Jump to content

Listening to the Solstice


Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Martian Hale said:

I do wish you would ask me first before posting pictures of my family

Oh, Martian! You are such an extraterresttrial one! Every alien would love to take a family photo with you and your family, I'm sure.

alien_family_portrait_by_clown72-d5bzwkg

Edited by bbudde
extraterresttrial is a difficult word for a foreigner, I can say!
  • Haha 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

I do wish you would ask me first before posting pictures of my family Hendie.

 

Martin 👽

Nobody mention the breathing thing ok?

20 hours ago, bbudde said:

Oh, Martian! You are such an extraterresttrial one! Every alien would love to take a family photo with you and your family, I'm sure.

alien_family_portrait_by_clown72-d5bzwkg

Thanks heavens we're such a multi-planetary forum! :laugh:

 

Ruddy Rudder's Really Rectified.

Since @galgos unloaded such photographic bounty on the rudder region, I went back also to the maintenance documents and found a clear structural schematic to match and realized my first attempts at simply giving a quick rub down to the kit part to get rid of all that spurious ribbing was simply not going to do. At all.

 

The lateral profile of the kit part was fine however, so I simply used this to transfer an outline onto some leftover roofing from the Iron Chicken which were then roughly profiled-down and stuck together in order to form the two halves required for the necessary thickness at the base:

44337656994_1c958c7528_c.jpg

If you glance back at Max's photos you can see that the widest point of the rudder is at the base, where the quadrant fits into the fuselage, from where it then tapers both vertically and horizontally to the trailing edge.

 

First job then - to get the outline correct:

45057148521_5bcd3dc1dd_c.jpg

I have to say that is one pleasing set of curves they designed on the rudder on this aircraft.

Dare one say a bit 'Art Nouveau'?

Possibly not, but my gran did have a dressing table from the period with side-mirrors of almost exactly that shape.

 

To get the necessary tapering done in two directions (meeting at the apex of the base)  I taped some bog-standard sanding paper to an old joint-making stand that I inherited from my father-in-law and simply sanded the rudder against at an angle it to get the required dimensions sorted out:

44337657174_cf920b4e9e_c.jpg

After about 20 minutes and the loss of the top fingerprints from both thumbs, a plectrum-like form emerged:

43246370210_3657e06fee_c.jpg

A nice wet smooth down with the W&D and it was time for a test fit:

44337657154_b957c5cd70_c.jpg

Considerably better than the first lame attempt and that shadow at the bottom of the rudder (due to the rounded profile down at the quadrant) now matches what I see on photographs of that region more convincingly.

45057148631_c94f28c550_c.jpg

Need to tidy up the openings on the aircraft around it of course, fair-in the top of the fuselage and build a mount for the quadrant to slot into and so forth, but shapewise that's something I can stand over now. Need to inset a couple of hinges and work out how to fit a delicate mass balance that sticks out forward of the top of the rudder but that can wait until a subsequent detailing pass.

 

Next job has to be looking at vacforming some replacement cowlings to go with the Cheetahs - which reminds me at some point I need to stop avoiding the fact that I need to make a resin copy of the one I have.

 

They were apparently quite reliable:

31185292428_c0c5e30b4c_b.jpg

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

  • Like 17
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I echo all the others, nice job on the rudder :clap:

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

and the loss of the top fingerprints from both thumbs,

May I suggest you use blue tack to hold the piece next time? 😉

 

Ciao

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

but my gran did have a dressing table from the period with side-mirrors of almost exactly that shape.

 

so did mine!    Are we related?

 

 

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Next job has to be looking at vacforming some replacement cowlings to go with the Cheetahs -

 

oh goody, I'm looking forward to that

 

 

ruddy nice rudder by the way

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, perdu said:

Good rudder oh gnasher of fingerprintery, pah who needs to be identified so easily anyway

 

375h.p. Such much?

More than enough for the Colonies.  We don’t want them getting ideas

  • Like 1
  • Haha 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/2/2018 at 7:20 PM, Hamden said:

Nice work on the rudder it looks so much better already!

It needed to quite frankly Roger. Thanks. :thumbsup2:

On 10/2/2018 at 7:33 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

375 Horse power. That much eh?

They used Shire horses as a measure of work done back then iirc Pete.

Not like the Shetland ponies they use to pretend that today's aircraft have such unbelievably high h.p.

On 10/2/2018 at 8:42 PM, Martian Hale said:

Nice work on the rudder!

Chaars Martian! Mast dacant of ya. :nodding:

On 10/2/2018 at 9:40 PM, giemme said:

May I suggest you use blue tack to hold the piece next time?

Would you believe that I did Giorgio? :laugh:

Except that it kept slipping off at the acute agle I was having to sand....

On 10/2/2018 at 9:45 PM, perdu said:

pah who needs to be identified so easily anyway

I did miss a chance to go on an mini crime-spree Bill, albeit one in which I would only have been able to steal things that I could pick up between my thumbs...

On 10/2/2018 at 10:07 PM, hendie said:

so did mine!    Are we related?

Big woman was she?

Smoked 40

Cadets_02.jpg

a day and had a blue rinse?

Fond of the Royal Family and sherry trifle?

If so then it may be...

 

My youngest son did some ancestral digging recently and discovered that our paternal 'clan' originally came just from just north of Lough Fyne in about the 5th C., so anything's possible I suppose hendie! :laugh:

 

On 10/3/2018 at 10:00 AM, bigbadbadge said:

Rudder looks good fella. 

Ta Chris. Need to cut a couple of slots for the hinges and add a quadrant to the bottom apex but otherwise that's largely done now.

On 10/3/2018 at 5:20 PM, Terry1954 said:

Dare I ad another nice rudder comment without people thinking I'm unoriginal? 

No compliment is ever unoriginal Terry (sounds like something Dorothy Parker might have said...) so I thank you for that.

On 10/3/2018 at 6:46 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

More than enough for the Colonies.  We don’t want them getting ideas

:rofl:

You have to love the way that the remainder of the globe is so imperiously dismissed as 'other Countries'....

Talk about the Hyacinth Bucket school of International Relations....

 

Well mensch and mensch-esses, on current showing I'm only getting time around the weekends to crack on with this so I did some casting tonight and hope to get the vacform rig out tomorrow.

 

The high-tech plasticine impression-casting rig in full glory:

31245916688_a4be6a8a44_c.jpg

375 h.p. holes ready for a glug of resin.

I'd wondered initially whether to try making-up a two-part mould to do back and front of the engine but in the end it seemed unnecessary (as the port one will be contained inside a cowling) so I can just modify a duplicate cast of the front and flip it over to form the rear side of the cylinder heads and stick the two halves together:

43306094970_8de3cce465_c.jpg

Pleased-enough now with the resolution that process provides to work with, as despite just using plasticine it retains all the detail of the original. To stop any problems occuring when I was plunging the engine in to make the moulds, I'd lightly brushed it with washing-up liquid each time just to make it slick enough to pull back out without causing any deformation or tearing.

45070693682_1c10b316ff_c.jpg

As to these fellas:

31246518358_c3c61db2d4_b.jpg

Once I've tidied-away that seam line I'm going to try vacforming the cowling in the face-up aspect (on the right) as a single piece. I'm not entirely sure that this aspect will reproduce the rear of the 'blisters' sufficiently but I won't really get a sense of that without running a test first. If that works, great - if not then 'Plan B' is to slice the cowlings in half diamtetrically and then vacform them that way instead.

 

I hope your weekends are all off to a good start - talk to you tomorrow afternoon hopefully.

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 14
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

if not then 'Plan B' is to slice the cowlings in half diamtetrically and then vacform them that way instead.

 

I'd try face up first, if that doesn't work, I'd try face down - both raised up from the base to allow the PS to suck under and inwards.  Only if both of those failed would I resort to cutting

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, hendie said:

 

I'd try face up first, if that doesn't work, I'd try face down

Tried both hendie but with mixed results (see below)....

6 hours ago, giemme said:

Are the plasticine residuals going to come off from the moulded parts

They did Giorgio. :nodding:

As they're just a  'skin'of residue that gets caught in the crannies, a few minutes soaking in some isopropyl alcohol and a scrub with a toothbrush removes the remaining gunk.

 

A troubleshooting day rather than a massive step forwards but valuable experience nonetheless. A large chunk of time went initially on cleaning up the kit cowling as both sides had a pronounced 'lip' that had to be removed not just from the ring but from all those blooming blisters as well:

44225726945_0770b6c6ce_c.jpg

I only need one for the final display thankfully, and did remember to scribe the panel separation lines in the right place on either side.

Patent cowling-scribing jig:

43324294290_a396d0e17c_c.jpg

The spirit of Heath Robinson endureth.....

 

Once this was spruced-up sufficiently it was on with the oven and out with the vacform rig. I'd harboured concerns about the effect those 'blisters' around the cowling were going to have, and as you can see here, 'starring' proved a major problem:

43324293870_e0030450e1_c.jpg

I then spent about two hours trying varying grades of plastic from very thin to very thick, and raised up off the vacform surface from just a tiny amount to quite high, but to no avail. Front side down was if anything even more of a problem.

44225727275_13d69851ec_c.jpg

Even heating up the plastic on high until it wasveeerrrry very thin and wobbly in the oven produced no better result. Each time those blisters compromised the pull.

 

After some lunch and an afternoon nap I came back down and simply carried on with my original intention - to whit, hollowing-out the kit cowling with various shapes of birr in the Dremel:

44225727535_dd77008d42_c.jpg

With the walls thinned I then split the cylinder and went at it from the inside with a small bulbous birr in order to carve out the blisters from the inside:

43324294080_8e9156927d_c.jpg

I've popped the finished top part onto the original E&T Cheetah here for as proof of principle - in fact it will be the resin copy I've made of it that will eventually go inside this cowling so to finesse it in I can simply sand a little off those valve rocker covers on the tips of the cylinder bits, due to the fact that that particular detail will be hidden by the inside of the cowling. Job done.

 

As to the resin copy itself - the front and rear have been sanded down flush and the two halves glued together (using GG):

43324294230_f646a316c8_c.jpg

Since taking that photo I've also epoxied a cast of the rear geary/carbuurettory bits that stick out the back as well. Won't be seen of course but willgive me some structure to mount it into the nacelle. I'll pick the last remaining recalcitrant bits of plasticine out with a pin tomorrow when the glue's cured and sand down any remaining seams, then a test fist closing-up the cowling around it.

 

There's some nice little bits of filligree stuff to drape over the engine in the Flightpath set but I need to have a closer look to see whether or not it duplicates already existing features in the original E&T moulding, which is of high quality already.

 

Well, things didn't go quite according to plan but another vote of confidence in the Dremel/birr combination.

 

Have a nicve evening all of you. I'm off to take some enchiladas out of the oven and then settle down with a Martini to watch an episode of the Fry/Laurie Jeeves & Wooster series.

 

Indubitably.

 

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

  • Like 20
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you are working along the right lines with hollowing out the bulges. I think if you combine this with sanding down the cylinder heads a bit, you will be fine.

 

Martian 👽

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mhhh, strange things going on here! Something beyond my compare! Scared, not being able to do similar things for my diecasts. Some need a treatment like that. Otherwise they are lost or will be sold as trash, I think. Cheers

Edited by bbudde
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

:hmmm: I'm intrigued as to why that vacforming didn't work out - as hendie says, you were very close with that first pic attempt. I'm thinking of adding more (and smaller) vacuum holes to the bottom base; not that you should try, I understand you've already had the spare of it - I'd like to try it myself an see what happens.

 

Anyway, B plan looks great too 👏

 

Ciao

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, hendie said:

shame it didn't work out, but definitely worth a try

Do you know I reckon if that cowling had been about 1.5mm shallower in depth then that approach might have worked, but there you go. 

16 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

I think you are working along the right lines with hollowing out the bulges. I think if you combine this with sanding down the cylinder heads a bit, you will be fine.

Thanks Martian. The glue should have cured in an hour or so so I'm going back to exactly that.

14 hours ago, bbudde said:

Mhhh, strange things going on here! Something beyond my compare! Scared, not being able to do similar things for my diecasts. Some need a treatment like that. Otherwise they are lost or will be sold as trash, I think. 

I'm not sure how easy home metal-casting is Benedikt - or indeed perhaps the advisability of it with domestic facilities.

It does however appear to involve the use of one of the thrusters of of our dear Martian's spacecraft:

home-foundry.jpg

25 minutes ago, giemme said:

I'm thinking of adding more (and smaller) vacuum holes 

The same thought had indeed occurred to me Giorgio - if I'm going to be doing such smaller-scale or complex shapes in future I would need to build a much smaller rig than the current rather large slab. Rather than 'reinvent the wheel' though, it might simply be practicable to drill a set of smaller holes around the central region of the current rig to focus the airflow more tightly within a constrained space - if nothing else then yesterday's frolics at least yielded useful information about tolerances and sizes to this decidedly non-engineer! :laugh:

 

Right. Hope to have a little more to report later

 

TTFN.

  • Like 11
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It looks as if you are on the right lines with this Tony, I couldn't see the amount of deformity you need coming along unassisted

 

Possible vacform methods

A: cut the back half moulding off its blank, then the front half and  stick 'em together

B: mould individual blisters and stick 'em on separate-

 

I'd just carry on with the small round burrs on the kit cowling, me self

 

 

I love the hive of activity you have going there

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, perdu said:

I'd just carry on with the small round burrs on the kit cowling, me self

 

 

I love the hive of activity you have going there

Thanks Bill. :thumbsup2:

 

Having to weave things in and around other jobs and duties today, but notheless pleased to say that the resin engine and cowling now fit:

45105582412_a82239e6f8_c.jpg

Oof! Look at all that resin-dust needs cleaning-off.

The reverse-angle - which of course won't be seen in the final knockings:

43340424890_561db07df5_c.jpg

Before anyone starts commenting on the fact that my skin has become somewhat elephantine, that's an old leather-bound hotel register that I picked up from a charity shop in Lyme Regis back in the summer. It not only makes an incomparable surface for writing on but also gives a nice 30s ambience to show a Cheetah on....

 

Not a lot really but a significant step in getting that side of the aircraft sorted regarding engine stuff. Need to check out where the exhaust emerges of course and bung a hole and some detailing for that, plus I want to sharpen up the push rods with wire just to give a little more prominence to the more finely-detailed aspects, but otherwise that's starboard taken care of and the  considerably more complex job on the port side now looms large over the build.

 

Some working drawings are called for in this regard in order to decide exactly what level of detailing is feasible at this scale regarding all the plumbing and wiring.

 

Take care until later in the week!

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

  • Like 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lovely fit Tony, well worth all the effort :) 

Nice background too - is that what they mean in photographic circles by 'getting the right register' then?

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...