Back to the Mountains of Madness - Part 1 Complete!

[billn53]

40 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

I just caught up with this and was about to mention the size of the fasteners, but you beat me to it, so I won't. 

Thanks, Ian. 

They're still larger than I would have liked, but they'll have to do. I really need to get past the engines so I can move on to other work. 

[Martian]

That is an extremely cunning plan for the exhausts!

 

Martian 👽

[VT Red Sox Fan]

@billn53--awesome--spent some time catching up--bottom line you are nailing this build!  

[billn53]

Tip to the wise: It is always a good idea to have a backup plan, in case your primary plan falls apart.

 

In my case, the plan that fell apart is this one:

 

 

 

I was able to build a manifold using my resin-cast jig,

 

 

but, I had absolutely no success matching the manifold up with the exhaust ports on my Wasp engine's cylinders. The problem, I believe, is that the cylinders may look to be equally spaced, etc. on my engines, but they are in fact off by a wee smidgen, thus each engine is unique. So, on to Plan "B" -- Glue the exhaust pipes directly to the cylinders' ports, aligning them as best as possible, and then "drop" the manifold ring on top of them.

 

Here's my trial run, using Gator Glue because of its slow setting time, and because I'm not really ready to install the exhaust manifolds yet (still lots of teeny, fiddly parts to install):

 

   

 

Much easier!

 

With a proven plan-ahead for doing the exhaust manifolds, I next focused on a strategy for installing the engines to the aircraft. I foresee the engines will be extremely fragile (I've already encountered loose cylinders from simple handling), so my goal is to safely store away the finished engines until my build is mostly complete, and then install the engines using some kind of simple, foolproof method.  Here is what I came up with:

 

First, I found some brass tubing with an inside diameter that matches the rear end of the engines (actually, the resin casting blocks for the engine hubs). I cut three sections of tubing -- one for the center engine, and two for the engine pods.

 

 

 

I intend to use Milliput to install the tubing into the engines pods and fuselage nose. Some surgery inside of the engine pods was needed to make room for the tubing (the fuselage nose is not a problem). Here's what it looks like dry-fitted to an engine pod:

 

 

And with one of my Wasp Junior's slipped into place:

 

 

 

That's all for tonight. This weekend I hope to finish off the three engines (still need to add the pushrods, intake tubing, spark plugs & wires, oil piping across & between cylinders, and the oil sumps) and, if I get all that done, build up & install the three exhaust manifolds.

 

Cheers!

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by billn53

[Marklo]

That Pratt & Whitney logo takes me back, started my career working for a division of same, mind all jet engines but still evocative.

 

Lovely work on the build so far.

[billn53]

E N G I N E S  A R E  D O N E ! ! !

 

Those Small Stuff engines nearly whupped my butt! It took the entire weekend, but I'm finally calling them finished. And, that's after taking some significant shortcuts.  Here's a brief rundown...

 

First, I knew all the teeny weeny pieces were just waiting to fly away, exceeding Earth's escape velocity and falling into the black hole known to us all as "The Carpet Monster", never to be seen again. So, to mitigate that as much as possible, I decided to do all my work inside a small box (the idea being that the box would catch most flyaway pieces).

 

 

My "capture box" was very successful. I don't think I lost more than three or four parts all weekend.

 

I began by doing a trial run with the rear of one of my engines. My rational was that any screw-ups probably wouldn't be visible after the engines are installed. First step: install the spark plugs and their resin "wires". Here's what a spark plug looks like after removing it from the resin base:

 

 

 

And, my collection of 1/72 spark plugs, enough for three engines (plus spares):

 

 

I improvised a tool to keep these little devils under control:

 

 

It took about an hour and a half to wire up the engine's rear end. Much of that time was spent cursing blue heavens. The result isn't especially pretty, as you can see here:

 

 

 

The "good" news is that, none of this work will be visible after the air intake pipes are installed:

 

 

Clearly, my sausage fingers and weak eyes just were not up to the task of dealing with work at this scale. I had to make some decisions... none of them came hard 🙂

 

DECISION NO. 1 -- Forego wiring the engines' rear end. This cut my work in half.

 

DECISION NO. 2 -- Forget about the sparkplugs, and instead run fine copper wire directly from the wiring manifold on the engine hub, to the sparkplug location on each cylinder. This, besides making the job much easier, had the side benefit of reducing my blood pressure by a couple dozen points.

 

With my new plan in place, work, although still tedious, proceeded forward without any major issues. Here are the completed engines (minus the exhaust manifold ring, which I will tackle later):

 

 

 

 

 

Till next time!

Edited January 7, 2019 by billn53

[corsaircorp]

Great engines Bill !!

Really great stuff !

Sincerely.

CC

[CedB]

Missing plugs - schmugs! Those engines look spectacular Bill  

Could you do us a favour? Put something in the photos for scale so that we can all see how good a job you're making of these tiny things.

[Max Headroom]

Holy handgrenade of Antioch! That exercise would test my eyesight and sanity. I’d give you a slap on the back but would be afraid that you’d drop the engines!!

 

Trevor the impressed

[billn53]

2 hours ago, CedB said:

Could you do us a favour? Put something in the photos for scale so that we can all see how good a job you're making of these tiny things.

 

Certainly!

 

 

 

By my count, each engine (even with my shortcuts) consists of 56 parts, so the engines far outnumber the rest of the kit. Maybe I should re-title my topic, "Three Wasp Juniors in a Ford Trimotor diorama" LOL

 

-Bill

Edited January 7, 2019 by billn53

[Brandy]

I love those engines. Even with your shortcuts they're spectacular, and will most certainly be the visual centerpiece of the finished model.

 

Ian

[Silenoz]

Nice work on these engines...

[Marklo]

As with the others I bow to your patience and skill, those engines are beautiful. Even in 1/48 I don't do sparkplugs  

[CedB]

2 hours ago, billn53 said:

Certainly!

Thanks Bill. OMG (as the youngsters say), they're even smaller than I thought!

Admirable 

[thorfinn]

On 1/5/2019 at 12:58 AM, billn53 said:

So, on to Plan "B" -- Glue the exhaust pipes directly to the cylinders' ports, aligning them as best as possible, and then "drop" the manifold ring on top of them.

Sounds like what I ended up doing with the kit part!

Your engines are works of art in themselves. I remain in awe.

[billn53]

4 minutes ago, thorfinn said:

Sounds like what I ended up doing with the kit part!

Your engines are works of art in themselves. I remain in awe.

I'm still tempted to add the oil lines that run across and between the cylinder tops. Small & fiddly, to be sure, but doable I suspect. Biggest problem with that idea is it might make the engines almost impossible to handle. 

[Marklo]

At the risk of being pedantic(totally out of character that ) the term OMG actually originated in wwi

[CedB]

Thanks Markio - so there is something we've taught the youngsters! Cool!  

[Andwil]

  Those engines are simply amazing.  Brilliant work.

 

AW

[Marklo]

Quote

Thanks Markio - so there is something we've taught the youngsters! Cool!  

It goes deeper than that, our grandfathers taught our fathers who taught us, who  taught the young ones 

Edited January 8, 2019 by Marklo

[CedB]

Crikey, first used in 1917! Who knew...

The suggestion that it's used as a new honour reminds me of the nicknames for the honours awarded to Civil Servants explained in 'Yes Minister':

Bernard: Well, take the Foreign Office. First you get the CMG, then the KCMG, then the GCMG; the Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, Knight Commander of St Michael and St George, Knight Grand Cross of St Michael and St George. Of course, in the Service, CMG stands for "Call Me God," and KCMG for "Kindly Call Me God."

Hacker: [chuckles] What does GCMG stand for?

Bernard: "God Calls Me God."

 

[billn53]

Exhaust manifold rings are now installed on the engines and rusted up. I'll add the rings' exhaust outlets after the engines have been installed onto the aircraft.

 

   

 

For the rust effect, I first painted the manifold with brown acrylic. This was followed with a mix of flat varnish and rust pigment powder. Finally, I lightly dusted the manifold with additional pigment powder while the varnish was still tacky. 

 

My next task will be to attach the engine pods beneath the wings. Everything I've heard is that it can be a big challenge to get everything properly aligned. 

Edited January 9, 2019 by billn53

[stevehnz]

Liking this a lot, some lovely detail work going on.

Steve.

[billn53]

Short update. I got my little brass-tube engine mounts installed and couldn't resist the temptation to do a test-fit:

 

 

 

 

I'm really liking how this is beginning to look, now.

 

Meanwhile, I've been cleaning flash and mold lines from the various struts that will connect the engine pods to the wings, and doing some pre-painting. We'll soon see how hard it will be to get the pods in place and correctly aligned.

 

 

Once that's finished, the major assembly will be complete, and all (all?) that I will have left is attaching the rudder & elevator, rigging the control lines, and a few "detail" items (landing & nav lights, pitot tube, etc.)

Edited January 11, 2019 by billn53

[Marklo]

Center engine looks wonderful. Aligning the pods looks like it will be the part of the build that makes the title of the thread make complete sense  and nothing to do with HP Lovecraft