Soldering a Tornado ladder, Flightpath 1/32

[Bughunter]

Some of you may known me more for biplanes, but sometime I'm doing also more modern models. After a search for something else I found this report on soldering a ladder some years ago:

I made something similar so I decided to show my build of that ladder here too.

Tornado Ladder, Flightpath 1/32

The kit:

Two manual pages:

One PE sheet and 3 x 1.0mm brass:

Soldering the steps.

8 steps done

View from top. The anti-slip covering is etched already.

For the remaining parts some PE needs to be soldered together. Rivets needs to be pressed through before!

Also the wheels are done with 3 PE, for centering I used a 0.8mm drill.

With solderingt you will get "one metal pieces", the 3 single PEs are no more visible.

The upper platform will be done in next update ...

 

Prepared for mounting:

Very clever idea: bending templates for the 1mm brass are etched into PE sheet.

The steps will be mounted in next update.

I hope you like my soldering work. The next update will follow soon.

Cheers,
Frank

[Bughunter]

Ladder completed

All steps are soldered from below:

Some struts are made from 0.8mm brass. It fits exactly into the holes, but was not part of the kit.
No, my ladder can not be folded

Some small parts are added too, here the "rubber" stand:

And the normal view:

The wheel housings. The wheels will be mounted after painting.

The handrails are bend from 1mm brass of the kit and have nearly the intended form:

The remaining rails are also bend and soldered:

A lot of work at all, and at some place hard to do, because there are 6 PE layers are together. That needs some soldering experience because of the needed heat - without destroying the other soldering points.
On the other hand it looks great - here mine in comparison to a picture in my Tornado book.

On the upper platform there is a rubber bulge to protect the aircraft.
I had some trouble, but later I noticed a wrongly bend part. I was able to recover it.

On the other side also a handrail, and a diagonal strut.

All three soldered PE parts creates a "rubber bulge":

Two very small PE parts closes the ends:

So far completed, with a lot of work.
Conclusion so far: like all other things from Flightpath very detailed, clever enginereed and well produced parts!

One example:

 

The next update will talk about the painting.

Cheers,
Frank

[Rogue.]

Hi Frank, that looks great. What kind of soldering iron are you using? Electric or a small gas pen type torch?

[Bughunter]

That soldering iron is a cheap 20W electrical one from do-it-yourself store. Important for me is a copper tip, which most of the controlled soldering stations do not have.

 

Cheers,

Frank

[Rogue.]

Thanks. I have the Flightpath A-10 ammunition loader and cart to build at some stage in the future to go along with an A-10 build. It's basically a box full of etch! 😬

[Bughunter]

Painting

To be able to scratch the paint later the ladder was tinned.

The wheels are painted and will be mounted with 0.8mm nickel silver pipe.

Painted with MRP orange yellow, the steps and the rubber bulge with Gunze tyre black. The yellow was scratched, some rust painted and a light wash with oil paint.

 

 

 

 

A picture in different light:

This beast is finished.

Cheers,
Frank

[DJPFlightpath]

On 07/04/2019 at 18:42, Rogue. said:

Thanks. I have the Flightpath A-10 ammunition loader and cart to build at some stage in the future to go along with an A-10 build. It's basically a box full of etch! 😬

Yes - with around fifty castings included.

 

David Parkins

Flightpath

[Rogue.]

1 hour ago, djparkins said:

Yes - with around fifty castings included.

 

Of course, looking forward to assembling it David 😁

[viper-30]

Very nice indeed 

[Bughunter]

On 4/9/2019 at 9:15 AM, djparkins said:

David Parkins

Flightpath

Oh, very nice to see, that the creator of this nice kit is watching

So this reminds the builder, to work carefully.

 

Thanks,

Frank