Sea Vixen FAW.1x2

[bigbadbadge]

Great PE results Tony and the winfold looks fantastic. 

Chris

[TheBaron]

21 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

I have seen a few of "Plasmo`s" vids on You Tube, quite enlightening indeed for mere mortals like me.

Yes - he's very impressive in the depth of skills he possesses isn't he  and an inspiration in terms of the finished results of his builds? (Plus he has a nice self-deprecating delivery that's refreshing in a sometimes overly earnest genre).

21 hours ago, Spookytooth said:

You said that you would be using Alcad 2 primer, have you tried it out on any misprints just to check that there is no problems or reactions with the resin.

That's a timely reminder that I do indeed need to check exactly that factor in the not-too-distant future Simon.

21 hours ago, giemme said:

Lovely etching job, Tony  Glad to see you got the hang of it

Thanks;  it can still be improved with some further tweaks in technique Giorgio but like any new skill, the more mistakes you're prepared to make, the more of a feel you eventually develop for the medium concerned.

21 hours ago, giemme said:

Nice spring pic too - it was like that during the week here too, then last night it snowed again on the nearby mountains....

I spoke too soon - bloody freezing here today but a timely delivery of ash logs yesterday has the stove blazing.

19 hours ago, bbudde said:

I'm glad that several manurfactoreurs can see this here on bm.

It's quite the entrepreneur's den these days isn't it Benedikt?

We're lucky I think to be living through a revolution in materials science and reaping some of the unintended benefits with regard to some of the things we can try out now on a domestic basis.

3 hours ago, hendie said:

Back in Scotland there's a little beastie called a green man 

Yon duine uaine has long fascinated me as a phenomenon Alan and that Chapel looks looks enchanting - I can see why it would fascinate you.

 

3 hours ago, hendie said:

Color me greenly greenly envious.

I'll post lots of pics of me making a diabolical mess of the first few prints to cheer you up!

3 hours ago, hendie said:

... I'm sure you'll share the necessary information before I have to go through the same trauma.  I'm very partial to Lychees so will need to look into that alternative though I can't say I have experienced any of the issues you describe with Chitubox. 

Absolutely old thing.

 

You're right that not everyone would or should experience such issues with it - when just printing relatively uncomplicated parts in one project I was happy bunny, but with items like the engines and interiors made up of many bodies clustered in single components, I think it's giving the memory buffers in Chitubox the screaming abdabs and it would grind slowly to a halt when slicing what was on the build plate.

 

You'll already be aware I'm sure that there's  a free version of Lychee to play with...

3 hours ago, hendie said:

I've always been tempted to try one of those ultra cheap CNC routers and see how it handles 5 thou' or 10 thou' brass sheet.  I know they are intended primarily for wood and plastic but with a slow enough travel they may just work cutting through thin brass sheet (can you tell I got really faffed off with the etching process)

As far as making metal shapes I really can't wait to:

(Once the reflectance problem gets sorted in cheaper systems...)

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Great PE results Tony and the winfold looks fantastic. 

Chris

Ta Chris - top man.

 

Also test fitted from yesterday's Batch of Etch were the updated wing fences:

These need no further refinement now and the issue with matching the top camber has been solved:

Another bullet bitten was to check that a vacformed canopy was going to actually fit inside the rain-shedding fairing that lops around from the windshield and up along the port side of the pilot's side:

The 3D resin continues to work fine as a CAD based method for producing bucks. You can see in the shot above that there's a small gap at the front on the stbd side of the transparency - this was due to the limited clearance for it to slip in under the fairing at the front at this scale, but a small amount of sanding along the base of the windshield remedies this:

The canopy of 708 here was formed from 0.5mm PET for strength as I found that previously the 0.3mm stuff I'd used on the test for 481 was too insubstantial in terms of a gluing surface to join it to the fuselage securely enough. Your eyes don't deceive you - that milkiness of the transparency  is the result of yours truly deciding to sneeze at the critical point of the PET being heated up and overcooking it by a couple of seconds. I swear the Fates just do this for a wind up...

 

I'm less happier with the results of vacforming the smaller windows to be quite frank - the one for the Obs. door is so damn small that it's a nightmare removing it from the buck:

Plus you need to cut it down so much to become flush with the door itself on both sides that you're again left with barely anything to glue it into place with. I suspect that may be best left as a candidate for the use of either Kristal Klear or polished CA.

 

The side window for the Obs. side I think will work as vacform, however I still need to reduce the buck size  by about 0.1 - 0.15mm wall the way around to allow for the vacformed part to fit into the opening:

Reckon the best policy in this instance is to print a series of bucks differing by 0.05mm in size to identify which one produces the most accurate fit.

 

I also cut the main canopy at the frame line to start looking at the requirements of having in the open position:

Windshield glued in and PE centre beam looking the part:

The rear framing for that windshield however is proving a real pain.

 

You might recall that back on the test print of '481, I output the frame as an integrated part of the nose section:

It looked good enough for the job yet snapped off so quickly when handling that it was a non-starter to stay in place during all the subsequent assembly and painting that would be involved; this time around I printed it as a separate part that tuned out to be such an unachievable nonsense to try and fit to both transparency and fuselage due to its insubstantial nature. As a result, I've decided to integrate this frame it into the buck the next time around as part of the vacformed transparency (that can either be cut at that point to pose opened, or else remain shut). It's not ideal in terms of looks but is I think the most viable working solution for expressing this feature of 70; the judicious application of a few strips of metal foil inside the transparency at that point should be sufficient I think to give a required visual thickness to the frame at that point.

 

Thanks for looking in.

Monday Bloody Monday tomorrow.

Blast!

^{Image credit: Kevin Finney}

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Is everyone else asleep or in the bath? Whatever, I'm first to offer congratulations for another update of excellence.

Have a good week, and see you at the other end.

[AdrianMF]

I am, as it happens, reading this in the bath!

 

Smashing Tony.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[giemme]

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Is everyone else asleep or in the bath? Whatever, I'm first to offer congratulations for another update of excellence.

Have a good week, and see you at the other end.

I was actually busy painting my Stuka, believe it or not But I'm more than happy to join you as second in congratulating Tony for yet another outstanding update  

 

Even if from a far distance, I think I can smell paint... 

 

Ciao 

 

Edit: rats, third - Adrian beat me to it

 

[CedB]

More stunning updates Tony and apologies for lack of replies in the last few days - Game of Thrones DVDs don't watch themselves you know!

(Yes, Mrs B IS away)

 

Very impressive fixing and fitting going on here.

Bit short on the gratuitous flesh shots but hey, you can't have everything…

[perdu]

1 hour ago, CedB said:

More stunning updates Tony and apologies for lack of replies in the last few days - Game of Thrones DVDs don't watch themselves you know!

(Yes, Mrs B IS away)

 

Very impressive fixing and fitting going on here.

Bit short on the gratuitous flesh shots but hey, you can't have everything…

I do of course applaud Tony's quite wondrous recent update but Ced, old bean please please please.

 

Please do not invite our hero to feel it incumbent to now and forever expose flesh gratuitously.

 

Tony, sir, I feel Ced is suffering from the usual, frequent Daenerys flesh expose syndrome.

 

If he sits quietly I am sure it will recede, as it does for me...

 

Oops.

 

😲 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Pete in Lincs]

More medication is on order. And we can but hope that Mrs B will wrest the TV remote from his grasp very soon.

[perdu]

No

 

I hope he at least reaches the end...

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

I have it on good authority that when left alone he must be tethered for his own safety. So he's no doubt gotten to the end of that.

[Brandy]

On 3/10/2021 at 4:14 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

we can but hope that Mrs B will wrest the TV remote from his grasp very soon.

Question is, where will she put it?

 

Another lovely update Tony, but I'll have to look at it again when I get home as the pics are a bit dark on my phone. Plus the sun on the screen doesn't help.

 

Ian

[TheBaron]

Friday! 😁

On 07/03/2021 at 20:28, Pete in Lincs said:

Is everyone else asleep or in the bath?

What else would ye be doing now that the roller discos are all closed?

On 07/03/2021 at 21:59, AdrianMF said:

I am, as it happens, reading this in the bath!

Smoking a cheroot and sipping absinthe from a sugar rimmed glass I hope Adrian.

On 07/03/2021 at 22:00, giemme said:

I was actually busy painting my Stuka,

I've not heard it called that before Giorgio....

On 07/03/2021 at 22:00, giemme said:

Even if from a far distance, I think I can smell paint... 

It's me socks. I'll change them. Apologies to all.

On 10/03/2021 at 09:10, CedB said:

Bit short on the gratuitous flesh shots but hey, you can't have everything…

Join me on OnlyFans for exclusive modelling content - Enter the draw for a chance to win my used cardigan!

On 10/03/2021 at 09:10, CedB said:

Game of Thrones DVDs don't watch themselves you know!

(Yes, Mrs B IS away)

One dreads to think why she has to be away for this to occur Ced - we're not talking dragon cosplay are we? 🐉

 

Btw geezer  - a chap called Jim from the 453rd Bomb Group Museum & 8th Air Force Heritage Gallery contacted me yesterday out of the blue and grassed you up for giving him my name about doing a museum build. He was tickled pink  - as was I () that you'd actually forgotten to tell me!

On 10/03/2021 at 10:26, perdu said:

Tony, sir, I feel Ced is suffering from the usual, frequent Daenerys flesh expose syndrome.

It's the lack of remorse that gets me Bill - the man puts de Sade in da shade!

On 10/03/2021 at 12:14, Pete in Lincs said:

And we can but hope that Mrs B will wrest the TV remote from his grasp very soon.

I had an ill-thought out joke about pressing the red button that would probably not make it through the forum filters Pete...

On 11/03/2021 at 12:41, Brandy said:

Another lovely update Tony, but I'll have to look at it again when I get home as the pics are a bit dark on my phone. Plus the sun on the screen doesn't help.

Put it down and concentrate on landing the aircraft Ian.

We've talked about this.

 

 

Yer'll've had yer tea then? A tough week with plenty of ups and downs but I did manage to make a little more progress in resolving outstanding matters.

 

A small but well wrapped package arrived from Marks Models in Dublin during the week containing a) supplies of 0.4mm brass tubing (AA natch) and g) some Micro Krystal Klear - the latter a goo I've never tried before but which I hoped might diminish the pains of trying to vacform small windows for the nose section.

 

Must say I was pretty astonished by the results - first on forming the window of the observer's hatch:

And secondly, the side window of the coal 'ole:

Speaking of said hole, it was only after trying out the Klear on the door section that I ed that actually the clear bit needed to be , well, not clear but blacked-out. I didn't see any need for fancy solutions so simply dabbed on a little Quink on the inside surface and was rather pleased by the effect it gave of blacked-out perspex:

That really was an off the cuff solution but sometimes serendipity is on your side isn't it?

 

Also fitted to the bulkead at the rear of the pilot's opening on the test mule was some 0.5mm tubing for the canopy release strut, and the cluster of boxes for the LABS gear:

 

With the canopy in the open position, at least some of those features will remain visible, hence their necessity:

I've been obsessing about that canopy.

Most particularly, about the profile where the sliding hood meets the framing structure of the windscreen. You'll recall me whinging previously about the unfeasible nature of printing this frame separately and having been forcibly made to pay attention to that region once more, I came to realize that my earlier understanding of what was going on with shape in that region was dead wrong. Instead of a slightly 'proud' frame all the way around, both windscreen and rear canopy are in fact flush with each other at the sides, with the profile only deviating away from the canopy cross section at the top due to the hot air outlet and centre beam. You can see what I mean in the revised design for this interface now:

And as an actual shape:

From the rear quarter you can see the flush nature of the sides in relation to the hot air structure at the crown which, despite it's delicate structure, should vacform to produce a decent integrated profile with the angular windscreen panels:

I'll put together a new print of the canopy over the weekend and have a bit of a heat and suck with the PET.

 

I did get to try out the new printer during the week - not as luck would have it on anything Vixonian but on a set of holders the youngest lad designed himself for some VR controllers - it worked like a dream straight out of the box, with much reduced printing times that will be a godsend from now on. Spent some time also getting acquainted with the Lychee software; completely sold on both the smoothness of its interface, and rapid, responsive way that it lets you construct detailed support forests (that canopy is pre- the re-design so ignore the ugly frame):

You can see in the background the redone main gear doors also, this time with the correct separation between inner and outer.

 

Whilst we were at it I also wafted some Halford's grey onto a wing at some point during the wee, and it seemed to work fine on the resin: I'm not expecting any problems using the Alclad black in due course but you can remind me of this overconfidence at a later stage when it melts everything into an inky puddle....

Take care until next time mes chasseurs...

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andwil]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Whilst we were at it I also wafted some Halford's grey onto a wing at some point during the wee,

Modelling whilst going to the loo, whatever next in this odyssey of novel approaches?

 

AW

[Pete in Lincs]

There'll be tears (and puddles) before bedtime. Mark my words!

Lovey update, It shows you've been busy thinking in the coffee breaks. 

(Any cookies left?) Ooh, printable cookies.......

And, all hail the new printer!

[giemme]

 

 

(there's no better way to express how I feel after this update than that emoji   )

 

Ciao

[hendie]

17 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I'll put together a new print of the canopy over the weekend and have a bit of a heat and suck with the PET.

 

 

May be time for you to come clean with the postman Tony.  Tell him that and he'll have the RSPCA on you.  Sex dolls is one thing...

 

 

that cockpit area is looking fabulous and that PE on the windscreen is just icing on the cake

 

[Space Ranger]

On 3/12/2021 at 5:47 PM, Andwil said:

Modelling whilst going to the loo, whatever next in this odyssey of novel approaches?

Nothing novel about that; I've been doing it for years! When ya gotta go …

[TheBaron]

I say.

What? What? What?

And indeed Jayzus  - it's been a tearing number of days since having time to shove the eek back in here at all.

 

With a sudden influx of people returning to my place of work over the last fortnight it's been quite overwhelming trying to co-ordinate online and onsite activity in a way that doesn't leave anyone behind or feeling isolated. - as a consequence I've just been conking out by 9pm of an evening and had no energy for anything outside of the daily grind. You probably know this feeling yourselves though that even though you can't actually do the stuff you want to, one of those unconscious regions of the mind is still working away quietly in the background examining and cataloguing those problems related to the things you really want to do, so that when you eventually get the chance to do them, there's a clarity and sense of purpose  that leaves you wondering from whence it came.

 

In my case it was working out how to integrate the new printer into my existing workflow, which meant:

a) ignoring 95% of postings on the internet about print settings.

b) working out a research plan that compares both printers in terms of what each does best and where they differ.

c) designing a workflow involving several items of software, again with no one program excelling at everything, how to pass the work between them.

 

The first point was an easy one to deal with as unless you want your head full of other people's noise, you're better of cutting to heel of the hunt and plunging straight into the second point. Using Elegoo's grey resin I was pretty clear about what kinds of layer height and exposure levels were working on the standard Mars to give the best quality for different kinds of shapes and structures. With the greatly reduced exposure times on the Mars 2 it wasn't simply a case of reducing these values by ^x amount, as it was soon apparent that the mono screen on the newer printer is a virtuoso piece of kit that needs careful calibration with regard to part thickness and size.

 

As for the third point, well, this is inseparable from the second point in terms of a variety of other settings involved in outputting designs to the printer. I'd mentioned before about my dissatisfaction with the designing of support s in Chtitubox; having spent the last fortnight redesigning the cluster of parts for printing in the Lychee environment, there's no comparison. Lychee is simply a far far better working environment for this task, smoothly allowing you to navigate the  creation of complex interacting support 'forests' of a variety and at a speed that Chitubox can't match. Its island identification is also way better in terms of function and integration. Where it does come up short though is specifically in relation to the anti aliasing mechanisms applied at slicing time - although Lychee supports all the Elegoo printers - it lacks the simple and straightforward settings of Chitubox in that there's no documentation currently about how the confusing mixture of variables in the former can be set to match those of the latter. I'm sure this will be addressed rapidly as there's a lot of people currently pushing the devs to make this part of the interface more explicable.

 

This isn't a problem though, a simple workaround for the present is to orient parts and add supports in Lychee, then simply export the stuff across as an .stl to Chitubox to slice and anti-alis there. Simple and reliable and giving you the best of both worlds - worflow now is Design (Fusion) / Orient & support (Lychee)/Slice & Antialias (Chitubox)/Print (Mars & Mars 2)

 

With some time off for Easter I've been putting a lot of effort initially into tweaking this methodology into a set of working rules for printing different kinds of parts on both printers, in terms of which one gives the best results in particular circumstances.

 

Conclusions:

 

1. For the kind of work I'm doing here, the Mars 2 is a leap in terms of the crispness of detail that the mono screen produces. It's not that the level of detail (in terms of xy resolution) exceeds that of the Mars, simply that the sharpness of delineation of even the smallest features is frankly staggering (pics in a bit, fret not) by comparison.

2. Paradoxically the LCD of the original Mars has turned out to n=be sometimes preferable for giving smoother/stronger results on thinner gradually tapering features (think tail fins and wings on this build, for example) I think this results from the much longer exposure times involved on the older printer, where the resulting light bleed gives a 'softer' and more pleasing surface quality.

3. It might seem odd that I haven't mentioned the much faster print time of the Mars 2? It's really speeded things up of course and that's worth every penny of the investment, but I'm still prepared to wait longer to get a better looking result for specific individual parts from the older printer.

 

As with the software, combining two printers in this way gives me the kind of flexibility and speed to really get your teeth into extending the boundaries of our craft/hobby/condition....

 

Enough blather then. You'll want some evidence to back up this Fireside Chat About Old Resin.

The RAT unit?

Those turbine blade were just visible on the old printer as pattern - here they're actual individual blades. Same thing for the knobs on the radar console on the left - as sharp now as they look in the original designs in Fusion.

 

Engine?

Same deal. Even the small nuts and bolts are tack sharp; in fact every detail of  the original designs is now clearly rendered. That same jump in quality of detail visible on the PAS:

In terms of how these forms are now being rendered, it's a little like you've been looking at the view through binoculars and it looked ok, but then you turn the focal ring slightly and the jump in focus makes you realize that it wasn't actually sharp before.

On the wingfold, the fairing along the top camber of the wing now displays a sense of depth and interior space it lacked previously:

You can also see from the laminar artifact on the pylon the impossibility sometimes of orienting a part on the build plate (here the priority had to be the wingfold mechanism) so that every part of it prints smoothly. The directionality of the illumination tends to sometimes exaggerate such effects as a light sanding is usually enough to smooth the surface on such occasions that this happens.

 

Whilst I was putting the new beast through its paces, the ability to knock out multiples in short order is now a boon - especially here with layer heights of 0.025mm that would have taken an eternity before:

(Why does that weirdly make me think of parents watching their children at the playground? )

 

Old and the new:

Left: Mars - 0.05mm layer height, Right Mars 2 - 0.025mm layer height. Similar print times but superior sharpness on the Mars 2 (as usual, the static camera can't convincingly display the disparity that having stereo vision and turning the object in the light reveals....)

 

This is for you @giemme - it's not quite paint but a look at the maingear with a squirt of primer on really shows up the leap in detail quite effectively:

Finally feeling confident that I've an optimum series of settings worked out for a range of parts on both printers, I dialled these in and had both machines running nonstop in the studio for the last 48 hours to print out both XJ481 (right)and XN708  (left) in their entirety:

 

I'm pleased to say therefore that after 15 months and 83 pages, the build is about to start....

 

Tucked away in that photo also are a couple of what started out as this:

 

 - and became this:

A singularly challenging part to get right despite it's diminutive size at 1/72, but it did print rather nicely - the rod connecting it to the mount will be made from 0.4mm brass later on. That reminds me that I need to do up a coupe of sets of PE to go along with the above so I'll try and get that ready over the next few days - have a bit to do on the house and garden over the next few days but frankly it'll be nice having your head back to yourself for a few days. I made a start earlier by trimming the roses and repositioning the skull:

At some point last week - I forget which day already - self and Mrs. B went for a dusk walk to look for the owls that live nearby and with the sun well down, one of the brightest rings we'd ever seen appeared around the moon. It had faded somewhat by the time we reached home but I managed to catch this before it dissipated:

The apparition made the newspapers over here, so it must have been widely visible across the country.

 

Hope your own work(s) are going ok? I need to take a trawl around the forum and catch up with your own progress on matter of mutual interest!

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

Smashing update Tony, and all power to your elbow/printers!

 

I’m still getting over what a nice day it was today when I snuck out for a walk with Mrs MF:

(My neighbour’s Magnolia looks lovely, and I don’t have to clear up the petals!)

 

Regards,

Adrian

[bigbadbadge]

Wow,  Tony, I did not understand what you started with on this post, but the bits look bloomin gorgeous. 

Grand job.

Chris

[Hamden]

7 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Wow,  Tony, I did not understand what you started with on this post, but the bits look bloomin gorgeous. 

Grand job.

Chris

 

Seconded!!!

Still don't understand this process but the results are stunning!

 

    Stay safe                Roger

[Pete in Lincs]

Another great update, and I my even be starting to understand some of it! I can, however, see the difference in the two prints.

It's even more impressive now. And I'm looking forward to following the build (s). Enjoy your time off work.

 

(what garden doesn't need a skull in it anyway?)

[giemme]

10 hours ago, TheBaron said:

The apparition made the newspapers over here, so it must have been widely visible across the country.

It was very visible over here too.

 

Impressive, gobsmacking details with the new printer - and some bonus paint added!  

 

Can't wait to see those two actually coming together  

 

Ciao

[keefr22]

Still amazing...!! 

 

K

[perdu]

Should I worry that I can actually follow some of the process now, even if cats in hell have a better chance of actually doing anything like it?

 

Like Tony (Do I? Hell yes of course) I can see the differences between the print work from the two devices.

 

Blimey they are good both of them and after many attempts to get Fusion360 into my head I am beginning to understand the drawing process.

 

Tony mate try not to let work take away your freedom or we'll have to paint Mel blue and send him roond the hoose for a wee chat.

 

 

 

 

 

And after all that I concur with Keith, still amazing.