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Enter the Dragon...er...Lady


DMC

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Thank you, Johnny. Interestingly, Powers writes, in his account of what happened, that loosing his legs at the kneecaps was very much on his mind so he chose not to use the seat. Don't know how accurate the bail out scenes in Bridge of Spies were but can't even imagine what the actual event was like.

Thanks again.

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The kit Coke bottle intakes are blocked off about an inch from the front opening. Could have left that alone but my compulsion to "fix" things took over so got out the Dremel type and a burr and opened each intake out. So now I've got a straight visual right through the tailpipe that needs something in there that resembles the ducting on the real thing. Made a clay mould of what I thought the ducting might look like and formed 030 styrene over it. After three moulds and three attempts, i got something that I was more or less okay with. Until, that is, I discovered I had a plan view cutaway drawing of a TR 1A in the Aerofax book. Close, but not quite there. And, there might be a problem getting a smooth join with the front part of the intake.

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The thing to do was to make a mould of the ducting from the very front of the intake to the face of the turbine. Which I did, and formed yet another bit of ducting. Of course, not much of all this is going to show. I just enjoy doing this sort of thing.

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Cheers

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Keep the compulsion to fix things coming. Liking every minute. Those intakes look much better opened out. Will you be scratching a turbo fan? I mean even if none of it is on show, we enjoy watching you enjoy this sort of thing ;-)

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Good stuff so far.

Thanks, Mark, appreciate it.

Keep the compulsion to fix things coming. Liking every minute. Those intakes look much better opened out. Will you be scratching a turbo fan? I mean even if none of it is on show, we enjoy watching you enjoy this sort of thing ;-)

Thank you, Tomoshenko. Yes, I'll make a simple fan and also a tailpipe. Nothing in the middle, however.

Cheers

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Well, the one piece ducting idea didn't work out very well so it was back to two lengths for each side. This worked out okay after I replaced the inner kit piece that the outer "coke bottle" bulge is cemented to with a scratch built one. I'll leave the inner side of the ducting open as I'm not sure what it looked like anyway. Concave, convex?

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Got a little done on an airbrake bay interior also.

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Cheers

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Went ahead and lined the inner sides of the ducting anyway. Also added a pointy thing to represent the front of the turbine fan. Not sure what it's called, a spike I think. Vacuum forming the main gear well didn't work out very well so I just made one up with left over scrap. Couldn't find a reference photo of what the well looks like up inside so just made it up. Should look okay after I clutter it up with "hydraulic" lines and so on. The well fits up between the ducting on the U-2 but probably not like in the picture. None of the interior will show anyway.

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In this photo I've included a shot of what I'm thinking might be my next project. After looking through Warren Bodie's book on the P-38, I bought a Minicraft kit with the idea of converting it to an XP-38. I'll separate the clay mould and try vacuum forming the sections individually. Might have to squash mould the spinner as I think it'll be too sharp to try vacuum forming it. Or, I could lop off a few millimetres, form it and then add the point. We'll see.

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Cheers

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Impressive modelling skills!

I especially like how you achieved the process of working out the cockpit profiles :)

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This is superb modelling, way beyond what I would attempt :thumbsup:

Thank you, Davey. For the record, though, I rarely get it right first time. Usually takes two or three attempts.

Wow... there's some seriously good workmanship on display here...

Thanks, Tom. Wows are good.

Your modelling skills and vacuum forming technics are remarkable. It's a pleasure to follow your thread . :winkgrin:

Thank you. I'm pleased it gives you pleasure.

Impressive modelling skills!

I especially like how you achieved the process of working out the cockpit profiles :)

Thanks. Yes, using clay for patterns and moulds is working out okay. i've done a little sculpting with it on a small scale, heads and figures, etc, but nothing like this.

Lovely scratchbuilding on the interior. It doesn't matter that it won't show.....

Ian

You are right of course, Ian. It's the pleasure of just doing the thing that matters.

Thanks again, guys. And thanks for all the 'likes'.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Back after a few days on the Isle of Man. Pretty laid back over there, although the locals have a tendency to push the pedal down a bit. Really good Full English every morning instead of the healthy porridge I am encouraged to eat over here. Weather so so but nice to get away for awhile.

Got right back to work on the U-2 as soon as I unpacked, trying to stay current. The speedbrake doors were next on the to do list. Carving out the pressed interior skin was a bit of a faff and so far I've only completed the right hand door. I'll do the other as soon as my eyes regain their ability to focus. The last, out of focus shot, is of the inside of the P-38 wing. The XP-38 was polished until it gleamed so I thought I'd get a little practice with Bare-Metal adhesive and a Kit Kat wrapper in preparation for foiling the, future, build. (The rods with the loops are welding tip reamers. They make pretty good files. Cheap also.)

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Taking my inspiration from the OOP Cutting Edge exhaust and tail wheel bay, I built one from a length of Evergreen tubing and scrap from all the vacuum forming I've been doing. Also cleaned up the drag Shute compartment.

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Cheers

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Nice to have you back at the bench. Looks like the Manx diet of full English has served you well. Two questions, is the kit kat foil the shiny side or dull, and was it dark chocolate or original?

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Thank you, Tomoshenko. The Full English breakfasts certainly served my waistline well. The foil is shiny side out. Brushing the adhesive on the matte, or dull, side, seems to be the accepted way of doing it. Not fussy about KitKats. Any kind will do.

http://www.oldmodelkits.com/blog/plasitc-model-kits-how-tos/foiling-plastic-and-resin-model-kits-for-realism-by-ken-friend/

Cheers

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Thank you, John, much appreciated. Any pictures?

I have a couple of these Italeri U-2 kits, the one I'm working on and another that I plan on backdating into article 360, the one Powers was flying on that rather fateful May 1st. The decals in both kits were very yellowed, after, what, 30 or more years in the box, and I had pretty much given up any hope of ever getting any use out of them. However, I read a suggestion in the link below that exposing yellowed decals to strong sunlight might eliminate all, or some of, the yellowing. So, on a rare sunny day I taped the decal sheets to a piece of cardboard and left them in the window all day. Well, it worked. I'd say at least 90% of the yellowing has disappeared and today being very sunny, I'll try for the other 10%.

I expect most of you longtime modellers already knew about this but it was something I hadn't given any thought to. And, just because the yellow has been reduced, it doesn't mean that the decals will be usable. They could well disintegrate upon contact with water. We'll see.

http://www.oldmodelkits.com/blog/plasitc-model-kits-how-tos/more-on-using-or-restoring-old-decals/

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Cheers

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Again lovely techniques on display. Nice work on the vac-forming and the seat looks the business.

Nice work! The seat is a work of art and your clay casting method is inspired.

Just caught up with you on this one :)

Have to agree with Tom and Col. Excellent and inspiring stuff.

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Just caught up with you on this one :)

Have to agree with Tom and Col. Excellent and inspiring stuff.

Thanks for that.

Cheers

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This is workmanship of the very highest quality!

Martin

Thank you, Martin. Certainly gratifying to read a sentence like that.

Cheers

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  • 2 weeks later...

Aaargh! I think that's the expression used on here when mistakes are made or when things don't go according to plan. So aaaarg, I'm having an aaaarg moment.

I was just about finished with the speedbrakes on the U-2 when I happened to click on a walkaround (on here, posted by Julien) of the NASA ER-2. One of the pictures was of the speedbrake and although different in details the setup is the same as the speedbrakes used on the U-2C, a picture of which I was using as my primary reference. Something clicked while looking at the

ER-2 picture and when I looked at the U-2C picture again I realised that I had got it all wrong. What I thought was some sort of baffle on the door was really part of the fuselage, the curved bit that cuts into the door. So, another situation where I had to let it go and use what I had made, and spent several hours on, or make a new set of doors. New doors won out and and they are pictured in the top right photo. A classic case of measure thrice and cut once, sort of.

Also, whenever my eyes feel as though they are going to implode from working on the small stuff, I like to give them a rest by working on something a bit larger. A suitable avatar for a Dragon Lady post seemed like a good idea so over a couple of weeks

I made up an eye out of clay with the eyeball vacuum formed over a cabinet knob and painted on the inside. My son photographed it while I held a small flashlight behind the eye to get the dragonfire shine. Pleased withhow it came out and now I can get back to the U-2.

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Okay, sorry, not sure how the double picture happened. I'll blame it on Photobucket.

Cheers

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, managed to get a few things done in the last couple of weeks. Wished I was farther along but this day to day living stuff keeps interfering with my modelling time. Also seem to spend a lot of time just browsing through the other builds on the site. Anyway, first up are the speedbrakes: resprayed them a more suitable colour and attached a few of the cables. Can't really do much more with them until the end of the build. Really fragile. Also made a turbine thingy (cone, spike) for the tailpipe just to block it off with something. The cone is of, clay shaped and baked, and the blades are small pieces of strut styrene. Didn't get too fusy with it because it probably won't be seen after painting.

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I'm going to post one photo at a time as this device I'm using can get pretty temperamental at times and I could lose the whole shebang and have to start over. Apologies for any inconvenience.

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Almost finished the cockpit. There are several good photos of U-2 cockpits on online, and they are all different. Had to just guess just what I could fit in. This will be a later, modified, U-2C so I expect the instrumentation will have been upgraded a bit also. Pushbuttons and so on. Also made another Q Bay hatch cover as I'll be using the first one I made for the Powers U-2C, which I hope to start on after my next build (not a U-2, not sure what, however)

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