Ray S Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 18 hours ago, Moa said: I just did a dry-run of the whole fuselage assembly. The fit is despicable. But that is the word I had to use per force, because the word I really wanted to use would had me expelled from this prestigious Website and Forum. The engineering is nonsensical and I am seriously thinking about calling upon @Martian ahem... drastic methods to deal with its designers. Yes, brute force, lots of glue, merciless shaving and a bucket of filler may do, but I rather tweak the fit until I am satisfied with a reasonable result (a stage that now seems far away). I like to think as the work performed to improve a kit as something you lay upon it basic nature, but here it's actually struggling first to obtain a half-decent base. I have, like most of you, built during my life tons of Airfix kits. This one is among the worse I have encountered. Yes, I know it's very old (1968), but really... I have been waiting with Zen-like patience for this stage in your build @Moa to see where I could have (of) improved this section. I did not need to use filler along the four fuselage joints, but then again I am in serious need of better close-up reading/modelling glasses. I will be watching closely! Regards, Ray 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 22 hours ago, dogsbody said: That seems like rather cruel and unusual punishment. Couldn't we just force him to build a WW2 fighter? Maybe something from Tamiya? Chris Nah! nothing less than a full set of V bombers would do but then they all come with decent instructions so the point wouldn't get made. FM did a civil Halifax kit, that should be guaranteed to reduce anyone to a gibbering wreck. Martian 👽 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Ranger Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 (edited) 19 hours ago, Marklo said: Well yes and no. By opening the room we will have influenced the outcome and collapsed the probability wave. But if the parallel worlds solution is correct all possible states of @moa Weill occur it just isn’t clear which one we will perceive as having occurred, simple ehh. I don't know if we can stand all possible states of Moa. That might cause a complete collapse of the space-time continuum as we know it, with an infinite number of MoaBuilds here on BritModeller. Just to think about it staggers the mind! Edited September 10, 2020 by Space Ranger 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 5 minutes ago, Space Ranger said: I don't know if we can stand all possible states of Moa. I took one look and decided to not even try. Martian 👽 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 Well, I committed gluing the cabin floor to one side of the fuselage, and then adding the other side. We'll see how it works: The dishonorable discharge: As per photo: Never fly inverted with a Ford 3m: 10 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 The Martian is distracting me. I almost forgot the most important part of the build! And do not come with those outrageous theories that they used magazines, newspapers, furry animals, cactus and the like. That may have been in England (well, not the cactus, but other folliage), but this is South America in 1935, and you can see toilet rolls advertised long before that. 7 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Moa said: The dishonorable discharge: Or as those of us, up here in The Great North Woods call it: the poo chute! Chris 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Moa said: Never fly inverted with a Ford 3m: Unless you are pulling least 1G to maintain fuel flow and oil pressure--and toilet stability. A barrel roll would be the best way of doing that. This is looking really great, Moa, despite the tribulations to date. I really enjoy seeing this come together! BTW: Your description of Argentina's economy as "coconut-based" is appallingly close to the truth...or so I understand. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 17 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: BTW: Your description of Argentina's economy as "coconut-based" is appallingly close to the truth...or so I understand. My tongue-in-cheek description roots on a private joke with my American friends about the many misconceptions other (generally the so called "1st world"*) countries have about Argentina and Latin America in general. As I mercilessly criticized all the universally known unflattering aspects of the (again, so called) American culture, we will play a sort of Yorkshiremen joke but about Argentina: people living in trees, going about naked, etc. Part of the mocking misconception played on the fact that coconuts are not at all a thing in Argentina (and many other Latin-American countries) as may be, bananas could be, but Argentina is not a banana-producing country at any important level either, and so on. I have experienced in my life as Argentinean born and bred a (too long) string of disastrous, cowardly, shameful and many times bloody military coupes, and some fragile democratic governments. A few were ok, Most oscillated between an inane, clownish, inefficient mockery of Neo-liberalism (itself a visibly failed and/or failing model) and populism. I have been out of the country too long to have a really good, first-hand grasp of what's going on, so I won't comment about recent events. But my subjective impression is that none of the latest governments of any political sign did a good job for all the people. In any case, Latin-America is a too complex, too different place for most people of other backgrounds to comprehend, to understand. Globality is a myth that crumbles at the smallest attempt of examination. Financial forces shaping the world is a very, very, very bad idea. *If you could hear the roaring, deafening laughter of all those "3rd World" countries looking now at the ridiculous, sad, Kafkian current state of the US... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 23 minutes ago, Moa said: If you could hear the roaring, deafening laughter of all those "3rd World" countries looking now at the ridiculous, sad, Kafkian current state of the US... It’s Kafka only on odd-numbered days. The rest of the time, it’s Orwell. 😭 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 2 minutes ago, billn53 said: The rest of the time, it’s Orwell. You absolutely nailed it, Bill! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 The naughty corner: 5 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 We were just watching re-runs of Miss Marple, when a certain Colonel Melchett appeared. It got me wondering if he may be related to our @general melchett ? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 Well, careful cleaning and dry runs, plus the removal of a ridge made the fit much better: The main problem is that the width of the cabin floor is much narrower than that of the fuselage bottom, thus if you glue first the cabin floor (as I did) then the gap for the fuselage bottom is too narrow (I had the pry open the fuselage sides from the cabin floor a bit). One more time: darn old Airfix. But now everything is in place, no awful, gaps, all aligned and flush, and only a pass with liquid primer at the seams should be enough: 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roginoz Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 I'll be fascinated to see what you use for weathering the poo-shute outflow......... I suppose there's any number of shades of brown and green available, depending upon the meals eaten pre-flight............or the strength of the onboard liquor....... Rog 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 4 hours ago, Moa said: We were just watching re-runs of Miss Marple, when a certain Colonel Melchett appeared. It got me wondering if he may be related to our @general melchett ? Almost certainly I should think. 5 hours ago, billn53 said: The naughty corner: That's @corsaircorp's place! He's not going to be happy, especially as his crayons have been half inched. 8 hours ago, Moa said: The Martian is distracting me. I almost forgot the most important part of the build! What do you expect if you invoke the Martian? Martian 👽 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
general melchett Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 Quote We were just watching re-runs of Miss Marple, when a certain Colonel Melchett appeared. It got me wondering if he may be related to our @general melchett ? Young Terrence, indeed he is, second cousin on my Great Dane's side...we don't tend to mention him in polite circles as he tarnished the family name with his questionable recreational habits...as Agatha herself described him "a dapper little man with a habit of snorting suddenly and unexpectedly"....need I say more. Lovely job on the old Trimotor, never having build one I couldn't comment on the state of the thing suffice to say that those I know who have attempted it are mostly now inmates of select sanatoriums for the criminally insane such as Martian Towers and the like. Those clamps oft save the day... 3 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 Very little work at the seams required: 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 Great work on getting the fuselage squared away (pun intended!) 1 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 16 minutes ago, billn53 said: Great work on getting the fuselage squared away (pun intended!) Thanks Bill We usually try to look for the cause of bad fit and/or misalignment, and then correct the issue as much as we can. But this kit has several things going wrong at the same time. Retrospectively -and just as one example, and besides what I already spotted and commented on it- I would sand the fuselage floor aft of the landing gear legs -on the other side of the corrugations, naturally- as some of the locating tabs (henceforth considered dislocating tabs) on the fuselage sides are impeding the bottom to go all the way in. The tabs at the nose are bad too. Summarizing: some features on this kit designed to help alignment, do exactly the opposite. The endeavor of producing a corrugated trimotor kit in 1968 is truly commendable, but unfortunately it fell short, and not for the usual reasons (like lack of detail or gross inaccuracies), just questionable engineering. Pity, as it fills an important modeling niche, and depicts a very attractive plane, loved by many, and not bad at all as 50+ year old kits go. Just plagued with fit issues and that smooth leading edge. Time for a new one, or (although I am not sure that's at all feasible) reworking of the molds? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangseat Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 12 hours ago, roginoz said: I'll be fascinated to see what you use for weathering the poo-shute outflow......... How has Ammo Mig not done a set for this yet? 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 A beautiful hawk perched today in the garden. The sky is light grey with a tinge of yellow (not visible in the photo) due to the ashes of the many raging wildfires. We couldn't open the windows this morning because of the burnt smell. 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 The well-appointed facilities: The lid goes over, have to keep an eye, as usual, on the fit and alignment: 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 One of the various culprits of the fit issues: Airfix tells you to glue the cockpit bulkhead (and at that point the whole interior attached to it) before the ridge. But if you do that, it misaligns the top of the bulkhead that has to go inside the wing's corresponding partial bulkhead. If you glue the bulkhead behind the locating ridge, the wing fits comfortably, but you have to modify the other cockpit locating ridges to clear the cockpit floor: This is supposed to be the right location initially devised by Airfix, but the kit makes it impossible to do that: Properly locating the wing, and following the instructions regarding where the cockpit bulkhead goes, you get this (dry-run): The detail on the bulkhead facing the cabin won't be visible if it's located ahead of the wing's partial bulkhead: Since I just discovered this, I will have to remove the wing partial bulkhead to allow the fuselage bulkhead to be seen from the interior. Thanks once more, old Airfix. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 Scoring the hinge line and deflecting the elevators a few degrees for a more realistic effect: 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now