Catching Pictures in the Air

[TheBaron]

20 hours ago, Fritag said:

Jeepers Tony.  Another Britmodeller 1/72 scale practitioner who can wield a soldering iron to magical effect.  I am feeling seriously under skilled.

Ah now - don't be saying that Steve. I'm just lucky to have fallen into knowledgable company here who help me through the tricky bits!

Speaking of which:

18 hours ago, hendie said:

you'd be surprised how little solder needs to remain in order to keep things nice and solid.

I have been blobbing it on a bit thick, haven't I? I really do need to have more confidence in the bond and stop embalming the bloody works in solder as much as I've been doing...

17 hours ago, CedB said:

Apologies for sharing the 'Man Flu' video as part of a playlist, but now you know what my 'favourites' are... glad you enjoyed them!  

No applogy necessary Ced - it was a ray of sun when I was feeling miserable. 'Carry on Downton' was superb! 

 

My only Eyetub playlist at present contains various RN training films of Walrus-catapultery from British capital ships and could hardly be considered a barrel of laughs...

 

The few shots of kit parts are for @The Spadgent who was opining previously that I may have forgotten there was a box of parts here altogether...

 

The main cockpit details OOB on this kit don't look half bad:

At least the main shapes...

...when compared to the actuality:

We might have to do something about the Victorian mantlepiece around the top of the IP when compared to the shot above however:

Pretty cleanly moulded, though that still of course doesn't preclude that after a few more days' staring at said seating, that some cutting and sharpening up of details mightn't occur. A couple of ejector pin marks also require  filling on the pilot and co-pilot's thrones:

Speaking of seating, have a look at this shot of an RCAF C-119G back end:

Cramped or what? The Deputy Dawg resignation on the face of the third guy in from the right says it all really....

 

Right. That's enough kit parts for this week. Back to scratching.

 

Cargo bulkhead:

The textures left over from chiselling-off the original moulding work ok I feel in terms of dings and dents, so I left as is and just added some 1mm strip, followed by knocking up the two angled boxes that sit up at the top:

I knoweth not of their function so don't ask me what they are for.  The metal foil I added as a quick method of hiding the various glued angled edges, but avec un snort de Halfords the result is not entirely unpleasing:

While we were outside I took the opportunity to bung some primer some on the now tidied-up rear ceiling details as well:

 

Aside from the inevitable air of glamour that having a C-119 build underway brings to family life, the other all-consuming activity at this time of the year is the annual land-art project known as footing the turf:

No prizes for guessing who the last family were to get theirs stacked this year....

 

I'll leave you with a Cubist self-portrait:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Spadgent]

Lovely muck there Tony. Kit parts too, it feels like a ferrero rocher add from the 80s.

The new roof parts look glorious, Bravo.

hope the wee sniffle clears up. 

 

Jonst.

[hendie]

4 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I have been blobbing it on a bit thick, haven't I? I really do need to have more confidence in the bond and stop embalming the bloody works in solder as much as I've been doing...

 

I'd say carry on doing what you're doing.... I also lay it on a bit thick - safe in the knowledge that it's very easy to remove excess once it's all cooled down

[Martian]

That flight deck is nothing sort of excellent!

 

Martian

[TheBaron]

Johnny, hendie, Martian: thanks for the responses lads. 

 

Aside from the almost constant stream of life/work aspects needing attention at the moment, I've begun to suspect that my recently slowed pace on this build was due in part to poor organization of what has become an increasingly complex set of elements to juggle in relationship to one another. He'll no doubt modestly decry the praise, but when I compare the wonderfully-focussed sense of purpose that our beloved @Martian Hale brings to his SH-34 / S-2A thread (Last Cruise of Carol Doormouse or whatever old Beatrix Potter nonsense he calls it...), I felt that root and branch reform, back to basics etc. was the order of the day here.

 

Over the last few weeks various sub-assemblies have been creeping out around the studio onto various surfaces to 'keep safe' (the decals have even disappearred completely) to the point where I've begun to lose track of which bits are finished and which need more attention -  hence the fact that a lot of time recently has been hopping back and forth. This is dodgy practice on my part for two reasons: firstly the aircraft itself is an integrated structure, meaning individual parts need to work in relation to each over visually and structurally at the correct scale; and secondly, too much vagueness can lead to mistakes in the sequencing of both building and painting later on. Right. Enough self-flagellation: what's been happening.

 

Let's start with the see-through bits:

I don't seem to have lost any of those but looking at some of the bits there on the runner reminds me that it's not just the circular portholes that need gluing to the fuselage and masking-off. As well as some extra windows for the lower nose area, the presence of more circular windows reminds me that there is an access door to add to the port front of the a/c, plus a couple of scratch built doors needed for the BT.

 

Speaking of the cockpit - do you reckon it would be possible somehow to remove those ghastly wipers? They make it look like the aircraft has struck some poor invalid and left their crutches plastered across the windscreen. I've never tried anything that ambitious on transparency before and would love to lose them:

This greenhouse will be new territory for me on the inside due to the presence of the control panel in the roof. Have thyselves a shufti at this excellent shot here:

...and you can see that aside from the central console above the pilots there are also curtains, curly wires and extra framing to add to the insides of the glazing all around: a miniature build in itself. 

 

Ok. That's one set of elements to treat as sub-assembly before adding to the fueslage. The cockpit we've looked at in the last update so another item to check is whether the extra ceiling detail of the cargo bay interferes with the strengtheners added above it to the wing-spar region. The underneath looks ok, and in fact the two regions complement each other quite nicely (not to mention accidentally - I can't claim that much forethought!)

and no issues when seen from the rear:

Some detailing need along the top there where the edge of the ceiling meets the bit coming down from the spar box though - I'm not sure whether to build that detail on a thin sheet of plasticard and add that at the end when the fueslage and ceiling are all joined-up. No, that won't work because the very rear part of the celing with the ladder and sheave on will be in the way. Hmm.

 

Next up I needed to inventory the various scratch-built parts, and  pay some attention to the range of colours that will be required aside from Int. Green. Alsxo, what seqence ot mask/spray them in (though I'm anticipating some furry-pole work needed on the finer detailing...)

 

It seemed easiest just to write on theactual parts TBH, rather than any complicated sets of notes. Sheave deck:

Ceiling:

Floor/fuel tanks and yellow detailing:

Cable gully, rollers and paratainer rail for steel Alcladding:

Toilets, seats and winches (sounds like a particularly bad XTC tribute act...):

To start keeping this little lot under control I'm currently using the paint booth to store these clusters in readiness for later painting, so that the bench can remain a contruction site only.

To assist with clarifying matters I've also begun re-writing the instructions as well :

Whilst completingn this screed, Gerry (our beloved bearer of postal goodness) knocked the house with these:

Some (possibly redundant, on the back of advice received from my '@perduction supervisor) balsa, plus some submillimetric hole punches:

IIRC these aren't actually hole-punches at all but watchmaker tools, however they looked ideal for my tiny needs. Confusingly they aren't marked as to their respective sizes, but here's the results, from big to small, to give an idea:

Completely à propos of nothing, I'd been using a nose off the old Matchbox Meteor as an ad hoc CA gluepot for the last couple of weeks:

When I turned it over this morning I noticed it had caused some interesting deformations to the fuselage surface:

Likely as not useless information unless you're going for the difficult 'Sinking Meteor Approaching Crush-Depth' category at Telford this year, but I thought I'd pass it on to sunken aircraft enthusiasts. 

 

Ok. No building, but some invaluable sorting and orgamization. let's see what happens over the weekend now.

 

I don't know if you like Count Arthur Strong, but this seems as good a metaphor for the build as any other so far:

 

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheBaron]

There's little bits built now tonight to show. Tenpole Tudor!

In reality the retrieval poles ('fishing rods') that poke out of the back of these recovery a/c are welded together from several decreasing diameters of tube, tapering down to successively thinner sections the closer they get to the ends to where the actual snagging gear is connected (IIRC correctly the lines weare actually taped on):

At 34" long on the real thing these were poles quite bendy, many of them getting buckled, broken and pranged on practice and actual runs.

 

I produced the taper here from the obvious route: Albion Alloys 0.8/0.6/0.4mm tubing. This represents my first go at sweat soldering with an honest-to-goodness soldering iron:

An oddly pleasurable process as it turns out.

 

At this scale that's about the narrowest I think we'll get at this end if the poles are going to have wires and parahooter etc. attached. I had thought of using 0.4mm piano wire for the smallest section but that turned out to be too bendy compared to the tubing. _{Mumble mumble}something about circles and compression^{mumble _mumble.....}

 

One last childish impulse to stick a pole up on the internal mounting for a gander couldn't be resisted:

You won't see in this position of course, but when it's all painted up and before I close the fuselage I must remember to take a shot to show the poles in the 'at rest' posture.

Tony

 

 

[CedB]

4 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Speaking of the cockpit - do you reckon it would be possible somehow to remove those ghastly wipers?

 

Great cockpit Tony - those seats are really nice for kit parts eh? 

Removing the wipers? I'm going to say Micro-mesh polishing kit, obviously, although a little nervously without seeing the part...

I used it to remove the frame on my Sea Fury - a bit scary but easy enough (even I can do it)

 

The retrieval rods look good - nice job.

 

Loved the Arthur Strong video  

 

On 24/05/2017 at 17:52, TheBaron said:

I'll leave you with a Cubist self-portrait:

Looks like my mate Pete  

[Brandy]

 

Are you planning on adding the newspapers too? Very thoughtful of the groundcrew to provide so much reading material for the crew, must have been a long mission!

 

Ian

[Martian]

The setting up of the sub- assemblies is a good idea. Not only does it boost ones morale but also flags up any impending issues before they get out of control. I love this shot:

it reminds me of someone I once dated from Uranus.

 

Martian, Decrying the praise as expected.

 

 

[TonyTiger66]

I'm nowhere near this point, I'm only on page 24 !

 

A while ago he sawed the roof off. He's talking about putting stuff in the loo. Bill has just suggested the whole thing is an elaborate hoax, and John Boy Walton has just had an offer to publ...

 

Er, sorry.

 

Accidentally pressed the back button on my browser and ended up on the 'We Want More Waltons' forum (again)  .

 

Back soon, running as fast as I can  

TonyT

[keefr22]

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

An oddly pleasurable process as it turns out.

 

Wait until you forget you've left the iron plugged in and pick it up by the 'ot end....!! 

 

Keith

[Brandy]

A beer can with an aiming device....brilliant!

 

Ian

[The Spadgent]

Nice progress El Barony. I must say I agree with Ced on the wiper debacle. Micro mesh should see you right. 

mph and where did you get those watch tool punch things from? I feel another purchase coming on.

 

Edited May 26, 2017 by The Spadgent

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

It's been a while since I caught up, but I am delighted to see that the madness and superb modelling continue in equal measure.

 

FWIW, I agree with @hendie re solder; removing extra is not hard, but getting a solid joint with too little is a route to frustration.

 

Oh, and @The Spadgent and @CedB are right re wiper removal.  It's a bit of an act of faith, and ten minutes in you'll be asking yourself WTF you have done and wondering how you'll get a replacement canopy... but persevere and it works a treat.

[Fritag]

8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Oh, and @The Spadgent and @CedB are right re wiper removal.  It's a bit of an act of faith, and ten minutes in you'll be asking yourself WTF you have done and wondering how you'll get a replacement canopy... but persevere and it works a treat.

 

I'll add my tuppence-ha'penny worth to that   You can (carefully so as not to leave deep scratches) start off with a file to get rid of the wipers and then to progressively finer grades of sanding sticks before going down through the micromesh route.  Crisp is right about the act of faith - but it should suddenly come good when you get to the 8,000 and 12,000 grit cloths.............hopefully 

Edited May 27, 2017 by Fritag

[71chally]

22 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Speaking of the cockpit - do you reckon it would be possible somehow to remove those ghastly wipers? They make it look like the aircraft has struck some poor invalid and left their crutches plastered across the windscreen. I've never tried anything that ambitious on transparency before and would love to lose them:

 

Have to agree with the above distinguished forumites, make the leap of faith and remove the wipers (I hate molded on wipers, even when they are correct)

 

I removed them, and surrounding framework, on my HRS build (below).  Being lazy I very carefully removed said items with a new and clean scalpel, then rubbed down the treated canopy area smooth with very fine paper, and polished up with old jeans and toothpsate on a cotton bud, worked a treat.

 

[TheBaron]

19 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Are you planning on adding the newspapers too? Very thoughtful of the groundcrew to provide so much reading material for the crew, must have been a long mission!

Morning Ian. Ain't it just? Though given the nature of the mission it must have been the  Fortean Times rather than newspaper as standard issue...

18 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

I'm nowhere near this point, I'm only on page 24 !

Some say they were the golden years....

19 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

The setting up of the sub- assemblies is a good idea. Not only does it boost ones morale but also flags up any impending issues before they get out of control.

Well put Martian! As this is the most sprawling WIP I've done so far in terms of what's going on with the aircraft, I'm having to learn some new methodologies to cope with it.

19 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

I love this shot:

it reminds me of someone I once dated from Uranus.

Does that make them a ring-pull then?

18 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

Wait until you forget you've left the iron plugged in and pick it up by the 'ot end....!! 

Or indeed the hot coil it sits in on the stand Keith. (No need to ask how I know that one...) 

15 hours ago, limeypilot said:

A beer can with an aiming device....brilliant!

It's a kind of GCA system to aid the less steady drinker.

14 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Nice progress El Barony. I must say I agree with Ced on the wiper debacle. Micro mesh should see you right. 

mph and where did you get those watch tool punch things from? I feel another purchase coming on.

Cheers for the windscreen support Johnny Maiden    - the set of jabbers is this one over here:

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/142197093892?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The results seem ok for my purposes, though I've never tried one of the more expensive micro-punch sets to be able to compare them with.

11 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

It's been a while since I caught up, but I am delighted to see that the madness and superb modelling continue in equal measure.

 

FWIW, I agree with @hendie re solder; removing extra is not hard, but getting a solid joint with too little is a route to frustration.

 

Oh, and @The Spadgent and @CedB are right re wiper removal.  It's a bit of an act of faith, and ten minutes in you'll be asking yourself WTF you have done and wondering how you'll get a replacement canopy... but persevere and it works a treat.

Hi Crisp, and thanks for that.

 

I'd been erring on the generous side  in terms of solder-amount (like most newcomers to the proces probably do), being nervous about bond strength. One think that gave me a certain amount of trepidation was breaking the joints by filing them back later, but I've since found that using one of these diamond-tip grinders in the Dremel-clone removes some of the anxiety from the process for a cack-handed filer like me:

11 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Oh, and @The Spadgent and @CedB are right re wiper removal.  It's a bit of an act of faith, and ten minutes in you'll be asking yourself WTF you have done and wondering how you'll get a replacement canopy... but persevere and it works a treat.

 

3 hours ago, Fritag said:

 

I'll add my tuppence-ha'penny worth to that   You can (carefully so as not to leave deep scratches) start off with a file to get rid of the wipers and then to progressively finer grades of sanding sticks before going down through the micromesh route.  Crisp is right about the act of faith - but it should suddenly come good when you get to the 8,000 and 12,000 grit cloths.............hopefully 

 

2 hours ago, 71chally said:

Have to agree with the above distinguished forumites, make the leap of faith and remove the wipers (I hate molded on wipers, even when they are correct)

 

I removed them, and surrounding framework, on my HRS build (below).  Being lazy I very carefully removed said items with a new and clean scalpel, then rubbed down the treated canopy area smooth with very fine paper, and polished up with old jeans and toothpsate on a cotton bud, worked a treat.

Thanks all!

That's a solid quorum of you guys behind such an approach now so, it will be done. I couldn't bear looking at the ghastly things with regret at the end if I didn't....

 

Looks like I have a Whirlwind and a Sea Fury thread to

 

...from.

 

More on the glasshouse later, but for now some attention to parts that need to be added imminently. Port side forward accessdoor:

The raised detail of those hinges and handle are too pronounced for this scale so I've reduced them back with a nail file:

...scratching the bloody door in the process. Oh well, I see micro-mesh in my future so another little task for it here too.

 

Whilst I was at it, the interior of the door had some moulded insulation panelling that isn't there on Pelican 9, so this was chiselled-off to leave a representation of a flat surface slightly dented from use:

I scribed in the locking mechanism around the lower-edges also with a scalpel tip to make it 'pop' more from the original moulded surface. Given that no-one will see that in the end, it's clearly a case of 'Because Britmodeller'....

 

You'll also note how it took me less than five minutes to break off the lower (now wafer-thin) hinge.

 

Whilst up at the nose I thought it prudent to have a gander as well at the couple of windows on either side giving downward visibility to the pilots:

The kit moulding for these transparencies has a very good tolerance, as they sit firmly and neatly into place from the inside as you can see. From the outside  however:

...you can see the pronounced recess, where in fact these should be flush. I think some careful carving of those openings with a scalpel is needed to rectify this?

 

Lastly, a rather irrelevant 'before and after' shot of the filled ejector marks on the backs of the pilots seats, just to show how nicely PPP can be carved (rather than sanded) back flush in such an awkward region without disturbing the surrounding detail:

Peeking out at lower right you can just  see the original moulded insulation on the kit door that was removed above.

 

Ok. I'm off for a bit to have a look at how you guys solved your transparency issues....

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheBaron]

Having a bit of a

 

moment...

 

...after getting the wipers off.

 

No sense in pussyfooting around I thought.

 

Straight to it. 

 

I'd knocked-up this last night for a rather different purpose:

..when in fact it made for a handy canopy-carving rest:

I'm using @71chally's scalpel method here and finding it very amenable. Thanks James!

 

The raw results were as horrific as some of you had hinted - cuneiform script on my windscreen:

 

Someone get @CedB - it's Celebrity Squares!

 

Forget about wrestling tigers or staying married to Katie Price for more than a week - this would be a test of manhood.

 

I'd made some notes previously about how people best approached such matters regarding varying direction, polish not sand, wetting the mesh etc. and I have to say all was most helpful in getting to here, sitting in Klear:

Look Ma - no wipers! 

 

Thanks for your encouragement all

 

[Martian]

That canopy has come up a treat!

 

Martian

[keefr22]

Can't fault that Tony! 

 

Keith

[rob85]

This is some fine and tiny work Tony! That canopy has come out a treat, and the cockpit looks like it will be more of the same. Nice work

 

I'm a fan of your cubist 'pete' Tony, a fine hat your abstract self is wearing as well

 

Rob

[Nigel Heath]

Good move on removing those moulded wipers, I hate the things. Are you planning to make PE replacements like I recently did for my Sycamore build?

[71chally]

Very nice Tony, btw I only joined in with the wiper removal chorus to show that even a ham fisted clutz like myself can kind of get away with this sort work, just glad it didn't backfire!

Have you removed the molded framework as well, or is it the lighting?

 

 

Just while it's on my mind (I dare say you already know!), Italeri depict the nose gear doors as too long in the open position. 

They should be halved, with just the rear halves open while parked, the fwd halves open on gear travel.

 

 

I see your beaver buck is coming along nicely.

 

...just because it's a nice picture,

[71chally]

you may have seen this as well, but just in case, in amongst this lot is a picture showing the internal construction of the beaver tail

http://www.alatricolore.it/alatricolore/sopravvissuti/regioni/veneto/nervesa/c119j.htm

[perdu]

Wiperless is definitely a 'look' that suits Boxy, very nicely done

 

Exxxxcelent!