Jump to content

Catching Pictures in the Air


Recommended Posts

On ‎16‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 09:04, TheBaron said:

:lol:

Nasally: Nawwwwsstopmessinabowt.

I feel confident that there are some on here who will not let that happen Ian. The weight of expectation is upon me...:D

Indeed! My blurglecruncheon and I are keeping an eye on this thread and unless the Baroness wants a hyperspace bypass running through his garden, progress will resume upon completion of the Floatplane GB. Did I mention that I am a close friend of the Chief Vogon?

 

Martian, Modelling with a smile and a blurglecruncheon.

 

 

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/6/2017 at 1:40 PM, TheBaron said:

Why am I picturing this Antoine?:D

tumblr_m29qfc3lex1rpf9sro1_1280.png

 Did the hotel have a maze at all? :unsure:

 

The Angostura sounds a nice touch in a BM btw.:thumbsup2:  

I'm looking forwards to trying it tbh as I've yet to settle on a brand that gives me a hassle-free smoothness on broad & shallow regions. I think @simmerit resorted to some high-build primer a while back on his Chinook epic iirc for a similar task.

I've had a go at them just now TT, but possibly not in the way in which you had anticipated (see below)!

 

 

 

I'm still here fella.  Its the summer and I always close down the modelling in the summer.  Dark nights soon, so I will be back on the bloody Wokka

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo - even without watching it I've got an earworm now - arrrrrrrrgggghhhhh! Thanks Tomo!

 

C'mon Tony, hurry up & crack on with the Boxcar to take our minds off treacly 70's canned lift musak....!!:D

 

Keith

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Ready when you are Tony.

Hi Simon. It'll take me a few days to unbox it properly and see where we'd got to, then to work out some kind of sequence of action....

16 hours ago, 71chally said:

Wow, a J manual, where on earth did that surface?!

Good to see you and the 119 back!

Hiya James!

 

Well, I'm nothing if not dogged when it comes to research materials and finally found the manual from a seller in Italy (damned if I can remember the bloody website - the receipt must be in my inbox somewhere).

 

Since finding the original technical handbooks so useful on the recent Dornier build I've been pursuing copies of parts and maintenance manuals for subjects that I want to build, though even in digital format some can be quite pricey. Blenheim IV and Fairey Battle seem conspicuous by their absence regrettably and Pilot's Notes only go so far....

 

16 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

 

Awww. Big hugs Tomo! :D

35 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

C'mon Tony, hurry up & crack on with the Boxcar to take our minds of treacly 70's canned lift musak....!!:D

I wonder why you would say such a thing Keith?

 

  • Like 4
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Hiya James!

 

Well, I'm nothing if not dogged when it comes to research materials and finally found the manual from a seller in Italy (damned if I can remember the bloody website - the receipt must be in my inbox somewhere)

Same here, but that manual has alluded me thus far!  

It is an expensive game now, AP collecting.  There are couple of good webiste that you can sign up to for electronic copies, Avialogs being a good one.

 

I guess we will see them here in the fullness of time, but really interested in the beaver tail door operation and controls.

 

I've avoided the 70s music links, overdosed in the last three weeks!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oooo, I'd forgotten all about the Boxcar! Great to see it back.

More popcorn required (although I don't really like the stuff. Is there another emoticon for 'interest'? Searching... apparently not then apart from :coolio: )

Off you go Tony, watching with interest.

Can we have a 'previously on Baron's Boxcar Build' please?

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, 71chally said:

but really interested in the beaver tail door operation and controls.

PM sent James.

4 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Nice to see this one back, not so the videos

Can't have one without the other in a thread of mine. There has to be cheese to go with the fine wine...:lol:

 

3 hours ago, CedB said:

Can we have a 'previously on Baron's Boxcar Build' please?

Certainly Ced. :nodding:

Once I've had a chance to delve in  to the box and see where we are myself!

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Previously on Bette Midler Britmodeller....

 

As Ced suggested, it makes sense to remind both of us where things stood at the end of the summer, so let's see if I can remember what all these blooming bits are again:

25740509868_773b7fce6b_o.jpg

  1. Rollers for front and rear of cable deck.
  2. Cockpit window masked inside and out.
  3. Fuselage ceiling, inc. rebuilt rear section to fit expanded J-variant end section.
  4. Fuselage fuel tank covers.
  5. Cable tray.
  6. Oxygen cylinders for roof.
  7. Cable deck.
  8. Cable drum and support.
  9. Recovery poles.
  10. Aircraft floor.
  11. Recovery poles supports.
  12. Honeybucket & water tank.
  13. Seating for pole handlers.
  14. Hydraulic actuators and collars for recovery poles.

The paratainer rail (that long straight bit at the top of the photo) has warped over time so I'm going to chuck it and build a new one from brass. Looking at the original seat I built for the cargomaster it looks crap, so I'll scratch a new one as well as a fold-down one for the stairwell to the flight-deck (which I've learned existed from the now-invaluable parts manual that I didn't have before).

 

The main fuselage is in good nick:

25740510258_07e770187d_o.jpg

There's still a little bit of filling and smoothing to do around the join between the original fuselage and the new vacformed section I added at the rear, but of a minor variety.

 

I can't remember was it Keith or Bill (or both!) towards the end of the thread last time who suggested some metal reinforcing at the back in the new roof section:

39611442111_17f3084e4b_o.jpg

Which I think is an eminently sensible idea and will be acted upon in due course now that I've acquired various strips and sheets of brass over the last few months....

 

As you can see as well the interior detailing took a hammering during cutting the bird up in order to fit the vacform sections - it doesn't really bother me that that happened as to be quite frank, the quality of my workmanship on some areas left a lot to be desired with the perspective of a few month's absence and I'm glad of the opportunity to try and do a better job.

 

The vacformed 'Flight Operable Door' (as I now know its official title to be from the parts manual) does look good still:

25740511258_9ab9e26a4a_o.jpg

I'd added a reinforcement strip to the underseam of the roof and a strengthening plate to the inside of the curved lower door section, again to stop the plastic from flexing. With clear engineering diagrams to hand now I'm more confident about adding correct structural details for those regions than photographs alone would allow previously.

 

From what I can see in the breakdown of the various hydraulic actuator (for which there is a prominent junction box to be built and added at the junction between door and fuselage) and hinge components inside the F/O door, there are four elements (an actuator and hinge on each side) allowing the overall structure to be angled up and out from the fuselage for recovery operations (- as you see here:

C-119J_satellite_catching_gear.jpg

..whilst inside the ceiling is a horizontal arm-like mechanism that serves to retract the curved lower section up into the roof, giving it that 'hollowed-out' appearance in the photo above.

 

I've decided to pretty much build the aircraft in-flight as you see it here, recovery poles and lines deployed on the run-in to catch the satellite payload. 

 

It struck me that this display would look odd without any crew visible so I've some PJ Productions' Transport Pilots and Ground Crew (who's overalls can be modified and have parachutes attached) on order.

Even if it does look like Pelican 9 is being flown by Tom Selleck:

transport-pilots.jpg

I think the co-pilot is saying to him: 'It's alright Tom, I've got your beer while you do this.' whilstthe Flt.Eng. is engaged in reading out the juicy bits from Henry Miller to the crew over the intercom.

 

I don't envisage this build proceeding at the same level of intensity of the Dornier due to a busy Winter and Spring at work, due partly to me moving into developing VR environments on top of existing matters with the result that real modelling matters time will have to take a back seat to virtual ones at periods. I hope to make updates here as regular and satisfying as I can however.

 

First task is to buy some more primer and W&D with a view to rebuilding and painting the interior regions....

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 15
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the recap Tony :)

It's inevitable, I guess, that after all the new techniques you mastered on the Dornier that you'd be unhappy with some of your past work on this one. That said, don't throw the baby out with the bath water eh? I was amazed the first time around...

Nice crew figures and a great accompanying story :rofl2: Tom Selleck, love him in Blue Bloods (especially as he's aged like I have. OK, almost like I have)

 

I'm in two minds about your VR developments. On one hand it will make sure that the quality of technology yet to come has 'that Baron quality' about it. On the other hand we won't see you here so often. Torn :)

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, CedB said:

I'm in two minds about your VR developments. On one hand it will make sure that the quality of technology yet to come has 'that Baron quality' about it. On the other hand we won't see you here so often. Torn

Awww...thanks Ced.

 

Don't worry - the companionship of this forum has become such a weekly part of the fabric of life now that I've learned that it's especially important to come here when work is busy, as an antidote to such pressures.

 

That said, I mightn't have to work so much if it wasn't for all the kit and materials I keep seeing to buy on here: Catch 22! :lol:

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, TheBaron said:

That said, I mightn't have to work so much if it wasn't for all the kit and materials I keep seeing to buy on here: Catch 22! :lol:

Catch-22+(1970)+Alan+Arkin+Mike+Nichols+

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

catch-22-1970-alan-arkin-mike-nichols-7.

 

VR?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catch-22b.jpg

  • Haha 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/01/2018 at 9:57 PM, perdu said:

keep on keeping on

Thanks Bill. :thumbsup2:

Got up and kept on a bit this morning. First stroke of work on the Box since August and slowly feeling my way way around the structure again...

On 12/01/2018 at 10:33 AM, 71chally said:

VR?

What do they say about pictures in relation to 10words James?:lol:

 

It seems fitting in its own way that I'm starting this resumption of the build with correcting a problem that I've found with the kit in the cockpit area. Being able to rely on manuals rather than a sole interpretation from photographs has been handy in this instance in sorting out what's happening at the interface between the flight deck and rear fuselage.

I think Italeri made the recess into the cockpit floor too deep in this area (marked in red):

38957104224_6a810c736a_o.jpg

I discovered this in finding from the manual that there is a collapsible seat for the crew chief in that region (shades of the Do 18 - not another bloody collapsible cockpit seat  - they're following me around!!!!)

 

I won't pretend that I'd noticed this previously from reference photographs - something felt slightly 'off' looking at the kit part back in the summer but I wasn't perceptive enough spatially to identify the root cause then. The 'once you see it' effect of course means that looking back at those same photos now, you can clearly see where the cockpit floor level comes back much closer to the fuselage door, making for a much smaller 'lobby' than the kit provides: 

27887282059_370422beac_o.jpg

(My apologies to the original poster of the above image btw - if it's yours please let me know and I'll give full credits)

In kit terms, that difference  amounts to almost 7mm, which I've since reinstated:

38957096064_d73f4aa2be_o.jpg

Additionally, the parts manual reveals a corrugated panel running from the radio-ops table to the floor, onto which the crew-chief's seat is mounted. You can just make out the edge of this panel frame right in this screen-grab from a Youtube clip:

38769203135_3226acdf30_o.jpg

This element to has now been added from plastic and scrap PE:

25793927298_948c9c4c0e_o.jpg

The depth of that recess looks better now in comparison to the actual aircraft, whilst providing the required surface onto which the crew-chief's chair is bolted:

38957097524_ee355e8ea6_o.jpg

The chair itself is a simple frame and angled bracket affair for the seat cushion, with a padded back and headrest mounted onto the bulkhead above the entrance to the flight deck (again shades of the one on the Do 18...!!)

 

The seat framing started off as some 0.4mm brass rod shaped in the PE bending tool, completed with some squished 0.5mm brass tube soldered on in order to fabricate the wall mount:

25793928108_504442f09c_o.jpg

I'll cut through that flat tubing in the middle later on, just to leave the mounting points on either side.

The bracket was similarly bent from brass rod and held into place for soldering at a tricky angle with a haemostat (chapeau doffed to @Nigel Heath for that tip!):

38957099354_983b16668b_o.jpg

The solder is the same 145° wire from Eileen's Emporium that I've pretty much come to rely on for soldering at 1/72 scale:

27887255199_123848b07f_o.jpg

One of the knacks I've found over time for producing such three-dimensional pieces - especially where they might have the inconvenience of angles to deal with as is the case here - is to try and identify how few parts it takes to build such a structure, without sacrificing accuracy of shape.

38957100844_f3fdfba3f8_o.jpg

In this case, it only needed three parts and four solder joins.

 

Fixed into place with CA:

27887255879_9aa03d634f_o.jpg

In the shot below you can see where I snipped through the top strip in order  to leave just the mounting plates that affix the top bracket to the wall:

38957102914_f9bec0947b_o.jpg

The lower mounting should similarly have been cut through but I decided to leave it intact in order to provide a larger contact area for gluing strength.

 

With the head/backrest supported over the top of the door, you can hopefully begin to see from the above that the Flt.Eng. sat facing forward on that seat for take-off and landing (giving four crew in the cockpit and the remaining pole operators/recovery crew seated beside the cable-deck in the rear at such times), with the seat itself presumably folded flat up against the side of the radio table there during flight.

 

The dimensions of that lobby look more consistent with actuality and we can move on with a clear conscience:

27887257299_000a3a1bd8_o.jpg

What next?

Well, the intention over the next few weeks is to work steadily on adding detail and tidying up the existing innards here in preparation for painting the insides. That includes the FLOPDO (I'm not going to type 'flight operable door' each time...) of course, which along with the fuselage needs some work on producing various grades of perforated metal framing at various stations. My dear Mater having thoughtfully provided an RP Toolz Punch & Die set (how did she know? :whistle:) as a Christmas present, I'm hoping to do a considerably better job on such matters than my earlier cock-eyed attempts...

 

With the complexity of these various internal bits then, most of the sub-assemblies will be painted prior to final assembly, and of course will someone

please

please

please

not let me closeup the fuselage without adding the crew to Pelican 9!

 

I hope your weekend is going ok chaps. I'm off for an afternoon nap.

:bye:

Tony

 

 

Sometime later that afternoon: 

:hmmm:

Aircraft in flight yet Flight Eng. chair down?

Maybe it got knocked back down by clear air turbulence...?

Who knows....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/13/2018 at 3:14 PM, canberra kid said:

Nice work Tony! Good to see this one back up and running.

Thanks John! :thumbsup2:

 

It was partly our conversation at Telford that convinced me of the necessity to lay hands upon some serious technical manuals before attempting to restart this build. Nothing like a table of very pukka Canberrras to inspire one forward eh? :D

On 1/13/2018 at 4:24 PM, perdu said:

He'll be sitting pretty on THAT seat Tony

 

Doh sorry but...

You are allowed such indulgences because you also say such nice things. :lol:

On 1/13/2018 at 4:47 PM, CedB said:

Excellent, as usual. Good job Tony, great stuff :)

Glad to have this back on-line again Ced tbh - there's always that initial anxiety to contend with about having the will to pick a build up again isn't there?

2 hours ago, Hamden said:

Just caught up with this stunning build! I'll follow along to the end if you don't mind?

You are indeed most welcome along Roger - especially as a Dorset man - just booked a week over in Lyme with the family for the coming summer.:D

 

I managed to grab a little time on the soft-furnishing department this evening - a kind of 'Grace Bros.' session if you will - finishing off the crew chief's seating in the cockpit and the loadmaster's seat for beside the winch on the cable deck. (Question:crew-chief/loadmaster - are these two separate ranks or an interchangeable job title?)

 

Firstly I wanted to checked how yesterday's work stood up under a coat of primer. How does it look?

27910550219_f8953bf1e9_o.jpg

Like my nan's clothes-airer attached to the radiator in the bathroom, circa 1980!:doh::lol:

 

Actually that looks pretty close for this scale (aircraft seat, not nan's rad :chair:) so we can move on...

 

Loadmaster's seat up first then:

39689272851_768718200e_o.jpg

As the parts manual only gives the core 'J' parts listing and doesn't go into the more specialist fittings for satellite recovery, (somewhere in the Smithsonian there doubtless lurks a declassified mission manual with all this stuff in...) some items such as this still need to be built from photos. You can see Hoagy Carmichael sat in it here, taken as a still from a film:

38980658404_fa36bc32c0_o.jpg

Near as I can make out it's basically backed metal seat with legs and feet, plus a cushion:

39689274921_0370f707d4_o.jpg

I still need to square-off the top of the back in order to lose the curve of the original, but a salvaged Spitfire seat considerably thinnned-down with a file and re-profiled comes close enough for something that will eventually sit in shadow two-thirds of the way up inside the fuselage. Sitting in the foreground of the above shot  are the cushions for the crew chief's seat:

24820467867_b4709b6605_o.jpg

As per the Dornier previously, these are carved from left-over plastic with surface texture produced by vacforming. I stuck them in termporarily with White-Tak just to give you sight of the general arrangement:

27910549279_93f6b76216_o.jpg

I seem to be haunted by collapsible seating these days..

 

Short and sweet but we're moving again.

 

To finish off tonight I'm going to leave you in the capable hands of the visiting Rotary-wing Correspondent AKA Raph (my youngest lad), who's been working away over Christmas with his haul of swag from Telford....

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The helicopter i'm making is a Luftwaffe me 105c.

For the buttons i used some micro rod  and for the joystick i used part of the spru and shaped it using a scalpel because the joysticks that came with the set were very inaccurate. 

the fire extinguisher was made using some more micro rod and for the lever on top I used a shaving of spru.

 

27777940149_0a0b093dbd_c.jpg

 

I made the seat straps using tinfoil from a toblerone and glue them on with some tet,the latches were made also with some micro rod.

 

27777939729_979e6f27f4_c.jpg

 

I then connected the other side of the fuselage and smoothed out the seems with some filler.The windows were masked using some Japenese masking tape and I simply just covered the windows and sliced around the edges using a scalpel.

 

39689271511_9e9817d1ac_c.jpg

 

:bye:

Raph and Tony

 

  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...