giemme Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: Ships are actually much easier to display than aircraft models; they’re shelf-shaped! True. Or... ... the place where you stay at during the week: has it got a spare room? That you can maybe permanently flood? That would make for a heck of a diorama... Ciao 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted January 30, 2020 Author Share Posted January 30, 2020 (edited) OK. We have a prototype Swordfish: As you can see from that final shot, the upper wing is not glued - indeed, it will require a little more adjustment to the struts to get it to sit properly. None the less, the concept is proven; this is roughly what I had in my mind’s eye all along. This final picture shows what I have done: after the cabane struts from Tuesday had nicely cured (they are surprisingly robust, given that they are 0.2mm rod), I added 8 main struts from 0.4mm tube. I’m using tube because I have no rod, but I might even experiment with squeezing the tube in pliers to flatten it a bit. Alignment was achieved with the old jig, which gave a good visual indicator of angles. The final stage in this lunacy must again wait for complete curing of the glue; I am going to experiment with rigging it. I have two options; one is to use Uschi fine thread (which I use for ship rigging, and I have yards of the stuff) - however, it is not easy to manipulate in these tiny lengths, and it might be a bridge too far. The other option is to use 0.1mm nickel silver rod - as I have already done on the tail. When I started this, thread would definitely have been Plan A, but I am really pleased with the look of that tail, so rod might yet win the race. This particular airframe will not be used on the final model, because it spent a few seconds (a while ago!) inside my land-lady’s dog’s gob, emerging almost unscathed... but not quite; the tail fin is bent markedly to starboard. I will continue to use it for prototyping, therefore; still to be tried are thinner struts to connect the ailerons (0.3mm) and a torpedo sight (on the front of the cabane pyramid). Most important of all, once I’m happy with it I will remove the rigging and use it to build the final jig. It is not completely impossible that I might have a go at some slats on the top wing, too; I have a cunning plan! For the eventual Stringbag production line I need to carefully work out the order in which to build; when to paint what, which glue to use where, and so on - I really do not want to be poking around any of this rigging malarkey with a paintbrush.... The final version cabane struts will be 0.3mm rather than 0.2mm, as here; it’s surprising how much visual difference that 0.1 of a mm makes, at least in real life. Also, I’ve done some fettling of the rear cockpit opening, which was the wrong shape & too narrow - again, surprising how much visual difference that has made. Finally, I am close to finishing some custom decals for the fuselages; the Merit wing roundels are fine, but the fuselage ones are the wrong type, and anyway I reckon some wee side numbers ought to be possible. None the less, it is always a nice feeling when something you thought you might try actually turns out to be feasible, and even to look approximately how you thought it would. I know this is craziness, but it’s been a lot of fun - and besides, these 15 aircraft are going to be one of the main focal points of the entire model; might as well get them looking good. More next week Crisp Edited January 30, 2020 by Ex-FAAWAFU 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 Very nice Crisp An idea (perhaps mad) would be to stick some 0.1mm rod in the tube and squish it so you get the aerofoil profile? Mind you, at this scale, that might lead to madness… 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 10 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: these 15 aircraft are going to be one of the main focal points of the entire model; might as well get them looking good. And I'm sure you will. Mind you, your test mule looks already very good to me - and if it weren't for the Gator's Grip bottle in the background, I'd have taken it for a much bigger scale! Ciao 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 (edited) Thank you, Giorgio. Swift update: after I’d posted last night I managed another 30 mins or so at the bench, so I tried a bit of rigging. As I suspected, handling Uschi line in these tiny lengths is fraught with frustration & the risk of knocking over the stuff you’ve done so far. 0.1mm nickel-silver rod, on the other hand, is a relative doddle, not least because you can hold it in the middle wih tweezers while gluing at either end - try doing that with a piece of thread 1cm long! It’s only a single test wire, but I reckon it looks good. All hail Rodney, the extremely thin future of teeny-tiny bi-planes. Edited January 31, 2020 by Ex-FAAWAFU 23 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coors54 Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 Wibble....... I am currently wrangling some Pontos 1/350 brass and I cannot believe your Zen like powers with such tiny parts, I am worrying for my sight and sanity! When I get a problem or frustrated I now walk away, take a breath and say "What would Crisp do?" Seems to work. Inspiring stuff that man! 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 In that case you’ve pretty much nailed it: take a breath & walk away is exactly what Crisp does when I get frustrated. Frustration & thin brass should not be allowed to mix! Besides, why do you think my builds take so long? 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 That Swordfish is absolutely stunning Crisp, I look forward to seeing the entire air group assembled. Martian 👽 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted February 1, 2020 Share Posted February 1, 2020 Seconded! With knobs on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 Committed now; all the “Merit cabane plugs” have been removed, and the production line has commenced: 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 I thought you said you had to do 14 Stringbags - is my memory failing? (Again..?) Ciao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 No, your memory is fine - but they are two different colour schemes, so I’m doing them in batches. 15 in total, eventually 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) OK, @giemme, just for you: All have had their (very overscale) moulded tailwheel removed, the locating slot for the Merit cabane plug filled, and the Observer / TAG cockpit reshaped, thus - to be sanded tomorrow. Two of the strike aircraft had the long-range tank fitted (& thus flew with only 2 crew), so they have now been started - a bit of tidying to be done when dry. More soon Crisp Edited February 3, 2020 by Ex-FAAWAFU 16 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giemme Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 Impressive! Ciao 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry1954 Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 Most impressive indeed. They will look splendid on the deck. Are you planning to finish them all off complete with paint and markings before returning to more of the ship construction? Can you feel my excited anticipation! Terry 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harley John Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 Wow! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 17 minutes ago, Terry1954 said: Most impressive indeed. They will look splendid on the deck. Are you planning to finish them all off complete with paint and markings before returning to more of the ship construction? Can you feel my excited anticipation! Probably not all the way yet, no - because I still need to finish designing the custom transfers (Merit / Trumpy’s are not exactly great - wrong type of roundel, out of register). However, I’ll take them a fair way yet; drilled for cabane struts, exhausts added, oil coolers fitted, primed, lower wings prepared for struts, engines fitted. If by then the transfers are done, I’ll keep going - but it’s not like I don’t have a thousand other bits to work on! I have to do the transfers before fitting stuff like the horizontal tails (because the tails have wires over the top of fin flashes), and the prototype has taught me that fitting the tail too early makes it very hard to hold the model while working on the wings! I also haven’t yet finished prototyping - particularly the undercarriage; Merit’s is very flimsy and i do not trust it. So still a lot to do, and sooner or later I’ll hit a bump that needs thinking about - at which point, knowing the way I work, I will probably pick up the island again or start on the port side. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 Impressive. Great work Crisp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 On 30/01/2020 at 12:38, giemme said: True. Or... ... the place where you stay at during the week: has it got a spare room? That you can maybe permanently flood? That would make for a heck of a diorama... Ciao Might be a bit difficult transporting it to Telford though. Martian 👽 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 4, 2020 Author Share Posted February 4, 2020 (edited) Swordfish development continues: this evening a test run on the Merit undercarriage, added brass windscreen (courtesy of Tetra) and home-made exhaust (0.6mm brass tube). [As it happens, this is one of the long range tank aircraft. I have cleaned up the tank a bit, too.]. Edit: I am particularly chuffed with the exhaust pipe. Having worked out how to build it safely, I might have been premature in dismissing the Merit undercarriage - at least, the legs aren’t too bad; the wheels might need some work. The angle isn’t quite right, but that’s OK because we’re lacking a tailwheel at the moment. More soon Crisp Edited February 5, 2020 by Ex-FAAWAFU 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 I like the rotation from ship to aircraft and so forth here Crisp - lovely to see the contrasting challenges of structure being resolved. Doing a search through library catalogues at work for something entirely unrelated during the week and thought of you when this popped up in a publisher's listing - wondered if you were aware of it: https://www.routledge.com/The-Royal-Navy-in-the-Falklands-Conflict-and-the-Gulf-War-Culture-and/Finlan/p/book/9780714685694 The culture angle your home territory of course but wonder what conclusions and how valid that the author draws from it... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 4, 2020 Author Share Posted February 4, 2020 (edited) That’s a new title on me, Tony - but the synopsis tells me absolutely nothing: “this book suggests that institutional culture can account for a great deal of the activities and rationale of the Royal Navy”. In other news, the book also postulates the theories that some bears might occasionally defecate in forested areas, and that the man with the red socks in the Vatican might not be Lutheran. Of course the culture accounts for a lot of the organisation’s activities; isn’t that kind of what ‘culture’ means? Besides, why would I trust a writer who cannot spell the word ‘separate’ [”seperate”, apparently]? Of course, it might be excellent. At £120 for the hardback, that’s not something I’m likely to be exploring in full... P.S. There are a number of excellent books about the Falklands, but if you read only one make it Hugh Bicheno’s “Razor’s Edge”. Edited February 4, 2020 by Ex-FAAWAFU 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: At £120 for the hardback That's defence procurement for you.... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritag Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 On 1/23/2020 at 11:48 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said: True, I could. If I asked nicely, I might even persuade one of the home-brew PE alchemists on here [@Fritag ears burning, no doubt] to etch them for me. T’would be an honour to have even a teensy tangential involvement in this captivating Crisp construction (would even promise to fit it in between ski trips....) 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 5, 2020 Author Share Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) 58 minutes ago, TheBaron said: That's defence procurement for you.... Struth; if the book was commissioned under defence procurement rules, then I assume it was 4 years late, is missing [sorry, “fitted for, but not with”] at least 1 critical chapter, and will continue to cost us money long after it has been read and recycled as fertiliser. Incidentally... <rant on>... I recently watched the ‘Fighter Pilot’ fly-on-the-wall series. All good clean fun, but one thing really brought me up short; one of the RN students at Valley (i.e. on the Hawk, so not even at the end of the training pipeline) had been in the Navy for EIGHT YEARS. And this was not even someone like me who was a converted seaman officer. The flying training pipeline has become unbelievably sclerotic. By the time I’d been in the RN for 8 years, I had fought in a war, qualified as an Ocean Navigator & Bridge Watchkeeper, served in 3 ships, done my entire flying training from soup to nuts, completed a front line tour on Sea Kings, and almost finished my Lynx conversion. These poor b*stards must have spent aeons on tedious, menial hold-overs, gradually losing the will to live. I know things are different nowadays and old gits like me have been fulminating for centuries about how the modern version is rubbish... but I also know of two sons of Naval contemporaries of mine who got so fed up with waiting for Crapita to get their act together during recruitment that they gave up and went to work somewhere else. Cough. <rant off> 47 minutes ago, Fritag said: T’would be an honour to have even a teensy tangential involvement in this captivating Crisp construction (would even promise to fit it in between ski trips....) That you, Herr Klammer; that’s most kind... but as it happens I have stumbled on / perfected [delete to taste] a method that doesn’t involve PE. I have even had a thought about how I can depict the 2 airframes in the attack that were fitted with ASV... Pip pip, everyone Crisp [Incidentally, I understand that venturing into the maritime areas of BM is distinctly outside the comfort zone of several of my friends (Steve, Bill, Ced...) - which means that it’s fairly likely that you won’t have ventured into wooden Tudor warships. If I am right in that hunch, I commend a few minutes reading the other BM Ark Royal build that’s going on at present, namely Ark 1 c.1587. Some of the painting skill on display in there is jaw-dropping. We can all learn from each other!] Edited February 5, 2020 by Ex-FAAWAFU 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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