Supermarine Stranraer 1934 - present day/heutige Tag

The Supermarine Stranraer is a flying boat designed and built by the British Supermarine Aviation Works company at Woolston, Southampton. It was developed during the 1930s on behalf of its principal operator, the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was the RAF's last and fastest biplane flying boat.

It has a certain grace and is one of this planes that didn't won the war, but served when no shinning star was neccesary.

For me, I knew the Stranraer many years ago when I found a plastic model from Matchbox. I painted the BN L version and it's very possible that it was lost in a moving.

Fast forward to the year 2020, and I found a very detailed drawing with all the parts and dimensions of the Strany. At first, I wanted to make it for myself, painted as a plastic model instead of color printed. But the people started to like it, and request me the PDF when finished.

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Die Supermarine Stranraer ist ein Flugboot, das von der britischen Firma Supermarine Aviation Works in Woolston, Southampton, entworfen und gebaut wurde. Es wurde in den 1930er Jahren im Auftrag seines Hauptbetreibers, der Royal Air Force (RAF), entwickelt. Es war das letzte und schnellste Doppeldecker-Flugboot der RAF.

Es hat eine gewisse Eleganz und gehört zu den Flugzeugen, die zwar nicht den Krieg gewannen, aber im Einsatz waren, als kein Stern benötigt wurde.

Ich kannte die Stranraer schon vor vielen Jahren, als ich ein Plastikmodell bei Matchbox fand. Ich bemalte die BN L-Version, und es ist gut möglich, dass sie bei einem Umzug verloren ging.

Im Jahr 2020 fand ich eine sehr detaillierte Zeichnung mit allen Teilen und Abmessungen der Stranraer. Zuerst wollte ich sie selbst bauen, bemalt als Plastikmodell, anstatt sie farbig auszudrucken. Aber die Leute fanden Gefallen daran und baten mich um das PDF, als sie fertig war.

Now, there are two versions of this paper model. The first one was made begining the year 2020, and has a lot of details and dedication. But by 2024 I had more experience with paper model "weathering", a bit of free time and the desire to make new versions of this plane.

So I took the original drawings, refined the borders, improved the windows, enhanced the airliners logos and generally made a reworking of the "skins".

I released three new versions, too, including the last flying Stranraer CF-BXO as it was on 1969 before being sold to the RAF Museum at Hendon in 1970.

The original versions have been removed from ecardmodels, but in case of doub, the improved Stranraers have an id code up and to the right that start by DM24

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Es gibt zwei Versionen dieses Papiermodells. Die erste entstand Anfang 2020 und ist detailreich und mit viel Liebe zum Detail gestaltet. Doch 2024 hatte ich mehr Erfahrung mit der Alterung von Papiermodellen, etwas Freizeit und den Wunsch, neue Versionen dieses Flugzeugs zu bauen.

Also nahm ich die Originalzeichnungen, verfeinerte die Ränder, verbesserte die Fenster, verbesserte die Logos der Flugzeuge und überarbeitete die Oberflächen.

Ich veröffentlichte außerdem drei neue Versionen, darunter die letzte fliegende Stranraer CF-BXO, wie sie 1969 aussah, bevor sie 1970 an das RAF-Museum in Hendon verkauft wurde.

Die Originalversionen wurden aus ecardmodels entfernt. Im Zweifelsfall haben die verbesserten Stranraer jedoch oben rechts einen ID-Code, der mit DM24 beginnt.

As I said, when I started to design the Stranraer it was supposed to be just for myself and hand painted.

The engines were (are) very detailed, and the cowl is hold by an external ring like the real one has. Later when I decide to publish the model, I included too a simplified engine for any modeler that has no time or patience.

The inner structure looks similar to a ship for two reasons: first, the real plane has a lot of complex curves, and second I made this model to resist at least 30 years without damage (cousins and sons excluded, of course)

You can see the "I" strut that holds the lower wing in his place

Looking the pictures you can see the auxiliary "towers" that help the dihedral of both wings in the model. They are included in the PDF, same with the hull support.

Some of the pictures show unfinished sections of paint. Of course the PDF has already the camouflage included!

And part of the finish are that weird footprints that can be seen over the upper wing and the horizontal stabilisers. The original plane had them as the local equivalent of "No Step". Some versions had them on both wings, some on the upper only, some on none. It depends the plane depicted

Now, the paper model has two interesting details: the real plane bow had a gunner position, that was closed when not used. And before releasing the bombs against submarines or small enemy ships, there was a bomber position that opened too. Both options are included in the paper model, open and closed, so you can choose how to do it.

The real plane had a double door in the right side, so can open the small one for crew/passengers, or the big one for cargo. The paper model includes both as different parts, so they can give a 3d impresion of the model if you want. Same with the windows and a wing hatch, they are glued as separate parts

The engines, as I said, can be assembled easy or expert level. Each different paper version includes 4 or 3 blades propeler, and made in "wood" or "metal"

The steprails or whatewer are named are included, too.

The instructions include a detailed explanation of were all the wires go, so you don't need to be guessing.

And the next post will start to identify each one of the versions of the paper model.

Quote from Jan Hascher

Same angle but more light:

Wonderfull picture and the light is perfect. It's yours?

One of the versions that I did is just this one, and it was a headache to find a picture of the upper side of the upper wing to see if it had the footprints (It doensn't). You can see that the id of the plane is 920 QN_. That's because we know the serial number of the plane but when it was sold to Queen Charlotte Airlines, nobody registered which last letter belonged to each serial number. We know it had the civilian registration CF-BXO, and I have this particular plane thrice. As Queen Charlotte in 1948, as a particular airplane in 1962, and as it is today in the museum.

As a funny thing, the Stranraers were flown near the US frontier, and the amout of struts and wires made their radar return bigger that usual. So it was "normal" that the planes were intercepted by F-106 of the Air National Guard believing that they were russian bombers.

I have split the versions of my Stranraers in three groups: Prewar, Wartime and Civilians/Postwar

Let's start with prewar:

First flown on 24 July 1934, the Stranraer entered frontline service with the RAF during 1937; most examples of the type were in service by the outbreak of World War II.

The Stranraers typically undertook anti-submarine and convoy escort patrols during the early years of the conflict. During March 1941, the model was withdrawn from frontline service, but continued to be operated in a training capacity until October 1942.

The three prewar models were painted in silver and aluminum finish. They had different places for the serial numbers, squadron code and identification letter inside the squadron. In all of them the serial number was painted under the wings (for example K7289) starting from ouside and ending near the fuselaje. If you assembled the Matchbox model, the instructions are wrong.

The propellers could be four blades made from wood (better said, two propellers of two blades each mounted in an X figure) or a three bladed metalic one.

The picture shows the extra fuel tanks under the wings that were almost never used, so I didn't included them.

Now, the second group of Stranraers, the ones from Wartime, have some interesting details. First, they have a 4 bladed wood propeller, a four bladed painted propeller and a 3 bladed metalic one.

Second, two of them are painted in the normal Dark Green & Dark Earth with silver undersides, even in 1942. But the third, and one of the reasons that made me do the second batch of models, wasn't painted in that RAF/RCAF colors but in the Royal Navy (FAA) colors: Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey on the upper surfaces and Sea Grey and Slate Grey on the lower wings and fuselage sides, with Sky undersides.

That was the color scheme of the embarked seaplanes: Walrus, Sea Otter and so on. Not the ones like the Stranraer that couldn't land in a carrier. So it was very interesting to make this bird.

Danke. Ich spreche Spanisch und Englisch. Ich würde gerne Deutsch lernen, aber mir fehlte bisher die Zeit. Von nun an werde ich Google Translate verwenden, um in beiden Sprachen zu veröffentlichen. Tut mir leid, wenn das Ergebnis aussieht, als wäre es von Yoda gemacht worden

And the last batch are the civilian versions. All of them were operated in Canada, and owned by Canadian Pacific Airlines and Queen Charlotte Airlines Ltd. There is a book about their time in that companies.

One joke done to the newbies was that the "old hand" said that he was going to the bathroom. Instead, he went to the rear gunner position and started to hold down SLOWLY the elevator. Then, after some minutes, the elevator was released and the plane made a big jump. Then, the old hand returned to the cockpit and looked to the newbie with a face of disapointment.

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Und die letzte Charge sind die zivilen Versionen. Alle wurden in Kanada betrieben und gehörten Canadian Pacific Airlines und Queen Charlotte Airlines Ltd. Es gibt ein Buch über ihre Zeit bei diesen Unternehmen.

Ein Witz, der den Neulingen gemacht wurde, war, dass der „alte Hase“ sagte, er müsse auf die Toilette. Stattdessen ging er zum Heckschützenposten und begann, das Höhenruder LANGSAM nach unten zu drücken. Nach einigen Minuten löste sich das Höhenruder, und das Flugzeug machte einen großen Sprung. Dann kehrte der alte Hase ins Cockpit zurück und blickte den Neuling mit enttäuschtem Gesicht an.

There is one last version of the Stranraer and two more combos or packs that include a Stranraer.

The last version is the one in the Hendom museum, and as I explained, the id of the plane is 920 QN_

It can be downloaded from ecardmodels as a separated file or as part of a pack of real life museum planes.

You can download them in 1/33, 1/72 or 1/100

The other two packs include a Stranraer and a London each, both in the same color scheme.

So, enjoy!

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Es gibt eine letzte Version der Stranraer und zwei weitere Kombi-Pakete, die jeweils eine Stranraer enthalten.

Die letzte Version befindet sich im Hendom-Museum. Wie bereits erwähnt, lautet die ID des Flugzeugs 920 QN_.

Sie kann von ecardmodels als separate Datei oder als Teil eines Pakets mit echten Museumsflugzeugen heruntergeladen werden.

Sie sind in den Maßstäben 1:33, 1:72 und 1:100 erhältlich.

Die beiden anderen Pakete enthalten jeweils eine Stranraer und eine London, beide in der gleichen Farbgebung.

Also, viel Spaß!