5 Stops past Barking! - FINISHED!

[ExNurseGaz 1,183]

I'm going to have a go at this, I've got my kits for the model, but I'm not revealing yet. This post is a teaser to set out a back story and (hopefully) get you all guessing.

 

In November 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed the Supermarine factory in Eastleigh, Southampton to rubble. Apart from disrupting Spitfire production, the major result of this raid was the abandonment of Supermarine's

heavy bomber project due to the destruction of the partly built prototype and most of the project's paperwork and drawings.

WHAT IF this had been part of a co-ordinated operation (Unternehmen Bomberdaemmerung?) to destroy Britain's capacity to produce heavy bombers? If Vickers had been razed, if Handley Page had been flattened, if Avro had been demolished,

where would our heavy bombers have come from? Maybe, just maybe, from a firm not known for heavy bombers but with a suitable product for development . . .

Edited October 9 by ExNurseGaz
correct a typo

[Kevin 6,199]

Barnes wallace would have saved the day, brought together Rolls Royce and Enfield Mororbikes

[Mad Steve 25,051]

I like the idea Gaz 

[RWG686 40,517]

1 hour ago, ExNurseGaz said:

where would our heavy bombers have come from?

Deepest Gargunnock at the Featherstone-Kite works perhaps ? 

I'm intrigued as to what is going to appear here.

Did you have a 'dambusters' moment when you were at the theatre the other night ?

[ExNurseGaz 1,183]

1 hour ago, RWG686 said:

 

Did you have a 'dambusters' moment when you were at the theatre the other night ?

No, afraid not, but it's something that's been done before, including by me many years ago, but mine is now long-lost, and I'd like to have another one.

[Gorby 21,593]

Very interesting idea Gaz.

My money is on a DH super Mossie.

[Huntsman’s Close 1,022]

A Shorts Titanic built at Harland and Wolff?

[Huntsman’s Close 1,022]

Or the Hawker Harpenden made of six Hurricanes glued together?

[Mad Steve 25,051]

Anything as long as it's not 4 bloody Spitfires stuck together 

[Hutch6390 3,293]

I have an idea of what it might be, but I'm keeping it to myself for now.  Mind you, I don't know how I'd go about building one...

[ExNurseGaz 1,183]

4 minutes ago, Hutch6390 said:

I have an idea of what it might be, but I'm keeping it to myself for now.  Mind you, I don't know how I'd go about building one...

it's possible you may have seen my original, at a Newark Air Museum Cockpitfest, with Mainly Military Modelling . . .

[Hutch6390 3,293]

3 minutes ago, ExNurseGaz said:

it's possible you may have seen my original, at a Newark Air Museum Cockpitfest, with Mainly Military Modelling

No, can't claim that I have - I've just discovered that what I'm thinking of was available as a vac-form kit, but I'll stop speculating there, I think 

[Jessie_C 13,972]

5 hours ago, Gorby said:

Very interesting idea Gaz.

My money is on a DH super Mossie.

That would be an Albatross.

[ExNurseGaz 1,183]

5 hours ago, Gorby said:

Very interesting idea Gaz.

My money is on a DH super Mossie.

OK, i've been rumbled! Here's what I'm starting with, to re-create the de Havilland Dagenham- which is, actually 5 stops past Barking!

I'm not going to start this until SWMBO and I get back from our holiday, we're leaving on Friday and will be away 2 weeks. It'll give me time to figure out how to fix the warped wings . . .

4 minutes ago, Jessie_C said:

That would be an Albatross.

I wish! Although a Flamingo would be a candidate too. Unfortunately my skills (and my confidence!) won't let me attempt either. I'll just work with these 2 . . .

[Hutch6390 3,293]

Nice one, Gaz , look forward to seeing this.  Anything Mossie-based is good, in my book!

My idea was "Miles" away!  I thought it might be the Miles M39b, a project which was in place to provide a carrier-borne bomber, initially powered by Merlin or Hercules engines, with a view to upgrading to jets later.  a 5/8ths scale prototype was built, and flew successfully, with no adverse behaviour.  Had Avro, HP etc. been clobbered, maybe this one might have been pushed harder, and developed into a heavy?  We'll never know.

[RWG686 40,517]

1 hour ago, ExNurseGaz said:

will be away 2 weeks. It'll give me time to figure out how to fix the warped wings .

Tape the parts  to a sheet of glass for the two weeks you're away ?

Enjoy the break.

[ExNurseGaz 1,183]

4 hours ago, Hutch6390 said:

Nice one, Gaz , look forward to seeing this.  Anything Mossie-based is good, in my book!

My idea was "Miles" away!  I thought it might be the Miles M39b, a project which was in place to provide a carrier-borne bomber, initially powered by Merlin or Hercules engines, with a view to upgrading to jets later.  a 5/8ths scale prototype was built, and flew successfully, with no adverse behaviour.  Had Avro, HP etc. been clobbered, maybe this one might have been pushed harder, and developed into a heavy?  We'll never know.

The Miles tandem-wing aircraft have always fascinated me, but I never thought of one in the context of this GB. I have general arrangement drawings of the M.35 and M.39 in a book somewhere, maybe a

radical conversion or even a scratchbuild may be in the future, possibly a Winter Project?  Hmmmmmmm . . .

[mac1677 6,934]

Ooooh looking forward to seeing this Gaz 

[Gorby 21,593]

11 hours ago, ExNurseGaz said:

OK, i've been rumbled!

Wow! Well I supposed with the law of averages I must get it right at least once in my life. 

11 hours ago, Jessie_C said:

That would be an Albatross.

I forgot about the Albatross. Must be the most beautiful airliner ever.

[ExNurseGaz 1,183]

Here's a wee clue . . .

[Mad Steve 25,051]

Oh well that expalns EVERYTHING, much clearer now 

Are those Mosquito wings? 

[ExNurseGaz 1,183]

7 minutes ago, Mad Steve said:

 

Are those Mosquito wings? 

Yup!

From the FROG F187 Mosquito Mk.4 or 6 kit.

[Mad Steve 25,051]

Ahh, even me, the ultimate heathen, can see the possibilties here.. (don't quote me on that...) 

[ExNurseGaz 1,183]

OK, I'm back from my boat trip (I'd show you pictures, but one bit of ocean looks very similar to all the other bits of ocean)

Here's the dinghy, parked up at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria!

Reminds me of Hyde Park Flats in Sheffield, it's so big!

After our return, SWMBO and I rested a few days to recover from all the chillin' and relaxation of the past two weeks (SWMBO doesn't really drink, but she discovered a taste for PinaColadas . . .)

Speaking of cocktails, the robot barman in the ship's Starship Club bar mixed a mean one! He's the only seagoing humanoid robotic barman, and has a great line in banter.

Good gracious, I'm drifting my own thread . . . Now, where was I?

The two FROG Mosquito kits are still in the blender, but one major component has come out on the other side. It's also a dead giveaway, but here it is:

Can you see what it is yet? Other pieces are being painted, and subassemblies constructed, it's coming along fine.

[ExNurseGaz 1,183]

This is progressing rapidly (not Mac1677 rapid!) but enough to show progress. This is a strangely-designed kit-firstly the cockpit is located by cementing to the "wing spar" locating tab, thus FROG would have you

attach the starboard wing to the starboard fuselage half, locate the cockpit to it and then close up the fuselage by adding the port half! Secondly, the undercarriage. This is designed to locate into the lower wing half

from above after the undercarriage "leg" unit has been assembled, and before top and bottom wing halves are built up. Furthermore the leg unit is too big to insert into the opening from above or below! Some judicious

relieving is required, although the central leg had a very fiddly construction as the mid-centre section was made before adding the undercarriage. This aspect of the build was much easier when I used Airfix Mossies

(with their separate engine nacelles) than on this occasion. The cockpit issue is solved by inserting it into the closed-up fuselage from below (separate bombbay doors, you see!), adding the wing, then gluing up the 'pit

to it, then adding the bombdoors.

Anyway, I did a dry fit of the major parts this morning and she looked like this:

She's even sitting on her wheels! She just needs cleaning up and she's ready to glue up, then for paint. I'm thinking either prototype or 106 Sqn, RAF in late 1941.

The dH Dagenham (really is 5 stops past Barking!) has a crew of 4- pilot and navigator/bomb aimer are accomodated in the port (bomber) fuselage, while two gunners occupy the starboard fighter fuselage,

one also acting as radio operator. The gunners have a nose-mounted battery of 4 0.5 Brownings, with a limited traverse and elevation adjustment, and 2 single 0.5s in the tailcones of the fuselages with sighting

by periscope. The Dagenham could carry a bombload of up to 8000lbs (2x4000 lb "cookies", one in each bombbay) although as you would expect, lighter loads gave longer range, and various combinations

of ordnance could be carried. Later marks of the aircraft could carry heavier loads, and had more powerful Merlin engines. The Dagenham gave good service while Britain's aviation industry recovered from the

Nazi decimation, and remained in front-line service until 1944, by which time the Avro Manchester Mk.V* with its four RR Griffon engines came on-stream, along with Handley Page's similarly-powered Heckmondwike,

taking Bomber Command through to the war's end in 1947.

 

* In this timeline, Avro's Manchester didn't go on operations with 2x RR Vultures, thus it didn't suffer the reputation it gained in our own timeline. There was no need for developments to be renamed to avoid association

with a tainted name, so the Lancaster (Manchester III as it started out in our timeline, and retained this name in this timeline) as such didn't exist. . .