Scratching out a Sherpa rebuilding the pictures I HOPE

[Lars Befring]

Hi Bill! been following this for a while and I´m getting more and more interested in the Sherpa. Do you know where I can find a copy of that drawing?

Regards

/Lars

[woody37]

Hi bill, sorry just caught up. The superglue is Boston power easy gel, won't use anything else now. Great progress

Usually go to arrogance after the race for the same reason, very chilled and historic place

[perdu]

Hi again

Thanks for the name of the name N, I will try to track some down locally. Shouldnt be hard here in Metropolitan Brum should it?

Lars I found the plans in Aviation News Volume 17 Number 13 11th-24th November 1988, spotted in the kitswapsection of Scalemodelworld at Telford back in 2011.

I hope you can find it although as I say in the beginning there are several bits that needed altering for accuracy before getting started. Main gear sponsons were massively wrong (and look wrong roughly where the vac formed model I saw finished were wrong too). I suspect that the modelmaker used the plans for the kit.

A bit more today

I finished the main landing gear, fitted the wheels and closed up the spats

look at the muck in here...

I hope the pictures are getting better, I am photographing them with a setting on the new camera that is supposed to make pictures of food look decent, shame the photog isn't very decent at 'toggery.

 

 

 

 

The razor saw which I used to whip off the wings is .015" thick so I needed to make shims to replace the wingspan.

This handy piece of polycard just happened to be... (I have a micrometer in both work rooms, upstairs and down, this is my old mic from my toolmaking days. Mitutoyo, superb instrument)

Shims in place and glued on it's time to trim and fit a wing or two

I used Slater's rod as a supplementary spar since the good work with the spar box had to be given up

Slater's is superior to any other brand for strength even if it is more reluctant to cut smoothly. In work it is almost as stiff as steel rod, doesn't rust either

 

With the wings off I took the opportunity to add the strut header lamps under the wing surfaces, when the struts are on I will be adding a fairing around three quarters of each to fair them in

 

So now I have the first of the wings plugged and glued in, here's the "check the angle from the side" shot

Engine and wingtip fairing look to be aligned properly now

And the dihedral seem to check out fine too

On this shot it is possible to see the assymetric aspect of the sponson cross section, 'bulgier' at the fuselage side and higher up

The Milliputtery will enhance the inner bulge and then I can start to smooth it off

 

I am in the process of finishing the nose wheel undercarriage unit so soon I hope she'll be on the full complement of wheels

Still carving prop blades too, might take a while.

later

bill

Edited February 18, 2018 by perdu

[Nobby]

Hi Bill!

That's really coming along great mate, bit of pain having to re do the wings a bit, like you say, I wouldn't have noticed cos I'm one of those not in the know about the Sherpa! Am I to understand that you are going to carve each blade individually? I saw a tecnique years ago in aeromodeller magazine for making props for control line team racers that used plastic padding to make a mold then casting props from epoxy and glass fibre. The end product when cleaned up looked as good as a commercial item. I was thinking of using this method myself WHEN I can get round to getting the guts to do a scratch build!

[Radleigh]

Thats come along way since I last checked! Looks superb

[perdu]

Cheers chaps hope there is something to enjoy, I feel it might be a bit like watching paint dry, with added fingernail splinters

I am thinking of making the blades individually Nobby but to be honest I might make them all the same way as I made the engines

I'll make the individual blades with polycard as you see

then

Plastic padding elastic moulded with household silicone sealant as the moulding medium,it's good enough but the silicone seal takes ages to harden enough to mould off, Ideally I'd make a couple of blades then mould five off each

I keep meaning to get some proper moulding medium but never get round to it

Off shopping then back down to the garage this afternoon to bung the other wing on

I am very happy with the wing I put on yesterday. It feels like it was grown there, phew

Soon be able to paint the first primer coat, which will be practically all sanded off with micromesh

Then I will see how good my stuff has been.

I dont know if I will have a decent looking model til then.

Fortunately if its wrong then I can still put it right, which is why I am glad I noticed the wings were on wrong before I wasted Xtracolour on it

Fitting struts this evening I think, after Milliputting the sponsons

That's plan A

Plan B might be - down the pub instead

Or even watch telly, dont seem to do much of that these days

I have that Sunderland programme recorded, might watch that again

b

[woody37]

Sorry Bill,

Just noticed my mistake, Bostic, not Boston !!!!!

[perdu]

Har har

bostic, well that's a name I remember anyway

Thanks

Port wing is on and being allowed/required/made to sit very still until all the evaporating is done with the Tamiya stickystuff-in-a-pin-tube glue

It does look pretty good, I'm glad I didnt chicken out over hacking them off (even though it hacked me off to do it)

Working out the retraction gear for the front wheel leg now, I have an old Air International with a Sherpa cutaway drawing that can be used with some interpretation

Coming along gently again

bill

[Fritag]

This is an inspirational build Bill - I feel like I should be making notes.

Not only that - it's a cracking good read!

Can't wait for the next installment.

Steve

[perdu]

Had some fun recently

OK NOT!

When I looked at the two wings in place after number two dried I realised that although they were perfecly aligned from the front, the port wing was actually a good 3/32" out of line towards the back of the fuselage

Out with the razor saw, off with the despair and redrill, repack with 15 thou and more carefully redo from start (I notice that I don't get that instruction with Windows kit, must be some upside to memory hungry OSs huh) So with the wing set on properly I did some of the other smaller stuff.

I finished carving the front wheel yoke and added the top pivot brace

then began assembling the rest of the front leg

this needs the link trimming to size, I have kept the thicknesses as small as is feasible but with small items a little extra beefing up may be needed. If this does need stiffening I will paint a thin layer of cyano (YUK) over all the linked pieces so the skin of cyano adds stiffness without much extra bulk.

The famous coffee stirrer wheel is in place for testing, looks fine to me, all to be painted tomorrow (I'm off out to the fleshpots of London tonight...OK Its Classics at the Ace Café tonight, meeting some mates. Planning this year's trip to Le Mans)

Now, with the wings back in situ and looking 'right' I mixed up a medium small dollop of Milli and put it all across the fuselage top between the outer wing panel breaks which is the part of the upperworks that are dead straight across

I made a flat template exactly the size of the distance apart of the wing break areas and used that to set some level lines in the 'putty. When it gets flattened (tomorrow again) after the 'put is dry I will have lines beyond which I need not/must not file

I also used the Milliput to build behind the sponson inner areas so the right shape can be sanded in to them

The port one went swimmingly well and will only need a gentle sanding to finish. I used my fingers, wetted (don't ask!) to smooth and reshape the Milliput for this. Lovely job ...

The starboard one was less accomodating, I just couldn't get such a smooth edge with my pinky on that one for some reason

Doesn't even show well on this pic, but I just stuck extra 'put on it so I can file and sand it to true section

While I was in the garage I used my vac machine to make the new cockpit canopy/roof/windows. Can you tell

I took some old packaging and pinned a piece into the small frame (I have small and large frames for use on the vacbox) and started the gas blow lamp to melt the acetate. When the acetate had wrinkled under the heat then rippled and flattened out I knew it was ready to drop over the vac box and the canopy buck

Et viola! One new clear canopy with the correct windscreen slope, my early version was far too upright

More like the front window on a Guy or even Routemaster bus

 

Then I made a second moulding in polycard so I can now make the skin and framework in plastic with the window glazing inside it

Like so

Shorts built in quite heavy framing inside the glazing which supports the roof electronics and such as well as a support for the cabin roof emergency exit door, which I have made to sit inside the glazed area.

This is very visible on the real thing, so I gotta have it.

 

 

I think this is about up to date now, time to drive, If you see my Green Midget on the M40 today, gizza wave.

laters chaps

bill

Edited February 17, 2018 by perdu

[keefr22]

Great work Bill - & I'm glad you have such perserverence, I think I'd have thrown it against a wall by now if I'd kept c*cking up the wing alingment!!

Don't think I'll be anywhere near the M40 today, so have a wave from close to the M4...!!

keef

[perdu]

Hi

time for a little more?

Here's the Milliput ready to shape, a couple of swipes with the half round second cut so far

The ridges left by the template strip will be with us all the way down to level

As shown here

Lots to remove obviously and a lifetime of using files helps I think

Rear section getting close to size, the guide lines still evident

Still got the guide lines where the milliput got compressed by the guide but the front edges are nearly sorted now

Here's the starboard sponson with the excess 'put that needs removing so I can find the right piece deep inside the clump of 'put

And this is the port one which only needs a tad of tidying up

Soon get that one nice

I have the nose wheel leg ready to bury inside the wheel well after painting

Paint drying this evening, Humbrol Cream enamel gloss. Still somewhat sticky, needs even more stirring than it got. Which was quite a lot

Tonight Ihave been mostly rubbing down with Micromesh which shows me I need even more filling to get to a level curve

Has to be a couple of fingers of Milliput rather than ordinary Squadron filler or Mr Surfacer, what do you think?

At least the Micromesh has taken away all the file scratches you see here, just shown me where the filler is needed

As seen here

anyway chaps

That's all folks!

b

Edited March 14, 2013 by perdu

[keefr22]

It's hard to believe that something that looks as crude as it does in the first picture can end up as neat as it does in the last - just shows what some skill & finesse can do!! Don't think I have either in enough quantity to do work like that...!!

As to the small divots you have left, would Squadron filler actually bond to miliput? And you may need a few layers of Mr.Surfacer & that would take a fair while to dry properly. As you're obviously so adept at using miliput, I'd say use that! Or maybe some of the finer white stuff if you have it?

keef

[perdu]

cheers Keith

Not really much of a problem when you have a decent file or two

I think I probably will use Milliput, I think I forgot to mention I used Milliput to put the engines onto the wings

It's blimmin tenacious stuff when it dries

A day or two from the first primer coat I hope, struts on after trimming then some odd detailing items

Then maybe a first look at a Sherpa

close

I'm close

night all

bill

[perdu]

5,600+ views

Frankly I'm just a lot amazed, thought this would just be a "in thing" for a few. Thanks for watching all of you.

Anyway, a few days of "no post"-ing behind me and some progress again, at last you say

I've been working at the props, as Nobby implied correctly no easy task

Each blade needs to be 72º round the spinner from its neighbours, so marking out and attempting to drill has been one of those-things-to-do. Here is the spinner being marked off for the blades

It's not dead centre here, but was when drilled

Making blades isnt easy either, I'm thinking of making one good prop then moulding a few off the blank if it comes out nicely

The blade shape isnt easy either, took a while to get the shape sorted, which means that I will probably not use these ones

I have a plan C for these

heres my home brewed F4 drop tank nose spinner being checked against my reference photographs, that is the quite complex blade shape I'm aiming for

I have been busy on other things too, struts have been fitted as well as the new Milliput roof rubbed smooth, sorry about the crap picture, when I took this and its buddies I had too much exposure set on the new, bloody complicated camera. I think I have cracked it now and some later pictures might be better

but for now...

The strut under the starboard wing had to be reset after judging it on screen, a brilliant thing aboiut model photographhery. you can call up the image there and then and sort the glitches

magic

In other news I have finally, at long last got some scratched up seat belts that look reasonable, eureka etcetera

Here's one of the driver's seats awaiting its armrests, ready to bung in the office. I even managed a reasonable length of adjustment strap to hang off the buckle adjusters. They look OK in real life, here in magnavizzion they look awful

Trust me

A blob of silver at the belt ends shows as the buckle in real life, it will have to do. I'm all belted out

Here is the office pretty well fully furnished, I made the twin control yokes to add to the prefinished floor, centre throttle, props and trim controls console. All finished off and fitted in, here with the seats too. Armrests now in place too

 

 

Now the exposure has been set better, this is what you see

I've added the canopy roof section with tape, just for a look and the front wheel is in place now, so this is basically how she looks tonight

Of course there is lots of detail fettling to complete but this at last looks like I might have a Sherpa coming along

One amusing fact, 'cos I'm up for a mickeytake, even on me

I spent ages trawling the 'tinternet looking for decent nose wheel layout pictures

Then while looking at my buildboard I realised I already had the best I have seen, stuck onto a sheet of hardboard from thirty years ago

What am I like huh

Priming soon, already masked the port side crewdoor for its first colour coat. The yellow tapey splodge seen here

More fun and games with the props now, fingers crossed for me please chaps

bill

[keefr22]

More fun and games with the props now, fingers crossed for me please chaps

And toes!! Good luck with them Bill, don't envy you that job....

She is looking very Sherpaish now, looking forward to seeing her with her warpaint on...!!

keef

[kev67]

Very good, I'm looking forward to when its painted

[perdu]

Hi folks

Back again after losing my email address to scammers, if you had anything from me begging money dont send any

Ah just a thought, if you are going to send any don't send it where they ask, pop it in the post to me here in Brummagem instead

I'll find a way to use it

And breathe (very angry at the loss of my email address Ive had it since Pontius took his first flying lesson)

A little more Sherping being done, where was I?

Not done much with the props yet, it's quite a daunting prospect, maybe I've let it worry me too much. We'll see at the weekend purrups.

Just been doing the interiors for the cockpit, one side panel is the fuel controls, the other seems to be a radio/signals suite

The I.P has been marked out and the painted holes filled with Krystal Kleer. I have made no attempt at figures or needles, I justwouldnt expect to see them inside through the small windows but I have left the whites of the Artificial Horizon bubbles empty. They look like the pictures I have of the real C23A items

In this picture the Krystal Kleer hasn't dried "Kleer" yet but you can see the pair of white artificial horizon dials recessed on the panel

The small boxes on each side panel are the crew's stowage for maps and documents, quite visible on pictures of the cabin area

U girder sections from Evergreen cut to suit

You can just make out the side panel and docs case on the poor picture I really do need to develop photography skills

I'm sorry about these, how about I try again before I close up the cabin? Tonight with luck

I'm making a point of finishing the cockpit so I can close up and finish fine detailing the airframe before painting

Here are the canopy components ready for final paint and trimming to be assembled

The escape hatch has been marked off and the inner and outer skin sections roughed out

The next bit will require fine slicing to set the size

The inner sections have been painted with Humbrol Cream enamel to match the real thing's colour scheme the rooof instrument panel has some switchery marked out in silver pen as well as some white engraving

That is it for now, small progress but it feels quite reasonable considering I have been worrying about the email business

Cheers, thanks for sharing the trip with me

Planning the definitive airframe instruction decal sheet componenets now, how to make up the exit panel decals which are very prominent

later chaps

Bill

[Nobby]

Looking good Bill!

I can see what a mammoth task you have on your hands here so like all the folks on BM doing scratch builds you get the utmost respect! I'm trying to build up to a full scratch build eventually, not quite ready yet like but i will, but i can see from yours and the others that it needs a lot of commitment and i'm wondering if i have enough!

Great stuff anyway mate!

John

[Fritag]

Thanks Bill,

I needed another 'fix' of your Sherpa. I'm having a right old faff with the simple canopy on my Chipmunk and you just blitz the Sherpa's complicated one in a sitting!

Mind you - you wield a file better than me too.

Oh - about the whole email/scamming thing. Can I expect the 20 quid back in the post then? (no emoticans cos i'm Ipadding it)

Steve

[perdu]

Do you think I'm about to send back the only donation we got

dream on baby

The canopy "blitzed"... Hmm don't think so

I havent posted yet (tomorrow maybe if...) but there are still mazillions of fitting issues with the double skin segment, but in honesty I reckon we've gotten over the hump of that one

G O T T E N !

Did I really post gotten? Oh well you know what I mean, even if Her Maj mightn't

I am Solartrimming certain frame sections, damned excellent stuff

Your inner frame bits are looking super I love the use of a stiffener to make the inner framing part of the canopy, just ideal as you have to tie inner and outer bits into one entity

Hope you enjoyed Wales

[keefr22]

G O T T E N !

Did I really post gotten? Oh well you know what I mean, even if Her Maj mightn't

Hmm, I dunno (oh dear!) Bill, from the Oxford;

"Definition of gotten

past participle of get.

As past participles of get, got and gotten both date back to Middle English."

So, she might...!!

And I agree with Steve, definitely looks like you blitzed the canopy to me...!!

k

[perdu]

not much more yet

fitted canopy/roof/windows

making good with Perfect Plastic Putty, so far it seems to be just about perfect, dries quickly and sands down nicely

Just a pic of the filled canopy

More tomorrow or later

bill

Edited April 1, 2013 by perdu

[Mozzy19]

That looks amazing! Did you ever consider casting it in resin and selling it, or was it purely for your own enjoyment (which is understandable)?

Sean

[woody37]

Just caught up Bill, incredible stuff. You do make it look easy !