Karel Doorman The Last Cruise, Grumman S-2A Tracker and SH-34 Helicopter

[perdu]

Martin I wonder if this would be a help for you

I picked up a bottle of it at the Birmingham IPMS show, blimey it was heavy for a bottle smaller than Humbrols Klear varnish

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Deluxe-Materials-Liquid-Gravity-Weighting-System-DLBD-38-/151381160648?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item233f0532c8

just a thought, i reckon De-Luxe are about to make huge inroads into becoming must have materials one day soon

The stuff pours through a little nozzle into the spaces we need to get heavy, I suppose it must then dry out and harden

Would have saved me lots of embarrassment with my Catalina I think

Edited September 19, 2014 by perdu

[perdu]

I convinced me

Just been in and bought one

I'll let y'all know how it goes

[Martian]

Thanks Bill, it looks like I need to get some of that stuff.

Martin

[perdu]

If you can hold off for a day or three mine is due for delivery on Wednesday or Thursday

I'll try it out under the floor of Scouty, I'd like the front to be a little bit 'down-er'

[Martian]

If you can hold off for a day or three mine is due for delivery on Wednesday or Thursday

I'll try it out under the floor of Scouty, I'd like the front to be a little bit 'down-er'

Thanks, I can easily wait that long as it will be ages before I start buttoning things up. I do, however, need to be thinking ahead as to where weights can be fitted, I have been caught out far too many times in the past.

Martin

[Martian]

Despite feeling under the weather for much of the week, I have managed to make some progress with the project. As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been concentrating on the rearwards ejecting marine marker installation. This takes up the better part of the starboard side of the forward fuselage and a fair bit of it can be seen through the open door and hatches.

I started by cutting a slot in the appropriate position on the starboard fuselage and followed by letting in an a suitably sized section of plastic tubing. When this was set, the tubing was carved and sanded away until it was flush with the fuselage contours, thus giving the impression of depression having been pressed into the fuselage skin. The ejector tube was then constructed from assorted lengths of Albion Alloys' slide fit brass tube and glued into place.

A large part of the mechanism was covered with some sort of protective cover and this was knocked together from card and strip. Holes were drilled ready for the associated plumbing and the top of a compressed air tank that protrudes from the housing was carved from some sprue and cemented into place. The housing then had an access panel scribed into it's front face and was glued into place on the model, being careful to line it up correctly with the ejector tube.

Finally I laminated a load of plastic card and tube together to make the compressor and control unit for the assembly over the next few sessions.

On to the pictures and thanks for looking.

Martin

[heloman1]

Nice work there Martin. The Albion Alloys tubes are a very worthwhile investement. I whish now I had picked some more up at Telford last year.

Colin

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

If you can hold off for a day or three mine is due for delivery on Wednesday or Thursday

I'll try it out under the floor of Scouty, I'd like the front to be a little bit 'down-er'

I have used it, and it's great; you need to make damn sure that every tiny ball has been glued, though, or you will find a couple of them rolling around inside your cockpit. [Ask me how I know...]

[hendie]

yet more quality work!

[Martian]

Thanks Guys. I agree, the Albion Alloys stuff has become indispensable as far as I am concerned. It has opened up a lot of new detailing possibilities for me that would otherwise not have been really practical from a strength point of view, no point in building in some really fine detail if it falls apart the first time you try and transport the model.

The Liquid Gravity stuff really does look like it is going to be a great help on this build and will be a very early addition to my tool kit.

Martin

[abat]

Stunning work. Can't wait to see some paint in there.

[Martian]

Thanks Abat, painting is a long way off at the moment.

Martin

[perdu]

Martin it has landed on my doorstep

Blimey there is a lot of weight in this little bottle

I swooshes when shaken and on inspection is twenty zillion little lead balls swooshing about

They say to use an adhesive after application, cyano or PVA liquid seems best

( I do NOT fancy sploshing cyano down inside a model, the stink will kill me before the missus does, so it's likely to be PVA )

The stuff will easily be depositable down a straw from its tidy little nozzle but I dont think I will be using it yet, the Scout seems ok on its skids as it is

Anyway, I think it will be a worthwhile purchase

[Engineer66]

Perdue,

I would be very wary of using PVA to secure the lead shot. I believe PVA is hydroscopic and will expand over time. In the model railway community there have been several reports of model loco's where the boilers have been filled with lead secured by PVA and after a while the PVA has expanded causing the boiler to split.

http://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2737

Al

[abat]

Thanks Abat, painting is a long way off at the moment.

Martin

Then I will be patient. Can I ask what glue you're using? The work is very neat and tidy. Is it an extra thin or normal cement. Andrew

[Martian]

I have mostly just been using bog standard Humbrol liquid cement along with both thick and thin super glue where necessary.

Martin

[Martian]

Perdue,

I would be very wary of using PVA to secure the lead shot. I believe PVA is hydroscopic and will expand over time. In the model railway community there have been several reports of model loco's where the boilers have been filled with lead secured by PVA and after a while the PVA has expanded causing the boiler to split.

http://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2737

Al

I think I will be sealing the area of the model in question with super glue, letting that cure, filling it with the gravity and then tamping down a small blob of blue tack to stop it rattling around.

Martin

[Engineer66]

Good idea Martin, in the past I've made false bulkheads to fit in the nose to hold lead shot in place, can you do that on this model?

Al

[Martian]

Good idea Martin, in the past I've made false bulkheads to fit in the nose to hold lead shot in place, can you do that on this model?

Al

Not sure. The nose wheel bay will wall off most of the nose but I will still have a bit of a problem if I want to have the nose open as you can see all the way into the fuselage on the real thing. I can get some tyre weights behind the closed up engine and some mor weight in the forward radome and behind the observer's consoles.

Martin

[Martian]

Just a quick update on what has been occurring over the last week. I have decided to go with the open nose cap and have begun to detail the front fuselage bulkhead. I have also walled in the nose wheel bay as the kit example shows no sign of showing up any time soon. This still needs to be fitted out as it took longer to do than I had anticipated. Work has also continued on the marine marker installation and there is probably two or three hours work left to do on this. No pictures today as I am not yet where I want to be before I post them. I am off for a few days in Rye and will get the pictures up on Saturday.

Thanks for dropping by

Martin

[Martian]

Back from my break in Rye, I have spent the last few days finishing off the bits I did not get completed before I went away.

I have all but finished the marine marker installation. All I need to do here is to make an intake and filter. This will need to be done as a separate unit so it can be done anytime.

Most of the rest of my efforts have involved scratch building a new nose undercarriage bay and getting it detailed. I have also worked out that opening the aircraft's nose cone will not impinge on the space available for weights at all so I have sorted out the front bulkhead. This has the bonus of allowing the rear of the instrument panel to be seen, along with a better view of the rudder pedals and the workings of the control column.

Anyhow, enough waffle and here are the relevant pictures.

Thanks for looking.

Martin

[longshanks]

Been missing my fix ;-)

Just love the work you do Martin

Cheers Kev

[Martian]

Thanks Kev, I shall try and keep your fix coming although with Telford looming they might not be quite as regular, it rather depends on how co-operative the Rotachute build decides to be!

Martin

[Martian]

Probably not worth a picture, but today I started the engine nacelles by gluing the "Hawkbill" fairings to the rear of the main nacelles. I did this using good old fashioned tube glue as I want a really strong join.

When these are set and cleaned up I can get the nacelles taped together and decide on which panels to remove on the engine that is going to be exposed to view.

Martin

[Martian]

For those wondering what I have been up to since my last post, despite life trying to conspire to get in the way every time I try and do some modelling, I have managed to make some good progress on the Tracker.

Following a great deal of agonising, I finally bit the bullet and cut away those sections of the port engine nacelle required to show the full engine on that side (I have a CMK resin replacement lined up). The cowling itself was fretted out and this proved to be a very delicate job indeed. A firewall was also constructed for this side of the aircraft.

The number and position of the sonar buoy housings at the rear of the nacelles is wrong as provided in the kit and accordingly, these had their detail rubbed off and the correct number and size of holes drilled out. A flange at the rear of the nacelle parts prevents the sonar buoy panel from being anything like a decent fit and so this was also ground away with my Minidrill.

The main wheel well parts have some pretty anaemic detail on them and this was carved away in anticipation of better scratch built detail being added. Similarly, I felt that I can do a better job on the wing fold detail than Kinetic and this was also sanded away ready for replacement.

One good feature I have noticed is that the wing spar method of attaching the wings in this kit results in a pretty good fit and an alignment that even I can't get wrong!

Anyhow, on to the pictures and thanks for looking.

Martin