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1:72 Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, Maquette/scratchbuilt - the beast is back!


Brandy

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Nice save Ian.  Not that one would necessarily notice given the sparkly explosive bling nesting up top there (nice work on those tanks)!

 

I suspect once you're tangled up in that web of rigging you'll look back this fix as one of the easy tasks!

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22 hours ago, Old Man said:

Excellent save, Sir.

 

It's easy to overlook bits in such a huge and complex project. Especially when you are juggling photographs and drawings that aren't all for quite the thing you're building.

 

What are the dimensions on this thing, anyway?

Spasibo, Starik! It measures 40.8cm wingspan by 24.2 length, a big bu**er by WWI standards!

Edited by limeypilot
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18 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

TBH I'd never have known if you hadn't told me.....But I suspect you could have guessed that!  ;)

 

Top notch stuff, a pleasure to follow.  :coolio:

Glad you're enjoying it Sarge!  When I was a kid i was very tempted to scratchbuild the Russian "flying tank" of WWII. Not sure if you're familiar with it, but they basically fitted jettisonable wings to a tank and towed it as a glider! It would certainly make an interesting and very different subject!

 

15 hours ago, greggles.w said:

Nice save Ian.  Not that one would necessarily notice given the sparkly explosive bling nesting up top there (nice work on those tanks)!

 

I suspect once you're tangled up in that web of rigging you'll look back this fix as one of the easy tasks!

Believe it or not, the prototype had 4 fuel tanks...one immediately over the top of each engine! Not surprisingly, they were moved!

8 hours ago, Hewy said:

Very  intricate work there, super stuff

Glynn

Thanks Glynn, the real intricate stuff is still to come....

 

I was going to get back to the engines today..... The cylinders weren't quite straight so I removed all of them and cleaned up the parts a little more, then noticed that the crankcases I cast were too wide, and the mounting brackets are in the wrong places! I have decided to remake them from scratch. To do that I will use 4mm half-round for the lower crankcases, and add a strip of 3.2mm x 2.5mm, reduced to 3 x 2.5, for the upper cases. The two pieces will be blended together properly with PPP to give the sloped upper sides needed. Needless to say I don't have either of those sizes in stock so they have been ordered and the engine work will have to wait until I receive them.

 I may start on building three more carburetors (I already have one done, which I did to make sure I could do it!) and I should also remake the large gear wheels that are so prominent on the rear end casing, and drive the camshaft......

 

Ian

 

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Oh I DO love building engines for WWI types..... Almost as much as I enjoy the rigging! Actually both are very satisfying when things are going well, except that I do find multiple engine building tedious after the second one.

 

P

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On 21/02/2017 at 4:11 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

No need to scratchbuild now fella:

 

129308_0.jpg

 

I am filled with questions: Were the tank crew actually in that thing during flight? When it landed did the tracks spin round really fast or did they just gouge trenches? 

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I would guess there was a way to disengage the drive, other wise they'd never get enough speed to get airborne! That or it was mounted on some sort of wheeled base.....

 

Ian

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On 2/21/2017 at 10:11 AM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

No need to scratchbuild now fella:

 

129308_0.jpg

 

 

Some nights, I feel a deep sadness that this wasn't the future of armoured warfare.

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Hi all, after a slight break waiting for plastic stock, and working on the Hurricane, I got back to this today.

 

 Having decided that the earlier effort was not up to par and a little oversized, I decided to remake the engines. So having now received the plastic stock I needed (4mm half round and 2.5 x 3.2mm rod) I have made a start. I cut the stock to the lengths needed (the rod is 0.5mm shorter than the half-round) and glued them together, making sure that one end was flush, and that the gap either side was equal. I then added Perfect Plastic Putty to the sides and when dry, sanded it down to give me the slight slope I needed on each side of the upper crankcases . 

32797437250_3ac8ddaddb_k.jpg

33137933186_49f6311d4f_k.jpg

The front and rear extensions for the prop shaft and rear accessory drive were added from 0.020" stock sheet, punched out with my 2mm punch.

33137934986_bfcad28caa_k.jpg

 I will take the edges off those when they're dry, just to make them look a little more like cast items, not something that was stuck on later. I now need to add the engine mounts, the flange around the crankcase joints, and the strengthening fillets at either end........

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

Edited by limeypilot
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Having to scratch build engines can be a pain but it is also satisfying most of the time. Making four together is a real test of skill and patience - you seem to have passed both with flying colours!

 

P

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P, OM, thanks indeed - I'm not quite sure that "rum fun" really sums it up, but at least it's printable!

 

 Not much of an update this time but I thought I'd at least let you all know I'm still plugging away at it! I added the mounting points using 1.5mm channel. I know they're not really accurate, the sides should be sloped upwards towards the top of the crankcases, but a) unless you compare to a pic you won't know, and B) it's just too damn fiddly to add the small extra pieces. I think it will look better as it is rather than attempting to be a little more accurate and having joints and slightly wonky sides on the mounts! I have also added some of the strengthening fillets at the front and rear of the crankcases - again, just an attempt at getting a little more detail without ruining it by trying to be 100% accurate. Most of the front and rear of the crankcases will be hidden by either the front fairings or the radiators anyway..... 

33078949742_34740b6db1_k.jpg

32852446100_b7ccadd580_k.jpg

33078948112_c71fc59872_k.jpg

 Maybe a coat of paint next, then take another look at the cylinders.....

Ian

 

ok, I did try to retype the "b (bracket)" but it kept coming up with a smiley face....

Edited by limeypilot
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6 hours ago, limeypilot said:

ok, I did try to retype the "b (bracket)" but it kept coming up with a smiley face

Ah, the joy of emoticons! I use a lot of bullet points in documents at work (all TL;DR, I fear) and have trained myself to avoid them on this forum, where they always:

(a) get substituted

(b) end in tears

 

The engine bearers look suitably rugged though, maybe a touch of a sanding stick to taper them off on the tops? 

 

Regards,

Adrian

Edited by AdrianMF
And now they don't substitute!! Grrrr.....
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6 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

The engine bearers look suitably rugged though, maybe a touch of a sanding stick to taper them off on the tops? 

Done! I was going to wait until they were mounted to make sure they had a little support underneath, but I needn't have worried, they all stayed on!

 

6 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Patient man. Patient work. Impressive results with  those engines Ian. This is certainly going to deepen the quality of the end result. :thumbsup:

Tony

Thanks Tony!

I experimented yesterday with the 0.2mm nickel silver wire I bought specifically for the push rods....it squishes nicely with flat tipped pliers so that should take care of the push rod/rocker arms assembly...still not sure on how to approach the valve springs yet, I may make a couple of winds with the same wire, or just add a small piece of thicker rod In this scale I don't think the spring effect is even visible.

I am also going to use some spare PE from the Miniworld Scarff ring sets for the large gear wheel on the rear casing of each engine that drives the magnetos and water pump. It's the perfect size and has lightening holes (2 too many but who's counting!) and teeth around the edge! Just need to find something for the smaller gears now.

 

Ian

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13 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

Just need to find something for the smaller gears now.

I had these bookmarked from when I was researching micro-hinges Ian:

 

http://www.santohno.com.cn/en/product/show.asp?classid=1&id=43

 

http://m.adinathengineering.com/plastic-micro-gears-manufacturer.html

 

I don't know if these are any use if you can find US distributors?

 

Tony

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Thanks everyone!

 Tony, those certainly look interesting, but I think I'm just going to go for "representation". I thought about getting a quote for PE but they're only about 1mm across and i really don't think it's worth it!

 I must admit it would be a lot easier without the guesswork. I just can't find pics of these early Argus 6 cylinder engines with the flat underside to the crankcase, so I'm basing most of it on pics of the 4 cylinder engines which appear to have been very similar in layout.

 I got a few more hours in this afternoon, most of it trying to work out what needs to go where, and what size stock I should use. I did get the magnetos done, using HO scale 4 x 6 (1.09 x 1.68mm) rod and fitted them to one of the blocks, along with the PE gear that I have from the Miniworld Scarff ring, so that I could then gauge the sizes needed for the other gears. I think I'm going to use left over PE Vickers gun ends from an Airwaves set I have (Airwaves have to be useful for something surely?) for the other large gear, and just use plastic rod for the mag drives. 

 Here's how it looks with those bits on...

33230851096_21f197147f_k.jpg

 Ready for some paint I think, then I can start to think about adding the cylinders........

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

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