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Bandsaw Steve

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Posts posted by Bandsaw Steve

    🇩🇰 F-100D Super Sabre, 1/32, Scratchbuild

    in NATO 75th Anniversary GB

    Posted

    Nozzle and intake.

     

    Experience has taught me that when building these models there are several things that are best done early on.  Now is the best time to cut any rebates that are needed to hold any major structures in place and it's also the best time to complete any work that makes use of access to the centreline. In this case  cutting the nozzle and the intake.

     

    The biggest - almost disastrous - mistake that i made on the Mirage project was when I drilled out the jet exhaust nozzle and the two halves of the fuselage slipped relative to one another causing the spade bit to almost rip out a large chunk of the rear fuselage. On this project i therefore decided to complete this high risk drilling early on in the project. This way, if it goes badly I can start again with minimal loss or at least have the best possible chance of correcting it.

     

    Here's the initial mark-up.  Here you can see just how useful it is to have a natural centreline to ensure that the drill is centered correctly. 

    9ChvrZV.jpg

     

    It even looks like a high risk operation.  Next time I think I might even drill out the exhaust nozzle before cutting out the basic fuselage shape; just to be sure.

    Ac8vB5H.jpg

     

     

    The two halves of the fuselage are firmly held together with dowels and glued-on paper (which is remarkably strong) but just to be sure that nothing slips I've also bound the two halves together with wrapped layers of masking tape which you can see in this photo.

    When using a spade bit for delicate work like this, I aways start by running the drill backwards, this cuts a circular scoring mark on the surface of the wood that prevents it chipping-out when the actual drilling begins.

    IQozZZF.jpg

     

    Drill slowly and carefully and a few minutes later you will - hopefully - have a nice circular hole in exactly the correct spot.

    lB7uDxq.jpg

     It looks tidy this time.

    VAN9isa.jpg

     

    Splitting the model in half like this allows us to see how it went & I'm thinking this time things went well.

    Mvaftdz.jpg

     

    At the opposite end of the aircraft is the air intake. This is a highly visible and very distinctive component of the F-100 and is likely to be the most difficult part of the entire project. Getting this right is 'make-or-break' on this model and frankly I'm not sure i can get the intake 'lips' sufficiently sharp and accurate using only wood. I do have a 'plan B' in mind,  but for now, 'plan A' goes like this... 

     

    Stick a paper pattern showing the required shape on the front of the jet and drill a chain of small holes about 1mm inside that perimeter as shown below.

    wTjKeeP.jpg

     

    Then drill out a dense pattern of small holes scattered throughout the entire volume within the chain drilling.

    K8nd5jv.jpg

     

    Once we separate the two fuselage halves we can drill more holes at 90 degrees to the first set. This creates a weakened volume of wood that is prepared for removal.

    XmjFuVj.jpg

     

    The removal itself can be done with a chisel...

    mYObgoQ.jpg

     

    or a Dremmel tool. 

    uyE2dEW.jpg

     

    At this point we have the first signs of an intake. So far the intake's aperture has been intentionally made too small. Once the external contouring of the fuselage is complete I will return to slowly - very slowly - enlarging this hole and sharpening its leading edges. 

    M1gsql2.jpg

     

    There's been a lot more than this going on with this project, especially various rebates being cut for major structures such as the wings and tail surfaces but all that can wait for another post.

    For now though, this jet has a rudimentary intake and nozzle and that's enough to keep me happy.

     

    See you soon,

    Bandsaw Steve.

     

    • Like 6

    🇩🇰 F-100D Super Sabre, 1/32, Scratchbuild

    in NATO 75th Anniversary GB

    Posted

    Blocking-out

     

    For me scratchbuilding a model is a bit like drawing a picture.  Typically an artist creating a drawing will 'block-out' the biggest shapes first and then, once the basic structure is established, will add details.  Not all artists work that way, but many do, and it's a good analogy for how I attack making models.  I start with the biggest shapes and try to cut out the blocks that will represent them. Later on I can contour those shapes and move on to finer details. I also tend to start at the center, in this case the fuselage, and work outward.

     

    Since the fuselage is already 'blocked-out' it's time to start cutting out the wings, tailplanes and tail.

     

    Using the 'biggest to littlest' rule of thumb, lets start with the wings.  Here I have one sheet of 6mm thick MDF with a topside and bottomside view of the wings glued on.

    uBlHWX4.jpeg

     

    Here I've used the bandsaw to make an initial cut-out of both the top and lower half of the wing structure. The next step will be to cut in much more closely to the final shape and then finish with a bench-mounted belt sander.  Unfortunately I took no photos for either of those two stages but I'm sure you get the idea. It's a good idea to make the wing in two pieces, an upper and lower half, because then you can contour each independently of the other and ensure that the flat plane between upper and lower remains completely consistent.

    TBxN6ex.jpeg

     

    For the vertical tail I spot-glued two sheets of 3mm MDF together and stuck on an outline of the tail plus a deep 'root' or 'base' to the tail that will set into the fuselage and will be used to attach the whole structure.  I then cut the tail outline out using a scroll-saw. You do not need a scroll-saw for this kind of work - a coping saw would handle this easily - but using a power-tool does save time.

    Note that when I glued the two sheets together I ensured that none of the glue was within the area defined by the tail outline. This way, once the cut was complete, the tail naturally split into two 3mm thick halves. This - once again - creates a centreline for me to work to. 

    MxrhM0n.jpeg

     

    For the tailplanes I chose to use a single layer of high-quality plywood.  The F-100's tailplane was a very thin structure, so to ensure that it was strong enough to withstand handling, I chose plywood, which is much better than MDF in this regard. There could be some minor complications with this choice when I come to taper this structure but I'm confident I can manage.

    Bb9AwzK.jpeg

     

    Here is the empennage as it currently stands. Obviously the tail looks weird because it has not yet been set into the center of the fuselage.   

    lz5TEqs.jpeg

     

    Here's the current state of play of this project.

    0bUDlTJ.jpeg

     

     

    The biggest shapes are now 'blocked out'. The next step will be to cut rebates into the fuselage so that each of these pieces fit together in the correct way making a rudimentary 3D 'picture' of an F-100. In the meantime, if you blur your eyes and stand well back it's almost starting to look like... something. 👍

    AtfXQ41.jpeg

     

    Stay with me NATO potatoes!

     

    Best Regards,
    Bandsaw Steve

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 9

    🇩🇰 F-100D Super Sabre, 1/32, Scratchbuild

    in NATO 75th Anniversary GB

    Posted

    We need a bigger bandsaw! 🦈

     

    At the end of the first post I had managed to cut one half of the fuselage into this 2D outline.

    5LJPnLl.jpg

     

    I generally make my fuselages by temporarily joining two blocks of wood and then making just one cut around the side view shape.  Doing it this way ensures that there is a natural centerline running through the middle of the project which helps me ensure symmetry later on. Generally I can cut both halves at the same time but since this fuselage is so chunky I couldn’t fit both bits of wood into the bandsaw at once and had to work on the two halves separately. We need a bigger bandsaw! 🦈

     

    Here's the second half cut out and laid up against the first half.

    pTnFqRk.jpeg

     

    Now I hold the two together in a vice and drill out holes for a series of small dowels that will ensure that the two halves go together in exactly the same way each time the model is assembled.

    jpv5Fi6.jpeg

     

    Since the two halves were not cut out at the same moment there were inevitably slight differences between the two shapes and there was quite a bit of rasp and file work required to get them both the same size and shape.

    8BptrIG.jpeg

     

    There was also a fair bit of sanding required to really eliminate the differences.

    PRNKyao.jpeg

     

    Which gave me this.

    shlRqbe.jpeg

     

    The next phase of work was just too ugly to photograph. Suffice to say that the plan view shape was defined by a paper cut out of the underside view stuck on the lower half of the fuselage. Then a  great deal of sawing and rasping and sanding was completed to get the plan view shape correct.  The problem was that the height of the fuselage (distance from bottom-most to the top-most surface) was too great to fit in the cutting throat of the bandsaw so I had to do this work manually using hand-saws and other such contemptible primitive methods.  Consequently, a job that should have taken about 15 minutes took a couple of hours.  We need a bigger bandsaw! 🦈

    x9spcJF.jpeg

     

    I got there in the end though!

    AZLhdVN.jpeg

     

    Here is the progress to date shot showing the F-100 parked up against the Mirage III. Both are 1/32 scale but I think you can already see just how much bigger the F-100 is. BTW the paper on top is just normal photocopier paper held in place with spray-on photo adhesive. I've found this makes a really strong really tight 'lock' between the two halves that's easily removed at any time just by wiping it with white spirits. In the photo below, the paper on the top and bottom and the handful of small dowels ensures that the whole structure is absolutely rigid; it's as if it's just one block of wood at the moment. 

    ewVXLRD.jpeg

     

    Anyway, all of that sawing and rasping and sanding has made me think... ‘We’re gonna need a bigger bandsaw if we want to build something as big and sharky as this!’ 🦈

     

    Well - maybe not. The fuselage is probably the only part that is really going to punish us for lack of bandsaw capacity on this project. The biggest bit is under control now. From here on it's just little details like wings and tails and tailplanes and stuff that need to be built. Stay tuned folks there's plenty more NATO action to follow. 

     

    Best Regards,

    Bandsaw Steve

     

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