Saunders Roe A.29 Cloud. 1/72 by Valom

[fastmongrel]

The Saunders Roe A.29 Cloud was a small amphibian trainer for pilots, navigators and wireless operators who would go onto fly the RAFs big flying boats.

Saro Cloud - Wikipedia

Opening the box it's a familiar looking set of light brown sprues plus a resin hull and engines. The instructions are the usual short run kit style of part numbers and some arrows that seem to point in random directions but I am used to these types by now.

I am going to skip a few cockpit interior parts as I am a bit brassed off building cockpits that never get seen again as soon as the canopy is in place.

 

[rochie]

Nice one

 

[Wurger]

 

[fastmongrel]

I decided to fettle the resin hull halves before I did any gluing. They're a bit rough in places and one side isn't straight might need some straightening in warm water.

 

[Wurger]

 

[fastmongrel]

Yikes I have taped the bow and stern together and it's going to take some work to get everything straight

 

[rochie]

Yikes indeed !

 

[Airframes]

Double yikes !

 

[Capt. Vick]

Weird that Valom would include a resin hull with a plastic kit.

 

[Wurger]

Some work indeed.

 

[fastmongrel]

Weird that Valom would include a resin hull with a plastic kit.

There are two versions of this kit the civilian A.19 and the RAF A.29 so possibly cheaper or easier to build the hull halves separately.

 

[Crimea_River]

Slow and steady will be the way to go here. I'd suggest CA gluing the fuselage in stages starting in the middle and working fore and aft in 1 inch increments. Really interesting kit and I look forward to the results.

 

[fastmongrel]

Slow and steady will be the way to go here. I'd suggest CA gluing the fuselage in stages starting in the middle and working fore and aft in 1 inch increments. Really interesting kit and I look forward to the results.

That was my plan though I was thinking of starting at the bow and working backwards.

I might experiment with quick setting PVA first till I am happy it will fit then wash it off and use flexible gel CA for the final fit. There are bulkheads to fit which I hope force the hull into the right shape.

 

[Crimea_River]

The only risk with starting at one end is if there are variations in the length of the two halves. If they are identical then no issues, so long as you line it up perfectly so you don't end up with a scissor effect by the time you get to the tail.

 

[fastmongrel]

The parts in the instructions don't match the parts on the sprues and some of the part numbers don't match either.

So far I have cleaned up the flash on the hull sections and given them a coat of primer. I have started on the interior deck and bulkheads and the cockpit.

h

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Alignment problems or not ( from what I've seen of resin kits, it's not uncommon ) , it looks to be a nice kit, with some good detail.
Looking forward to seeing the build progress.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[fastmongrel]

I have been sorting out in my head how I am going to glue the hull together. The bulkheads and the deck have been tweaked to fit.

I am going to start gluing at a point between the centre bulkhead and the plane step which are slightly forward of the centre. Once the bulkhead and about 20mm of the hull are glued I can twist the hull to fit and start gluing forwards and backwards as suggested by Airframes

 

[Capt. Vick]

Dude, is that a toilet in the rear on the port side?