Sea Vixen FAW.1x2

[bigbadbadge]

Very nice hinge work Tony.

All the best

Chris

[Brandy]

Wot Giorgio said!

Sublime, Tony, those stairs look great!

 

The wing fold looks pretty bloody impressive too! 😁

 

Ian

[71chally]

Ye gads! You'll be animating this next.

 

But, producing offspring and letting them grow up to take on the DIY, that's just ruddy genius! 

Inspiring stuff, about half way through the process!

[The Spadgent]

You’ve come a long way since that little hinge from and old pair of spectacles. Same CrAzy bonkers different process. Lovely work Tony. Good job on the stairs too. 🙌

 

Johnny

[Gondor44]

Always a good ploy saying a project will be finished by Christmas, just as long as you don't say which Christmas

 

Gondor

[hendie]

9 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Anyway, I emerged from some of those earlier wrong turnings clutching one of these:

 

an extremely rude looking little robot?   

 

 

Sorry, the lock down is finally getting to me

 

 

Lovely hinge-ery and assorted fixings.  I can't wait to see some of these parts in print.  I think you'll have your work cut out making all those fine pivot joints without an occasional break or two, but that's all part of the fun, isn't it?

[keefr22]

10 hours ago, TheBaron said:

finally see the comet in the NW sky:

 

Thanks for the reminder Tony, I'd completely forgottn about it - just come in from spending an hour or so looking for, and finally finding it, thanks to NASA's directions! I only have a cheap pair of bins so it was a bit dimmer than your pic, but still magical to see. And quite incredible how something that actually does very little can be quite so fascinating to watch, and difficult to actually stop watching!

 

Keith

[Andwil]

Amazing work on the hinges, that’s going to look fantastic.  Stairs look good too, but purple carpet?

 

I’d take advantage of our current run of clear, but frosty, nights too look for the comet but if it’s in the north west for you I guess it’s not going to be visible down here.  What lens did you use for the photo?

 

AW

[CedB]

More stunning Baroning on the hinges Tony - spectacular!  

[perdu]

Brilliant hinge-ing, verging on the impossible probably.

I recall countless, count 'em go on count 'em, attempts at getting the pushypull squeezsy upwards link to look as if it could on mine.

 

Maybe I should have Baron Enterprises print me a pair of new ones to pop into the fold on my Froglet ...

 

I (living surrounded by houses and big trees has only one virtue, the pub is handy...) spent a shivery hour last night hoping to see the mysterious visitor.

 

Failed miserably and knew that I should have taken my coat, tee shirts are no attire for 72 year old codgers around 2300 hrs, even in July

 

An old geezer wandering the streets hoping for a view of sky uncluttered by streetlighting?  Sad, awfully sad sight.

 

Tony, Keith where (in relation to the Plough) did it appear eventually and at what time, a few minutes of separation should help guide me if we get a decent night again.

 

Help...

[keefr22]

5 hours ago, perdu said:

where (in relation to the Plough) did it appear eventually and at what time, a few minutes of separation should help guide me if we get a decent night again.

 

 

 

Bill - there are two other bright stars to the right of the top 'Pointer'. Neowise appeared (to my position anyway) about midway between those two and the upper pointer - but below that latter star. The Big Dipper (or Plough) appeared to me to be more WNW rather than NW as stated by NASA and was quite high in the sky. We are also surrounded by houses and high trees and I was able to see it OK from the back garden. I couldn't see it with the naked eye though and only found it by scanning with the bins. I agree about the T-shirt, I had to come back in after 10 minutes or so and put a jumper on!

 

Keith

 

Edit - sorry I forgot about the time. Not sure exactly, NASA said you can see it just after sunset (21.22 here yesterday) - I couldn't until it got properly dark, but didn't know where exactly to look until the Dipper appeared and then it was just about properly dark. I watched it for about half an hour and came in at 22.40 so probably first saw it sometime around 10.

[perdu]

Thanks Keith possibly about the same time frame as me but if we need to be looking somewhat uphill of the pointers I was scanning entirely the wrong place

 

could even have stayed at home and waited for enough dark to settle.

 

It seemed to take an age before the day brightness faded

 

If it 'de-clouds' enough tonight I will have another  go, cheers

[TheBaron]

On 7/19/2020 at 1:56 PM, giemme said:

Wingfold art deployed here!

 

On 7/19/2020 at 2:44 PM, bigbadbadge said:

Very nice hinge work Tony.

Thanks Giorgio & Chris!    It'll soon be time for another test print on these smallest parts, this time using longer exposure settings to see how fine the process can be pushed...

On 7/19/2020 at 3:14 PM, Brandy said:

Sublime, Tony, those stairs look great!

 

The wing fold looks pretty bloody impressive too!

Ta Ian. Important not to get the scales confused however! 😁

On 7/19/2020 at 4:12 PM, 71chally said:

But, producing offspring and letting them grow up to take on the DIY, that's just ruddy genius!

I'm not one to deprive my lads of an opportunity to hone their skills James. It only looks like procrastination.....

22 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

You’ve come a long way since that little hinge from and old pair of spectacles.

I cringe looking back at the crudity of my work then tbh....

18 hours ago, Gondor44 said:

Always a good ploy saying a project will be finished by Christmas, just as long as you don't say which Christmas

In an emergency, switching to the cyclic existence of Buddhism means you can always sigh ruefully and say 'I'll get it next time round...' 😁

18 hours ago, hendie said:

an extremely rude looking little robot?   

18 hours ago, hendie said:

I think you'll have your work cut out making all those fine pivot joints without an occasional break or two, but that's all part of the fun, isn't it?

 

8 hours ago, perdu said:

Brilliant hinge-ing, verging on the impossible probably.

It will be 'interesting' to say the least to see how far material properties can be pushed in this regard Alan & Bill - I'm expecting a number of 'issues' to need adjustment/rethinking but always believe in chancing the arm to feel for where the edge of a process lies....👨‍💻

18 hours ago, keefr22 said:

just come in from spending an hour or so looking for, and finally finding it,

That's brilliant Keith - I'm so glad you got to witness the spectacle! 🔭☄️

18 hours ago, keefr22 said:

And quite incredible how something that actually does very little can be quite so fascinating to watch, and difficult to actually stop watching!

Agreed! 😁 Out last night with Mrs. B, the lads and a flask of coffee until about 1.30am. Saturn & Jupiter bright & beautiful low  in Sagittarius these long summer evenings too:

16 hours ago, Andwil said:

Stairs look good too, but purple carpet?

Purple? The salesman swore it was 'aubergine'!

16 hours ago, Andwil said:

I guess it’s not going to be visible down here.  

Sadly I think not AW. You'll just have to content yourself with the Magellanic Clouds, for which I envy you deeply! 😁

16 hours ago, Andwil said:

What lens did you use for the photo?

I've borrowed one of the good Canon ones from work for the summer - the 70-200mm IS II USM. I have to say that the optical quality is superb and the f2.8 aperture an absolute must for working at such longer focal ranges. managed to bring out a bit more tail detail last evening, and a better hint of the green coma:

Picked up the Galilean moons of Jupiter very nicely also in  a 0.5 sec exposure @ 200mm/f2.8:

From L-R: Callisto, Europa, Io and Ganymede. (cropped from a larger frame btw)

12 hours ago, CedB said:

More stunning Baroning on the hinges Tony - spectacular!c

Most kind Ced.

8 hours ago, perdu said:

I should have taken my coat, tee shirts are no attire for 72 year old codgers around 2300 hrs, even in July

Strap the Britmodeller leathers on Bill, the theme from Rocky blaring from your mobile as you brandish your noble sihrsc. Time to put the Peaky Blinders up the streets of Streetly!

8 hours ago, perdu said:

Tony, Keith where (in relation to the Plough) did it appear eventually and at what time, a few minutes of separation should help guide me if we get a decent night again.

Keith's bang on in using the Plough as the easiest pointer Bill.

This was taken about 11.40pm last night:

The comet itself just a small distance westward of the red line and creeping further west on each successive evening.

1 hour ago, perdu said:

If it 'de-clouds' enough tonight I will have another  go, cheers

Fingers crossed for you Bill. 🤞

 

[bbudde]

On 7/19/2020 at 2:23 PM, TheBaron said:

A final pic before we get into the screenshots. After several weeks, the clouds broke late last evening and we dashed outside to finally see the comet in the NW sky:

Stood for ages watching it fall behind the trees with a bat flitting around our heads - absolutely mesmerizing and still.

 

If the weather holds tonight I want to go back out and get some sharper longer-exposure shots to bring out more detail in that tail.

Great photo of that Tony. It's always of some advantage to be in the valley at some point. But I can't resist the city. Maybe I should go into the fields just around the corner to take a glimpse at that by chance.

For that REM here in the Eifel at 2005 with a legendary water battle  (usual there in the summer with summer storms)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD9BSKNcn0g

 

Btw. Nice work on your CAD progress. You could make many people happy here, I guess.

Cheers

[keefr22]

2 hours ago, perdu said:

somewhat uphill of the pointers

 

Sorry Bill, downhill of them, sorry if I confused you with that - but Tony has illustrated it much better anyway!  TBH, I didn't think it was quite that far 'downhill' when I was watching it last night, maybe it varies with your position on the ground (dunno, I'm not a rocket scientist!) but you know where to scan now.

 

Cracking pics Tony, I did take the Nikon out but handheld (no tripod), long exposure, with a 300mm lens and old, cold shaky hands - not a chance....!! 🤣

 

Keith

[keefr22]

56 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Fingers crossed for you Bill. 🤞

 

And toes!

 

K

[qn30jEkPz7]

Fancy a bumper defence contract? 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/20/join-britain-build-new-jet-fighter-says-defence-secretary/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-onward-journey

 

Present this thread as evidence of your capabilities and you’re a shoe-in for at least a couple of Billion £ worth of concept visualisations and drafting work

 

p.s. don’t say that at the outset just quote it as a tenner and then gradually ramp up the invoices by adding zeroes every time you present a new one citing unexpected cost runovers like every other MoD, IT and public infrastructure project since the hanging gardens of Babylon spiralled astronomically (they were only meant to be hanging baskets but someone mixed up the units on the drawings and by the time they’d been signed off by management it was more difficult and costly to go back to committee and redo than just go ahead)

[perdu]

Went upstairs into a box room which looks north and has a decent view of Ursa Major.

 

It took a while but suddenly just west of a pair of small stars and down a bit there it was.

 

The 'fuzzy star' and it was awesome.

 

Once found I could see it easily with binos but it can't be seen at ground level outside due to the surrounding trees.

 

Thank you both for the guidance

 

Magic, no wonder early people were entranced by fuzzy stars.

 

👍

[qn30jEkPz7]

7 hours ago, perdu said:

Magic, no wonder early people were entranced by fuzzy stars.

 

Is this the first visit from it? If not it is staggering to think that last time it passed this way we were just transitioning from nomads to agriculture, domesticating animals and on our way to developing bronze and writing. 

[perdu]

You wrote: on our way to developing bronze and writing.

 

I read: on our way to developing booze and writing.

 

And the theatre and restaurant critic was born...   

 

Is this the first visit from it? I believe it is, can't say I ever saw it before 

 

And the scientists were all taken by surprise when the Near Earth program spotted it on its way into the sunlight

This is from the NASA overview of the programme

 

I'd never heard of it.

 

 

"the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is a NASA infrared-wavelength astronomical space telescope active from December 2009 to February 2011. It was launched on December 14, 2009, and decommissioned/hibernated on February 17, 2011 when its transmitter was turned off. It performed an all-sky astronomical survey with images in 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 μm wavelength range bands, over 10 months using a 40 cm (16 in) diameter infrared telescope in Earth-orbit. The initial mission length was limited by its hydrogen coolant, but a secondary post-cryogenic mission continued four more months with two of the four detectors remaining operational.

In September 2013, the spacecraft was reactivated, renamed NEOWISE and assigned a new mission: to assist NASA's efforts to identify and characterize the population of near-Earth objects. NEOWISE is also characterizing more distant populations of asteroids and comets to provide information about their sizes and compositions."

 

[qn30jEkPz7]

12 minutes ago, perdu said:

 

I read: on our way to developing booze and writing.

Not that that’s wrong either - beer was developed in the fertile crescent about then(ish) and the Pyramid builders relatively shortly thereafter were being partly paid in rations of porridge and beer (ex-pat Scots?) 

[AdrianMF]

On the thread (drift) of comets, I had a look at 01:30 last night but looking at Tony's helpful diagram I realise I was probably an hour too late and it had run behind the trees by then. I'll try again tonight. Mind you, living 6 miles South of the centre of London may create some light pollution issues!

 

Awe inspiring work on the wing fold. I keep having to pinch myself to remember that all this detail stuff will be sub-millimetre when printed out!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[TheBaron]

Nearly another week gone by since last posting evaoprated between domesticity and work. On the home front, all those building & repairing job put off since the year dot suddenly gained priority, but the icing on the cake was having to spend a whole day and a half with Damien (our IT tech at work) trying to puzzle out why the new toy he'd got me for compositing (an Alienware egp with 2080 card) had put the laptop into an endless repair/can't repair cycle that wouldn't allow you to step into safe mode to manually sort it. I swear it started singing 'Daisy' at one point - ironic considering that it was actually my mind that was going...

 

Finally back on line last evening after a complete reinstall of everything and its sons & daughters and now wondering if it was all really just a bad dream....

 

I'm really quite annoyed at the Luftwaffe.

 

This arrived in Robbie the postman's paw last evening - something that I'd been stalking the 2ndhand bookshops online for quite some time since it contains both parts of Commander Jenkins' excellent monograph on the evolution of Furious:

It was with some optimism that I thought that the bibliography would contain cogent pointers to documents in the archive: dismayed to read however in the esteemed Commander's footnotes that much of Furious' design documentation was in fact destroyed in an air raid in 1941. I remain hopeful that NMM in Greenwich has plans of her 1918 appearance (or else this particular dream is over). Getting scans done by them isn't cheap - but as I've yet to see reference to anything that detailed in commercial publications, my hand may be forced.

On 7/20/2020 at 6:31 PM, keefr22 said:

I did take the Nikon out but handheld (no tripod), long exposure, with a 300mm lens and old, cold shaky hands

It's a tricky subject due to brightness levels isn't it Keith? A fast lens definitely needed along with a steady set of legs!

On 7/20/2020 at 5:39 PM, bbudde said:

Maybe I should go into the fields just around the corner to take a glimpse at that by chance.

Takes some time once the eyes are dark-adapted Benedikt - where we over near the Atlantic it's not really dark enough to see until  about 11.30pm or so local time.

On 7/20/2020 at 10:18 PM, LostCosmonauts said:

Present this thread as evidence of your capabilities and you’re a shoe-in for at least a couple of Billion £ worth of concept visualisations and drafting work

My response to that comes in two parts Alastair:

1. Oh noes! My upgraded Sea Vixen FAW.3 floatplane (now with rear gun turret and mixed torpedo/railgun loadout) is still experiencing problems with its rubber band! 😬
2. From that article: 'Defence Secretary Ben Wallace issued an extraordinary appeal...' JFC. (What an indictment).

On 7/21/2020 at 12:05 AM, perdu said:

It took a while but suddenly just west of a pair of small stars and down a bit there it was.

 

The 'fuzzy star' and it was awesome.

📣

So glad you got to see it Bill!

On 7/21/2020 at 7:39 AM, LostCosmonauts said:

Is this the first visit from it?

Good question - and an interesting one!

On 7/21/2020 at 8:48 AM, perdu said:

You wrote: on our way to developing bronze and writing.

 

I read: on our way to developing booze and writing.

I'm glad it's not just me that does this sideways cognitive thing. (I've lost count of the number of song lyrics that I've misheard as something completely different from their actual sentiment....)

On 7/21/2020 at 4:20 PM, AdrianMF said:

Mind you, living 6 miles South of the centre of London may create some light pollution issues!

A spin down to Box Hill or Newland's Corner possible Adrian?

On 7/21/2020 at 4:20 PM, AdrianMF said:

Awe inspiring work on the wing fold. I keep having to pinch myself to remember that all this detail stuff will be sub-millimetre when printed out!

And I'll pinch myself if all of it prints! 🤣

 

I heff to say that detailing the wingfold mechanism is rapidly turning into a build-within-a-build (to paraphrase Poe):

Everything you see thus far should - en theory - fall within print parameters regarding thickness and the manner in which I've broken these structures down into sub-assemblies for print. Wherever possible I've been trying to build any required support structures into the design as unobtrusively as I can, along with incorporating any raised surface detailing into printing as part of the wing itself.

 

Here's a simplified view of the fold mechanisms built thus far:

Main linkage in centre, flanked by front and rear hinges along with the cable tray up front.  Also seen, the sequencing valve (stubby thing behind rear hing), plus several pipes and openings for the various swivel sections of the fuel system. The actual pipe sections will be bent from brass to be mounted in position later for reasons of strength and aesthetics.

 

The hinges (along with lower section of the forward latching mechanism you see will be printed as part of the inboard wing as a single unit - supports being added to the upper sections that mate with rib 4a on the outboard wing section. You an see them here bing tested for alignment with the recesses in the outer wing section:

You're right in thinking that the rears of those upper hinge sections look deucedly odd  -  extensions  have added in order to mount them into recesses within the outer wing like so:

The extensions themselves are about 1mm long and slightly tapered in order to help with fitting into the recesses, which additionally have a slight offset to provide further clearance.

 

The extra circular and rectangular holes you see along the inboard rib for are there for the various fuel pipe sections &etc. that will be bent from brass rod later:

The cable tray I'm printing at this stage as a separate part to mount into slots in both halves of the wingfold, though if I'm not happy with the visuals/strength, some thin brass strip can be bent into shape as a replacement:

 

The other rectangular slot seen just behind the main linkage in the shot below doesn't of course exist on the real aircraft. In this region a series of hydraulic hoses arc between the two wing sections:

 

Those hoses will be far to small to meaningfully represent with any kind of plastic/resin at this scale, but I reckon that some whiskers of thin fuse wire may do service for his task in terms of gluing them into the slots in parallel after bending to the required radius. We'll come to experiment with that in due course anyway.

 

Transparency back on for a final X-ray of all the ins and outs of the mounting process to finish with tonight.

At this point I'm happy enough that this is about as much as can feasibly be added in terms of hingery and surface shapes - tomorrow I want to get stuck into all of the remaining baroque of those latching structures that lace the lower wingfold. Chunky bits should be printable but brass for thinner arms and rods perhaps!

 

Time to finish now though - our youngest has his girlfriend joining us for dinner in a few minutes; poor woman - first time meeting us and she gets to witness Famille Baron debauching themselves on Enchiladas....

 

Tony

 

 

 

 

[perdu]

Enjoy your evening Tony.

Lovely development work en-route a magical masterpiece.

[bigbadbadge]

Cracking work Tony