Catching Pictures in the Air

[Martian]

I a hoping that the weather cools down for you soon so tht we can see some paint going on this one.

 

Martian 👽

[TheBaron]

Hello this is Raphael again and this a ME Bolkow 105c that i bought at Telford last year.The cockpit was really bare bones so i had to make some modifications (I added in some harnesses fire extinguishers and various dials and knobs for the control panel.

 

I sprayed the hole thing in primer and first airbrushed the entire thing in the primary colour and then masked it off by layering the masking tape on my cutting mat and drawing out the silhouette cutting around that and then drawing out the camouflage of the copter then cutting those out and placing them on the helicopters surface and airbrushed over everything again using my airbrush and a an old compressor of my dads which he had replaced with one he bought from Telford and then i peeled the masking tape off and you can see the results in the pictures posted

 

 I placed the decals on first using water then a layer of micro sol was applied and because it was an old set the decal for the registration number was damaged and turned out a bit foggy

 

 

 

to join everything together i used some TET that I also got at Telford.The landing pad was from my brothers old laptop disc drive that was sprayed with primer then masked off using my dads silhouette

cutter and the some white spray paint

 

[Spookytooth]

Congratulations Raphael, a lovely build.

You will teaching your dad a few bits soon.

 

Simon.

[keefr22]

Yep, nice work Raphael, give it a couple of years & your dad will be the second best modeller in the house!

 

Good job! 

 

Keith 

[Procopius]

49 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Hello this is Raphael again and this a ME Bolkow 105c that i bought at Telford last year.The cockpit was really bare bones so i had to make some modifications (I added in some harnesses fire extinguishers and various dials and knobs for the control panel.

Oh god, it's genetic.

[TheBaron]

On 7/19/2018 at 12:08 AM, CedB said:

Wow, that'll be amazing Tony - I'll let you know how my efforts go  

Certainly will Mr. B.

Btw Ced- how did you get on with the deep-cut blade for your Silhouette. I picked up one on offer myself with the intention of using it to cut out plastic parts and wondered if you'd had much joy yourself?

23 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Wow Tony the Chicken is looking good fella.   Glad you're feeling better now and feeling positive.   Some amazing work on the model.  

The Anson build sounds interesting too.  Great opportunity potentially if you can speak to his son too.

 

Ta Chris.  As a backup plan I've ordered a copy of the Beam Bombers book that Pierre had been kind enough to pass on info from via Cc. If I can't find out the exact serial I've a one-in-three chance of getting it right out of the ones snaffled from Boscombe to carry out the missions, but a wilder guess for the full squadron codes... 

10 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

I a hoping that the weather cools down for you soon so tht we can see some paint going on this one.

You and me both Martian.

 

It's not so much heat here at the moment that is a source of vexation as the damnably high humidity, which isn't dropping below the mid 70s, and reaching 90% during the night. I'm not a lacquer expert by any means but understand anything over 60 is dodgy for spraying - even with a moisture trap.

1 hour ago, Spookytooth said:

Congratulations Raphael, a lovely build.

You will teaching your dad a few bits soon.

 

32 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

Yep, nice work Raphael, give it a couple of years & your dad will be the second best modeller in the house!

 

Good job! 

Thanks Simon & Keith: He'll be most chuffed to read that later!

 

27 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Oh god, it's genetic.

...though we do vary:

 

As to meself, in between fretting about Anson details (A set of Eduard early RAF harnesses arrived in the post today so hope these will be accurate enough) I managed to get some more tidying-up done on the Ferrous Poulet, to whit the BT, which I'd largely neglected until now:

The missing inner panel for the door turned up as you can see! (You were right Bill about making a new one causing it to reappear and you too Johnny about tidying) Tidying a shelf this afternoon I discovered it sitting there half covered by a packet of plastic strip. Just shows you. The strapping on the BT above is because I discovered that the 'click' sound I'd mentioned previously during the 'door panel ejection-test' was actually caused by the rear frame cracking: there's a weak point running through the framework for receiving the hydraulic actuator later,and that had given way. Now repaired with TET and braced with an old length of sprue to avoid it happening again until fixed to the Chicken.

 

There are additionally a set of hinges remaining to go on the roof top of the interface between door and fuselage. As I want to have this as a realistic-looking hinge, a rummage around in the tin of watch parts produced some likely candidates for modification:

Ground to shape using a diamond-dust disc in the Dremel, these were then soldered to some tiny brass cylinders:

I used 70° solder for this as it meant that by using a high temp setting on the iron, you barely needed to touch the solder to get it to flow. This helps avoid knocking such delicate parts out of alignment by catching it with the tip of the iron. The low-temp is a cadmium/lead mixture so you definitely want to wear gloves for handling and avoid snorting the fumes.

To secure these parts, I countersank a couple of holes in the top of the BT for the bases to sit into flush with the aircraft skin:

These will be epoxied in later, once I've built the corresponding parts to receive them on the fuselage side of the interface:

If anyone knows of  any efficacious anti-humidity chants, do please let me know.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CedB]

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Hello this is Raphael again and this a ME Bolkow 105c

Superb Raph, good job that man!  

 

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Btw Ced- how did you get on with the deep-cut blade for your Silhouette.

Hmmm. I too tried it on plastic sheet but, to be honest, it wasn't much different to the standard blade. I think it's designed to cut thicker material rather than harder stuff, if you see what I mean. It must be the pressure rather than the blade length that effects the ability to cut. Obvious I guess.

 

Great stuff on the Boxcar Tony, as usual!  

[perdu]

Lovely Bolkow Raphael, let's see if we can make a hi def helicopter man of you shall we, then the old man can be the fixed wingy part of the family

 

Which is kinda something he excels in...

 

I will say told you so Tony, one of the benefits of old age is the ability to shrug off claims of "smug old git"

 

I don't think it matters whether you use the new door inner or the old one, both look the bizz

 

Any news on the Annie yet? 

[giemme]

The Force is strong in your family, Tony  Or should I say you both caught the super-detailing bug?

 

 Ciao

[hendie]

I started reading Raphael's post and thought the forum had undergone yet another 'upgrade' while I was gone and posts were getting randomized - took me a while to figure it out!  Raphael - that landing pad is a stroke of genius!

 

 

 

17 hours ago, TheBaron said:

If anyone knows of  any efficacious anti-humidity chants, do please let me know.

 

I spray in temperatures up to about 80°F with relatively high humidity (to stingey to turn the air conditioners on until it gets to at least 85°) without any problems.  Or to bemore precise - without any problems caused by the high temp/high humidity conditions. All my paint issues are down to my own incompetence with the medium.

 

It looks like your steampunk kit was a good investment as it appears you keep finding little treasures in there

 

[TheBaron]

On 7/20/2018 at 11:40 PM, CedB said:

Superb Raph, good job that man!  

 

On 7/21/2018 at 10:19 AM, perdu said:

Lovely Bolkow Raphael

On 7/21/2018 at 3:42 PM, hendie said:

Raphael - that landing pad is a stroke of genius!

 

Ced, Bill  & hendie: Raph's most chuffed at the feedback!  

Regrettably I have to tell you that it has increased his sense of covetousness when coming in to 'just look' at the tools on the workbench now: i.e. 'just looking' in the Just William sense of the phrase...

 

He's currently at work upstairs on a 1/35 Sherman - since seeing a rake of varying M4s at Tankfest I think he gotten a bit giddy for muddy heavy metal.

On 7/20/2018 at 11:40 PM, CedB said:

I think it's designed to cut thicker material rather than harder stuff, if you see what I mean. It must be the pressure rather than the blade length that effects the ability to cut.

I seem to recall reading something similar Ced - after buying it of course, I think the higher end cutters give you more grunt with the blade but I really must put an afternoon aside to test the Portrait's limitations on a range of varying thicknesses and materials, just to establish some kind of benchmark.

On 7/21/2018 at 10:19 AM, perdu said:

I will say told you so Tony, one of the benefits of old age is the ability to shrug off claims of "smug old git"

 

I don't think it matters whether you use the new door inner or the old one, both look the bizz

If nothing else I'm well stocked for the market run on C-119 J conversion parts - it has to happen sometime, no? 🤔

On 7/21/2018 at 10:19 AM, perdu said:

Any news on the Annie yet? 

Not so far Bill: it's a long shot of course but I'm conscious with people being on holiday &etc. that if I do get a response it may be some time coming yet. You guys will be first to hear of any news it goes without saying. 🤞

On 7/21/2018 at 12:01 PM, giemme said:

The Force is strong in your family, Tony  Or should I say you both caught the super-detailing bug?

Congenital derangement I suspect!

On 7/21/2018 at 3:42 PM, hendie said:

I spray in temperatures up to about 80°F with relatively high humidity (to stingey to turn the air conditioners on until it gets to at least 85°) without any problems.  Or to bemore precise - without any problems caused by the high temp/high humidity conditions.

That is good to know hendie - thanks. Does that include lacquers as well?

I suspect I've frightening myself by reading too many conflicting horror stories on the interwhynot.

The humidity here shows no sign of abating so I'm going to try some pigmentation tests on a mule during the week, come what may.

On 7/21/2018 at 3:42 PM, hendie said:

It looks like your steampunk kit was a good investment as it appears you keep finding little treasures in there

Everyone should have a tin of watch guts!

There is a weird but nonetheless rewarding pleasure to tipping all the bits out into the palm of your hand and then letting them slowly trickle back into the jar. ..

 

Down to business for a quick update.

 

Coming down this morning and wandering into the workroom with fresh eyes I realized that yesterday's work upon the upper BT hinges needed some adjustment, in that they were currently too high. Back to the diamond dust disc in the Dremel with them and reduced by a third ( as you can see in the 'before and after' below) these are now acceptable:

The corresponding bracket on the fuselage side is somewhat thicker so I cut cut and shaped this from a different watch component:

Tacked on for a dry-fit:

Those will do very nicely:

Satisfied that was going to work, I've eopxied the BT ones into place; once that's had a chance to cure they'll let me glue the fuselage ones on using them as a datum to get them correctly positioned.

 

I'm conscious that these small but time-consuming steps need to get done before I can clear the decks to focus solely upon painting, speaking of which the bulk of time today I spent on researching and putting together a colour plan:

 

This is the original paint/decal guide from the Italeri instructions scanned into Photoshop and then replaced with the aircraft profile for a 'J' variant along with  re-painted outlines to match those of Pelican 9. FS references swatches are reproduced from the ever-useful Colourserver pages.

 

The result here is a combination of colour values taken directly from USAF Technical Orders (T.O. 1-1-4) of the period, allied to reference photos of Pelican 9 and sister aircraft. As you would expect this is not as straightforward as it sounds regarding photographic references, due to the fact that a number of contemporary shots of sister aircraft have varying differences to the main paint scheme, whilst the 'restoration' on her done at the USAF museum in recent years should not imo be regarded as an accurate guide for producing this particular aircraft in 1960s livery (painted wings along with nose/tail colouration being the main concerns here).

 

This is the key image then that I'm trusting to be an authoritative source.

It is a contemporary shot (reproduced in the 'Star Catchers' oral history book that I've referenced several times in this thread already) taken during the period of the capsule recovery missions: as such the closest thing to what Pelican 9 would have looked like on the day of the first mid-air capsule recovery.

 

I need to nail down a painting sequence for the above so that we end up with all the Alclad metals going on last. Some of the lettering and insignia should prove a challenging endeavour - something I wouldn't countenance without having the Silhouette to produce the necessary range of masks on. The '7' on the Amarillo font above isn't quite right for example, so I'll need to adjust that at the design stage. Digging around the web also threw up an airframe history for the Iron Chicken, which I'd somehow overlooked.

 

I forgot top add it to the colour plan but see that large black cross on the top of the fuselage in the photo above - anyone know what it signifies? The only thing underneath the skin at that point is a kind of 'Grand Central' for the de-icing and heating/ventialation ducting...

 

Take care til next time my beauties.

Tony

 

 

[hendie]

you might want to experiment with the alclad's before committing to the final job.   Great paint in as much as replicating metallic finishes- but bloomin' awful (in my experience) to handle afterwards.  If I as much as touch the alclad it just wipes off.  I've never had real success with them.  Even if I mange not to touch anything before getting some clear (alclad) gloss on it, somehow it still seems to wipe off.

 

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

That is good to know hendie - thanks. Does that include lacquers as well?

 

I use acrylics for the most part, with just an occasional alclad squirt here and there so not really qualified to comment on that count.

[CedB]

Smaug?

 

I did try the deep blade on plastic somewhere...  found it! It was part of the Hunter build here.

 

Watch parts?  

[bigbadbadge]

Great work on the hinges Tony.  

Congratulations to Raphael on a splendid build too. He's done a great job and the extradetails too. He'llbe taking over your bench soon !!!

All the best 

Chris 

[The Spadgent]

Wonderful work Tony, aaaand Raph what a great chopter, the landing pad is inspired, your paint work is👌 fingers crossed for your old mans paint job. Metal work is it? Oh my word he doesn’t make it easy does he? 

Looking forward to paint and tanks! 😇

 

Johnny.

[TheBaron]

21 hours ago, hendie said:

you might want to experiment with the alclad's before committing to the final job.

Ooh goody - I like experiments! 👹💥🚑

18 hours ago, CedB said:

It was part of the Hunter build here.

Thanks Ced - I'm a dunderhead for not remembering that!

I reckon it can turn out most useful: I'm not so much after cutting all the way through as scoring the victim  plastic just sufficiently to be able to flex and snap the piece out.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt....

18 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

He'llbe taking over your bench soon !!!

As opposed to 'borrowing' things from it you mean?

Thanks for the kind words Chris.

17 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Wonderful work Tony, aaaand Raph what a great chopter, the landing pad is inspired, your paint work is👌 fingers crossed for your old mans paint job. Metal work is it? Oh my word he doesn’t make it easy does he? 

Looking forward to paint and tanks! 😇

Ta Johnny. 😊

 

Lazy start today in the everlasting bath of climate, but after fuelling on coffee and cinnamon buns the resulting caffeine/sugar combination propelled me into the day quicker than you can say 'hypergolic reaction'. The Iron Chicken got a going-over first - holding it under a strong oblique light and marking out any remaining surface flaws with a pencil before deciding that this was a perfect opportunity to trial the new pack of superfine Milliput that I'd bought over in Bovington. In some of the thinner repairs, to avoid any danger of it unbonding if the area is flexed I actually deepened the flaw with a broken drill bit that I keep for this purpose - counter-intuitive when repairing but this gives a better 'key' for the filling medium. Feels like a crime against nature doing it on a polished surface though...

The superfine M-put is a new one to me and I have to say performs superbly on these small areas. I guess as it's recommended for repairing porcelain it should be? I still love the 'standard' stuff and will retain that for bulk filling but on smaller smoother jobs I reckon the superfine will do just fine. Another useful trick I disovered with it is for areas of fine scratches where 'somebody' might have been a bit heavy with the sihrsc on their BT: get a ball of the Milliput and rub it firmly back and forth across the afflicted area like you're rubbing out pencil mistakes with a rubber:

This works the filler into any fine cracks without you having to put a big blob on (and spread it around only to remove half of it later) - a kind of self-applying filler. Simply wetting a razor blade and running it across the surface (think smoothing concrete with a trowel) afterward has the job done in a jiffy:

Now.

PAINT!

Not actually on the Iron Chicken just  yet but adjacent to it.

Before tackling the beast and turning it all glam rock I want to be sure there's not going to be any nasty surprises. Never having painted a largely metallic aircraft before needs a bit of mental preparation so I spent the afternoon doing this:

Left over from the boy's childhood are one or two boneyard victims that I saved for mulery.

 

It's one thing to look at other people's tutorials on Youtube but there's no substitute for playing around to get a feel for a new medium yourself is there? 

Three different primers as bases first, followed by a range of metallic combinations and varying methods of application:

For reference, these were all sprayed as Alclad reccomend at 15 psi, temperature 21°C, humidity 76%. (The raised surface textures and various dings you see are just the remains of the original camouflage paint job, which I actually left untouched before priming to see to what degree the various primers might mitigate any flaws.). Each metal area was built up from three coats. Shiny surfaces aren't ideal for trying to reproduce subtleties of tone and reflectivity under a bright light but you can see hopefully the variations a bit better here:

To old hands at metal painting there's nothing new here but I'm conscious of feeling my way in to a new process.

21 hours ago, hendie said:

somehow it still seems to wipe off.

This worried me as a potential issue hendie so after letting the paint dry for an hour I gave it a vigorous rub with some kitchen towel and it stayed put. Emboldened by this I put a range of soft polishing heads in the Dremel and gave it a more intensive going-over. That brought up the shine nicely without any evident damage occurring:

One thing I wouldn't recommend as a polishing tool in the Dremel though is these things:

They're apparently ideal for soft polishing but even on the slowest speed you end up with hair flying out all over the shop - the effect is like exploding a small and rather sad sheep against your aircraft.

 

Come by! etc. etc.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spookytooth]

Exploding sheep eh Tony, what`s next?

I know what you mean about polishing mops, the one I used on the Jug did very similar.

 

Still, good to know that the Alcad stays strong though mate.

I was a bit worried about the Alcad part but have faith in it now.

 

Simon.

[bbudde]

17 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

They're apparently ideal for soft polishing but even on the slowest speed you end up with hair flying out all over the shop - the effect is like exploding a small and rather sad sheep against your aircraft.

Hello Tony. Please use an old fashioned true cottton kitchen cloth  Works everytime with the best result. I used this thing for polishing a clear part with my Proxxon Dremel at the lowest stage ( roundabout 10000u/pm) and it still melted the plastic. Lesson learned! Cheers

[hendie]

51 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

This worried me as a potential issue hendie so after letting the paint dry for an hour I gave it a vigorous rub with some kitchen towel and it stayed put. Emboldened by this I put a range of soft polishing heads in the Dremel and gave it a more intensive going-over. That brought up the shine nicely without any evident damage occurring:

 

I am aghast, agog, and ahhhh... astounded.   Never happens to me.

[The Spadgent]

Experiments in Silver. Good luck dear boy, you’re headed in the right direction for sure. 😀

 

Johnny glam rock.

[giemme]

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

the effect is like exploding a small and rather sad sheep against your aircraft.

Can't take that out of my head - can't stop laughing by myself like an idiot  

 

Glad the metallic experiments turned out good 👍

 

Ciao

[CedB]

Very nice variations there Tony - great experiments... can't wait to see it on the real thing  

12 hours ago, TheBaron said:

the effect is like exploding a small and rather sad sheep against your aircraft.

Baah! (See what I did there? Oh suit yourself...)  

[Cookenbacher]

Sorry Tony, I fell off the back of this one, but have arrived just in time for metal experiments - my favorite! Wonderful test results, and the ultra smooth surface (one of the most important aspects of a metal finish) you've achieved on the C-119 will lead to spectacular results I bet.

[John Masters]

FYI...I just finished applying the walkway decals on my C-119.  Watch out!  They are delicate and not connected in single sheets.  They are separate black lines which means they fold up on each other when they are ready to apply.  

 

I ended up cutting them into more easily handled pieces.  It took me 2 hours to put them all on.  Phew!  And I skipped the MicroSol.  Not needed at all.

[corsaircorp]

On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 10:22 PM, Procopius said:

Oh god, it's genetic.

It's up to you Mr PC to carry on ...

Time to teach Winston on how to glue plastic bits….

Sincerely.

CC