Listening to the Solstice

[hovis]

This is amazing!

[Brandy]

What a result, fitting first time - unheard of for me! Lovely job and I'm looking forward to seeing how you tackle the turret bracing.

All this talk of steak and kidney puddings has made me decide I have to check out the supermarket a couple of miles away as it's bigger than the tiny one where I live. With such a large expat community it's amazing just how much Brit stuff can be found here, far more than in the US!

 

Ian

[perdu]

What?

 

People come here and prepare to be amazed?

 

Not me, I come here for the music

The symphony of visual delight

The sheer pleasure of enjoying a masterpiece develop before "my very eyes"

 

I love your 'handling device' we should all build one, I would but I can't get the wood

 

 

 

 

Or the thick wire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or the immense talent

 

Great stuff Tony, this has to be a Telford entry

Ensure your IPMS membership in time for the show

 

🍻

[CJP]

Zen Master Brass framing!

[TheBaron]

20 hours ago, bbudde said:

determinated by a steady anticyclone over your country at the moment. It brings warm wet weather from the atlantic and cold temperatures in high altitudes causing snowfalls at the alps as a natural frontier/barricade

Happy to confirm that it is simply cold andf damp here today Benedikt.

Dismally-so.

I don't know whether that makes things better or worse.

 

I shall have to consult:

The only book I own that is physically bound together with bolts and screws!

Love the RR 'Snowpiercer'!

20 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

That framework is almost a work of art in it's own right. 

You should see my tractor!

19 hours ago, giemme said:

Agreed!

You are an agreeable comnpanion Giorgio! 😸

19 hours ago, galgos said:

something about silk purses and sows' ears seems appropriate here

Holy Batpurses!

19 hours ago, bbudde said:

Tony the frame looks fanatstic and very tiny/fragile measured to the clips. Great work!!

It has thankfully gotten a lot more rigid in the last couple of days due to all the additional bracing Benedikt. Before that every movement was an ordeal!

17 hours ago, rob85 said:

Tony, it’s stunning 

Wotcha Rob!

Glad you're enoying matters.

Long-time no speak - hope all goes well with you.

17 hours ago, CedB said:

Lovely work Tony and a great fit too!

It bears repeating Ced but a good tight fit is critical:

15 hours ago, hovis said:

This is amazing!

Cheers for saying that Mr. H.

9 hours ago, limeypilot said:

What a result, fitting first time - unheard of for me!

Me too as a rule Ian!

Let's put this one down as an aberration!

9 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I'm looking forward to seeing how you tackle the turret bracing.

With considerable bloody-mindedness that it would look like the maintenance drawing! 💂‍♂️

9 hours ago, limeypilot said:

it's amazing just how much Brit stuff can be found here

Rose's Lime Marmalade?

Pears Soap?

Ambrosia Devon Custard?

 

A full report is expected.... 🕵️‍♂️

5 hours ago, perdu said:

I love your 'handling device' we should all build one, I would but I can't get the wood

 

 

 

 

Or the thick wire

D'ya want some Bill? 📯

4 hours ago, CJP said:

Zen Master Brass framing!

Sounds like a high-stakes evening class that few people would sign up for CJ!

(You're very kind)

 

Turret Syndrome

Being an account of some involuntary swearing.

 

I knew that forming and attaching the turret-ring framework was going to prove challenging and so it proved to be. Initially I tried this:

The outer arms attached to the ring itself have to angle out and upwards in two dimensions. The lengths are very short so only minimal heat can be applied. Fixing this inside the framework so that it hangs down proved nightmarish due to the confined space to solder in whilst trying to keep the piece levelled on two axes. In the end I disaamebled this and started again, using a large blob of BluTak as a support form the ring and building the arms directly onto the surrounding once it was correctly positioned in relation to the fuselage opening:

Some time passed.

And eventually it worked:

Better than I'd hoped in fact:

I think it fair to say that was the most complicated bit of soldering I've had to do to date and have learned a whole lot more about temperature control and application methods as a result.

 

Also added were that clusters of 'v' braces that run the length of the fusleage roof:

From below:

It's taken a while but we got there:

There's still a bit more to do up front around the pilot and bomb-aimer's tunnel, plus the radio and nav tables and frames to build, but getting this right was a major hurdle tnat had preoccupied me since starting the build - this framework is such a part of the aircraft's character that it cried out for attention to detail. The biggest worry all the way along the line was enbsuring that each successive layer of detail added to it didn't impede the fit into the fuselage:

She'll sit there overnight now.

- and duties permitting, have a little more attention tomorrow.

 

I feel like red meat and red wine after that session now.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

[Brandy]

I was going to question the bent braces around the turret ring, but then I looked back a few pages and saw you still have a whole bunch more bracing to add...

Carry on that man!

 

Ian

[keefr22]

Magic work Tony, just magic! (you're really a wizard aren't you?!)

 

Keith

[hendie]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

I think it fair to say that was the most complicated bit of soldering I've had to do to date

 

And a damn fine job you have made of it sir!   It looks so deceptively simple but we call all see that a hefty dollop of skill went into creating that fine structure.  Once the solder is cleaned up (does it even need it?) and some paint applied that framing is going to look utterly fantastic.   Seems a shame to hide it inside a piece of airfix.  Can't you paint it dayglo orange or summat? or leave a side off?

 

You might want to look into a Tix solder kit - (great stuff).  It melts at 275°F, comes with it's own flux, and even an anti flux to paint on where you don't want solder to go.  On thin brass I have the iron set to its lowest setting and literally just touch the brass for a second or less and get a good joint. Very easy to clean up and non tarnishing.  Those jewelry folks have lots of nice tools and playthings that us modelers can (and should) be leveraging

 

[giemme]

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I feel like red meat and red wine after that session

Both well earned, methinks!  

 

Now off checking that Tix solder kit Hendie mentioned...

 

Ciao

Edited January 12, 2019 by giemme

[Pete in Lincs]

5 hours ago, TheBaron said:

There's still a bit more to do up front around the pilot and bomb-aimer's tunnel, plus the radio and nav tables and frames to build,

I think you're just messing with us. That's a stick insects climbing frame or I'm a Dutchman.

Impressive though.

[CedB]

Lovely, lovely, lovely  

[Massimo]

I had lost the last update....

From now on I think the Anson will be remembered as on of the "Heavies"!!!

Great stuff as usual!!!

Everyt time I see all that soldering I feel  bit lost!!!

Do you usually use a pen or brass tubes for writing?

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Tony

Framework looks absolutely amazing. What great work and ingenuity. Very inspiring indeed. 

Sorry I haven't been on much this year, I am finding very little free time to get to the computer and bench, due to work on the house again. 

Keep up the good work.

All the best

Chris

 

[TheBaron]

21 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I was going to question the bent braces around the turret ring, but then I looked back a few pages and saw you still have a whole bunch more bracing to add...

Carry on that man!

Thanks Ian. 

That turret ring is rather like the Avro design dept. was on an amphetamine and sherry bender the day they did that part, yet putting it all together you start to get a feel for how much the overall structure must have evolved to absorb all the relevant stress and loads upon the airframe. Even if it does look like the builders put up the scaffolding on the inside of the building by mistake!

21 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Magic work Tony, just magic! (you're really a wizard aren't you?!)

Absiolutely!

I can make a packet of bisucuits disappear in the blink of an eye!

Jushlikethat.

19 hours ago, hendie said:

or leave a side off?

You mean like Henry VIII did?

20 hours ago, hendie said:

You might want to look into a Tix solder kit - (great stuff).

That sounds an eminently interesting bit of kit and worth a punt on hendie. (mentally spends next month's paycheck...)

20 hours ago, hendie said:

Those jewelry folks have lots of nice tools and playthings that us modelers can (and should) be leveraging

I know what you mean - I also spend a lot of time hanging around jewellery suppliers online these days and rarely seem to look at model kits at all by comparison.

 

I 'only' have about 35 kits in the stash as it is and of these about 1/5 are likely to get sold on. Like that B-58 that seemed such a great idea, or the Potez 540 that to this day I've no recollection of acquiring (or why...).

 

I must put a posting up in the 'Will swap for brass' section of the forum!

18 hours ago, giemme said:

Both well earned, methinks!

Thanks Giorgio.

Let us know how you get on with the Tix stuff won't you?

16 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

That's a stick insects climbing frame or I'm a Dutchman.

I hate to tell you this Piet van Lijnks but errr..... 😜

 

Besides - stick insects don't need climbing frames - they use each other!

13 hours ago, CedB said:

Lovely, lovely, lovely

I heard you say that in Neil Kinnock's accent Ced!

 

6 hours ago, Massimo said:

Everyt time I see all that soldering I feel  bit lost!!!

Let's just say that the worse my eyesight gets the smaller I feel compelled to build things Massimo.

There's no sense to it!

4 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Sorry I haven't been on much this year, I am finding very little free time to get to the computer and bench, due to work on the house again. 

No problem Chris - getting the crib sorted is one of Life's Interminable Tasks isn't it?

 

We're facing the unedifying task of having to repaint the kitchen and all the bedrooms for the first time since we moved in to our gaffe 15 years ago. EDSG seems a bit gloomy for interiors however....

 

A bit of frivolity this morning as I wanted to sort out some of the rear cockpit fittings prior to building any further framing for the radio-op and navigator stations respectively.

 

This meant checking out some of the Flighpath PE to see what would be of use.

 

The radios were soldered-together first:

There's some tasy-looking bits of film top go behind those dials which should make them look nice, though given the aircraft I'm building I am wondering whether these radios would have remained in the standard location for the mission. If you recall Cpl. Mackie was using an acquired Halllicrafter S-27 UHF receiver to try and locate the Knickebein beams, which also involved significant alterations to the electrical supply of the Anson (changing it from AC to DC iirc). Aside from not knowing what (if anything) this implied to the aerial configuration on the outside of the aircraft, I'm guessing that the S-27 would have had to have been installed at the radio-op's station, thus needing some of the extant radio gear to be removed. It may be possible then to cannibalize the radio unit on the right above to look more like the Hallicrafter's set:

^{http://worldwar2headquarters.com/HTML/museums/national-electronics/s27-knickenbein-jones.html}

The radio op's chair was a swine to get put together involving combined folding and bending:

I ended up cutting the base of the seat off from the back so that the back support could be bent in the rolling rig and then the base soldered back on. In the end thoughtit gives a great representation of the actual seat.

 

By contrast, the navigator's seat is not satisfactory:

This looks absolutely nothing like the Nav's seat in either the maintenance manual or in the detailed cutaway of the Anson published in Flight magazine in January of 1936. In both of these the sources, navigator sits on a kind of rounded padded podium with a separate backrest built in to the rear of the radio-op's framing that held all the radio gear - you can just see the seat part peeking out around the back of the radios here:

^{https://acesflyinghigh.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/the-former-raaf-ballarat-airbase-friends-of-the-anson-air-museum/}

 

On this basis I'm going to ditch the above part and build what the evidence shows me instead.

 

Both radio and nav tables look good however:

The only modification I had to make was to cut the vertical end frame off of the radio-op's table in order to replace it with the one I'd built previously from tubing.

 

Good. Those bits will help with scaling and positioning when fitting out the rear cockpit now.

 

This is 'Chocolate':

He's a stray who turned-up nearly a year ago thin and starving and very nervous. He now lives on our kitchen windowsill (where he gets fed to avoid the chickens pilfering his grub) and sleeps in the polytunnel. Being an outdoor cat he doesn't seem bothered about coming in the house but earns his keep by ratting.  Suffice it to say he's now part of the family.

 

Tony

 

 

 

 

[Brandy]

The PE looks really good. With the exception, as you say, of the Nav's seat. Still, any PE set that is more than 50% useable is pretty bloody good in my book.

I hope you got your cat licence from the ministry of housinge!

 

Ian

[AdrianMF]

I haven't seen the framework until now but I just want to say

 

 

"Oooooooooh lovely"

 

 

 

Regards,

Adrian

[TheBaron]

On 1/13/2019 at 2:27 PM, limeypilot said:

The PE looks really good. With the exception, as you say, of the Nav's seat. Still, any PE set that is more than 50% useable is pretty bloody good in my book.

The percentages have dropped a bit since last night I'm afraid Ian as comparing the PE in detail to visual data in the manual reveals the nav and radio tables to be the wrong shape (they are too long and thin) so I've begun work on replacements....

On 1/13/2019 at 3:09 PM, AdrianMF said:

"Oooooooooh lovely"

Thank-you Matron.

 

 

[galgos]

You may find these some help Tony, dimensions on some - these from a chap restoring an Anson in Canada:

[TheBaron]

On 1/14/2019 at 3:37 PM, galgos said:

You may find these some help Tony, dimensions on some

Bloomin' brilliant Max.

If fact revelatory in showing that  - if I understand these correctly - the padded 'podium' on which the nav sat is practically the same shape as the bases of the pilot and radio op's chairs (albeit slightly taller than they).

 

Looks like I have some correcting ahead of me on seating too!

 

As I indicated in my previous post I've largely abandoned ideas of using much of the PE now for much of the interior (due to its inaccuracy) and am largely 'rolling my own' instead when it comes to fitting out the rear cockpit.

 

To whit, one scratchbuilt radio-operators' table and shelving:

Ditto fot the navigator's table:

About two-day's worth of work in spare moments but very satisfying to have got completed. Well, nearly completed - at the last knockings this evening I managed to mangle the vertical upright at the back of the nav's table to which the duplicate instrument panel is attached (figured I'd celebrate by breaking something I guess!), hence the oversize tubing as a temporary support until some 0.3mm replacement tubing is attached.

 

Both candidates lined-up for a photo then:

...and in temporary residence for another picture:

That is btw Version 2.0 of the nav's table as the first one I built to similar dimensions as that of the radio op's. Only subsequently did I notice that unlike the latter, it does not extend out to halfway across the cockpit width, but is slightly short of halfway (though it does have an extra leaf that can be folded up when needed, and which I've added here in the 'down' position).

 

I knew you'd notice sooner or later if I ignored that matter, hence the second attempt.

 

In other news, I recently saw a specialist and have since been diagnosed as going prematurely deaf. Least I'll be able to build me own ear trumpets now!

 

Take care of yourselves til next time mateys.

 

Tony

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Tony

Great work on the interior fittings, they look fabulous.  You are going to have no trouble building a Steam locomotive. 

 

Keep up the good work.

All the best

Chris

[bbudde]

19 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

In other news, I recently saw a specialist and have since been diagnosed as going prematurely deaf. Least I'll be able to build me own ear trumpets now!

Tony, what can I say: Getting old or too much Motörhead along the way or both? Otherwise brilliant as usual . Cheers

[Martian]

What a lovely cat! The modelling is not bad either.

 

Martian 👽

[pheonix]

Trying to keep up with your threads is difficult enough, especially when one has to be away from home (and the internet), for long periods. Trying to keep up with that standard of soldering is for me at least impossible. Such very fine work, brilliantly executed. The PE work is not bad either. A truly remarkable transformation of a venerable kit into a mini-masterpiece of modelling.

 

P

[hendie]

That photo of the chairs, 5th one down... I paused....  I think I have behaved myself remarkably well.   🙈🙊🙉

 

Sorry to hear (ops, no pun intended) learn of your impending aural degradation Tony. 

 

 

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

... I've largely abandoned ideas of using much of the PE now for much of the interior

 

under normal circumstances that would receive a hushed "ooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh NNOoooooooooo" from the audience

 

However, in your case, I think that will be met with rapturous applause and a resounding chorus of

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

from the communal hive as we look forward to your future     endeavors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Martian]

I am sorry to learn of your hearing problems. Can anything be done to help you?

 

Martian 👽