Lone Modeller's Tray

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iggie
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by iggie »

Incredible skill!
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
Lone Modeller
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Lone Modeller »

Evening All,

Thank you very much Gnome, James and Iggie for your comments. This post will probably seem a litte tame after the last one as it only involved a little cutting and scraping of card, plus drilling some holes.

I have finished the tail surfaces by assembling the biplane elevator and making the upper halves of the fins and rudders and attaching them to the horizontal stabilizer. I used 30 thou card for the fins and rudders and cut two slots in them so that I could insert the horizontal surface. Filler had to be used to clean up the joint because unless the gap was slightly oversize the horizontal surface ribs would not pass through. Incidentally a strange feature of this part is that the ribs are on the underside and not the top as on the wings: I do not know why this was so but it is clear from photos and the drawings that this was the case.

The elevator was a biplane structure which was easily assembled using 20 thou rod for the struts. Simple holes were drilled in both surfaces, the rod cut to length and all held together with liquid cement. I still have to add the arms which joined this structure to the rear of the upper boom arms.

Just to illustrate again how big this aircraft was (and how big a model it will be when finished) I have put the elevator, upper fins and rudders and the ailerons around an Avro Type D biplane which is in the same scale. This aircraft was built and flew only 5 years after the Avro.

Image

Image

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

Post by skypirate »

Interesting comparison!
That Avro Type D is a beautiful model!

Cheers,

David
Lone Modeller
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Lone Modeller »

Many thanks for the kind remarks David. The Avro Biplane was posted in the aircraft section in September 2015 if you want to look at more pictures: http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=19&t ... 12#p257637;
Lone Modeller
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Lone Modeller »

Evening AlI,

I have fixed the windshield to the hull - that was a part that I moulded and showed earlier. It was metal on the original aircraft and I think had the instrument panel mounted behind it - at least that is how I have interpreted it. The IP was a simple piece of card painted in oils to represent wood, (although on the original it may have been duraluminium?), and then some black dots to represent instruments. As this part will barely visible on the completed model that is good enough. The joint between the windshield and hull was filled and sanded and then the whole given a coat of primer, together with the wing and tail surfaces. The brass boom was given a coat of metal primer: I am not sure how acrylics would go on to uncoated brass and I was not prepared to take the risk.

Painting and decorating followed. The first was the CDL for which I have used Revell Beige 314. Artwork is not my strong suit and I find it very difficult to mix paint and get consistent shades so I used this straight from the pot. I watered it down and applied numerous coats - I think about 12 in all - I lost count actually. The first two coats looked positively awful but after that things improved a little. For the wings and large surfaces I drew the brush across the surface for one coat and then along for the next, alternating the direction for each coat. The final coat was always from the front to the rear of the part being painted.

Image

Then on to the metallic areas which I have represented with Revell Hellgrau 76 again straight form the pot but again watered down and multi-coated as described above. The finish does look a bit uniform but the photographs do not show any variation and any panel lines would be too small to see in this scale anyway.

Next came the decoration: I had printed the crosses on my computer so I first cut out the white background squares from white transfer sheet and applied these:

Image

This is the top of the wing and shows what I mean - nothing special. After that was dry the crosses were applied, in this case under the wing:

Image

The ribs on the underside were cut from 10 x 20 thou Evergreen strip and represent reinforcing strips between the strut location points. I have since painted these grey too as these were metallic and not covered by fabric. The holes where the struts will be eventually fitted can also be seen here. The fin crosses were also applied so that the complete hull assembly now looks like this:

Image

Image

After all the excitement of waiting for paint to dry I can now get on with rigging the underside and inside of the boom because I am concerned about access accidentally knocking off parts because I have to invert the model in order to rig these areas. I also need to get on with finishing the engine nacelles.....

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

Post by celt »

Wonderful just wonderful. :mrgreen:
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Clashcityrocker
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Clashcityrocker »

All coming together now. Looking very nice.

Nigel
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Stupot
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Stupot »

I've just been catching up here and reading how you made the boom assembly - very nice. Everything you are doing here is impressive!

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Stu :)
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ShaunW
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by ShaunW »

Everything about this build is something else, LM. This is a true masterclass.
Doing - Tamiya 1/35th Universal Carrier.

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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Lone Modeller »

Thank you gentlemen for your most kind remarks. Sometimes when I can see all the mistakes and think that things are not going as they "should" it is nice to get some positive feedback from others who do not see the errors in the same way!
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skypirate
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by skypirate »

Stunning results already!

Cheers,

David
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Softscience
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Softscience »

I wish I had your patience and craftsmanship. These are amazing.
Lone Modeller
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Lone Modeller »

Evening All,

Thanks David and SS for dropping by and leaving encouraging remarks - I really do appreciate these comments and am pleased that others are enjoying this build, as indeed I am.

I have rigged the lower part of the tail boom together with the vertical sections as shown in the photos. Experience has taught me that rigging parts of a model like this is strongly advised as they become much less accessible later when there are large parts such as wings etc to catch on when one is trying to get the tweezers and wire into tiny spaces. I use rolled 40 SWG copper wire: I measure the length needed directly from the model using a pair of dividers. l then cut a piece of wire which is slightly longer than needed and roll it flat with a piece of brass strip on a hardwood base. The wire is offered to the space where it is supposed to fit and by the use of Mk 1 eyeball I estimate how much needs to be trimmed. A second, and if necessary third, attempt is made until the wire is the correct length. A tiny blob of CA is added to the model at both ends where the wire is to be attached and the wire carefully placed in position. The CA usually grabs the wire and holds it firm. Sometimes I will put one end on and then use tweezers or a knife blade to gently ease the other end of the wire into place if it is difficult to get to. By using wire I do not have to drill and fill lots of holes, and in the case of this boom structure which is made from brass, I do not have to drill into metal which would be extremely difficult and time consuming. The results look like this:

Image

Image

Whilst I was in rigging mode I decided to complete the elevator so that I could store it where it cannot be damaged. This will be one of the very last parts to be added to the model so I need to keep it safe in the meantime.

Image

Just a reminder of size and how much rigging there is on this aeroplane, here again is the Avro biplane with the rigged and painted elevator: remember this will be at the very rear of the flying boat and is a relatively small part of it!

Image

I have been thinking hard about how I am going to attach the large V struts under the wings to the hull sides. On the original aircraft they came to a common joint and were attached to the hull side and probably to a large piece of frame inside the hull. I do not think that it will be practical to make the ends of 4 pieces of plastic come together and simultaneously be able to fix them to the hull sides, so I have decided to make two small attachment pieces from 60 thou card, drill holes in them and the hull and attach them with wire and CA. However I needed to make the attachment pieces the correct size: the struts will be made from 120 thou x 30 thou Evergreen strip shaped to aerofiol section, (the original struts were huge as the photos show). So I cut two small pieces of strip and made a tapered joint so that they would come together with a combined width of 60 thou. I could then cut the attachment pieces to fit exactly the strut ends:

Image

Image

The hull attachment parts have an angled face which will be glued to the hull side and be reinforced with a piece of wire which I took from a piece of telephone cable. The opposite side will then be angled upwards so that the ends of the struts will fit directly on to it and will form a butt joint. The wing is completely rigid so the V struts should not be carrying any weight. The completed attachment lugs look like this:

Image

These have been CA'd to the hull.

I have also done some work on the engine nacelles: by the use of a file and glass paper I have shaped them to match the drawings and then I drilled out two slots, one at each end on the top, into which I am going to insert some short pieces of 60 thou rod to represent the cylinder ends. I have called this a retro model for good reasons: I am not intending to add a huge amount of cockpit and engine detail only to cover it all up - this model will resemble some of the early Frog and Airfix models from the 1950's where there were no wheel wells, cockpit openings, or other recesses! I have also resorted to talcum powder and dope as a filler - another 1960's, pre-resin aftermarket solution to a modelling problem! The engine tops will have some detail which will hopefully disguise to all but the most serious onlooker the small liberties that I am taking with this model. The rear engines will be nearly hidden under the wing anyway and all will have radiators mounted above them which will also help to obscure the view!

Image

Image

There is some tidying up to do around the edges of the slots but that will be easy to do and when paint is on they should pass muster. Various holes have been drilled in the sides and front and rear which represent various orifices on the originals, but I have no idea why they were there, they are just clearly visible in the photos

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

Post by iggie »

Still amazed at your skill and patience; fantastic work
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
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Softscience
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Re: Lone Modeller's Tray

Post by Softscience »

And here I am hemming and hawing about hawing to do a few simple wires on my Ni-17. The fine precision look of your wired booms is very inspiring! I feel I can tackle my far simpler task.
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