Chaotic Mike Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 Hello everyone. The last 18 months have been given over to Kitty Hawk's OV-10D. I have finished it, but I can't say I'm happy with the result, in no particular order making a 'mess' of the extravagant amounts of glazing, breaking a propeller blade many times despite plugging with wire reinforcement and superglue, the munitions continually dropping off because there aren't sufficiently large surfaces to put glue onto on the dinky little (and admittedly very well moulded) sway braces... and don't get me started on the decals. You only had to look at them and they would curl up and/or fragment into teeny pieces. So, all in all, a mojo killer. No pics... I just don't like it. Having had my mojo killed by this war of attrition, the sensible man would, I dunno, go and buy a bunch of 1/72 or 1/48 spitfires, build them, then go running around the shed screaming dagga-dagga-dagga-dagga-dagga and strafing the Bronco. Nope. Instead, sometime in early 2017 I hd acquired the first release of the SH 1/32 Tempest HiTech edition (so lots of resin, including a fancy gun bay and spiffed up cockpit). Not content with that, and having previously enjoyed Airfix's monster Typhoon, I thought it could do with an engine. At that point, a swift Google alerted me to this, so I thought I'd get one. If you follow the link, you will note that Kevin Futter points out that the instructions aren't great. Well, he's not wrong! The engine is lovely... ...and I hope there is a lot I can do with 'artful' painting (trans: dumping oily black over pretty much everything then highlighting a few doohickeys with aluminium, followed by more oily black washing). There is also a bunch of resin that purports to make the frame upon which Frank Halford's finest will rest, but here the pieces bear only a passing resemblance to the instruction sheet. Here is one I started earlier, held together with my current favourite technique of drilling tiny-tiny holes and inserting re-purposed rioja-bottle wire to add strength. There's a way to go - the side arms of the cradle, present in the pictures, aren't in the resin - at least not obviously although there are some suspicious lengths of pipe that are approximately the right length, that I may yet use. You can see one near the front. There's a further bunch of activity planned for underneath the engine that I would put money on being invisible by the time this is all done and dusted. All together now..."Yeah, but I know it's there..." Initial test fits suggest that if I put the sides of the cradle on, the engine won't fit. Hmm... That will be a battle for another day. Maybe even later today? Who knows? I'm still in the early stages of new-build excitement frenzy... there are *months* in front of me to crush my dreams. If I'm going to display this beasty, surgery will be required on the nose. I have sent off for Roy Sutherland's corrected nose set (Why, oh Lord, why?...) but in the meantime I thought I would experimentally cut down the kit pieces. This wasn't easy. The SH plastic is quite hard and brittle, and also about 1.5 mm thick so Gawd knows what it will be like if I decide to take a knife to the resin equivalent. It took about 90 minutes of (increasingly less gentle) scraping away at the kit pieces before I got them to separate. The elegant curve around the wing root was particularly tricky - I used mostly the knife, after discovering I couldn't use a Dremel needlepoint file as a cutter with any semblance of tight control. So this is where we are at. Wish me luck, this could turn out to be quite a long drawn out process... Mike 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 Watching with interest. I have the Mk.II in the stash that keeps looking at me with intent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 Tempted to buy one off these, so I'll tag along for the ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted February 24, 2018 Author Share Posted February 24, 2018 Back to the man cave, to continue. Today's plan... More engine framework, and chopping up the other half of the nose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted February 25, 2018 Author Share Posted February 25, 2018 And first blood goes to the Tempest. Occupational hazard when you leave an idiot in charge of Very Sharp Things... Starting to get the feel for what this might turn into... Maybe I should clear the decks a bit... Another job for a post-flu convalescence, perhaps. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted February 25, 2018 Author Share Posted February 25, 2018 So... I have no idea what this is... Nor do I know why I spent 30 minutes replacing resin with fuse wire... Nor is it remotely clear from the resin 'instructions' where it goes... But I got a strange sense of satisfaction by the time I had finished. Small, isn't it? :-) I might have to break out pictures I took years back when I built the Airfix Typhoon to see if I can work out where the various bits of plumbing I am going to need to recreate in wire are supposed to go. I suppose that's why its modelling, and not just cutting and sticking. Does anyone know the trick to making the pictures less huge? These are all links to files shared from a Microsoft OneDrive location, copied and pasted into the box that appears when I click on the 'Insert other media' button. It would be nice to constrain their enormity a bit... Mike 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 It's been a little while, and once again I am wondering why I am making things so hard for myself with (fragile) resin, photoetch (I *really* hate photoetch), superglue that is more fluid than liquid Helium, and decals that are sub-millimetre. Actually, I might not bother with some of the internal decals, on the grounds tat when complete, the cockpit is going to resemble the black hole of Calcutta. Anyway, what have I done? Pit, awaiting grubbying up. The magnification that the phone brings to the party is horribly telling. In real life, you can't see the filing marks on the framing. Well, *I* can't, particularly if I take my glasses off. The other side. Maybe I will put the microscopic decals on. At least, I can dry brush a few switches to bring them up. Plan view. Way too clean and tidy, but I have a plan, involving Citadel washes...The eagle eyed might have spotted the absence of a seat. That comes later. Now, it's resin surgery time. The gunsight attaches to a resin frame chock full of little legs that can be broken off, and offers no mating surfaces for the actual sight itself to adhere to. Out with a supply of my favourite Rioja bottle wire, and a teeny tiny drill bit, and the sight is ready to be attached. You can see a length of wire set into a hole drilled into a narrow protuberance. I then drilled a matching hole in the gunsight, and threaded it down the wire. A dab of superfluid later, and it was nailed. You can also see very clearly in the picture where two legs broke off the frame. I have drilled sockets awaiting replacement legs fashioned from fuse wire to be installed, like this... You can now see (and I couldn't, in real life. Curses, I'll have to do something about it...) the stub of the rioja wire that the gunsight threaded on to. You can see the fuse wire - success! I just *know* that when it is installed into the windscreen, none of this will be visible. You can also see where I repaired the resin gun sight - a chunk of it was left behind when I separated it from the casting block. D'Oh! Cue inadvertently filling the sight with liquid superglue whilst re-attaching the broken section. And then Dremeling out the overspill to recover the approximate correct shape. This is not going to be quick, methinks! Until next time... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted May 12, 2018 Author Share Posted May 12, 2018 After a busy few weeks of occasional trips to the shed, what do I have to show for my labours? Not a whole lot, but I do now have an installable cockpit, including a seat. Which, had I read the instructions properly, you would already have seen by now. Here goes... Looking right to left.... Semi-birds-eye view... Looking left to right... And a close up on the seat-belts... A few words on the seatbelts. They are those new fangled HGW fabric jobs, and my observations are.. (a) They can look pretty good in the right hands (not necessarily mine) (b) The instructions aren't great, particularly regarding how to link the various subsections through cunning threading through buckles (c) They are *extremely* fragile - there are several tears and repairs in the set above (d) I thought Radu Brinzan's stuff was fiddly until I met these! I have already closed up the fuselage and installed the cockpit, and as I predicted, very little of what is shown in this thread is visible to the naked eye. Definitely need an endoscope to get the most out of this kit! Keep watching for the next thrilling instalment... 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted May 12, 2018 Share Posted May 12, 2018 Nice work! Nice looking cockpit! Håkan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted June 14, 2018 Author Share Posted June 14, 2018 And the surgery begins. Look! I'm taking an unusual amount of care to ensure that the straight lines I need to cut will be straight... I think it worked, I hve room inside the wings for some snazzy resin, now... Which looks a lot healthier when sprayed interior grey-green... There are a few lumps and bumps to be taken care of. Some fairly radical chamfering of those cuts had to be perpetrated, and I didn't get it perfect but a modicum of Squadron green putty and you'll never know. Maybe. Hold it! What's going on here? Even more radical plastic surgery is being perpetrated... When I started on this journey, the aforementioned 1/32 Napier Sabre from Jim Brown was the only game in town. Luckily (?), Special Hobby have stepped up to the plate with their own staggeringly detailed part. You can see one here. It might actually contain more pieces than the main kit, and for an example of the lunacy I am about to undertake, look at this picture... Somehow I am going to have to remove these microscopic components (and there are other plugs that are just as bad) and attach them to various other bits of resin. I have invested in some viscous superglue to aid me in my endeavours; what could possibly go wrong? Stay tuned! 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted June 14, 2018 Author Share Posted June 14, 2018 Lord God, what have I got myself into? It took 90 mins to attach those 14 teeny weeny pieces to the firewall... And then another half hour hacking away at the lower wing (now attached to the fuselage, to make things harder) in order to get the new resin firewall to fit. No photos yet, but I definitely remember doing it... 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 There's no turning back when dealing with engine porn... Are those 14 pieces brackets for the engine cover fasteners? Great work with the gun bay, I'm getting very tempted to track down one of these beauties Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 Hi Christer, yes I think that is what they are. I also acquired SH's resin engine cover set. I now have the choice of 3 ways of doing the chin covered, which of course I won't be doing, not with *that* engine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted June 17, 2018 Author Share Posted June 17, 2018 This morning I spent several hours assembling microscopic pieces of resin, strengthening where necessary with wire. If I were working in 1/24 or higher, you'd be saying "Just use brass rod". Well, according to the box, I think am working with a 0.08" drill (does that sound about right? 80 thousandths not being very big...) so I suppose rod isn't really an option! Look at the ludicrous handle... I was very pleased that when I drilled through from the back side of the lever, the drill emerged pretty much dead centre, obliterating the resin equivalent of what I just made. There will be more pictures at some juncture, but as yet another example of SH's attention to detail, that little lever actually has 3 lightening holes in it... I hope the paint doesn't block them. Engine porn? Bah, humbug... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 Yep, the tiny lightening holes have survived a coat of Citadel Mithril Silver... I had to scratch the sort of handle thing on top... the resin was just too fragile Onwards and outwards... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 I have been resisting buying one of these in the hope of a new Eduard 1/48 version, along with a MkII, but my resistance is weakening with every build I see. You've done a great job on the cockpit, keep up the good work. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted June 19, 2018 Share Posted June 19, 2018 That Coffman starter looks a whole lot better than the Airfix offering. Great work, keep it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted June 24, 2018 Author Share Posted June 24, 2018 Aaaaand.... we're back. I reckon that although the resin engine wasn't cheap, it still represents value for money because I will still be fiddling with it come Christmas, so a good 7 months or so of entertainment. I think I said earlier that it contains many, very small, pieces? Well today the carpet monster (even though I don't *have* a carpet in my workshop, specifically so that carpet monsters are kept at bay) acquired its first victim... some tiny resin doohickey that, after I checked, appears to have some pivotal role in Napier Sabre-world, so I carved something functionally equivalent (whilst maybe not looking the same) out of a resin offcut. Here it is... It's the leftmost, flat topped thing in the following picture. Note also the weeny wires between (I think) magnetos and probably distributors, or summat... As my lovely (and supportive, incredibly) girlfriend tells me, I wouldn't be happy without *something*in the right place looking approximately correct and crucially, available to have other things connected to it, being present. I probably spent over an hour going over the planked floor of a 3m x5m log cabin, to no avail, before cracking and getting into the scratch build. So the last 5 or 6 bench hours have culminated in this (as yet unpainted): There are many teeny-weeny bits of resin, lots of which represent objects that have pipes coming out of them. The trouble is, these are cosmically fragile, and protuberances and linear extrusions are more often than not missing. Hey, no problem, I have a pin vice and a variety of gauges of wire and plastic rod, so it's all good. Look at this little devil, trapped in a pair of artery clamps... The clamps are holding a length of fine wire that I drilled and fitted. You can also see a kind of 'pot' thing with 6 microscopic bolt-heads moulded onto it, at the very top of this component. The instructions would have you connect this to the main frame of the rest of the widget via the little bracket you can see just next to the nose of the clamps. After ten minutes or so of ineffective gluing I decided, "You know what? Just super glue the 'pot' (plus, of course, the replacement stem coming out of its base I had to fashion out of plastic rod) directly to the widget... sometimes, life really is too short!" I'm off for my weekly commute now, more glacier-like progress next week. Probably. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted July 8, 2018 Author Share Posted July 8, 2018 A couple of weeks have passed by, and what do we have to show for it? Well, fundamentally a black knobbly lump with some areas highlighted in aluminium. This is basically the cylinder block, supercharger, ancillaries and wiring loom. The macro capabilities of my phone's camera never cease to amaze me. They also slightly disappoint me, because they highlight the flaws and imperfections that I couldn't see even when wearing the 3x magnifier headband necessary when working with this. Come back 1/72, all is forgiven! I also learned that sometimes it just isn't worth the aggravation of inserting millimetre-sized eye bolts into the gap between the supercharger and the crankcase - I cannot envisage a scenario where they would ever be visible to the naked eye, hidden as they are in a deep crevice. As usual, I know they're there. The next stage is to attach the resin plumbing, plus a few more accessories. I spent a happy few minutes spraying Ultimate Products primer on the resin, and watching it ball up even though I had previously cleaned everything in an ultrasonic bath with detergent added for extra thrill power. Ah well. I don't envisage anything being posted for a couple of weeks as I'll once again be travelling on business. Until next time, my loyal band of followers... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted July 8, 2018 Share Posted July 8, 2018 Wow that's some serious work and dedication. Great looking engine and cockpit. Thanks for sharing. All the best Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted July 22, 2018 Author Share Posted July 22, 2018 Progress creaks on, at a snail's pace. Did I say there was a lot of resin for this engine? It is quite remarkable, and so far I have only destroyed one teeny little pipe. Well, quite long, but a very fine bore and I hadn't yet perfected my approach to extracting these long and delicate mouldings from the delicate mix of resin webs and towers that support them. I'm guessing the masters must have been 3D printed, and the resolution is extraordinary. Anyway, enough idel chatter, here are 2 pictures representing the last 3 weeks work... Currently exercising my mind is how best to paint the spiral straps on the two cable harnesses at the front of the engine. I have done one without masking, but it doesn't look great. I am considering detaching the two pieces, painting them aluminium (again) then winding thin slivers of Tamiya tape around, then overpainting in black. It's sort of fiddly. I had to re-build some of the really short pieces of resin pipework in fuse wire, to give enough flexibility to route the pieces around the rest of the plumbing. Keeps me off the street, I guess. I reckon another 5 sessions will nail getting the engine ready for a light wash with Citadel colours to provide a slightly more 'used' look - it's all way too clean at the moment! Once the engine is complete, I'll be back to doing battle with the rest of the airframe, including at some point mating the engine onto the firewall - I'm not looking forward to that at all. Anyhoo, work beckons. Hooray. Another week 9 floors up in Croydon, listening to the constant wail of police and ambulance sirens, on a floor with failing air conditioning. Mmmm, nice. Mike 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 Very nice looking engine! Håkan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Shame it's all black, I'm sure there's lots of detail in there that doesn't show on the photos. I have finally bought my Tempest, it's the standard version with a part resin engine kindly donated by Procopius Looking forward to more. John PS Oh how I miss the constant wailing of police and ambulance sirens here in rural France ( not! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 On 7/23/2018 at 5:53 AM, Biggles87 said: Shame it's all black, I'm sure there's lots of detail in there that doesn't show on the photos. I have finally bought my Tempest, it's the standard version with a part resin engine kindly donated by Procopius Looking forward to more. John PS Oh how I miss the constant wailing of police and ambulance sirens here in rural France ( not! ) And the pain begins! Mwah-hah-hah-hah-hah, etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaotic Mike Posted July 29, 2018 Author Share Posted July 29, 2018 Nothing obvious to show for the last 6 hours bench time. Sundry small pipes have been extracted from their resin chains, and been attached. Getting to the time when I need to pay attention to the airframe again - I reckon I will need to complete, paint and weather this before moving on to attaching the engine to the firewall and until I have done that, the next round of piping will need to be delayed. So, future instalments will cover my trials and tribulations as I get serious with the wings, tail plane, undercarriage (which is giving me some slight qualms at the moment) and fairing in gaps where resin and polystyrene haven't mated accurately. Mercifully, there aren't too many of these. Because I'm old and conservative, Squadron Green has been my go-to filler for donkey's years, but I hear people raving about perfect plastic putty. Is it as good as they say? Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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 accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now