Barry's Lockheed XP-58 'Chain Lightning'

[Barry]

Showing drilled out tail booms




Thin trailing edge damage..block it with 5thou card, fill with cryo and sand to shape





Stretched sprue cryo'd in to fill pinholes





Then TARFU . See the wide grooves on the nacelles just over the wings? They represent openings in the skin through which are visible duct work going from the engines back to the turbochargers. I thought I could open them up and insert a piece of rod for a more realistic appearance. Wrong.




Ended up having to just clear away the wreckage and square up the opening.






I've laminated blocks of styrene to be carved into shape so I can vacform replacement nacelle sections.



One step foreward, three back.

[Jagewa]

That moulded grill in the engine intake, is seriously amazing detail.

So you'll put tubes, and have vacc'd nacelle sections over the top?

Fascinating build as ever Barry.

Cheers
Jim

[Barry]

That's the plan Jim. I shoulda stuck to my first plan: flat sand a piece of rod to a narrow 'D' cross section and glue it in place. A little paint 'n polish ...would have looked just fine.

[Barry]

That took longer than I would have liked. Vac parts ready to be trimmed




Installed





And painted. Not perfect, but it'll have to do.





Kit supplied cockpit except for the yoke, which I had to make. Planet incorrectly supplies a stick.

[JamesPerrin]

Those nacelle covers looked a tricky thing to replace but the results look very good - however doesn't quite quite do justice to the effort involved.

So have you've got your own vacform machine. Can we see?

[TobyC]

You've put a lot of effort into this and it shows. Excellent work

[DavidWomby]

Looking good. Lovely detail in the cockpit.

David

[jssel]

I am not worthy......I am not worthy.

[ShaunW]

Great work Barry, inspirational stuff!

[Jagewa]

Wow, that was a serious amount of work, looks good though.
Cheers
Jim

[Barry]

Here ya go James...my trusty Mattel Vac U Form which I bought new sometime back in the 70's (I think). I can't actually remember exactly...might have been early '80s.






Fuselage pod just sitting in place for show, and there's much cleanup and filling to be done at the boom join lines. I have been able to confirm that it's still a tail sitter. There's just not enough room in the nose for the needed amount of weight. I'm going to hollow out the engine bays as much as I can and see how much lead I can cram in there.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Micro-Mark's new catalog has added this: http://www.micromark.com/compact-vacuum ... 11244.html;

But my problem isn't the vac-forming, it's the carving of a mold the machine won't laugh at ...

Great work, Barry !

[Molly-new]

Looking good Barry, shame about the weight problem. Is it worth considering displaying it in flight?

[Barry]

Very hefty vac machine there John. Theses are the only molds I've had to carve...some others, I just sanded the thick kit canopy smooth and used it





I prefer my models sitting on the ground Chip. I'm not beaten yet

[JamesPerrin]

Micro-Mark's new catalog has added this: http://www.micromark.com/compact-vacuum ... 11244.html;

I saw them recently on ebay, they are actual from the dental trade!