Listening to the Solstice

[stevehnz]

6 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Anson and Alien in the same topic (love that picture) how bizzare.

In any other thread, yup, in this one, barely worth the comment, bizarre being the new normal.  

Steve.

[TheBaron]

Shocking news about the Anson's lineage whilst doing some research earlier.

It's clear from going through historical sources that the nose of this aircraft bears no resemblance to that possessed of Admiral of the Fleet George Anson:

I've blown up the original portrait here so that you can see for yourself how his majestic nasality was clearly that of the P-40 Tomahawk.

You have to wonder how many other such errors are lurking in the archives!

 

22 hours ago, CedB said:

More great work Tony - I love that door to the turret

Most gracious Ced. I actually found my way to fiddling with the turret earlier, of which more below.

21 hours ago, giemme said:

Ouch! Better replace the whole fuselage with properly shaped brass sheet, me thinks.

21 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

Snag list!!! they go on for miles sometimes....

Don't they just Simon? At some point I'm going to have to sit down and write out everything that needs doing but part of me wonders if that mightn't just be too frightening to see it all in one long document!

21 hours ago, hendie said:

 

Though be careful as it can become somewhat habit forming, which can in turn lead you to some strange places

 



 

You're a lot slimmer than I imagined H...

20 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I have to admit that "The Male" left me totally perplexed. I guess I've been away too long, I can't understand it at all!

 

19 hours ago, keefr22 said:

I'm so glad I'm not the only one! 

It's not often the a Viz comic strip seems a calmer and more reasonable version of the target it's parodying.....

20 hours ago, limeypilot said:

nice solution to the door problem. Nothing less than expected. No pressure....

'Solution' in my case being the penny dropping finally after two spectacularly clumsy initial attempts Ian!

20 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

What's with the statue of the chief Vogon Tony?

You mean the shot of Anubis-Hendie above, respelendent in his magnificent battle jeggings?

20 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Cracking work on the interior fixtures and fittings fella.

Ta Chris. There is definitely something 'drawing-room'-ish about the inside of this aircraft in place. I wouldn't be surprised to find a harmonium listed in the maintenance manula somewhere.....

19 hours ago, keefr22 said:

I do enjoy the pictures you can describe with just a few words Tony!

Sweet of you to say so Keith. If only Transport for London saw it that way regarding the (as I now realize - ill-advised) limerick about Boris Johnson and a gnu that I spraypainted down the length of that District line train....

17 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Anson and Alien in the same topic

Imagine how much shorter the original Alien film would have been if it were set inside of an Anson rather than the Nostromo Pete! 15 minutes in and Ripley is frantically trying to shove the creature out through the relief tube....

11 hours ago, stevehnz said:

In any other thread, yup, in this one, barely worth the comment, bizarre being the new normal.

 

 

Btw - anyone like myself living beyond the UK and not able to access show-archives through the iPlayer, it's worth having a search through the Wayback Machine - I found Series 88-98 of the News Quiz freely available the other evening and enjoying a good chuckle, not least the bitterssweet memory of how funny dear Jeremy Hardy was:

https://archive.org/details/TheUnbelievableTruth16/

(Ignore the 'Uneblievable Truth bit in that url, it is the News Quiz and not the David Mitchell vehicle)

 

2 bizinis then.

 

The rear gun turret has been due for some attention so I began by sketching out the main components of the ring/gun mouting: 

There are three sub-assmblies involved 1) the bit the gun bolts is fixed to, 2) the upright/saddle seat that it's partially attached to, and 3) the ring itself to which both 1) and 2) are independently attached. 

 

Next to the drawing you can see that it was time to hook out the Aeroclub moulding for the AW turret. Before proceeding to build anything I quickly checked to see what the fit was like and can pronounce it on the right side of 'snug':

I'm not at this stage convinced that Airfix quite caught the forward 'shoulder' of the fuselage into which the turret sits correctly - I think it needs to be built up a bit more vertically, I'll confirm that at a later stage and if necessary, some Milliput moulding should suffice to sort that out. Whilst the aeroclub stuff was out I ran a quick eyeball over the fit if the windscreen area also:

Is it me our does it look slightly proud over to starboard? Beautiful clear moulding though so it will fit, one way or the other! 😄

 

Satisfied with that, I decided the easiest way to make the turret ring from some  brass tube that matched the 12mm diameter of the glasswork:

Then it was just a case of sawing-off a 1mm slice to make the ring itself:

A couple of pivot-points soldered-on and that section is complete:

From here, I moved on to building the uprights that form part 2) of the drawing above. For this, I found some runner on the Flightpath set that could be repurposed to act are the rear part of this:

Two sections of that were cut off and taped down in preparation for soldering on some diagopnal framing:

...to end up after a few minutes with these:

Close enough for something that will be half-concealed within the fuselage in its final position.

 

Annoyingly I put the ring down earlier and now can't find it!  Either it will show up or I'll know now how to build a new one!

 

That's it for today: it felt good getting some time in on Annie over the weekend.

 

Kind regards all,

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brandy]

I'm looking forward to seeing how this little sub-assembly comes together. Certainly a damn good start!

 

Ian

[bbudde]

Hello Tony, like the way things coming together now.  Have a nice Sunday. Cheers

[giemme]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Annoyingly I put the ring down earlier and now can't find it!  Either it will show up or I'll know now how to build a new one! 

 

Speaking of which: how did you cut it, please? It looks like pure sorcery to me...

 

Ciao

[hendie]

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

You're a lot slimmer than I imagined H...

 

ah... those were the days.  The waist of my old leather trousers barely fits over my thighs these days!  The bikers jacket that once hung so loose is now a very snug fit (if I can suck it all in and hold my breath for long enough), and the hair that was so religiously back combed and liberally coated with Insette Spikey is now but a long distant memory

 

 

2 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I'm looking forward to seeing how this little sub-assembly comes together. Certainly a damn good start!

 

me too Ian.   Mainly 'cos I've no idea what it's supposed to look like yet.   When I saw the sketch above, I thought number 2 would be a quadrant cut from one of the steampunk cogs n stuff.  I'm sure it'll be alright on the night

 

 

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Then it was just a case of sawing-off a 1mm slice to make the ring itself:

 

Note the use of the word just in the statement above... implying it was a simple operation that any of us

modelers can perform with minimal use of concentration and skills.

To achieve something that looks as good as that, I'd have to saw a slice, sand/file it on one side, then sand/file it on the other to try and eliminate the taper I "just" added to the profile.  Then cut at least three more and repeat the operations until I got something I was reasonably happy with - then polish it up nice and shiny.

 

 

1 hour ago, giemme said:

Speaking of which: how did you cut it, please? It looks like pure sorcery to me...

 

I rest my case.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by hendie

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, giemme said:

Speaking of which: how did you cut it, please? It looks like pure sorcery to me...

 

Ciao

 

Thanks Giorgio, glad it's not just me that thought he'd invoked black magic - he makes it all look so easy....!!

 

3 hours ago, TheBaron said:

If only Transport for London saw it that way regarding the (as I now realize - ill-advised) limerick about Boris Johnson and a gnu that I spraypainted down the length of that District line train....

 

I should by now know better than to read your posts while eating a packet of Quavers Tony - I now need to go and find a screenwipe to remove the pebbledash of cheese flavoured snack from my laptop....!!

 

Keith

[Spookytooth]

Black magic? no Brass Magic more like..

 

Simon.

 

[TheBaron]

3 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I'm looking forward to seeing how this little sub-assembly comes together. Certainly a damn good start!

Thanks Ian! 

Gradually over time I've learned that a job like this is less frightnening if I take the time to work out through drawing how the things was designed to work in the first place.... 🛠️

3 hours ago, bbudde said:

Hello Tony, like the way things coming together now.  Have a nice Sunday. Cheers

Thanks Benedikt  - you too!

2 hours ago, giemme said:

Speaking of which: how did you cut it, please? It looks like pure sorcery to me...

Giorgio: as with many such things, it's just a case of having the right tools and letting them teach you how the material responds to them through your fingers....

 

Since the original piece never showed up I figured I could show you by making a replacement!

 

1. Scribe out required thickness with the nearest scribey-thing to hand:

2. Cut the slice off using a jeweller's saw:

3. File-off any birrs and sand smooth with W&D:

4.  Rather than messing around with any elaborate jigs, I find it easier just to freestyle pieces this small into place with tweezers to hold them whilst soldering:

5. A good turn under strong directional light at the end to check for blemishes:

6. Put somewhere very safe and secure until needed! (unlike me the first time around....)

 

1 hour ago, hendie said:

I thought number 2 would be a quadrant cut from one of the steampunk cogs n stuff.

I'm going to shake the jar of watch-guts up to have a look during the week H as mature deliberation over a strong cup of tea makes me realize that part 2) could indeed be better-handled.

1 hour ago, hendie said:

I'd have to saw a slice, sand/file it on one side, then sand/file it on the other to try and eliminate the taper I "just" added to the profile.  Then cut at least three more and repeat the operations until I got something I was reasonably happy with

That was indeed my preferred methodology in the past but since getting that saw and a proper jeweller's clamp, quite without meaning to I seem to have stopped doing that of late! With cutting tubing I find that rather than having the saw blade vertical (as you're meant to for cutting flat surfaces) a 45° angle here gives more control in following the line around the curve, along with periodocally rotating the part by hand.

53 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

I should by now know better than to read your posts while eating a packet of Quavers Tony

'There once was a blighter named Boris

Who bought a gnu he named Doris

But the thing ran amuck

When he-'

 

I can't print any more until after sentencing Keith.

 

(Hope you weren't eating your tea!)

 

43 minutes ago, Spookytooth said:

Brass Magic more like..

Haway the lads!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[giemme]

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

2. Cut the slice off using a jeweller's saw:

@CedB: do you own one of these?

 

Thanks for the explanation, Tony   Very clever stuff!

 

Ciao

[CedB]

11 hours ago, giemme said:

@CedB: do you own one of these?

Not yet! You need one of those jewellers' bits of wood too but then it's easy to cut perfectly straight lines in metal - I've seen the videos on YouTube!  

 

Lovely work Tony. The skill, oh the skill

[perdu]

I think I'll start watching YouTube over Ced's shoulder

 

He's seen the videos...

 

Lovely work agoooing on here Tones, in fact brilliant!

[TheBaron]

On 3/3/2019 at 8:44 PM, giemme said:

@CedB: do you own one of these?

Those shipping containers down the end of his garden are full of such stuff Giorgio. Ced's tool collection is apparently visible from space. 🌍

On 3/4/2019 at 8:31 AM, CedB said:

You need one of those jewellers' bits of wood too but then it's easy to cut perfectly straight lines in metal

Frankly I don't know why more of you aren't doing it Ced. It seems to me you youngsters have it too easy nowadays with your vegan music and your gender fluids.

On 3/4/2019 at 9:40 AM, perdu said:

I think I'll start watching YouTube over Ced's shoulder

That so has to become a television program in it's own right along the 'Gogglebox' line Bill!

 

I was in the chemist's this morning to get a prescription and amazed to see that Brut men's products are still on sale. I was particularly taken by the way they had Brut roll-on deodorant on special offer next to the Durex, much in the manner of despair accompanied by unrealistic optimism...

 

I did buy some Old Spice however - largely to perturb Mrs. B, who harbours suspicions that I'm only pretending to have evolved beyond 1976.

 

With so many parts floating around the bench these days, sense finally kicked-in via the acquisition of a make-up box to keep all the jewllery in:

'Some assembly required'

 

Your correspondent has not been idle in the matter of turret research. Something was gnawing at me since the weekend regarding the interior workings of the mounting and I think I figures what it was. The original Flight article that I found the schematic in (and from which I made those sketches at the weekend):

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1936/1936 - 0205.html?search=whitely turret

didn't seem to match what I was seeing in reference photographs. ( @Heather Kay - I hope this hasn't ruined your own turret planning?). The gun mount I'm seeing in photographs is of a different visual appearance (though similar in articulation), being built from tubing regarding the uprights that the gunner sits into, as opposed to the larger pierced panels in the drawings. Here's a couple of examples (apologies to original posters for not remembering where these came from...):

Given that the original Flight article was published in 1936, I'm working on the assumption that the initial AW design was subsequently refined to a rather lighter looking version so have altered my designs accordingly. BTW - during my researches I discovered that an enormously public-sprited gentleman by the name of Mr. Terrell has been reading through the Flight archives and produced an alphabetical index of articles on particular aircraft, which he's made freely available on Scibd:

https://www.scribd.com/document/246972039/Flight-Combined-Drawings-List

Absolutely superb and what a wonderful thing to have done for others!

 

I started by making the curved frame that the gun mounts on, and to this added the flat vertical sections that run down from it to meet the framing of the saddle seat:

With the aid of wet-tissue for heatsinking, the diagonal bracing was then added on either side:

One that was done I had some fun with bending and aligning the seat mounting in three different axes - not only to get the shape right but to ensure that it matches the differing diameters of both the gun mounting and the turret ring in all the right places and distances from each other. This was tough but ultimately better done with a single piece of rod bent in the PE folder:

To add to the fun even further, those two sections had to be soldered to each other in four separate places!

In doing so, you start to appreciate the art of the original engineering designs in having built something that light and strong that can move and swivel in so many directions simultaneously.

Just when you though the job couldn't get more funner - that all then has to be fitted inside the turret ring. 

 

Now, you remember that last turret ring I knocked up to let Giorgio see how it was cut? Well, I soldered that piece above to it and then thought it looked decidely rum. Measuring the diamter of the ring I found I'd cut it from 15mm tube the second time, after having lost the 12mm original (that matched the opneing in the fuselage and the Aeroclub vacform). This is where it gets really weird - in unsoldering the mounting from the ring, I managed to knock the ring off the bench onto the carpet, whereupon bending down to look for it I chanced on it straight away - only it wasn't! Instead it was the earlier ring I'd made (to the correct diamter) and not the newer wrong one (which is gawd-knows-where now)! Clearly the Gods of Modelling had smiled.

 

With renewed purpose, ring and mounting were soon joined in metal matrimony:

Some jiggling required to get everything aligned, but eventually there was an outbreak of symmetry:

Side:

to side:

Does it err..?

Yes!!

A saddle-seat to add to the bottom bar of course, and here will be fun/puckering cutting out the vertical opening for the gun and getting the decidedly Edwardian framing of the AW turret represented onto that Aeroclub vacformery.

For tonight though,  I'm just happy to have brought that job to a reasonable conclusion:

We may have to celebrate with a second spoonful of honey in the bedtime hot milk after that.

Why not?

Let's go raving' mad!

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

'Tis but Witchcraft I tell ee.

Is there a BM ducking stool we could borrow?

So you found the missing brass ring and I found the missing airbrush seal.

Obviously what goes around comes around.

Oh, and some bloke called Boris rang up asking for you....

[Heather Kay]

26 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

I hope this hasn't ruined your own turret planning?

I think you’re okay. My "planning" is centred around more or less reproducing the parts I found in a Special Hobby Anson kit. Either way, it won’t be a patch on what you’ve got up your sleeve, I’m sure!

[bbudde]

Wow, no further comment. Cheers from a chaotic spring cleaning by now. But: chaos first, spring then and being easy at least. Cheers!

[giemme]

After this update, I feel slightly inadequate....

 

Unbelievable job, Tony!   

 

Ciao

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I’m with Giorgio.  Only in my case, delete the word “slightly” and insert the word “totally”.

[Tomoshenko]

Sublime Tony. Be honest mate, it aint no Anson turret, it's a spherical clock which doubles as device for predicting the motion and orbits of the planets, longitude at sea, perpetual motion and tomorrow's lottery numbers - PS what are the latter?

[keefr22]

3 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Oh, and some bloke called Boris rang up asking for you....

 

...and said ''have you seen my gnu....?"

[rob85]

Flippin ‘eck, this is beautiful 

 

Rob

[The Spadgent]

Splendid work El Barony.  That turret is looking special indeed. For a second I thought you had plunged your own dome too. Not as though you couldn’t as I know you could. Just the amount of scratch work is boggling my noggin.

As for the ring, there’s not a hobbit under your desk perchance? 😄

 

All the best

 

Johnster

[AdrianMF]

Looks great! On an Anson I'm always left with a lingering suspicion that there should be some cycle pedals in the footwell to allow the gunner to select the correct azimuth and elevation...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[hendie]

6 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I'm just happy to have brought that job to a reasonable conclusion:

 

yeah, I suppose it'll work, at a push, one way or the other,  give or take.

 

 

 

Are you joshing us?  That is a beautiful example of craftsmanship.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, TheBaron said:

To add to the fun even further, those two sections had to be soldered to each other in four separate places!

 

a mere trifling matter for an artisan of your pedigree.

 

 

6 hours ago, TheBaron said:

but eventually there was an outbreak of symmetry:

 

 

 

I've counted nine ten posts since you updated us with that visual extravaganza and not once has turrets syndrome been mentioned. 

 

too obvious huh?

 

 

just sayin'

 

 

 

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by hendie

[Procopius]

3 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Looks great! On an Anson I'm always left with a lingering suspicion that there should be some cycle pedals in the footwell to allow the gunner to select the correct azimuth and elevation...

 

Regards,

Adrian

Believe it or not, the Armstrong-Whitworth turret on the Anson was entirely manually-operated: "the turret was suspended on rollers in a vertical track, and was turned by the reaction of the gunner's feet on a ribbed rubber floor covering[!!!]. The main feature of the new turret was the gun elevation control; this was an ingenious mechanism which balanced the weight of the seated gunner with his gun." (R Wallace Clark, British Aircraft Armament Volume I)