Listening to the Solstice

[CedB]

27 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I don’t like to tell tales, but I’m pretty sure he trousered them afterwards.

Me? Wha...? Not me, honest, a big boy did it and ran away...

[giemme]

Tony, a couple of questions, if you don't mind: where did you get that brass sheet? And what are you going to use to cut it?

 

TIA

 

PS: I have no doubts you're going to sort the flaps and wing fairing issues. Another epic build in the making

 

Ciao

[TheBaron]

40 minutes ago, giemme said:

Tony, a couple of questions, if you don't mind: where did you get that brass sheet? And what are you going to use to cut it?

Hi Giorgio!

I've a guy in Poland I go to for brass sheet:

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Brass-Sheet-0-1-0-2-0-3-0-5-0-8mm-1mm-Various-Sizes/183268782999?hash=item2aababb397:m:mbvVpwAR8sUfMI8H6oRe5VQ

The prices are good and delivery is pretty quick. 

 

The bit I'm working at present is about 0.3mm in thickness so it is pretty easy to score with a Stanley blade or scalpel a few times and then snap any pieces off. With the more complex outline to the flaps I'm going to have to trim into some of those angles with a pair of nail scissors: brass of this thickness cuts readily enough.

 

Thinner brass often curls when you cut it with scissors but I find it handy enough to flatten out again by rubbing a steel ruler back and forward over the cut piece a few times and that does the job.

 

Glad you're enjoying things so far.

 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Omaka Airshow - Blenheim NZ - Easter 2017.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheBaron]

16 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Enjoy!

Delicious shots Steve!

Just been savouring them over coffee.

 

[galgos]

I'd love to see that Anson in the air, even if she does have the "more modern" metal wings!

Max

[fatalbert]

Those photos are excellent,I have a question regarding the turret though.Is there a removable fairing around it as in those photos the fuselage is streamlined up to the turret,where as in the kit there is a distinct step around it.

[The Spadgent]

Top errr. Brass.😎 nice work me mon. 

 

Johnny

[stevehnz]

8 hours ago, galgos said:

I'd love to see that Anson in the air, even if she does have the "more modern" metal wings!

Max

It is a bit delicious, I've been lucky to have seen it several times & was even luckier to get up close & personal with it before it flew post restoration. It has been restored to a stunning standard, other than the wing substitution forced on them by the regs, its authenticity is impressive. She is a very sweet old girl.

Steve.

[Hamden]

5 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I've been lucky to have seen it several times & was even luckier to get up close & personal with it before it flew post restoration.

 

You definately  are very lucky Steve, she is a real tribute to her restorers.

Any chance of her taking a holiday in the UK? Would be great to see her

 

  Roger 

[stevehnz]

1 hour ago, Hamden said:

Any chance of her taking a holiday in the UK?

I couldn't say, i'm not that close to her owners, friend of a friend sort of thing, though I do know them. I would think the chances of the UK ever seeing her would depend on how easily an Annie can be broken down to fuselage & wings & how much someone is prepared to stump up to get her there.

Steve.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Gorgeous shots; how can anyone fail to love an Annie?  [Pilot needs to sort his mixture out in that last one, mind]

[perdu]

19 hours ago, fatalbert said:

Those photos are excellent,I have a question regarding the turret though.Is there a removable fairing around it as in those photos the fuselage is streamlined up to the turret,where as in the kit there is a distinct step around it.

Not sure about the turret question but it seems obvious that the Anson is in fact a collection of similar but slightly different aircraft using the same name

Different fuselages, different wings and all just a bit delightful

I'm loving this one, marvellous

[TheBaron]

On 9/17/2018 at 4:34 PM, galgos said:

I'd love to see that Anson in the air,

Not 'arf.

Preferably on a summer's afternoon when the drone of the Cheetahs will linger in the air long after it has passed from sight...

On 9/17/2018 at 4:45 PM, fatalbert said:

Those photos are excellent,I have a question regarding the turret though.Is there a removable fairing around it as in those photos the fuselage is streamlined up to the turret,where as in the kit there is a distinct step around it.

I don't see a defined step here so much as a kind of collar that sits nearly-but-not-quite flush with the fuselage:

That collar on the kit will get sanded flat and have a foil replacement as it looks too thin too me...

On 9/17/2018 at 11:38 PM, The Spadgent said:

Top errr. Brass.😎 nice work me mon. 

Sank you ver' much Johnny.

More to follow from the Brasserie...

On 9/18/2018 at 1:19 AM, stevehnz said:

I've been lucky to have seen it several times

I'm rapidly going off you Steve....

On 9/18/2018 at 11:51 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

how can anyone fail to love an Annie?  

Truly you are the Jane Austen of the FAA....

On 9/18/2018 at 11:51 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

[Pilot needs to sort his mixture out in that last one, mind]

He's Vaping. It's all the rage...

On 9/18/2018 at 12:07 PM, perdu said:

Different fuselages, different wings and all just a bit delightful

A lovable mongrel. 😁

 

Radio-silence this week is the result of an increasingly heavy workload on that 'gainful employment' part of life, which unfortunately looks set to stay for the 4c-able future. Haven't even had time to really drop in and appreciate what others are up to despite the best of intentions.

 

Anyway, the odd half hour here and there has let me throw a few things together.

 

The broad shapes for the flaps and trays cut out:

The brass sheet I'm using here is slightly thicker than that of the etch as I don't have an exact match in the inventory at present. I was a little concerned it might throw up issues later when folding as a result but thankfully this wasn't the case. Before doing that though I scored out the rib intervals on the flap-trays, scaling the intervals between them up by a ratio matching the new longer length of the flaps here:

After a spin in the etch folding tool, these emerged:

Quick test-fit in the corresponding void in the wings revealed that the leading edge of the trays stood up quite proud from the trailing edge of the wing:

Immediate panic over incorrect measurements was soon quelled when I fitted the original shorter etch in to find that it had the same issue. Then it was out with the Dremel using a barrel-shaped birr to thin down the interior cross-section of the wing to accomodate the height of the trays:

Original moulding to the right, birred-down version on the left.

Fits the wing cross ection nice and flush now:

With this sorted, I decided to glue with wings together with Contacta, and then use epoxy for installing the flap trays:

Having built those parts once I'm confident that it'll be easier to work adding the ribs and so forth with those parts installed first.

 

Hope you guys are keeping well and sorry for the lack ofregular correspondence these days.

 

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[corsaircorp]

Hello dear baron !

Seemingly, I missed some pages !

I'll caught up and reading !

Really interested, I found load of thing in my docs but not that article

and 2 other books that I need right now !

I must do my best for having my man attic soon !

Sincerely

CC

[bigbadbadge]

Great recovery Tony and home made too. Excellent.  Can't wait to see this progress fella. 

All the best 

Chris 

[bbudde]

Ok Tony, that sounds something like this:

Btw., great as usual here. Cheers from a now arriving stormy autumn here. Cheers

[giemme]

That was quite an update, Tony!

 

Very effective brass job

 

Ciao

[Terry1954]

Just caught up on all this since being back from vacation. Looking good.

 

This thread had me reflecting on how our hobby has evolved incredibly. I can't recall exactly when I first built my original Airfix Anson, but it must have been during the early/mid sixties. I was barely ten years old. I could never have imagined the concept of etched brass, resin engines nor the plethora of tools and aftermarket parts and materials we now have at our disposal. I recall my first use of "plastic card" was adapted from internal plastic trays taken from some expensive biscuits my Mum had got in for visitors! Then when I got my first bicycle, I was able to cycle over to BMW Models in Haydon's road Wimbledon and actually buy plastic card for real! That shop became an Aladin's cave for dedicated modellers as you could buy almost anything model related, and any brand - actually very little by todays standards.

 

A great choice of subject Tony, as many have already said, and its doing wonders for my nostalgia trip!

 

Terry

[hendie]

a very respectable brass flap fettling there. 

[The Spadgent]

Great work kid. Hope the weekend is a nice respite from work side duties.

 

Johnny 

[CedB]

Nice work Tony - come back soon and I hope the work's not too arduous  

[keefr22]

8 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I was able to cycle over to BMW Models in Haydon's road Wimbledon and actually buy plastic card for real!

 

But who needed plastic card Terry, when there was a brand new Airfix kit to buy just about every week?! I would never have considered 'wasting' any of my pocket money on plastic card (even if I had known what it was!) 

 

Cracking update Tony with excellent brass improvisation - she's going to be a jazzy Annie... (sorry)

 

Keith

[TheBaron]

15 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

I must do my best for having my man attic soon !

Cool.

Speaking of which Cc: will it have a bottle rack in it for the necessaries?

That man seems to own a beer mine.

I had no idea....

15 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Can't wait to see this progress fella. 

I hope that you're a patient man Chris. 😸

13 hours ago, bbudde said:

that sounds something like this:

12 hours ago, giemme said:

That was quite an update, Tony!

 

Very effective brass job

Thanks Giorgio - I was getting withdrawl symptoms!

12 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Just caught up on all this since being back from vacation. Looking good.

 

This thread had me reflecting on how our hobby has evolved incredibly. I can't recall exactly when I first built my original Airfix Anson, but it must have been during the early/mid sixties. I was barely ten years old. I could never have imagined the concept of etched brass, resin engines nor the plethora of tools and aftermarket parts and materials we now have at our disposal. I recall my first use of "plastic card" was adapted from internal plastic trays taken from some expensive biscuits my Mum had got in for visitors! Then when I got my first bicycle, I was able to cycle over to BMW Models in Haydon's road Wimbledon and actually buy plastic card for real! That shop became an Aladin's cave for dedicated modellers as you could buy almost anything model related, and any brand - actually very little by todays standards.

 

A great choice of subject Tony, as many have already said, and its doing wonders for my nostalgia trip!

Glad you're back safe Terry and hope it was a good break.

 

Wimbledon?

 

It would have been just over a decade later and just down the A3 from you that I used to frequent 'Hook Cycles & Radio' down at the Hook roundabout past Tolworth. Not that he ever stocked bikes. Or indeed radios. Only models. Lots of lovely models from Britain's soldiers to big and unfeasibly (for a 13-year old out of his mind on sugary Slush Puppies) affordable aircraft. The owner used to look at us youngsters in that benevolent way that psychopaths have of surveying a crowd of people at the full moon....

12 hours ago, hendie said:

a very respectable brass flap fettling there. 

Ta hendie.

Next payday I need to add to the brass stocks though with a bigger range of thicknesses. I doubt I'll be really satisfied until there's enough in the house to outfit a life-size tramp steamer.

11 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Great work kid. Hope the weekend is a nice respite from work side duties.

You can bet that I'm planning on it Johnny. Worst part of it at the moment is having to spend Sunday mornings prepping for the week ahead, but at least there is Mexican and Middle Eastern food to salavage the moment.

3 hours ago, CedB said:

Nice work Tony - come back soon and I hope the work's not too arduous  

Thanks Ced.

The mink of human kindness.

3 hours ago, keefr22 said:

I would never have considered 'wasting' any of my pocket money on plastic card

I must admit to being similarly inclined Keith.

The box art on plastic sheets was just never that enticing compared to the drama of Airfix's.

Only so many ways to make a white square look attactive to callow youth.

 

After a bit of a restorative lay-in this morning I was anxious to see how the flap trays had glued (I'm one of those unfortunate people who always imagine that the glued parts have shifted tectonically overnight, no matter how tightly you've clamped and taped them):

Thus reassurred I filed down any proud edges on the brass to bring them flush with the wings surfaces. I had made a classic error when measuring the new flaps in not allowing for the extra thickness of the brass sheet (compared to that of the original etch parts) which resulted in the inboard edge of the flap trays being about 0.5mm too proud and stopping the wings mating flush with the fuselage. These were filed down to correct this.

 

Due to the extra length of the flaps there is also an new recess on the upper surface of the wings to take care of:

You're probably wondering about the tape along the leading edge and masking over the fuel tanks at this stage of things. Those areas are fine but in dealing with the fictitious rib detailing of the wings I'd decided to use Milliput to level-out the troughs, as it were:

As you can see my fetish regarding the fine-blend Milliput continues unabated. Airfix rather thoughfully moulded the trough regions with a nice texture that provides excellent microsurfaces for keying the filler:

Looks a bit like well-weathered winter camouflage I'll grant you but this is just the first step. 

 

Of course the Milliput (like any sticky paste) has a proclivity to slide around on flat surfaces making it tricky to spread it out. The easiest way I found to counter this tendency in the material was to press and smear it out across the surface with a thumb, brush it with water and then gently draw a scalpel across the surface to shave/smear it flatter. The ribs make a useful height gauge also when they start to show through. You can see the new flap recess filled at this stage as well.

 

No point trying to get that nice and flat all in one go so a pukka  SIHRSC/W&D session at a later stage to remove the lumps.

 

Hoping for a weekend that feels like this:

Tony

 

 

 

[Terry1954]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Glad you're back safe Terry and hope it was a good break.

 

Wimbledon?

 

It would have been just over a decade later and just down the A3 from you that I used to frequent 'Hook Cycles & Radio' down at the Hook roundabout past Tolworth.

Thanks Tony, the trip was very enjoyable. I like Canada a lot!

 

Yes, I actually lived in Croydon back then, so almost due east of the Tolworth area, but not that far. I never had the pleasure of knowing Hook Cycles and Radio, but it sounds so familiar of that era!

 

Terry