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nick

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Posts posted by nick

  1. 2 minutes ago, Scooby said:

    Very nice, makes me want to build one of these kits. I typically build aircraft.

    Yes I’m a plane guy at heart, but these RFM kits are just fascinating, you get a real good idea of how tanks are screwed together even if you know little about them- like me. 

  2. Not completely finished, and noticed a few repairs required under the glare of my unforgiving L-series 100mm Macro, but nearly done...

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    Now I don't know much about tanks, but I know a little about kits, and this is just exceptional. As well as the PE, vinyl mud flaps and decals, the moulding is just amazing - the welds, casting data and friction surfaces especailly are absolutely exceptional.

     

    • Like 13
  3. Thanks for all the kind words everyone. 

     

    I’ve been thinking about this and actually kits like this aren’t that crazy after all. ‘why’ I hear you say (one of many voices in my head) well who looks at your models? I mean in the flesh? OK you may enter the odd comp, most people don’t, so apart from that one or two like minded friends maybe? But mostly nobody, but who looks at PHOTOS of your models? Lots of people, us lot for a start, so actually the main ‘consumer’ of our models is the camera and the internet, so in that case all the ‘lost’ detail that gets locked inside, isn’t lost at all, its just as valid as the work thats still visible externally on the finished model. 
     

    and for my next trick I will be proving black is white (and trying not to get run over on the next zebra crossing for any other Douglas Adams fans out there)

     

    I’m off for a lie down now anyway. 
     

    Nick

    • Like 3
    • Haha 2
  4. Exciting news, I've finally put version1 of the Bentley wire wheels into production.

     

    The full car as a kit (rather than a one-off) is a mamoth undertaking I have come to realise, so I have taken the decision to release the wheels as a direct replacement for the Airfix items.

     

    This means that they have the four studs on the back that fit the airfix brake drums so the wheels can both be used in new builds and retro-fitted to completed kits to give them a major boost. They make use of the kit tyres too, so are a direct replacementbwith no modification to the kit at all.

     

    In true Blue Peter fashion, heres one I prepared earlier mated to the airfix drum.

     

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    I plan a version 2 that will ship with a brake set that will correct the airfix drums and mount the wheels in a more scale-like manner.

     

    Production is ramping up as we speak and they are available for sale on the unobtainium web shop today.

     

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    Thanks for your patience and continued interest!

     

    PS I've also re-commenced work on the hybrid printed/CNC chassis, stand by for updates and photos.

     

    Regards

     

    Nick

     

     

    • Like 6
  5. I'm a huge fan of excessive, never-to-be-seen-detail so these RFM kits are right up my street. There's no real way of ever displaying all the work inside these things as transparent stuff always look a bit naff to me, exploded stuff can be made to work, but I'll settle for some photos along the way. so having said that, here's some of the really nice detail the chaps at RFM provide that will never see the light of day. I like it anyway.

     

    The 'Powerpack'

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    I know little of tanks, but as far as I can see, the transmission has a pair of friction plates that engage with a similar set in the hull, so the whole shooting match looks like it lifts out pretty easily without messing about disconnecting any driveshafts etc. You can see them in this shot, very clever if that is indeed how it works?

     

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    'So we want you to drive this big tin box full of very large explody bullets, right next to your left ear while people shoot at you' 

     

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    That big old  motor/transmission does fit in the hole it turns out

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    You can still see some stuff with the lid on

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    Lots still to do, but really enjoying this I must admit.

     

    Thanks for looking

     

    Nick

    • Like 19
    • Thanks 1
  6. 6 hours ago, Jo NZ said:

    The dashboards arrived from Nick, and I have to say that the engraving is brilliant!

     

    Unfortunately they have suffered in the post...

     

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    I'm not sure what did it, but they are curved in two directions - pretty difficult to do

     

    luckily, with some gentle flattening in a vice, and then a rubber hammer and surface plate, they can be recovered. I flattened the worst one first

     

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    I drew the plate intentionally 5mm larger all round, so I'd got some fiddle room to get it in the right place on the dash hoop

     

    IMG_0808

     

     

    Looking good! I was looking through my photos for more detail when I came across this

     

    IMG_0330

     

     

    Notice how the dash hoop goes down the side of the chassis? I'd never noticed it before, and made the hoop to sit on top of the chassis.      Bugger.

     

    So next is to build a new dash hoop out of laminated strips of wood. I still have the jig that I used to make the first one, so a slight modification will correct it. I'm off to my LMS tomorrow to get thin strip hardwood.  Luckily he supplies boat modellers so always has a good selection...

     - and then I can use the second dash plate....

    Let me know if you need any more panels easy enough now I’ve figured out how to make them.

     

    Nick

    • Like 1
  7. Wow you made that hard for yourself! I get why you drew it in fusion (if you dont have illustrator) so you did the hard bit. Add the colour in fusion - just extrude the lettering in white, then the background in black add a scale, say a line 5cm long or something known next to the gauge face, then go to file, capture image set a custom resolution in Inches rather than pixels and print the thing with windows photos using the resize option if required, measure your 5cm bar on the physical print and scale accordingly using resize.

     

    You've gone from a nice fully scalable vector in fusion via ms Paint, to MS word which is really bad at handling images faithfully.

     

    I suspect you might need to make the white lettering/markings wider than they actually are - at this scale the bleed from black to white is enough to lose it, so I end up making everything fat and it looks right when printed.

     

    I just work in illustrator in the first place which I know isn't for everyone, and certainly isn't quick and easy to learn, but it's very good at stuff like this, especially if you're doing a lot of it.

     

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    Have fun!

     

    Nick

    • Like 3
  8. OK they’re in the post! Let me know how you get on

    20 hours ago, nick said:

    OK that's it now, I've engraved this at 0.06mm depth and I'm pretty confident that the font stroke width is just the width of the tool tip, 0.1mm so that's as fine as it will go, you can see it's slightly better than the earlier version at the bottom of the shot.

     

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    Hope that will be good enough? I don't think you're going to get down to the this size and stroke width with punches to be honest. 

     

    Nick

    OK they’re in the post, let me know how you get on. 
     

    Nick

    • Like 1
  9. OK that's it now, I've engraved this at 0.06mm depth and I'm pretty confident that the font stroke width is just the width of the tool tip, 0.1mm so that's as fine as it will go, you can see it's slightly better than the earlier version at the bottom of the shot.

     

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    Hope that will be good enough? I don't think you're going to get down to the this size and stroke width with punches to be honest. 

     

    Nick

    • Like 2
  10. I think I've finally cracked it now:-

     

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    I got hold of some EXTREMELY pointy V bits, but it took me a while to figure out the feed and plunge rates to stop them immediately snapping as they didn't have any data sheets

     

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    Once I figured that out, they last quite well and cut nice thin lines. All this stuff is quite small for our readers! :)

     

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    Looking at the photos, rather than real life, I think I can maybe be get the lettering thiner at the expense of depth, so I may have one last go with a more shallow cut.

     

    Nick

    • Like 2
  11. Here's the first attempts:-

     

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    This is pretty near to the limits of what I can do with this machine I think, I've had to use single line fonts (don't ask) but hopefully they are close enough to what you want? I'm going to have one last go with 0.1mm V bit and two passes ay 0.06mm to get 0.12mm depth, the issue is, the deeper the engraver the wider the stroke becomes and you end up displacing a lot of material that doesn't clear neatly.

     

    Stay tuned, it's useful for me as I'm learning a lot about engraving I didn't know before :)

     

    Nick

     

    • Like 2
  12. On 1/11/2024 at 3:40 AM, Jo NZ said:

     

     

    I still need to find a way to make the stamping on the dash for "FRONT and REAR" (twice). They look like 1/4" characters in full size, so I'm looking for a stamping set with 0.75mm letters.....

    This is looking great. I’ve had some success CNC machining my Bentley Dashboard and my machine is also capable of engraving pretty well to, so if you want to knock up a fusion drawing of the panel I’ll have a go at cutting one out of ali and engraving it for you if you like (don’t forget my friend what-the-font? For matching the lettering!) I’m not sure I can engrave small enough, but happy to try. Also how thick is the ali - I’ve got most small sizes. 

     

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    i got pretty handy at drawing the faces in illustrator too for making decals, so if you have a square on shot of the dials I don’t mind knocking some decals up too,it’s quite time consuming learning how to do it I found!

     

    the good news is that all weights next to nothing and will fit in an envelope. 
     

    Nick

     

     

    • Like 6
  13. 2 hours ago, Schummie said:

    Thank you all.

    @nick, just start and take your time. Look at some builds, beside mine, there are lots out there.

    Then you can avoid all,or most problems.

    Lots of dry-fitting and time is the key.

    And then you get very good results. Out of the box is more tham fine with these kits.

    In fact, I added only some brass tube and wire.

    I only use basic modelling tools like little hand drils, sanding paper and a dremel and an airbrush.

    So don’t be put off. The reward will be great, and you maybe even hooked to these remarkeble kits.

    Regards,

    Eric

    Thanks for the encouragement, I have got form with MFH kits when I did battle with their Brough Superior https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235073317-mfh-19th-brough-superior/

    Ive bought a magnetic tumbler now so I’m running out of excuses not to start it.
    In my head, I’m thinking of basing a scratch built 1/12th (maybe 1/8th?) version on it as the Tamiya one is so flawed.


    MFH really do their homework so it’s almost like having access to a dismantled real car!

     

    I,ve got the CAD done for the engine, and I’m toying with a CNC cut sheet Ali monocoque, except fusion 360 sheet metal mode is no use for this I now know. 
     

    easy enough to do an old-school paper template from the MFH body and rescale. Watch this space.

     

    still love yours though. 

  14. Looks good, did you draw the base plate as part of the design and are the components completely/solidly  attached to it? They look they might be?

     

    Im all for drawing my own supports, (rather than relying on slicer generated) but you might want to think about standing the parts off the base with pillars or slotted blades (my favourite method!) as seen under the cylinder banks here

     

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    at the least I would I set a saw blades width between the part and baseplate. Completely attaching is making life difficult for yourself.

    Ignore all that if that isnt what you did  of course! 😎👍
     

    looking great though, excellent work. 

     

    Nick

     

    • Like 1
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