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Is it a boat? Is it a plane? Is it a snowmobile? Yes on all accounts!


Torbjorn

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Excellent colleague! I liked the technology of applying the bulge of the ribs on the wings most of all. A very simple solution. I understand that you were just pressing on a thin sheet of polystyrene with a pen? Right? And what is this Woodman book?

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Hi Mr mechanic - yes, first marked and then pressed a bit harder. In hindsight I think I pressed a bit too hard, but not overly exaggerated.

 

 

Harry Woodman was a modeller who authored ”Scale Model Aircraft in Plastic Card” where he described his scratch-building techniques. The book is 45 years old, but still contains all you need to know to put together a very respectable model - including the rib embossing technique just mentioned.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Oh, almost a month. Work and visits have prevented any modelling, but now I got some time free. 

 

The floats resemble mini-zeppelins where you can see the inner metal skeleton to which the wood or skin (?) is attached. I decided to waste a lot of time on this and made the following mould which generated the shape on the right:

 

8iVXwTE.jpg

 
I knew that wouldn’t work but wanted to test - maybe I need something like that in the future. Too pronounced, so I filled in the holes with putty and made four halves, glued together and attached sticks:

KP26DFh.jpgMetal straps, or cradles, are missing, will be added with tape. Ok result, when one moves around the shape of the ”metal skeleton” is noticeable.

 

Skis were made from laminated strips of styrene of different sizes. Undercarriage from metal tube or wire, soldered and/or glued:

 

 

59sk8cs.jpg

edit:I see the hand crank sneaked itself into the field of vew too (top right).

 

Almost finished on the image below, some ends to cut, then painting. Didn’t finish painting the skis since I’ll invariably mess something up when attaching the sticks:

 

xTWSkmN.jpg

 

Finished the hand-crank, which also drives a doo-hicky on the starboard support brace (with a rubber band on the wheel simulated in the middle of the shaft). In addition I made a so-so windshield from acetate - clear parts are not my forte:

 

HrmJ0t7.jpg

 


 

 

Anyhow, all assemblies constructed and ready for painting! Except for the fuel tank - that will wait until the wings are attached to make fitting easier.

 

g4eMNhN.jpg

 

Or so I thought until I made something really dumb with the upper wing. It was ever so slightly warped so I stupidly decided to make it perfectly straight by clamping and heating it. To make a long story short I forgot it overnight in the oven at 70 centigrades. :( It came out damaged like this:

 

NdogBPU.jpg

 

The trailing edge was sanded sharp and therefore deformed easily. Now I’m considering whether to bite the sour apple and make a new one or try to save the wing. I have Mr surfacer in the mail - maybe that could help filling those craters?

Edited by Torbjorn
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you could try think CA glue with accelerator? The trick here is to work quickly after applying the accelerator. The CA glue will be hard but still a wee bit soft which makes sanding really simple, leave too long and it goes too hard. The nice thing with using this stuff is that you can work very quickly and you can achieve nice sharp edges. I use it all the time on resin and plastic model especially for wings and control surfaces filler just won't give you that nice sharp edge and it's brittle!

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Great building so far. I love the little starter handle thing. Shame about the wing. I think Mr Surfacer is great but will not help here. 

As Rich suggests some form of CA super glue is the answer. Try laying the trailing edge onto some masking tape then run a bead of thick CA along the edge of the wing on the tape. When its dry sand off the tape and tidy up with an emery board. I can't get thick ca here but normal mixed with talcum powder will work. 

HTH

Colin 

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Loctite is what I got (actually it practically the only CA available here). :)

 

Attempted a save, think it went ok but the jury will be consulted after painting. Fortunately the worst damage was at the aileron - after cutting them out I simply discarded one and made a replacement. I also added control horns and a pulley (near the leading edge straight in front of the horn) through which the control wire will go to the other side.

Drew the rib lines as an experiment, to see if it they will show up after painting.

 

dGebbHE.jpg

 

 

I also made the tank, which will be suspended under and along the centre of the upper wing. The front third was plunge moulded (I don’t trust myself to sand a perfectly round shape out of plastic, but I did have a wooden rod of proper diameter!). The tip was glued to plastic tubes (two diameters, slide fit) and sanded. 

 

It is a combined castor oil and fuel tank. Tubing for oil, fuel and I guess pump were added with copper wire. Originally the tank was copper, but might have been painted the same blue as the hull at some occasion. I will try copper first to see how it looks. Some brass sleeves are missing on the tubes.

The second fill cap will go through a hole in the wing, so that will be slid in olace after the tank has been attached for simpler alignement.

 

QB8WMzk.jpg

Edited by Torbjorn
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It’s been a productive weekend - the town is quaranteened due to corona and nothing much else to do. 😷

 

 

I didn’t like look of the windshield, and after doing some measurements it was obviously too large. I managed to cut it down in situ - that Loctite is strong stuff - and reduced the height with 20%.

 

In progress:

8uuQOnF.jpg

 

I’ve also partially solved the marking problem. I found this decal sheet on the big H site and took a chance they would fit:

 

ZDsG6ZX.jpg

 

Turned out I can use the fuselage crown markings and the number ”10” for the underwing numerals. The upper wing crowns are too large on my machine and the fuselage ”10” too small. Half way there and I got a kit as a bonus, so I declare it a bargain.

 

 

I’d like to share some pics of this fantastic piece of machining: the smallstuffmodels engine:

KTet35U.jpg

 

I added the cylinders a long time ago to be able to check that the engine would fit in its intended place, but refrained from adding the other little parts and the image above should explain why. The details are incredibly fine, I’ve never seen even nearly so thin cooling wanes before. I’m holding the tool intended for adding the spark plugs (the little bits sitting between the cylinders on the sprue), but ended up using tweezers. The other sprue holds push rods and acting mechanism for the valves. You get enough spares of cylinders, plugs and rods to make 1.5 engines, but they are needed!  The push rods can’t be more than 0.2 mm thick. Simply incredible, I’m hesitant to add it since it will shame the rest of the model, making it appear as if made by a guy with ten thumbs in comparison.🤥

 

Here it it assembled and painted. I added ignition wires from the thinnes stretched sprue I could make, which is for the camera only since I can barely see them without my magnifying glasses.

JLOjysw.jpg

 

Edited by Torbjorn
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wow!!! That engine is amazing, it's resin i take it? There's an incredible amount of patience required to do that sort of work, well done.

 

Ooo Loctite, you got the good stuff!!! :thumbsup: That really cheap stuff you can get from those discount shops is normally the best stuff to get. You don't need to so much for strength, more for a good solid filling agent.

 

Keep the Loctite for the really important stuff, plus it lasts a lot long too if you keep it in the fridge.

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On 3/16/2020 at 12:44 AM, trickyrich said:

wow!!! That engine is amazing, it's resin i take it? There's an incredible amount of patience required to do that sort of work, well done.

 

Ooo Loctite, you got the good stuff!!! :thumbsup: That really cheap stuff you can get from those discount shops is normally the best stuff to get. You don't need to so much for strength, more for a good solid filling agent.

 

Keep the Loctite for the really important stuff, plus it lasts a lot long too if you keep it in the fridge.

Loctite is the only CA I have found here, so not much else to do 😛

 

I keep it in freezer - I wasted several bottles before learning that trick. 

 

—-

 

Thanks for the compliments fellows!

 

I have started painting. The paint painfully shows all imperfections, and there will be some additional sanding and painting sessions:

 

EnYhjpt.jpg

 

The blue is too vivid anyway and needs to be more gray - same as cockpit really, but I’ll settle for something in between. I’m using mixes of Vallejo model air Azure 71108 and vallejo model colour Light sea grey 70973.

 

I have started fondling the sprues of a WnW kit by the way - I had planned it for later but the town is in corona lock down so if all goes apocalyptic anyway I thought it was time to start. I hadn’t realised how humongous these kits are: the hull in the image above is proudly resting on the tailplane of a DH9!

 


For the linen I use mixes Hemp, Aged White and one more which I forgot (all Vallejo model air). Turns out the ink I used to draw ribs is very strong, next time I will first prime on top of the ink, not under it. Anyways, the next phase of  careful marking of the naval ensign has been completed:

ESLSQHy.jpg

 

Edited by Torbjorn
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yeah painting time is alway the time you find all those imperfections on what you though was a good surface. But even with that initial first colour she looks good, it give you an idea of how she's going to look.

 

Keep up the awesome work.

 

I'd love a WnW model.....just need to find one without rigging! :D

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