71chally Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 10 minutes ago, TheBaron said: The second brainwave was rather than filing and sanding all around the varying curve lengths of the canopy where it meets the fuselage ( as I'd done previously and clumsily), a cylindrical grinding head in the rotary tool gives a precision method enabling smooth curves to be followed easily when removing excess vacform moulding in the final pass: You probably knew that already, but it please me no end to get a better result in this manner... You could write a book, 'How I Escaped and Outwitted Social Services'! The modeling tips alone in this thread are something else! Is it me, or is that an upward I.D. lamp fitting in the solid part of the canopy ahead of the TAGs upward opening portion? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 My uncle found a bunch of old photos in his attic and sent some WWII ones to me. Among them is this one, posted for reference only. The caption on the back reads "Winter with HMS Trumpeter. Pictures of scenes during a winter patrol, taken on board the escort carrier HMS Trumpeter. Picture shows:- rocket-assisted take-off by a Barracuda of the Trumpeter" ian 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted January 8, 2017 Author Share Posted January 8, 2017 2 hours ago, 71chally said: You could write a book, 'How I Escaped and Outwitted Social Services'! Followed by 'One Flew Over the Barracuda's Cockpit'.... 2 hours ago, 71chally said: Is it me, or is that an upward I.D. lamp fitting in the solid part of the canopy ahead of the TAGs upward opening portion? Do you mean that square fitting with the dark circle in it James? 1 hour ago, limeypilot said: My uncle found a bunch of old photos in his attic and sent some WWII ones to me. Among them is this one, posted for reference only. Brilliant Ian. With that gaping mouth under the engine it looks as if it's going 'Wheeeeeee!!!!' The camera port in the starboard wing shows up rather nicely in that shot too. Now. I went back to the marked-up canopies and you know what? Sod it. Let's do this and see what it ends up like. Falcon canopy first and the first cut - the TAG's tilting section: I have to say that Tamiya saw is capable of some delicate light cutting - despite it's prodigious size. Because of the way that some of the cuts meet at an angle, the order I cut was across the roof first, followed by up each side until the piece is only held on by a tiny hinge of plastic, which you can then slice with a scalpel to separate them. Otherwise the saw cut will continue on too far. Something else I learned is that in cutting long vacform canopies like this, have something supporting it from the inside (in this case the handle of a cheapie razor saw I bought but rarely use now) to stop it flexing away from the cutting edge: Don't do this with non-flexible transparencies (like the SH one), as you'll see in a moment! Ten minutes of gentle sawing and we now have the Falcon set autopsied and on the slab: Fifteen minutes after that (thicker canopy so more sawing involved) the Special Hobby one is similarly detached: An obvious point but when you cut these up, be sure to have to separate (and clearly marked!) containers for the respective pieces! (Special Hobby on the right...) All very well, but will the notion of mixing components from the two canopies work? I present my latest work 'Copulation of the Greenhouses': I do believe this may be a runner ladies and gentlemodellers! Now, I mentioned earlier the inadvisability of having a rigid canopy balance on that handle - here's what happened: Just cutting my way step by step towards the front of the SH canopy when I pressed it down too hard onto the handle and >snick!< rather more pieces than I might have wished for. The small tilting section for the observer and the fixed section from behind the pilot are snapped asunder. It's not a total clusterfeck as I'm fairly confident I can mock something up from the equivalent parts on the Falcon set, just annoying to do this at the last knockings. Hey-ho. I've been lucky so far so something was bound to happen at some stage. Two final points. The cuts look brutal in their raw state, these will of course be sanded and micromeshed down. A saving grace of this technique is also that you can rebuild damage to the edge of the frames caused by cutting, using the ubiquitous microstrip. I expect I'll use some of that anyway to make the framing a little more prominent at the edges of the sliding parts, but we'll see. This wasn't as frightening a set of cuts to do as I'd thought, despite the baroque greenhouse that is the canopy.... That is enough for me today. Tony 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 You are a brave and skilled man Tony - you may now relax and have a celebratory tipple 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 2 hours ago, limeypilot said: My uncle found a bunch of old photos in his attic and sent some WWII ones to me. Among them is this one, posted for reference only. The caption on the back reads "Winter with HMS Trumpeter. Pictures of scenes during a winter patrol, taken on board the escort carrier HMS Trumpeter. Picture shows:- rocket-assisted take-off by a Barracuda of the Trumpeter" ian A healthy dose of heavy boot on the pedals, too! Great shot. Heath Robinson, eat your heart out. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted January 8, 2017 Author Share Posted January 8, 2017 2 hours ago, CedB said: You are a brave and skilled man Tony - you may now relax and have a celebratory tipple You twisted my arm Ced. Tipple imminent. 1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: A healthy dose of heavy boot on the pedals, too! Great shot. Compensating for point ii ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 (edited) Excellent cutting on those canopies, an anxious moment or ten! Maybe you can use flat parts from the Falcon canopy to replicate the pilots quaterlight wind deflector panels. The shape I see looks like a teardrop. Edited January 8, 2017 by 71chally 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted January 8, 2017 Author Share Posted January 8, 2017 10 minutes ago, 71chally said: Maybe you can use flat parts from the Falcon canopy to replicate the pilots quaterlight wind deflector panels. Great minds... That bit is a dead ringer for the quarterlight on a Ford Anglia we had when I was a kid. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spadgent Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 (edited) Wonderful slicing and splicing there Tony. You're as Mad as a March hare taking on all this extra work but you seem to be pulling it off quite nicely, pitty about the snapped bit but I have no doubt you'll sort something out. Enjoy the tipple, I'm on the tea tonight. But I do like tea. Edited January 8, 2017 by The Spadgent 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 20 hours ago, The Spadgent said: Wonderful slicing and splicing there Tony. You're as Mad as a March hare taking on all this extra work but you seem to be pulling it off quite nicely, pitty about the snapped bit but I have no doubt you'll sort something out. Sank you, sank you ver' mush John old boy. I'm currently writing this and watching a bid on Ebay simultaneously. What can possibly go wrong? Really only a 'suits-you sir' fitting session to update you with this evening, in order to iron out any final decision on what sections of the canopy to utilize. After due deliberation here's my choice - laid out in closed position first just to get an idea of the placement of the varied sections in relation to each other: And now with the intended sections opened up. Rear quarter: Front quarter: I thought you might appreciate an annotated version indicated the respective parts of the two canopies used: The Falcon element for the TAG's tilting section at the rear is currently languishing upside down on the cockpit floor whilst I work out how to retrieve the blighter without scratching it. I decided that overall the superior clarity and lack of optical distortion in the Falcon canopy warranted most usage. The SH section for the TAG tilting bit to go into into I'm keeping, so that the observer's sliding hood can fit back over it, whilst I may just swap out the SH windscreen and use the Falcon one as well. Nothing personal to SH - for a closed cockpit as I'd already mentioned their canopy is absolutely fine OOB in terms of accuracy of profile; I just happen to be a fan of the Falcon stuff in terms of its overall quality if I'm going to have double layers of the stuff where the sections are slid back, and tilted up - I think it'll just look smarter in the end. Don't worry - I haven't ignored how those sliding sections standing up too proud at present when they're slid back over the bits below them, some delicate sanding and micromeshing to thin down profiles should help there later on. Oooh. Notification from the 'bay (E not Biscay) that I now apparently have an Fw200 to add to the stash. (Hopefully being a really really old Revell one the mouldings should be sharper than later re-boxings of it.) Another maritime aircraft I just can't work out why I find them so captivating, though mention anything in a sentence that also contains the phrases 'Western Approaches' or 'North Atlantic' and I'd be hard pushed to resist. At least I can now spend this evening disillusioning myself reading up about all the work it will need to correct it.... I'd recently been looking at the work of Richard Eurich again - he was employed as a war artist by the Admiralty in WWII and doesn't seem as well known as wartime works of the better known Henry Moore, John Piper et. al. Some of his canvasses are quite extraordinarily cinematographic for the time. Withdrawl from Dunkirk (painted 1940): Air Fight over Portland (painted 1940): Raid on Bruneval (Painted 1943) Tony 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomoshenko Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 Brilliant stuff. I likes it more and more. Heaven's sake though don't get em mixed up. Reminds me of the time a bloke I used to work with (several decades ago) dismantled an automatic gearbox. Never again he told me. I believe he is still searching for bits and trying to reassemble it to this day! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 On 1/8/2017 at 1:44 PM, TheBaron said: You twisted my arm Ced. Tipple imminent. Compensating for point ii ? Caused by giroscopic precession. The prop rotates clockwise as viewed from the pilot's seat, and acts as a huge gyro. If pressure is applied to a gyro its effect is felt at 90 degrees in the direction if rotation. With any tail dragger, raising the tailwheel off the ground on take off is effectively applying forward pressure to the top of the prop disc. In this case, since the prop turns clockwise, the result is as if pressure had been applied on the right side....a swing to the left! Ian 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 On 08/01/2017 at 4:16 PM, TheBaron said: With that gaping mouth under the engine it looks as if it's going 'Wheeeeeee!!!!' I thought it was going Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh....!!!!! More exceptional work on the canopies Tony, and I like your photo's & the very professional labelling on them. However, despite that I have no idea what's going on... . So I'm glad you said the SH one looks like it will work wellif left closed - it will have to on mine! And I hope you don't mind me mentioning, in case any one is inerested, but we had a phone call from our friend with the farm earlier, she'd managed to persuade Tom my sister in laws cat into her house. Mrs R & I went straight over & picked him up & took him over to re-unite him with sis in law - queue floods of tears! I thought she'd have been pleased to have him back... Seriously, he looks none the worse for living rough for nearly 6 months & I'm really glad circumstances turned out so favourably for him. Thanks for letting me ramble on about him! Keith 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 4 hours ago, TheBaron said: Oooh. Notification from the 'bay (E not Biscay) that I now apparently have an Fw200 to add to the stash. (Hopefully being a really really old Revell one the mouldings should be sharper than later re-boxings of it.) Tony, you do realise that Revell issued a completely new tool Fw200 a few years back, that is many times sharper than the old one?! I saw your post on the 'purchased' thread & do agree about the box art though - lovely & evocative painting! I had that boxing when it first came out & remember the plastic being in a rather fetching baby blue colour! Whatever, I'm sure you'll enjoy building it - & we'll enjoy watching! Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyTiger66 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I now up to date on this thread Tony. Simply amazing attention to detail and inspiring (mind-boggling!) work! I can recommend nano/micro saws for such tasks as the transparencies. The Tamiya one looks great, but some of the nano/micro saws have shapes that can help with curves such as those you encountered. RB make good ones. Blu-tac is good for stuffing in canopies for sawing sessions, both vac form and i/m ones. The latter do like to crack though, one has to saw with almost zero pressure. I've had some kind of 'micro crack' too, a sort of 'spraining' of the plastic that won't go away. With all those possibilities, you've done a cracking job! Well, thankfully not that much cracking ! I never realised before your build how much the Barracuda lends itself to detailing; the aerials, wing fold components, pitot, lamps, exhausts, flaps, possible RATO etc. What a great modelling subject! Keep up the good work young man! All best regards TonyT 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyTiger66 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 PS I really like the Richard Eurich paintings. He has a very individual style, exceptionally British in character. It would be lovely to have a print of any of those three on the wall . When I'm a little bit more vertical, I'm going to make a number of visits to the Australian National War Memorial, here in Canberra. It's said that it is one of the best in the world. There are such things as Lancasters in there! I'll take lots of pictures of everything and keep an eye out for art too, All will be shared . Best regards TonyT 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Good work on the canopy sections, it looks like you will pull it off. Martian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Fine work with the canopy Tony, looks like your plan is working! Love the art, never seen his work before, it's really picturesque but also full of action in a very subtle way, I really like them! Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 13 hours ago, TheBaron said: It kind of looks like someone dropped a lump of something in a sticky substance, then it fell on the carpet, and then some clear plastic parts and bits of tape fell on top of it - in other words, very Barracuda like! Keith, I'm only just getting to know Tonys' approach to modelling, I get the feeling he will prefer the older and less refined kit! Outstanding soldier! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 25 minutes ago, 71chally said: Keith, I'm only just getting to know Tonys' approach to modelling, I get the feeling he will prefer the older and less refined kit! Nothing wrong with that 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 2 hours ago, 71chally said: Keith, I'm only just getting to know Tonys' approach to modelling, I get the feeling he will prefer the older and less refined kit! I admit I sense the same too James, it was just the mention of hoping the kit he won (and I love the irony of 'winning' something that then costs you money!) was a good moulding that prompted the post! Keith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 On 9 January 2017 at 7:05 PM, Tomoshenko said: Brilliant stuff. I likes it more and more. Heaven's sake though don't get em mixed up. Reminds me of the time a bloke I used to work with (several decades ago) dismantled an automatic gearbox. Never again he told me. I believe he is still searching for bits and trying to reassemble it to this day! Cheers Tomo! He sounds like the same guy that serviced my old Corolla several years back; I drove home to find he'd left all the filler caps off oil, brake fluid, power-steering reservoirs and everything else that could be unscrewed! 22 hours ago, limeypilot said: Caused by giroscopic precession. Is torque simply another description of this action Ian? I'm not an engineer so these things easily confuse me... 21 hours ago, keefr22 said: I thought it was going Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh....!!!!! Actually I think you're right Keith. It's the same look people wear coming down a rollercoaster. Presumably once it gained cruising altitude the expression would turn to a frown of 'efffin RATOG'...... I'm right glad you sis-in-law got her moggie back - I hate to think of people losing their beloved creatures. You won't be disappointed with the SH canopy btw - it's a really nice moulding that captures the necessary details. 21 hours ago, keefr22 said: Tony, you do realise that Revell issued a completely new tool Fw200 a few years back, that is many times sharper than the old one?! Don't talk daft man. Where's the fun in that. Besides, I purchased it for three fundamentally sound reasons: 1. It has, as you say, a beautiful piece of period box art, that may yet get to grace the bathroom wall if I can convince Mrs. B. 2. I've always wanted one. 3. It was extremely cheap. Like me. That said the decals appear to have turned to Stilton in the photograph I saw of the contents, so some decal shopping is required. I'm going to have a shufti at the Warpaint volume to see what catches me eye. 17 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said: I can recommend nano/micro saws for such tasks as the transparencies. The Tamiya one looks great, but some of the nano/micro saws have shapes that can help with curves such as those you encountered. RB make good ones. Blu-tac is good for stuffing in canopies for sawing sessions, both vac form and i/m ones. The latter do like to crack though, one has to saw with almost zero pressure. I've had some kind of 'micro crack' too, a sort of 'spraining' of the plastic that won't go away. Sage words T.Tiger! I avoided Blu-Tac as I hate the smeary deposits it leaves all over the transparencies - though you are right about avoiding pressure (as I now know...) I need to have a squint at RB's stuff as I believe they have some rivetting gizomos too. 17 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said: I never realised before your build how much the Barracuda lends itself to detailing; the aerials, wing fold components, pitot, lamps, exhausts, flaps, possible RATO etc. What a great modelling subject! You have to wonder at the developmental cycle of the aircraft being so extended that a bit like us modellers, the design teamat Fairey got carried away on the details. Not helped of course by the multi-role nature the Barracuda was expected to perform - where have we heard that before in the aircraft industry... 17 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said: PS I really like the Richard Eurich paintings He's one of a number of war artists I'm only just discovering. John Platt is another: Convoy Arriving off St-Anthony's Lighthouse, Falmouth (painted 1942) It's after researching some of these painters that I came across Brian Foss': which I've just blown the January's disposable income on from Abebooks. That cultural period in Britain fascinates me: slap-bang in the middle of the Modernist period the world catches fire and part of the British psyche decides in the midst of everything else, that it is important to have artists reflecting the experience back to the population. Also Myra Hess' wartime concerts at the National Gallery, or the 'who are we?' poetics of Powell and Pressburger's film A Canterbury Tale....There's a defiance and insistence on certain values lying behind those instincts that despite the multitude of flaws in the nation, are things of immeasurable value. 16 hours ago, Martian Hale said: Good work on the canopy sections, it looks like you will pull it off. An unfortunate choice of phrase considering I'm hoping it will stay glued-on! 16 hours ago, rob85 said: Fine work with the canopy Tony, looks like your plan is working! Love the art, never seen his work before, it's really picturesque but also full of action in a very subtle way, I really like them! Cheers Rob - you dignify my 'What if' approach by referring to it as anything so logical as a plan... There's something of a film-poster approach in Eurich's work isn't there, like the way the Bruneval canvas conflates the various stages of the raid into a single image.... 12 hours ago, 71chally said: Keith, I'm only just getting to know Tonys' approach to modelling, I get the feeling he will prefer the older and less refined kit! What is it they say about owners looking like their dogs? In my case it might be also true in relation to looking like their kits! 12 hours ago, AdrianMF said: Nothing wrong with that Hear hear sir! 9 hours ago, keefr22 said: I admit I sense the same too James, it was just the mention of hoping the kit he won (and I love the irony of 'winning' something that then costs you money!) was a good moulding that prompted the post! I too was a good moulding once. Thank God that medical science now provides a range of aftermarket options... This has got a bit long due to my rambling so I'll stick the update in a following post.... 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 A little work this afternoon. Why oh why I wonder did SH find it necessary to have the arrestor hook region of the underside as a separate component? That just means some extra filling and sanding now for no obvious reason.... Rather absent-mindedly I picked up the port wing earlier. Not so flush at the join in the raw state: But after sanding and test-fitting, what do you know? After two months I actually stuck a wing on! A whole one! I'm a bit surprised myself tbh, I'd only really picked the wing up for a quick look-see and without thinking started gluing it on. My brute force solution to making sure it doesn't droop whilst curing: I call this one 'Barracuda Assaulted by Polo Mint and Lead Bluebottle'. You'll have noticed in the above shots that I snapped the headrest off of the pilot's seat? This was deliberate as I thought it better to mount it upright again later than to lose it over the course of the build and only notice it missing at the end - it's still attached by the shoulder harness so I'll just leave it folded into the seat for now. That's it for now. The undercarriage is up for scrutiny next. I'm going to leave the wheels and oleos off until after paint, and only mount that lower triangular slab and arms of the undercarriage at this. If you have a look at the kit mouldings, the triangles: ...leave something to be desired when compared to the real thing: The oleos and wheels look very good however, but the upper arm section of the kit is rather on the thick side for my liking (parts 19& 20): A bit of detailing needed on a few bits there before installing onto the fuselage then. The radar (Yagi?) arrays don't look too bad either but I forgot to photograph these to show you. One final thing you guys might be able to help me with. The kit comes with racks for underwing loadouts, however as I'm building this as a 1600lb loadout from the Tirpitz raids (the bomb won't actually be attached of course if this is in maintenance with the engine out), does anyone know if the wing racks were a permanent fixture, or were they removed according to the weapon load-out for the mission concerned? Evenin' all. Tony 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 (edited) I have to say I love art that's a bit illustrative in its nature, gives you a story in one place without being overt about it or really captures a moment in time, so that you can feel some of it. Very hard to do but I feel like so much art through the 30's and 40's had that all down to what was going on or they had come out of I suppose... also one of my favourite periods of design... i love this this by the pilot Denis Barnham https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=denis+barnham+malta&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=minv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_u4a_h7jRAhXmAcAKHZtkCXoQ_AUICCgC&biw=375&bih=559#imgrc=JnA_zlqn_Mi-0M%3A which I have posted before I think and will not be new to most, but is so good, so many little details and even if you take all the aircraft out (even the massive underside of the 109 ! ) you still have what in my eyes is a beautiful landscape painting... it's really gives an idea of how terrifying the situation is, but it's still calm and beautiful.... very hard to capture.... anyway enough of of the high brow crap where's the modelling... Rob p.s. It was there all along p.p.s also the nose of the spitfire is blue Edited January 10, 2017 by rob85 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 2 hours ago, TheBaron said: An unfortunate choice of phrase considering I'm hoping it will stay glued-on! I thought Ced wold have been in there with one of his fnar, fnars by now! 2 hours ago, TheBaron said: 19 hours ago, keefr22 said: And I hope you don't mind me mentioning, in case any one is interested, but we had a phone call from our friend with the farm earlier, she'd managed to persuade Tom my sister in laws cat into her house. Mrs R & I went straight over & picked him up & took him over to re-unite him with sis in law - queue floods of tears! I thought she'd have been pleased to have him back... Seriously, he looks none the worse for living rough for nearly 6 months & I'm really glad circumstances turned out so favourably for him.Keith Great news! The cattery still needs a good kicking though. Martian 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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