Something I acquired several weeks ago as a project to undertake while in lockdown. The spade grip was a rough cast alloy grip in much need of cleaning up before going any further with it. Casting seams needed grinding out and the hole for the firing button needed enlarging slightly. The actual control column is in ‘as found’ condition when removed from the trainer, and the brass firing button is a high-end reproduction. Pictures of the grip were taken after filing and polishing.

After finishing the preliminary clean-up I polished out the scratches, and then I set about installing the two air lines which were actually lengths of car brake pipe. A bracket was then fashioned to clamp the pipes to the upright portion of the grip.The Harvard spade grip differs from that used by RAF fighters, there being no provision for a brake lever, so that was one job less to do. I then installed the firing button and painted the grip and allowed it to dry before distressing the paintwork… on reflection I might have gone over the top with this. The next job was the grip covering. I tried whipping the grip with cord and then painted it black, but somehow it didn’t look right. After some experimenting on a piece of tube I decided to cover the alloy in black Milliput resin putty, and then wrap string around it haphazardly. After removing the string I repeated the process, removed the string… and then went over the whole lot with a soft brush and water to remove any unwanted marks from strands of string. After everything had dried I went over the brass ‘fire’ button with gun blue cream to dull it down a bit, and the dried putty was sanded down with fine wet & dry. The end result isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t look too bad. All that remains to be done is to reattach the grip to the control column.
Cheers,
Steve

Click to enlarge the picture