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Originally Posted by g-fiend After a bit of searching and some helpful people I've found some sources for HJ Towner/Astral plans as mentioned above. The following is a list of Towner/Astral plans available from Pete's Plans.
ASTRAL MODELS
C41 HAWKER HURRICANE £2.50
27in Span. Rubber power. Howard Boys design. All formers ribs etc shown on the plan. 1 sheet.
C42 HAWKER TYPHOON £2.75
27in Span. Rubber power. Harold Towner design. Complicated construction
but all you need is on the plan. 1 sheet.
C43 SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE £2.75
27in Span. Rubber power. Harold Towner design. All formers, ribs etc.
shown on the plan. 1 sheet.
C48 BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER £2.75
28in Span. Rubber power. Harold Towner design. All parts shown on plan. 1 sheet.
C49 FAlREY BARRACUDA £2.75
27in Span. Rubber power. Harold Towner design. All parts shown on plan. 1 sheet.
C50 HAWKER TEMPEST £2.75
28in Span. Rubber power. Harold Towner design. All parts are shown on the plan. 1 sheet.
C51 BELL AlRACOBRA £2.75
25in Span. Rubber power. Harold Towner design. All parts shown on plan. 1 sheet.
C67 THUNDERBOLT £2.75
28in Span. Rubber power. Harold Towner design. All on the plan. Copy of the printed
wood also included. 1 sheet
C73 HANDLEY-PAGE HAMPDEN £3.00
27in Span. Rubber power. Harold Towner design. AIl on the plan. Copy of the printed
wood also included. 1 sheet.
C76 CASTOR £1.75
20in Span. Rubber power. Simple small duration model. AIl on the plan. 1 sheet.
C79 LOCKHEED HUDSON £3.25
27.5in Span. Rubber power. Harold Towner design. Copy of the printed wood included. 1 sheet.
CI02 BRISTOL BLENNHEM MkIV £3.25
27.5in Span. Rubber power. Copy of printed wood sheets included 1 sheet.
C103 SHORT STIRLING £5.00
38 in Span. Rubber power. Plan only . Parts on plan. 2 sheets
C104 BOEING B17 £6.00
38in Span. Rubber power. Plan only. Parts on plan. 3 sheets
C105 ROCKET PROPELLED £4.00
MODEL AIRCRAFT
22 1/2in Span. Plan plus a copy of the parts
I can also do the Wellington and the Beaufort at £3.50 each. I do not have a Mosquito by Towner but I do have one by Howard Boys for rubber power which is three sheets and costs £6.00
Postage is extra amount depending on the size of the order.
Hope this is useful. Ultimately I'd like to find out if there is a list of all the H J Towner plans that are known. I suspect this may only be available from his daughter but if anyone has anything to add it would be great to hear from them.
Cheers
Paul |
***Hello again Paul,a little background history behind some of these exquisite drawings would not come amiss for the record,there are records that show Harold.J.Towner sitting in the club room of the Bridlington & District model flying club with some of his impressive models lined up in front of the members,I wonder if that club still exists in any shape or form ? if there are any members of clubs from that area then please let us know.He was indeed a highly respected and skillful member who contributed all of his life to the good old 'Aeromodeller' magazine,you mention Howard Boys,well there lies another tale ! you see these two never exactly saw eye to eye,and there was many a friendly banter and exchange of comments in the readers letters page of the magazine from aerofoil sections to flying and trimming,these two modellers stood out as leaders in their respective fields,Towner it was said could make almost anything fly,if you ever get the chance to ge hold of his classic book called 'Flying scale models' then you are in for a real treat,it is crammed with building notes and photographs,but the real gem lies at the back of the book marked 'Trimming to fly' ! here you will see the hidden secrets behind his approach,he clearly states that it is a big mistake to glue the tailplane into place before you have properly trimmed out the model,you never get this part right he adds in his own words,a true gem but today the book is a collectors item cherished by those who are lucky enough to own a copy,this book is the 'Mrs Beeton' of the model world and highly respected at that.
His expertise led to the Astral model company kitting his designs,I am very lucky to have an original Astral kit of the Lockheed Hudson,the model is produced from a material called balsa substitute,this is no more than very hard and brittle obeche sheet,the kit contains turned hardwood cowl fronts and wheels,if ever I get to the ack of my workbench then I will photograph that kit ! the final Towner design for Astral was the rare Vickers Viking,only a few of this kit were released,the late Doug Mc Hard had one in his kit collection,it must have been sold off at auction when his artifacts were split up.
Finally what happened to H.J.Towners models ? well I can tell you that they still exist to this day and once more I have seen them,they were purchased by the R.A.F Museum and put into store at Cardington where I made an appointment to view them,the curator apologised that they were in hermetically sealed bags to protect them,despite this a couple were kindly opened up for me to photograph,the standard of construction and attention to detail was superb,I feel deeply honoured to have been able to view them so closely,this really did convince me of his ability to transform a complex subject into a model.His daughter assures me that all of the models flew at least once,a lot of the later ones intended for rubber power were fitted with small Cox powerplants,I remember seeing the De Havilland Comet Racer & Avro Anso,Airspeed Oxford so fitted.
I did build his Grumman Duck amphibian and fitted radio equipment,sadly the model got damaged when we moved house but there is a picture somewhere here on scale-models of her.
I trust that this gives an interesting insight into H.J.T and his lifetime of model building admired by many even today.