My Frogleton Revell 1:72 Avro Shackleton MR.3 (re-release of Frog kit)

[Lancaster630]

Hello all I hope this 1950's aircraft is O.K. I did spot a Mirage III thread so figured it should be,

I managed to get this started last night in the heat that the U.K. is currently getting and preventing me from painting the GB 55 Spitfire, my favorite of the Avro Heavies and the first one I am going to get done of the 6 I have in the stash!

The kit was purchased second hand from Newark Air Museum and is a re-release from 1997 of the old 1967 Frog Shackleton and in a remarkable move Revell actually included a sheet of paper to tell us this!

My plan is to display the model in flight with bomb doors open and have it on my desk at work to keep the Mosquito company and maybe me sane! (well in a work sense anyway)

The Box sounded like a breakfast cereal packet to be perfectly honest, which worried me but despite a lot of parts going off the sprue I am glad to say that the bag containing them held and I think everything is there and mostly in one piece!

I began by working out what I could get into the fuselage halves and still be able to access afterwards to paint, before primer.

I then spent I kid you not, an hour cleaning up both fuselage halves properly, there are sink marks and so on but I like to keep warts and all on my builds so when as I can do with this I build the newer releases I can see how far we have come in the development of models (also because I can never get the blessed Humbrol filler to work! )

After that and some dry fitting I began building the interior and putting it into the aircraft, carefully cleaning each part and doing multiple test fits and so far have been rewarded.

After taping the bomb door that I couldn't get away with not adding whilst adding the bombay area into position I then closed up the fuselage in a dry fit state and used tape to keep it together to encourage the interior parts a lot of which purely balance on an edge to dry in a fashion that allows the close up to be as perfect as I can get it to be.

This brings us to where the project is now still sat at home (should have sent it to work rather than me (coffee break atm) lol) the slight gaps at the front visible in the picture do close with gentle pressure so I am not worrying about them.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Even at 1/72 scale this is going to be a sizable build. I remember the Shack's always doing compass swings on the other side of the airfield at Khormaksar in the mid 60's, good place to bomb them up out of common sight.

 

[Lancaster630]

You were not wrong there Vic, my has it grown!

Despite the heat I have made good progress with this model, a very basic interior paint job suggested by the instructions helped a lot, along with using contrast paints from citadel for the crew figures.

Cleanup is the main buzzword of this build I end up resembling a snowman at every sessions end

So I assembled the interior of the model and added the anti tail strike skid to the rear which I modified to be retracted as the machine is in flight.

Next painted the crew and interior, it said black but I went one tone down which I think looks a little more true.

Fuselage halves together - the bomb doors were hard to pose as there is no real guide on the model or in the instructions for this.

I assembled the tailplane and fin/rudders and also fitted the glass having an Eduard masking set for this.

Test fitted the upper wing halves which showed me that despite the best made plans a mould that was 30 odd years old when the kit was produced there was a sag in the tail area that has given me a wonky tailplane, some gentle bending has made it a bit less obvious fortunately.

Finally the wings were assembled and put on.

Now the weather is behaving itself I am eager to get back to the modern age for a bit and work on the Spitfire, but this old kit has proven one thing to me...

Not every model needs an interior set detailed to the max as 90% of the time you will never see it again, in less than a week my Shackleton from the original Frog kit of 1967 has gone together in less than a week despite heat and extra clean up, my Airfix AEW.2 I started last year can be seen in the final picture when I ran out of mojo for it after 2 weeks (will finish it one day) - just my thoughts go back to something a teacher said about project planning for a smooth action "keep it simple, stupid" - just my thoughts

 

[Wurger]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Lots going on here, lovely aircraft.

 

[Airframes]

nice one. I remember building the original Frog kit around 1968.

 

[Lancaster630]

Thank you all, I have learnt a lot so far whilst building this aircraft.

I have now added the engines as well and the propellers all turn still I am happy to say!

Today as seen in the photographs attached it has come to work with me today.

It is looking quite at home there with the Mosquito and clears the upper computer fan satisfactorily. I had a sudden thought that it would be best to test fit it in, stand and all before going further and needing to plan somewhere to keep it at home if it hadn't of fitted into the space. (the students will think I am a nut no doubt but then are they wrong? lol)

 

[Wurger]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Very impressive. I'd forgotten about the counter rotating props on this bird.

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far!

 

[T Bolt]

Looking very nice