greggles.w

Now that looks great! What a happy machine! Well done.

What a monster - just like the real thing!! Looking good.

Thanks Glynn, effort on the jig will hopefully give a good result - I'm mindful that a piece of top class concrete work is as much a credit to the carpenter's form work. Thanks for taking the time to outline your technique Mr Lunarhighway. I had been mulling over possible alternate techniques in case my current approach failed, and had been thinking along those lines. However I had thought perhaps thin brass sheet, much like that used for PE parts. Your thrifty approach better matches my family budget hobby allowance, thank you! I'm now quietly confident my approach will get me there, in particular the (relatively) thick walls (.225mm) of the brass tube make for a very sturdy, rigid end result, even with a bit of filing & sanding to shape. However I will happily fall back on your advice if I hit trouble. Thanks yet again Rene, Sorry the last photo wasn't really so helpful - taken in a rush as I packed up for the night. Basically it's in lieu of a vice: I put the brass between two pieces of plywood & then tighten the wing nuts to slowly & evenly compress the circular tube. I had hoped that a bit of flex in the ply might assist in slightly curved faces to the compressed brass. However, the first use merely impressed the brass into the ply!! So I had to improvise & slipped two steel rules inside, sandwiching the brass! (Not shown in the photo sorry). That worked (& happily no damage to the rulers!!) Well, two days of children unwell & now me going under too means no further progress... Hopefully back at it again soon. Thanks all, g.

Congratulations, looks great!

Inspiring work & another beautiful aeroplane!

Thank you both!! Yes- very true, but nevertheless I'm having fun with it 😁 Tonight some experimentation with brass to replace the resin float struts, which have a little more flex than I'm comfortable with. Here is a comparison, front then side on, of the resin part with the latest attempt in brass: Made from 3mm diameter 'soft fuel brass' circular tube with a 0.5mm brass rod within the leading edge. This is the most evenly reshaped test-run so far, made using this homemade contraption (!!): Not sure yet if I think the outcome is OK ... will reconsider tomorrow. p.s Today is tomorrow (eh?) & I've given it some thought. All was good other than the trailing edge, which was rounded as per the leading edge when it ought to be streamlined out to a taper. A little work with a file then coarse wet 'n dry has brought that to a fine enough taper. This soft brass was quite workable, if a little vulnerable to unintentional marking. So onward, same again x3 more..

Well done! Many comments have been made on the look of this thing, and here's mine for what it's worth: it looks like a bullfrog about to belch!! Perfect subject for this group build. Nice result.

Float struts. This is what the kit supplies: There's four of them, so that's good. And they are airfoil in section, so that's good too. But they appear to be four casts of the same part: all alike, all the same length and all with perpendicular ends (don't be fooled by the locating pins on one end - there's no holes in the floats or fuselage to fit them in!). The reality is somewhat more geometrically complex, like so: The front & rear struts lean back at slightly differing angles ... Hence the need for the elaborate jig. And here's where I've got to with it tonight: Zoom, zoom!! The red lines set out the back edge of the struts, which I can tape to that sloped plane of cardboard while trimming their ends & later while glueing. The fuselage is just teetering there. I'll need to build some support for it .. next time. Thanks for looking in, g.

Look forward to seeing this! I have the same (long wing) at 1/48 but have been somewhat intimidated by that high shine finish. This kit of yours looks quite detailed for the scale. Very nice.

Thanks Paul & Colin, both tips were applied successfully, at least as new techniques for me, but unfortunately they couldn't rescue me from the debacle of my own making with these hatches. My attempt to improve on them by scribing resulted in even more irregularity! Use of a template made them more regular in shape but despite my best efforts to string them out aligned in close succession along the top of the float they were all over the place. So in the end your techniques were useful largely to flush out my scribed lines before I filled them with putty!! So, Colin, no it wasn't! But I've come something like full circle, by combining my two approaches: I used the scribing template but to cut out repeated new hatches from thin sheet, then used a lattice of masking tape guides to place them in alignment. So in the end they return to being depicted raised, as per the original, which I'm happy about. Done, like so: So it's third time, call it good! Rivets to go back on later, for now I need to switch back to working on the jig for the float struts ...

After writing the above I couldn't let those hatches be ... made myself a template from clear styrene with a centreline scribed on it & have made a start: ... thats all I have time for today, about half the hatches done. Looking much, much better than previous attempt. Does anyone have a clever trick for getting the scribing & sanding dust out of the scribed lines? I've seen it done with liquid cement on styrene kits - but is there are similar technique to suit resin??

Thanks & welcome Cliff ... though I'm the one who ought to be described as late with this drawn out build! There's been some progress, shown here for you Colin, with work commenced on the 'mother of all jigs'. This will first aid trimming the float struts to the required length & geometry and then hopefully will assist again with final assembly: I've switched material, from plastic to 'box board' & PVA. The yellow is masking tape protection for a piece of clear acrylic. You may be able to make out two subtle 'V's notched into the top edge - these are shaped to support the underside of the floats immediately behind their step, like so: The jig is by no means finished, it's merely reached the point where the floats can be aligned parallel at the correct spacing & set at their -1 degree forward tilt (which gave the fuselage a slight tail down attitude when on the water). Now comes the trickier bit of setting up support for the struts which lean in and lean back, at differing angles front & back ... The eagle-eyed among you might notice evidence of a setback: the access hatches along the top of the first float were bugging me with their irregularities. I made the mistake of thinking I could fiddle with them to fix, but of course this made things worse. So then I made the call to sand them off & in so doing my resin dust supression - wet sanding - lifted all those tediously placed rivets!! I'll hold off reapplying rivets until I'm done with handling the floats, while those hatches may be scribed ... or quietly be forgotten! Back to it ...

Beautiful!! Hard to decide what's more lovely - this or that Comet of yours! Congratulations, looks great.

Thanks Colin, timely & encouraging commentary! I have started mulling over a final 'mother of all jigs' to bring all the subassemblies together. It's going to be quite a task to setup the support for the float struts to hold them fixed in the correct geometry.. Thanks again! I'm close enough now that I too am anticipating the finish. Hope to have some more progress to show soon ...

A great outcome, and a pleasure to follow along with your remarkable process! Inspirational!!