very narrow one that appears to be flush with the cowling or none at all. I may try to run a brush with silver around the inside of the one of the cowls to give the impression of the narrow one. If that works I'll repeat it on the others. If it looks bad I can touch it up with copper and I'll leave them as is.

 

[Wurger]

The source of pictures Short Stirling RAF Bomber Command Forum • View topic - Short Stirling Photo Collection

It is clearly seen that depending on the mark of the bomber ( engine variant rather ) the front ring was either shorter or longer ( solid ring or a two-part one) and had a little bit different shape of it ...

 

[vikingBerserker]

Well done sir!

 

[T Bolt]

Thanks Wojtek, some nice close ups there.

Take 2 on the engine cowles. I was worried about hand painting them but it worked out pretty good. I also drilled out the front of the exhaust as shown in pictures of the later Stirlings.

 

[fubar57]

Those, my friend, look fantastic.

Geo

 

[pattle]

Your rings look spot on, sorry if I gave you a head ache.
Just to muddy the waters even more, about the pictures it was only the later transport Sterlings that had propeller bosses, they were added along with fans due to concerns over the engines over heating while towing gliders. If you look at the Yorkshire Air Museums Hercules engine Halifax (which is not exactly an authentic aircraft) you will notice the collector rings have been painted an all over rust colour, the Canadian Halifax which is a far more original machine has it's collector rings painted black.
I have two Sterlings on the build and thought about painting these rings a boring black as I don't actually know the exact colour they were when unpainted, in the end I decided that black would be nothing short of cowardice and I have done them like yours in alclad copper and magnesium mixed with airframe aluminium.