Putty Animal Posted May 31, 2019 Author Share Posted May 31, 2019 On 28/05/2019 at 19:52, Marklo said: Tail booms, correct me if I'm wrong have a compound angle and would be nigh on impossible without a jig and some clever model engineering. That's true. I've plotted some templates in photoshop so that I can work out the true length of each boom and the location points for each strut. If I do my math right and the wings assemble at the correct heights the whole lot should go together pretty well. In theory anyway... This weekend I'll be attempting to cut my own masks and spray the cockades on the upper wing. My plan-B fell through, where I had attempted to source the correct size roundels from a Valom 1/144 scale Bristol Fighter which I ordered on ebay. After a week or so the seller contacted me and said velly solly, there seems to be a problem with the decals. They sent a picture of the decal sheet and sure enough, the cockades I wanted were smeared and peeling. What's more, it was the last Biff they had. There was a silver lining of sorts however, as I could see from the photos that the blue of the roundels was the later dark colour, and therefore not quite right for the FE2b after all. It looked like masking would be my only man, as Flann O'Brien would say. The roundels are going to be the most prominent thing on the model, so I have to get them nice and crisp, with no bleed and well within register. I've hatched a cunningly simple plan to make a non stick cutting surface, so I can peel each mask up without distorting them or removing any of the adhesive. I'm also preparing some custom made circle cutters for each radius. Hopefully good luck and careful planning will win the day. Although I must admit, its a very scary prospect! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putty Animal Posted June 2, 2019 Author Share Posted June 2, 2019 Phew! Got there in the end A couple of nights ago I made some circle cutters for each radius of the upper wing cockades. Initially I was lead to believe that that the Fe2, A857 had blue/white/red markings on the upper wings. However at the last minute I discovered that it actually had the narrow 2-inch white outlines around the outer edge. This information came via the volume 3, number 2, 1972 issue of Cross and Cockade journal which has three photos of the machine after it came down in hunland. The aircraft was brought down by none other than Werner Voss himself. Who I might add, gallantly strafed the pilot and observer for good measure... Wingnut Wings suggest that A857 should have plain cockades. However by importing one of the images into photoshop, I was able to fiddle with the contrast and levels until the ghost of a white ring appeared where the outside of the roundels would be. This was a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that I could get the right style of cockades (and steal the march on the big boys), but a curse in that I only discovered that after I'd just masked the blummin' things. Anyhow, I was now slightly stumped as to what to do. Then I had a moment of clarity and realised I could probably make up the markings with some blank decal film. The first thing was the circle cutters. These are made from some old engraving burs that had their tips sharpened to a point. I normally use these for scribing and often have some lying around. Superglued to each of these are some styrene spacers and a new Swann Morton 10A scalpel blade set at a bit of an angle. It takes some trial and error to get the exact width, but its worth the effort. I use these a bit like a compass as shown below, but put them in a pin vise so they are easier to twirl smoothly. I paid a quick visit to my local this morning, and managed to exit with a packet of plain white decal paper. The first cutter was used to do the outside circumference, and these went on pretty well. While that was setting I went out to the balcony and sprayed a bit of the white decal with some Humbrol 60 and a slightly lightened version of their 25 blue. Back inside, I let the decal sheet dry for a little while then cut the outer and inner rings for the blue portion to create two little donuts. I notice that the circle cutters do a smoother job of external rings than inner ones, so I'll have to try to solve that problem next time. The red dots were too small to cut, so these were die cut by sharpening the inside of a piece of 2.5mm brass rod until it was razor sharp and pressing it into the decal film. The red and blue bits were then applied over the white and jockeyed into position with a fine brush and some setting solution. 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAMP man Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 Oh Lordy, circular gorgeousness. Inspired tool fabrication with the mini cutters too. Box On Strickers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevejj Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 Really good job! Will you be making cuts where they cross the ailerons? I never know what to do about that, I've tried to cut and have left others with just an indentation. I still can't work out which is right All the best Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putty Animal Posted June 4, 2019 Author Share Posted June 4, 2019 On 02/06/2019 at 21:13, Stevejj said: Really good job! Will you be making cuts where they cross the ailerons? I never know what to do about that, I've tried to cut and have left others with just an indentation. I still can't work out which is right All the best Steve Oh you! You sent me on a mad scramble to check my references It looks like I should be okay with keeping them as they are. I will give the hinge line a wash of oils to shade them later, but thankfully won't have to cut them. The Fees that I as able to check had the cockades painted even in the vertical face of the hinge line. Phew! I have to wait until this coming Sunday to give the upper wing a protective squirt of clear. In the meantime I nervously added the first four struts to the lower wing and offered up the top wing for a test run. To my relief, three out of four struts settled into their location holes with ease, and the last one just required a nudge with the edge of my tweezers to drop into place. I've rehearsed that in my mind so many times over the last 18 months, I cant believe it finally happened. Wobbly handheld shots... 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 A work of art as usual. Even back then the Cockades were spray painted. ( I have a photo somewhere of a worker placing a mask down on the wing of a Sopwith) So you would probably get a certain of spray down into the gap. I got these for the express purposes of doing centres of cockades. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putty Animal Posted June 4, 2019 Author Share Posted June 4, 2019 This photo is quite interesting. Especially the aileron on the lower starboard wing. The white portion of the underwing roundel carries up the rear face of the wing spar, and the upper aileron shows up as fully white even at full deflection. Nice punches by the way Marklo! 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevejj Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 Great photo.....not where I'd choose to to park it though! I can see what you mean about the roundles I think in future I will indent and not cut. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted June 4, 2019 Share Posted June 4, 2019 I am later to this build than an especially sluggish person on a slow day in Tardytown... but boy was it worth it!? Some stunning skill, top tips, and really beautiful results. Wonderful. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putty Animal Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 Glad you came for a look! However for some reason I keep reading your name a ex-waifu 12 out of 16 struts now in place. Definitely need a drink after that. And perhaps a fine brush to touch up the base of the inner struts on the port wing... 😅 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonners Posted June 9, 2019 Share Posted June 9, 2019 Brilliant. Tiny, completely bonkers, but brilliant. I’m very impressed by the roundels, and the ingenious miniature circle cutter. For my own 1/144 scratchbuild efforts (which are far more crude and agricultural than this little gem) I went for the far easier option of ordering a couple of sets of the Miniscale ‘WW1 RFC and RNAS Roundels’ decals... Jon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted June 9, 2019 Share Posted June 9, 2019 So many things to learn from this remarkable build. Astonishing! Dennis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevejj Posted June 9, 2019 Share Posted June 9, 2019 What can I say. This just gets better and better. Museum quality and in such a small scale. Congratulations on the result so far can't wait for more Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 Found it. This is from my RAF between the wars book, or it may be the RFC during WWI hmm . Even then they were spray painting airframes. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 Great photo, @Marklo. Just look at the precision measuring tools in use there! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putty Animal Posted June 12, 2019 Author Share Posted June 12, 2019 What a great photo. Judging from the shape of the ailerons stacked against the wall, it looks like the photo was taken sometime in the interwar period. Apparently sometime before the rise of Britain's occupational health and safety laws. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted June 13, 2019 Share Posted June 13, 2019 Hmm, hard to say They could be off something like a Snipe or a Salamander either. Must check which book it came out of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevejj Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 Hi there is there any progress on this remarkable scratch built aircraft. I hope all is well All the best Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 2 hours ago, Stevejj said: Hi there is there any progress on this remarkable scratch built aircraft. I hope all is well All the best Steve Seconded! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 Thirded ! (if that's a word) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putty Animal Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 (edited) Sorry chaps for the lack of updates. The work on the booms is still going, although I admit I'm taking a small holiday from it after going at the Fee pretty solidly over the course of this year. I'm keen to get the little beast standing up on its undercarriage however so I will be able to show some more soon. Below are some pics of the booms so far. The jig has been handy in setting them up. The pilot holes have been drilled and temporarily pinned with straight lengths of .2mm wire to aid location. the two rearmost struts have been made and soldered into place. The .4mm tube that represents the spars has a vee of .2mm wire soldered into the ends where they meet. These help greatly with the alignment and will help locate the rudder post later on. I'm also using strips of thin styrene to act as spacers while I try to get everything precisely drilled and aligned. Once everything gets soldered together it should be pretty strong, but for now these are essential in getting it all together. So that's the Fe2. In the meantime while taking a breather I decided to try something a little less ephemeral and give it a playmate. This may or may not turn out to be a Pfalz D.IIIa one day: It was carved from 2 pieces of laminated styrene and whittled to shape. Also note the dummy Mercedes engine which was made from scratch. Here's a shot of it, just before I lost it to the carpet Mmmm bugger. Nevertheless I decided to push on. Canny readers will note the cutout for the Spandaus is appropriate for a D.IIIa, but the square-cut tailplane was for the earlier D.III version... Must do something about that. I was in two minds about the loss of the engine. On the one hand it was annoying, but on the other I wasn't 100% pleased with it anyway. As the blocks on top of the cylinders were a fraction too high and made the whole thing look funny when it was protruding from the upper cowling. So I went back to the drawing board and made another one. I think this should look a lot better. Edited July 28, 2019 by Putty Animal 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Nice to see this one back, especially pages #38 & #39 on your rib tape method. I tried something similar a year and more ago after seeing how Jumpe Temma did it on a 1/72 Bearcat. However, you have refined and improved the process a great deal and I will try it out on my M.33 wings with all credit to you. Exceptional craftsmanship on this build, and in 1/144. Really quite something. Dennis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putty Animal Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 Hi DMC, thanks very much! I'm glad the technique will be useful. Especially on a Macchi M.33 - that's one of my particular favourites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevejj Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 (edited) Nice to see you back. The booms look great and its little friend will im sure be just as impressive. All the best Steve Edited July 28, 2019 by Stevejj Posted to soon doh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Great work on the Fe2 and the Pfalz is looking rather smart too. Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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