1/72 CMR Avro York 

by Angus McDonald

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It’s been at least two years in the making at the gifted hands of the CMR pattern makers.  As you would expect from CMR, the kit is beautifully crafted in a creamy resin that is virtually free of blemishes.  There are no white metal parts, whilst the transparencies are a mixture of vacu-formed and clear epoxy.

What you can’t see in these photos is highly detailed cockpit, and particularly the stations behind the pilots.  It is complete with seats, radios, things that look suspiciously like torpedoes, and fire extinguisher.  Virtually none of it can be seen, even through the large, round cabin windows, and super clear cockpit canopy.

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You will need a donor kit to supply wings, main undercarriage (except the wheels – CMR provide weighted beauties with separate hubs) and depending on which version you build, tail fins.  I used the Airfix kit, though you can use the Hasegawa kit.  The fit of the Airfix nacelles was awful.  I think I must have spent more time cleaning up the engines and nacelles than I did on the rest of the kit.  Some 9mm has to be cut from the root of each wing.

By contrast the CMR resin parts exhibit great fit.  Everything slotted together.  I was most surprised that the external framing on the sides of the cockpit canopy were so easy to connect.  I think the only weak part was the central fin. I suspect if (unlike me) you spent a little more time trimming it then the fit would be better and not require filler.  I also cheated with the round windows.  Electing not to use the CMR clear epoxy parts, I filled them with Kristal Klear.

Only time will tell if the resin tail wheel stands up to the rigours of handling and heat.  Yes, it does occasionally get hot in Blighty.

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I chose the Dan-Air scheme, though I was sorely tempted by the war time B.O.A.C scheme.  Unfortunately I couldn’t as I wanted to use the superb exhausts provided by CMR, and had hacked off the shrouded exhausts from the Airfix nacelles.

I utilised a variety of paints.  Halfords white primer for the white bits.  The ocean grey bits round the nacelles should have been dark sea grey.  I had thought that Halfords grey primer would go dark with a coat of Future/Klear, but it didn’t.  However, I did find a photo of a Dan-Air aircraft where the nacelles looked ocean grey.  The light grey bits were painted with Life Color’s Light Compass Ghost Grey, lightened with Citadel’s Skull White.  Citadel also provided the Chaos Black and Blood Red.

The decals are ultra thin, and fit the aircraft well.

Apart from the Airfix bits, this was an enjoyable build.  A much fuller write up should appear in an edition of Scale Aviation Modeller in the near future.

Angus

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Photos and text © by Angus McDonald