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Listening to the Solstice


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On 7/31/2019 at 10:57 PM, hendie said:

Some results of my handiwork can (barely) be seen here - walls haven't been capped at this point

 

Halloween75.jpg

I see that Christmas is a more sombre affair in Scotland....

 

(In all seriousness hendie I love a good bit of sandstone wall me and that example looks especially fine: it must have ben a wrench having to leave something that homely behind. :sad:)

On 7/31/2019 at 10:57 PM, hendie said:

I'm at a loss to understand why more folks don't delve into brass work as it's really not that difficult - and sometimes easier than working with plastic.

Exactly my experience! I know such statements must seem incredibly counter-intuitive to people: the biggest difficulty starting out was simply my own fear and technical ignorance, both of which diminish rapidly with practice.

That and the pastoral care provided by yourself and Brother Nigel of Heath. :worthy:

On 7/31/2019 at 8:13 PM, Terry1954 said:

digging the outline of a pond and although its quite therapeutic,

You can't beat a good pond for relaxation Terry (once it's built of course...). Will it be hosting any fish and such like?

On 7/31/2019 at 10:18 PM, giemme said:

Are you sure there's no use for concrete in this build?

 

On 8/1/2019 at 5:30 AM, bbudde said:

Maybe he makes his own Mr. surfacer 1500 and concrete extra thin cement for all purposes now? :whistle:

Giorgio and Benedikt: Simmerit finish on the Anson for extra protection...? :whistle:

 

On 8/1/2019 at 7:39 AM, CedB said:

Good luck with the footings Tony - watch your back!

You should have seen me Ced. I bestrode the garden like a young god!

giphy.gif

On 8/1/2019 at 7:39 AM, CedB said:

Um… er… can we assume that it was Halloween, or is this the Hendie version of 'beware of the dog'????

It what they call on Gardener's World a Water Slaughter Feature...

On 8/1/2019 at 7:46 AM, Stalker6Recon said:

I don't need them to give me more pain than I already have, or less sensation than I have in my legs, it's already creepy how paralyzed but functional my legs are

That sounds right grim mate. :sad:

I'm glad you've plenty of cats to stroke for therapy.

On 8/1/2019 at 9:41 AM, perdu said:

Excellent...

Dammit Bill I've got Mr. Burns' voice from The Simpsons going round my head now!

On 8/1/2019 at 9:59 AM, Fritag said:

Does make for jolly interesting reading

I am so sending you some brass sheet for Christmas this year.

On 8/1/2019 at 10:02 AM, limeypilot said:

Yup, no question they're "sharp" enough! Great stuff, as always!

Guess who trod on one of them earlier Ian and had the trailing edge looking even sharper (as in  snapped)? :swear:

Not to worry, deep breaths and a bit of solder followed by some re-bending... :facepalm:

On 8/1/2019 at 12:37 PM, Spookytooth said:

As above Tony, sharp work (Pun intended)

Thanks Simon. :thumbsup2:

On 8/1/2019 at 2:42 PM, bbudde said:

Not so nice with all the colourful fields in the surrounding area of the plants.

There's a depot like that along the river in Galway Benedikt: looks like lunar soil creeping out to cover the surrounding landscape. Reminds me of Stephen Baxter's:

Moonseed_Stephen_Baxter.jpg

On 8/1/2019 at 10:05 PM, Martian Hale said:

you seem to have let yourself go a bit recently Tony. The pantomime frock isn't one of your best either.

Damn cheek! I had it specially soiled for the occasion too!

 

Right. On with matters before this becomes a full-blown pantomime...

 

Took a bit of getting back into benchwork as the exertions of the week's digging and concreting took their toll on the energy levels.

Luckily I had an ace bloke on the mixer (youngest son):

2019-08-02_09-03-12

 - and a top finish-man out back (eldest son):

2019-08-02_09-02-46

Good that they both know how to dig founds and lay a concrete raft now. They did a great job.

 

After marking-up the required spacings for aileron-hinges along the trailing edge of the wing I cut out the notches on each side for the aileron levers:

IMG_1288

These were accomplished with a heated scalpel blade to to open the cut without disturbing the undeside of the wing, then I used a conical diamond dust birr to hand file the required bay-like opening.

Prior to building the aileron levers I had a quick shufti just to make sure that the hinges themselves actually did look OK en masse:

IMG_1289

I'd been debating whether they should be attached to the wings for painting first or the aileron but on reflection I think the latter as if I can solder the arms of those hinges into place, the aileron and associated fittings can all be painted separately as a single assembly to be glued on in a single operation at the end.

 

For the aileron levers themselves I decided to modify my usual methodolgy for building aerials - to whit - brass rod crimped inside brass tubing. First though the mass balance parts needed to be soldered to the top of the levers at an angle:

IMG_1294

Despite them looking similar at this stage, the fittings are different top and bottom (with the underside one of each pair lacking the added weight) but I can use identical starting-points to make both. You can see the outer sheaths being added here from 0.9mm tubing:

IMG_1298

These were then crimped flat around the central rod using flat-jawed pliers, varying the pressure to produce the required tapering profile from bottom to top:

IMG_1301

You can see the underside sets to the left in the above picture have also had the angled horizontal filed-down as these don't have the larger mass balance weight like the top set do.

Here's one of the lower pair tacked temporarily into place to check for scale:

IMG_1310

The top counterpart being checked for scale along with the hinges:

IMG_1305

It's a little tall I fancy and will need to be reduced in height but I'm pleased with the way that captures the shape of the original:

IMG_1308

Again, the levers will be soldered to the aileron in advance of painting (just like the hinges) which method should hopefully give a solution with the greatest join-strength on such thin bonding areas.

Won't be tomorrow though as driving Mrs. B over to Bray on the East coast to deliver some of her work.

Hopefully a bite of lunch beside the seaside is in the offing then...

 

Thanks for reading as always and have a good evening one and all!

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Giorgio and Benedikt: Simmerit finish on the Anson for extra protection...? :whistle:

 

Maybe, but not so attracting on the faithful Annie, I think.

Nice hinges and balances Although I 'm not sure you safe these, while painting it in a half year later. Ok no problem for me, but sorry for those hinges and balances.

Cheers Benedikt

Edited by bbudde
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7 hours ago, TheBaron said:

There's a depot like that along the river

It's not about that plants there, I've grown up with these and I don't bother about them as you don't see the holes in/on the ground level and they changed since my youth for several times and they were filled up again (Ok the inner fields of the plants now were the dump in the 70th then. Not so nice, as they have to cultivate them once again).  It's more the fact (that disgusted me over the years till now) is more or less about the local politics there over the years, as they had built their new nice big homes there nearby, where they (it) should have connected the A44 motorway far across Lippstadt with the A1 motorway near Gütersloh. That was the idea, when they built the ringroad in Anröchte in the early 80th towards the A44 sliproad. Even by now, they had built the north beltway in Anröchte and so trucks over 7,5 tons can't pass the center there, if not allowed or with no permission.

Cheers Benedikt

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20 hours ago, giemme said:

Work of art. That's what it is.

 

20 hours ago, CedB said:

Indeed.

U two are too too kind as usual. :blush:

Am still a long way off from my ultimate ambition....

https://twitter.com/bengeliscious/status/1155878391578529792?s=20

20 hours ago, pheonix said:

we mortal modellers must only look on in

'Mortal Modellers' :hmmm:

That so has to become a Russell T. Davies script....

19 hours ago, limeypilot said:

I thought this was 1:72 scale? I guess I was wrong!

Now you're just blowing things out of all proportion Ian. :laugh:

17 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

It's very good, but there was talk of paint?

Paint?

Paint?

How frightfully completist of you sir.

Paint corrupts, absolute paint corrupts absolutely.

14 hours ago, bbudde said:

is more or less about the local politics there over the years, as they had built their new nice big homes there nearby, where they (it) should have connected the A44 motorway far across Lippstadt with the A1 motorway near Gütersloh.

You should see what passes for transportation planning here Benedikt. It's largely a matter of faith and fatalism....

5 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

no words

I fear that this statement is self-contradictory Johnny.

Have you been drinking the Flory Wash again?

:thanks: btw  )

4 hours ago, Fritag said:

it looks like there may be some merit to this metalworkingmalarky

Look at the brass Steve.

Watch it glisten.

giphy.gif

It calls from the darkness.

Listen to the voice of the brass,

Focus only on the voice of the brass.

The brass...

 

3 hours ago, rob85 said:

and ridiculous detail in this scale

'Ridiculous' is I feel an accurate diagnosis Rob! :laugh:

Hopefully my grandchildren will one day be able to say proudly: 'He never avoided life's ailerons...'

 

 

Didn't in the end head over to Dublin with Mrs. B  today as some kind of lurgy descended late last night in the form of a rotten head cold; not enough regrettably to send you into the 'Wife, I'm dying -  bring hot tea and a cool flannel for my forehead.' mode of self-pity, more the "Urrgh I've eaten a carpet and attached a clamp to my head." lethargic fog. I did stumble out of the scratcher and into the studio about midday but after an hour's tinkering had to retreat due to lack of focus.

 

Did manage to mark out the blisters that need to be added back in to the extended wing roots:

IMG_1312

I spent a good while staring at photos of Anson blisters and they never seem to look the same in any two photographs! That's not exactly true of course, much of that being a product of the viewing angle the photo was taken from. The best gauge was how the front and tail of the blisters lines up with the windows and doors. Despite this, there do genuinely seem to be a couple of examples where the blister is much longer than seen in the main crop of evidence, so my one is based upon shots of contemporary Mk.1s from wartime rather than restoration/museum shots, not leat of which is a nice shot of N9943 (two prior to N9945) showing her port blister as a benchmark.

That rough sketch was then translated into a tear-drop in Adobe Illustrator before being imported into the Silhouette for a cut.

Capture

I'm really glad now that I'd upgraded the Silhouette software from the free to 'Designer' edition as Illustrator is by far the better drafting environment for vector graphics and now I can bring the output in from there as an SVG without having to subsequently trace any outlines in the Silhouette software. Paradoxically it was easier  and cheaper to buy the upgrade from this crowd (as opposed to the manufacturers themselves) as  you can get a direct download of the authorization code to use straight away.

 

Those blisters were then applied to the wing roots:

IMG_1314

Just realized I haven't yet explained why I'm doing this! 🤷‍♂️

That shape will act as a template for me to add a blob of Milliput and form the teardrop shape with wet scalpel and paint brush before it sets. The reason for it being on a tape base is so that when dry, each one can be lifted off temporarily for a foil wing fairing to be added and the blisters then epoxied finally into place on top. Not today though. That's as far as the neurons would stretch.

 

One last thing I worked-out  in tests on Steve's MDC is that that default setting in the Silhouette software for cutting certain materials can have a stronger cutting pressure than actually needed. Both for metal foil and for Washi tape I routinely found that it cuts through not only the surface material but the backing paper also, and into the cutting mat. I've now taken to turning the cutting pressure down by 3-4 steps as a result: doing that with the Washi tape above gave a nice cut to the tape itself but not going through into the backing paper.

 

Time to order a new mat I reckon as the adhesive surface is knackered as well...

IMG_1315

 

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

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Oooh, cheap designer upgrade eh? I'm not artistic enough to use Illustrator and the like but it does do tracing by colour I believe which might be very useful?

 

I had the same problem with the mat getting cut - not bad enough for a new one, yet :) 

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4 hours ago, CedB said:

I'm not artistic enough to use

...I won't have people say such things about themselves on any thread of mine Ced you absolute shocker. :)

 

Art of any kind is 95% hard work and regular practice: the remaining 5% is the insight  created by those first two elements. (Take it from one who's met enough people who consider themselves artists in the absence of any - or all - of these components.)

 

Illustrator is both powerful and accessible and plenty of free tutorials online.

You'd have no problem.

I've even seen Mac users able to work it, after a fashion... ;)

4 hours ago, CedB said:

had the same problem with the mat getting cut - not bad enough for a new one, yet

 Now I feel like a profligate mat-abuser of the worst kind. #evilbutunrepentant

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20 minutes ago, rob85 said:

Why were you cutting out a witch??

I'm hosting a Black Mass and Satanic orgy next weekend so wanted  the invites to look a bit special.

20 minutes ago, rob85 said:

Hope PE you feel better soon!

Thanks Rob.

I don't think it's the plague and will probably survive despite the horrific very very mild fever and occasional light sneeze.

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On 8/3/2019 at 5:43 PM, TheBaron said:

You can't beat a good pond for relaxation Terry (once it's built of course...). Will it be hosting any fish and such like?

It will be a wildlife pond, but no fish. Did that some years ago in a previous life and too much like hard work! 

 

Terry

 

 

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9 hours ago, TheBaron said:

You should see what passes for transportation planning here Benedikt. It's largely a matter of faith and fatalism....

Much like the driving from my experience a couple of years ago....

 

Annies looking fabulous, this build is both inspirational and yet at the same time a little disheartening knowing that I will never be able to match the Olympian skill levels on display.

 

AW

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10 hours ago, TheBaron said:

You should see what passes for transportation planning here Benedikt. It's largely a matter of faith and fatalism....

Much like the driving from my experience a couple of years ago....

 

Annies looking fabulous, this build is both inspirational and yet at the same time a little disheartening knowing that I will never be able to match the Olympian skill levels on display.

 

AW

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13 hours ago, TheBaron said:

horrific very very mild fever and occasional light sneeze.

Isn't this exactly how every zombie movie starts? 🤧👿

 

As for the Silhouette, first you need a computer (don't have one), then you need the software (see:I don't have a computer), then you need the machine (see:software(see:I don't have a computer) 😁), then you need skills (see:then I need a machine (see:software(see:I don't have a computer) 😁)).

 

Did any of that make sense?

 

My method (that I just made up) is to find the shape on the internet, use the zoom feature "two finger spread" (no dirty minds!) til the size is proper, then I overlay some paper and use a Sharpie marker to outline the shape, then I mess up the lines, crumble the paper, curse, throw the phone, accidentally hit the cat, he knocks over the TV, more cursing, wife starts yelling at me, cats crying, and all the while, my bench remains fossilized.

 

But I do have the super sharpie 44 piece set! Now I am just bragging 😁!

 

On a serious note, sorry about the cold, been there, done that. The work so far is beyond explanation, I can say with confidence, we all look forward to your next update, even if it's minimal progress, it's always inspiring.

 

Cheers,

 

Anthony

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