New Kit- Short Stirling

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I’ve wanted this kit for a while, so imagine my suprise when a member over at Swanny’s forums offered to let me have his! I only had to pay for shipping, which came to about $9. Pretty good for this kit, don’t you think? Well, I do. [;)]

This kit isn’t vintage; this kit is VINTAGE. It’s previous owner bought it in 1971, which makes this kit older than I am. It suffers from some problems of early kits- black plastic, raised panel lines, and gigantic rivets everywhere. But it’s the only injection-molded kit of this aircraft available, so I’m not going to complain.

Parts count on this sucker is huge. Last I read it’s somewhere around 250 parts. You can tell from the pictures there’s a lot of stuff that go into this aircraft. Some parts came detached from the sprues (those up top, in the center), but it’s no big deal. There’s also a bit of a warp in one fuselage half, but it’s easily correctable.

The aircraft itself is suprisingly large. Here it is compared to a B-17, same scale.

Wingspan is about equal, with the Stirling’s being slightly smaller. The Stirling fuselage is about 15% longer, though, and the bomb bay is nearly six times larger than the Flying Fortress. Once the landing gear is on both of these airplanes, the Stirling will stand about twice as tall as the Fortress.

All together, I’m really going to enjoy this kit. I think I may begin construction once my current project (Acadamy’s 1/72 P-47 razorback T-bolt, about 90% finished) is complete. I’ll have to lay off the airbrushing once winter rolls in, but I can still do a bit of building. You don’t see too many Stirlings built, so this should be cool for everybody.

Stay tuned for updates! [:D]

2

The kit looks amazing, can’t wait to see more pics as you build it.

And yea that’s a sweet deal. And I have to say as I said before, Models are the GREATEST People in the world…

Have a GREAT day

Bud

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I have the vacuform 1:48 Stirling, someday I’ll be brave enough to give it a go, I think I’ll have to find a copy of this kit to use as a guide, I think I’ll need allt he help I can get.

4

Ah British bombers. They have similar looks. What a generous guy. He must have known you’d do a bang up job!!
Lucien, you’re saying you have to airbrush outside??? I’d have thought that along with your “hanger” room you’d have a paint room!
Looks to be quite a task, but I think you’re equal to it!

5

I also have this kit and will build it in about 2 months time. does yours have the aircraft tug in the kit?
I’m also impressed by the size of the kit. Going to take one lot of paint me thinks. and i brush paint all my planes thats why i have put the build start off till our summer down under. good luck with your build will follow with interest.

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Hey there, NZDer56!

I built this when in 1974. Somehow along the way, I lost a nacelle. Nowadays, I’d make a resin copy, or send for a replacement. Actually, nowadays the only option is to make a resin copy.

Loads of rivets aren’t out of place on a/c of this vintage, and you can always sand raised detail down. It’s a matter of taste, whether or not panel lines are raised or scribed, because scale panel lines would be nearly flat anyway, and very thin.

Don’t forget your options for canopy replacement include the very good Falcon sets. I, too, have one of these monsters, dating back to the late 80’s Humbrol era “blueprint” box art. Yawn.

I look forward to the build.

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The Stirling is one that I have long wanted to try building. My LHS had a few still on the shelf on my last visit, nearly got one, but picked up their last Airfix B-29 instead. Hopefully one will still be there on my next visit. Thanks for the info on the Falcon canopy. I read an inbox review a while back to the effect that the mold used for the canopies was very tired now. This will solve the problem.

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Thanks, everybody for the comments. I’m pretty excited about this project. I’ve been wanting a Stirling for a while.

RadMax8- Well, I don’t have to airbrush outside, but it’s close. Our (family’s) only air compressor is in a large, uninsulated barn. It cuts down on wind, but it doesn’t do diddly about the cold. My house really isn’t that big. I figure my bedroom will be for displaying finished models, I’ll build models where I do now (corner of the basement), and airbrush them out in the barn. It’s just an easier space to keep clean, IMO, with paint and thinner flying around all over the place.

When it comes to the kit transparencies, they’re pretty bad. The main canopy isn’t bad, but all the turrets are terrible. ALL of the clear parts are about two MM thick, which is huge. The Falcon replacement would be nice, but currently I’m strapped for cash (poor college student and all that). I think I’m just going to pick up some supplies, make my own vac-former, and make some of my own.

Transparencies seem to be the only major thing I’m going to need to deal with right now. I’m sure time will raise more concerns, though. We’ll see.

(And yes, it does contain four bomb trolleys and a towing tractor. The kit comes with 16 bombs, so I’ll be putting six in the wing bays and the rest on the trolleys.)