Catching Pictures in the Air

[perdu]

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Edited May 1, 2017 by perdu

[Martian]

That cargo bay looks much better now. The radio equipment looks great as well.

 

On ‎29‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 17:26, hendie said:

 

this may be a wild guess, but I think they're used for climbing up and down things with.

 

No fooling Hendie is there?

 

Martian

[hendie]

5 hours ago, TheBaron said:

 

I see that they've just released the security footage of you fleeing the scene hendie: 

 

Priceless !!!

 

5 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Despite the couple of hours all that took not a lot of evident progress to show

 

funny how that happens.  I just spent about 5 hours yesterday and all I've got to show is a small arch and a hole in a piece of wood.   

 

 

 

[keefr22]

On 29/04/2017 at 5:05 PM, TheBaron said:

Reading through Vol.1 of The Blitz:Then and Now that arrived a week or so back, I've become rather obsessed with the shapes of an H8 version of the He111 that crashed near Lulworth in Dorset in 1940:

 

 

 

I sense a diorama in the making - after all the only good Heinkel is a dea.....etc..!!

 

More great detailing in the back of the ole Boxcar Tony, I am admiring your perserverence!

 

Keith

[TheBaron]

On 2017-5-1 at 0:03 PM, perdu said:

She's getting to be a habit, this cargoplane of yours

 

I hope we ain't all gotta dance like Dickyboy though, I just hasn't got the knees for it. 💃

 

Cheers Bill: between your knees and my back we're probably good for a pantomime horse but not the fandango any more!

 

Being in a reminiscent vein about May Day reminded me that at primary school in Somerset in the mid 70s we still had an old maypole hauled out on the playing field that May Day evening where we schoolchildren danced for doting and\or cidered-up parents. It sounds hopelessly idyllic and Hardy-esque now thinking back on it...

 

On 2017-5-1 at 0:03 PM, perdu said:

Some of these emotis are a bit...

 

Odd huh?

Is it true that they're based on actual forum members? 

[TheBaron]

On 2017-5-1 at 0:55 PM, Martian Hale said:

That cargo bay looks much better now. The radio equipment looks great as well.

 

 

No fooling Hendie is there?

Thanks for that Martian. Hendie will doubtless thank you in his own way...

20 hours ago, hendie said:

funny how that happens.  I just spent about 5 hours yesterday and all I've got to show is a small arch and a hole in a piece of wood.   

I'm not sure the forum is actually ready to see your arch-hole....?

 

20 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

I sense a diorama in the making - after all the only good Heinkel is a dea.....etc..!!

 

More great detailing in the back of the ole Boxcar 

Thanking-you Keith for that sir. I'm not sure I'm up to attempting a diorama at this stage of my comeback to modelling, though I do harbour dark ideas about doing a crashed Blackburn Roc on the seabed, which seems the best place for it. 

 

Ignore the following quotes as this damn forum software seems incapable of correctly deleting and pasting on touchscreen devices...

 

20 hours ago, keefr22 said:

20 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

[Martian]

21 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

I do harbour dark ideas about doing a crashed Blackburn Roc on the seabed, which seems the best place for it. 

 

You should be ashamed Sir! Such a fine looking aeroplane deserves much better treatment than that! I shall be building mine as a seaplane variant and quite possibly a seaplane target tug one to boot.

 

Disgusted of Mars

[TheBaron]

6 minutes ago, Martian Hale said:

I shall be building mine as a seaplane variant 

I still prefer my seabed variant. 

 

Baron Heartless

[Martian]

2 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

I still prefer my seabed variant. 

 

Baron Heartless

Baroness von Should Have Gone To Specsavers more like!

 

Martian of the 20/20 Vision

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

...at primary school in Somerset in the mid 70s we still had an old maypole hauled out on the playing field that May Day evening where we schoolchildren danced for doting and\or cidered-up parents. It sounds hopelessly idyllic and Hardy-esque now thinking back on it...

 

Sounds more like something out of The Wicker Man to me!

 

I would like to add my support to our green visitor in his steadfast support of the Roc.  Especially the floatplane version.  If you're goung to build a rubbish aircraft, you go the whole hog.  

 

Still the Roc wasn't significantly worse than the Defiant - being based on the same hopelessly flawed "turret fighter" concept - and we have a new tool 1/48 one of them.  So when's your Roc coming out, Airfix?

[perdu]

I wonder what he's going to use?

 

The old Frog Skua or has some bright spark given us an easier option in the years "I WAS AWAY"

 

I will bugger off and check

[keefr22]

2 hours ago, perdu said:

I wonder what he's going to use?

 

The old Frog Skua or has some bright spark given us an easier option in the years "I WAS AWAY"

 

I will bugger off and check

 Special Hobby do (did) a one true scale Skua & Roc...

[keefr22]

4 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Thanking-you Keith for that sir. I'm not sure I'm up to attempting a diorama at this stage of my comeback to modelling,

 

Balderdash!! With all the intricate plastic and metal forming going on here and in your previous builds a diorama will be a walk in the park (that can be the second one you build...!! )

 

Keith

[TheBaron]

4 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Baroness von Should Have Gone To Specsavers more like!

 

Martian of the 20/20 Vision

Point taken Arean Overlord - here I am grinding new spectacle lenses from an old Boxcar roof:

I've been meaning to thin the roof down a little more as I need about half a mill. more height clearance for the ducting that runs along the sides of the roof.

2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I would like to add my support to our green visitor in his steadfast support of the Roc.  Especially the floatplane version.  If you're goung to build a rubbish aircraft, you go the whole hog.  

 

Still the Roc wasn't significantly worse than the Defiant - being based on the same hopelessly flawed "turret fighter" concept - and we have a new tool 1/48 one of them.  So when's your Roc coming out, Airfix?

Despite its jaded record as a combat platform I nonetheless have considerable affection for both Roc and also the Skua (is that Mushroom Models book on them both worth getting does anybody know?) and am being dupliciutously provocative in suggesting it looks better as a wreck.  Was the floatplane version widely used?

2 hours ago, perdu said:

I wonder what he's going to use?

Who?Me?  BTW Bill the pencil blowtorch arrived today and I couldn't be happier with it - my thanks for the tip.

6 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

 Special Hobby do (did) a one true scale Skua & Roc...

I actually got the SH kit out of the stash for a quick going-over earlier, putting my strongest glasses on to inspect it:

I forgot I'd bought some Quickboost barrels for the turret of this baby months ago; I mean, just look at all that evocative radial-enginey-turrety-goodness on the box art and tell me that something more than nostalgia isn't stirred. 

 

As to looks, well anyone who slags the Gannet AEW on grounds of appearrance had better be prepared to step outside and defend such gauche remarks in the pub car-park. 

 

11 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

 

Balderdash!! With all the intricate plastic and metal forming going on here and in your previous builds a diorama will be a walk in the park (that can be the second one you build...!! )

Ah Keith, what can I say?  I'm tempted to mutter something about 'considering it' but before I'd a chance to finish the sentence there'd be one of those blasted do-gooders that plague the forum offering suggestions about having men with little led lights in their torches examining the wreck whilst an old hair dryer motor blows 1/72 scale leaves in their faces and a sound loop of "Put yer mitts-up Fritz" plays from a concealed speaker as one of the assembled figures prods the aircrew with a pitchfork on a servo. 

 

Duct Soup

Some focussed work tonight on roughing out the ducting that runs 2/3 of the way down the interior 'twixt celing and walls - here it is shown in a medevac version of the -119:

Here's my version of same, using plasticard and foam to block out the main shapes:

This doesn't need to be overly detailed but merely representative of the main forms, as these structures were swaddled in insulation of the same kind that panelled the roof. In the description of the interior in the Aerofax volume on the C-119 it remarks that in zones of high humidity, water would come cascading through these overhead panels, but frustratingly it makes no mention however of what these ducts along the sides were for.

 

At close of play, both port and startboard structures have been sorted and left to cure for the night now:

Not exceptionally pretty but it'll be hidden from view in the end anyway.

 

You can see here also that I ripped off all that textured foil I'd applied to the roof previously; whilst I really liked the technique itself as extremely useful and flexible, my use of it in this instance wasn't quite 'fabricy' enough compared to what you see in reference photos and I'm sure it can be done better. Reminds me of Oscar Wilde's bon mot: “This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do.”

 

Adios Roc Lobsters!

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spookytooth]

Nice work Tony.

You will be soon between a Roc and a hard place....

 

Simon.

[keefr22]

25 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Ah Keith, what can I say?  I'm tempted to mutter something about 'considering it' but before I'd a chance to finish the sentence there'd be one of those blasted do-gooders that plague the forum offering suggestions about having men with little led lights in their torches examining the wreck whilst an old hair dryer motor blows 1/72 scale leaves in their faces and a sound loop of "Put yer mitts-up Fritz" plays from a concealed speaker as one of the assembled figures prods the aircrew with a pitchfork on a servo. 

 

 

 

There ya go - half the planning done already....!! Even  thinks it's a great idea!

 

K

 

(Perhaps the sound loop could be a certain Lance Corporal of the Walmington-on-Sea platoon of the Home Guard shouting 'Handie Hock, Handie Hock....!!' )

[CedB]

Duckting - are you quackers!

Great stuff going on here Tony.

Do I spy a new tool being used for the sanding in the first picture? It looks like Terracotta to me... perchance a relic from the tomb of Takelot I? 

(I didn't realise there were so may Pharaohs and yes, I did look through the whole list looking for Sandin Theroof or similar, but no luck. I did have a titter at the Arsinoes - must be getting my sense of humour back; watch out!)

[Brandy]

As a guess, I'd say the ducting is for cabin heating, from the engines.....

 

Ian

[Martian]

Your usual good work.

 

The floatplane Roc was only produced in prototype form as a fighter. However it did see service as a target tug in this configuration in Bermuda.

 

Martian

[Tomoshenko]

Strewth Tony the insides look like a cross between the Lloyds Building and an oil refinery. A Faustian modelling challenge if ever there was one. Look forward to see how far you can take this - but don't go insane...

[rob85]

The duckting looks to be coming along very nicely, how are you going to go about modelling the water that pours out it high humidity? I'm sure you'll think of something  

 

i would love to see you build a Roc, a very  interesting looking aircraft!

 

Rob

[perdu]

I dunno Tomo, the occasional ' going mad ' moment might lighten the tone of this overly serious topic

 

I mean such an oblique approach to what was obviously a CIA cover up for the fact there were chaps walking round Mother Russia with big lenses on their Box Brownies

 

Catching sattelite film capsules, I mean!  😂. Hohohohoho!

 

I do love the inside views of the c-119s, who could fail to be turned on by the act of modelling it, s'lovely jubbly

[TheBaron]

23 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Nice work Tony.

You will be soon between a Roc and a hard place....

Careful with them puns Simon or you'll end up Skua'd.

23 hours ago, keefr22 said:

There ya go - half the planning done already....!!

That's what I love about this forum Keith - you throw out some insane statement and it immediately gets dubbed 'a plan'...

21 hours ago, CedB said:

Duckting - are you quackers!

Soitanlee! 

21 hours ago, CedB said:

I didn't realise there were so may Pharaohs

Crazy names! Crazy guys! Sun and desert always seem to make mad things happen in people: I've always liked Gregory Benford's short story Me/Days in which Egypt leaves the surface of the Earth altogether...

19 hours ago, limeypilot said:

As a guess, I'd say the ducting is for cabin heating, from the engines.....

Might also explain the cascades of water problem in relation to high humidity in that part of the aircraft- all that hot air from the engines suddenly heating all that moisture...?

17 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

The floatplane Roc was only produced in prototype form as a fighter. However it did see service as a target tug in this configuration in Bermuda.

I bet that was a sought-after posting!

9 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

Strewth Tony the insides look like a cross between the Lloyds Building and an oil refinery. A Faustian modelling challenge if ever there was one. Look forward to see how far you can take this - but don't go insane...

Hiya Tomo. Thankfully a lot of that Eiffel-esque interior gets hidden by soundproofing, but there's still enough bits and bobs to keep me in a Faustian foment. I don't know about insane, bear in mind I wasn't especially sound of mind before commencing this this ordeal!

8 hours ago, rob85 said:

The duckting looks to be coming along very nicely, how are you going to go about modelling the water that pours out it high humidity? I'm sure you'll think of something  

Water you saying? I've already fended off lighting and hydraulics, and now the fountain constituency rears its head!

8 hours ago, rob85 said:

i would love to see you build a Roc, a very  interesting looking aircraft!

I am due to rotate back to an FAA subject at some point in the future of course...

8 hours ago, perdu said:

I dunno Tomo, the occasional ' going mad ' moment might lighten the tone of this overly serious topic

 

I mean such an oblique approach to what was obviously a CIA cover up for the fact there were chaps walking round Mother Russia with big lenses on their Box Brownies

 

Catching sattelite film capsules, I mean!  😂. Hohohohoho!

Mind is now blown at that thought. 

8 hours ago, perdu said:

I do love the inside views of the c-119s, who could fail to be turned on by the act of modelling it, s'lovely jubbly

Mrs.B appears excited when I show her the work-in-progress but I suspect she's faking it...

 

Right. What's occurred in the last 24 hours?

 

You'll not like it. We're still crawling around in the roof and it doesn't look like we've moved very far, indeed there's actually less of the aircraft now than when you last saw it. Let's go over this together, Between that inner step in the roof you see here:

..and the kit moulding for the top of the roof at the back here:

...I've been stressing a bit in terms of reconciling these parts of the kit with each other in relation to the actual aircraft. 

 

In this ravver 'andsome view of a different variant you can see how deep the upper part is on the real thing, compared to the bit I'm holding in the above shot:

^{Image credit: https://www.flyingboxcar.com/index.php?page=2}

The top and bottom 'lips' are of equal depth here, whereas on the kit, the moulding for the upper lip is more than double the depth of the bottom one. This is due I think to the fact that the depth of the spar box on the kit brought the ceiling down lower than it is on the actual aircraft, and now that the ceiling has been raised, we've two different levels back there now. What I'm struggling with on the kit is forming the small section of roof at rear of the aircraft, which then steps down above the heads of the crew as you see in this shot posted previously:

Aaah. I'm blathering. This'll make the problem clearer:

Running straight back = no step (even with thinner roofing material).

 

It doesn't look to me in reference shots that this region follows the curve upwards of the fuselage itself but goes straight back as you see here. You can see the dilemma. I'm going to try sanding down the thicknes of the upper fusealge at the back to start with and see how much of a step that produces. There's got to be a way to sort this but my heed's kinda fuzzy tonight for sharp ideas. Sleep on it.

 

Ok. Let's put that to one side. What else? Well, test-fitting the new raised roof revealed the appearrance of an unacceptable gap between wall and ceiling that needed some redress. The thinnest card stock I have and some extensions to the stations were needed on both sides to continue the wall upwards sufficiently:

No gaps now when the roof's on.

Part of my frustration today and yesterday has been from a gradual realization that the kit ceiling - even thinned-down and re-shaped as it is - was a growing source of displeasure. What the kit represents is in fact the suspended soundproofing, aircraft ceiling and paratainer rail all in the form of a single moulded piece, whearas in reality there is a vertical separation between these separate three elements. You can guess where this is heading - stick 'the marmelizer' on the D-clone and lose the centre of the ceiling, as per Pelican 9:

Dunno quite what I need to add that will be visible through the gap, but that too can be slept on tonight.

 

One significant problem I have managed to solve (I think!) is to devise a satisfactory solution to represent the soundproofing material that wraps and drapes those duct and ceiling areas you see in the above shot. As I mentioned yesterday, foil wasn't quite good enough to reproduce fabric material and I'd ransacked the house before hitting upon the humble black plastic bin bag. Just to be sure I had a test run on a Meteoric mule:

Wraptastic! Just what I was after in terms of wrap, fold and sag! After experimentation with various adhesives, the best results seem to come from the thin variety of Gator Grip. 

 

Here it is freshly-applied to the ducting:

There's nowt complicated in this, it's effectively like applying papier mache. What is quite pleasing about this process is that the Gator Grip seems to act a little like 'size' in causing the thin plastic material to shrink slightly onto the underlying forms as it dries.

 

The holes you see marked out and drilled down the length are the light fittings (no I'm bloody not before you ask!). In the actual aircraft these tend to pull the soundproofing in and upwards tight around them, rather like the buttons on an upholstered sofa do if you follow my meaning - so I'm similarly intending use some small circular shapes pulled up tight from above with cotton to give the 'dimple' effect you see behind the crew's heads in the b/w shot above.

 

Last job of today was bulding the central paratainer rail that runs down the centre of the aircraft. You can see it in this shot of a troopcarrier with the various hooks running along it:

This rail was retained on the 'J' variant - albeit from what I can tell with the hooking-on points removed from it - so I've built it here to be (correctly) added as a separate element, rather than just a raised line down the roof in the kit moulding:

 

A lot of stops and starts and frustrations in that lot, but isn't that always the way and then you find you've made a breakthrough?

 

May the Force of Dave Allen be with you.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CedB]

Lovely stuff Tony. Another use for bin liners - that makes four on my list (five on birthdays). 

[Brandy]

I don't think the roof does step down in that pic with the crew....it's just a gap in the sound proofing. The horizontal formers are straight between the rear of the front part and the front of the rear part....look at the far left edge, and again above the head of the 2nd guy from the right......

 

Ian