1/72 Bristol Sycamore

[Tomoshenko]

Exceptional work as ever Nigel. Love the extra detailing and Nigelised replacement parts. Those seats look amazing. I like to use beer can foil myself for this sort of thing (nothing to do with sourcing the materials ) as I find it is sturdy and has an (almost) scale thickness. That said the lead foil is quite nice to work with I imagine and pretty thin.

[Nigel Heath]

I really like working with lead as it's so soft and malleable. It goes just where you want it to. It is of course rather delicate in foil form so some care has to be exercised.

[TheBaron]

Schmart, ver' schmart work.

[Nigel Heath]

Today I have extracted the other door:

 

 

Next was the rather trickier procedure of making the door openings. I started by drilling out the three radiused corners:

 

 

The holes were then progressively enlarged and then joined up using this PE saw:

 

 

The opening was then  cleaned up using round files and sanding sticks:

 

 

Things did not go quite so well on the other side. During the drilling out of the top corner the drill broke through on the top edge so that was glued. Then while sawing the part cracked and nearly split in two so it was out with the liquid poly again. Hopefull it will be OK now but I had to be very careful with it cleaning up the aperture:

 

 

I suspect the glueing of the internal frame work had caused some embrittlement of the clear plastic. I have a half day tomorrow so should get some more done then.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

[CedB]

Great micro-sawing there Nigel - I'm sure the repaired bits will be fine after your normal attention  

[Nigel Heath]

The front sliding doors should have centrally mounted door handles. I estimated they should be about 1.7mm long, after a search through my PE spares box I located some suitable candidates. First I scraped off the nickel coating ready for soldering:

 

 

This was my set up for soldering to some 0.4mm rod:

 

 

Next I punched out a 1.8mm diameter disc of 0.25mm card and glued that on then drilled it out (0.5mm). After I had shaped the handle with sanding sticks it got glued in place:

 

 

 

Here are both finished doors. I have also added a sliding rail to the bottom of the door aperture using 0.5mm square strip:

 

 

This is what the sliding doors look like:

 

 

Next I finished off the framing on the other cockpit side. The external foot holds should protrude into the cabin, to simulate this I shaped some 1mm card:

 

 

 

This reference picture gives an idea of what I was aiming at:

 

 

Here are all four installed:

 

 

I think those are nearly ready for some paint.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

[hendie]

nice detail work Nigel.  

[CedB]

A redefinition of tiny steps - and handles! Great work Nigel.

How do you hold those tiny bits while you're shaping them?

[Nigel Heath]

I used my hemostats (as seen in the soldering set up above) plus a bit of finger pressure to stabilise the whole affair.

[Muddyf]

Absolutely stunning build so far, im looking forward to this developing even further. What makes it even more amazing for me is the fact it's in 1/72!

[Martian]

Lovely work n those doors!

 

Martian

[825]

16 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

The front sliding doors should have centrally mounted door handles. I estimated they should be about 1.7mm long, after a search through my PE spares box I located some suitable candidates. First I scraped off the nickel coating ready for soldering:

 

 

This was my set up for soldering to some 0.4mm rod:

 

 

Next I punched out a 1.8mm diameter disc of 0.25mm card and glued that on then drilled it out (0.5mm). After I had shaped the handle with sanding sticks it got glued in place:

 

 

 

Here are both finished doors. I have also added a sliding rail to the bottom of the door aperture using 0.5mm square strip:

 

 

This is what the sliding doors look like:

 

 

Next I finished off the framing on the other cockpit side. The external foot holds should protrude into the cabin, to simulate this I shaped some 1mm card:

 

 

 

This reference picture gives an idea of what I was aiming at:

 

 

Here are all four installed:

 

 

I think those are nearly ready for some paint.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

 

This is brilliant Nigel, absolute beautiful detail. Only problem is you're making me feel a bit inadequate. As I will never achieve this level of brilliance, I'm worried that my Sycamore might end up staying in the box. I am following this with awe. Look forward to the next lesson. 

[Nigel Heath]

Last night I did make a start of the masking for the doors using my previously described method:

 

 

That was finished off this morning. After having a spot of bother working out the orientation of the masks, on the second set I added some helpful arrows. Next I used my motor tool with a grinder bit to remove the slight pips of brass rod protruding on the inside of the doors:

 

 

Next I decided to tackle some handles on the roof. Here is a very useful (and rare) overhead view of them:

 

 

It also provides a good view of the wipers which I think I will fabricate from PE scrap at some point.

 

I used some stiff tape to mark out the positions for the holes and drilled with a 0.5mm drill at a 45 degree angle:

 

 

Here they are nearly finished. I'm just letting the glue dry before grinding off the internal pips like on the doors:

 

 

The next job was to make some guides for the bottom of the doors. For the base plate I got some very thin shim stock (75 microns to be exact, about a third the thickness of normal PE) out of my Modelling Materials Storage Facility. The actual guide was snipped from some PE parts of above average thickness. Here is my set up for soldering:

 

 

Some while later I had made and installed all four of the guides:

 

 

Now I'm off to make a lamb tagine and cook some sticky pork ribs for my dinners.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

[Tomoshenko]

Sheer class Nigel. The internal window framing, handles and rails are quite exquisite. The lamb tagine and sticky pork ribs sound well yummy. Do you use Harissa for the lamb, or knock up a Nigel scratch built extra detailing homemade recipe?

[Nigel Heath]

Quote

Do you use Harissa for the lamb, or knock up a Nigel scratch built extra detailing homemade recipe?

 

I am following a Marcus Wareing recipe which involved marinating the lamb shoulder pieces overnight in turmeric, cinnamon, paprika, cayenne pepper and black pepper. No harissa involved although I'm certainly not above using it.

[Nigel Heath]

While my lamb and pork was cooking I got a bit more done. After grinding off the pips of rod on the handles I found one end of one had become loose so I backfilled the ground crater with some CA. When that was dry I gave it a sand and applied a smear of filler. I also added this blocky thing on the side:

 

 

I have also drilled the aluminium tube out of the exhaust and did a test fitL

 

 

I have also added some wiring to the bulkhead using lead wire:

 

 

This was my main reference for this:

 

 

I have no idea where the other end goes but I've left the wire long enough to disappear behind the IP. I have realised that the diagonal brace in the above photo is actually a (missing) strut for the winch so I have drilled a hole for it in the roof - hopefully in the right place.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

[TheBaron]

Incredibly well-wrought procedures on those doors and handles Nigel - your work always inspire me to strive for greater precision; plus now that I've looked up what a hemnostat is, I realize how much I suddenly need to have a couple around for help with soldering.

 

Do you ever use Sumac in cooking N. African /Arabic? It's not always easy to get but mixed in with some ground lamb/beef and mint on a fresh flatbread, is subtle and deep in flavour.

 

Bravo!

Tony

[Nigel Heath]

Quote

now that I've looked up what a hemostat is, I realize how much I suddenly need to have a couple around for help with soldering.

 

A very useful tool you won't regret getting at least one. They always seem to come with serrated jaws though which can damage the surface of plastic parts so I ground the tips of mine smooth.

 

Quote

 

Do you ever use Sumac in cooking N. African /Arabic?

 

I have some Sumac and do use it occasionally. Nice citrusy flavour.

[keefr22]

More cracking detail work Nigel, and as usual, extremely neatly done...!!

 

Keith

[CedB]

+1 from me - great stuff Nigel (actually tiny stuff, but you know what I mean!)

[perdu]

I wonder if Keith meant to scribe 'meatly done' which is in keeping with our ways in following a Nigey thread

Lovely window work Nigel, I really ought to be subcontracting all my transparent work to you

 

That sneaky brace out to the winch, I was lucky enough to find a well hidden one on my present build

 

Sneaky beggars them helijubbler makers, good though

 

Brings me back on topic, lovely work Nigel

 

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, perdu said:

I wonder if Keith meant to scribe 'meatly done'

 

Ha ha, I would have if I'd thought of it Bill...!! 

[StephenCJ]

Another Nigel Heath masterclass on the go.

[Fritag]

Impressive and lovely work Nigel.  I love the deftness with the brass-work in general and soldering in particular.  It's both inventive and inspiring.  Benchmark setting 1/72 scale stuff 

[Nigel Heath]

I started today by fixing a problem. The very delicate tail rotor broke a while ago so I drilled and pinned it with some 0.4mm rod:

 

 

There, good as new (nearly...):

 

 

After cleaning up the filler I added some detailing to the ceiling:

 

 

Next I masked up the front canopy:

 

 

While looking at references for the canopy I thought this was a good time to make the wipers. The part I used for the arm is actually one of the static dischargers left over from my Osprey build:

 

 

Here's how the finished part looked in situ:

 

 

I then finished off the doors by adding some tiny details to the tops, more of a gesture really:

 

 

To finish off the cockpit I needed a ball ended lever. I made this using my patented method, starting with some 0.3mm rod sleeved inside some 0.5mm aluminium tube:

 

 

Next I blobbed on some solder:

 

 

That was then held in a lighter flame to perfectly spheroidize it. The non-wettability of the aluminium keeps the solder in place at the end:

 

 

Here it is installed along with a simple rod lever:

 

 

The cockpit is now nearly ready for some paint. This was the main reference shot I used for the additional cockpit details:

 

 

I would have liked to add some rudder pedals but decided the thickness of the front glazing did not leave enough space for the outboard pedals.

 

Now I am getting all the completed parts so far ready for some paint.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel