Jump to content

pheonix

Members
  • Posts

    2,087
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

pheonix last won the day on December 28 2017

pheonix had the most liked content!

3 Followers

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Erehwon

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

pheonix's Achievements

Very Obsessed Member

Very Obsessed Member (5/9)

4.8k

Reputation

  1. Evening All, I have been seriously distracted in the last month and have not had a great deal of time either to comment or to do a great deal on the current project. Added to which what I have done has been time consuming and laborious, so what follows is not a great deal but did take a lot of time and effort, both of which have been in short supply of late. I used 1/16 x 1/16 inch (2mm x 2mm) pine strip to make the deck planking. For those who like me know little or nothing about the construction of armoured warships, the decks were covered in wood: teak in the case of British warships. This was because these ships operated in oceans and seas around the world, which meant that in the tropics and sub-tropical waters a bare steel deck would become so hot during the day that sailors would not be able to walk on it. In addition the crew quarters below the decks would have been unbearably hot. In Arctic and Southern Ocean waters in winter, ice would rapidly build up on the very cold bare steel decks and rapidly make the ship top heavy and unstable. Wood acts as an insulator and thus helps to keep the ship cool in the tropics and slows the build-up of ice on the ship in high latitude seas and oceans. After that lesson in marine construction I glued the strips of pine to the lime base, starting at the front centre and working outwards: After several sessions and what seemed at the time like an eternity I had managed to cover the whole of the deck area: Making the strip fit the different curves of the barbette, edge of the deck and fill the gaps between the ventilation hatches involved another steep learning curve for me. The decks of those old warships were teak as stated above, but the wood rapidly discoloured in the salt air and under the influence of the sun. In addition sailors were expected to scrub the decks with honeystone, an abrasive stone which was supposed to make the decks white: an affectation of senior naval officers, some of whom seemed to think that they were still living in the age of sail. Indeed it could be said that if the Royal Navy prior to 1914 had spent more time practising gunnery and other military activity than burnishing the brass and decks of the warships, they may have been more effective, even successful, when they finally engaged the enemy. However that may have been, the decks of warships were not the colour of pine strip, so I had to find a way of representing discoloured teak. Colour photographs of modern preserved battleship wood decks show that they are a dull grey. I stained the pine with a dark red wood stain (Peruvian mahogony), to try to represent the teak deck when new: In the process I managed to remove several areas of the acryllic grey on the barbette and ventilation covers, so these will need to be repainted later. When the woodstain was dry I used a wash of Revell Hellgrau(76) mixed with white: I applied many coats of this until I had something close to the grey in my reference photographs: The slightly uneven colours are what I wanted to achieve: the deck areas of these ships was huge and the variation in colour on the originals was considerable. Now all I have to do is to repaint the barbette and ventilation covers before I attach the turret and guns and start to make the bridge structure which will form the rear of the display. Thanks for looking. P
  2. Words do not adequately describe just how good that is: not quite flawless but about as close as it gets. The finish including the slight weathering is excellent. The figure and base turn this into a mini-masterpiece. P
  3. Evening All, Thanks for the encouraging comments gentlemen - I really appreciate them. I have been studying the many photographs that were taken in early May 1912 on and of HMS Hibernia to try to get to grips with the details of the deck and fittings. In one of the photos and on the scale drawings there are some oblongs in front of the turre, and I could not work out what they were. A friend helped me to solve the problem when he showed me a photograph of another pre-WW1 battleship foredeck: they were ventilator openings to the focsle (crew quarters) in the front end of the ship. Having solved that problem I felt able to proceed with the basic deck/barbette assembly. I covered the edges of the pieces of wood which will represent the ship sides with thin plastic sheet and painted them Tamiya Dark Sea Grey as I have been advised that this is probably close to the grey of RN ships of that era: these were glued to the base. I glued strips of 20 x 30 Evergreen strip to to represent the metal step on the edges of the deck and painted these and the wood grey as above: I decided that the basswood needed more support underneath, so before I attached the decking I reinforced the base with some more support: When the deck pieces were well set I added the barbette, which had also been painted, and the breakwater in front of the barbette. The latter was cut form 15 thou card with holes drilled as observed on a photograph, and the bracing pieces also as observed on a photograph and ship plans. The vents for the crew quarters were also made from 15 thou card and painted grey, except the bottoms which are black as I have no intention of trying to replicate the internals of the ship! The covers will be added later in the open position. The next part will be to add the deck planking and start on the bridge which will form the rear of the model and support for the rear of the launch ramp. Thanks for looking. P.
  4. Evening All, Thanks Stuart for your kind comment and to all the others who read my recent update: your support is much appreciated. @Bandsaw Steve - please note that although I do not have a bandsaw in my garage, wood has now been sacrficed /carved for this part of the build. I have become a ship modeller recently: usually I make aeroplanes so I am learning fast. When I dropped into my LMS and asked for a kit of the front turret and foredeck of an Edwaed VII class battleship of 1912 in 1/72 scale I just received a blank stare! I started by downloading a plan and side elevation of the foredeck of HMS Africa/Hibernia and enlarged it until 1mm represents 1 foot. I could then draw a plan at 1/72 scale where 1 inch represents 6 feet. I have made a base which is 12 inches (30 cm) x 11 inches (28cm) from hardboard and painted the edges which will not be covered by the deck white. I used white rather than sea blue because this will not be a waterline model: only the top of the ship sides above the portholes of the crew accommodation will be represented. Three supports from 1 inch x 1 inch (2.5cm x 2.5 cm) wood were glued to the top of the hardboard - these will hold the deck. I shaped 2 pieces of 1 inch square wood to represent the sides of the ship immediately below the deck line and covered the outer faces with 10 thou plastic sheet. These will be painted battleship grey later. The small fillets at the rear of the sides represent the curve of the ship sides above a 9.2 inch gun mounted low down in the hull: The gaps at the front and rear of the model between deck and base will be covered with plastic card later. The deck was cut form 1/8th inch (2mm) basswood (lime) sheet: 2 pieces were cut and shaped to represent the deck forward of the bridge to a point approximately 30 feet (8.2m) forward of the forward barbette breakwater. The edges were rounded with glass paper and sealed with a mixture of talcum powder and dope: The circle and arc represent where the barbette and breakwater will be positioned later. The curved rear covered the 9.2 inch guns in the hull and will have 60th plastic sheet CA'd underneath to represent the armoured deck.The top of the deck will be covered with 1/8 inch (2mm) square pine strip to represent the wood planking on the real ships. The barbette was cut form 4 pieces of 1/4 inch (0.5mm) basswood sheet: 2 pieces were joined to form a square sheet and the two sheets glued so that the joints were at 90 degrees. When the glue had set I cut off the waste wood around the circle that I had drawn on one surface, and the final rounding was achieved with a wood file: I made a block for the turret from 2 inch (5cm) square basswood: I cut a length of wood into two and glued the two pieces together and then added two more pieces of 1/4 inch sheet to the rear of the sides to allow for the wider rear of the turret. The top of the block was removed with a tenon saw (sorry @Bandsaw StevešŸ˜ž The front of the turret has also been trimmed to save filing the front face later. I filed/shaped the top of the turret first. I traced the upper and lower surfaces of the turret plan and the faces of the turret sides from the drawing and transferred these to the wood block and cut the sides of the block so that they were almost in alignment with the lower outline: Starting at the rear I could now file the individual faces of one side of the turret using the lines as a guide: The above operation was repeated for the other half of the turret and the front surface was also completed: The rear of the turret had the recesses cut with a saw. I drilled two holes in the front of the turret to take the gun barrels. The barrels of the guns were made from pine dowel which had been turned in an electric drill and sanded to shape with coarse, and polished with fine, glasspaper. The ends were shaped to fit into the holes in the turret. The turret, gun barrels and barbette were sealed with my go to wood sealant - talcum powder and dope mixture - and sanded smooth: The gun barrels, turret and barbette have only been placed together for photos and checking fit and position. They will be permanently glued together later. Thanks for looking. P
  5. Evening All Thank you all for the kind comments. @Bandsaw Steve I apologise for causing you outrage by not using a bandsaw yet - I promise that I will try to do so when I make the turret and deck base for the model. I will certainly be using quantities of wood when I do get around to that part..... I have made some progress with this project, but did have a case of two steps forward and one back, which meant that I had to dissemble and re-assemble some parts. I completed the addition of the interplane and boom struts after the initial assembly had dried out: this was a straightforward task as it involved gently placing the ends of the struts into the pre-drilled holes in the wings after I had place a small drop of glue into the relevant holes. The boom struts were cut to exact length and fixed in place with CA: When I added the supporting struts for the upper wing overhang I did not cut them to the correct length and as a consequence I distorted the wing and boom structures. It took me a whole evening of fiddling and thinking before I realised the cause of the problem, by which time I had partially dissembled the top wing. Fortunately as soon as I removed the outermost interplane struts the problem was resolved: the wing was re-assembled and new outer struts cut and glued into place and all was square again. I made the front booms from brass bar as the originals were square section. I measured the gap between the wings using a pair of dividers and marked the where the ends of the booms needed to be with a pencil on a piece of paper. I could then lay the brass bar on the paper to form two V's which I was able to solder: After the joints had been cleaned with a file I was able to CA the repective booms to each side of the front of the model. I started rigging the model at this stage because some areas will be difficult to reach later. The wings and boom bracing was rigged using rolled copper wire held with CA: I have now reached a snag: the undercarriage was a simple structure consisting of two struts on each side supporting two skids. The axle ran across the skids. This will be an inherently weak part of the model which will require careful handling, especially when rigging. In addition if I finish the aircraft before I make the turret and foredeck on which I intend to mount it, I will have to be very careful in storing the aircraft model to stop it being accidentally damaged, so I have put it to one side for the moment while I concentrate on the base. I have made a small start on the base but am still in the process of studying photos of the deck and turret to work out some of the smaller details. I am not a ship modeller so I am on a very steep (vertical?) learning curve at the moment, but in the last couple of days I have had access to some very helpful information with the help of a fellow modeller and I hope to be able to present the results of my research in model form before too long. Thanks for looking. P
  6. Dear Iain, Sadly there are no plans that I know of. I used basic plans of the Wright type B and modified them using the available photographic evidence. There is a scale model in the Smithsonian museum however, so there must be plans of some sort. Images of the model can be found at: https://www.google.com/search?q=flight+wright+baby+type+r&tbm=isch&hl=en&client=firefox-b-e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOjNuSs_mCAxV6tycCHdpqBmYQgowBKAB6BAgBECw&biw=1905&bih=879#im
  7. Splendid stuff. Your model seems to have a similar history to mine: I had the original issue Airfix Lancaster from the mid 1960's hanging from my bedroom wall. The supports snapped and it ended on my bed - in two parts as it split down the middle. I stored it in the roof of my parents house for a number of years and then, (did someone mention Alan Hall, balsa wood and talcum powder and dope filler?) decided to convert it following A Hall's article in Airfix Magazine. This was in the mid 1970's.... The result: and those Vulture engines: The model is still in my work room in a perspex case - nearly 50 years later. P
  8. Evening All Thank you for all of the encouraging comments - they are much appreciated. I agree - I bet the poor chap was livid, but given that the admiral was given a ride on the S38 in the afternoon after the launch from Hibernia in Weymouth Bay I am not sure that he would have made his views too public! I have been working on this while working on the Gordon Bennett dio. Now that the latter is finished, (well almost - as I will explain later, I have decided to make two new Bleriot XXIII's because I have finally sorted out the wing problem), I will focus on this subject. Having made most of the major parts I painted them: CDL for the flying surfaces, and Revell semi-matt 382 tan for the struts: The engine was mounted on a block on the trailing edge of the lower wing: I made a mounting from plastic card and inserted a piece of rod to represent the shaft which connected the fuel and oil tanks to the engine. The fuel/oil tanks were cut from 60 thou rod and mounted on a frame made from plastic strip. There was a passenger seat in front of the fuel/oil tanks - that was cut from 20 thou card and after all had been painted, the sub-assemblies were fixed to the lower wing: NB the pilot's seat and frame are only placed on the model - they will be attached permanently later. All was now ready to attach the upper wing. I followed my usual procedure for making the process easy: select 4 wing struts and the two rear boom struts. Place drops of cement into the holes on the ends of the lower wing and place the struts into the holes. While the cement is still soft put small drops of cement into the relevant holes in the upper wing and gently place the lower wing and struts into the 4 holes in the inverted upper wing. I had paint pots handy to keep the wing edges square and supported while I put super glue on to one corner of the rear of the booms. I inserted one of the rear struts, followed by the second, and I had a square structure. I set this aside and allowed the cement to set: When the cement had set I had a rigid structure which can be handled so that the remaining struts can be fixed at leisure: The next step will be to add the interplane and boom struts and then the undercarriage. Thanks for looking. P
  9. Evening All, The Gordon Bennett air races for land planes were established by the millionaire Gordon Bennett in 1909. The rules of the races were similar to the Schneider Trophy for floatplanes: 1.The races were open to all nationalities and would be held annually in the country of the previous yearā€™s winner. 2.The first nation to win the race for three consecutive years would win the trophy outright and the races would cease. The first race was held in Paris in 1909 and was won by Glenn Curtis from the USA, the second in 1910 was won by C. Grahaeme-White for Britain. Consequently the third race in 1911 had to be held in Britain, where the flying ground of the Royal Aero Club and new factory site of Short Brothers at Eastchurch in Kent was chosen: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The poster above is displayed in Eastchurch Aviation museum but has several errors: only one Wright baby biplane took part and the Bleriot types are wrong - two type XXIII took part, not type XI as shown. (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The race attracted a large crowd, (some estimate up to 10,000 but a figure of 5-6,000 is probably more realistic), and was held on 1st July. Originally there were 12 entrants to the race, but 5 withdrew before the start: D. Graham Gilmore withdrew on the day because his Bristol monoplane had not been completed: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The course was a circuit of 6 km and each aeroplane had to complete 20 laps. (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) Score boards were set up to allow the spectators to see how the race was progressing: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The turning points on the polygonal course were indicated by four towers: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The competitors and their aircraft were: 1. Alexander Ogilvy flying a Wright Baby biplane with a 50hp NEC 4 cylinder two stroke engine: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) Ogilvy had bought this aeroplane from the Wright brothers in 1910 and had competed in the previous yearā€™s race at Belmont Park, New York. The Short brothers had installed the engine and partially rebuilt the centre of the aeroplane for the race, in one of many rebuilds and modifications of the machine. Olgivy had to stop to refuel during the race so his average speed was reduced to 51.2 mph (82.4 kph). He was placed fourth. 2. Charles Weymann was an American who was flying a Nieuport IV monoplane powered by a 100 hp Gnome Omega Omega rotary engine which was two rotary engines bolted together to a common drive shaft.In this photo he is sitting in the centre of the group: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) Weymann achieved an average speed of 78.1 mph (125.7 kph) and thus won the race: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) 5. Gustav Hamel (in white hat) was a German born naturalised Englishman who flew a Bleriot XXIII monoplane: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) The engine was also a Gnome Omega Omega 100hp rotary. The original wingspan was greater than on the day of the race in July: the span had been reduced by approximately 1/3 to approximately 17 feet (5m), after he found that he was approximately 5 seconds slower per lap than one of the competitors, the Nieuport II, against the advice of L. Bleriot himself. (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) This caused the editor of The Aeroplane to comment that the aircraft looked more like: ā€œthe latter half of a dogfish with a couple of visiting cards stuck on them than anything elseā€! Hamel crashed and did not complete the race: some sources say that it happened when turning around a pylon on the first lap, another stated that he crashed when flying low in front the crowd before the race. Fortunately he escaped almost unhurt although the aeroplane was wrecked: (copyright Eastchurch Aviation Museum. Published with kind permission of the museum trustees) 6. Alfred Leblanc who flew the second Bleriot XXIII, also had the wingspan reduced. Like the Wright Baby these machines were built as racing aeroplanes: in May 1911 Leblanc had set a new world speed record in Paris and he had been a favourite to win in this race. However following the reduction in the wingspan of his aeroplane and the crash of Hamel he seems to have been more cautious and did not push the aircraft to its limits: he came second in the race with an average speed of 75.9 mph (122.1 kph). 11. Eduard Nieuport competed in an aeroplane of his own design: the Nieuport II with a 70 hp Gnome rotary engine: This engine was larger and of a different shape to engines fitted to earlier models of the Nieuport II so the nose had to redesigned with a cowling. Although the machine had been designed as a racer it was not fast enough to catch the 100hp powered aircraft, so he came third with an average speed of 74.9mph (120.6 kph). 12 Louis Chevalier also flew a Nieuport II but with a 28 hp flat twin cylinder engine of Nieuport design: Chevalier actually flew two aircraft in the race but neither finished because of engine failure. In May 1911 one of these aircraft had set a speed record of 74 mph (119 kph), so if he had been able to finish he would certainly have beaten Ogilvie and may have had a small chance of being third in place. The Gordon Bennet races stopped in 1920 after France won in three successive years (1912, 1913 and 1920). Short Brothers moved their factory to Rochester in 1917. Eastchurch airfield was requisitioned by the Royal Navy after the outbreak of the first world war in 1914 because it had been used as a training ground and base by the Naval Air Service from 1912. In 1920 the Admiralty bought the site from the Royal Aero Club and it remained in military use until 1947 when it closed. Today there is a small aviation museum on the site where the above display can be seen. The model aircraft, sheds, score board and pylon were scratch built, the figures were Langley Models Victorian/Edwardian standing figures and Dart Castings. There are build logs for the aircraft models. Individual build logs for the aircraft models can be found in the "Under construction" section of this site. Thanks for looking. P
  10. First class in every department Dave. A different and interesting colour scheme. P
  11. First class model on an equally stunning base. I abhor vacuforms and admire greatly anyone who can make one as well as this. Many congratulations. P
  12. A superb piece of scratch building. My hat off to you sir! P
  13. Another of those engines with wings and floats attached! Looks very good to me. P
  14. What a superb model. I especially like the slightly irregular edges to the stripes - very realistic as they were put on in a hurry on the original aircraft. P
  15. I had not seen this thread until now - sadly I do not get as much time to follow as I used to do - life etc. I have just spent a long time reading most of this and am even more lost for words than I had previously been when reading your threads. This is truly model engineering rather than modelling! Absolutely mind blowing - ingenious, daring, perfectionist, brilliant..... I have run out of superlatives because I am not very literate. Do keep up the good work and I must look in much more frequently in future. P
×
×
  • Create New...