AdrianMF Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 On 22/03/2020 at 12:52, greggles.w 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! Regards, Adrian 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggles.w Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 21 hours ago, DMC said: Very smooth, Greg. The camera doesn’t lie. Thanks Dennis, I feel there an extra layer of cryptic wisdom in what you say ... 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggles.w Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 (edited) 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! And by way of explanation, floats back in the jig ... 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 ... Then time to return to my laboratory @Moa, and fabricate a new little thingame ... ... consisting of an off-cut of medium weight trace paper sandwiched between tape & double sided tape over card frame, taut like a drum! 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 ... ... successfully punctured without tearing, but aligning the centreline wasn't quite so successful, due to the milky view through the paper. 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: I then covered that surface with clear tape, not wanting any chance for the red to rub off on the fuselage belly! 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! 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 ... 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 ... 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!! Here with the belly voodoo jig still in place & wing tip supports yet to be firmly fixed down ... It's not pretty down here, in fact it looks very wrong! However not to be seen ... 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 March 26, 2020 by greggles.w 11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 There's more work in the jigs than most people put into building the models! Looks like it's going to do the job though. (no jinx intended) Regards, Adrian 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 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. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggles.w Posted March 28, 2020 Author Share Posted March 28, 2020 I finally did it! FLOATS + PLANE = FLOATPLANE ! Now it's wait for that slow-set CA glue to dry ... 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Indeed! And self isolated against possible accidents. Dennis 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fastcat Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 It's a lesson in perseverance for us all I think. Fine work and much ingenuity pays off. Looking great! Dave 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Ooohhhh.....floatplane, nice. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggles.w Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... From the requisite angle, as above, it looks quite the part, but I will confess I reduced it to something of a stage prop! 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 .. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc2 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 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 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fastcat Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Nice work on the engine and well worth the effort. It's the essence of a great build. Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Coming together nicely; polished helmets, engine and the 'Malteser' is still intact. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andwil Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 Is it the same malteser? There’s no way it would last that long on my bench. AW 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggles.w Posted March 30, 2020 Author Share Posted March 30, 2020 (edited) 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: Then to bed it went, & me too .. Hopefully today will be easier & I'll have time to install the final two helmets, and so bring things full circle. Edited March 30, 2020 by greggles.w 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.1127 Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 Looking better and better and better! Jack 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 Marvellous. I feel a sense of calm just looking at it. Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 (edited) Those last two shots look fantastic. certainly a sense of impending completeness in them & what a wonderful looking completeness it is going to be. Steve. Edited March 30, 2020 by stevehnz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Lyttle Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 There's scope here for a complete Short's workshop diorama, maybe.... 😁 Love the methodical methods to obtain trueness of construction! 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggles.w Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 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: 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, 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 11 hours ago, greggles.w said: I stopped here, seven of nine '7 of 9', a good enough place to stop as any Stuart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggles.w Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 Assembled! And here the advance comes to a pause. Awaiting on the post for resupply. Only rigging & the base remain! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Very nice. I see you’ve got the starboard float out that little more. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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