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Catching Pictures in the Air


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On 3/26/2017 at 7:58 PM, Spookytooth said:

She is a tall bird compared to some.

All in all, not looking to bad Tony.

Thanks Simon. :thumbsup2:I haven't had much of a chance to reflect on next steps since my last posting, but leaning currently towards having a go at the fuel tanks and central cable run next in order to block out the main areas of the interior floor.

On 3/26/2017 at 8:18 PM, CedB said:

 

Can I start? Top left X.

 

Nice composition... reminiscent of 'Black cat in a coal cellar', one of the finest works of the 20th century. The juxtaposition of the soft fuselage outlines with the harsh, might I say 'brutal', internal structures complements the contrast between's man aeronautical achievements and the perpetual existence of the natural environment as represented by the stones.

I thought I was feeling a bit better but I think I need another lie down...

 

Great work on the interiors Tony and I'm glad you're feeling better. :) 

My thanks Ced.:D I heard you say that in the beloved Brian Sewell's rich tones:lol:

http://www.briansewell.co.uk/brian-sewell-written-word/brian-sewell-soundboards.html

On 3/26/2017 at 10:10 PM, keefr22 said:

 

I think you missed out 'existential' somewhere in there Ced....isn't it the law to include it in such learned posts...? :P

 

Keith

 

PS Tony, :dinosaur: possibly is looking a little larger, as he's been snacking on ice cream vendors again - someone called Mr. H. Dazs? Must get him a stronger lead...

 

 

Essistenshul? Iz that some fancy French fing? I won't have it in one of my freds!

giphy.gif

On 3/26/2017 at 10:22 PM, The Spadgent said:

Looking very neat and tidy on this sunny afternoon. Lovely bit o' progress. Strange you mentioned slugs but my girls seemd to zone in on every slug in the run when I let them out this morning. Must taste sweeter with that extra hour. :lol:

We should have our own segment on Springwatch Johnny....

On 3/27/2017 at 11:24 AM, Martian Hale said:

Good progress and good to see the lurgy is well on the way out.

Thanks M. Martian. The old carcass is restored to vim and vigour thankfully, even if there is little bench time appearing so far this week.

 

I was up in Dublin today so too knackered to do anything sensible this evening. Nothing like sneezing violently whilst holding a two-grand lens in your hand to bring the blood to your head... 

 

My apologies for the stop-start nature of the build at present but this seems to be the way of things. Hopefully I can grab an hour tomorrow and the day after and if I can go in focussed, can make up some progress.

 

:bye: Tony

 

 

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Very nice, that interior, to be sure!

Not sure what our Ced's been smoking, I'm guessing that lie down was preceded by munchies.........

as for sneezing with something in your hand to make the blood rush to your head......:wacko:

 

Ian

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On 26 March 2017 at 22:22, The Spadgent said:

Looking very neat and tidy on this sunny afternoon. Lovely bit o' progress. Strange you mentioned slugs but my girls seemd to zone in on every slug in the run when I let them out this morning. Must taste sweeter with that extra hour. 

OK, I have to know. That's your dogs, not your daughters, right?

 

The interior is coming along nicely!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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Hmm, seems to me that some daughters, of the very young garden variety, might like to go round sticking slugs in their mouf at first

 

But seems more likely to be doggies doesn't it

 

Tony all that attention is going to pay off well in later days.

 

I don't suppose the fuel tanks were used to refuel the satellites and pop them back into space when the films were changed were they?

 

Thought not but looks like Unca Sam missed a bet there

 

 

 

 

Te - he

Edited by perdu
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23 hours ago, rob85 said:

Nice work on the internal ribs Tony, and looking smart with the primer on. Don't worry about the stop and start as long as you start after you stop

Ta Rob. No start today either, largely as it's my birthday and despite it not arriving yet, there is one of these on order:

$_57.JPG

All hendie's fault really as without him even having to say little more than that such things as bead lathes exist in the world, I realized immediately just how utterly incomplete life is without one....

19 hours ago, limeypilot said:

as for sneezing with something in your hand to make the blood rush to your head......:wacko:

I believe that might qualify as a variant of auto-erotic asphyxiation if done to excess?:lol:

10 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

The interior is coming along nicely!

Cheers for that Adrian. :thumbsup2:

9 hours ago, perdu said:

Tony all that attention is going to pay off well in later days.

 

I don't suppose the fuel tanks were used to refuel the satellites and pop them back into space when the films were changed were they?

 

Thought not but looks like Unca Sam missed a bet there

Thanks Bill - here's hoping!:rolleyes: 

 

Sadly no refuel option available on that one, but from the oral histories I've been reading the fuel tanks seem to have made a convenient surface for the crew in the rear to conduct hours-long card games flying out over the Pacific.  

 

In reading up on the camera/lens system used on the early Corona systems I was staggered to learn that the film sensitivity was in the region of 2-8 ASA. Given that a standard daylight film for a domestic camera was rated at about 200-400ASA, this is an incredibly slow film sensitivity - obviously on grounds of increasing the resolution in relation to film grain. You can dig out some of the declassified footage for yourselves here:

https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov

There's also some fascinating (though redacted in places) contemporary documents archived by the CIA here about the Corona program :

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/corona.pdf

 

I will get up in the morning.

Before I go to work I will build something, no matter how small....

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🎶 Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday dear Tonyyyyyyyyy, Happy Birthday to You 🎶

Have a good one!

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15 hours ago, CedB said:

🎶 Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday dear Tonyyyyyyyyy, Happy Birthday to You 🎶

Have a good one!

Thanks Ced. 

15 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Happy Birthday Tony, enjoy the lathe. I can't wait to see what you end up building with that!

Cheers Cookie. I'm hoping that the lathe will introduce a modicum of elegance into proceedings that precariously jamming the Dremel in a vice just can't achieve.:lol:

15 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Happy Birthday! That lathe does look nice.....and useful....and......

...will be useful in producing the first ground-attack aircraft to fire candlesticks!

15 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Yes, Have a great Birthday Tony.

I see that you will be turning your own balls soon?

 

15 hours ago, Phil Lewis said:

Happy birthday Tony, have a great time.

I suppose someone had to go there :D

:rofl::whip:

Cheers Simon and Phil. I don't quite know what to say....In fairness Phil my threads are not generally known for their high moral tone....

12 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Hippy Bathday Tony!

 

K & t :dinosaur:

Thanks you two. :thumbsup2: Eaten anyone good lately T? 

12 hours ago, 71chally said:

Happy Birthday Tony.

You should be able to get that lathe in the back of the Boxcar!

The perfect storage solution...:winkgrin:

11 hours ago, hendie said:

Not really sure I want to take the blame for you showing off your sphericals on BM though

Darn it! I'd best stick to cylinders so...

5 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Happy beer day sir. :christmas:

Lovely looking swizzle stick you have on order. No loose jewelry now y'hear. :fool:

Between lathes and compass cutters I appear to be subconsciously anticipating a great deal of circular activity in the future. Ironic I should be building a Box...

giphy.gif

 

Well, anyway. I have plasticked this morning as promised:

33578509362_d40c33def9_c.jpg

I couldn't help bursting out laughing upon completing this to realize that I'd spent 20 minutes of my life building one of those plastic name things you stick in the vegetable bed to remind you what you've planted.:doh:

 

In aktual fakt it's the central cable run that goes down the centre of aircraft and leads on to the recovery pole apparatus. On some of these aircraft this tray-type affair tapers at the rear end (as you see here) whereas in some other photos it just seems to terminate squared-off. It's not clear to me if there were just different versions of this structure, or was the tapered section removable for some reason, possibly when reeling the cable in during recovery operations. Who knows? In the stance I'm building this it'll be on the ramp ready for a mission so presumably a tapered tray covers both options.

 

The tray itself is supported on a series of lateral girders joined to the walkways on either side. You can see the intervals marked-out here,along with the plastic cut to width for girdering with:

32921801003_a2e2cfb370_c.jpg

I always have to make myself slow down for jobs of this nature where measurements and angles will look naff if you get them wrong: my natural inclination is of course to crack on regardless (i.e., have to wince and redo it later...), so here, everything has been secured and checked in preparation:

33578510572_dc8734f9a2_c.jpg

This is the underside view showing the cross-members. From above you're only seeing this much:

32921799453_9ab137153c_c.jpg

That looks pretty ok to me when compared to various reference photos. With the tray in place there is as you can see even less of that supporting structure visible:

33578508392_5d0cf526e3_c.jpg

I won't glue that tray into place for good until after all these respective bits are painted as the girders and sides of the frame are all a yellow colour, whereas the tray is bare steel/aluminium. It'll simply make painting the respective regions easier.

 

Those vertical separations from the original cargo floor also seem to have worked out ok in relation to the scale of this:

32921800043_48a12e5c62_c.jpg

BTW, those walkways etc. are stepped back from the very edge of the rear opening as there is a substantial roller to go along there later as part of the recovery mechanism. Kind of thing you might need a lathe to shape.....:whistle:

 

Thanks for reading, and for the b-day wishes.

:bye: Tony

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Nice work there Tony, we hope that you had a great birthday.

I will endeavour to keep things clean(ish) when posting.

 

32 minutes ago, hendie said:

will you be building a toilet in there somewhere ?  :whistle:

 So it is just not me then LOL.

A portaloo strapped in the back somewhere?

 

Simon.

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6 hours ago, hendie said:

some seriously nice modeling going on here. The aircraft itself is almost immaterial when you see these skills on display.

Cheers hendie. I understand what you mean I think. Do you get into that kind of trance-building state sometimes as well where you just seem to instinctively 'feel' what needs to go where and forget about the overall thing that you're actually engaged in building?

6 hours ago, hendie said:

 

will you be building a toilet in there somewhere ?  :whistle:

 

5 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

So it is just not me then LOL.

A portaloo strapped

:lol: The door to the right chaps:

33611936661_256e4196ca_c.jpg

I like how Italeri have coyly let the curtain fall on that side. :snorkle:

I'm assuming there are no aircraft toilet walkarounds on the forum to help with such details....Yeesh. I've only just noticed those sink marks all over the bulkhead in that photo as well - how is it I only notice them just now after handling the piece for the last fortnight?

 

3 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Cracking scratchbuilding Tony, really neat work!

 

2 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Some very neat and methodical work occurring here!

Keith and Martian: Glad you're enjoying progress. Not as quick as I'd hoped this week with non-modelling activities constantly intruding; still,  it does at least make the bench time seem all the more precious when you get it.

56 minutes ago, Miggers said:

Goidering Eh,and not a welder in sight.

 

Damn jolly good show.

 

Happy Boffday belatedly too old bean.

Thanks for that, my old fount of sentiment. Thanks very much indeed. Have a box:

33611933531_972dd5b3b3_c.jpg

Or rather, the framework covering the Benson tanks:

33700369356_422239e93c_c.jpg

I'm not convinced I havenae made that a couple of mm or so too high - I'll bung a sitting figure in later on and compare it to reference photos. To be bolted to the front of that box later on is the main winch mechanism and crew station that sits on the floor between the box and the cable tray. In flight, the framework itself seemed to have all the spare parachutes, dinghy etc.chucked on top.

33611934471_4c4efe0133_c.jpg

I'm guessing at the separation between the tanks and the forward bulkhead due to complete absence of photos showing that part, basing the dimensions here on the position of the aircraft's forward door and the likely space that the crew would need in order to enter the flight deck (and yes...get to the toilet).

 

So far everything fits:

33700371296_971f80ecf8_c.jpg

I see from this shot though that I definitely need to lose a mill. or so of height off those tanks, that just doesn't look quite right just yet.

 

:bye: Tony

 

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1 minute ago, TheBaron said:

Cheers hendie. I understand what you mean I think. Do you get into that kind of trance-building state sometimes as well where you just seem to instinctively 'feel' what needs to go where and forget about the overall thing that you're actually engaged in building?

 

I never thought of it from that aspect but you do make a good point.    I'll agree with that.

 

I was more along the lines of meaning that I have no particular interest in this type of aircraft, but the work you are producing makes it a go-to thread for me as I'm enthralled by the modifications, the scratch building, and the different approaches to solving the various problems you encounter along the way.   From my past and current builds it seems I'm not really an "out of the box builder" type of guy, and it's nice to see others take on challenges like this, made even more enjoyable when you know people are getting out of their comfort zone, but can still overcome adversity, and produce quality work.

Thankfully there are a few builds on BM at the moment which fall into that category, and there's one each in vehicles, armour, ships, and a few in the aircraft section that are really entertaining to follow.

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