Double trouble...I hope not!

[bigbadbadge]

Looking good Max, The instrument panels do look good.

All the best
Chris

[06/24]

lovely work

[galgos]

A little more work on the luggage compartment, I've put down a buff coloured base coat and just for fun I'm going to try adding a light wood grain effect:

All the Sutton harnesses are complete, the shoulder ones will be put in position after the fuselage is joined up:

Experiments with a spare rudder to get the bending that both aircraft suffered in the crash, this was just a very gentle heat from a candle flame then bent with tweezers. I'm going to clean this up a little before deciding this is the right method:

More later I hope.

Max

[galgos]

Two completed fuselages ready for the next step:

I use Tamiya fine white primer followed by Mr Paint acrylics. The acrylics are fantastic to work with, immediately ready for the airbrush but they are quite smelly so I use a face mask in a well ventilated space, and because they spray very thinly you need three or four coats to get a good finish AND every blemish on the surface of the plastic is shown up so good preparation with sanding and polishing is essential. The fit of the kit parts is at best average so I'l be doing quite a bit of filling and sanding.

Max

[galgos]

I know that not everybody is as much of an anorak as I am about things being technically accurate with their models replicating the original, but I think it's a pity that Revell didn't give a little more consideration of how the tailplane/fuselage join was planned. As supplied it's just plain wrong.....the fix isn't difficult nor time-consuming but it needn't have been necessary at all:

Max

[jrlx]

Excellent tip on the fuselage-tail plane join. Progress on your build looks really good!

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Max

I am loving your builds, the tips/information is absolutely brilliant for me. As I would like to get mine as accurate as possible.

Keep up the good work

All the best
Chris

[hrtpaul]

This is coming along very nicely mate. I'll be following with much interest and stealing a few tips along the way for when I build my 1/32 Tiger. Keep it up

[galgos]

OK, mini-update - though quite a lot has been done one way or another! Firstly all eight wings are finished except for the leading edge slats - pretty boring work really just cleaning up, gluing and cleaning up:

Detail work on the fuselage continues: the luggage compartment hinge and lower fairing strip is done though fasteners are yet to be added. The leather head "cushions" (can't for the life of me think what they're called....senior moment!) are fitted - they're not an easy fit, they needed some gentle sanding on the lip to get them to seat properly and I've started to drill the holes for the blind flying hood attachment both behind and in front of the rear cockpit. I made a bit of a mess up of some of the holes so I've filled them and will re-drill before inserting short lengths of stretched sprue.

The wind shields as supplied are really thick and quite nasty so I've made some new ones out of thin perspex - just got to think now how to fit them!

Max

[jrlx]

Looking good, Max!

[bigbadbadge]

Wow Max great work and great progress. Looking very good.

Could I ask a question as you mention the leading edge slats ? I understand that they are automatic, can I ask when they would deploy ? Would they be out when the Aircraft is sitting on the ground as I think I saw an image of one with them sticking out somewhere and it was parked.

Many thanks

Chris

[galgos]

Thanks Chris. Yes the leading edge slats do deploy automatically at low air speeds. The lever (situated only in the rear cockpit on the starboard side) is spring loaded so they are unlocked before take off, but after landing they are locked to minimise wear on the spring. They obviously perform no function when on the ground so it's rare to see them extended then, and that would be down to sloppiness from the pilot unless they were being serviced or tested.

Max

[bigbadbadge]

Brilliant Thanks Max.

All the best

Chris

[Robert Stuart]

If you are showing the luggage compartment open, this photo might be of interest - http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000523570L.html

It looks to me that there is a metal liner to the lid - though this is a civilian aircraft in 2010, not a 1940's military example.

[galgos]

Thank you Robert, that is a useful photo not least because I'll be making the compartment cover from metal foil so it seems like my natural finish is there already!

Max

[galgos]

It's been pretty filthy day here today with torrential rain.....so it was a guilt-free chance to do some modelling instead of the garden! I've been applying the GasPatch turnbuckles, positioning each with a small blob of CA. I bent each roughly to its anticipated angle but they'll all be adjusted later on assembly and when the CA is thoroughly dry.

The difficulty with the late RAF type of turnbuckle, as discussed in a bit of a thread-creep a day or two ago (sorry about that Andrew!) is that there's no loop for the thread to go through, just a "blunt" end that is considerably smaller than a pin head. The GasPatch instructions give no guidance or advice on how to terminate the rigging so it's suck it and see! The real turnbuckle is like a sleeve, the rigging running down through its centre but the scale ones are far too small to try that.

The two buckles near the fuselage are at 90 degrees to all the others so I'm going to heat up the tangs then push them into the plastic...a bit scary doing that, so much can go wrong very quickly!

I'll be priming and spraying the wings before too long, though the sun has come out now!

Max

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Max

Looking good fella, will be interested to see how your rigging goes with the Gaspatch turnbuckles etc. I was thinking of using Bobs buckles wire loops and burying them into the wing at almost the required angle and recessing the loop a bit and then connect all with the tubes as close to the rings as possible and then make little plates to bent at the same angle as the rigging to cover them and give the illusion of the later type. In my head it sounds a lot easier !!! Again will have to suck and see if that will work too.

Keep up the good work

All the best
Chris​

[galgos]

I'll be as interested as you to see how my rigging goes Chris! It's interesting to note though that the interplane rigging on the real Tiger Moth isn't rigid taut, there is play in it. I don't want mine to look like a saggy old pullover but a bit of play won't be amiss methinks!

Your plan sounds workable, certainly an easier way of anchoring the thread. Not sure I'd go to the lengths of the plates though.

Max

[hrtpaul]

Have a look at my mates build Max about how he rigged with Gas Patch turnbuckles. Bout halfway down the page http://www.aussiemodeller.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8191&start=30

[galgos]

Right Paul, I know this build from LSP and of course Eric - we've been in contact over a few models, he's doing a superb Sabre at the moment. His was one of the first builds that I bookmarked when I started my first 1/32nd Moth and I think his solution to the GasPatch problem is as good as any. Eric's a very logical and thoughtful modeller so I know his builds are going to be reliable and worthwhile.

Max

[galgos]

I've been focussing mainly on the tail-end this morning, so holes have been drilled in all the control horns including the rudder ready for the cables to be rigged. Once the elevators had been glued in place I was able to estimate where the cable guides should be in the leading edge of the horizontal tailplane, holes were drilled and guides glued in position. For these I'm using some 1/48th scale Bob's Buckles since I reckon they're just about right:

I've also bent the tops of the two rudders and, since one set of elevators is in the (inverted) up position the previously anonymous fuselages now have an identity!! I'm pondering the best way of getting the twist in the wings of T-7938....hmmm?

Max

[bigbadbadge]

Very nice Max, are you using the eyelets for the cable guides ? Be interested to see the twists in the wings, keep up the good work fella.

All the best
Chris​

[galgos]

Yes Chris, the eyelets as shown here:

For interplane rigging I'm using Prym knitting-in elastic:

and it will butt joint onto the turnbuckle securely enough to stretch (apologies for the out of focus picture but it illustrates the point!):

Max

[galgos]

EXPERIMENTS WITH WING WARPING!!

So I've been playing this afternoon with possible ways of warping the lower wings on the top Tiger Moth. My initial thoughts were gradually warming the plastic up over a candle flame - the problem is that the heat is very localised and as soon as the flame moves away the heated area cools rapidly. Simply because the heat is localised, it's very easy to melt the plastic, then you're lost as in the starboard wing of my Battle testbed:

Trying to get a wider, perhaps more even distribution of heat, I tried boiling water but all this did was to make the wing joint fail. There was nowhere near enough heat to even start the plastic twisting:

My third effort was using a cook's mini blowtorch - very controllable heat distribution to quite a wide area and a simple, safe tool to handle, and.....

.....success!! I just hope I can do this when it matters soon.

Max

[Robert Stuart]

EXPERIMENTS WITH WING WARPING!!

{Snip}

My third effort was using a cook's mini blowtorch - very controllable heat distribution to quite a wide area and a simple, safe tool to handle, and.....

.....success!! I just hope I can do this when it matters soon.

Max

You sure this isn't another way of doing wing ribs?

Good luck when you move on to the real model ...

Edited August 25, 2015 by Robert Stuart