Army_Air_Force

By about 12:30pm, my daughter turned up and took over the operation of the layout. There had already been lots of interest from children and parents alike.

I started the day on my own as my daughter was at dance class, but she would join me around mid day. The layout was set up in the carriage shed, also being used as a loco shed on a temporary basis. The main loco shed, the oldest in the world still in use, needs roof repairs and its use is currently restricted. I set up the layout end on to the public so that both sides would be visible. The layout was overlooked by a much larger loco than I would be using.

Yesterday was the big day for the ponies and their railroad! It was the Tanfield Railway Steam Gala. Tanfield Railway is the oldest railway in the world will be celebrating its 300th Anniversary in 2025. The steam gala is the main event of the year where in addition to the home based locos, guest locos visit, hauling both passenger and mixed freight trains. I arrived while the trains were still being assembled and the coaches and wagons were being shunted around and moved to the main line. Here's a couple of shots from early morning.

I used Humbrol 209 on my Broussard. I gave it a white under coat first then sprayed multiple very thin coats, baking each coat in my curing cabinet. I think with 209, spraying is the only way to go to get very thin coats on. The paint itself was stirred with my mini drill. I have an old Humbrol paint lid with a small hole in the top. A piece of 1mm wire extends through the hole and has a Z bend in the end to mix the paint. The other end goes in my mini drill at a slowish speed, but it mixes the paint very will. Sometimes I need to hold some tissue around the tin lid hole to stop the spinning paint from being drawn up the shaft towards the drill. The drill and tin need to be held firmly unless you want to decorate the whole room. My curing cabinet was a very cheap but worth while addition to my workshop. It is an old set of plastic storage drawers in a wooden carcase. I added a shelf and lined the space with foam backed insulating foil. A 60watt light bulb is mounted in the top and quickly brings the temperature to around 27 degrees C. All my resin and paint work goes in there now to bake and it's amazing how quick paints will cure fully in "oven" conditions. See below for the paint finish and curing cabinet. The curing cabinet, door open.

I would go with aluminium. For the stringers, you could make life easier by using flat strip for the part that attaches to the skin, and box section glued on with a modern bonding agent. That would give you the correct section for the stringers. You could use real rivets or just small section aluminium rod cut to small pieces and glued in. For the curved formers, either splash out and get a metalworking company to roll some for you, or use wooden formers with aluminium sheet bonded to the surface.

Were all the parts rigidly glued? In cockpits, when I've been mounting larger detail pieces, I've often used silicone rubber to glue with, as it gives a little vibration protection in R/C models. Perhaps it's not such an issue on electric powered models, but there's still landing loads and vibrations from grass runways.

The decaling was completed today.

A nice project but would have been nice to see more flying and less talking! Shame to have spent 6000 hours, all that work and then paint exhaust streaks from the wing vents - a common mistake that was also made on the "Memphis Belle" film aircraft in 1989!! Did you get plenty of photos of your detail work?

1/9 is a fairly practical size for a R/C bomber. My first B-17 was 1/10 scale, just over 10 feet span. A 1/6 scale version followed, but at over seventeen feet span, twelve and a half feet long and 140 pounds take off weight, it was a huge monster to transport and I ended up building a 12 x 6 x 3 feet trailer to transport it. 1/9 scale puts it at 11.5 feet span which is manageable for every day flying at a club field. The turret looks good and being close to the C of G, a little weight here isn't too much of a worry.

Wings were first, underside, then top side. Next came a start on the fuselage sides.

All gloss coated and along side an old Airfix Sea King, also to be framed. I started to apply the decals today in addition to painting small parts like the struts, wheels, pitot and prop.

I haven't posted much lately, but Broussard number two had its clear coats applied today.

Be warned, it's a hobby that can get expensive and brings storage problems that plastic modellers can't comprehend!!! 😉

Since buying my three military vehicles, I haven't done any R/C flying. The last time was probably 11 years ago. Everything I did was fairly traditional balsa/ply airframes with methanol or petrol engines. Electric flight and Almost Ready to Fly stuff was in its infancy, so my knowledge of the hobby as it stands now is limited. Best advice I can offer is find a local club and get 3rd party model flying insurance. The British Model Flying Association is a good place to start for insurance and finding a local club.

Attaching the tub to the chassis came next and that's where I spotted a problem. I suggested we glue the chassis rear cross member to the bottom of the tub first and once the glue took hold, then pull the front of the chassis in line with the front fenders. That's when I spotted the bumper at an odd angle. At first, I thought we may have glued a twist into the chassis when attaching the axles. However, closer inspection showed the cross member at the front of the fenders was parallel to the top of the fenders and the axle was also parallel to the chassis front cross member. The twist existed in the chassis moulding ahead of the grill position. I decided my daughter could glue the chassis on regardless, as the majority of the chassis was straight and true. Once the glue was set, I would warm the front chassis leg with a soldering iron to soften it and then straighten the twist. I did that today. Here's the tub and chassis as joined yesterday, prior to straightening the chassis today.

We managed to do a little more yesterday. The wheels that were painted on the sprue some time ago were cut free, trimmed and glued to the trailer and field gun. A little later in the afternoon, when the glue had a little while to cure, the black on the tyres was touched up where the wheels had been cut from the sprue. Next was back to the Jeep, gluing in the rear body panel, which slotted in between the floor and rear body handles from below very neatly.

The "My Little Pony" railroad is now due to make its first public appearance at the Tanfield Railway Steam Gala on June 15th, confirmed by email this morning. Princess Twilight and friends are rather excited about the outing.

I cast another set of parts this morning, then made a couple of new small moulds before the last of the silicone started to go off. Next I masked up the dayglow areas and started spraying in lots of thin layers. The rest of the day was spent working on a pair of 1/35 scale Jeeps in crates.

The second of the two commissioned models is now at the painting stage. It has had several coats of white on the wings, fuselage and wingtips, 'though the tips haven't been painted in this picture. The first model was delivered at the weekend. I should have got a photo of the model with the fullsize while I was there, but that stayed in the hangar all day, so it would have been a bit dark. I must remember to do that with the second model when I deliver that one. Casting the second batch of models is well under way. Once all the castings are done, I'll get all the small metal work cut and then I can print some instructions and box them up.

The first side is attached..... .....and the second side. That was it for the day. Only a small step forwards, but at least it's some progress.

A change in the time table at school is sometimes leaving my daughter tired on a Wednesday, so progress may slow down a bit. Wednesday is the only day we have free for modelling. Today we managed a little work. The trailer and field gun were given a second coat of paint, and put into the curing cabinet to bake. She then began to cut out the parts for the Jeep tub - sides and floor. She was quite tired already, so I knew we weren't going to get much done, so focussed on getting the tub glued so it could harden for next time. The sprue joiners need trimming and sanding here.

I'm sure I read it was because of the fire risk. Wing and tailplane de-icer boots were also often removed because if damaged by flak, the torn rubber flapping in the wind caused lots of drag.

I wouldn't worry too much about the bombs, but for a B-17G, the nose, bomb bay and radio room should be natural metal. The nose and cockpit were covered in green, quilted fabric insulation ( often removed ) with exposed metal areas in these locations being dull dark green ( similar to British Racing Green ). Don't look at any restorations as reference, as almost all are painted inside. There are some good colour wartime photos around the net that show the Dull Dark Green and natural metal. Cockpit interior showing the quilted insulation and dull dark green colour - https://media.defense.gov/2006/Oct/20/2000539497/780/780/0/061020-F-1234P-001.JPG Also, as you approach the finishing, don't paint four dirty streaks out of each vent in the wing upper surface. It's a very common mistake, but they are vents to exit air from the wing and carry oil and staining away from the wing at this location. Overflow from the engine oil breather, and other dirt and much from the engine and exhaust collector ring gets blown back along the nacelles and wing and remains in contact with the wing between the vents. Due to airflow, prop wash, prop rotation and airframe shape, these dirt marks tend to be straight on the port wing, but curve in towards the fuselage on the starboard wing, This page shows the staining on the wing upper surface very well. http://www.daveswarbirds.com/b-17/tail3.htm

Cutting and trimming the very fragile chassis and transmission parts took her a little while and lots of concentration; as did working out which way to assemble them. The springs, axles, prop shafts and transmission support are all one moulding. The spring ends didn't all want to sit on their spring hangers, so I bent some thin sheet lead to add a little wieght to hold them in place so she could apply the glue with a fine brush and then leave the whole thing to dry. Later in the afternoon, after she'd gone out and the chassis had a while to dry, I took the weights off and compared the 1/72 chassis with the 1/35 version I'm working on.

We had around an hour spare today so had a quick modelling session knowing we'd be having to leave bits to dry anyway. The field gun and trailer were painted first. She didn't want to tackle the wheel hubs in case she got the green on the tyres, so I did those. I showed her how to build up several layers of dilute paint, allowing capillary action to draw the paint around the hub. A quick force dry in front of the heater, then another coat until a reasonable density was reached.