Mottlemaster Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Some superb crafting work . Are you related to Barbara Hepworth ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Looks great. I can't help thinking Viking. Looking forward to more. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 Again distractions aside I have been quite busy on this even though I do not have a lot to show. Again most of the work has been on the engines. I have fitted a new tail pipe and exhaust cone, I was going to use the spare form a Ar-234 B2 I have but didn’t want to ruin a couple of good engines! Have a plan to jet boost a Ta-154!!! So I made up a new cone, not much will be seen when finished, as this section will be burnt metal and quite dark. Next the inlet and props, first the props. As can be seen the props are pretty well useless, just too much work to get right and they’re just too fragile. I was planning to make new ones from card but got too lazy, so found some donors in the spares box, they were originally from a 1/72nd Mosquito (a pair normal ones and some paddle ones), these were to be the basis of the new ones. Unfortunately I could go the triangular shade I have seen in the drawings, due to the donor blades being to narrow at the base, so I created a more modern high-speed set. So after way too many hours of crafting I have these, not what I originally had planned but very nice! Next the inlet hub, again I had to make a new cone to replace the mode kit one, plus I added a small lip on the intakes entry from small plastic strip. Then after measuring everything multiple times, the final holes were drilled for the prop shafts. I don’t know whether these were to be round or have a blade profile, I just can’t find any info one them, so for my sanities sake they are round. They will eventually have a small hole drilled in the centres, with a tiny pin fitted so the props will have extra strength. The engines look fantastic now, just a tiny bit of clean up to go and some panel lines and they are completed. I started work on detailing the cockpit, I have made a new instrument panel as well as a new joy-stick, this has moved from the side to now in the centre. Am making this up as I go as there are now drawings of what it would have looked like. Plus just some tiding up around the nose and changing the profile slightly. Plus I have started adding some detail to the rear RO’s station (even though most of it will not been seen once it’s closed up) plus some PE bits to the main wheel wells. Should have this finished and the body closed up very shortly. Well this project will now start to slow down as the Tropic Moon one for WhatIf III starts to eat up all my time….along with other projects as well! Oh and I have finally decided on a colour scheme for this one……it will not be what is expected…..as the aircrafts role has slightly changed! There will be a hint when I paint the props and intake cones…………. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Nice progress Rich. I am very currious about the paint scheme. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 Nice progress Rich. I am very currious about the paint scheme. Cheers, all I will say on the scheme is it will not be your typical nightfighter scheme, think late 45 colour schemes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 I like it a lot Rich... now if you could re-cast those finished bits, you'd be doing a great service to those of us a little more timid than your good self Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 You know I have no idea how to do that, have never tried! I could try with the nose...haven't gotten to far with the internal detailing! That would please Arnold! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 (edited) You know I have no idea how to do that, have never tried! I could try with the nose...haven't gotten to far with the internal detailing! That would please Arnold! Yes!,Yes!,Yes! I have done it myself a few times now and it isn't rocket sience. I bought myself a few years ago a casting set for about 30 pounds. that includes the rubber and resin. I have made myself a few resin noses for a early F-8 Crusader and some other small stuff. The mold of the master is the most important part. If you get that right than is the rest easy. There are some sites where you can find this. I googled them myself in the past. Cheers, Edited July 30, 2015 by Arniec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenol Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Yet another piece of bonkers magic! I'm going to have fun watching this one evolve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 That would please Arnold! As someone's already said, it ain't that hard - I've managed to do it in the past, so it can't be that hard! Or you could offer your new masters to Igor to produce a much better, updated kit from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 With the work gone into them so far they have almost become family!! I am going down to a specialist place tomorrow for advice and materials, so i'll see what I can do. Guess this mains I have to stop detailing the cockpit now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 31, 2015 Author Share Posted July 31, 2015 Well progress has been made even though time has been spent on other projects…. Quite a bit of painting had been done and the fuselage finally closed up plus all sorts of other stuff that just eats up time… Painting has started on the engines but things have stopped as I may attempt to cast them to capture the mods and work done. On the inlet cone you can now see the lip I had to add. Not sure how to cast these as I do not want to cut them in half! I may do them (well attempt) as solid lumps and grind out the internals, will see how the casting goes first! The same goes for the nose, started detailing the cockpit, but have stopped so I can, attempt, to cast the nose. In this case I will blank off the windscreen and cast the out side, then grind out the inside. All going well then I’ll do a second two part cast of the final nose….maybe!!! Just the start of the detailing of the rear RO’s station, more to do. Unfortunately the main gear has to be fitted before the fuselage is closed up….not the best situation! As can be seen I have already knocked off the scissor arm off the far leg! The section just forward of the RO’s station has been removed to allow the wing to fit. The new tail required some grinding off of material to allow it to fit, as I have found with the wings too, they are designed for the Hobby Boss model and not the Hasegawa one. Hence the new tail has a rounded section instead of the stepped one the Hasegawa model has! Ok now to the wings, after about 2-3 hours work I have the wings to a stage where they are in the correct position (to each other) with respect to the fuselage! These wings like everything else with these conversion kits are designed for the smaller (and incorrect) Hobby Boss model. They were first drilled then pinned, this allowed me to sit them on the fuselage and position them into the correct position. Sounds easy but ended up being very frustrating, especially seeing as they don’t fit the width of the fuselage. Eventually with super glue and lots of cursing they are set in the correct position. The gap will be filled with sprue, which should give it additional strength. The plan is to complete all the work on the wings and their fit to the fuselage but not fit them. This will then allow me to fit the engine pods and finish all their join work before finally fitting the wings, as I will have a reference point to align everything up to. If I have done my job correctly there should be little to no filling required for the final fitting of the wings to the fuselage. Plus leaving the wings off will allow me to correctly set the engine pods alignments in distance from the fuselage and AoA. Finally how she looks altogether, this will be the last time I do this until it’s altogether. I did this to check a few things; A, will drop tanks fit? Yes B, will props foul the fuselage/ground? No C, is it a tail sitter? No, it’s actually almost neutral, just slightly tail heavy!!! D, to look at it’s awesomeness!!! And no the wings/model isn’t warped it’s just the way the camera was. Well progress will now start to slow right down as the Tropic Moon beasty build starts and I go back to work. There is still quite a lot of work to go on this build, but I am just truly loving this build! For all its difficulties it is such a joy to build, I haven’t had so much fun since the He-177Z!!! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 1, 2015 Author Share Posted August 1, 2015 Just a quick update today as I didn’t do much to this, mainly worked on the new Gunhed project, fixed the G5 MAC, and sorted and cleared out old electronic junk! Spent quite a bit of time on the wings sorting or first the correct positions of the engine pods plus adding some panel detail to them as they had next to none. The engines pods are now aligned correctly with a very slight pitch up attitude, very much like the drawings. I would have attached them but I still need to see if I can make a cast of them. Didn’t get time to go to the shop and get all the gear I need for that! The new nose section has the perfect place for adding extra weight, this should stop it from sitting on its tail! In the excitement of gluing the fuselage together I forgot a problem with the Hasegawa model. The fuselage when glued together is narrower than the nose section and the bulkhead that is glued to the front of the fuselage section (this is a problem of all the versions of the Hasegawa Ar-234, as they all share a common fuselage). So if you glue the bulkhead in first to one side then try to joint the other side you end you with a nasty gap on the top and bottom joins. If you trim the bulkhead to fit (did this on the first one I built), then you find the nose section is too wide to fit the main fuselage. To sort it all out you need to fit the bulkhead, glue the fuselage together, best you can, then use plastic strip to fill the gaps. However the C2 version which I’m using has an additional issue. The new C2 nose has a flush back to it and needs to butt up cleanly to the fuselage, however the old B2 nose has a recessed back which the bulkhead on the main fuselage front fits into. A all version share the same main fuselage, when you try to fit the new nose section on you are left with another nasty gap. Solution, fit the bulkhead on the inside of the location bead, then everything is good! Confused, well it annoyed the crap out of me when I found it, hate having to cut nice joins up. As can just see under the fuller the sprue filler strip, there’s another on the top. The can be seen to sit further back, I’ve add an additional thin card bulkhead to help secure the nose the to fuselage. This project will now start to gather dust bunnies as work commences of the Tropic Moon beasty. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 This is one seriously cool looking beastie! Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mottlemaster Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Watson's "Whizzers" will be on the way to give you a visit to recover all of this advanced resin system technology . My bet is that they don't believe their eyes when they see it. Love it to bits 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Rich, Damn that's looking good. Just a thought, slightly longer nose, do you need a slightly taller tail? Maybe a small fin underneath? You could build a small anti grounding tailwheel into it perhaps? Keep it coming. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 2, 2015 Author Share Posted August 2, 2015 Rich, Damn that's looking good. Just a thought, slightly longer nose, do you need a slightly taller tail? Maybe a small fin underneath? You could build a small anti grounding tailwheel into it perhaps? Keep it coming. Pete interesting point, though most of it is an optical illusion! The difference in length is actually less than a meter, the sweep of the wings really do make the forward section of the fuselage appear to be so much longer. It would have been interesting to see what actual flight testing would have brought up. If I was to advance the design I would give it a T tail, that with the sweep wings would have given her a very advanced look! Hmmm I have a spare 234 sitting around! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 8, 2015 Author Share Posted August 8, 2015 Ok not my usual update as this build has been on hold while I contemplated whether I could cast a copy of the nose. Well I have so a few people will be very happy! I have never done this before so everything was a bit of a first for me. The results, well you can see them, though not to clearly as the resin is white. This is just a one sided cast and a test to see if it was possible. It took me about 10 minutes to grind out the inside with only one slip! There are bubbles in the cast but they were in the silicon itself, the resin is nice and bubble free. Those arn't bubbles on this grey nose, just dust bunny crap! I intend to do either another cast or try and do a new mould hopefully with fewer bubbles in the silicon this time. Ultimately I will try and do a two part mould of the nose. Plus I may do a cast of the engines as well, seeing the origins were so bad and nobody else does them! Normal build service will resume shortly……hopefully! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 9, 2015 Author Share Posted August 9, 2015 Well after another day of casting I’ve finished what I had planned to do and normal building resumed! The new elevators have been cleaned up and look pretty good, just need a coat of undercoat to checkout the finish. The bomb-bay cutout has been filled with card, the gun pod needs a flat surface so it was either this or use the supplied resin plug……….this way was simpler. The cockpit has now finally been fitted, that little bit of work sorting out the fuselage was worth it, it fits really nicely. I can now focus on completing the internals before the canopy goes on. Speaking of which, it too fits really nicely, it won’t take much to have some nice clean joins here. Sorry about the photo, but after the 4th attempt I gave up so this is it! I needed to do a thin strip of plastic along the RHS wing root to level it up. Plus you can see the plugs fore and aft to help locate the wings correctly. When fitted just a thin strip will be need at the back plus some thin strip underneath to fill some gaps in the wing/fuselage join. Cleaning this area up again should be nice and simple. Plus finally I was able to fit the engines…though I did forget to do panel lines on them! The final alignment and fitting took sometime to make sure everything was square. Even still it does look out, though it is exactly square, will blame the camera for that! And how does it all look now…..fantastic! All the major work is completed, I just need to clean up the joins on the engines to wing, they’ll be nice and simple, along with the wings. Then complete the model as normal, even the drop tanks fit correctly. Oh and the results of my casting, am very happy with them. Now have all the bits to build another one or three!! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 Love it, love it, love it! Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 10, 2015 Author Share Posted August 10, 2015 have done more work in this one while I wait for the new cockpit for the Tropic Moon build to arrive!! (actually think the it’s gotten lost in the post so have had to order another one…expensive and frustrating!) I wasn’t quite happy with the way the fairings for the engine to wing look so decided to change them. I have continued the shape of the original bulge on the engine to the wing, this gives me an smoother and better looking fairing. This was made with some plastic strip and filler, simple and quick. Have just about finished the cockpit and RO’s station finally! After the final painting I just need to find a gunsight, then everything can be closed up. All the resin bits have been given a undercoat of neutral grey to help show up the flaws and scribing stuff-ups, there is a bit of work to do but nothing some 600 or 800 grit and Mr Surface 500 can’t fix! She now looks much more together now she is basically a single colour. Plus this is a hint of her final colour scheme! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 That does look great Rich. I like it a lot!!!!! Also well done on the casting. It isn't to difficult. So can I PM you for my details?! Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 That's the dogs that is. If it wasn't for the nose I'd say that it looks rather modern. Trevor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 That does look great Rich. I like it a lot!!!!! Also well done on the casting. It isn't to difficult. So can I PM you for my details?! Cheers, I was wondering where you had gotten to?? You can do the QA for me, just PM me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 I was wondering where you had gotten to?? You can do the QA for me, just PM me. Sorry, I am so bussy with four GB builds that I forgotten to have a regular look. I will PM you later this day. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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