RAF FE8, Scaleplanes 1:72 vac

[pheonix]

.....and then add the booms and tail unit and rig all of that! Pushers are fun aren't they Ian?

 

P

[Brandy]

Thanks P, although the booms and tail are simple compared to the wings, so the worst is over!

 

Step 1 of the clean-up!

 

First off, I always sharpen up a toothpick and touch thin (the thinnest I can get) CA to each side of each line to ensure the holes are filled and the lines are secured. Because it's thin it should wick in, and it doesn't set too quickly on the surface so any excess can be cleaned off. I use the back of a standard knife blade or even a finger tip. But be quick if you wipe it with your finger, don't let it glue your finger to the wing!

Using a NEW #11 blade the ends were trimmed off. A new blade is essential as you barely have to touch the tip against the wire and it drops off. With an old blade, even one that's not very old but has been used, pressure is needed and that's where things start going bad, like gouges in the wings!

After that a smear of watered down PPP, wiped off with a damp fingertip, is all that should be required to fill any remaining holes. 

 

So that's where I am as of this evening.

 

 

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I erred in painting the upper wing too early. I usually do the base coat and remove the masking, then leave the rest until after this step. That way I don't have to worry about losing the rib detail because I have to add more coats. I remembered before I did it completely so hopefully a spot touch-up with a small brush then the final coat will hide any signs of the fixes. 

 

We'll see...

 

 

Thanks for looking in, stay safe!

 

Ian

[DMC]

Bookmarking this thread, Ian.  I expect your primer on rigging to be very useful fairly soon.

 

Definatley staying safe

 

Dennis

 

[pheonix]

That is looking very good Ian. Good tip with the use of very thin CA to fill the rigging holes - must consider that in future.

 

P

[Brandy]

On 7/3/2020 at 4:52 PM, DMC said:

Bookmarking this thread, Ian.  I expect your primer on rigging to be very useful fairly soon.

 

Definatley staying safe

 

Dennis

 

 

On 7/10/2020 at 1:05 AM, pheonix said:

That is looking very good Ian. Good tip with the use of very thin CA to fill the rigging holes - must consider that in future.

 

P

Thanks gents. Glad to know the thread is useful to you!

 

Just a brief update today. As you may have gathered I've lost my mojo a little of late and have kept putting off doing much of anything. A few spells spent sitting at the bench contemplating possible methods of attaching the booms and that's been about it. I was going to solder the booms and central strut before fititn gthem to the wings but now I'm not sure they'll slip between the wings if already soldered, so I ordered some epoxy and may use that, attaching each boom separately with the tail as a guide, then adding the central strut afterwards. That plan may also change, but that's my plan at the moment.

 

Anyway, before that step I have to tidy up the upper wing surface, so that was done today. A final sand of the areas most in need - those on the inner rear interplane struts and the area just behind them where i'd gone a little too far with reaming out the mounting points for the upper booms and gone through in a couple of places, then the wing edges were masked. I spot repaired the worst areas, then gave the entire upper wing surface a couple of light coats to finish it off and blend in the repairs. A quick coat of grey on the booms and that's it for today.

 

Before:

 

and after:

 

 

and the booms:

 

I Cad the ends to an offcut of plastic rod to hold them for painting. Hopefully they'll come off without damaging the paint!

 

Thanks for looking in, and stay safe!

 

Ian

[pheonix]

My advice re-booms Ian is that they are best attached to the wings first, then attach to the tail, using epoxy. That will allow you to move them as necessary to get the correct angles but create a firm joint when the epoxy has set. On a model as small as this I would strongly advise against trying to assemble the booms as a separate unit before fixing to the wings - I can guarantee that they will not fit!

 

You already know how I have made pushers from previous build threads and I have always avoided pre-assembled boom units.

 

P

 

 

[Brandy]

That's the plan P!

I'll attach to the wings and trap the horizontal tail between the rear ends as I do it, then fine tune the angle of the tail before gluing it.

Since the booms are cut to length that should also ensure that the tail is at the right height since there will be only one possible place where everything will line up correctly.

 

Ian

[Brandy]

Another small update. They seem to have been coming few and far between lately but I think that now I've got the wing surfaces done it's "all downhill from here!"

The latest news is that decaling is now completed! Yesterday I attacked the prop and tyres. Yes, you read that correctly Tyres!

 

I bought a set of LF Models tyre logos and this is my first attempt at using them. They are nicely printed, in white, on a pale blue backing sheet! There are two logos on the sheet: PALMER and PALMER CORD AERO, and they are sized for 5 different wheel diameters: 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 15mm, and 18mm.

There are 20 PALMER logos in all sizes except 18mm, which only has 9 for some reason, 8 PALMER CORD AERO logos in 8, 10, and 12mm, and 6 in 15 and 18mm. Since the tyres had the logo on both sides this means only 4 tyres with the AERO logo in the smaller sizes so it could get expensive if you want to do all your tyres.

 

Firstly a little warning. They are virtually impossible to see on the backing sheet, which makes cutting them out accurately a tad difficult However, I did get them done. Eventually

Lesson 1 learned the hard way: Do them one at a time!

 

I tried to trim 4 at once with the scalpel. I got it done ok, but when it came time to apply them it became obvious that I had handled them too much and out of the 4 only 1 was usable. The printing on all the others had been damaged by my handling them. I decided then to only do one side of each tyre, and the replacement decal, trimmed separately, was fine, but still almost impossible to see until the paper was wet.

 

Anyway, they look pretty good and I will certainly buy more at some point. They do add that little extra to the look!

 

The prop logos are from the same company, and although slightly over scale are better than not using them at all.

 

 

Part of Poland PE prop hub (SE5a type) also added.

 

 

Today's job was to finish the decals, and add the wing roundels.

 

Easy!

 

 

 

A decent coating of decal solution and those will be left until tomorrow when I can finish the wings with a light wash and seal coat.

 

Thanks for looking in, and stay safe!

 

Ian

[CedB]

Very nice work Ian  

 

I did a double take on the wheels thinking 'Oh dear, he's missed a bit'. Then I realised they're valve holes eh? 

More tiny detailing?

[Brandy]

Yup. More tiny detailing. Most probably with a blob of dark paint.

Hi tech stuff!

 

Ian

[keefr22]

Lovely work Ian, coming along very nicely!

 

Keith

[AdrianMF]

Looks like Mr Mojo is back in town! Glorious.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[TheBaron]

Beautiful work Ian. Glad to see things moving for you again!

 

 

[Brandy]

On 7/29/2020 at 8:39 PM, keefr22 said:

Lovely work Ian, coming along very nicely!

 

Keith

 

On 7/29/2020 at 8:40 PM, AdrianMF said:

Looks like Mr Mojo is back in town! Glorious.

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

On 7/29/2020 at 11:21 PM, TheBaron said:

Beautiful work Ian. Glad to see things moving for you again!

 

 

Thanks Gents, much appreciated Especially with the lack of mojo recently, it does help to regain it when you know others are gently nudging in the right direction!

 

It's a holiday weekend here so I've had 3 days at this Needless to say that hasn't resulted in much progress! I did a light wash on the wings and dull coated them. It should really have been a gloss coat but I dull coated the underside of the upper wing so the rest has to match. Oops!

 

Yesterday morning was spent making up a  high-tech jig (plasticene squished to the right height!) and the lower booms were fitted. I decided against the epoxy I'd bought as I don't know how it will affect the plastic. I'll try on something unimportant first! So back to Gator's Grip! The rigging lines were attached to the boom undersides and trapped between boom and wing to secure them then it was left alone until late afternoon when I added some thin CA to the joins to reinforce them.

 

 

This morning showed them to be secure so I continued with the upper booms.

Here's where she sits now, until at least tomorrow afternoon!

 

 

I have also decided on the next model. The Taube will wait as I won't get the engine for it until Christmas. I was undecided until I looked at my display cabinet and noticed a big gap - no 1915 Allied aircraft! So as a teaser, this is what will follow....

 

 

Thanks for looking in and stay safe!

 

Ian

[Hamden]

 

Nice to see this progress not to far to the finish line now.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the Gunbus

 

           Roger

[AdrianMF]

I’m trying and failing to get a Basil Brush joke in here...

 

The boomwork looks great. I didn’t realise how sparse and spindly these things could get, having been raised on Revell DH2s, which look like garden gates in comparison.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Terry1954]

This is looking truly splendid Ian. Really like the attention to detail and the overall finesse of your work.

 

Come on @AdrianMF, you know you want to ......... there are two booms at least.....

 

Terry

[pheonix]

That is an interesting jig Ian - I have used plasticene in the past but not quite in that way.

 

Good news about the Gunbus: I have been getting quite lonely in recent years thinking that I was the only one who is seriously interested in them In reality they are not much more difficult than any other biplane, but they are more interesting.

 

P

[gunzo]

FWIW, I don't think epoxy reacts adversely with any plastics or paint- it solely works on mechanical grip and it is pretty well non shrink which is a good thing for delicate structures.

 

Les

[CedB]

Nice work Ian - those booms looks very fragile… good practice for the Gunbus!  

[Martian]

Nice work Ian. Looking forward to the Gun Bus as well.

 

Martian 👽

[Brandy]

On 8/1/2020 at 1:19 PM, Hamden said:

 

Nice to see this progress not to far to the finish line now.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the Gunbus

 

           Roger

Thanks Roger, nearly there in terms of the amount to do, but after today not sure how long time wise!

 

On 8/1/2020 at 2:31 PM, AdrianMF said:

I’m trying and failing to get a Basil Brush joke in here...

 

The boomwork looks great. I didn’t realise how sparse and spindly these things could get, having been raised on Revell DH2s, which look like garden gates in comparison.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Never mind Adrian, there will be another one along soon..... The booms are definitely a little more spindly than the Revell DH2!

 

On 8/1/2020 at 2:46 PM, Terry1954 said:

This is looking truly splendid Ian. Really like the attention to detail and the overall finesse of your work.

 

Come on @AdrianMF, you know you want to ......... there are two booms at least.....

 

Terry

Thanks Terry!

 

On 8/1/2020 at 5:21 PM, pheonix said:

That is an interesting jig Ian - I have used plasticene in the past but not quite in that way.

 

Good news about the Gunbus: I have been getting quite lonely in recent years thinking that I was the only one who is seriously interested in them In reality they are not much more difficult than any other biplane, but they are more interesting.

 

P

Plasticene in use again today too.... I have more than a few pushers in the stash, I think 7 or 8 not including this and the FB5 (or the floatplanes), so plenty more to come!

 

On 8/1/2020 at 5:22 PM, gunzo said:

FWIW, I don't think epoxy reacts adversely with any plastics or paint- it solely works on mechanical grip and it is pretty well non shrink which is a good thing for delicate structures.

 

Les

Thanks Les, I was more worried about any heat given off during curing.

 

On 8/3/2020 at 2:28 AM, CedB said:

Nice work Ian - those booms looks very fragile… good practice for the Gunbus!  

They are! I broke 2 of them off yesterday and had to reattach them ready for today's session!

 

On 8/3/2020 at 10:44 AM, Martian said:

Nice work Ian. Looking forward to the Gun Bus as well.

 

Martian 👽

Thanks Martian!

 

In the buildup to attaching the tail a number of other tasks were required first so they were taken care of over the last couple of days. Mainly re the tail assembly. I had already painted the fin and rudder stripes but wasn't happy with the stripes as the paint was too dark. Does anyone have a good match for the RFC red and blue in Vallejo or Ammo acrylic?

 The tail skid was added and painted, then I used a decal for the rudder stripes. When all was dry I attached the fins and rudder to the horizontal stabilizer and rigged it all.

 

 

 

Happy with that. 

 

As I mentioned above I knocked off two of the four booms yesterday so had to reattach them and let them dry overnight.

 

This afternoon I started on trying to attach the tail assembly. I had a few possibilities as to how I was going to get it mounted correctly, hold the rigging wires in place, and glue it, all at the same time. All of those quickly failed the practical test.

 

I settled on adding the rigging wires first, then aligning the booms with the holes I'd drilled before applying a small piece of masking tape to hold it all in position The plan was then to simply add glue and leave it. 

 

Ha!

The big problem is that the booms meet the tail assembly in the horizontal plane, so there is no rigidity until the tail is attached!

I put the plane on its nose on my turntable and the small pegs I used to tension the rigging obviously pulled the tail forward.  I think it would have been easier to have added a small lip to the rear end of one of each pair of struts to stop the tail sliding forwards. That was my main issue, the other was trying to get it vertical, horizontal, and level in all 3 axes at the same time. One small adjustment in one plane put one or both others out, or made the tail slide forwards and I had to start again!
After about 3 hours of adjusting, readjusting, and re-re adjusting during which time I got it very nearly right many times then made one more little tweak and it all went pear shaped, I finally applied glue.

 

 

 

 

I'm definitely glad I finished rigging the tail before attaching it, and she will sit like that until my next session, tomorrow at the earliest.

 

Time for a beer!

 

Thanks for looking in, and stay safe!

 

Ian

 

[pheonix]

Well the most difficult part is over.Just make sure that you do not knock it again and knock another boom off....! You should have built the Gunbus and perhaps another pusher first as they were easier in my experience.

 

P

[CedB]

Wow, that's some jig Ian - good job!  

[Hamden]

 

You have GREATER patience than I Ian, extremely fine engineering with this one throughout!

 

   Roger