Dornier Do 18-D *Finished*

[Martian]

Yet more impressive work! All we really need now is a Kustenflieger equivalent to Maureen of Barracuda fame!

 

Martian 

[CedB]

Just caught up Tony and you've made a lot of progress over the weekend

Staples, great tip. Seats are amazing.

Continually amazed by the level of research and detail you're putting into this... although remembering your past builds I shouldn't be surprised.

Have you thought about Johnny's idea of having it open on one side?

(Note that I'm congratulating myself on ignoring the obvious Dbl-Es and rude pictures. I shall clean my mind as well as my man cave... probably)

[TheBaron]

On 10/1/2017 at 2:40 PM, limeypilot said:

I've also found that cutting paper to shape is much quicker and easier than starting with plastic, it makes life so much easier! Great idea with the staples too, I'll try to remember that one.

I was opening a new tin of coffee earlier and found myself musing over the lovely stiff foil they use to as a seal....and wondered how strong coffee would be as a staining agent. It's possible this is getting a little out of hand....

On 10/1/2017 at 3:40 PM, hendie said:

 

I do it all the time as it certainly saves a lot of hassle and guesswork.  I use Draftsight (an AutoCAD clone) which is (legally) free for home use

Thanks for that link hendie. I'm lucky in my job that I have access to various Autodesk licenses...if only I could find a spare month to get up to speed on Autocad. Maya eats up most of my 3D time....

On 10/1/2017 at 7:58 PM, Nigel Heath said:

Great work on the ladder and floor. I see what you mean about that inadvisably shaped template but you seem to have got away with it. I tried to like some of the above posts but the function on my iPhone has a will of its own.

Thanks for that Nigel.

2 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Yet more impressive work! All we really need now is a Kustenflieger equivalent to Maureen of Barracuda fame!

No Coastal Fräuleins on this one I'm afraid esteemed xenomorph. Which raises an interesting point - did the Luftwaffe version of the ATA have female pilots ferrying aircraft around?

1 hour ago, CedB said:

Just caught up Tony and you've made a lot of progress over the weekend

Staples, great tip. Seats are amazing.

Continually amazed by the level of research and detail you're putting into this... although remembering your past builds I shouldn't be surprised.

Have you thought about Johnny's idea of having it open on one side?

My thanks for that Ced. I had thought about Johnny's idea.

 

For a few seconds.

He's not the first blighter in this thread to raise the issue of cutaways and I shall most definitely positively not be doing one.

TBH, I just don't care for 'em much on aircraft builds as a rule. Admire the virtuosity but leaves me a bit cold.

 

Each to their own of course. 

 

A tad jaded this evening after work and not at all in the mood for any delicacy-stuff so I finally got it together to start mixing some paint for the interior as a respite:

On the right is iMoldekits suggestion as to the nearest Tamiya equivalent shade (XF22 iirc), which I didn't like. My version on the left mixed from XF54, X21, XF73, and a dash of XF82. It may or may not look correct on your monitor (depends what colour profile and brightness it's set to), whilst the photo above is slightly skewed by being shot under lights with two slightly different colour temperatures.  To the naked eye under daylight thoughit looks close enough for my purposes, at least in terms of trying to achieve that very subtle and attractive green inflection RLM02 seems to have.

 

Take care till next time!

Tony

 

 

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi Tony,

 

Very clever simulation of the leather/non-slip surfaces. The superb work on the interior continues, as usual

 

On 9/30/2017 at 11:30, TheBaron said:

Best of luck  starting that Jaime.

Thanks for the best wishes!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

 

[Tomoshenko]

Sublime Tony. Love all the little nick knacks, toilet and Wehrmacht bog roll especially... Vac-formed wood, now that's something else, although you do disappoint me a tad, by now I'd expected you'd have mastered scratch build gene sequencing. Perhaps for your next project I suggest something a little easier:

 

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

cutaways and I shall most definitely positively not be doing one.

TBH, I just don't care for 'em much on aircraft builds as a rule. Admire the virtuosity but leaves me a bit cold.

 

Hurrah!! That makes two of us then! 

 

K

[The Spadgent]

paint

[TheBaron]

18 hours ago, jrlx said:

Very clever simulation of the leather/non-slip surfaces.

It's rubbish for shoes though...

18 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

Sublime Tony. Love all the little nick knacks, toilet and Wehrmacht bog roll especially... Vac-formed wood, now that's something else, although you do disappoint me a tad, by now I'd expected you'd have mastered scratch build gene sequencing.

With my penchant for surgery there's every risk that it would turn into the Island of Dr. Moreau. There would be a single horrifying RFI followed by a permanent ban, Interpol, and lurid headlines in the Daily Mail. None of us would really want that Tomo...

18 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

Perhaps for your next project I suggest something a little easier:

I did buy some EZ line.

 

Where did you find that btw - it's most beguiling!

17 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

Hurrah!! That makes two of us then! 

Time and events: the best cutaways imho...

17 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

paint

Steady men. We're not quite there yet!

 

I must give the airbrush a quick valet: I'd made some modifications to it over the summer and the action's a hell of a lot smoother now.

 

Tonight we shall be mostly making wishbones:

...or more exactly the symmetrical truss that curves up diagonally from rear to front of the motor room, following the contour of the walls.This is 0.8mm brass tube, annealed on the cooker to help with bending.I then sandwiched these together to ensure that both sides were identically curved.

 

Initially I tried using my bending jig but this had nowhere near the necessary diameter that the job required, so a Tamiya tape dispenser turned out to give the required curve to the tubes in the end. Amazing how you can have a dedicated tool for something and yet you end up improvising from something entirely unconnected with such a job...

 

These two lengths were then soldered into place, joined at the bottom by some brass scrap to match the connecting part at the bottom of the truss:

Thence the cross-members and diagonals were added using some low temperature solder so that a momentary dab with the tip of a hot iron was enough to melt these into place without disturbing the surrounding joints:

I was a little over-generous with the amounts of solder as you see it there, so these blobs were then filed down by the required amount:

Seen temporarily in situ inside the motor room, you can see that although not a lot of it will be seen, it is a necessary addition being so prominent a detail:

The next step in this chain of events then is to commence reconciling all these bits to each other within the confines of the gondola:

Expect a tad more in a couple of days.

Tony

 

[Nigel Heath]

Nice work on the truss Matron.

[Tomoshenko]

This is getting better and better, very nice neat soldering.

 

The image is Buckingham's airship from the 2011 version of the Three Musketeers. Bit of a Steampunk foray, not sure Dumas quite had this in mind, but I do like that sort of thing. The actual piccie is from a minecraft website, so scroll forward past the Lego looking versions to the final version, then enlarge to full screen.

 

https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/buckinghams-airship-movie-the-three-musketeers/

[jrlx]

Simply impressive work on the brass truss

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[TonyTiger66]

I finally caught up Tony  !

 

Good to see that the beaching trolley arrived safely. I’d been a little concerned;

 

When Mrs. T. took it to the post office here, the assistant made out a ‘tracking slip’ writing the destination country as ‘Iceland’ 🇮🇸 .

 

I don’t know if the assistant had frozen potato croquettes or Arctic Roll on the brain at the time .

 

Mrs. T. Noticed this mistake and a second ‘tracking slip’ was created with the Emerald Isle as the intended destination.

 

Back at home, stuck as usual in the old boudoir, I received two ‘tracking’ emails from the post office. One telling me of a parcel on its way to Iceland and one to Ireland.

 

I do like to have a nice worry and/or catastrophise whenever possible these days (it’s the most exercise I get), thus I spent the whole time with a slightly furrowed brow.

 

I had a mental picture of Viðar Steinsson (renowned shark fermenter) settling down to a plate of Súrir Hútsprungar and a nice glass of Brennivín.

 

Casually opening his morning’s mail in the darkness, he finds a parcel from Australia containing a resin beaching trolley for a WWII seaplane. This, according to ancient Nordic myth, is actually a sign that ships aligned with the Hanseatic League are going to imminently invade at Djúpivogur  !!

 

This would have upset Viðar’s breakfast and most likely have caused an international incident, on a scale far worse than any Armageddon that could be set in motion by a Tweet  .

 

Neverthless, as we can see, it went to the correct Island in the northern hemisphere, avoiding the possibility of the end of all human life, this allowing Viðar to tuck into his Súrir Hútsprungar with gusto  .

 

I appear to have gone off on a tangent. It’s still quite dark in here you know.

 

Anyway, superb progress on the old Dornier  . The interior work is sublime, a pleasure to watch it being built.

 

All best regards

TonyT

 

PS: Nice truss  

[Brandy]

Tony, you're in the wrong job, whatever that may be!

 Tweet on MacDuff(er)

 

Ian

[keefr22]

I'm sure all would have calmed down after you'd sent Percy on a peace mission Tony....

 

Keith

[HomerJ_757]

6 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Tony, you're in the wrong job, whatever that may be!

 Tweet on MacDuff(er)

 

Ian

 

More than likely on the wrong medication!  🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍺🍷🍹🍷🥂🍻🍺🍺🍺🍸🤢🤢🤢

 

Ah, those days, I remember them well!  (Just these days the hangover lasts three or four days!)

Edited October 4, 2017 by HomerJ_757

[TheBaron]

18 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

Nice work on the truss Matron.

 

17 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

This is getting better and better, very nice neat soldering.

I still look at the likes of hendie's soldering work and then go back to mine and wince...

Thanks for the Musketeer linkage! 

12 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

I appear to have gone off on a tangent. It’s still quite dark in here you know.

Now I know you're a Goth at heart Mr. Tiger....

12 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

I received two ‘tracking’ emails from the post office. One telling me of a parcel on its way to Iceland and one to Ireland.

People only hear what they already know and seem incapable of absorbing new information sometimes Mr. T. About three or four years ago I ordered a pair of wetsuits for our lads from Decathlon, which due to the complexities of international commerce, were ordered from Belfast but had to be shipped from London to reach us here in Ireland. Wetsuits don't arrive so ring the London office to ascertain the problem. Hapless employee no.1 had no idea they even delivered to Ireland and no clue what to do about it so passes me onto supervisor. Supervisor spends 10 minutes tapping at a computer before informing me that order was held up because I hadn't specified the island it was being delivered to, eg. Shetlands, Isle of Wight etc. Explain that although I technically do live on an island, the last line of the address is actually 'Ireland', and has been internationally recognized as a country for some time now. Supervisor: 'But isn't that just part of Britain, like Wales?' Cue Heroes of 1916 rotating in their graves at sufficient rpm that they can be connected to the Irish electricity network and power half of S.Dublin for three days...

12 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

I had a mental picture of Viðar Steinsson (renowned shark fermenter) settling down to a plate of Súrir Hútsprungar and a nice glass of Brennivín.

Only a matter of time before UK television enters a new low era with Sandy Toskvig and Boris Johnson hosting Great British Ferment Off on C4.

8 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Tony, you're in the wrong job, whatever that may be!

 Tweet on MacDuff(er)

Can I put you as a reference on my next job application form Ian? 

2 hours ago, HomerJ_757 said:

Ah, those days, I remember them well!  (Just these days the hangover lasts three or four days!)

I know the feeling Homer. I live in mortal terror of my system no longer being able to tolerate quantities of gin, which to my chagrin, appears to be the case increasingly these days....

 

No progress to report tonight as a long day still to go, however a little civilized reading over lunch at the desk:

Tony

 

 

 

[pheonix]

Just catching up Tony as I have been away for a couple of days. I just hope that the rest of us are not expected to put in the sort of extra detail that you have put into yours!! I am still pinching myself to remind me that this is the True Scale that you are working in and not one of the bigger ones.

 

P

[hendie]

Me too also just catching up after a few days away last week, out for a few nights this week, out for 4 days next week, and another trip scheduled for the following week. Then, by the time I get back from that lot, no doubt another trip will fall into the schedule. 

 

What can I say that others have not already covered?   Keep soldering on I say !     VERY nice soldering work on that curvy diagonalurally thing.  Impressed I am.  

4 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I still look at the likes of hendie's soldering work and then go back to mine and wince...

 

Not as much as I do when I look at my soldering.   I probably spend 10 times the amount of time it took to solder in order to clean the thing up afterwards.  I go by the old adage (or is it a maxim?) - it's a lot easier to clean up afterwards than it is to put on neatly in the first place.  Come to think of it - that describes my modeling style too.

 

[TheBaron]

On 10/4/2017 at 12:39 PM, pheonix said:

Just catching up Tony as I have been away for a couple of days. I just hope that the rest of us are not expected to put in the sort of extra detail that you have put into yours!! I am still pinching myself to remind me that this is the True Scale that you are working in and not one of the bigger ones.

You are very kind for saying so Mr.P, and such sentiments are one of the things that drives me on to try and do better each time.

23 hours ago, hendie said:

Keep soldering on I say !

Fear not dear hendie. I'm in the throes of a full-blooded addiction to the process....

23 hours ago, hendie said:

I probably spend 10 times the amount of time it took to solder in order to clean the thing up afterwards.  I go by the old adage (or is it a maxim?) - it's a lot easier to clean up afterwards than it is to put on neatly in the first place.  Come to think of it - that describes my modeling style too.

I too recognize such proclivities.

Since acquiring a decent range of files however any subsequent 'clean-up' procedure has in my case become decidedly more disciplined of late than some of my early cringe-worth attempts.

 

An odd time at the moment (I'll explain more in a bit) but just to keep you up-to-date with the last couple  of days. 

 

Firstly, the motor-room floor:

Adjusted for fit, I then added some basic framing around the doorways on either side. Before proceeding any further I remembered to use the openings in order to sketch out the required dimensions of the doors to be built later:

There's only two of course but as an insurance against clumsy cutting I added an extra. Somebody asked a while back about the directions these door open: I can confirm that they open outwards.

 

Once that was done, I CA'd the diagonal truss into place:

With that in place now the floor was glued to provide a datum for the other parts:

You can see in that shot I've got the upright ladder section propped up on some White Tak as an aid to gluing it into place at the correct angle. In order for this part to to fit I had to nip out the corners to accommodate the raised frame running along each side of the floor:

With the glued dried, it's safe to show the resulting structure up to the camera at a different angle:

My attention next needs to turn to the kuhler (coolant radiators) at the front of this compartment. Here's the part that Matchbox gave for this:

Whilst the horizontal radiator lines are't too bad at all, the diagonals are actually an unsatifsfactory attempt at portraying on a flat surface the narrow arms which reach out to support the curved doors which can be closed to protect this region. As such I'll bin this kit part and build my own. The doors themselves?

'Big-boned' and not to my liking, so I'll build these in two halves from some thin card later too.

 

In other news.

 

An envelope from Italy dropped through the letterbox yesterday containing an 1800-page parts manual for the C-119 (G to J variants). This will be well-thumbed between now and the time I return to this build and has already cleared up some minor mysteries regarding operation and structure of the rear door.

 

In connection with the Boxcar build, I remain unhappy with some of my scratching of parts for some of the hydraulics so finally got in to the CAD  facility at work today to suss out the 3D printer tucked away. It's a decent looking CubePro:

https://www.3dsystems.com/shop/cubepro

and my intention is to try and 3D print the necessary parts for the C-119 once this Dornier has been safely taken care of. I'll report back with any results at a later date over in that thread.

 

Finally, updates over the next few days may or may not happen with any frequency or depth. We got a phone call about 3am this morning to say that Mrs. B's mother had been taken quite ill at the nursing home where she resides. The old girl is in her late 80s and this morning the doctor indicated this may be the end game kicking-in. Cycle of life and all that, but things may be up in the air for a few days.

 

Take care of yourselves compadres.

Tony

 

 

 

 

[jrlx]

The resulting interior detailing of the motor room is excellent, as usual. We can only expect another small gem for the scratch built radiator.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[hendie]

I for one am looking forward to you radiating.  I'll be interested to see what you come up with.  (and no doubt, quite good)

[CedB]

Hmmm. Just back from the pub and, having put the world to rights, find out that this has not extended to Mrs B's mother. My thoughts are with you Tony - I know when my Mum reached 'her time' it was still a wrench, despite her really deserving a rest after a hard life. I hope things progress peacefully.

 

5 hours ago, TheBaron said:

...but as an insurance against clumsy cutting I added an extra.

More hmmm. One of the unsureties in life is whether, having realised that one's performance may not be 100%, how far one admits it by adding extras. I would have done two more. Just to be sure to be sure

[zebra]

I just caught up with this build. Absolutely amazing work. Thoroughly inspiring.

 

looking forward to more!

 

Z

[TheBaron]

19 hours ago, jrlx said:

The resulting interior detailing of the motor room is excellent, as usual. We can only expect another small gem for the scratch built radiator.

Thanks Jaime. Some work on that to follow.

18 hours ago, hendie said:

I for one am looking forward to you radiating.  I'll be interested to see what you come up with.  (and no doubt, quite good)

Radiation levels to increase shortly hendie...in a good way!

17 hours ago, CedB said:

Hmmm. Just back from the pub and, having put the world to rights, find out that this has not extended to Mrs B's mother. My thoughts are with you Tony - I know when my Mum reached 'her time' it was still a wrench, despite her really deserving a rest after a hard life. I hope things progress peacefully.

My thanks for that Ced. I've taken today off basically to be around the missus and keep things ticking over with the boys as well. Seemingly the mater-in-law had a better night so all you can do is see how events play out really.

 

Being able to tickle away at things on the bench from time-to-time isn't the worse form mental engagement meanwhile.

17 hours ago, CedB said:

I would have done two more.

Too ashamed was I to show the other sheet with 15 doors on 'just to be safe'...

 

I'm sure that there are valid engineering reasons but the internal framing on the doors - like certain other structural details of this aircraft -  are oddly angular and reminiscent of German expressionist cinema. Shades of Doctor Caligari...

13 hours ago, zebra said:

I just caught up with this build. Absolutely amazing work. Thoroughly inspiring.

 

looking forward to more!

My thanks to you for that Z! Glad to have you along.

 

Right. You shall have radiators. Here's ein squiggle to indicate the main parts I'm going to build:

The coolant panels themselves (one each for front and rear motors), curved retractable doors on either side, mounted on to angled arms which radiate outward from a vertical pole running down the centre of the opening. There are some small control cables at the bottom of the rads for operating the doors, but are simply too small to consider adding and keeping in scale. 

 

Using the kit panel as a sizing reference, I cut out a block of 1.5mm thick sheet and added the central divider:

Producing the necessary corrugations for the cooling surfaces simply involved a ruler and a standard Stanley blade to score the striations inL

After adding some metal foil down each side to give a slightly raised lip, a hole was drilled in the motor room floor in order to attach some 0.8mm brass tube for the central pillar to which the arms of the retractable doors are attached. The radiators were propped-up here temporarily with White Take to help support that pole whilst it was being CA'd into the correct orientation:

The rads were then glued into place and the both sides of the room closed for a test-fit:

Purely as a comparison I've bunged the original kit part above my own effort in that photo to show (I hope!) the improvements that it's possible to make quite simply and quickly to the original components.

 

To produce some door panels with the required curvature, I found a piece of plastic tube slightly smaller than the curve of the front of the motor room, knowing from an earlier attempt that using a smaller tube (than the part you're aiming for) with thin plastic means that any residual 'spring' when you release it from restraints will more likely spring it backto the diameter you actually need, rather than bigger than you'd hoped for. I've explained that clumsily but hopefully you get the drift.

 

To actually mould the curvature I tightly bound the plastic sheet to the tube with Tamiya tape:

...then left it in a cup of boiling water for a minute or two. After this I whipped it out, ran it under the cold and hey presto:

Door material.

 

These were then glued into the required alignments on either side of the radiators:

The actual doors themselves extend back a little more then the widths of the pieces I've used, mine are shorter simply because of the lack of space width-wise in the motor room generally. Once closed-up you can't see any further back anyway:

The arms which angle out from the central pole I'll add at the end - they'll be so thin in cross-section that they will get inthe way of painting the radiator regions at this stage, and more than likely will get flicked off during subsequent handling anyway. It makes sense to keep them for the final fiddly stages when rigging and adding aerials etc.

 

This build is teaching me more and more about the sense of confidence that having proper manuals and handbooks gives for such work. I think I've said it before but it is no harm to reiterate that I could never pretend to have 'the eye' that many people on this forum experienced with aircraft and engineering have when looking at photos and translating that visual information into their modelling. Lacking those instincts which only experience can develop, I can anticipate a growing number of APs and handbuchs fighting for virtual shelf space in future.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CedB]

Cool radiators! (Someone had to do it)

More great stuff Tony.