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White Knight - Short Crusader


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On 22/03/2020 at 12:52, greggles.w said:

Nearing endtimes ...

I must admit my first thought was "why is he showing us a model farmyard?"

 

Wonderful thread and build. It is looking splendid in blue and white!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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22 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I must admit my first thought was "why is he showing us a model farmyard?"

 

Wonderful thread and build. It is looking splendid in blue and white!

Thank you Adrian!

 

tumblr_inline_nxrn8i7ZAs1t6ym0o_1280

 

And by way of explanation, floats back in the jig ...

 

Voodoo

 

Float alignment adjusted to ensure they are parallel - don't want them pigeon-toed!  Similarly the paired strut tops aligned.  All progressively strapped down in place with tape ...

 

Voodoo

 

Then time to return to my laboratory @Moa, and fabricate a new little thingame ...

 

Voodoo

 

... consisting of an off-cut of medium weight trace paper sandwiched between tape & double sided tape over card frame, taut like a drum!

 

Voodoo

 

And transparent ... well perhaps not quite as much as would have liked.  The positive trade-off being that the trace is pretty tough & anticipated to be able to endure a little puncturing.

 

Well what on earth is this all in aid of?  Well, in a way that completely baffles me, somehow over time (which there's been plenty of!) I lost the ability to test fit the aircraft down onto the struts!  Alignment between strut-top wires & fuselage holes was lost.  I have no idea how.  Perhaps just the repeated handling, or maybe the repairs to the struts when I dropped the floats?  Anyhow, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised: in the time it's taken me to get this far the Australian continent has moved 28cm closer to New Guinea ...

 

So the method I adopted was to take the above thingame & carefully push it down over the wires - after first ensuring that the four wires protruding from the top of the struts were as true to vertical as I could get them - using light from below to try to align the drawn centreline ...

 

Voodoo

 

... successfully punctured without tearing, but aligning the centreline wasn't quite so successful, due to the milky view through the paper.

 

Voodoo

 

Nevermind, compensate for the error.  I then traced the outline of the mating faces at the top of the struts, and a (wobbly!) line for the rearmost strut edge, as this aligns with a fuselage joint:

 

Voodoo

 

I then covered that surface with clear tape, not wanting any chance for the red to rub off on the fuselage belly!

 

Voodoo

 

Voodoo

 

As I say, completely bewildering!  I tried several alignment options.  In no case could I get an on-axis alignment with two holes pinned!  This lower left one brought the red line over the panel joint, and seemed to promise that the three redundant holes would be politely masked by the strut faces when assembled.

 

So, take action man, before they move again!  

 

Voodoo

 

The little flags were not for putt-putt golf, more to stop these pins disappearing into the holes.  Don't want them to rattle about haunting Flight Lieutenant Malteser - wouldn't want him to crash ...

 

Voodoo

 

Not easy subjecting her to this voodoo!

 

Taking a break from all that precision for a moment, I brought out a jig from earlier, to be hacked into with the saw, to harvest the wing tip alignment slots ...

 

Voodoo

 

 

And I cannot understate how happy I was to be able to bring it all altogether for a test fit for the first time in a long time!!

 

:pilot:

 

Here with the belly voodoo jig still in place & wing tip supports yet to be firmly fixed down ...

 

Voodoo

 

Voodoo

 

 

It's not pretty down here, in fact it looks very wrong!  However not to be seen ...

 

Voodoo

 

Well in a state of euphoric exhaustion I have separated that again, with the last task for the day being PVA-gluing the wingtip jigs.  To be sure that's dry, and my hands steady again, I will save permanent assembly for another day.

 

phew! 

Edited by greggles.w
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9 hours ago, greggles.w said:

Then time to return to my laboratory @Moa, and fabricate a new little thingame ...

As fairly complicated as that is, I am still mildly disappointed, and was hoping you would come up with a much more convoluted and unnecessarily complicated solution, that involved at least some chains, spikes, electricity provided by a storm and Schroedinger's cat (black, preferably)

But I will let this one pass, since the model looks so wonderful.

My regards to Igor, by the way.

 

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Stuart, Dave, Dennis - thanks for sharing the happiness!

 

Today the serious business started, namely fitting the cylinder cowlings.

 

As ever, several phases of testing & fettling, looking to confirm an approach which can deliver orderly alignment in three dimensions.  Test case today being cylinders No.s 1, 8, 9 & spinner too ...

 

Testing_1

 

Interestingly, what this did reveal was an absence of engine, a noticeable cavity visible in through the back of the one-off special No.9 top cylinder cowling ...

 

Testing_2

 

So I pulled out those resin cylinders I had put aside long ago, from the Vector resin Bristol Mercury - a beautifully cast, finely detailed item - and set to getting one of those to nestle in there ...

 

Testing_3

 

From the requisite angle, as above, it looks quite the part, but I will confess I reduced it to something of a stage prop!

 

Testing_4

 

I had to lop quite a bit off the front to give clearance for the recently added 'exhausts' which fill up the front portion of the 'helmet'.

 

A return to work in the afternoon to add the suggestion of air supply manifold & then start the painting.  Just about done, I might just add a few more silvery highlights, then ready to install ..

 

Testing_5

 

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This is superb, I'm not sure I could bring myself to cut up the wonderful Vector resin engine though!

Looking forward to seeing it complete - even though I will miss your updates!

(onward with the Curtiss?)

Malc.

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For some reason, this reminds me of Achilles and the tortoise, and Jorge Luis Borges' short story "The Garden of the Forking Paths".

I am surprised that for cutting those cylinders you didn't need to create first "Ze ZylinderSchneidenGerät".

The Gothic and entropic nature of this build is fascinating.

And yet, the results are superb.

There is a lesson here somewhere, but to get to it you have to apply by filing a form in triplicate and have it stamped. In a different office.

 

Franz Kafka, The Castle

 

 

 

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A taxing, aggravating 'work-from-home' day yesterday.

 

However the final moments of the evening were meditative, spent with half glass of red, quiet music on, at my perch near the back screen door, little insect sounds & quiet voices of the 'socially isolated' neighbours in the dark outside.  It lasted just enough to calm my nerves, but in doing so made me very sleepy, so I stopped here, seven of nine helmets installed:

 

Seven of Nine_1

 

Then to bed it went, & me too ..

 

Seven of Nine_2

 

Hopefully today will be easier & I'll have time to install the final two helmets, and so bring things full circle.

 

Edited by greggles.w
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21 hours ago, greggles.w said:

seven of nine

Seven of nine you say... now what that reminds me of...

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/36/84/66/368466606bbec8eed6e427baa492921a.jpg

(something with racer-like splendid lines? may be...)

 

Great work, it's looking really, really nice, and getting closer and closer to... yet another opportunity to use a spiffy contraption of incomprehensible use for us modeling troglodytes.

Cheers

 

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5 hours ago, Moa said:

racer-like splendid lines

... indeed! 😳

 

5 hours ago, Moa said:

Great work, it's looking really, really nice, and getting closer and closer to... yet another opportunity to use a spiffy contraption of incomprehensible use for us modeling troglodytes.

Thanks Moa - and all for your similar sentiments above - and yes, an opportunity presented:

 

Here's a little update from down-under:

 

Upside Down

 

Fitting those last two helmets nearly upended me.  But having her taped in place inverted has done the trick.

 

8 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I feel a sense of calm just looking at it.

If seven of nine is calming Adrian, then nine of nine is Nirvana!

 

6 hours ago, stevehnz said:

certainly a sense of impending completeness

Yes Steve, I'll give those two a few minutes to anchor, then it's the spinner's turn to commit ... and all that will remain to be done thereafter is the rigging!!

 

Although ...

6 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

There's scope here for a complete Short's workshop diorama, maybe.... 😁

A fine reminder thank you, there will be a little more after rigging: a base.  However I do want to set this off in a way which can hopefully capture some of the energy of these things in action.  Hence the pilot in place, & the absent stationary propeller blades.  I have some thoughts for a base which puts this in context, of a type I can replicate for the next air-racer kit(s!) (yes, I may yet move on!!).

 

Thanks all,

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