Wings of Intent: Airfix 1/72 Avro Anson conversion- The Kit That Came From the Unknown

(Completed model here):
https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2019/07/civil-avro-anson-modified-airfix-172.html

You may all know what a Zen koan is: a seemingly irresolvable, seemingly illogical proposition. One of the most known is "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

Well, my dear friend and modeling arch-enemy Sönke Schulz from Volkania, has regaled me in the past many times with such propositions, but in modeling form, in the guise of semi-built, chopped up, miscellaneous remains of kits (BOXES of them, actually).

Many have of these modeling koans have been, as you know, solved (that is: built), the last one being a kit he sent of the RWD-8 that I just posted.

The koan that occupies us (or at least me) today is Airfix's Avro Anson, which Sönke kindly half-built already, leaving to me tasks such as inserting a part of the landing gear after the wing halves have been firmly glued together, and not, as the plan wisely advises since it is the only way to do it, before.

But yet again, I have solved more arcane modelling riddles in the past.

Sönke again very kindly started a merciless chopping of the roof, since my cuppa -and his'- are peaceful, lovely, charming, uplifting, colorful civil machines, and the aft position has to be deleted.

He also chopped the area immediately in front of the windshield, since his intentions apparently were to depict the slightly different windshield arrangement that the civil, passenger carrying, Avro 652 had (two prototypical machines: Avalon and Avatar).

But hear hear, that involves quite a number of changes, while just modeling an after the war civil conversion is -in a few cases- a very straightforward matter of just adding civil regs, slight changes on the nacelles, and of course the already mentioned deletion of the aft position.

Hum...what to do, what to do....

I know, I am not particularly fond of adopting "rescued mistreated models with behavioral issues", but this poor kit had such a hard start of life in Volkania...I mean, it breaks your heart.

I have gathered quite a number of images of candidates, again, pretty straightforward, even the same clunky landing gear and window arrangement, and in a couple cases no need to touch the nacelles.

I'll see where the vapors of modeling cement take me to....

Here are the images of what I got already done in the package, praise Styrene, muse of the scratchbuilders:

I removed the chunk of plastic:

And the leg that needed to be inserted before closing the wing halves (I know, no big deal, please do not offer solutions, I finally graduated to long modeling pants some time ago):

As you can see Sönke already obliterated the original bumps on one cowl, precluding me from modeling the civil post war machines that had those, but I got other cowls in the spares bin that may allow me to build the civil variants that had plain cowls and used other engines, which is not bad given the kit's simplified "e pluribus unum" (from many one) engine/cowl rendition:

Four chairs are fabricated as per photo of civil machine:

The plane's wings were plywood covered, therefore the ribbing in the kit is spurious.

It is sanded away:

Elevators are separated from stab:

I am restoring now some sections that were removed by the previous owner, and fabricating the bulkheads:

The marred windshield is polished and all clear parts are bathed in acrylic:

This is the "why am I doing this" stage of the build. Sides are added to the cabin and bulkheads are trimmed to clear obstacles and glued:

Re-doing the roof windows that my friend Sönke filled up, since my intended plane had them:

That's what I like! transparent transparencies:

Two partial recessed bulkheads fabricated to serve as support of the curved skin that will span the gap on the bay where the turret was:

Dry fit of the front section to clarify the point:

New roof windows are cut from CD clear cases:

Basic background tome airbrushed:

A little more progress:

Dry run. The previous owner attempts at it forced this approach, which is not the most comfortable. The addition of the side windows will be a little challenging:

The windows are glued to the upper shell:

The upper shell is glued to the fuselage:

Finally -after adding the windshield and aft skin- I will be able to complete the fuselage:

Hum...did I just forget to glue the roof windows....yes I did!
Will try to press them in cautiously, if they fall in I can still retrieve them. If that doesn't work then window-maker liquid will do.
Sigh...

An encouraging view, but in doing so realized the previous owner lost a wheel, something I missed to realized until now:

All transparencies are glued, the aft cover ready to go in now:

The bit for the aft fuselage is glued and clamped. Compare the size with the LVG:

In place and ready to be blended-in with all the rest:

The masks arrived. They are actually for the much newer Special Hobby kit, I am hoping they will work at least partially:

The most hated part for me begins, the mess:

As the fuselage approaches priming stage, I am wondering about the decoration, trying to chose among several subjects:

The Cheetah engines arrived from Engines & Things in Canada:

A nose tip is made of Milliput to replace the one excised by the previous owner:

Primer on:

Wings and stabs on:

What I hope is the last coat of primer (if I don't have to correct the ailerons, depending on the version I chose):

All my potential subjects have the shorter aileron, accordingly the model is modified:

The additions have now to be blended-in, always a joy when the model seemed almost completed:

In case I chose the plane with the bumpy cowls, their trailing edge is refined to avoid the blunt appearance of the Airfix part:

Ailerons, elevators and flaps are added, and final coat of primer. The kit's cowls, which have an extremely heavy mold partition line, are sanded and primed too (in case I want to do the one with them):

White base airbrushed, props painted as well as the engines for the other Anson:

The set from Arctic Decals arrived!

Immense joy as I apply the myriad of masks necessary for this scheme. Helped in the area around the nacelles by that Canopy Survival set. If only the envelope they come in would be large enough to slide the sheets in an out without having an episode of high blood pressure:

Now on each window a thin linear mask has to be applied. Such is the honing of the Shaolin Modeling Monk, this time helped by Mr. Hobby fine line masks:

Masking continues to cover all areas that need to remain white:

Paint goes on:

Masks off, still some touch-ups needed, but on its way to completion:

Since I finally chose VH-AZU for this first model, the cowls I vacuformed and the engines I purchased will go to the second Anson, that will also benefit from some aftermarket perks. And yes, the whole remediation process will have to start again, commencing with sanding the ribs on the wings. Rolling up the sleeves, once more!: