An Airfix classic - The Fairey Battle receives some TLC plus 3d printed main gear, bomb racks, and bomb doors.

[AdrianMF]

On 07/11/2021 at 14:12, Brandy said:

I have acquired a 3d printer

Oh dear, another one lost to the dark side. You will be printing rigging before you know it

 

Regards,

Adrian the ever-more tempted

[Fritag]

13 hours ago, Brandy said:

so last night I ran off a few copies in various configurations

 

See now that sounds like almost nonchalantly knocking of some 3D printed parts 

 

I’m definitely in danger of being left behind here.  

 

Following with interest Ian.

[Heather Kay]

Nice progress, Ian. It’ll be lovely to see this project completed.
 

I am afraid I’m very much a dinosaur when it comes to 3D. I can see it’s an incredibly useful technique, but I know I’m am incapable of learning how to use the software. That part of my brain is atrophied since I stopped being a desk jockey and became a "full time" model maker.

 

I still have an Airfix Battle lurking in the stash, waiting for the time I can spend reworking it. If I wait long enough, a new kit will come along. I’m sure it will. 

[Terry1954]

31 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

If I wait long enough, a new kit will come along. I’m sure it will. 

 

It'll be when Ian finishes this one, just wait and see!

 

Terry

[Heather Kay]

9 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

 

It'll be when Ian finishes this one, just wait and see!

 

Terry

I know. 🤞
 

I hesitate to suggest such things, but with the excellent 3D work of @hendie, @TheBaron and now Ian, they might be able to offer their services to a wider BM audience occasionally.

[hendie]

2 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

I know. 🤞
 

I hesitate to suggest such things, but with the excellent 3D work of @hendie, @TheBaron and now Ian, they might be able to offer their services to a wider BM audience occasionally.

 

I already do Heather.  I have a few folks in queue for some Scout parts, and have a Shapeways shop offering various Wessex bits and other sundry items. I've done a few custom pieces for folks that have contacted me.  I've just never broadcast it loudly as I wasn't sure what the forum rules are in that respect.

I would have offered the Wapiti as a kit but I wasn't 100% happy with the wings and didn't feel like they were of high enough quality for a "commercial" offering.

 

[Brandy]

On 11/17/2021 at 10:44 PM, Terry1954 said:

Some great results there Ian, really great. And really good to see the Battle thread on the go again.

 

Looking forward to this one turning into an excellent Battle replica, and of course you do know what will happen once you have finished it..........🤔

 

Terry

You and your big mouth....

 

On 11/17/2021 at 11:54 PM, hendie said:

Nice work Ian. 

I wouldn't worry too much - I often find myself going back and redoing everything from scratch.  Wapiti wings spring to mind. I must have redrawn those darn things at least half a dozen times

Thanks Alan. I did manage to find a quicker way, I must remember to stop clicking "join" and instead click "new body". That way at least I will be able to move bits around instead of having weird things happen when I try to move or delete something!

 

On 11/18/2021 at 12:11 AM, AdrianMF said:

Oh dear, another one lost to the dark side. You will be printing rigging before you know it

 

Regards,

Adrian the ever-more tempted

I don't think I'll go that far but it does provide a feasible option when parts are required that can't easily be produced (and replicated) any other way. Ilya Muromets radiators are already on the to-do list!

 

On 11/18/2021 at 12:23 PM, Fritag said:

 

See now that sounds like almost nonchalantly knocking of some 3D printed parts 

 

I’m definitely in danger of being left behind here.  

 

Following with interest Ian.

Only the printing off bit was nonchalant. The rest took bloody ages!

 

On 11/18/2021 at 12:47 PM, Heather Kay said:

Nice progress, Ian. It’ll be lovely to see this project completed.
 

I am afraid I’m very much a dinosaur when it comes to 3D. I can see it’s an incredibly useful technique, but I know I’m am incapable of learning how to use the software. That part of my brain is atrophied since I stopped being a desk jockey and became a "full time" model maker.

 

I still have an Airfix Battle lurking in the stash, waiting for the time I can spend reworking it. If I wait long enough, a new kit will come along. I’m sure it will. 

Thanks Heather. You and Terry have been conspiring, obviously!

 

On 11/18/2021 at 1:20 PM, Terry1954 said:

 

It'll be when Ian finishes this one, just wait and see!

 

Terry

That's enough! Now they haven't even had the decency to wait - unless I finish it soon of course!

 

On 11/18/2021 at 1:32 PM, Heather Kay said:

I know. 🤞
 

I hesitate to suggest such things, but with the excellent 3D work of @hendie, @TheBaron and now Ian, they might be able to offer their services to a wider BM audience occasionally.

 

On 11/18/2021 at 4:23 PM, hendie said:

 

I already do Heather.  I have a few folks in queue for some Scout parts, and have a Shapeways shop offering various Wessex bits and other sundry items. I've done a few custom pieces for folks that have contacted me.  I've just never broadcast it loudly as I wasn't sure what the forum rules are in that respect.

I would have offered the Wapiti as a kit but I wasn't 100% happy with the wings and didn't feel like they were of high enough quality for a "commercial" offering.

 

I too have had a Shapeways shop for a few years now but they are a tad pricey. I have sold quite a few copies of my shocks for the Airfix 1:12 Bentley. I may yet include this as an optional beer money income method for retirement.

 

Anyway, where were we?

 

Apart from finding out (and yes @Heather Kay and @Terry1954 I did notice your plot to not tell me!) that there is a new tool Fairey Battle due for release by Frrom early next year as seen here, I have been continuing with the main gear framework. I lengthened the base by 2mm, widened the support braces to 0.5mm and the upper jack rams to 0.7mm, then added the slot for the release hook. Before going any further I wanted to check the fit again so printed some out last night. There were a couple of failures, probably caused by too thin supports so not a huge issue, but otherwise they look good to go.

 

Here's the first attempt

 

 

As you can see the braces look very fragile.

Here's the new version

 

 

Difficult to see but the supports look much better, but still "look right" scale wise. A little sanding down was required once more as I obviously didn't build the wheel wells as accurately as I would have done had I know that I would be following this route!

 

 

It does fit much better and looks to give a much better "angle of dangle" to the lower jack rams once they are fitted. I will probably print those as part of this assembly to check length and alignment, but later remove them and use brass rod to be sure of the definition and strength. That one is still a decision to be finalised later.

 

Seems to be ok depth wise as well, although I have no measurements as to how far the ram mounts extended below the wing surface and it's difficult to work out from oblique shots.

But I think this will be ok

 

 

The next job will be to add the brackets for the lower jack ram attachment, and I may add some detail to the rear of the plate but it probably won't even show, so we'll see whether I get lazy or not.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

[Heather Kay]

22 minutes ago, Brandy said:

so we'll see whether I get lazy or not.

Noo! Not at this late stage, surely‽ 

[Terry1954]

1 hour ago, Brandy said:

That's enough! Now they haven't even had the decency to wait - unless I finish it soon of course!

 

 

Well they have announced it Ian, but it's not due till next spring I understand, so you have plenty of time to get that invisible detail into the U/C bay, and lots and lots of other detail that will set it apart from any new release. And as @Heather Kay says, no point in getting lazy now ........ 

 

The detail going into those bays looks great.

 

Now while you are getting this superb example finished, we can write a list of some other desired new tool releases we'd like, so you can start another mind blowingly detailed makeover of a the much older injection moulded example. Let me think .................

 

Terry

[keefr22]

6 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Let me think .................

 

 

Sea Vixen....!! Oh, wait.....

 

I wouldn't worry Ian, with the work and detail you're putting into this one I'd put money (if I had any) on it ending up better than a limited run kit!

 

Keith

[Terry1954]

9 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

I wouldn't worry Ian, with the work and detail you're putting into this one I'd put money (if I had any) on it ending up better than a limited run kit!

 

I second that!

 

Terry

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

8 hours ago, Brandy said:

that there is a new tool Fairey Battle due for release by Frrom early next year

And we all owe you a great deal of thanks for getting that to happen. Without your sacrifice of throwing yourself onto the Airfix grenade we would never have gotten a new tool. 

[Brandy]

Thanks for all the positive feedback folks. I guess I'll have to dig out the Ilya Muromets again soon then.....

 

I didn't have much time available today but I did use it to further assure myself that all is well with the angle of dangle - Small hole drilled in the end of the ram and a piece of .5mm brass rod inserted.

I know there's a bit of a perspective issue here, but believe me it does measure up almost exactly to the plans in the distances from the front edge of the wheel fairing, and the lower surface of the wing.

 

 

Looks like a go to me so on that basis I'll continue with what I have and detail it!

 

Ian

[AdrianMF]

Looking fab!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[keefr22]

Couldn't agree more, fab indeed! 👍

 

Keith

[k5054nz]

She's looking gorgeous!

[Brandy]

Many thanks chaps and chapesses for the feedback.

Slow but steady progress is being made on the design. I have had a few moments where things just didn't want to go according to plan and I couldn't work out why something refused to extrude or similar. The latest was the brackets for the extension jack tie rods.

 

I drew it all up in a 2d sketch as usual. The starting point was 2 concentric circles for the inner and outer surfaces, then I added the two rod attachment points just using the line tool, and the same for the bolt flanges. Then I went to extrude.

 

The first half went ok, but when I tried the second half, it got weird. the selection looked ok - here is how it looked with the selection made and the depth entered (0.7mm for reference!) just before I hit the Enter button...

 

[

 

 

That looks fine, just what I wanted! But as soon as I hit Enter, it changed to this....

 

 

I have no idea what is going on here! If it was the drawing, why did it appear ok right up until I hit Enter? 

 

Anyway, I couldn't get it to work, so I deleted the second half, finished detailing the first half, then copied it. Much easier that way any way!

 

 

 

Once I had this done I mirrored it to the other side for the second bracket.

 

I now have a complete set of brackets for the tie rods, and can start on the ram attachment for the main gear radius arm.

I have no idea how much, if any, of this will show but it is fun now I'm starting to get the hang of this.

 

Thanks for looking in,

 

Ian

[Brandy]

A couple more pics of today's progress. There were some more weird moments, with the one bracket somehow separating into component pieces which, if I tried to realign them, went into some very odd positions In the end I dragged the whole lot off to one side and mirrored the other one. very odd, as it was the original which had been mirrored the first time that played silly buggers. Anyway, sorted now!

Here's where I am as of close of play today.

 

 

 

I think I can call that complete, which means I can now start playing with cylinders and build the main gear legs and radius strut.

 

Time for a beer now though.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

[hendie]

5 hours ago, Brandy said:

 

That looks fine, just what I wanted! But as soon as I hit Enter, it changed to this....

 

 

Ian, it looks like you had an open contour in that sketch.  i.e. the end points of two or more entities were not connected, leaving Fusion confused as to what to extrude

 

[Brandy]

That's what I thought, but I couldn't find a way to ensure it was all closed up. I  did have a problem not being able to extrude as I couldn't even select the area, and managed to close it off for that, but how do you ensure there are no gaps? Even if I zoom right in I can't be certain.

 

Ian

[hendie]

I'm not sure about Fusion, but in SW, I use snaps, and I can also select two endpoints and select the coincident constraint. 

Again, I don't know Fusion but SW has a repair sketch tool, which automatically highlights open contours. Maybe Fusion had something similar?

[Brandy]

2 hours ago, hendie said:

I'm not sure about Fusion, but in SW, I use snaps, and I can also select two endpoints and select the coincident constraint. 

Again, I don't know Fusion but SW has a repair sketch tool, which automatically highlights open contours. Maybe Fusion had something similar?

Possibly, I'll look for it!

 

Ian

[Fritag]

2 hours ago, hendie said:

in SW, I use snaps, and I can also select two endpoints and select the coincident constraint.

 

Yep.  Absolutely.  Nods knowingly.  Says out loud (purely to avoid seeming the class dunce) c’mon Ian, surely that was obvious to you? Returns to state of ignorance absolutely none the wiser.

 

One day I will understand this strange new language.  One day.  Probably once retirement frees up time and reduces the quota of in-use brain cells somewhat…

[TheBaron]

Splendid work - those undercarriage designs look absolutely fantastic.

Will all of that detail print at this scale Ian ?

2 hours ago, Brandy said:

Possibly, I'll look for it!

I've gotten rusty after not using it in a while but don't recall this function being present.

[Navy Bird]

On 28/11/2021 at 12:48, Fritag said:

Probably once retirement frees up time and reduces the quota of in-use brain cells somewhat…

 

Didn't work for me. Upon retirement, the now unneeded brain cells simply died.   

 

Cheers,

Bill