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The EDSG Files # 2: Fairey Barracuda 1/72


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20 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

You can't let us down now! We want a completely folding wing and we want it now!

A Martian insurrection? Time to clamp down on this crazy talk before it gets out of hand. Hypnotoad commands you! Look into the Hypnotoad's eyes and repeat 'That second fold ain't happening...':

giphy.gif

All glory to the Hypnotoad!

 

In all earnestness esteemed Son of Ares I don't have the nerve or the urge for a last minute surge of urgency on that section. At this stage I'd have to tear out that rear section again to add reinforcing, and TBH I want to keep then momentum going as  - both with the cantilever and existing hinged part - they took so long to get right that I came dangerously close to faltering.

 

Besides, there's glory in it for the next person to come along and succeed with a solution to that part...particularly at1/48...:whistle:

 

19 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Well, that certainly gives us a lot of leeway!   :)

I used to know a joke about stooping but blowed if the only bit of it I can remember is the punchline. No wonder I'm left off the New Year honours list yet again...

19 hours ago, 71chally said:

I can imagine you and the Baroness in bed together, she with her book 'Jaws', and you with your Barracuda, wistfully folding and unfolding the wings!

:lol:

That sentence is either:

1. The most complex and overlapping set of euphemisms yet devised.

or:

2. The worst sex tip ever. 

I can't decide...:blink:

 

HNY to you and yours James!

 

15 hours ago, sean said:

you've surely been blessed by the gods,

Truly kind Seán Óg. I've a lot of blessings to be thankful for.

HNY to you!

 

14 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Keep up the good work.  I have managed to dig a model out of storage and will do a bit on it tonight hopefully along with a Loco.

Good man Chris. You sound as if life is very busy so sincere best wishes for you to get some peace at the bench soon.

 

And HNY to yourself and family too.

 

13 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Holy moly Tony that wing looks amazing. :o impressive work.  Making me re think my flap filling escapade. Although you won't see any of mine.

Our hens have been having an egg break for the past few months, since we lost "Belina" in the summer. We were getting one egg a day from "lilly-bell"  then she stopped and now we're getting one egg a day from "Doctor."

:D I'm glad we're not the only ones using the Beatrix Potter book of chicken names. 'Marie Hentionette' is one of our most dependable layers. Mrs. B. has however put the kybosh on me putting an Egg Station Zebra sign up over the chicken/duck compound...

13 hours ago, rob85 said:

stunning work, looking forward to the next bit

Muchos gracias Don Roberto. Happy Nuovo Yearo to yourself and clan.

 

 

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22 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

 Mrs. B. has however put the kybosh on me putting an Egg Station Zebra sign up over the chicken/duck compound...

 

 

What a spoilsport, that would look eggsellent. Have another word in her shell-like & see if she can get the yolk...

 

Now, see what that flippin' hypnotoad has done...! :hypnotised: :coat:

 

K

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4 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

What a spoilsport, that would look eggsellent. Have another word in her shell-like & see if she can get the yolk...

 

Now, see what that flippin' hypnotoad has done...! :hypnotised: :coat:

Egad. At least with you it requires the coercive powers of a Hypnotoad Keithski. My wife will be happy to confirm that it was me who originally put the pun in punishment...

3 hours ago, 71chally said:

 ...that's where I'm going wrong!

The internet being what it is, there is no doubt an entire part of it in which you are going right! Rule 34 I believe. :shocked: 

 

To create a frisson of interest at the start of this rather prosaic update, I'll start by announcing that since 11 am I have already drunk sufficient coffee that my heartbeat is currently registering on seismometers across the Northern Hemisphere. No doubt Rekjavik is being evacuated as we speak and various New Age forums across the web are alight with speculations of calendrical Inca prediction.

 

Odd therefore that I should have alighted upon some delicate card and strip activity (no, not that kind, wash your minds out) but first, some modification of yesterday's work.  As you can see here in the shot from the IWM archives:

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...that rear wing-fold element with the flaps on doesn't flip over all the way onto the main wing, but sits canted up at an angle. A little filing down of the hinges needed therefore to allow for the angle of  this posture:

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That would seem ok now:

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Now the only outstanding job on the trailing edge is to finish off final detailing:

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Basically Slaters' microstrip and 0.2mm card. 

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The brown higne-details I've added will be filed down to the required depth later: I've learned that if you're trying to fabricate something equal on both sides (like an imitation hinge-bolt), that it's initially easier to make it slightly bigger to give you a more accurate gauge of alignment in three dimensions, and then reduce them down later.

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Again, Slaters to the rescue on that bit, with their micro-plastic-rod.

 

Finally a view that shows you both working and fixed hinging in relation to each other:

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 When you see this kind of structure (or even attempt to build it yourself!) you really get an appreciation of just how ingenious the Fairey design team were in working out how to cram the dimensions of the Barra down those of the deck lift -  kind of naval-aviation-origami. This shot makes my breath catch every time:

Folded.JPG

Modernist art as far as I'm concerned.

 

Have a good evening friends. Sherlock tonight! The game's afoot again and I am so looking forward to it.:yahoo:

:bye: Tony

 

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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

I've learned that if you're trying to fabricate something equal on both sides (like an imitation hinge-bolt), that it's initially easier to make it slightly bigger to give you a more accurate gauge of alignment in three dimensions, and then reduce them down later.

 

or cheat like I do, and use the smallest drop of cyano to glue several pieces of styrene together. File and drill as required then when you have the finished article, gently slide a nice clean blade down between the layers of styrene to separate them.  Once you get over 6 layers or so it can get a bit wonky but it works great for 2 or 3 layers

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20 minutes ago, hendie said:

 

or cheat like I do, and use the smallest drop of cyano to glue several pieces of styrene together. File and drill as required then when you have the finished article, gently slide a nice clean blade down between the layers of styrene to separate them.  Once you get over 6 layers or so it can get a bit wonky but it works great for 2 or 3 layers

An elegant economy of means hendie. Thanks - I'll be trying that for sure. I got away with my brute-force method this time:

31912569411_aa3d851a8f_c.jpg

but only just. If the bottom bolt assembly of those hinges had been any more recessed there'd have been no way in for the file. Your method of course has the added advantage of starting out with an identical thickness on the separate elements...

 

Anyway. I've snorted some grey on that and and left it for the night now:

31881565132_0b89b19dca_c.jpg

A few flaky areas to scrape down with the scalpel but otherwise that will do.

Tony

 

 

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23 minutes ago, Tomoshenko said:

Looks like you guys have been hangin' out with the wrong type of amphibians like those you mother warned you about...

At some point in the history of our species, somebody thought 'I wonder what will happen if I lick this frog?' I dread to think what will happen when a manned mission finds life on Europa or Enceladus. Presumably there will be a transmission back to Earth that says 'I'm just licking the life-form now.', followed by 23 hours of giggling.:elephant:

5 minutes ago, 71chally said:

I feel like a Lilliputian scrambling all over a real Barracuda!

I can see this working as an animated TV series. Split the profits? :lol:

 

A final image this evening. Just been out the back to watch the conjunction of Venus and the Moon setting behind the trees. Crystalline air and very cold:

31913224851_0ea217e12b_z.jpg

 

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Wow. Go away for a couple of days and look what I've missed - brilliant work Tony, just gurt lush my luvver (sorry, two days in Bristol has an effect on a chap)

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All hail the Hypnotoad! :worthy:

 

:mike: <-- even looks a bit like an hallucinogenic (king) toad...

 

 

Perhaps you could send the Hypnotoad over here :hypnotised: - it appears to be working wonders on the Barracuda ;).

 

Speaking of which: are you sure that W. Heath Robinson wasn't involved in its design?

 

 Cheers,

Alex. :sheep: <-- not a hypnotoad

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11 hours ago, CedB said:

Tony, just gurt lush my luvver (sorry, two days in Bristol has an effect on a chap)

How be on Ced? Haven't heard gurt lush in many a moon:D 

I enjoyed your photo of the Bistolian dual-time zone clock btw; we forget how recent the standardization of time was don't we? Ironic that the Uk rail network operates on relativistic time principles...

10 hours ago, AlexN said:

Speaking of which: are you sure that W. Heath Robinson wasn't involved in its design?

I suspect his spirit, and that of Professor Branestawm presided over the entire enterprise Alex.

 

Mixed feeling so about Sherlock last night. Nice humour, but the menace and tension seems diluted. Hopefully it'll pick up focus...

 

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Nothing dramatic but I have managed to squeeze an hour of concentrated activity in today, albeit a series of corrections and amendments.

 

I'd forgotten to add landing light to the port wing. In fact I'd forgotten about all the various formation and navigation lights on this bird so I'd better start making a list. Anyway, the kit landing light fixture can be fitted carefully after closing the wing up, but looks...well, see for yourself:

31207713904_287c0e9e91_c.jpg

Looks a bit thick for this scale. So having fettled that in, it was promptly hustled-off the scene and the time-honoured card method appliedto redress matters:

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I've been rather salivating and vacillating over this Marabu set from yellow H:

MUDM72002.jpg

Little gems (I love Marabu stuff), but there has to be a way you can make one of these yourself...:hmmm: Anyway, I'll vacillate a bit longer on that. For now, the Youngman brakes need some attention in the matter of the flap attachment/damper mechanism, which SH offer thusly:

31207715084_b4f766286d_c.jpg

They seem ok but once off the sprue the two parts are easily mixed-up - if you look at the shot above, part 4 can be distinguished from 5 by the curvature not running all the way down to a point at the wider end, and is the one that goes inboard nearest the fuselage...

 

Also I can tell you from experience to mark up the Youngman flap correctly if you're folding this rear section up. Between the various orientations in reference photos, drawings and the kit itself, you can be come confused over which way round it goes, so make a mark of some kind:

32009632216_b62f9f4d17_c.jpg

The brake/flap attachment is not a secure one on the kit - not any fault of Sh particularly, just that in being faithful to the structure at this scale, you're not left with much of a gluing area:

31673657120_147b3d99b3_c.jpg

I've filed these in at the bottom slightly as you can see, just to increase the gluing surface slightly. Look at a lot of reference photos of that region before gluing anything - from the instructions, the temptation is to try and fit the attachment into the slot in the dive brake: that's not how it goes. Instead they sit onto it, as you can see in this fine photo (which shows the landing light off issue well too):

238.jpg

For the purposes of not having it drop off the minute you touch it, I've shaved in the attachment ever so slighly to enable the slot to grip it somewhat more than would otherwise be the case:

31673657120_147b3d99b3_c.jpg

Otherewise, you can see from the camber of the wing that there would be little surface area to glue it securely. (You could elect to try some kind of wire pin at an angle within the slot, but as I want to use tubing to build up the additional control linkage stuff in there as well, that procedure would interfere with it). Visually I think this will suffice.

 

At this point in the test-fitting, part 5 elected to ping off the tweezers into the Ultima Thule that lurks at the rear of the desk. A comically small-scale version of John Ford's The Searchers then ensued for the next ten minutes. Nada.Oblate appendages! :rant: Off to see what's on TV...

 

**********************************************************************************************************************************

Tommy Walsh's Ground Air Force*

On today's show, Tommy shows us how to make a replacement dive brake attachment from a Messerschmitt cannon pod.

 

<cue Tommy: gravelly Norf London accent>

'Well, if you do have a pinged attachment you just need to get yourself one of these:'

32048590515_d6078c2d64_c.jpg

'Then you <Slurp tea and wink> just take a litle bit of the end here-ya':

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'And after a lot of tea <wink> you'll end up <pause, hold piece up to camera> with a matching pair!

32048590735_3945798683_c.jpg

Tune in next week, when Tommy shows us how to drink tea and wink whilst re-attaching a testicle at the band-saw.

*************************************************************************************************

Now this becomes possible again:

31207712934_193963d75f_c.jpg

Before the glue goesoff, it's probably as well  to do a final check that you've all the right bits in the right order and orientation in respect to each other:

31238755063_bdde8fdd0e_c.jpg

Although that region seems deceptively simple when you look at it, it takes a bit of patience to avoid mucking it up, as I nearly did on several occasions. I notice that Tommy has left that new attachment a tad wide over there on the right - I'll get him back in the morning to finish the job properly. You wouldn't catch me doing that. ;)

 

Thash awl folksh.

:bye: Tony

 

* To explain to non-uk residents, Tommy Walsh is a Hackney builder who came to prominence on UK television as part of a TV series called Gound Force:

tv-builder-tommy-walsh-arrested-after-co

You can make your own Tommy Walsh by getting hold of an inflatable Alec Baldwin doll and over-inflating it. On no account attempt to urinate in Tommy's garden:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3424758/Ground-Force-s-Tommy-Walsh-held-assault-TV-builder-spent-night-cells-confronting-two-men-urinated-garden.html

 

 

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OK, I'll ask, why the Barry Norman video? Is it 'cos it's out of focus? Nice to see someone else growing old gracefully - not a spot of hair dye in sight. I remember hair...

 

Nice work on the brake/flap attachment attachment Tommy. And for goodness sake, buy that young lady a brassiere. (For those not in the know some gratuitous shots here, but only if you like sturdy gals).

 

Seriously though, amazing work Tony, especially those hinges I missed while I was away. Great stuff.

I have some of those landing light thingies and used them on the Beaufort after seeing Bill use them on his. I'm sure you could scratch the reflector but the little bendy bits on the front are tiny and they do add something...

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44 minutes ago, CedB said:

OK, I'll ask, why the Barry Norman video? Is it 'cos it's out of focus? Nice to see someone else growing old gracefully - not a spot of hair dye in sight. I remember hair...

I hadn't thought of the focus - that's a bit subtle for me :lol:. I just though the music would go nostalgically with my non-review of Sherlock....

 

Thanks for the Dimmock-link: I'd forgotten how voyeuristic tv could be in the name of entertainment...Nigella's another one of course:

http://viz.co.uk/finbarr-saunders/

 

44 minutes ago, CedB said:

I have some of those landing light thingies and used them on the Beaufort after seeing Bill use them on his. I'm sure you could scratch the reflector but the little bendy bits on the front are tiny and they do add something...

I suspect you've just talked me into getting them now...:devil: Your Beaufort tutorial just pushed me over the edge! Take my money big H....

 

I couldn't stay away from the flaps so whilst I was in the mood I plunged in for another hour. Firstly just to finish off the attachment, all filed down to matching sizes and contours now:

31936987411_51c72c9fae_c.jpg

Then a hole in the folding trailing edge portion for the control linkage to pass through:

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0.4 inside 0.6mm tubing for the linkage itself:

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Making sure to test the angles etc. before applying any glue:

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Tape off, glue on and tape on again in order to hold the flap at the required angle:

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How's it look against the main wing

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Good enough:thumbsup:

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Almost a Fokker triplane happening.

 

Back to work again tomorrow  so the pace will doubtless slow down and become more periodic. I have to say I'm quite enjoying this part of the build at the moment though - when you start to see structures coming together - so I hope to keep getting a little and regular activity in to continue with the momentum.

 

I hope your own plans and activities are going well. I had a bit of a panic earlier when I realized I'd signed up for a number of GBs last year, luckily I'm only on the flying-boat one that got through the voting and that's not until September. I've a Valom Walrus and a Matchbox Stranraer and can't decide between them for it at the moment. No rush anyway. I don't know how the GB slipped my mind considering I'd been eyeing up some of the superb Wessexes being GB'd just last night.

 

I'm rambling (Sid Rumpole) so time to shut up and say :bye: all...

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Oooh Nigella... domestic goddess, puts tasty in another league fnaar fnaar yip yip (yes I did follow the link, lovely sausages!) :D 

 

But those flaps... yours, not Nigella or Charlie's... gorgeous Tony, just gorgeous. Great work that man.

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They are the best flaps I have ever seen....

 

genuinely Tony they look fantastic, real building at a micro level, your a talented chap it would appear.

 

also love the pick of the barra from behind with the wings folded, what very cunning wings they are..... however if you were flying it wouldn't you constantly worry they would want to return to that fold at any point??!! Braver men than I, I must just be a born panicer 

 

Rob 

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17 hours ago, CedB said:

(For those not in the know some gratuitous shots here, but only if you like sturdy gals).

 

She's even more sturdy now Ced, a much larger more mature lady! Still hasn't had any brassieres bought for her though...!

 

And typical  Daily Fail reporting, just whose garden did Mr.Walsh find those two weeing in...?!

 

Excellent job on those flaps & hinges Tony, very impressive work getting all the alignment done so nicely!

 

And as to the landing lights, is it really worth trying to make your own when the lovely Marabu set is under 4 quid? Law of diminishing returns comes to mind...!

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

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Oh my word! Those linkages are insane, heaven forbid you ever build a 1/24 :o.

you'll be Modelling the cobwebs.:lol: Brings back memories huh? ;) Stunning work chap. Are you painting her folded or will you construct afterwards?

 

Johnny goggles.

 

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Lovely jubbly.  The aircraft, not Charlie & Nigella.  

 

I think I am right in saying that there was some sort of sticky-out bit (a technical term) on top of the wing to support the folded inner wing / flap when folded.  A simple angled rod sticking out if the top of the wing - the Barra had several of these!  I'll see if CABRANK (the Crispo-Automated-Barracuda-Reference-And-Naval-Knowledge compendium (aka my disorganised pictures) comes up with anything when I get home.

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3 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Lovely jubbly.  The aircraft, not Charlie & Nigella.  

 

I think I am right in saying that there was some sort of sticky-out bit (a technical term) on top of the wing to support the folded inner wing / flap when folded.  A simple angled rod sticking out if the top of the wing - the Barra had several of these!  I'll see if CABRANK (the Crispo-Automated-Barracuda-Reference-And-Naval-Knowledge compendium (aka my disorganised pictures) comes up with anything when I get home.

You are quite right Crisp. It was a rod reinforced by a triangular gusset. The rod engaged with the tail plane to provide some rigidity for the folded wing. The parts are so obvious on the Barra wing I would be very surprised indeed if Special Hobby have not included them in the kit in some form.

 

Martian

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