TheBaron

Six years to go Pete! From you Pete - most gracious. Bloody modernist. I got my dental one as a refurb off the Bezos megasite a few years back - seem to be quite a few bargains like that if you're prepared to stalk for a while (there's probvaly an AI app that will warn you these days..) Kind of you Roger - my thanks! Cheers Chris: I'm just sorry that these updates aren't as frequent as in the past! Many thanks for that Colin. Still a bit of cleaning up to do on some of the bucks but not a bad start for just out the printer with minimal sanding. Actually that's not entirely true, the roof bucks did have a couple of ungainly areas that needed a good sanding due to the recent amalgamation of parts. Cheers Alan - the transparency is just 0.5mm PETG With the dental vacform I find that stuff this thin should only be raised up about halfway to the top as the hot spot in the centre overheats before the outer areas get warmed enough to sag. I learned from the master.

Afternoon all. With updates to this thread currently being measured in lunar cycles I got busy over the last week preparing some photos of recent work in and around the day job, which is consuming far too much valuable modelling time these days... First off then is a correction pointed out to me by an ex-Wasp ground crew member over on a brother/sister forum, who noticed that the position of the wheelbrake handle in my designs needed alteration. Mine was too low (basically in a 'brake released' posture) rather than pulled up to engage the brakes. This has now been corrected in the designs and an amended version printed in both scales: That done, I also attended to a much larger job - completely altering the design of the roof and cabin framing! This took up a large chunk of time over the last month or so but I'd come to the conclusion in playing around with test prints and vacforms that my original design - i.e., the cabin framing in two halves (rear and front) and the four roof windows (mounted separately into it) - was not going to prove a feasible arrangement. Neither in terms of buildability nor avoiding the windows falling inwards later did it look like that mechanism was not going to be reliable enough, even in the hands of the most skilled modeller. Sleeping on the problem for several nights led me to waking up one morning with a realization that vacforming the roof as a single unit would allow it to be mounted on top of the underlying cabin framework in a secure and relatively straightforwards manner. Easier said than done however as the CAD designs for that region of the aircraft were amongst some of the most complicated of the whole project, meaning it wasn't possible in this instance to simply unpick and modify the original designs. I went at it instead in the fairly brutal but nonetheless effective step of cutting the top 0.5mm of surface detail off the cabin roof and sides (non-blue area in the screenshot below) - something of a nightmare due to the maze of compound curves involved: This below shows the eventual result i.e., with the topmost surface detail shaved off: - and in printed form at both scales: That missing surface detail was then transplanted into the design for the new single-piece roof buck: Also seen above is the sliding side window of the front door, now incorporating the frame of it as part of the vacform due to printed version not being rigid enough at 1/32 - even using Hard Tough resin. One feature you may have spotted missing from the roof buck is the rubber beading around the (removable in the case of ditching) overhead windows for pilot and observer. Nicking Homaging reverently I used @hendie's process he adopted on his Wessex build of printing the beading as separate pieces: As you can see this worked rather nicely at both scales, thus neatly avoids areas with nasty overhangs compromising the release of the buck from the vacform material. Integrating the roof into a single unit cut down dramatically on the number of bucks required for all the various bits of glazing on the Wasp; even so, there's still a considerable quantity of pieces involved: Having given these a limited cleanup (removing supports and light sanding), some test vacs (vacii?) were in order (Apologies for cat hair and dust in the following section). 1/24: 1/32: In effectively transferring the roof detaling from printed resin parts to vacform, I was concerned that some of the subtler details like rivets &tc. would be diminshed, so was pleased to find this was not the case at either 1/24: - or 1/32: Also pleased with the smooth flow of highlights across the roof curvatures: The smaller windows at both scales: You can't see it clearly in photos but a small number of these windows display faint traces of layer lines in places so need a little further W&D attention. Also the 1/32 nose window bucks in the above photo cracked and clouded the transparency for those parts. I'm pretty sure this is because I inadvertantly hollowed themn out in VDT prior to printing (instead of leaving them solid) and the clouding results from residual resin vapour being driven off under heat through said cracks. A reprint should sort that. In terms of fitting the roof then, it now requires a single operation in terms of gluing it to the underlying cabin framework: The test fit looks pretty good so the reduction ratio for the buck prints (required to accomodate the thickness of the vacform material overlaying them) looks about right. I won't be dissapointed however if it does require modification and reprinting later - the chances of it being exactly right the first time out are quite remote. I nearly forgot! The brass etch tests came back from PPD a few weeks back and they've done their usual high quality job: We started this update with an image of the the pilot's seat so let's finish it with another one. In and around everything else going on, I'm slowly beginning to remove the various parts from their supports: I want to get those smaller window bucks smoothed and sanded and reprint the nose pair mentioned previously, then I can devote more time to part removal and get this looking like an actual build thread. Thanks as always for looking in. Best wishes to all. Tony

Morning-slash-afternoon all. G. Bennett &tc. but things remain incredibly busy on the home/day job front so I reckon a further proof of life posting is necessary in that the P.E. designs are now finished: As the presence of older images on the right hand screen might suggest, so long has past since originally designing some of those parts that I had to look up where some of them went and what they were for. At least I remembered to actually number them on the PE design... In actual fact this represents only about 50% of the original number of brass parts which there were going to be. Up until about 12 months ago that figure had ballooned to quite alarming levels, to the point where I was genuinely concerned that the kit was heading to become unbuildable in places, particularly at 1/32 scale. Printing tests over the last year or so have however given me far greater confidence in the capacity to successfully print resin parts with very thin walls of between 0.18-0.2mm in thickness (effectively the same thickness as PE) so I made time to revamp certain sections of the Wasp such as the hydraulic and HT units around the Nimbus. Using this approach meant removing the need for so much brass in order to print these elements as integrated (and as importantly - structurally sound) units: In other 'thin parts' news, the rotor blades I'd printed a good while back at both scales had over time suffered the indiginities of distortion along their major axis, due largely to the combibnation of high aspect ratio vs. thinness. Curling up like the proverbial British Rail sandwich was obviously not on the cards, nor was the fact that the trim tabs which had printed nice and straight the first time out) now appeared with some lovely wavy crenellations in recent prints. Given that I'd changed nothing about the print process to account for this I remain baffled by the latter phenomenon, though have solved that now by thickening the tabs slightly: Warping along the long axis was equally remedied by ensuring that the baseplate the blades sit on is now more robust than the original perforated framework which I'd used. Print out of the PE design at both scales: It'll probably be Spring until I'm in a position to get those over to PPD in Argyle for a test etching but in the meantime, there's plenty to keep occuppied with getting the bucks ready for vacforming. Regards to all! Tony

The non-modelling world has conspired of late to keep me from making any recent progress on the Wasp this side of Christmas but there's always time to wish all of you here on Britmodeller a very Happy Holiday indeed and speak to you in 2025. Regards to all, Tony

Probably Pete - we're on a Red weather warning in this part of Ireland tonight so doubt there'll be much rest before morning! Dear heart, thank you as always. Cheers Chris! I now have the perfect advertising blurb for when the kit is released Terry! (Thanks for the kind words) As a navy machine Massimo, Lord only knows what stubborn stains will be involved! Now I feel like the modelling Walter White... I don't know about patience Roger - this project could be the most elaborate diagnosis of ADHD on record! Cheers Roger. There are many reasons for moving house.... You always manage to make this thread sound classier than I do Giorgio! Grazie! I'm a great believer in the dictum that the quality of our work reflects the company we keep Bill: thanks for your kind words - as always. I see the Air-Graphic Models AIR72-007 decal set is absent it too Colin! I can only apologize in a profuse yet somehow rather unconvincing manner Dave.... Cheers Bobby - nice to meet you! Almost as soon as I'd posted the previous update I realized I'd forgotten to print the blade clamps for the 'Forth Bridge' framework so added the supports for those earlier. They'll get printed in a couple of days to add tothe collection: Have a good weekend all of you! Tony

Evening all, Sorry it's taken so long to get round to posting a more detailed follow-up but details incoming after replies.... Gracious of you as alway Colin. Sorry to have to be that cad but 1/24 and 1/32 are going to be the only two scales which this'll be available in. Resin printing these design wouldn't simply be a case of scaling existing parts down and printing them out but would require redesigning the whole thing from scratch; that's just too much labour involved in the light of other projects I'm afraid. Not as yet Ian but at some point I'm going to have to install an old diesel tank get it filled up by tanker... Giorgio knows....⤵️ We must have a talk about your notion of fun Chris.... Mille grazie Masimo and great to hear from you! I pre-empted the cat by doing that myself Pete. Occam's razor and all that... Luckily no damage done. Always wonderful. Thank you. It went with the moonrise last evening (Jupiter at top right): That and Allegri's Misere just get me every time. Where to start? Well, the resin equivalent of a sprue shot is probably the best place to begin I guess: This is the 1/32 version so I'll concentrate on that and and bung in a few 1/24 bits around them rather than a repetetive duplication of parts in both scales throughout. I'll also leave out those parts like the torpedoes which I've posted prints of in detail previously over on the research thread. N.B. None of these parts have been cleaned up from their supports yet so their stumps wil be visible on some demounted parts, plus, if you see any holes in parts which shouldn't be there, these are drain holes to let the resin out during printing. Starting with front seats then in 1/32: The sheepskin detailing worked very nicely here and looks even better at 1/24: As you can see there's little if any loss of detail between the two scales, which has surprised me all the way along. Same deal withthe leather seat backs in 1/32: - and 1/24: I was worried those little handles on top of the seats (in 1/24 here) might prove problematic but again they worked out fine at both scales: IP and central console at 1/32: Yes, every switch is accounted for. I fiddled around with the 1/24 version and will post those at the end. APX/BEZU sight in 1/32: - along with its AS.12s and rails: I forgot to take a close-up of the pylons for them but they tirned out fine as well. 1/24 version of the missile sight: Some of the smaller cabin fittings, controls, instrumentation and electrical: Yaw pedals in 1/32: Comparative levels of details shown in both versions of the collective: With about two years of printing experience with material tolerances for this helicopter, I was able to go back and revise certain earlier decisions about finer detail which could be printed (rather than requiring the extra labour of PE). In particular I was able to combine multiple parts in the hydraulic and eletrical systems into unfied printed assemblies: The flare pistol at 1/32: I'd forgotton to add the raised copaming around the nose windows previously so those are now present: Further experimenting with eSun's Hard Tough resin had also resulted in a finer and smoother level of detail on areas like the u/c legs requiring that extra strength: Ditto on the front section of the cabin roof: Cradle for the blade folding (here in 1/24 but worked in both scales using the tougher resin): The undercarriage wheels (1/32 here) also received modification in the form of that load bearing flattening along the bottom: The loading isn't extreme on the Wasp but evident enough that it needed representing. Also in 'other resin' news, Anycubic's High Clear might be rubbish at cockpit windows but it did a lovely job on lighbulbs and landing lights (here in 1/32): Main rotors are very thin at 1/32 so (as with other fragile parts) I'll make sure there's a spare in the kit: Cabin floor and fuselage underside in 1/24: Same level of details remain pleasingly present on the 1/32 version. Finally, my fingers itched and I had to try a test fit of the 1/24th IP and console to see if my scheme worked (it did)... : I'm rather worn out getting to this point and have a lot of day-job stuf to take care of at present so progress will be slow for a while but will be happening. Tony PS. Forgot to photograph them but the vacform bucks for both scales are printed as well. They'll need polishing up and drain holes filling before a test form in the near future. Am also doing bits and pieces on the PE designs, but slowly....

Life has gotten increasingly busy over the past month so it's probably ncessary to make a quick 'proof of life' post on here with regard to progress on the Wasp. It's taken several weeks of supporting and test-printing but I now have physical copies of all the resin parts for Wasps in both 1/24 & 1/32 scales in hand - or rather in tray.... I'll post some close-ups and details next time. With four different types of resin involved there is - as you can imagine - a lot of juggling of parameters involved, plus in the light of experience, going back and adjusting orientations and supports on various parts to achieve a better result. In particular I've been able to pull a higher level of detail out of the black Esun hard tough stuff down to the rivet level at both scales. I haven't found any features on the 1/24th parts which haven't also reproduced at 1/32. Expect more in due course but it's nice to be able to show you physical evidence at long last! All the best, Tony

Utterly magnificent. Congratulations dear xenomorph.

I know Bill. I'd like to be able to cate for a wider range of scales but a reduction to 1/72 would mean most detail disappearing - even if major parts would shrink down without basically redesigning the whole thing. Experiment has taught me that this level of detail at 1/24 is still maintained (though inevitably fainter when it comes to minor things like rivets) at 1/32, but as the scale reduces below this threshold then features start to disappear with alarming rapidity, like something out of a J. G. Ballard short story... Thanks as always Chris. Ben - thank-you. I now you'll be only too familiar with many of the production issues concerned here! Luckily I don't have shareholders breathing down my neck (just cats!) Adrian so deadlines are what the kit itself imposes to look reasonable. Much like the difference between tailored and off-the-peg suits...(says the man who doesn't own a suit but is addicted to tailoring videos on Youchewb). Giorgio and Keith: I'm all for a polyglot thread so crack on! Grazie/Diolch Cheers trevor - that's kind of you to say so. Curently at that stage of collecting all the recent parts into regions of the aircraft prior to the numbing process of positioning and adding print supports. This section is visually dull to the onlooker so I'll update this thread again when the next batch of physical parts crawl out onto land from the Resin Sea. Have a good week all of you! Tony

Phenomenal level of expression in your work (as always Peter). I like how there are no 'stand-out' parts due to the consistently high quality of the whole. Bravo! Tony

Saw this and thought of you Daddy M...

Immaculate Serkan. Very admiring of your support structures!

Sorry Mike, aside from the printing, it's the amount of labour in metal casting, vacform and PE that limit the number of scales I can take on...

Mike, the smaller version of the two is 1/32 if you're ok with that?

You're on the list now Pete. Many thanks. Certainly Mike. Which scale are you after?