Listening to the Solstice

[rob85]

Staggering work as ever Tony, far too impressive for merger words. Wipers! Really?! 

 

Shes starting to look rather polished now (get it!) 

 

Rob

[perdu]

When I see you begin tidying up I become excited at the the knowledge that the best is yet to come

 

 

A brillmazing foiling lesson, cheers

[CedB]

Another Wow from me - great panelling Tony  

[bbudde]

On 9/21/2019 at 10:44 PM, TheBaron said:

Yesterday evening.

Last light before the Equinoxe.

 

Hello Tony, your Annie looks marvellous so far. The picture of the sunset reminds me somewhat of a song of the mid 80'

 

and of course Equinoxe on another part

 

Cheers Benedikt.

Edited September 30, 2019 by bbudde

[Hamden]

 

Anson's really coming together now, as always outstanding workmanship and attention to detail!

 

            Roger

[giemme]

15 hours ago, TheBaron said:

We're lucky to have a restaurant about a half hour drive away run by an Italian family and it's the best in the area by far.

Went on the Olive Marinati to start with followed by Tagliatelle Brasaoicola (sp?), all washed down with a long cold glass of Peroni. Yum! 😋

Sounds like you had a lot of fun!   I think it's Tagliatelle alla Boscaiola - there were mushrooms in it, right?

 

Brilliant job on the nacelles, almost shiny!   

  OK, I'll get my

[TheBaron]

20 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Ooh, shiny bits!

You must be a holy terror at Christmas putting your shiny balls on the  tree....

16 hours ago, rob85 said:

Staggering work as ever Tony, far too impressive for merger words. Wipers! Really?! 

 

Shes starting to look rather polished now (get it!) 

 

Rob

In the light of your kind comments Rob I'm prepared to overlook the 'polish' crack.

Elgar must be rotating in his Malvernian acre....

16 hours ago, perdu said:

A brillmazing foiling lesson, cheers

No sweat Bill but can anyone explain why foil is so damned satisfying?

It's beyond accounting for - watching Tomo do his Hart that time I just used to look at the page grinning with (obviously very manly, not at all fey &etc.) pleasure!

15 hours ago, CedB said:

great panelling Tony

Mersey Buckets Ced.

On the subject of pannelling, just passing this on as a thought about redecorating your spare room?

'The Buftonian'

(Obviously for the modeller judging by the thoughtful provision of those bench surrounds to the bed itself)

13 hours ago, bbudde said:

and of course Equinoxe on another part

Ahh Equinoxe.

Ethereal.

Coming out about the same time that Star Wars was released in the UK and Dr. Who comic in the shops there were moments back in the late 70s when it seemed that the much-delayed Space Age was  re-emerging around my 13 year old self.

Of course punk was prominently kicking the the doors in to remind us that a whitewashed technofuture free of politics was just naive and stupid when you looked at the society you actually lived in, rather than a moonbase fantasized about....

Nice links.

Thanks Ben.

7 hours ago, Hamden said:

Anson's really coming together now, as always outstanding workmanship and attention to detail!

Kind of you Roger. Thanks.

6 hours ago, giemme said:

Sounds like you had a lot of fun!   I think it's Tagliatelle alla Boscaiola - there were mushrooms in it, right?

You're absolutely correct Giorgio, it was.

(Sincere apologies for brutality done to your fine language. 🤦‍♂️)

Forgot to post this too yesterday - Vetebrod!

A sweet cardamom filled bread from Sweden that we're all addicted to  and that has largely replaced the concept of birthdays cakes in this house. 

Her making this delicacy is one of many reasons I worship Mrs. B.

(There were actually two loaves about 10 mins before that picture was taken... )

 

Working from home today. Sky been incredibly dark all morning and storm due to hit later this afternoon.

You can feel the claws of winter reaching out through the autumn on days like today.

 

Managed to squeeze in a few more tidying-up jobs on Annie over lunch (cheese&ham toastie, strong tea).

 

The cabin roof windows cleaned-up nicely. Very little residue to worry about from the thinned Gator's Grip and what there was rubbed nicely away with a moistened cotton bud:

What isn't too apparent from that OH view is the amount of damage that the gun mounting for the Vickers had received several months back when I'd managed to catch it with a cuff and wrenched it off completely, gun and all. In the early days it would have been head-in-hands-build-it-all-again time but experience has taught me how infinitely repairable brass can be - as well as how to use solder as both a filler and joining agent.

 

Before going there though, there were two matters to attend to.

 

First job was to add the reinforcing collar that lies around the fuselage opening that the AW turret fits into. This is another characteristic minor detail of the aircraft that needed clearer definition through adding a ring of foil:

You can see more clearly the damage to the gun arm in that  photograph too....

 

Second modification is also related to the rear armament where (as with similarly rear-armed aircraft like the Swordfish et. al) there is a longitudinal opening along the top of the fuselage to allow the gun to be pitched down inside the fuselage. On some Anson photos this slot  is clearly open, on others it appears to have be faired over with doped fabric just leaving the outline visible. I've no information to explain these variations or how N9945 may have looked in this respect so plumped for the faired-over appearance. To give me some kind of scale template I cannibalized scrap runner from the PE set (I think this was the one that held the control collumn part):

I then used a round-headed diamond birr in the Dremel to excavate a shallow trench along inside of that piece like so:

The guan arm and Vickers have as you can see been reinstated also. That part needed soldering at three distinct locations so to avoid heating the structure enough so that existing bits would drop of required some rapid 'touch & go' procedures with the iron on a cool setting with mere flakes of solder being melted into place. On the starboard side of that curved arm there was a gap of about 0.5mm due to the part having been so badly mangled but I was able to bridge this successfully by sculpting a blob of solder along with the merest of touches each time until it dragged out into a tube shape of matching diameter to the brass of the arm on either side of the gap. The gun moun ting also got a lick of fresh paint, though this time some Sky Blue rather than Black, which looks more slightly more convincing for those dark structures at this scale.

 

Before plonking the protective dome back over the top of that I had to plonk the actual AW on to make sure the repaired gun mounting still fitted:

Seemed to be Ok so another job to mark off the snag sheet.

 

Later Alligators.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[perdu]

Oh...

 

Oh I dunno, pick yer own superlatives

 

Three bob a dozen!

 

Words fail

[CedB]

Amazing… bedroom - and the model's not bad either  

Oh, OK, the work on the rear end is, as usual, impressive. Good job matey.

[giemme]

You clearly use solder like normal people use paint and brushes. Amazing    

 

Ciao

[hendie]

I gotta say, modeling up to usual standards. Check.

Humor up to usual standards. Check.

 

but that bread looks absolutely amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

I say! When were you taking pictures in our East wing? Bounder!

However, You're forgiven for the Anson work. Spiffing.

Here's a thought, bread by post. It's the future!

[Spookytooth]

All very fine work there Tony.

Bread looked scrumptious.

 

Simon.

[Brandy]

I still have trouble accepting that this is the one true scale each time I see pics such as that turret back in place!

Annie is surely looking beautifulerer and beautifulerer! ("Annie" was also my high school French teacher, and that turret does bear a certain resemblance....😉)

 

Ian

[perdu]

3 hours ago, limeypilot said:

("Annie" was also my high school French teacher, and that turret does bear a certain resemblance....😉)

Armoured, corseted bulgy bits perhaps?

[pheonix]

Just dropping by again Tony to see if you have got to the painting stage yet....

 

I never cease to be amazed gobsmacked at the amount of tiny detail that you put into your models. I am in agreement with an earlier comment by The Spadgent that it would be quicker to throw the kit away and just build one from scratch, but I know that you think differently.

 

Offering a deep bow even before you put the paint on.

 

P

[AdrianMF]

It’s looking good for sure....

 

Would look better with a lick of paint, hint-hint!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[TheBaron]

On 9/30/2019 at 2:49 PM, perdu said:

Words fail

Please feel free to express yourself through the medium of modern interpretive dance instead Bill! 🕺🙌

On 9/30/2019 at 2:57 PM, CedB said:

Amazing… bedroom - and the model's not bad either

Ta Ced.

That bedroom was actually the pilot's berth on the Sunderland you know: better sharpen up your wood effect skills! 🖌️

On 9/30/2019 at 4:25 PM, giemme said:

You clearly use solder like normal people use paint and brushes.

As a result we have very shiny walls in our house G!

On 9/30/2019 at 5:20 PM, hendie said:

but that bread looks absolutely amazing!

On 9/30/2019 at 8:12 PM, Spookytooth said:

Bread looked scrumptious.

The older I get the more primal and satisfying fresh bread seems.

You can't call the pre-packaged keep-for-three-months supermarket loaves bread at all.

(Except for the cheap white rubbery loaves of the kind you used to get in transport cafes and which are - of course and without brooking any argument on the matter -  irreplaceable for the humble bacon sandwich)

On 9/30/2019 at 6:27 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

bread by post. It's the future!

(Don't tell that over-remunerated mantesticle Bezos though Pete)

On 10/1/2019 at 5:42 PM, limeypilot said:

"Annie" was also my high school French teacher, and that turret does bear a certain resemblance.

Both manually operated Ian?

On 10/2/2019 at 11:11 PM, pheonix said:

Offering a deep bow even before you put the paint on.

On 10/3/2019 at 6:57 AM, AdrianMF said:

Would look better with a lick of paint

Oh God...you had to mention paint didn't you!

(Thanks for the kind sentiments as always chaps)

 

Busy week and an equally busy Saturday taking the eldest to look at university courses so this morning was the first opportunity to really pull a shift at the bench to work some further items off of the snag list.

 

We're really down to the last few bits at this point and try as I might, pigmentation looms.

 

Let's see what got ticked-off today then.

 

Started out with a comedy of errors in moulding some 'bumps' for the fuel tanks. Not sure what they cover exactly but they sit outboard of the access panels I'd added previously from foil. I'd made a basic teardrop blank by shaping some scrap plastic (actually another repurposing of an undercarriage strut from the Iron Chicken) and jabbed this into some plasticine to some moulds:

Having mixed and poured some resin into those and waited 30 mins without it curing I assumed that as the resin mixtures were about 18 months old, we were well past their use by day so started again and tried moulding from straight CA. The results were so ghastly that I abandoned the process and went on to further jobs. About 2 hours after this fiasco I noticed that the waste resin I'd poured away had set very nicely in the wastepaper bin! 😂

 

Mix a fresh batch. 2 hrs. later it cures and we have sufficient fairing to be able to pick the best examples from and add in a later session:

I'm so inexperienced with resin. Does it take longer to cure as the ingredients age? It says on the bottles:

  - a shelf life of only 6 months.

 

In and around this little performance I realized I'd neglected to make thus far the transparent cover for the landing lights and channelled my inner @perdu with a  straightforward plunge mould of said item using scrap PET onthe corresponding section of the opposing wing:

This was then measured against the opening, the outlines scored-on and then my goto for jobs like this, the heated scalpel blade:

I find this gives nice cleans cuts v. rapidly and without any of the torn edges that my clumsy sawing off of the part would leave.

 

A few licks of the file to finesse it in and:

Another item off the list.

 

In anticipation of paint I'd also intended cutting a new set of masks for the cabin windows but was somewhat disgruntled to find that on my usual settings for Orasmask, a mangled set of outlines emerged from the blade:

'orrid.

 

Usual culprit for such a mess would be materials residues on the blade which - as I'd been cutting foil a lot in the previous session - might have left adhesive and foil clinging to the cutting tip. I removed the blade and gave it a good clean yet got an identical result.

Head-scratch time.

Eventually, checking the software settings revealed that the outputs had been inadvertently (i.e. me!) been set to those for a Cameo (rather than the Silhouette) at some point. It must differ greatly in pressure and sensitivity as returning to the Silhouette setting all was back to normal crispness:

I'll stick those on when I'm less tired than today.

 

Also needing attention were the aileron operators:

There's two on each aileron paired upper and lower, with the upper ones having a prominent mass balance on the end:

Originally I'd intended soldering these to the aileron but as you can see, after trimming these to the correct height you can see that they fit nicely enough into the corresponding recess in the trailing edge of the wing so I'm just going to epoxy these in after paint. The actual control lines I might make from stretched sprue or hair to give me something thinner than the EZ-line and fishing line I have at this scale.

 

The lower operators though fit flush on to the underside of the aileron and so this was definitely a job that required soldering for strength:

As with many features on the Anson, these are too distinctive to skip:

The ailerons with these attached will be painted separately and added after the colouring-in is finished. I'm going to adopt a similar method for the flap trays. These will only have their final detailing added and be painted once the bulk of the painting is done, for similar reasons due to the likelihood of breaking-off all those fiddly little PE parts.

 

Off for a read of this:

and an afternoon kip now whilst a beef variant of a Tamatar Gosht bubbles to fruition in the slow cooker:

Parathas may be implied....😁

Thanks for stopping by.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

[Brandy]

Nice little bit of "Billing" there. One thing I've been putting off on the Battle too, although I did take a brief look the other day to see if the kit blobs could be made to fit.

 

Ian

[hendie]

call me irresponsible with a chemistry set but shouldn't there be some form of light/lamp/candelabra in there ?

 

14 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

 

 

very nice job of trimming and fitting.  Must try that heated blade trick sometime.

 

 

16 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

I'm so inexperienced with resin. Does it take longer to cure as the ingredients age? I

 

It has a limited shelf life as does the silicone rubber for molding (I think I pointed this out in a recent thread that I can't be bothered to look for, somewhere near here). I had bought silicone and resin so I would have it for future use (not realizing this of course).  The silicone had gone solid, even without the use of accelerator, but the resin, even although it was well past the use by date behaved flawlessly.  I certainly didn't notice any time difference in curing - the resin I have sets in about 3 or 4 minutes and can be demolded in around 15 - 30 minutes depending upon part geometry

 

 

Okay, first it was bread, and now this....

 

22 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

whilst a beef variant of a Tamatar Gosht bubbles to fruition in the slow cooker:

 

you're on a mission aren't you?   Dammit, even the color is making me hungry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[giemme]

Hot blade, there's an idea! Thanks for mentioning it, Tony

 

Excellent micro-smithery as ever

 

I couldn't help but noticing that you often mentioned "coloring" and "painting" in your last post. Getting closer to the moment, aren't you?

 

Ciao

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Tony I hope you are well  I am again sorry for not being around, but have been doing a couple of GBs and available time has not been on my side what with the house and work etc. 

Annie is looking great, the foiling is lovely and the landing light cover is brilliant.

Great work fella.

 

All the best

Chris

[Spookytooth]

What time is supper?

 

Nice going again on sorting out those snags.

 

Paint.

 

Simon.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

6 hours ago, TheBaron said:

 

Tony is clearly no longer content with using a mere cutting mat like the rest of us.  He finesses his advanced brass origami by balancing it on a passing hard drive.  

 

Classy.

[The Spadgent]

Wonderful yet again. Curry and bread too. 😛 I’m getting hungry and I’ve eaten soo much.  You have built a light to go in the wing bit though. I don’t know why I’m asking because I know you have. It probably lights up and everything. 😇

 

Johnny.