Percival Mew Gull

[Tim Horne]

This is another model that was started on the previous HPA. I started it in June '25 during our Orkney holiday and made good initial progress. By July work got in the way and it has sat on the bench ever since.

I am now semi retired and decided that I should be able to finish it in time for Nijmegen in November.

I am not going to try to recreate the posts I did before but all the pictures are on my iPad so I will do a rerun of the process that gets me to today.

The model is mostly the Aerographics kit but with some modifications. Some for scale accuracy, some for better flying ability and some just for my personal preferences of how to do things. It is 1/11th scale giving a wingspan of 26.5 inches.

As inspiration I read "The flight of the Mew Gull" by Alex Henshaw which covers his early life up to his record breaking London-Cape town-London flight. I can highly recommend the book. My model will be Alex's G-AEXF as it is now in the Shuttleworth collection at Old Warden.

[TheLurker]

You're a far braver man than me.  I read that book and, having read what Henshaw had to say about the Gull's ermm... quirks opted to build the Comper Swift he flew in the '33 King's Cup instead.

Glad to see the thread revived.

[Tim Horne]

Thanks Lurk. The book does read like an old fashioned boys own adventure and the descriptions of the situations that Alex gets into in the Mew Gull are suitably fear inducing!

The shape of the rear fuselage of the model looked wrong to me so I found a nice side on photograph of the Gull and enlarged it to the same size to compare. The differences individually are fairly minor but altogether the shape looks right now.

The construction photos are self explanatory to modellers so I don't need to describe them.

[Tim Horne]

Pics

[Tim Horne]

Pics

[ramses]

... The model is mostly the Aerographics kit but with some modifications. Some for scale accuracy, some for better flying ability and some just for my personal preferences of how to do things. It is 1/11th scale giving a wingspan of 26.5 inches...

Hi Tim,

Great model! I Love those interwar racers!
Are you building this beauty for kit class or F4D in Nijmegen?

Cheers, Ramses

[Tim Horne]

Hi Ramses, it's intended for F4D, and hopefully will be ready for Nijmegen.
I have done a bit more since the last post but it's been overtaken by other projects recently. I must get back to it soon.
Tim

[Tim Horne]

The Mew Gull has been covered and I have made balsa wheel pants instead of the styrene ones supplied in the kit. The kit ones were slightly the wrong shape and also heavy.

[g_kandylakis]

lovely..

[Spiros]

It's a beauty!!! Wow!

[cvasec]

Those spats are incredible!
Ron

[ramses]

Beautiful indeed!!

May i ask what tissue and dope you use?
It looks very good!

Cheers, Ramses

[Tim Horne]

Thanks for the kind words gents 
The tissue is Esaki, which I have a bit of a stash of, and I use banana oil, 2 coats, to finish. After watershrinking of course.

[THB]

Those spats are incredible!
Ron

Agreed - lovely work!