Jump to content

Bandsaw Steve

Gold Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    4,282

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Bandsaw Steve

    🇩🇰 F-100D Super Sabre, 1/32, Scratchbuild

    in NATO 75th Anniversary GB

    Posted

    Blocking-out

     

    For me scratchbuilding a model is a bit like drawing a picture.  Typically an artist creating a drawing will 'block-out' the biggest shapes first and then, once the basic structure is established, will add details.  Not all artists work that way, but many do, and it's a good analogy for how I attack making models.  I start with the biggest shapes and try to cut out the blocks that will represent them. Later on I can contour those shapes and move on to finer details. I also tend to start at the center, in this case the fuselage, and work outward.

     

    Since the fuselage is already 'blocked-out' it's time to start cutting out the wings, tailplanes and tail.

     

    Using the 'biggest to littlest' rule of thumb, lets start with the wings.  Here I have one sheet of 6mm thick MDF with a topside and bottomside view of the wings glued on.

    uBlHWX4.jpeg

     

    Here I've used the bandsaw to make an initial cut-out of both the top and lower half of the wing structure. The next step will be to cut in much more closely to the final shape and then finish with a bench-mounted belt sander.  Unfortunately I took no photos for either of those two stages but I'm sure you get the idea. It's a good idea to make the wing in two pieces, an upper and lower half, because then you can contour each independently of the other and ensure that the flat plane between upper and lower remains completely consistent.

    TBxN6ex.jpeg

     

    For the vertical tail I spot-glued two sheets of 3mm MDF together and stuck on an outline of the tail plus a deep 'root' or 'base' to the tail that will set into the fuselage and will be used to attach the whole structure.  I then cut the tail outline out using a scroll-saw. You do not need a scroll-saw for this kind of work - a coping saw would handle this easily - but using a power-tool does save time.

    Note that when I glued the two sheets together I ensured that none of the glue was within the area defined by the tail outline. This way, once the cut was complete, the tail naturally split into two 3mm thick halves. This - once again - creates a centreline for me to work to. 

    MxrhM0n.jpeg

     

    For the tailplanes I chose to use a single layer of high-quality plywood.  The F-100's tailplane was a very thin structure, so to ensure that it was strong enough to withstand handling, I chose plywood, which is much better than MDF in this regard. There could be some minor complications with this choice when I come to taper this structure but I'm confident I can manage.

    Bb9AwzK.jpeg

     

    Here is the empennage as it currently stands. Obviously the tail looks weird because it has not yet been set into the center of the fuselage.   

    lz5TEqs.jpeg

     

    Here's the current state of play of this project.

    0bUDlTJ.jpeg

     

     

    The biggest shapes are now 'blocked out'. The next step will be to cut rebates into the fuselage so that each of these pieces fit together in the correct way making a rudimentary 3D 'picture' of an F-100. In the meantime, if you blur your eyes and stand well back it's almost starting to look like... something. 👍

    AtfXQ41.jpeg

     

    Stay with me NATO potatoes!

     

    Best Regards,
    Bandsaw Steve

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 8

    🇩🇰 F-100D Super Sabre, 1/32, Scratchbuild

    in NATO 75th Anniversary GB

    Posted

    We need a bigger bandsaw! 🦈

     

    At the end of the first post I had managed to cut one half of the fuselage into this 2D outline.

    5LJPnLl.jpg

     

    I generally make my fuselages by temporarily joining two blocks of wood and then making just one cut around the side view shape.  Doing this way ensures that there is a natural centerline running through the middle of the project since the joining surface acts as a permanent reference line which helps me ensure symmetry later on. Generally I can cut both halves at the same time but since this fuselage is so chunky I couldn’t fit both bits of wood into the bandsaw at the same time and had to work on the two halves separately. We need a bigger bandsaw! 🦈

     

    Here's the second half cut out and laid up against the first half.

    pTnFqRk.jpeg

     

    Now I hold the two together in a vice and drill out holes for a series of small dowels that will ensure that the two halves go together in exactly the same way each time the model is assembled.

    jpv5Fi6.jpeg

     

    Since the two halves were not cut out at the same moment there were inevitably slight differences between the two shapes and there was quite a bit of rasp and file work required to get them both the same size and shape.

    8BptrIG.jpeg

     

    There was also a fair bit of sanding required to really eliminate the differences.

    PRNKyao.jpeg

     

    Which gave me this.

    shlRqbe.jpeg

     

    The next phase of work was just too ugly to photograph. Suffice to say that the plan view shape was defined by a paper cut out of the underside view stuck on the lower half of the fuselage. Then a  great deal of sawing and rasping and sanding was completed to get the plan view shape correct.  The problem was that the height of the fuselage (distance from bottom-most to the top-most surface) was too great to fit in the cutting throat of the bandsaw so I had to do this work manually using hand-saws and other such contemptible primitive methods.  Consequently, a job that should have taken about 15 minutes took a couple of hours.  We need a bigger bandsaw! 🦈

    x9spcJF.jpeg

     

    I got there in the end though!

    AZLhdVN.jpeg

     

    Here is the progress to date shot showing the F-100 parked up against the Mirage III. Both are 1/32 scale but I think you can already see just how much bigger the F-100 is. BTW the paper on top is just normal photocopier paper held in place with spray on photo adhesive. I've found this makes a really strong really tight 'lock' between the two halves that's easily removed at any time just by wiping it with white spirits. In the photo below, between the paper template on the bottom side and the paper on top and the handful of small dowels the whole structure is absolutely rigid; it's as if it's just one block of wood at the moment. 

    ewVXLRD.jpeg

     

    Anyway -all of that sawing and rasping and sanding has made me think... ‘We’re gonna need a bigger bandsaw if we want to build something as big and sharky as this!’ 🦈

     

    Well - maybe not. The fuselage is probably the only part that is really going to punish us for lack of bandsaw capacity on this project. The biggest bit is under control now. From here on it's just little details like wings and tails and tailplanes and stuff that need to be built. Stay tuned folks there's plenty more NATO action to follow. 

     

    Best Regards,

    Bandsaw Steve

     

    • Like 11

    Mirage IIIO 1/32, Scratchbuild

    in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Posted

    Rapid progress.

     

    Sometimes I just get a bit reckless with these projects and when I do I find things go much faster.  Perhaps I've just been 'needled' by the somewhat pointed and entirely valid comments above regarding my lack of speed. 😄 In any case, I do seem to have put a few runs on the board recently.  🤔

     

    Earlier this week I decided that ready-or-not the time has come to stick the missing cockpit wall in place. In order to do that I had to start by squirting some black Tamiya rattle-can paint about as shown below.

    Mv4MBBx.jpeg

     

    While waiting for the paint to dry I thought to myself  'I wonder how the rest of this blotchy and uneven-colored thing will look when finally painted? So - before I knew it - I had masked off some of the black paint, cleaned off the metal with a cloth dampened with few drops of isopropyl alcohol and sprayed a couple of coats of grey metal etching primer. 

     

    Here's the result. I think it looks quite encouraging!  I only sprayed the top half though because there's still a bunch of detailing to go in the wheel wells and it will probably be much easier to work on unpainted surfaces.

    bx7yAfn.jpeg

     

    Here she is from another angle.

    WMVgkHJ.jpeg

     

    It's obvious that the big hole in the side of the cockpit really does need to be filled, but it's equally obvious that it's far easier to put the final components of the cockpit into their final position before closing up that sidewall.  The last components are an ejection seat, an instrument panel, an  instrument panel shroud and all of the 'guff' that sits above the shroud ahead of the pilot.

    yCMnHhQ.jpeg

     

    Here's the result. This is probably sufficiently inaccurate to make any Mirage III guru cry;  but to hell with it - I'm trying to make rapid progress! :devil:

    NhKuhkJ.jpeg

     

    Blading putty and sanding was used to conceal the join where the new wall met the rest of the fuselage and with a squirt of more black paint the result was satisfactory.

     Zbkeq5z.jpeg

     

    I think it looks OK from a distance.

    4T6W0Hd.jpeg

     

    Now I rolled the thing on it's back and started working on the guns.  How to deal with the guns has worried me for a while because I really was not sure how I was going to position and align the gun barrels so they weren't aimed point-blank at the underside of the nose. 

    As you can see I carved out two big trenches where the guns can sit...

    wUiL2Rm.jpeg

     

    and then epoxied and milli-putted the short visible lengths of gun-barrel into position carefully lining them up so that they can just be seen from directly in front of the aircraft, thereby proving that firing them is not an act of suicide.

    h1eBPzb.jpeg

     

    Now came the really tricky bit. How to make the extremely elongated oval reinforced housings that surround the gun troughs.  @hendie once said something like 'ovals are hard to make' and I would have to agree with him on that. 

     

    These look shocking! So bad in fact that the top one got re-made and the bottom one (about 80% complete in this photo) probably should have been scrapped as well. it was only saved because I was running low on out of copper and still did not really know how to make the next one any better. 

    Jr2eZxH.jpeg

     

    Here a bit of folded / rolled-up sandpaper is being used to 'ovalise' the gun troughs.

    kwrsRMv.jpeg

     

    These are far from perfect but I'm pressing on regardless.

    QgLuQmJ.jpeg

     

    I used copper for this because I figured it would take the slight compound curves better than Aluminum lithoplate and, being a bit thicker, might withstand the handling better. 

    Oxh7sId.jpeg

     

    I think it was the right choice as in the end the result is not toooooo baaaaaaddd.... as long as you don't look closely. Hopefully the overall 'racy' appearance of the jet from this angle will distract the eye from the rather 'agricultural' gun troughs.

    5yFe1UQ.jpeg

     

    Right now I'm pretty happy with how this is looking. 

    0kpnSWB.jpeg

     

    Next comes the canopy. The canopy's vac-forming molding 'buck' is already well underway and will be the subject of the next update. Like I say - I'm putting a few runs on the board at the moment! 

     

    Best Regards,

    Bandsaw Steve

     

     

    • Like 14

    🇩🇰 F-100D Super Sabre, 1/32, Scratchbuild

    in NATO 75th Anniversary GB

    Posted

    Happy 75 Birthday NATO 🇩🇰 

     

    It is probably true to say that there is no organization in the world that I admire more than NATO.  I don't want to go into depth why since I might just get a bit 'political' and we cannot have that here,  but I am prepared to say that - in my belief- if NATO had not existed for the last 75 years, the world would be a much more dangerous place and many fewer people would enjoy security and freedom.With this in mind I think I have no choice but to take part in this most excellent group build.

     

     I really like the idea of the flags! It's unique and intriguing and might just give an incentive to folks to model some of the smaller nations that might sometimes be overlooked. ‘My’ flag is The Netherlands; however, try as I might, I cannot find a Dutch subject that grips me quite as much as a Royal Danish Air Force F-100D! Yes, a Super Sabre complete with grotty, patchy, olive-green, livery! Admit it... you know the kind of filth I mean!

     

    jEYodW3.jpeg

     

    Another reason to pick the Danish Air Force is that a friend of mine who collects models lives just 5km outside of Denmark and yet has not a single Danish item in his collection. (In the interests of transparency I should probably point out that I am referring to 'Denmark' the small coastal Western Australian township rather than 'Denmark' the Scandinavian constitutional monarchy - but you get the idea).

     

    I really like the F-100!  It just looks so damned mean. It has to be the most shark-like looking aircraft ever made and its relatively simple geometry makes it a great subject for scratchbuilding. When I was a teenager I scratchbuilt one in roughly 1/100 scale and it came out OK, but it did not survive the various parental 'junk purges' that punctuated my many years living away from home and now - alas - it's in landfill someplace. Never mind, let's just make another one... a bigger one!

     

    Here are my references...

    JqEQ3nW.jpg

     

    some inspiration...

    R2S09Wt.jpg

     

    and the raw materials!

    K3WooQ7.jpg

     

    I'm hoping this will be a good chance for me to practice and improve on many of the methods that i used for the first time during my - still ongoing - Mirage IIIO build.  This project I'm hoping will be relatively simple. Much of its success or failure will depend on the final painting and weathering as I'm hoping I can make this look like a jet as battered and worn as those in the pictures above.

     

    But let's start at the beginning. 

     

    As usual I have selected Jarrah for the fuselage and have used cheap photographic spray adhesive to stick the relevant plans on the side.

    Mbq7pKd.jpg

     

    Here is the very first cut of the entire project.  Shockingly that's not a bandsaw, but don't worry I will be using one very soon.

    PdTPhXA.jpg

     

     

    OK - here it is, the first bandsaw cut!  Let's call this the moment that the ‘project proper’ begins.  

    MwnPwaj.jpg

     

    To get to this shape does not take long.

    U2wdwPk.jpg

     

    After some sanding and general tidying up we have this...

    5LJPnLl.jpg

     

    Which is only the starboard half of the fuselage. I will be cutting out the port side tomorrow night.

     

    I have absolutely no hope whatsoever of finishing this project within the allocated four month timespan, especially since this new build must compete with the ongoing Mirage project which must be finished by August 2024. Nevertheless I do think that in the limited time available I can probably bash together sufficient shapes so that it is unmistakably an F-100. Following that I'll just transfer this thread back to the 'main pages' and carry on to the end.

     

    In the meantime I hope that this is of interest to you NATO enthusiasts and that you can all get some enjoyment out of watching my humble attempt to turn out a Danish Hun.

     

    Go Team NATO!

    Bandsaw Steve 

     

     

     

     

    • Like 25
×
×
  • Create New...