Lone Modeller's Tray

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skypirate
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by skypirate »

Hooley Dooley!
You are intimidating an inspiration to an amateur like me! Everything is possible if you care enough!
Fantastic work!

Cheers,

David
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Purplethistle
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Purplethistle »

Fascinating and impressive discipline on display here. I tend to be more 'Free-flowing' in my approach to scratching, concentrating on irregular shapes, but that just makes me more appreciative of the effort shown here
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jssel
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by jssel »

Really enjoying this thread
Besting 60 years of mediocre building of average kits in the stand off scale
ShaunW
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by ShaunW »

Oh man, that is modelling artistry, LM!
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Lone Modeller »

Evening All,

My sincere thanks to the many who have dropped by and left such positive remarks: I really do appreciate them. I do hope that some of the techniques which I am describing here are useful to others.

I have to write that I am currently very fed up with repeated sanding, filling and priming of ribs.... only to find still more holes!!! I gave up for a while this week and took a break to make something else, but still took a little time on them which I am pleased to report are now nearly ready....sigh.

I forgot to explain how I made the stub wings which are on the lower rear of the hull. They are made from 30 thou card and bent in a pipe of near-boiling water as described by Stevehed. I use a length of water pipe of approx 6 inches (15cm) diameter which has been sealed at one end. I place the plastic card into the pipe so that it is against the sides - if necessary I hold it there with a stick when it is immersed in water. Boiling water is poured into the pipe to submerge the plastic for about 10 seconds: the hot water is then drained off and cold water poured in. The plastic can be withdrawn and it has the desired curve. The method is very good for making curved card for wings and other flying surfaces. (I just wish that I could have used the technique for the wings of this model but they were too thick). They were then filed and sanded to aerofoil section in the usual way:

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The stub wings have been given the rib treatment too and are now primed and ready to have the ends drilled to take metal pins: these will be used to attach the stub wings to the hull later.

For a change I went back to the hull to drill out the cockpit area. I am not proposing to add internal detail for two good reasons. The first is that I have absolutely no idea of what the internal structure looked like other than the fact that it was built from girders like the wings, and secondly the hull is solid wood and trying to hollow out a section and fill it with detail which would never be seen anyway seems to be going too far, so I have settled for a minimal approach, rather like Airfix and Revell kits of the early 1960's where all you had was a pilot and seat if you were lucky. In my case there will be two seats as the pilots sat side by side. I will put control wheels in too and a generic instrument panel which I think was behind the windshield. Well that is where mine is going!

I drilled out the cavity for the cockpit and then lined it with 10 thou card so that it could be painted. I also tidied up around the hole with filler to smooth out the surface:

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The next item was the windshield which sits in front of the pilots. I carved a male mould from balsa and push moulded one from 30 thou card.....and did not think that it looked right. I had been following the drawing but the result looked different from the photos, so I tried again...and again and finally got a shape which I think is close to what the original may have looked like:

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It is not glued into place yet because I still have to make the instrument panel and fit that first. While I was moulding the windshield I decided that I would also make a mould for the propellor spinners. This was a piece of 1/4 inch (6mm) dowel with the end shaped to the correct curve. I made 6 spinners to make sure that if I make a mess of one or two (highly likely) I will have enough to complete the job without having to go through the moulding process again. Just to test things I also carved a propellor from some strip wood which I use for the purpose, (please do not ask what the wood is because I have no idea - it was given to me by my late father and he did not know what it is either). The result:

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Only three more to make.

One thing that struck me when I was sanding the elevator surfaces was the size of them. On the aircraft they form a biplane structure which was at the extreme rear of the aircraft, and they hinged as a single unit. Just to give an idea of their size I got out my model of the Avro biplane of 1912 which is to the same scale: the span of the elevators is the same as the span of the wings of the biplane! (5 1/2 inches: 14 cm).

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Thanks for looking.
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by celt »

:wanw
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Clashcityrocker
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Clashcityrocker »

A real treat to see this coming together.

Nigel
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by ShaunW »

This is remarkable and very far in advance of my own rather hamfisted techniques although I have managed to use very hot water in the past to eliminate warps without either melting the plastic or scalding myself!
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Lone Modeller »

Shaun: the secret of using heat with plastic is not to use too much! I have suggested boiling water but some people put a little cold water in the tube first and then add boiling water. That makes sure that the plastic will not melt. Immersion needs only be aa few seconds - 10 is enough for plastic which is 30 thou thick - I would allow 5 seconds for 10 thou card. Similarly push moulding needs a little practice - wait until the edges of the plastic start to curl and the temperature is probably right. I have described push moulding in detail on the Airfix Tribute Forum site under tips and techniques: like all of these things practice makes you better!
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Lone Modeller »

Evening All,

I have not reported anything recently as I have been away to visit my brother, but we have been busy together as he has helped me with some of the work where two sets of hands were necessary and with a process which I have not mastered - soldering.

Before I left to see him though I added two small pieces of 60 thou card to the middle of the hull sides. These represent where the rear cabane struts were fixed to the top of the hull: the hull tapers slightly in plan but the cabanes were parallel with the thrust line and set close to the hull edge at the front.. Consequently the rearmost attachment point was slightly outboard of the edge of the hull and some form of bracket was fixed and then concealed behind a cover. It is not entirely clear from the photos what this looked like so I have shaped the card to what I think is a fair representation:

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All of those crosses on the top of the hull mark where I will have to drill locating holes for the cabane and engine support struts. The one in the centre is where the boom will be inserted into the top of the hull. First though the boom had to be made. For reasons of strength I decided to make this from brass rod, using 1/16 inch (1.6mm) for the arm which will be fixed into the hull and the 4 long arms, and 3/64 inch (1.19mm) for the cross pieces. I had intended to superglue these together but after a discussion with my brother he suggested that this would not be strong enough particularly given that the top side booms are attached to a single boom which enters the top of the hull via a triangular piece. This strange design came about as a consequence of the redesign of the engine installation: originally this machine was powered by three engines in the hull connected to the propellors via drive shafts. This arrangement was not very satisfactory for a number of reasons, among them being that one of the drive shafts broke causing the aircraft to make a forced landing. Then when the pilot tried to take off the central unit broke away and severely damaged the tail booms in the process. This caused a major redesign of the aircraft. The hull was reshaped, 4 engines were fitted instead of three, and these were placed in tandem in nacelles between the hull and the wing. This in turn meant that the upper boom attachment had to be reduced to a single central arm to clear the rear propellors.

My brother is very skilled with a soldering iron so he offered to make the upper part of the boom with the triangular joining piece and central arm for me. The triangular section was cut from a piece of brass sheet and after the boom parts had been cut form rod and the ends filed and cleaned, they were mounted on a jig of balsa wood to check size and alignment prior to soldering:

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Both ends of the boom are too long. This was done deliberately so that they can be cut to the correct lengths later: in particular the forward end needs to be buried as deeply into the hull as possible to give maximum strength. The boom was soldered and the new piece had the very small amounts of excess solder removed with a file.

Then we set about drilling the holes for the booms in the hull. The hull was wrapped in cloth to protect it as it was held in a vice and G clamp to make sure that there was no movement when we started to drill the holes. The first one to be drilled was the most difficult: this was the central hole in the middle of the hull. This has to penetrate at a low angle which meant that a small vertical pilot hole was drilled to a depth of approximately 1/4 inch (0.5cm), and then a paper template which had been made from the plan was crudely taped to the hull just to one side of the it:

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We checked the alignment by pushing the single arm of the boom into place:

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No extra drilling needed there! This now formed a convenient alignment jig for the two holes which had to be drilled in the lower rear of the hull where the lower boom arms will be fixed:

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When both holes had been drilled we were able to use the boom to make sure the gap and angle was right:

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Now I have to cut the remaining the parts of the boom assembly from brass rod and fit it to the hull with epoxy and superglue. However I will drill all of the remaining holes in the hull and wing first, as the hull will be easier to handle without a large lump of brass sticking out of the rear!

Thanks for looking.
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Clashcityrocker
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Clashcityrocker »

Nice work by the two of you.

Nigel
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Softscience
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Softscience »

Lots of incredible things going on at UAMF, lately. This project amongst them!

This has been really fun to watch.
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Lone Modeller »

Evening All,

Thanks gentlemen for the kind remarks - I greatly appreciate them.

I have attached the booms and the stub wings to the hull so at last this is beginning to look like an aeroplane and not a lump of carved wood and pieces of plastic of assorted shapes and sizes. The first step was to attach the top boom arms to the hull. I laid the boom on to a set of plans and cut off the excess rod at both ends, leaving enough at the front end to be pushed about 2.5 cm into the hull. This will ensure that it does not move or fall out later.. The boom was supported by three upright posts at the very rear of the hull - these were made from brass rod and expoxied into holes drilled into the hull. These holes were drilled at the same time as others which will be used later for among other things, engine support struts, stub wings, and cabane struts. In all 41 holes of different sizes, and all had to be in the correct places - not 3mm or 5mm too much to one side or the other. I too can get cross-eyed when measuring so I made a tracing from the plans to show where all the holes on the top of the hull needed to go and transferred this to the model. I could then check each location and correct if necessary without finding later that I had mis-drilled one or two! The holes in the sides of the hull for the stub wings were easier as I will explain later.

Back to the boom: with the vertical posts in place I epoxied the front post and pushed this into the hole in the centre of the hull until the triangular section at the front of the boom sat directly over the posts. A quick dab of CA on the tops of the posts and put the boom on to the posts: the CA made sure that the boom did not move while the epoxy cured overnight. In the morning I added the centre strip in the triangle at the front end of the boom - this was from 15 tou plastic card held also held in place with CA.

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The last photo shows the holes where the lower boom arms will be inserted into the hull However before that stage I cut the fins from 30 thou card and rouned the leading and trailing edges: these were fabric wrapped around the boom struts so did not need to be either aerofiol section of very thin. These two pieces of card were CA'd to the underside of the upper boom arms:

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Now the lower boom arms could be epoxied into the rear of the hull and CA'd to the card fins. This method of using epoxy and CA means that the arms are securely fixed to the wood and plastic: I have some wriggle time to get the boom in the correct place with the epoxy, and when it is where I want it the CA holds it in place while the epoxy cures.

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When the above was set and rigid I could add the remainder of the boom struts - vertical and horizontal. I started with the horizontal strut at the rear: I measured the gap with a pair of dividers, cut the rod and filed the ends with a round file to fit into the circular boom arm and CA'd it into place:

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Having checked that all was square and true I was able to cut the remaining pieces of brass rod as per the above and glue into place. I finished by cutting the vertical centre posts from 20 thou plastic rod and CA'd them into place too:

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At last I have a structure which is beginning to look like a flying boat! There are alternative ways to do this but experience has taught me that making the parts as I go along is better in the end because I can measure everything to fit together exactly rather than finding that something is not quite square, the wrong length, too short, etc when the completed sub-assembly is tested against the other part of the model. I also used CA for the brass attachments because it was easier and safer than solder and a hot iron: imagine trying to hold the rod with one hand and solder and iron in another......and then get it all square and true!!!

The front arm of the boom was braced on each side by small struts which I represented with 15 thou rod. Of course holes had been drilled in the top of the hull to receive these.... Finally I added the stub wings at the rear of the hull. I had drilled two holes in the edges of each wing and inserted a piece of stiff wire which was held in place with CA. The wire ends were held against the hull to mark where the holes should be drilled. (This was actually done before I fixed the boom into place - I am describing it here to make it easier to follow). Add a drop of CA to the ends of the wires and insert into the holes in the hull. A little filler as necessary was run along the joint and the whole rubbed down and primed.

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Thanks for looking. I am hoping that this next post will allow the reader to begin to see the shape of an aeroplane beginning to appear, but it wiil be a long time before the wing is put into place because of the structure of this particular machine - the wing was a parasol on cabane and large V struts mounted on the hull sides.

Thanks for looking.
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gnomemeansgnome
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by gnomemeansgnome »

This is an amazing build.
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JamesPerrin
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by JamesPerrin »

Just be catching up on this amazing build. I've done some wing construction and more recently brass and solder work ( for a ship model ) but never done any work with basswood. Looks a great material to work with and you've made some beautiful and complex shapes with it.
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