Stirling Build "in progress" 1/48th Vacform

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I’m gonna blame Lucien Harpress (Mike) for this one! [;)]

I was chatting on another thread about his first vac, and I started rambling on about some of the vacs I wanted to build. It set me thinking about the Stirling I’d seen on Sanger’s website (that’s one CLUTTERED UP website!), and before I knew it, I was transferring funds to them for the kit! [:I]

They called me a little while ago to tell me that they’re currently working on a backlog of about 400 kits, so mine should be posted towards the end of next week. Nice of them to bother, and a good sign from a customer service standpoint.

I really shouldn’t be let out! Does anyone have any experience of the Stirling kit, Sanger kits in general, or just large vacforms? I’m now starting to fret, as I really don’t know ehat I’m letting myself in for! [:0] I had a look at some of the pics though, and it really does seem like quite a professional package, with recessed panel lines, resin cockpit & airframe details, and (I think) white metal undercarriage.

If anyone has reference material for the Stirling too, I’d be grateful [;)]

2

I hope that you do have some vacform experience, because such a BIG vac form will need some reinforceing! You can use balsla wood or brass tubing to keep the wings up and reinforce the fuselage.

However, the resin and white metal details will make you life a lot easier.

3

I don’t have anything you need, but I am interested in what you have to say about the kits make up. Sangor has a couple of offerings that I am interested in.

4

yeah - I’ll probably fashion some supports for the wings, from either balsa, brass or both, as you said, and maybe even make a jig to ensure I get the right angles on the wings/tail.

Some formers inside the fuselage will be needed, and I’ve got plenty of thick stock styrene for that, and a couple of profile gauges for the pattern making. I’m rather looking forward to it all. I get more of a buzz from the construction side than I do (yet) from the painting, so I should be in my element!

My vac experience is small and consists of a Dynavector Wyvern that’s in advanced stages of contruction (going very well), and a Gannet that’s just been removed from the backing sheet. I’m pretty reasonable on the scratch building side of things, and always re-enforce things too much, so I’m hopeful it shouldn’t all go wrong, but we’ll have to wait & see!

I wanted a challenge, and to get a kit from another manufacturer, so that I could see how good Dynavector was compared to the modern competition. The Stirling’s a pretty new kit, so I’m hoping that standards have gone up in the vacform world just like they have in the injected styrene arena.

5

No worries - we can’t all be experts on everything!

I was wondering about Sanger myself, as in the past I’ve heard people telling stories of kits that need an AWFUL lot of work, and had fit & shape issues. That was another reason I opted for this one. It’s a cool old plane, and a new release from them, which would give me an idea of the state of their game. It was also pretty cheap at £26 GBPs, compared to a Dynavector kit that retails for £40+ GBPs.

6

Whats the website of Sanger ???
Are their kit expensive?

Cheers,

Jürgen

7

http://www.sangereng.fsnet.co.uk/index.html

They seem quite reasonable, and the postage isn’t too bad either. As to value for money, I can’t really comment as yet.

8

Well - my Stirling arrived last week, but I was too busy finishing off the workshop to have a good look at it.

This kit is IMMENSE!!! [:O] It’s almost 2ft long, with a 2ft wingspan, and includes 2 giant sheets of vacformed white parts, 3 small sheets of vacformed clear parts, and 2 fist sized bags of white metal parts. It also includes 2 A3 pages of constructional drawings, plus some instructions on assembly, creating the cockpit recesses, and painting of the finished model.

The only criticisms of the kit that I can see from the outset are some crude moulding glitches round the edges of some parts that’ll need filling before sanding, so that a clean termination line can be made, and a slightly rough surface to some of the larger parts, like the wing halves. It almost looks like the masters have been brush painted, but some brush marks have remained on the surface, and been propogated to the vac. While some major panel lines have been scribed into the masters, it appears that the majority are absent, so I may have to stump up for a 1/72 Airfix kit to get some data on that aspect of construction.

Other comments are that although there’s diddly squat detail in the cockpit, other than the seats being provided, and 2 odd looking throttle quadrants, both in white metal, plus a drawing of the pilot’s panel, there’s no information regarding the cockpit area. A drawing of the placement of the cockpit floor & bulkheads is provided, but from the few pictures I’ve seen on the net, they’re somewhat innacurate, as the cockpit floor wasn’t flat.

The white metal parts seem nicely made, and a full set of oleos, wheels, engine fronts & props is included, spread amongst the 2 bags. A few parts have been bent in transit, but can easily be straightened up with light finger pressure. The remaining metal parts consist of various sensors to be dotted about the airframe, and rudimentary machine guns to place in the turrets.

The transparencies are workmanlike, but not particularly detailed, and there are no instructions for placement of the gun slits, and nothing to suggest any framing lines. Again, a 1/72nd Airfix Stirling may provide some help.

Overall? A daunting project to me, with one Dynavector Wyvern under my belt, but a challenge. I’m really looking forward to starting to cut plastic, and will update this thread as I go along.

In my research I’ve just stumbled across this rather interesting site: http://www.stirlingproject.co.uk/

Can you believe that these guys are trying to build a Stirling from scratch, using crash wreckage & donated parts as templates? No remaining example of this interesting aircraft exists, and all the plans have been lost at Shorts, so they’re having to recreate their drawings almost from scratch, using the crash wreckage as templates, and scrounging up any engineering drawings that they can find. Amazing… I’ve emailed them to see if they can help, and have offered a donation if they can provide me with some useful information.

If anyone else is feeling charitable towards this lovely old bomber, get in touch with them from their website.

9

That Sanger kit sounds like a lot of work, i mean hobby![;)]

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I think I may have 1/72 drawings of the Stirling - may take a littel while to find as we are in the process of moving (to Norfolk) which were drawn during the War but apparently were consiered rather good at the time. Additionally there is the War Paint Series (No15) on the Stirling which has some interior photos + drawings. Yes the project you mention is remarkable - what committment??? Rather interestingly some Stirling parts are now coming to light - recently a large section of rear fuselage was found on a farm in Holland - used (and apparently this was a popular use during the War - think of the wreckage lying about) as a chicken house.
However I am particularly interested in what you think of their kit because I am tempted by the Halifax - see my thread on Scratchbuilt - and see it as a compromise. I have never thought of vac form as much more than the rather basic kit - a few steps on from the balsa offerings available in the latter part of (and after) the War. My DV Javelin has come out well but with a lot of mods and scratchbuilding - I have a good set of photos which highlighted departures from the real thing. For example I had to rebuild the airlerons.

As regards re- inforcement you can in fact do no better than follow in principle the origional construction - the built up scale flying models do this to a large degree and are amazingly light and strong. Try the Cutaway that Aeroplane published. I can help here by the way. My view is that provide you look upon it a a building exercise rather than wanting to display it quickly on the shelf you will be fine - also leave and comeback when interest wanes. Let me know - in case not apparent am in the UK - south of London.

11

Heh - you’re not kiddin’! I’m not one to pick a shake & bake kit, as you might have noticed if you’ve seen any of my previous posts.

12

Thanks for the offer, and I’ll gratefully accept - I’ve seen your post on the scratchbuilding thread, and posted a bit about the Stirling there, as I thought it might be of interest to you. Just got the DV Javelin myself too - it’s a nicely moulded vac, isn’t it? I’ve not done any research to speak of yet though, so knowing whether the aelerons are wrong wasn’t something that’d occurred to me.

Mind if I email you?

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oh, btw - as an addendum to my post on the kit, there was a little damage to the landing gear mudguards, which look like rounded topped vacformed cones on the sheet. because they’re quite pointed, the styrene was paper thin at the tips, and has actually fractured. One of the turret parts had also sunk back into it’s sheet a bit too, but is recoverable.

The packaging was quite good, so other than those minor items, no complaints… oh, apart from the lack of resin cockpit & wheel wells, of course [;)]

14

PICTURES! I want to see some pictures of the kit and stuff. Very interested in seeing your progress.

15

Progress is nil of course at the moment, but I’ll take a few shots tonight when I get in from work, and post them up, if you’re interested. I think you’d find it a really good challenge, actually. You’ve done those Koster Condors, so you’re well used to the size of the beastie, but did the Condor kits provide any cockpit & wheel well details?

16

[quote]
Originally posted by mikeiw

Thanks for the offer, and I’ll gratefully accept - I’ve seen your post on the scratchbuilding thread, and posted a bit about the Stirling there, as I thought it might be of interest to you. Just got the DV Javelin myself too - it’s a nicely moulded vac, isn’t it? I’ve not done any research to speak of yet though, so knowing whether the aelerons are wrong wasn’t something that’d occurred to me.

Mind if I email you?

Fine - have sent my address - would you like some pictures of te Javelin - the one at Flixton mainly.
[

17

Aye - that’d be grand. Last time I was at Duxford, I just took an idle snap of it, without thinking ahead to whether I’d be building one, one day.

I think I might have taken a few at Bruntingthorpe when I went to see XH558 and the Lightnings too - will have to dig out those photos from my hard drive.

18

Mike, Koster provided lots of cockpit detail including resin and pe pieces. The detail inside the gear bays was limited but the gear themselves were very good and highly accurate. I compared them to a set in a museum and found them to be dead on perfect.

19

No such luck with the Sanger offering. The gear looks reasonable, and should be strong enough to support the finished article, but there is no bay provided, and the cockpit will have to be scratch build around the seats & quadrants. That doesn’t scare me, but getting the shape of it right does… Hopefully Midupper should be able to help a bit in that respect.

Like I said earlier, I’ll set up some pics later on tonight. [;)]

20

I see some great kits on that website. Just wonder if the other half would notice if I got one of those kits in the mail.