Scary Skeeter - Aeroclub 1/72

[keefr22]

19 minutes ago, CedB said:

Fingers crossed

 

And toes. Again. 

[CedB]

Thanks Simon

 

 

Well, the hour (and a bit) is up.

What do we have?

 

Worryingly a layer of water on top of the buck:

 

 

Poked it with a stick and it seems to be hard, but when I took it out of the frame:

 

 

Leakage! That'll be the Plasticine not being properly sealed. Bad boy  

The lump on the bottom was very hard though so I prised out the buck:

 

 

 

 

That is obviously going to need some filling. Milliput do we think? PPP?

 

Fortunately the kit vacform has survived:

 

 

…but I'd still like to carry on with the process, just to learn stuff.

I've removed that hair, honest.

 

I've got the Milliput Superfine out.

Shall I go for it?

 

I think I'll do both bucks so that we can see if the 'standard' PoP stands up to the machine.

[Heather Kay]

3 minutes ago, CedB said:

I've got the Milliput Superfine out.

Shall I go for it?

Of course. At least it will give you a good working buck while you learn the art of mixing and pouring the plaster. 

 

For such a small model, this is turning out to be quite the epic. 

[Marklo]

This was where I was proposing to use sculpey (or any polymer clay) or milliput for the buck. You can squish it in in a thin layer making sure it conforms then fill in with a larger lump, bake the polymer clay at 120 or just let the milliput harden and voila. I used this technique to copy some missing domes on my Daleks ( over in the Kuta XII gb) granted I was using milliput to mold.

Edited February 14, 2020 by Marklo

[CedB]

44 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

Of course. At least it will give you a good working buck while you learn the art of mixing and pouring the plaster. 

 

For such a small model, this is turning out to be quite the epic. 

Thanks Heather - will do!

Of course, I also need to learn how to pour plaster and avoid bubbles - I didn't vibrate the PoP so I'll try that, one day… Harder than I thought.

 

It is becoming an epic isn't it? 10 pages and still not closed up and LOTS to do. Making the effort to learn new things, as a 'thank you' to perdu for the kit and also to try to better my skills.

Some hope  

 

43 minutes ago, Marklo said:

This was where I was proposing to use sculpey (or any polymer clay) or milliput for the buck. You can squish it in in a thin layer making sure it conforms then fill in with a larger lump, bake the polymer clay at 120 or just let the milliput harden and voila. I used this technique to copy some missing domes on my Daleks ( over in the Kuta XII gb) granted I was using milliput to mold.

Good idea Marko, although I'm a bit worried that anything that 'cures' might effect the kit part?

Doesn't Milliput get a bit hot as it cures?

[Marklo]

If you’re careful with the sculpey you can take it out before baking it. You can always either oil the canopy ( I sometimes use flora spray on cooking oil when molding) or put a layer of cling film into the canopy first.

 

while the milliput probably has to be exothermic in nature I don’t think it’s going to get terribly hot. It might however stick to the canopy, but again I’d lay down some cling film first to alleviate that.

 

Afair @DMC has a thread on molding somewhere in the forum and it refers to using sculpey for form making.

Edited February 14, 2020 by Marklo

[perdu]

1 hour ago, CedB said:

 

 

Doesn't Milliput get a bit hot as it cures?

It might, possibly sometimes in some ways

Never has when I have used it*

 

And now you have almost good enough bucks you can practise on

 

 

*resin does a bit though but you could cast resin into a buck made from the pebeo mould and use architectural methods to work that

 

Hammers, files and hacksaws etc.

[rob85]

White miliput to fill the dips sounds a good plan, it’s nice and fine. There’s lots going on in this build isn’t there Ced, I’m picking up quite w bit!

 

Rob

[keefr22]

Try mixing up a small amount of the same plaster and filling the holes with that - if it's like the herculite it should sand down fairly easily and leave a nice smooth shiny surface. IIRC I mixed the filler herculite a bit thicker than the first mix.

 

K

[giemme]

Boy, this stuff sure is interesting!  

 

Ciao

 

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by giemme

[TheBaron]

Funny how the small kits sometimes seem to devour time and attention isn't it Ced? 

 

 As Giorgio says, makes for great viewing though! 😁

 

You'll get there!

 

[CedB]

8 hours ago, Marklo said:

If you’re careful with the sculpey you can take it out before baking it. You can always either oil the canopy ( I sometimes use flora spray on cooking oil when molding) or put a layer of cling film into the canopy first.

 

while the milliput probably has to be exothermic in nature I don’t think it’s going to get terribly hot. It might however stick to the canopy, but again I’d lay down some cling film first to alleviate that.

 

Afair @DMC has a thread on molding somewhere in the forum and it refers to using sculpey for form making.

Thanks Marklo - good idea with the cling film; thin enough not to take too much away from the mould.  

7 hours ago, perdu said:

It might, possibly sometimes in some ways

Never has when I have used it*

 

And now you have almost good enough bucks you can practise on

 

 

*resin does a bit though but you could cast resin into a buck made from the pebeo mould and use architectural methods to work that

 

Hammers, files and hacksaws etc.

Thanks Bill  

The world's my Oyster now eh?

I think, for 'normal' canopies that I don't want to sacrifice, using a silicone mould to make a resin buck would be something to try?

7 hours ago, rob85 said:

White miliput to fill the dips sounds a good plan, it’s nice and fine. There’s lots going on in this build isn’t there Ced, I’m picking up quite w bit!

 

Rob

Thanks Rob - I'm certainly learning a lot too!  

5 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Try mixing up a small amount of the same plaster and filling the holes with that - if it's like the herculite it should sand down fairly easily and leave a nice smooth shiny surface. IIRC I mixed the filler herculite a bit thicker than the first mix.

 

K

Now that's a good idea Keith  I had worried that the plaster wouldn't stick to the holes but I'll give it a try.

I might use the Giorgio marker pen method to mark around the holes so that I don't sand too much away.

1 hour ago, giemme said:

Boy, this stuff sure is interesting!  

 

Ciao

 

 

Thanks Giorgio  

I'd still appreciate some help with your cardboard insert idea to reduce the size of the plastic required.

I can work out that I need to cut a square in some cardboard, but does the plastic got above or below the hole and how do you stop it being sucked in please?

1 minute ago, TheBaron said:

Funny how the small kits sometimes seem to devour time and attention isn't it Ced? 

 

 As Giorgio says, makes for great viewing though! 😁

 

You'll get there!

 

Too true Tony - or rather learning new techniques!  

Brass to come soon(ish).

[andyf117]

5 minutes ago, CedB said:

Thanks Marklo - good idea with the cling film; thin enough not to take too much away from the mould.

Except I doubt you'd ever get it to lay perfectly smooth inside, especially around the top - crinkles and creases will abound...

[CedB]

2 hours ago, andyf117 said:

Except I doubt you'd ever get it to lay perfectly smooth inside, especially around the top - crinkles and creases will abound...

Ah, good point Andy on this tiny thing  

 

 

I've mixed up some more plaster stuff and splurged it on the bucks - I'll sand it tomorrow and show photos then.

 

Meanwhile, next steps are probably either the cockpit or the engine bay:

 

 

I'm more familiar with scratching cockpits so let's see what's needed. Here's The Generals version (scroll down a bit). He's drilled out a piece of card and put some rod in the back where the instruments poke through with the intention of using decal dials later. Hmmm.

 

I might try to cheat and print out a photo of the panel:

 

 

Right, do you see those two shapes in the top left hand corner? They're sized versions of the drawing and photo. I reckon they're about 7mm wide. Here's the kit part:

 

 

Not sure where that should fit but it's not the right shape or layout.

Here's the scaled photo:

 

 

OK, I need to fire up the Canon hi-res printer but you see the problem - it's tiny! How Melchie made his I'll never know.

 

I think I need to sleep on it…

[perdu]

I sent off to Canada for instrument decals, can't remember the name just now

 

There has been beer...

[keefr22]

2 minutes ago, perdu said:

I sent off to Canada for instrument decals, can't remember the name just now

 

 

Mike Grant?

[CedB]

23 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

26 minutes ago, perdu said:

I sent off to Canada for instrument decals, can't remember the name just now

 

 

Mike Grant?

Thanks Guys - I have some of those! Certainly an option  

It has to be better than my print idea - see:

 

 

7, 8 and 9mm wide prints on the Canon. Are they any good?

 

 

That'll be a no then.

 

In other news I decided that, if I'm going to glue the internals in, I'd better make sure the canopy fits so I've done the scariest bit so far:

 

 

Phew.

Needs a bit more fitting but at least I know the fuselage width is OK so I can glue in the metal and fill around the gaps.

[perdu]

1 hour ago, keefr22 said:

 

Mike Grant?

That's the kiddie

 

They look fine, certainly going in the Bilvedere

 

The canopy fit looks good, go for it

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

2 hours ago, CedB said:

might try to cheat and print out a photo of the panel:

 

Seeing this i now realize just how small (SCARY) this build really is.  Ced Im in awe of your bravery as I can barely see the thing. 

[StephenCJ]

Ced if you convert the image to a vector graphic it can be made smaller without it becoming pixelated.  If you like I would like to have a go for you.

Youtube vid here 

 

 

Stephen

Edited February 15, 2020 by StephenCJ

[CedB]

51 minutes ago, StephenCJ said:

Ced if you convert the image to a vector graphic it can be made smaller without it becoming pixelated.  If you like I would like to have a go for you.

Thanks Stephen, very kind of you  

 

I have some graphic experience so I watched the video and the guy says that you can only convert plain graphics rather than photos, but you got me thinking…

I've fiddled with some software before and, although my graphic design skills are limited, I had a go in Inkscape - no conversion there.

BUT it (and you) gave me an idea - if I import the image into Silhouette Studio I could mess around with the trace option AND use the cutter to cut out the panel shape - not the dials, I'm not that silly (quiet at the back there!) and maybe make a 'cleaner' image too.

More on that later.

 

I've sanded the bucks this morning.

Gently.

With Micromesh pads.

It was all looking good until the last stage when I decided to brush some water over the (now shinyish) buck and that's when the 'filler' came out of some places.

Rats.

Here's where we are now:

 

 

Now, as this is an experiment I think I'll try pulling those and see what the effect of the dents and bubbles is - it'll be a learning experience and I can fill (again) and try again.

That way I can learn how lazy I can be what quality the buck needs to be with my kit.

 

I also started on the greeblies with 'the thing on the back in front of the tail rotor:

 

 

Quite satisfying but heck does it do your eyes in.

The main problem is keeping everything square, but tiny trimming helped.

 

While I was punching out the round bit (cutting rod this small with a scalpel flattened it and sawing would give me a rough edge) I noticed this:

 

 

Option B for the i/p?

 

I'm at that stage where I have various techniques to use so I can chop and change to keep the mojo going.

Best to make a list so I don't forget (I won't update this here all the time)

 

To do:

• Greeblies on Stbd front
• Panels (front, port and top of tail)
• Internal cockpit
  • i/p
  • seats
  • controls
  • boxes
• Engine bay
• Rotor head
• Folding mechanism
• Undercarraige

Scary!

[perdu]

All seems to be working out nicely Ced

 

Very satisfying to watch the Bufton mind working things out, ta mate

[The Spadgent]

Wow!!!! Totally in awe of this at the moment. It’s taken me two days to catch up here and there. (Work has been busy) our art director has been, well. Directin’ 🤫 The work in the background of the moulding is amazing and almost over looked. All that attention to detail is sublime dear boy. Hats off. 👍

I got my voucher yesterday slowing for the purchase of a VF machine but I’m not sure if I need one. I know I want one but..... watching this is scratching an itch for sure. You’re deffo coming on with the moulding though. Storms a comin’ which can only mean more modelin’ 🤩 oh the blue card looks great. I used some once to copy @giemme but eventually it got too much of a pain. Might bring it back now I’m on the new desk? Either way keep on keeping on Mr B. We’re intrigued and delighted by your work as always. 😍

 

Johnny.

[CedB]

3 hours ago, perdu said:

All seems to be working out nicely Ced

 

Very satisfying to watch the Bufton mind working things out, ta mate

Thank you Bill - I'm certainly learning a LOT!  

2 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Wow!!!! Totally in awe of this at the moment. It’s taken me two days to catch up here and there. (Work has been busy) our art director has been, well. Directin’ 🤫 The work in the background of the moulding is amazing and almost over looked. All that attention to detail is sublime dear boy. Hats off. 👍

I got my voucher yesterday slowing for the purchase of a VF machine but I’m not sure if I need one. I know I want one but..... watching this is scratching an itch for sure. You’re deffo coming on with the moulding though. Storms a comin’ which can only mean more modelin’ 🤩 oh the blue card looks great. I used some once to copy @giemme but eventually it got too much of a pain. Might bring it back now I’m on the new desk? Either way keep on keeping on Mr B. We’re intrigued and delighted by your work as always. 😍

 

Johnny.

Thanks Johnny  

I was in two minds about the VF machine too but I needed a bit of retail therapy. Good fun but not essential unless you need to mould lots of canopies and bits of plastic.

You could put the voucher towards a MARS 3D printer?

 

I've decided to build on the kit internals (rather than skin them) so they've been glued in with 5min epoxy:

 

 

I took some (very) rough measurements of the internals:

 

 

…and drew a paper template:

 

 

I dry fitted this to the bay and adjusted as required.

 

I dithered over making the 'tray' from bits of plastic glued together or brass sheet and decided on the brass as it can be bent to shape and wiggled. What thickness though?

 

 

Chose the .003, stuck the paper template on and cut it out:

 

 

Of course it doesn't quite fit.

Hmmm.

 

Lunchtime!

 

[hendie]

33 minutes ago, CedB said:

Of course it doesn't quite fit.

 

Ced, I've got loads of those brass bita that "doesn't quite fit" at first attempt.  Give it a few months and you'll find something to be able to repurpose it for.  Alternatively, it looks like you have enough plastic in that huge skeeter to scrape away a clearance channel.

 

PS - its great to see you getting into brass at last.  Now when the soldering iron comes out...