Catching Pictures in the Air

[Brandy]

Beautifully done. I love how clear the windows are, I'll have to remember that one.

 

Ian

[CedB]

Another load of praise for the framing Tony, excellent work (as usual)  

[hendie]

superb detailing and a nice new and exciting technique.

That framing looks excellent and should look even more excellenter under paint. 

 

Are you using self adhesive aluminum foil, or just plain old tinfoil or...?

I find the self adhesive is great for most jobs but thin strips can be a bit dodgy at times

[Martian]

Those frames look the business!

 

Impressed of Mars 👽

[Spookytooth]

Smashing work on the glazing Tony.

Those frames kook really nice indeed.

 

Simon.

[TheBaron]

7 hours ago, giemme said:

Brilliant job with the framing, a technique I had already used in the past but not to that extent

Much too kind Giorgio.

I do like it as a technique though it takes some careful handling at the de-masking stage lest a clumsy finger brush the paint off to reveal silver. At least it shouldn't be such a problem here on a predominantly silver paint job in the cockpit area....

7 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Good work on the windows! It's nice to see that your excellent cockpit will still be visible. I may have missed it but I presume the frame is sticky back alu tape?

Thanks Adrian! You're quite right, it is sticky backed tape - this is slightly thinner than the standard 3M stuff  and as a result you can probably guess it is a lot more finicky to handle in the form of thin strips.

6 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Beautifully done. I love how clear the windows are, I'll have to remember that one.

Only fair as I'll be purloining your superb wood effects at some stage Ian!

How are you adjusting to the new climate where you are?

3 hours ago, CedB said:

Another load of praise for the framing Tony

Much obliged Ced.

Though it looks like it falls to me to lower the tone with the necessary Harry Hill reference ...

3 hours ago, hendie said:

That framing looks excellent and should look even more excellenter under paint. 

3 hours ago, hendie said:

Are you using self adhesive aluminum foil, or just plain old tinfoil or...?

I find the self adhesive is great for most jobs but thin strips can be a bit dodgy at times

It is the self-adhesive stuff hendie and yes 'dodgy' describes perfectly working with it in such thin strips. A natural propensity to curl into spiral shapes when cut and generally high-level of adhesion (which is why I like this stuff - it ain't goin' anywhere once it's on) meant that by the end of that session I looked like I'd been trying to fend off several rather small Lancasters dropping 'Window' all over me...

2 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Those frames look the business!

Gracias Don Martiantino!

2 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Smashing work on the glazing Tony.

Those frames kook really nice indeed.

Mersey bowcoo M. Spookytooth.

Jes suis tres glad that job has been put to bed now I can tell ye.

[bigbadbadge]

Wow Tony the windows look great and the framework too .  Great idea re the screen protector too. I liked the engine rescue remedy as well very innovative solutions fella.  It goes to show every day is a learning day. 

 

A few years ago I went into the chemist and without thinking asked if they had any syringes  (this was to drop watered down PVA glue with a couple of drops of washing up liquid onto the ballast on a model railway ). Everyone stopped chatting and what they were doing and stared at me. It was very embarrassing I can tell you.  Trying to explain that one.

Keep up the good work. 

All the best 

Chris 

[The Spadgent]

The canopy looks amazing! Super impressed. I don’t know why I worried, you always work it out in the end. Top notch. 🤩

 

Johnny

[TheBaron]

21 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

It goes to show every day is a learning day. 

You got that right Chris! There's always a way - you mightn't get there by a direct route, but there's always a way...

21 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Trying to explain that one.

I guess the only thing to do is to invent a story about being on hard drugs to cover up the shame of admitting to modelling....

20 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

I don’t know why I worried, you always work it out in the end.

It gets scary sometimes, doesn't it? 😆

 

Hopefully this'll make sense as I'm typing with one eye on Portugal v. Spain on a separate browser window. Just a wee bit of progress building detail up around the landing lights, though last night I gave myself a bit of a freak by seeing two lights in the leading edge of the port wing in the parts manual. After going through the numerical index in the manual it transpired there's something called a 'passing' light as well. I wasn't familiar with this, though there's a good description of its night-flying function:

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/43450/whats-the-red-light-in-the-left-wing-of-a-n-a-t-6-for/43451#43451

As it turns out I needn't have worried because on many C-119s - including Pelican 9 - it isn't always there and a blanking plate is fitted:

A frontal shot of a sister aircraft in the squadron taken in 1960 (in the 'Star Catchers' oral history) confirms a blanking plate as well, so panic over.

 

For no apparent reason Italeri make the landing light recess far too deep and slightly too narrow:

I've used marker pen as a guide for filing that widen them by about a mill. in total, though decided not to reduce the depth completely so that there is room to add the lights - intending to over-paint the transparency by the required amount so that it looks accurate in the final display:

For the shields on the inboard side of the landing lights, I snipped blanks out of some brass sheet with nail scissors, roughly ground the curved leading edge of them in the Dremel before finessing the curve with the sihrsc:

That should give the necessary sharpness. 

 

I then cut a slot with the contour saw and did a dry-fit:

Looks the part, so both port and starboard were then glued into place with Gator's Grip Thin Blend:

After doing that I was suddenly had a fright that the GG Thin stuff mightn't work with brass:

Bloody idiot.

 

Fiends coming down from Belfast on Sunday so I want to try and get those lights finished tomorrow if I can. I've a plan to try turning some transparency in the lathe to make the lenses - you will of course be first to know if that worked!

Tony

 

 

[Teuchter]

22 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Wow Tony the windows look great and the framework too .  Great idea re the screen protector too. I liked the engine rescue remedy as well very innovative solutions fella.  It goes to show every day is a learning day. 

 

A few years ago I went into the chemist and without thinking asked if they had any syringes  (this was to drop watered down PVA glue with a couple of drops of washing up liquid onto the ballast on a model railway ). Everyone stopped chatting and what they were doing and stared at me. It was very embarrassing I can tell you.  Trying to explain that one.

Keep up the good work. 

All the best 

Chris 

When collecting water samples back in the 70s we had to put a measured amount of acid into the bottles. My colleague had long hair and we frequented the House of Army Surplus for fashion items. He went into a small chemist in a small N. Wales town. 'Do you have syringes?' 'What for?' 'Injecting acid....er, never mind' cue - nee naw, nee naw..... and some explanation from our boss.

 

Apologies for the drift and looking forward to the wings being attached!

 

Don

[keefr22]

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Fiends coming down from Belfast on Sunday

 

Fiends? Strange company you keep Tony....!!

 

Keith

[TheBaron]

11 hours ago, Teuchter said:

Apologies for the drift and looking forward to the wings being attached

Drift away Don - great stories like that always welcome here!

8 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Fiends? Strange company you keep Tony....!!

Clearly you've never met them....

[TheBaron]

In and around other jobs today I've been back and forth to the bench doing bits and pieces in a quite pleasant and relaxed manner; I must remember sometimes that there are alternatives to those long intense sessions. What is it dietitians say about little and often?

 

First job then was to reapply new masking to the canopy and astrodome before mucky fingers get all over them:

A tedious and exacting job that hopefully won't need doing again this side of painting.

 

I mentioned yesterday about wanting to get the landing lights sorted today so first task was to find some suitable clear runner to salvage from the kit:

Slightly too big but nothing that a spin in the lathe can't cure:

You can just about see there that what I did was use and angled chisel to remove about 0.5mm from the diameter and then shape the rear of the lens into a curve to match the profile of the real part. Little of this will be seen in the end but it's enough to defy the odd searching glance. Whilst this was still in the lathe it got a spin and polish with some MM, before checking appearances with a test-fit:

To form the transparent covers I used @hendies excellent suggestion about heat-forming around heating metal shapes on the bench, here using PET (which I felt necessary for extras shaping strength due to the flimsiness of screen protector for a job of this nature) draped around the hot handle of a mini-wrench:

This was the third attempt, giving a nice clear result, as I learned from the first two goes that I'd heated the metal moulding part too high and this seemed to fog the PET. Trimmed down to size that curve should do nicely to match the leading edge:

By trial and error I also learned that the best way to cut curved PET without bending or snapping it is to hold it against the curved edge of a piece of softwood and slice gently with a razor blade - avoiding the torn edge that sawing would produce:

A dry fit revealed that all was well:

I brushed some Alclad Aluminium around inside the housing prior to fixing the lenses with Gator's Grip (again):

Once they'd had sufficient time to cure, Gator's Grip Thin sufficed to stick the covers in place:

That'll do for today.

 

Might get a bit more in tomorrow but depends how things pan out with visitors.

Have a great evening all of you!

Tony

 

 

 

[CedB]

More marvellous tips and great modelling Tony, gripping stuff  

(Add lathe and riveting tool to wish list, again...)

[Spookytooth]

Excellent work on the landing lights Tony.

The canopy masking spot on too.

 

Simon.

[hendie]

nice job!  Top marks for a job well done and bonus points for using the correct terminology (runner)

 

I wish I could take credit for the method but it's really just plunge molding without the drama, extra effort, and well... plunging. 

I can be extremely lazy given half a chance and there are times when you just don't need to go to all the effort involved in plunge molding

[Martian]

Neat work on the lights Tony.

 

Martian 👽

[The Spadgent]

Brilliant work on those lights. 👏🙌

👏🙌

John.

[bbudde]

As all above . Looks great by now, Tony. Cheers

[Hamden]

 

Great looking lights

 

  Roger

[Tomoshenko]

Those lights are the absolute dog's Tony.

[giemme]

8 hours ago, CedB said:

More marvellous tips and great modelling Tony, gripping stuff  

(Add lathe and riveting tool to wish list, again...)

Agreed 100%, on all accounts  

 

Tony, may I ask how long does it take for Gator Grip to set, when gluing PET?

Ciao

 

[TheBaron]

21 hours ago, CedB said:

More marvellous tips and great modelling Tony, gripping stuff  

(Add lathe and riveting tool to wish list, again...)

Thanks Ced.

The lathe is dead handy for some jobs, though for plastic this scale you have to spend some time finding the right balance between rpm and chisel pressure, otherwise the plastic tends to flex sometimes and give a slight lopsidedness to the profile. It's one of those things you get a 'feel' for over time rather than being able to explain exact quantities.

21 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Excellent work on the landing lights Tony.

The canopy masking spot on too.

Cheers Simon. Having masked it inside and out now that canopy had better look after itself a bit better than previously. It's let itself go a bit....

20 hours ago, hendie said:

bonus points for using the correct terminology (runner)

One must maintain standards, mustn't one?

20 hours ago, hendie said:

I wish I could take credit for the method but it's really just plunge molding without the drama, extra effort, and well... plunging. 

Nonetheless I'm glad you drew it to our attention hendie. Quick and relatively painless - what's not to like in a technique? 🙂

19 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Neat work on the lights Tony.

 

19 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Brilliant work on those lights.

 

17 hours ago, Hamden said:

Great looking lights

 

17 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

Those lights are the absolute dog's Tony.

Cheers Martian, Johnny, Roger & Tomo.

Tape off, a quick polish earlier and I think they'll do:

19 hours ago, bbudde said:

Looks great by now, Tony. Cheers

Appreciate that Benedikt - thanks!

13 hours ago, giemme said:

Tony, may I ask how long does it take for Gator Grip to set, when gluing PET?

I didn't time it exactly Giorgio but when I checked it a couple of hours afterward the glue seemed to have all turned clear, indicating that it had gone off. I've found the GG 'Thin' seems to cure a bit quicker than the 'Standard' stuff but whether this is due to different density of the substance or different drying conditions I couldn't say.

 

Having glued the  blanks for the navigation and formation lights onto wingtips and port fin (not exciting so no photos) I finally committed to doing the designs for parts of the aircraft that have raised surfaces for various access panels. Unlike panel lines there are a number of these that are prominent enough in photographs to warrant attending to, so it was over to the Silhouette software one more to draft them up:

^{Clockwise from top left: Access panels for rear of booms, 1.7mm circular panels for rudders, inspection hatch for starboard lower side, reinforcing strips for boom strengthening seams, 1.9mm circular panels for fins.}

I think it's always important to show what happens when a technique goes wrong so that others can learn from it so here's what happened to the first output of these designs when I used the wrong materials setting  in relation to adhesive foil:

'Orrid ain't it?

Slashing and skittering all over the place. I was puzzled because an identical process had worked flawlessly in creating the wing fairings a few pages back but a quick check of the output settings revealed that I'd used the 'Duct tape' one. I've no idea why so I must have been looking through the list to see what options were available (the list is quite long) and forgotten to change it back to the 'Washi tape' setting that seems to work so nicely with this foil. Despite changing the setting it came out even worse the next time so it occurred to me to check the blade:

Pretty conclusively gummed up with foil and adhesive,so jut goes to show how much more brutal the duct tape setting had been with thin metal tape. You've got to be careful exposing the blade due to its extreme sharpness but some gentle scraping with a scalpel tip and a cotton bud dipped in IPA to remove the adhesive gumming up the blade and we were back in business. After a test on some scrap Washi paper to make sure it was cutting clean, a foil master emerged:

Pukka!

You could have used a hole punch for the circular access panel of course but this method is quicker and less fiddly for thin foil discs at this scale.

Boom and fins done:

Fins appear to have the same arrangement of panels on the inner sides as well:

Rudders differ however by having six on their left sides:

...but only two on the right:

It's easy to miss that as I nearly did.

 

In the above shot you can see also the ugly plastic blob that awaits filing and shaping down into a more streamlined formation light atop the port fin.

 

All that remains for another day are the strips for the reinforcing seams:

 For reference these are 2.5 x 0.7mm in size and should be fun getting placed symmetrically to match the actuality. This also gives a good idea of just how small a part the cutter can reproduce so sharply.

 

Guests later so off to bathe and splash on the Bay Rum.

 

Hope you're having a good Sunday and I'll catch you during the week!

Tony

 

 

 

 

[hendie]

Nice detailing with the foil.   I think you've found a niche market opportunity there. Who needs PE when you got sticky metal sheet?

[CedB]

Nice job Tony (after the ooops)  

BTW the little white plastic gizmo in the Portrait box that the instructions say is the BlueTooth adapter remover is also a thing for taking the end off the blades for cleaning.

Handy video here.

Better late than never... HTH