airscale

Wow, thank you everyone, I am humbled by all of your super kind comments I very much appreciate them Thank you Spruecutter - you will, I plan to enter it into IPMS modelworld later this year so it will be on the tables if interested Thanks again everyone Peter

well I can't believe I haven't updated this since February been so busy - I did finish the P51C Lopes Hope and have launched 18 new airscale products in the last few months so have not had much time at the bench at all.. ..that being said, I have done a few bits.. ..sorted out the fin from being a big slap of perspex, but only took one pic.. ..opened out the tailwheel well from the slot with a mounting tube in it that it was.. ..to the correctly shaped aperture by using a template, but didn't take a pic of that either.. 🙃 so on to the nose - I had let in a bit of ali tube to provide the foundation of the carburettor intake atop the cowling.. ..turned out this was waaay to small in diameter, plus having found the drawing of the casting, it is also a complicated shape and very definately not round.. ..it has fluted fairings at the front, tucks up under itself and becomes squareish at the upper rear so is a bit of a handful to reproduce.. ..in the end I made a 3D one, but I don't know enough to do all the fairings so just took the basic shape as defined in a few axes by the drawing and will let filler do the rest.. ..chopped out the old one and after having airbrushed the insides interior green (should prolly be ZC but too late now) I masked the insides and let it into the fuselage.. ..bit more fettling... ..and with the fairing built up, the basic shape is there - I still need to make the whole casting area stand proud so I can skin up to it so will do that with more filler up to a dyno tape seam.. ..the next schoolboy error I needed to correct was the seat bulkhead... I had intended to just sheet over the hole in the bulkhead as I had seen this in some cockpit pics, but it turns out it should be open with the fuselage fuel tank behind it.. ..like this.. ..you can just see the tank, much like the P51 one I did, it's covered in some rough material, perhaps the rubber self sealing stuff.. ..so butchery ensued while I chopped out the hole and made up the tank blank from plan templates & hard foam.. ..also refined the top of the spine a bit by adding a bent litho angle part each side to accept skinning & glass much later.. ..bulkhead #5 prepared - the hole is painted green under the masking and with the tank in place you can't see anything about how rough it is inside.. ..and the finished tank, made by covering the blank with tissue & diluted PVA glue.. ..so a bit of a disordered update, but I should have a bit more time now so hope to be back soon TTFN Peter

Hi everyone, 4 years after I started this build, I have only just got around to adding the finishing touches and calling it done.. A bit of background: Lopes Hope is a P51C-5-NT that Aircorps Aviation in Minnesota have put back in the air. I was so blown away by the photographic records they kept and the absolute commitment to accuracy they employ that I wrote to them asking for more info about the airframe. I was stunned when their VP wrote back offering to share info, permission to use their photo's in my build log and any support I needed - starting a relationship that flourishes to this day. They are the same guys that host the Aircorps Library which is an incredible online resource offering for a nominal membership fee access to all the factory drawings and manuals for a range of seminal aircraft. Their notes on this P51 and why they chose it echo my own: "Lope's Hope 3rd was a P-51C flown by Lt. Donald Lopez. Donald and Lope's Hope 3rd served in the China-Burma-India theater with the 14th Air Force, 23rd Fighter Group, 75th Squadron. The 23rd Fighter Group was the descendent of the famous American Volunteer Group or Flying Tigers after the US entered the war. Lt. Lopez had 5 victories in China and went on to become a test pilot in the early years of the jet age. Later he was the deputy director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum until his death in 2008. Donald Lopez was instrumental in the construction and opening of the National Air and Space Museum. The original wartime Lope's Hope 3rd was a P51C-5-NT, Army Air Force Serial Number: 42-103585. The serial number information was just acquired through the generous contribution of pages from Lt. Lopez's war time log book by his granddaughter Laura Lopez. Normally a WWII fighter's serial number is easily determined by just looking at the tail number. Squadrons in almost every theater of operations number planes this way, but not in China. In China the 23rd Fighter Group's squadrons were assigned a block of numbers for differentiating their aircraft. The 75th squadron's block was 150- 199 (or to 200 depending on source). Lt. Lopez used 194 on both his P-40N s and on his P-51C , Lope's Hope 3rd. Without his log book it might have been impossible to figure out his Mustang's AAF serial number. Our restoration airframe is a P-51C-10NT Army Air Force Serial Number: 43-24907 , that remained in the continental US during WWII and was used for training purposes during and immediately after the war. The decision to paint her in Lt. Lopez's color scheme is intended to honor him and his service to his country in WWII and to aviation all his life." The model started as a 1/18 HpH Desktop GRP shell.. and 1,230 pictures and a lot of work later, it looks like this.. I really enjoyed this one... it spoilt me though, having every drawing of every part and great references from the restoration meant i could just build everything i saw in front of me - that collection of hundreds, if not thousands of parts resulted in I think my best model. It is certainly a more complex aeroplane than the Spitfire I made, for example the gear bays on this were about 3 - 4 months work, on the Spit a week or two, there is virtually nothing in it's bays 😀 I hope you enjoy it and all my thanks to Aircorps and everyone who chipped in with encouragement in my build thread until next time Peter

Hello again everyone :) Pleased to announce the launch of another new range of products which are available now Seatbelts for RAF, USAAF and Luftwaffe aircraft in both 1/32 and 1/24 priced at £6.95 and £7.25 RAF here USAAF here Luftwaffe here Simulated fabric & twill seat harnesses. Laser cut paper representing the straps & harnesses. Laser cut card representing the leather protective padding. Etched nickel silver and brass parts representing the buckles & hardware Assembly required ..here are details on the 1/24 sets for example.. Luftwaffe 1/24 RAF 1/24 and USAAF 1/24 I hope you like them Peter

Hi everyone, We have an exciting range of new products coming in the next few months and I am pleased to release the first today These are Metallic Airframe Placards & Dataplates in scale Brass / Aluminium colours Available in the following scales: 1/24 @ £8.95 1/32 @ £7.95 1/48 @ £7.25 Available here Product Details Metallic Placards Individual airframe and engine placard decals produced using metallic inks for real brass & aluminium effect. Representing many manufacturer Dataplates found on engines and in aircraft serving in WW2. Suitable for both Allied & German aircraft, featuring manufacturers like Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Wright, Bell, Vought, Boeing, North American,Focke-Wulf, Junkers, Messerschmitt, Bosch, Bendix etc. I hope they are a welcome addition to our hobby We also have Prop Logo's, a remastered full colour RAF set, the HobbyBoss 1/18 Fw190 Cockpit Upgrade, 1/24 Harrier etched Panel, a brand new range of Seatbelts and even a 1/72 scale superset coming soon Thanks Peter

evening all been a bit fraught in the day job, so not much bench time - but did a few bits.. first the rudder pedals, seen here - note the raised writing and toe treadplate - another opportunity to cheat with PE ..I used brass tube for the support frame and assembled more PE parts to make up the pedals and brake cams.. ..times 2.. ..these were then primed, painted and assembled - the beam at the top is hidden by the panel, so didn't bother making up the true parts and just used some plastic channel.. ..next up my favourite part - the instrument panel - for me, this has always defined the quality of a model, I sort of look at the exterior, but evry time I look at models at shows, I go straight for the interior ..I made the panel from a few laminates - the rear backplate that holds the decal, a thin mid panel that has some of the dial interior bits & shapes on it (on the left) and the face panel on the right.. ..obviously with PE, the detail can be as good as you are as an artist.. ..the panels were painted - MRP supermatt blach for the face and rear, and NATO black for the mid-panel. Also seen here is the 'glass' which is cut from OHP acetate just like we supply in airscale sets and the decal.. ..the decal is an interesting one as I am still waiting on the ones I am having printed, but Ray at Fantasy Printshop sent me a test sample from a new computer printer he has (vs silk screen printing) - while some of the stuff is a bit blobby for me, curiously the panel dials came out really well so I thought I would try them - I can always change them later.. ..and with the laminates assembled and a few details added - when the proper decals for all the placards & labels arrive it will really pop.. ..still some tidying up to do, but you get the idea.. ..and thats it for a while - I am chancing some travel and going to the Carribean for a couple of weeks to get out of this damn $hitty weather TTFN Peter

afternoon all, thanks for stopping by been busy on some of the sidewall components, starting with this steampunk contraption that does nothing more complicated than control the cowl flaps.. ..I am really not sure why the design needed to be quite so agricultural, but there we are - I build little aeroplanes, not big ones so what do I know.. ..I cheated considerably by disecting the drawings at aircorps library and prepped most of the bits in PE, so it was like assembling a little kit.. ..painted.. and dry fitted on the sidewall.. ..then it was on to the other side, with an electrical control box (with all the switches), a fuse box below it, and a junction box to the right of it.. ..I had also made this in PE but as I couldn't find any drawings of these parts (only the later P40's which were different), so I made what I could from photo's - unfortunately I scaled them badly so they were all too small.. ..so I had to make them from scratch - not as clean as I would like, and the decals won't fit either so tried doing those by hand too - not the best but it will do.. ..the bits.. ..painted and assembled.. ..I did have decals for the floor fuel gauges so I did those too.. ..as a little montage.. ..the final part was the throttle & prop controls - again, the early type and made from PE with the exception of the front face which had to be litho as it has a dome in it.. it is less than 1cm square, so very fiddly and required a jig to assemble it.. ..the control handles are balls of solder, i found for every 10 I made, one was not only round enough, but the right size, the rest become spares... ..there are tiny pins on each of the handles, and I can tell you, drilling a 0.2mm hole in a 1mm ball is an excercise in concentration.. ..again, this will be hugely enhanced by the decals when they arrive.. ..it goes about here.. slowly, but surely, one bit at a time.. TTFN Peter

that cockpit is amazing very nice job ..it looks very well detailed and you have really brough out the best in it Peter

howdy folks so, I started to complete the fuselage sidewalls with the remaining structural details and some of the components - including the canopy retraction wheel - this is a superb pic kindly supplied by Jennings Heilig.. ..you can see not only the wheel, but the curved guard panel that covers the cables to it's right.. ..I made this up from PE and other bits, also made the map case and got them ready for priming.. ..the right side is structurally complete with mounts for various things, stringers, formers etc and that guard for the canpoy winder thing.. ..and the other side, which has a guard for the elevator / rudder trim control cables... ..after priming with mr surfacer, it was all given a basecoat as soon I won't be able to get in all the nooks & crannies.. ..temporarily mounted the wheel for the pic and added the map case - this seems to be in different positions on early models so I went with the one that gave most clearance with the seat.. ..the green seems very olive drab in the pics, but i think its the lighting or blue background washing it out.. ..still an awful lot left to do.. TTFN Peter

evening all thanks for stopping by Dana - thank you so much for posting that - supremely useful info and saved me an embarassing finish had I stuck with the plan to use those markings thanks also while I have you for a lifetime's contribution to airframe research & publishing - we are all much, much richer for your efforts thanks also to Roger for bringing you in here Rich - that is a legendary post! I have not seen the original pic that G-CIIO was based on so now I have a real world period airframe to base mine on - love the helpful observations too - thank you sooooo much I got a bit more done on the P40 - first up the 3D printed chin intake arrived (thanks Tim!) so cleaned it up, added the fillets I needed that I couldn't do in 3D and painted alclad duralumin. I wanted to paint it even though it would need filler and sanding as if I was careful the inner faces where it meets the green intake parts would be undisturbed and save a tricky masking job later.. ..then it was added and faired in with P38... the stage pictured is adding a raised rim all the way around what in reality is a casting so I can butt sheet litho up to it when I skin it.. the rim is created by adding dymo tape and filling up to it's level.. ..then finished off and painted for later... ..then moved on to creating the cockpit sidewalls.. ..there is a lot going on here...I started by making sheet parts to fit - lots of bending & shaping to get them to sit naturally in the open cockpit area. then brass sections were added to keep them straight and a sheet of balsa CA'd to this to basically keep the sides in a jig so they can be worked, but preserve their shape.. ..for the coaming I vacformed from plan sections, though I cut it too short so had to make two parts.. ..then that lot was all faired in but keeping free where the parts will break away from the fuselage, and the windshield opening cut away.. ..the sidewalls were carefully broken away and the inner faces treated prior to skinning with litho.. ..the datum line and the station positions were marked while on the model so they are true.. ..those same datum marks were traced onto tape and the tape used to mark the positions on the new inner skin.. ..then the main longeron, some stringers and the fuselage stations were added - problem here was the formers were from drawings and they didn't match the sidewalls too well so a bit of fettling was needed - there are still some gaps, but it is what it is.. ..and they are a nice neat fit into the fuselage and are open and accessible in the jigs for detailing.. ..now about 5,000 bits need to be made to go on them.. TTFN Peter

Many thanks Roger - that is really helpful I wasn't going to do the Duxford bird as I haven't seen a picture of the original period scheme (if it exists), I was going to do this one, which while i think it may be colourised, I think is period NMF. I juts don't know what model or unit this is so will try and build what I see if anyone recognises it or knows what the '11 MD' mark on the tail may indicate, please chime in Peter

evening chaps & thank you Hi Sabrejet - possibly - I love NMF so there are lots of possibilities. Before I restarted the Firefly, I looked at a Gloster Meteor because I had a Hawker Fury a Griffon Spit and I thought the next logical lineage was an early jet, but it wouldn't fit in my display cabinet so I left it.. tempting though I designed a kit of PE parts, including those to make the early rounded back seat from layers.. I had choices with the pressed nature of the parts - I could have gone half etch and tried to emboss them, or I could have made holes and raised areas to represent the strengthening ribs.. I went with slots & ribs.. ..the parts were assembled, the bit at an angle at the base of the seat didn't fit so I reworked it.. ..then added a rim of fuse wire around the edge.. ..I made up some belts from lead rolled really thin - the hardware is scaled up from a new range of airscale seatbelts coming in late Feb.. I was doing the shoulder belts when I found out they were only introduced in 1942 and the A/C I am doing is pre-war I think.. ..will look something like this.. ..then made up the hydraulic hand pump which is mounted on the floor.. ..and painted & assembled the bits to date.. ..prolly start on the sidewalls next.. TTFN Peter

evening folks & thanks for stopping by with some encouragement so, I was away for a bit so not too much bench time, but I did get the lower cowl fairing on after adding the PE radiator parts inside first.. rear... ..front.. ..I have a 3D printed part to sit in front of the lower intake - shaping it properly with all the fillets & fairings is well beyond me, but this will serve the purpose of having a hard basis part with which to work, shape & skin... ..should be here tomorrow.. and how the airframe looks.. ..started on some of the internals - this is the control column and rods - lots of fabricated bits from drawings - nearly got caught out with the lower mount which is two rods one above the other on early models, but as can be seen in Denzil's pic above is canted on later models - I built the canted one from drawings before realising.. the grip was made from square brass rod, worked with a dremel & files.. ..it all needs priming & finessing and proper construction before it's finished.. ..on to the floor - this is where PE can really help - I built a jig to hold the floor in the aerofoil shape, but did not include any dihedral as its too hard to do if I use PE.. The centre rib is a laminate of just the bit you can see, with stubs of fuse wire for bolts.. this is the main floor PE with laminate parts for the central rivet strips and the wing fuel gauges, the areas clear of rivets in the centre are left as location markers for the rubbing plates.. primed, painted and with the rubbing boards and a couple of pipe unions added.. ..I love doing cockpits so will be here a while TTFN Peter

thanks chaps It is like Christmas morning here in the airscale house.. my giant PE sets turned up, perfect as always from PPD a walk around.. left to right - gun sides, cockpit floor, below that main gear door inners lower canopy, canopy retraction mechanism & wheel, rear cooler meshes, below all that main gear roof parts.. cockpit parts, rudder pedals, cowl flaps, fuselage cockpit bulkhead formers instrument panel, throttle quadrant, tailwheel door inner flap ribs.. cockpit parts, belly tank / bomb shackle, fuselage hatch ..rudder mass balances, wheel parts, bulkhead 5 backing plate fin spar, rear canopy skins, bulkhead 5 face plate and in the middle of that cockpit parts ..chin radiator / cooler meshes seat parts.. ..very happy with how they turned out, just need to remember what they all are now TTFN Peter

evening all, thanks for stopping by Hi CJP - thanks - yes shame about the Firefly, but I will go back to it, so thsi is just an interlude Thanks Cati - appreciated - will check them out, though - I did some experiments with Z-Poxy resin both with and without tights and not sure it's for me.. ..the findings were mixed - just adding a layer to the foam gave a bit of a skin (on the right), but I could still easily deform it with a fingernail... with the tights, the surface was way stronger but very textured so would need a lot of work, or perhaps more coats.. In the end, I decided to stick with plan A and skim the foam and fuselage with P38 filler..the skin is very thin and ultimately still quite fragile, but with a mix of CA and filler it's good enough to form and rivet litho over.. ..it took a bit of work, and where I sanded through the filler to the foam, I just washed it in thin CA and skimmed over it again.. ..then I added a cotton datum and chopped out big holes to add boxes for the exhaust areas - these wil ultimately be 3D printed so all I need is the 'hollow' that goes behind the skin panel.. ..then the fuselage was refined, the lower cowl vacformed (& here only taped on) and the body shot in high build automotive primer.. ..the lower nose under the spinner has been left as it's a complex scalloped shape ..still lots to do, but the base form is starting to take shape.. TTFN Peter

Thanks PR & afternoon all I started out by trying this new sculpting foam material - there is a keel assembly that is underneath the P40 made of 3 or 4 sections, so I got the drawings and scaled a floor and three cross sections. From here I filled the blanks with foam and sanded it down. I found a saw works best for main cuts, then a rasp for major shaping and then a sanding stick for finessing. One thing is it makes a lot of gritty dust which gets everywhere - it is hard stuff a bit like the stuff flower arrangers use I used quite thick card in my dental vacformer to pull a couple of copies of keel parts - found they make for a great way to knock up moulds for these sorts of parts which previously I would have spent longer using P38 filler. It sands really easily and stuff like this can be made in minutes.. ..In thinking about using it on the airframe itself - I wanted to be happy I could skin metal onto it so made up a test piece of foam with compound curves ..the first try just using it raw failed - the contact adhesive largely absorbed into the foam and the surface area of all the structure between what are essentially foam bubbles is not enough to get any adhesion I tried a skin of P38 filler & primer like I would anyway and this fixed the adhesion - but care is needed in forming the sheets as its quite easy to scar the foam even with hard wood coffee stirrers when i riveted the skin once its in place (which has to be done for compound curved areas), the distortion of the metal is more pronounced and there is a danger of going straight through it and puncturing the skin a tried a wash with thin CA and that helped a little with rigidity so I am sure with a combo of filler and CA I can make it work.. with the test done it was time to start doing the airframe.. the pro's in being able to get a 'body' in a couple of hours vs being careful with skinning is too strong - as opposed to days of trying to plank or fill all the areas with balsa & P38.. ..soon the airframe was done and the basic shaping complete - I will probably vacform the chin area and the area under the spinner will be P38 as there is a lot of scalloping and compound curves.. ..the keel parts sit here.. ..so now I need to give it a skim of P38 and do A LOT of refinement before its in a fit state to be skinned in metal later.. TTFN Peter

Hi all, thanks for your kind comments Hi PR - no, no patreon for me anymore - I found making videos took quite a lot of time and changed how I approached modelling, so regretfully I killed it off So, not back at work yet after a long Xmas break so got some good benchtime in I found I had made the chin intake to plans that were incorrect - you can see the 'dividers' are in the wrong position so a days work was ripped out, and another days work put into doing it all again - the lesson here is always check references! Wanted to get the rear of the chin intake sorted - a few things to note.. see the big natural metal duct that takes the air out of the upper two radiators to the exit ..and the rads themselves are mounted in a bulkhead behind the lower ring former that holds the cowl flaps.. you can also see the ducting here with holes in for the cowl flap control rods.. ..I started by nicking one of Mrs airscales mascaras as it was the right diameter to give me good forms to start making a mould to form the duct over - she put up a small fight, but with a promise to buy her a better one, it was soon cut to bits.. I made up a plastic card 'bath', put the sectioned mascara tubes in it and filled it with P38 filler - that gave me a good basis to make the mould which I later pulled a vacform over.. ..as the real one is natural metal, I needed to skin this part, so while it was still on the mould I started working some annealed litho.. ..the main tools of the trade here are a tiny ball pein hammer and a coffee stick.. ..after working it, sanding it and wire wooling it, the part was getting near to being finished.. ..the three components - it took me way longer to make the mould bits than the part itself.. ..added the holes and rivets that hold this panel.. ..to actually integrate it into the airframe I had to section the keel and remove a section so I could fettle it and get it in position.. ..also started on the bulkhead.. ..added a black plastic card backing to the bulkhead and cemented it all in place.. the radiators themselves and some of the fittings are in the monster PE set I have coming from PPD next week ..it was quite a job to get all this to line up - especially the angles and sit of where the duct meets the rads.. ..next up, I am going to try filling the fuselage with this sculpting foam and then a skin of P38 before skinning the airframe in metal.. ..should be interesting - hope it works out TTFN Peter

hey everyone Hi Lewis - yes, the spinner & wheels at least will be 3D printed, once I have designed them that is! I have been going mad on the PE design to date and now have two monster sheets after I decided to include the flap innards.. ..the first thing to set about was the nose - it's all very well having a solid perspex keel and solid formers, but there is a bit of work to do to open it all out for the chin intake and exhaust area.. I mocked up the PE radiator front so I could orient what needed to be done and set about grinding and cutting out the lower chin area.. ..also the rear where the cowl flaps will go.. ..added two ali plates that will give strength to this bifurcated area.. ..you can also see the ali tube I let into the upper nose for the basis of the (carb?) air intake ..the inside of the cowl is lined with sheets that duct the air from the intake to the 3 round prestone radiators - I have no drawings of this area so all I know is the shape of each intake segment, and the round radiator diameter at the end of it. to form the shapes, I needed to make bucks on which to form the metal sheet intakes. I started by laying out blanks of the shapes at each end and building a simple frame that held them in the right position Once the frame was removed from the model, a pole was added to lock that position and the frame cut away, resulting in these funny shapes.. ..those shapes were then built out with scrap plastic & balsa and filled with P38 filler and ultimately refined into the bucks needed.. intake shapes at the front.. ..radiator shapes at the back.. ..then annealed litho can be formed on the bucks to form the trunking.. ..these were then primed and painted as I won't be able to get to them once fitted.. ..then a bit of jiggling and they are fitted.. ..I slathered a bit of epoxy around them to help them keep their shape.. ..and the process worked - I also added a tape ring where they meet the rads which is like a canvas boot but you can't really see it.. ..the transition is quite smooth.. ..and thats it for now, rear area next.. TTFN Peter

hello everyone No way of dressing it up, but I have changed subject again... I will go back to the Fairey Firefly - this is it's second time of falling out of favour, but when you get the urge what do you do? My new flame is the early longnose P40. I have always thought it would make a good subject for me and very nearly started one after my P51, but didn't fancy another American aircraft in quick succession. It's easy to see why.. ..beautiful lines, natural metal and technically interesting. This is G-CIIO operated by The Fighter Collection who have said I can come and take at look at her once we are into the New Year and assuming there is no covid funny business preventing a visit... I have spent the last month or so researching and finding out about the airframe and the differences with the later short nose P40s and the earlier P36 - of which there are many. I also liked the timing with the GWH 1/32 kit coming out as folks will be talking P40's for a bit I had Jumpeii Temmas plans scaled and corresponded with Witold Jaworski who has digitally modelled the P40C and had done loads of research and analysis of factory drawings One thing I really looked forward to was doing what I did with my P51 and getting stuck into those drawings to replicate everything part by part. This was always something that hindered the Firefly, I just don't like working in a vacuum, I like the research and knowing what I am making is accurate An example like this - here is the tailwheel door in the parts manual.. ..I can find the part number and in Aircorps Library, look up the drawings.. ..then scale and copy the drawings to make up a set of photo-etch parts.. ..I did this hundereds of times and now have the mother of all PE sheets at 28cm by 47cm with everything I thought I could do in PE represented.. i thought I would base the model on the 21st Century Toys 'model' as I did with their Fw190D -this was on the basis that while it is a toy, the 190 was dimensionally pretty accurate.. So a trip to ebay and £160 lighter, one turned up.. Once the 'model' arrived I set about destroying it into it's component parts - this involved sawing some of the nose elements in half so I ended up with effectively two fuselage halves.. cue the first plan comparison and a very deflated feeling... ..it's too short, too narrow, has what looks like the late chin profile and is generally all over the place.. ..the rear fuselage is particularly out.. ..now, I did toy with the idea of just getting on with reworking it, but the more I looked, the more work I found - in the end I was trying to justify it because I had spent the money.. In the end, I bit the bullet and decided to scratch build it - I have no excuse - I have great drawings and having just scratchbuilt a Hawker Fury so feeling pretty confident.. ..first step was to get a sheet of perspex acrylic to trace out a 'keel'... ..I used a scalpel to score the perspex - you may juts be able to see some of the station lines here (on the red line).. ..once I had all the station points and outlines done, I used a jigsaw and a cutting disc to cut out the profile - with a big bit missing for where the cockpit is.. ..this again told me how out of whack the 21st Century Toys model is.. ..using Jumpeii's profiles I cut out all the fuselage station formers.. ..and cemented them in place using a mini set square.. ..then I soldered some square brass stock to get the dihedral right for wings to slide into - there is a little perspex jig holding it upright inbetween them.. ..they were epoxied in place with the smaller sliding box sections in place so the angles and dangles can be seen and the positioning made correct.. ..so there we are - thousands of hours of work to go, but it feels good to have something fresh on the bench and thats what it's all about right? TTFN Peter

eveing all Thanks for your kind replies I think I will for the main canopy - I did for my Spit & it is a trusted method - I was just thinking lazy and needed to do something for the rear canopy plug as it would use a lot of resin/RTV so, no real building to speak of, but I have been busy modelling some of the 3D bits I will need.. starting with the spinner - the outline was traced from a good side profile & the hub & backplate are a seperate assembly with the right spacing for everything - at least I don't have to skin this with metal - I will just wwork the rivet detail into the primer when the time comes.. ..and how it seperates.. ..next were the Griffon exhausts which are pretty complicated for little old me to get my head around in Rhino... ..they are in banks of 6 set to the angle of the cylinder head - I have yet to find out if the tips will print or be too fragile.. ..and lastly the mainwheels & tyres - the period tyre has a block tread, not like the resto birds of today that probably use a 737 nosewheel tyre or something.. ..photo's like these can be imported into Rhino to serve as the plan to draw from - very useful.. ..that said I did need to reach out to Tim Perry for some help as some of my modelling was a bit 'fast & loose' and 3D requires absolute precision, but with a bit of email guidance on how to troubleshoot some bad surfaces here we are.. ..still got some other bits to do like the tailwwheel and I might try the control column as thats a bit funky aswell, but it was these parts I was fretting over - especially the exhausts.. until next time - hopefully see you folks at Telford - I have a stand in Hall 2 so pop over and say hello Peter

Can't believe it's been over a month since I last updated - life has got in the way, with a bit of returning to the office in London for the day job (sadly..) So the build has lurched from highly precise focused detailing, to low end agrigultural heavy engineering.. I was getting carried away in the cockpit at a time when there is still loads of basic structural stuff to be done.. ..first up, there is nothing for the UC bays - these are unfortunately really complex so I am going to have to simplify when the time comes to detailing as otherwise I will be in there for months on end.. ..they don't look so bad here, but trust me there is a lot going on both structurally and in bits & bobs credit to the photographer shown ..I started by taking a slice of the plan drawing I have and drawing out the area I need to cut out that sits below the skin - also added ribbing locations as far as I could determine from photo's ..then cut into the balsa cores - you can see the brass reinforcement plates put in ages ago to hold the gear legs later.. ..you can also see how the wheel cut-out area eats right into the fuselage exposing the structure and lego blocks in there (!)... ..floors were marked out in card with the rib positions.. ..after the floors were added, walls were added and a few gaps & dinks filled in.. as the wings slide on and off the wheel bay area is fixed to the wing but slides out from the fuselage as one.. ..and with a shot of primer the basics are there to build on - I have a guy coming from Axminster lathes on friday to fix my little C2 (no power) so hope to start turning the legs and epoxy in the mounting stubs in the next few weeks ..the next bit I had been putting off are the mould bucks for the transparencies - if you see the shape of the main hood you can see why I was stalling.. ..I also found this drawing which I took as good enough to get some profiles.. ..first step was to get some outline boundaries from the plans and translate them to 3D so I can see basics like the angle of the windshield and the shapes generally.. ..I made up a plastic card frame with flat parts front and back so the blown bit starts at the right point - this is coloured black with a sharpie so I can see my sanding limit after I fill it - if you don't the card is white when you hit it and stays white while you sand right through the boundary (tell me how I know..).. ..filled with P38 and first pass sanded.. ..primered and nearly done - the blown bits look ok in the end.. ..same with the rear - balsa used to save on filler.. ..and this is where they are at.. ..anyone who has seen my build logs will know I HATE doing transparencies - they are my nemesis.. I spoke to John Wilkes (Tigger) and got some great advice on how to turn these masters into masters to actually get good pulls from. The main problem now is that these have a lot of filler & primer and the heat of the plastic causes that to melt, deform, delaminate onto your canopy etc. What he said was use them to get one good shape pull using PETG and the fill that pull with Filler like Herculite to make a better master that can take the punishment.. so that's where I am at - until next time Peter

Thank you all when I left you last, I was working on all the little bobbins in the cockpit - switch panels, control boxes etc - most of these are PE faces, custom decals & toggle switches from wire, some of the bigger knobs & buttons are modified watch parts (cogs & shafts etc)... ..these are the front cockpit right hand side.. ..and fitted - the fuse panels in the lower half were first made up, then finely chopped coloured wire dropped onto blobs of CA - a bit like decorating a cake with hundreds & thousands.. ..same for the left.. ..here the knurled wheel was a modified 1/24 tailwheel (Fw190 i think) with ribs added.. ..rear right.. and rear left.. ..the rear bulkhead has quite a lot of complex work and it's own buoy and target towing control panel - the yellow thing in the middle is a pull cord to cut the towing cable.. ..when dry fitted in the airframe it starts to look like this.. ..then as we modellers like to do, we start to cover it all up.. ..here with the upper decking.. ..and when built up the cockpit starts to look a bit busier - in all areas there is still quite a lot of cabling & wiring to add.. ..and thats it for now - until next time.. TTFN Peter

evening all I have been messing around with lots of little bits, but it's ok as it's all in the cockpit and I just lurve doing cockpits ..I took a look at the seat - I started this back in 2018 and used the base part as a basis for correction ..it's made of bakelite sort of stuff and needed the sides building out for these sort of 'wings' on the sides.. ..details, seams & rivets were added and the rear cushion made from milliput - the seams on this are lead wire and my sculpting skills are not very well developed ..then they were painted - lots of the tonal stuff seems lost in the picture.. ..also made the adjustment assembly & lower mount struts.. ..and it sort of goes here.. ..then made up PE bits for various consoles and fittings - many of these are in layers, much the same as the instrument panel.. ..after paint and decals I have a lot of work ahead still to do all the switches and knobs and make up the laminates plus glazing for those with dials.. ..speaking of instrument panels, I made this one from custome PE, custom airscale decals I tacked onto a trade order and lots of bits & bobs.. ..its as close as I can make it to the one in Steve Long's care in Oz.. ..yet to make the compass that goes in the compass stand.. ..long way to go yet, but it sort of goes here.. TTFN Peter

Hi everyone & thank you I have been busying myself with the Firefly - having sorted out the upper fuselage shape I could get back to trying to make the forward cockpit fuselage walls and do it in such a way I could still get inside to detail it.. I started by skinning the walls and the cockpit coaming at the front - I figured if I just built it all first I could figure out access after.. ..then I decided to just cut away the walls and front to have one cockpit skin 'pod' and then drew up some line drawings for the structure & components.. ..after skinning the inner walls with litho (after scribing key locations) I added the station ribs from plastic or litho... ..also developed the basic floor - it was higher than when I originally cut the fuselage way back when.. ..and the basic structure starts to come together - the gaps all close up when squeezed.. ..with the basic structure done, I wanted to get down some paint as otherwise it all becomes a bit difficult to cover all the nooks & crannies - in looking at the refs I have, the bird I am doing has a 'black' cockpit, but when seen here it is quite grey - I realise this is under flash photography, but it is still not black as you can see in the contrast between switch panels & structure.. ..I had been using a tamiya rattle can of Nato black as thats quite a good tonal black, but I thought it too dark, so I mixed some MRP super matt black and blue grey and shot that over everything after priming.. ..a quick scour with 0000 wire wool to lift some detail and they are done.. ..rear walls, floor & bulkhead.. upper rear bulkheads ..rear deck.. ..cockpit pod.. ..pilots seat bulkhead.. ..cockpit floor.. ..and I am happier with the colour now.. ..now all I need to do is make dozens of detail parts like this one - the throttle quadrant.. ..it's missing it's labelling, but the custom decals are due soon so I can get stuck into the IP and stuff I really enjoy TTFN Peter

Hi everyone Ah yes, Steve has already helped me out a bunch with pics of the Firefly in his care - in fact it is what this model is based on - I just need to get access to one to cover every inch and fill in some knowledge gaps rather than drive Steve mad from 10,000 miles away it's just a quick update even though it is partially one step backwards to get two steps forwards in parts.. I started by making up the rear cockpit sidewalls and starting to detail them with the gizmo's I can see in pics.. also the structural parts like ribs and a big angled beam that traverses each side.. ..these nestle under the rear decking.. ..also made up the basic floor & rear seat mount, with what I think are battery mount trays forward - as this is a target tug, I am not sure yet if the actual batteries were in it, but the trays certainly were.. ..painted up some of the stuff and made up some fuse / breaker boxes that live somewhere here on the sidewalls too.. ..there are a bunch of decals I am having made that have all the labels etc for the IP & gizmo's but they won't arrive until the end of August.. ..in the rear, the sidewalls are not fixed, they have spot CA to hold them in place while I shape the outsides to conform with the fuselage - I wanted to do the same at the front cockpit in adding removable walls so I can detail the interior without having to do keyhole surgery.. only problem was, when I added the sidewalls and was getting the aperture square, I noticed the entire upper fuselage between the cockpits was wee weed to one side, so nothing for it but to chop out all the skin and structure and start again.. ..it was this axis that was off - all the bulkheads were not in a line so new ones added.. you can also see where the forward fuselage where the IP sort of sits was off as well - the black lined template shows where the skin should be.. ..this was all redone & reskinned - much happier now.. ..canopy rails also let into the structure.. ..seat bulkhead is now right.. same with forward bulkhead.. ..I need to work out how best to do the cockpit now - I might chop out both fuselage sides, or I may cut out one so I can get inside - the rear sides will just break away.. .. a long way to go, but at least the basic airframe is in order now.. TTFN Peter