Kallisti Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Work has been progressing slowly, the trench is looking quite good now and today got installed in the base and the runway added over the top: It looks shiny coz I added another layer of tetrion filler over therunway to cover several cracks and mismatches that had crept in getting it all together. To either side of the runway is a long plastic channel which will form the "gutter". Once the tetrion driws tomorrow, I'll look at where the palm trees will be installed, flopped back of course! While all thats been going on work has continued on the pod, first getting the joint between top and bottom better and then finishing off the filling and sanding on the underside to block the holes for the silly toy wheels next I've drilled out the underside inspection ports - I'll blank these off inside and fill the hole with Krystal Klear. and of course the main cockpit windows have been drilled and cut out Once again I think the windows will be need to be filled with Krystal Klear as the plastic is too thick to attach something inside. Finally, the figures I wantede to use for Virgil arrived today and ahem, they are a bit small! I wasn't sure which scale to go for 1:333 or 1:250 so ordered both... I needn't have bothered to be honest, they are so small it wouldn't have been noticeable! I will most likely use the 1:250 as I'd prefer it to be viewable rather than 100% accurate. This may need me to install an LED inside the cockpit to be visible. Oh and that reminds me I was going to light the exhaust port with a flickering LED, bugger... totally forgot about that! doh! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Womby Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 This is looking really good. The base looks fascinating and TB2 looks much better with the windows drilled out. I know the old Imai wheels are awful but what do you plan as the undercarriage?. It had to have one to roll down that runway and up the ramp. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 There was supposed to be undercarriage - in Terror in New York where TB2 is shot at by the World Navy and crash lands on the runway, someone does say "the undercarriage has collapsed" - but you never see any evidence of it apart from the fact that TB 2 moved down the runway. There must have been wheels embedded in the bottom of the pod. I won't be trying to represent anything as this will just be showing TB2 on the launch ramp. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triumphfan Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Crikey. I am far more enthusiastic about your TB2 build than I am of my Joe 90 Flying car. This is going to be the ultimate TB2 build, the iconic shot of my favourite Thunderbird machine on the launch ramp with lighting and flickering nozzle lights. I need the nurse NOW !! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 No! Your Joe 90 build will be superb - its such an iconic vehicle so lets get you fired up to get it completed!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 I put some decals on my T2 yesterday. Mostly okay, though I don't know how old this particular kit is (the instructions are well aged judging by how brown they are). Anyway, a couple of the figure 2's were a bit crinkly so they are underneath. The other decals went on okay. The yellow stripes for the boxes on the side of the tail unit are too long. Cut them down to 21 or 22mm. Measure first. Now it's Klear time this afternoon. BTW, ensure you wash off the decal glue/mess it's left marks on my paint as it dried. Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Ta da!!!! The photo makes it look brighter than it really is... this is a surface-mount white LED, just like I used to light Thunderbird 4. I've blacnked off the floor and rear bulkhead of the cockpit - now its a matter of building some consoles and seat for Virgil. In a previous post you might remember me going "doh!" when I remembered I'd forgotten the lighting I'd intended to do in the exhaust box, well... slots cut for the LEDs to be mounted on which will then get a layer of cotton wool to represent smoke which will flicker! Behind the exhaust box is where the power supply will be attached via a 2.5mm plug The power supply is a box from Maplins with 4xAA batteries and an on/off switch, which will plug into the rear of the base and will look like part of the runway. In addition, lighting the cockpit means transferring power into TB2 itself - this will be done via a 2.1 mm plug and socket fixed to the ramp and the inside of the TB2 pod: Yes you are right I DID show a photo before of the pod all assembled, but this has meant I had to split the joint again to be able to add the electronics in now... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Shumsky Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Coming on well, but bad luck that you had to re-open the pod after working on the seams. Hopefully if you line it up really carefully while-reassembling most of the work will already be done? Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted March 14, 2015 Author Share Posted March 14, 2015 Thanks guys, having fun with the build so far The last 2 days has seen rapid progress with the base, so much so that I forgot to take photos of the wiring stages! Anyway, the wiring is complete, the claycrete has been applied and has pretty much dried, details have been added and the first batch of lighting has been activated... On the right you can see the battery box with its control switch. This plugs into the back of the model using the power socket you saw in the previous post Here is another angle that shows it all off a bit better and finally a short video to show the lighting effect So now attention shifts back to Thunderbird 2 itself! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S5 modeller Posted March 14, 2015 Share Posted March 14, 2015 That base looks awesome kallisti. Bodes well for the finished build. Keep up the good work. Matt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Epic! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 That's awesome. Will show it to my daughter tonight. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 Today has been spent working on the cockpit, so first things first I built up a curved panel under the window to form the back drop of the cockpit console. I also added some vertical fuselage braces and painted the internal walls pale grey - XF 19 sky grey: I've since added a dark wash to make the ribs pop out a bit more. Next the cockpit was built up using plasticard and strip: The rear bulkhead is XF 82 Ocean Grey 2(RAF), the floor XF 56 (metallic grey), various other greys were used to pick out details and the console main colour is a mix of XF 82 and XF 23 Light Blue. The floor has been cut away under the consoles because the front curve of the console does not fully match the inner curve under the windows so I'll have to add some blanking and filler when the cockpit is finally inserted so cutting the floor out give access behind the console! in the meantime, some seats were built using some evergreen channel strip and some careful cutting and Virgil gets and initial coat of X-14 sky blue Now one of the issues I've realised that I'm giving myslf is fitting the upper and lower fuselage halves together and being able to wire up the lights into the pod. The pod will only fit into the fuselage from below - the sides slope inwards further up so the pod - or any part of the pod - cannot be fitted from above.. now the problem I have is that if I want to install lighting assembly will get very tricky unless this is fixed. So what I did was to fit the pod back together again and slip it into the lower fuselage: I can then draw a line around the fuselage joint and slice the pod in two parts along this joint rather than the pods original joint so that the upper fuselage will now look like this Notice the crack in the fuselage at the back - thats been there since I got the kit and its been repaired but will need some filling and sanding to get it right. So finally the evening I was able to install Virgil in the cockpit: I'm honestly not sure if the scale is right here - he seems ever so small! I may have put the bulkhead a bit too far back, but its too late to fix that now probably. So the acid test is to see how it looks in the fuselage, with the surface mount LED attached to the ceiling: Sorry that Virgil is all blurry but the autofocus on the camera can't cope shooting THROUGH a small aperture like that. You can see the details on the console as well So this makes me realise that the scale is actually okay. Next I need to look at glazing the windows. I've started work on the tail - there was some terrible sink marks on the upper part of the tail, which I forgot to photograph of course before slathering it with filler and now need to wait for that to dry before sanding it down tomorrow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Nice this is so cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestar12chris Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Great job, TB2 was always my favourite, love the cockpit detail and the launch ramp. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Great work on the interior detail, it really looks the part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Fiendish fix with the pod. I too had to use filler on the tail unit box. I forgot to tell you! I sanded off the moulded on numbers. I also filled those squares on top of the cockpit. Cockpit looks good to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triumphfan Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Looks great! I agree with the scale look of Virgil but I think the studio models and cockpit sets did not really add up. As you say, if TB2 really was 250 ft long, the scale of the figure 'should be' about correct. When you see Virgil sliding down the ramp into his seat, the flightdeck area does not seem to be as wide as the outside dimensions would have you believe. Bit hard to explain but hopefully you can follow my train of thought. Anyway, superb work on the project so far, love the launch ramp. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) Further progress, starting off with the engine intakes. For some reason there are huge holes just in front of the upper and lower parts of each intake. First step is to start the process of filling these holes: The putty is going to shrink as it dries so will need another application I expect. Next is to look at how to solve the problem with an unfillable/sandable join across the middle of the internal intake detail (sorry for the blurry pic but you get the gist) This is solved by cutting a piece of patterned plastic card I have in the plastic card box to the right shape: which wasn't very easy as I had to get it to match the upper and lower intakes separately as they are on the two parts of the fuselage. I think they are a good fit as can be seen above. The next difficult problem will be dealing with the fuselage joint on the inside of the intake. I think this might just be a case of careful filling and sanding to get it smooth. Last time I also reported on slathering filler on the tail section. Well thats been a successful operation and here it is all ready for fitting: Next I decided to have a go at glazing the cockpit windows, so my first choice was to try some Krystal Klear - which is in all honesty little more than PVA glue which dries a bit transparent. Emphasis there is on the "bit transparent" as you can see here: This is completely dry after several days... not terribly impressed to be honest and even when lit from inside its not much better: I'm thinking of giving it another go but with maybe a little less glue as it seems the major problem is the glue at the bottom of the windows is considerably thicker than at the top. Anyone got any other suggestions as to how to do this? I really don't fancy cutting out individual windows from acetate... Edited March 18, 2015 by Kallisti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I've heard of people having good results using acrylic powder/resin intended for artificial nails - there look to be some interesting ideas here, too: http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/viewtopic.php?t=105790&highlight=acrylic+nail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Thanks John, those discussions reminded me of Humbrol Clearfix - not sure if I've got any of this in the stash (at work atm) so will check when I get home. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Sorry, I forgot the joint in the intake too. I ignored the one on the actual intake. For the joint between the fuselage halves I think I used a small bit of wet and dry wrapped around a wooden ice lolly stick. I'd try clearfix on the windows too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philp Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 I have used the Krystal Klear before and had it dry perfectly clear. Only thing I can think of is to use just a tiny bit of it. I applied it to one corner and then used a toothpick to get it spread to fill the hole. This creates just a very thin coat of the clear so better chance for it to cure all the way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Is the cockpit sealed up from the inside? You might need air flow on both sides to allow the glue to fully dry. If the weather is a bit damp it can add a lot to acrylic dry times as well. I used Krystal Klear for my ship and it seemed to dry clear, but they were smaller openings which might make a difference. My problem with the stuff is you get concavity which looks weird. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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