Gannet ripple and relaxxxx

[perdu]

Well here we are again

 

Do any of you remember playing (yes that was a long time ago!) with the little Airfix OO soldiers?

 

I'd wager many of us of a certain age had battles aplenty with them and being the folks we are I would wager that many of us attempted alterations to get the actual pose that we needed

 

And many of us, me included, chucked the damned remnants in the bin when we found the intractable polythene just wouldnt hold still for glue...

 

 

And time passes

 

And I have a problem with two weeks to solve it

 

So we begin

 

Can you see what it is yet?

 

 

 

 

No, not Airfix but Esci

 

Esci NATO Pilots and ground crew set...

 

I was sent the set by one of my heroes who realised that I was having difficulties finding suitable figures for a tiny diorama I planned

 

The setting?

 

Yes another Carling lager beer mat

 

 

The scenario

 

A Naval type (labelled potentially slanderously 'grubber' by his contemporaries) prepares to start a jet engine with a Blackburn Palouste jet starter

In the above grossly out of focus view the Esci man is still part of the flat platform he kneels on

 

This has to come away

 

In a move which so defines your correspondent the next bit is probably down to you

I need to clean up Major Flash whilst avoiding disasters and alter the poor chap's arm positions so that his right reaches above him holding a hose connector to insert into the orifice on a jet engine for such starting

 

His left will need moving forward to result in a grasp on the hose behind the intake coupling

 

After much contemplation I decided that some of my much depleted stock of John Aero's aerodynamic strut material gives the right look of an empty air hose waiting to fill with air from the compressor stage of the Palouste so a length of it has been donated to the 2018 Beermat Challenge entry from Chez Perdu

 

I am hoping that some of you will have attempted such butchery but if you don't help me soon I will try setting off into the unknown alone

 

Then I will let you in to the tribulations

 

(p.s. I dont like the deck material so I havent painted lines nor inserted tie downs but this is for the build purposes only)

 

Should I simply have faith in cyano gel and get on with it?

 

Over to the panel, oh yes and while you are at it help me decide where to post a potential RFI

Aircraft, vehicles or maybe ships?

 

First world problems to have huh?

[keefr22]

I have tried such butchery in the past Bill, but it failed miserably. However I'm not sure whether I was at that time aware of superglue. I seem to recall much loss of limbs when using PVA glue, and of course poly cement wouldn't touch the stuff.

 

Might it be better trying to cast a copy of the little fella in resin, much easier to perform the needed surgery on him then....

 

Good luck!

 

Keith

[perdu]

Yes that is in the mix Keith

As is carving a replica 'little him' in kit sprue

 

I am in the air about this but I do have a fortnight...

 

[hendie]

I agree with the learned Keith up above - resin seems to be the way to go as it will be much easier to modify

[CedB]

Nothing like a bit of surgery... watching with interest Bill  

[giemme]

8 hours ago, hendie said:

I agree with the learned Keith up above - resin seems to be the way to go as it will be much easier to modify

Seconded. 

 

Ciao

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

Try heating the figure first.

Either leave him on the windowsill for an hour or boil the kettle then try and bend into the position you need.

If that doesn't work you can always have a cup of tea 😀

[Brandy]

I would suggest a heated knife blade or similar, touched to the joint so you can move it. Haven't tried it, but if you have a spare or two it might be worth a go.

 

Ian

[keefr22]

4 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I would suggest a heated knife blade or similar, touched to the joint so you can move it. Haven't tried it, but if you have a spare or two it might be worth a go.

 

Ian

 

I seem to recall trying that Ian, and thinking heat might melt the joint together. I also seem to recall a sort of success - but with ending up with men with rather short arms! But it was all a long time ago!

 

Keith

[perdu]

OK already

 

I have begun moulding from a couple of them

My targetman of course and one of his buddies has a beautifully formed left arm and hand

 

Just has to be done Igor

 

[CedB]

Bill could you please do me a favour and let me know your method for moulding the bits? With photos of the mould bits?

I made a complete hash of my last attempt  

[perdu]

I hope I can extract the two from the mould tonight Ced, I will make a few pictures as I extract them

 

With figures the most difficult thing I can predict is getting them out of closed web spaces so I used a thin web of PVA glue to fill the leg gaps and the spaces round the arm holes

 

It should be simple enough to cut away the thin web of resin where the PVA has bridged the little gaps

 

I'll go and have a look, fingers!

 

cross 'em

[keefr22]

18 minutes ago, perdu said:

cross 'em

 

Done. Toes too...!!

 

K

[perdu]

Might be enough Keith mate

 

I didnt  think to show the project in production, I wonder if I can get to reverse engineer the job

 

The basic rubber mix was set into a box to 'go off', I wasn't too worried about bubbles so I didnt do any elaborate vibromassage for the moulding box

 

A simple box of plasticard used to hold the rubber in 'til it sets

It has been a warm day and the latex had a high catalyst ratio today in order to get a decent finished time instead of tonight after Corrie

 

With tests for hardness successfully completed I can open the box "Gimme the moneyyyy"

 

OK Open the box, one end at a a time

Tests  proved the hardness down to the bottom first

So all the sides were removed in order

 

I used cockpit glue to seal the edges of the box, strong and flexible enough to hold the process together

Here Mr Swann's Mate helps remove the possible trouble...

 

Now we have a box full of rubber with a couple of figures hiding inside

 

Turned over we have the two casting moulds securely in a hold

 

Now for extraction...

 

I use a slice of the knife to make extraction feasible, it's tight in there and the rubber grips like grippystuff in as grip competitiom so the relieving cut usually gets results here

damn it all I wobbled

This is what gets left behind in the rubber, a hole

 

So the same for Mr Two

 

With the sacrificial goats out of the rubber this is where Ced sees what I did to mount them

 

Two wee dollops of Canopy Glue onto the base of the box with miladdo and his mate

 

Then the box was  closed up and edge sealed as from the beginning

 

Voila

 

And 'that's how figures was born' children

 

Tomorrow I try casting from these holes, can we cross the customary fingers again please chaps

 

I believe there is a pub

 

Just over there by yonder bus stop

 

ciao

 

[CedB]

Thanks Bill, got it I think...

One piece mould with the feet / stand at the bottom

PVA webs under the arms and between the legs

Fill box with rubber

Cut the mould to get the ‘masters’ out

Pour in the resin,

 

Ta matey  

[perdu]

first pull from these

 

more work into the arms I reckon

 

 

try again later

 

After Q1,2 and 3 and a certain football match

 

'TIL THEN WE'RE SHUT!

 

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, perdu said:

After Q1,

...and Alonso's misery continues.

 

Ickle men look good for a first mould Bill - neat!

 

Keith

[CedB]

Nice first go Bill, looks pretty 'armless (arf arf).  

[bigbadbadge]

Very nice indeed Bill. 

 

Keep up the good work.

Glad you got the Car back home and hope you get it repaired soon. 

All the best 

Chris 

[TheBaron]

A splendid catch up over those last coupla pages gaffer.

Too much to like here to compress adequately into a written response so please accept a big grin instead. 😁

And damn fine news about Mr. F!

[corsaircorp]

Here she is !!

Have you your gown and "suspenders" ??

Fast service, Hooray for the AA !!

Sincerely.

CC

[heloman1]

Looking good Bill, I do like your Palouste and the grubber man. Nice bit of casting too...

 

Colin

[Terry1954]

On 7/7/2018 at 1:36 PM, perdu said:

more work into the arms I reckon

Catching up here Bill and these look impressive little folk! Some sort of film joke here somewhere .......... people ......... casting .........🤔

 

Terry

[perdu]

It ain't all little men round here

 

This is happening

 

and the quieter side

 

Hmm, a slight hint of air under number 3 I think, tain't just you Ced, but that will be easily dealt with shortly

edit, job jobbed, air now gone

 

The reason I'm updating this is here is XA466 in her life as COD for  H which I assume is Hermes

I dont know who to credit this lovely picture too, found it amongst my collection of web gleaned images, if anyone can help me I'd appreciate it

 

I am about ready to finish this off transfer-wise but the little unit badges will hold me back until I can identify what they should be

 

They don't look like the ship's badge which is a proud Greekish God head on a blue triangle I think, anyone got a hint for a poor old chap?

 

Please

I am making 466 in this scheme just acos I like the red and black banded spinners

 

I dont want to do the more familiar yellow black spinners scheme, mostly because it is very familiar

 

I made a model of here years ago which I finished in the prominent 777 scheme from Ark Royal's later years but that is a 'been there - done that - want a change' scenario now so this is XA466 in her earlier years

 

end of

 

Some minor fun and games using the Modeldecals sheet for the Gannet, Sea Hawk, Wessex and Avenger

 

 

It gives nicely drawn yellow rescue emblems as seen, what they dont do which this machine needs is the correct orientation for the rear rescue arrow so that had to go on upside down

luckily my transfer sheet collection (I never throw away a used sheet of transfers, there is always something useful on it) had a small rescue arrow from another kit that pointed the right way but with the wrong shape of arrow

 

snip snip job  snipped

 

Anyway this is it for now, laters folks!

[Martian]

It is indeed Hermes. The Gannet is looking suitably splendid.

 

Martian 👽