Build #2A - Short Stirling and Airspeed Horsa - the Horsa

[RangerNeil]

So as the Whitley is deciding to fight me to the bitter end and the Wellesley is finished I've decided to make a start on the second build that got equal first in the poll - the Italeri Short Stirling glider tug and the Airspeed Horsa glider.
Space constraints currently dictate building the Horsa first so here we go!

First the type history:
Having seen how effective glider-borne troops were in the German battle for France the British War Office issued a specification - X.26/40 - for a troop and cargo carrying glider. The successful contender was Airspeeds type 51 that was named the "Horsa" after the legendary 5th C conqueror of the South of England. Capable of carrying 30 fully equipped troops or the equivalent in cargo such as a Jeep and 6 Pdr A/T gun. The typical loading was either:
2 crew + 28 troops (20–25 troops was the "standard" Mark I load)
or
2x ¼ton trucks
or
1x M3A1 Howitzer + ¼ton truck with ammunition and crew .
The Mk 1 horsa had a side loading door whilst the MkII had a hinged nose section. In action either the nose or tail - or both - invariably broke away on landing in fields thus considerably easing the unloading.
Primarily used by the British and Canadian forces 400 Horsas were supplied to the USA in a reverse of the Lend- Lease as it was substantially better than the US equivalent, the Waco CG-4A, "Hadrian" that only carried 13 troops.
In operation the Horsa was towed into action primarily by retired from the front line bombers such as the Whiteley, Halifax, Albemarle and the co-subject of this build - the Stirling. The 4-engined Halifax and Stirlings were the preferred tugs for obvious reasons. Although often depicted as also being used to tow the Horsa they were rarely towed by the C47/Dakota and Curtiss C46 Commander due to the weight of the Horsa
The Horsa was connected to the tow plane by a Y shaped tow line, the legs of the Y connected to the wings of the Horsa and which carried a communication line between glider and tow plane. Typical tow speed was 150-160 mph, released from the tow plane the flight speed was 100 mph, stalling speed was 48 mph flaps down or 58 mph flaps up.
The Horsa entered service in November in 1942 in "Operation Freshman" - the failed attack on the German Heavy Water Plant at Rjukan in Norway and ended its service in March 1945 in "Operation Varsity" the crossing over the Rhine.

Personal note: My father was a qualified Horsa pilot before transfering to the Paras -because he got bored!!

The kit.


The Instructions & Decals.












The Sprues.
Sprue A


Sprue B


Sprue C


Clear Sprue


The Build!!
It looks like it will be a simple yet interesting build. Not sure I will use Spue C in this one - maybe something else later. Once completed then I will need to look at the tow cable mounting points so as to be able to hook it up to the Stirling.
Checking the sprues carefully there is no flash visible on any of the parts. There are, however some ejector marks which would be highly visible so they have had filler applied and will be rubbed down tomorrow.



Once that was done I started on painting the interior - internally its the usual grey-green found in British aircraft of that era. Also applied the matt black on the cockpit components. Unusually the pilots seats are moulded in two halves and have seperate backs and cushion pieces.







That was as far as I got tonight as SWMBO started yelling dinner was on the table....

[RangerNeil]

Continuing the Horsa build today - the cockpit and nose are now more or less finished internally. So are the entry/exit doors. The Mk1 had drop-down doors with built in steps at first, later ones deleted the steps and had sliding doors. I've opted to build the model with the drop-down doors as thats one of the few things I can remember my dad talking about from WW2.


The cockpit is dry-fitted at the moment as I need to work out how best to add 20g of weight to the space under the cockpit floor.


Now heres a thing! Whilst assembling the cockpit I cut the two control columns off and noted both on the cutting mat. I then cut the two yokes off and when I put the sprue down one of the columns was gone!! Out came the vacuum cleaner but after 20 mins there was no sign of the missing column. However something else did reappear - the rear screen for the Ural!!!


Truly the carpet (in my case the laminate) monster does both take and give!!!

I replaced the missing column with a scrap piece of sprue filed and sanded to shape. Once the cockpit glazing goes on it will be almost impossible to spot the difference.....

[WordenB]

Just been through the Whitley thread Neil, I do hope this one goes a bit easier for you, I think you deserve it. Good luck!

[digger303]

Praying for ya that it is smooth sailing this time.

[RangerNeil]

Thanks guys - so far so good it seems.
I've checked the canopy, it fits perfectly....

[RangerNeil]

More on the Horsa today......
Firstly the main wings are assembled, taped up and drying ovenight. They went together quite well but, as might be expected, there are gaps where they join the centre section. This is not as bad as it sounds as, flipping the wings over, there is actually a panel line there. So once they are dried I can run tape along the edges of the gap then add filler and smooth it down with a wet cotton bud - minimal if not no sanding required.




The tail section is now complete less the tail skid.


That brings us to the main fuselage section..... There are a number of troop seats that need to be stuck to the cabin floor and the walls. It seemed to me the best method was to tape the fuselage halves together and then drop the two floor sections and secure on one side only with TET. We'll see how well it worked tomorrow.




Lastly the main belly skid is done, there in case the undercarriage collapses when landing in fields.


Lastly I've ordered some BB lead shot from the big A to add the 20g nose weight. It will be here around Weds/Thurs time. Just in time to put it all together!!

An observation on the kit thus far - there are positive locks on most major assemblies - but minor parts only get a faint outline where they are meant to butt-join the main parts. Some marks are so faint as not to be there so I will have to get the drill out.......

[digger303]

[RangerNeil]

Cracked on with the Horsa today. A really pleasant kit despite the lack of any positive part locations for smaller parts. Firstly the filled gaps in the wings were smoothed off:


Then I moved onto the insides of the fuselage centre. The windows were added and then the troop seats. The plan from yesterday with cementing the floor on one side only actually worked really well.


Once this was done the fuselage halves were joined.




So now all the major sections are complete and I can start adding them together.


First up was the tail section to the main fuselage:




And after filling the seam (that slot on the top of the fuselage is the ONLY way the main wings are located in place):


Tomorrow the main wings go on - and then work has to stop until the weights I ordered arrive.

[digger303]

[RangerNeil]

Ordered 2 packs of BB sized lead shot from the big A thinking it would give me enough weight for the nose (20g) and some to spare.
WRONG!!!
Packs arrived today - weighed the lot - and got 19g in total.....
Looks like plan B will have to be found.

[RangerNeil]

Wings and undercarriage are now on. I thought it worth doing now to see if the amount of weight (4.6g) that I could squeeze under the cockpit would be enough.
Needless to say it wasn't!!
So - plan B. Take out the lead shot and flatten them to see if I can squeeze (no pun intended) more weight under the cockpit floor and the remainder under the front half of the fuselage....
Unless anyone knows of something substantially heavier than lead?


I'm guessing Italeri knew it was going to be almost impossible to get that nose weight in because on the last page of the instructions the use of the two funny shaped pieces of clear plastic became obvious.....




Sneaky or what??

[digger303]

Disappointing not being able to squeeze enough weight in.

[BigWall]

How about fishing weights?

[digger303]

You can get from fishing shops thin sheet lead in rolls. It is used by the fly fishermen for making lures I believe. It can be cut to the exact shape of the space you have in as many pieces as required until the space is filled and not expensive.

[Stokesy44]

Shaping up nicely. Really shows off the practical boxy structure of the glider.

[Stokesy44]

Here's a thought for all.

If you had to choose, what would you pick?

Paratrooper or glider-borne infantry if you were going into battle?

[digger303]

Here's a thought for all.

If you had to choose, what would you pick?

Paratrooper or glider-borne infantry if you were going into battle?

Safety in numbers and not seeing what's coming...gliders..

[RangerNeil]

Here's a thought for all.

If you had to choose, what would you pick?

Paratrooper or glider-borne infantry if you were going into battle?

My dad tried both... His view was the parachute was better - you weren't in the air that long whereas the glider took longer to get down and was a nice fat target for the gunners on the ground. Also if the jump plane was hit you could jump whereas if something catastrophic happened to the glider tug you had a 50/50 chance of dropping the tow lines and getting free. Apparently the release on the glider only worked within a certain angle, if the cables dropped below that you had a problem. If you were sat in the back all you could do was hope the pilots had ideas - and height to try them.....
And when landing on a chute all you worried about was where your feet would hit whereas with a glider you needed a nice long, flat area that you hoped - REALLY hoped - the Germans hadn't put some nasty surprises in. Like stakes, wires/ropes or, worse, mines.
On the plus side for gliders though - if all went at least reasonably well you landed with motorised transport and artillery.....

[RangerNeil]

Build is now more or less complete - just the front canopy and nose section to go on once the weighting issue is resolved.
Its been quite an enjoyable build so if the Stirling goes together as well I will be more than happy.
If someone else is contemplating building this kit there is one caveat - the sprues do not have part numbers on so you will be constantly referring to the sprue diagram in the instructions. Not that many parts though so not really a big deal.

[digger303]

Looks quite good.

[RangerNeil]

One of the guys on Farcebook recommended trying this to solve the weighting issue:
https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/240g-l ... 38-p14902/

So I've ordered a bottle and we'll see how it goes!!

[digger303]

One of the guys on Farcebook recommended trying this to solve the weighting issue:
https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/240g-l ... 38-p14902/

So I've ordered a bottle and we'll see how it goes!!

Yep I know of that. It is millions of tiny balls and that poses another problem......don't spill the bottle

[RangerNeil]

Pending deliver of the weighting method I was thinking about masking the cabin windows. Bearing in mind the experience on the Whitley of using Maskol and getting white patches around windows I decided to use a hairy stick on the fuselage centre section. The Hataka paints require 3 coats by brush. Its had one so far. Once its had the 3 coats hopefully the weighting stuff will be here. Once that is sorted the rest of the Horsa can be airbrushed and I'll use the Maskol when it comes time to apply the topcoat.

[digger303]

Could just brush paint around the windows, mask it and spray the rest. Might be easier although more work.

[RangerNeil]

Used the liquid gravity on the Horsa today. Nose is now on with the space under the cockpit floor packed with lead shot and liquid gravity.


As can be seen - its still tail heayy!! So next step once the nose has set overnight is a hole drilled under the fuselage floor and LG put in until the nose drops followed by a dose of CA to hold it in place.......

Fingers crossed....

[BigWall]

Wow! It doesn't look like it would be that tail heavy, but I guess that's one of many reasons they don't let me design planes.

[RangerNeil]

Well - the nose section is packed solid as is the fuselage under the floor ahead of the wheels
And she's still tail heavy!!!!


So - it will have to be the clear tail support as, short of committing the heist of the century to get some Osmium (22.6 Kg/L) which is twice the density of Lead (11.6 Kg/L) there ain't no way of getting enough weight in the front to counteract the mass of that tail assembly!!

[RangerNeil]

As I am currently without an airbrush for the next few weeks at least its back to the hairy sticks.... The Horsa has had two coats of Hataka jet black on the underside of the main wings, nose and rear fuselage. The tailplane has had 3 coats same as the centre section.. when everything has had 3 coats it will be silk varnish and then flip over for the dark green/dark earth uppers.

[RangerNeil]

Decals went on the Horsa today. I have to admit to being quite impressed with the Italeri decals. They were nice and thin, conforming instantly to the raised panel lines.
Just to give an idea how big a Horsa is - the Jeep is also 1/72 - and the Horsa could carry two of them or a single Jeep.and the Airborne Divisions Pack Howitzer.

[digger303]

[RangerNeil]

Final coat of satin finish on and access doors in place. Just got to sort out the tow cable connections and the Horsa will be done.

[digger303]

It came up well.

[RangerNeil]

It came up well.

Thanks Digger. I also found that the access steps do a fair job in keeping the tail off the ground - so I used CA to attach them.

[digger303]

It came up well.

Thanks Digger. I also found that the access steps do a fair job in keeping the tail off the ground - so I used CA to attach them.

Thats clever cause it doesn't look like they are doing that.

[RangerNeil]

This one is being called done. I need to find space to put this together with the Stirling glider tug - when I can, I'll add them to the reveal thread. Until then the Horsa photos are in the reveal thread.