Short Stirling & RAF Bomber Command Forum

Having airbrushed without one in the past I decided to learn from past mistakes and build a spray booth. I firstly tried a low voltage solution using a PC cooling fan that I already had and 3D printing a back cowl on which to fit a hose. Needless to say there was not enough suck! So I then fitted a ply box on the rear with two £11 extractor fans and a cooling tray front to support a sheet of oven hood filter medium. The result worked beautifully and the all in cost was £37. So I can progress with the Stirling build again.

Finally I can start to put the sub assembles together and start masking. It has been a long time coming but the end is coming into sight!

Final masking. I decided on paper masks set a couple of mm away from the surface in order to soften the edges. I have not used my airbrush for 10 years so this is an anxious moment for me. In a few minutes, I could spoil everything that I had worked on for so long! I printed out a scaled up camouflage pattern from the kit's instructions in order to position paper masking.

The top sides are now masked and the whole bottom area and fin is sprayed with matt black

So we have finally arrived at the downward slope of this build. I have also decided that as I have the Italeri MkIV Stirling sat on the shelf waiting for to be built, that this one should represent my Father's MkIV as used to drop troops on TONGA and take a Horsa to Normandy during OVERLORD. So 299 markings for "P Peter". I could only narrow the serial down to one of eight, so I used EF305 for no other reason than I was drawn to it. The Italeri model will now become one of Father's Arnhem aircraft.

The last parts were added, including the antennae, rear turret and scratch built aerial and pitot tubes.

The top of the piano would not do for my final pictures of this build, so I grabbed a couple of simple background props in the form of a grass sheet and sky background left over from a model railway project. As you view these you may notice that in the later ones I have added a little weathering, including chips on leading edges, rivets and also exhaust staining on upper surfaces (airbrushed white and then black). I have also since added the aerial wire to the tail fin. I hope that you enjoy these pictures as much as I have enjoyed the build. It is worth mentioning that Shorts of Belfast built all 2,383 full sized aircraft in half the time that it has taken me to produce one 1:72 scale model!!!

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4