It's a 'Art wiv an 'Ook: 28 Sqn Audax

[hendie]

Another brief update while I take a quick break from work.

I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but I opened up a couple of holes on the nose - at some point in the future there will need to be rigging affixed here - still haven't figured out exactly how yet though.

 

 

There are also two scoops fitted on the nose of the Audax.  AMG provide these little blocks - not the greatest, but sufficient.   I was going to replace them with brass, but didn't have anything suitable, so plastic it will be.

 

 

I hollowed out the scoop using the scribers I showed above - very useful little tools.

The scoops are a bit high though - according to the photo references, the scoops are mounted just above the air frame and no more.

 

 

Cutting them down was a simple task.  I drilled and pinned them with brass rod as an additional security method.  Just dry fitted here though.  I'm going to wait until I have painted the nose before I fit them.

 

 

Now it all gets rather exhausting.

I hummed and hawed regarding the exhaust headers I made the other day. I was really wanting to try them in brass to see how they turned out. I know that lots of folks are somewhat intimidated by using brass, but once you try it, it really isn't as difficult as it appears so I'm going to show the entire process, warts and all.

So... starting with some brass rod and some brass tube

 

 

Before I go any further - since there are two exhaust headers, I was going to need to lengths of brass rod with exactly the same bend angle in them.  Easy way to accomplish that.... clamp two lengths of rod in the vise at the same time, and bend them both together. Simple.

I was using brass rod as the main header because it needed to bend inwards at the front. Brass tube has a tendancy to kink at a bend unless you use a proper bending tool - which I don't have at present, so brass rod was the easy option - to maintain a constant diameter around the bend.

Next, take the brass tube and a rat tail file, and file the ends of the tube at an angle.

 

 

making sure that you get a curve across the entire surface.

 

 

I cleaned up the outer diameter of the tube but left the ragged edges inside the tube - those will give the solder something else to grip onto.

Once you have the initial curves filed into the end of the tube, it's a simple process of adjusting the angle of the file to get the tube to match up to the original bend in the rod. It doesn't have to be exact - just close enough as the solder will fill up any gaps.

 

 

I started off using my soldering iron, but the brass rod was sucking the heat out of the tip before I could get enough heat into the tube, so I resorted to my little gas torch.

I also wanted to do all the joints at once as there was a significant danger that each solder joint would weaken the previous solder joint as they were all so close together.

It's not pretty but it got the job done

 

 

As I said- not pretty, but the solder got around all the joints which was the main thing.

 

 

The great thing about solder is that it cleans up really easily - wire wool, file, or the edge of a blade will all get rid of any excess solder quickly.  The wire wool is especially helpful in getting rid of any rough edges

About two minutes worth of scrubbing with wire wool soon cleaned up the assembly.  I spotted here that I got the angle a bit off, but I'm not too concerned as you are not going to see a whole lot of the headers once fitted

 

 

A little bit of action with a dremmel clone cutting disc and a file soon evened things up

 

 

The entire process for one header assembly took less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Well worth the effort  think.

But what do they actually look like in place?

Well, here you go

 

 

and a merciless close up.  As you can see, the little difference in the angles is barely noticeable once the exhaust header is in place. It will be even less so once they are painted up

 

 

Next operation will be to trim the headers to length.  The Audax exhausts ran about 3/4's the length of the fuselage and also have a couple of bends along the length, and I have a plan chundering away in my head which I hope will work to good effect.

 

 

 

 

[giemme]

Impressive exhausts  

 

Or exhaustive impressions? I'm confused...

 

 

Ciao 

[CedB]

Superb brass work hendie  

[bigbadbadge]

Those exhausts look fab, great work 

Chris 

[Tzulscha]

Love the hotrod headers!

Up to your usual standards Hendie, both repartee and construction.

Very pretty bird too. I always liked the front end that Hawker put on their early kites.

If you are accepting votes on the finish, I like shiny!

[perdu]

3 hours ago, Tzulscha said:

Love the hotrod headers!

Up to your usual standards Hendie, both repartee and construction.

Very pretty bird too. I always liked the front end that Hawker put on their early kites.

If you are accepting votes on the finish, I like shiny!

 

I agree with him!

 

Great exhaustion.

[TheBaron]

In today's 'Pimp my Audax': Hot Rod Hendie.

Top tubing that is giving me withdrawal symptoms from the magic alloy. Brilliant. 👏

 

 

[Brandy]

Lovely exhausts. I assume you are going to solder tube to the rear end. 

Re your comment on my FE8 thread, no, it doesn't surprise me that the control horn issue was thought out properly!

 

Ian

[hendie]

On 9/24/2020 at 4:02 PM, giemme said:

Impressive exhausts  

 

Or exhaustive impressions? I'm confused...

 

 

Ciao 

 

On 9/24/2020 at 5:48 PM, CedB said:

Superb brass work hendie  

 

On 9/24/2020 at 6:29 PM, bigbadbadge said:

Those exhausts look fab, great work 

Chris 

 

On 9/24/2020 at 11:18 PM, Tzulscha said:

Love the hotrod headers!

Up to your usual standards Hendie, both repartee and construction.

Very pretty bird too. I always liked the front end that Hawker put on their early kites.

If you are accepting votes on the finish, I like shiny!

 

On 9/25/2020 at 3:12 AM, perdu said:

 

I agree with him!

 

Great exhaustion.

 

Thanks guys.

 

On 9/25/2020 at 3:42 AM, TheBaron said:

In today's 'Pimp my Audax': Hot Rod Hendie.

Top tubing that is giving me withdrawal symptoms from the magic alloy. Brilliant. 👏

 

 

 

It is nice to gt back to some brass work every now and again Tony

 

On 9/25/2020 at 9:24 AM, Brandy said:

Lovely exhausts. I assume you are going to solder tube to the rear end. 

Re your comment on my FE8 thread, no, it doesn't surprise me that the control horn issue was thought out properly!

 

Ian

 

Thanks Ian.  Yup, the back end of the exhaust system will be something along those lines, though I think just a bit different. Maybe.  Perhaps.  If it works. My idea that is.

 

More construction follows.  I've been swithering back and forth with this - these biplanes are strange beats indeed.  When do you paint what parts?  There's so many rods and bars and sticky outy bits and sticky in betweeny bits that it was difficult to determine when the best time to paint it was.  If too many of those stays and struts and stuff go on, will I be able to get good paint coverage? 

Anyways,. the vertical stabilizer was stuck on - the rudder is just dry fitted to help with the alignment.  It's impossible to see here and I didn't take any photo's but the leading edge if the stabilizer is offset to port.

 

 

Again (and I know I'm getting boring with this, but the molding quality is outstanding. However, I am going to replace that aerial mast with brass as I'm pretty certain it's not going to withstand the Held By Hendie test.

AMG also provide two different rudder arrangements. One plain rudder and one with a trim tab and tail lamp.  Unfortunately neither of them are correct for the Audax, at least according to the photos I have of 28 Sqn Audiiii

Easily remedied by sticking on a trim tab, and shaping some runner to form the lamp housing.

 

 

As you can see below, the other rudder has a trim tab and a tail lamp, however in all the photos I have, the trim tab is above the lamp

 

 

AMG do not provide anything for the interior of the radiator housing, and it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to see through the PE, but I happened to have one of Robby the Robots ears left hanging around so it seemed rude not to use it.

 

 

That was painted black, then the housing was glued in position

 

 

The next little carbuncle provided some minutes of endless amusement. It is not mentioned anywhere in the instructions and it was only by chance that I spotted it on the runner before I discarded it, thinking it was empty.

It's a little teardrop lump that fits on top of the nose, see here held on to some blue-tac held in the tweezers.  Yes, it's entirely possible for it to fall down inside the nose, never to be seen again.

 

 

I used TET and carefully placed the teardrop in the hole, only to watch it sink at the front and begin to disappear down inside.  I had to use a piece of bent wire stuck inside the exhaust space to try and force it back up into place. It was a worrying couple of minutes but we got it in place- to stay.

After that it was Mr Dissolved Putty time again and about an hour today sanding down and polishing up the nose once again.

 

 

Now it was time for the first piece of etch on the air-frame.  I assume this is a hinge on top of the nose.  

I put this on now because I thought it would be better to glue directly to the plastic rather than to paint. - I just hope I don't have to do any more polishing of that nose now.

 

 

Prime Time!

Having determined there was nothing more I could really add until some paint was on there, it was time for some primer

 

 

For a first pass I am really happy. There's the tiniest of seam visible on the very front of the nose, but so faint, I may not even bother addressing it.  The seams around the blisters look good.

 

 

and here's the cockpit coaming bare nekkid without any filler (I forgot to look at the other side though - that's tomorrows issue)

 

 

Back to the exhausts again. A rustle in my drawers produced some 1.5 mm diameter stainless steel rod.  I had an idea!

I used a scrap piece of aluminum rod to bend and get the shape of the exhausts to use as a template - mush easier to bend you see.  Once I had the general shape,  I clamped the two stainless rods in the vice and tried to bend them.  

Bloomin' 'eck, that was difficult. I never realized 1.5 mm ss rod was so tough.  I had to use the back edge of a file and push like a pushy push push thing just to get them to move.

Eventually, using the aluminum rod as a guide, I got two bends in approximately the right place.

 

 

 

Now the reason I chose to use the stainless rod, was that this being an exhausts system, was going to need to look used. What easier way to replicate the heat colors on steel than by heating it?  

The soldering torch was brought out again and I blasted the ss rod.

 

 

I want to leave some natural stainless before it goes into the muffler thingy at the end.  There's a bit of bluing and some nice blackening on the rod.  I may experiment a little more but I'm pretty pleased with the way this is looking.

I'v used a small section of thin walled tube to cover the join between the brass and the stainless.  There does appear to be some kind of joint in this location in the reference photos

 

 

I have a plan for the brass - more to come on that in later episodes.

 

 

The stainless still needs trimmed to size.  The 1:1 exhaust system ends at rear of the gunners position. I plan to use brass tube down there but need to try a few things first.  

In photos, that last section appears to be a slightly larger diameter, and I'm not sure if the exhaust is perforated or just a straight tube.  The photos are such poor quality it's impossible to determine.  I assume it's perforated as per the Hawker Demon exhaust in the BM walkround.  

No!  I am not going to attempt to drill lots of little holes and a piece of 1.5 mm diameter brass tube.  Even I am not that stupid.

 

 

Finally, in todays post.  Paint that isn't AK !!!  Hooray!

 

 

 

Now the question is... Do I continue with this build, or jump back to the Roden F2B?

 

 

 

[Brandy]

Interesting idea for the exhausts, I'm intrigued to see how you're going to get the brass to match!

 

Ian

[bigbadbadge]

Yes I am also increased re the exhausts too.  Looks lovely with some paint on great work. 

Chris

[perdu]

6 hours ago, hendie said:

For a first pass I am really happy. There's the tiniest of seam visible on the very front of the nose, but so faint, I may not even bother addressing it.  The seams around the blisters look good.

OK everybody.

 

Chances?

 

 

 

This looks too good to leave behind for a 'other boring bi-plane' which means you will probably do a Hendie and leave it whilst fighting in post WW1 Asia with the Brisfit.

 

I confess, my love of bi-planes is almost entirely concentrated upon Hawker's beautiful symmetries.

[CedB]

Lovely exhausts hendie  

 

She looks good in the primer too - why did you take it off?

[giemme]

Alright, alright: first, please continue with this build, please 🙏 

Secondly: why did you strip back the primer to do the exhaust thing?  Ah, no, it was before priming, you just reverted the pics order...

Just kidding, but I'd like to ask you references for that steel rod/pipe, I love the idea of getting heat staining by actually overheating it

 

Thirdly: you keep mentioning the excellent detail level of this kit, you almost made me want to buy my first biplane kit! (your pics do show the details pretty well, I must say)

 

Impressive job all round

 

Ciao

[Brandy]

4 hours ago, giemme said:

you almost made me want to buy my first biplane kit!

Go for it Giorgio, we want to see what you can do with a biplane!

 

Ian

[Terry1954]

Love those exhausts Alan, and the primer seems rather splendid. I may have missed it, but whose primer is it? Nice to see some MRP arriving. I'm a recent convert to these, although have not used them on any large surfaces yet, but where I have, it seems to be excellent.

 

5 hours ago, giemme said:

you almost made me want to buy my first biplane kit!

As Ian says Giorgio, go for it!

 

Terry

[Marklo]

2 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

you almost made me want to buy my first biplane kit!

Biplanes are cool, but why not go for a quadruplane.

 

 
 

Actially if you are going to embark on things multiwinged, I’d recommend a Fokker DR1, a Sopwith Triplane or a Poliksrpov I-15.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Marklo

[hendie]

15 hours ago, Brandy said:

Interesting idea for the exhausts, I'm intrigued to see how you're going to get the brass to match!

Ian

 

Intrigue no longer Ian...

 

12 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Yes I am also increased re the exhausts too.  Looks lovely with some paint on great work. 

Chris

 

thanks Chris

 

12 hours ago, perdu said:

OK everybody.

Chances?

This looks too good to leave behind for a 'other boring bi-plane' which means you will probably do a Hendie and leave it whilst fighting in post WW1 Asia with the Brisfit.

I confess, my love of bi-planes is almost entirely concentrated upon Hawker's beautiful symmetries.

 

still on this one so far Bill, though I did  squirt some grey on the Roden

 

10 hours ago, CedB said:

Lovely exhausts hendie  

She looks good in the primer too - why did you take it off?

 

Because I can Ced. Because I can.

 

8 hours ago, giemme said:

Alright, alright: first, please continue with this build, please 🙏 

Secondly: why did you strip back the primer to do the exhaust thing?  Ah, no, it was before priming, you just reverted the pics order...

Just kidding, but I'd like to ask you references for that steel rod/pipe, I love the idea of getting heat staining by actually overheating it

Thirdly: you keep mentioning the excellent detail level of this kit, you almost made me want to buy my first biplane kit! (your pics do show the details pretty well, I must say)

Impressive job all round

Ciao

 

3 hours ago, Brandy said:

Go for it Giorgio, we want to see what you can do with a biplane!

Ian

 

As Ian says Giorgio - you could do worse than starting with this AMG kit

 

3 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Love those exhausts Alan, and the primer seems rather splendid. I may have missed it, but whose primer is it? Nice to see some MRP arriving. I'm a recent convert to these, although have not used them on any large surfaces yet, but where I have, it seems to be excellent.

As Ian says Giorgio, go for it!

Terry

 

Terry, my go to primer is Alclad grey filler primer.  I tried the black but I had issues with it falling off and not sticking very well.  The grey primer has never let me down

 

52 minutes ago, Marklo said:

Biplanes are cool, but why not go for a quadruplane.

Actially if you are going to embark on things multiwinged, I’d recommend a Fokker DR1, a Sopwith Triplane or a Poliksrpov I-15.

 

I already do 4 winged things Marklo.  They're called helicopters!

 

 

 

Just a very small update today you'll all be glad to hear.

First up on the agenda was to check the seams on the starboard side. That large gap at the front of the cockpit coaming doesn't look so bad under primer. I'm not going to try and fill that - instead I'll call it just a badly fitting panel.

 

 

I did get some color on her today - after I fixed my compressor. Well, fixed enough to spray paint.  it's not achieving pressure and I think the O-Ring in the drain plug of the tank rotted away.  I replaced the O-Ring but the compressor doesn't appear to be shutting off, which I assume means it is not reaching pressure.  There's enough oomph to spray but I'll need to look into this further as I don't want the compressor running all day long.

oh, the color is Mr Hobby Aqueous Silver.

 

 

What a palaver it was spraying silver onto light grey primer!  You can hardly tell which area you've sprayed unless you catch it in the light.  I think I'm a bit light in some areas so I'll give it another coat at the next session.

To be honest I'm not entirely sure I like the silver finish.  The paint is fine - it's a very fine grain and looks good.  I'm just not sure I like it.  I wonder if a matt coat on top of the silver would look better?

Are we sure these aircraft were finished in silver and not  a very light grey?

 

Now Ian, to answer your question.

I bought a bottle of this stuff for my Pegasus build to darken the shiny brass tracks.

 

 

and thought I'd give it a try for the exhausts.

I had issues with it when coating the tracks for Pegasus but thought I could use that to my advantage.  I couldn't get a consistent covering on the tracks, but it gave some nice effects, so...

The exhausts were scrubbed with wire wool, then dipped in an acetone bath for a few minutes to make sure they were clean.

Then I brushed some of the Brass Black on them and left it a few minutes then rinsed with water.

 

 

I knew I was never going to get a full black covering due to the solder (this chemical only works on brass) but it turned out nicely.

 

 

The effect is actually better in the flesh - difficult to capture on camera

You can vary the black of the blackness by the length of time the brass is covered in the liquid, and you can also apply more coats to deepen the black, however, I think I got the right amount on first try.  Not too black, and not too brassy. Black enough to look sooty and exhaust like.

 

 

The chemical etching  provides a protective covering on the brass but I think I'll give them a clear coat to prevent any corrosion further down the line just in  case.

 

Now I just need to figure out the back end of the exhaust. It turns out the Audax exhaust is the same as that fitted to the Demon as seen here in a shot from the BM walkround.

 

 

I'm thinking I may just have to  suffice with a length of brass rod rounded at the end, and ignore the perforations.  I just can't think how to get an effect like that on a Ø1.5 mm rod

Those brackets aren't going to be much fun either.

 

 

 

[giemme]

Ah, so you also use "chemical stuff", right?

 

I see, I see....

 

 

Excellent effect, hendie

 

Ciao 

[TheBaron]

20 minutes ago, hendie said:

I just can't think how to get an effect like that on a Ø1.5 mm rod

I'd be tempted to wrap some fine gauze/mesh around it as a mask and blast - sorry, I mean of course delicately spray -  a little dark grey to give an expression to that patterning.

 

Them brackets'll be nothing to a craftspersonage of your dexterity to rustle up in short order.

 

As to:

20 hours ago, hendie said:

Do I continue with this build, or jump back to the Roden F2B?

- you seem to be enjoying this one a whole lot more?

 

[perdu]

43 minutes ago, hendie said:

I just can't think how to get an effect like that on a Ø1.5 mm rod

I haven't got any 1.5mm metal rod but I do have a bit of 1.6mm plastic, hope you dont mind me messing around in your thread

 

Saves me working in my own.

 

Wondering about your query, how about embossing the holes ON the rod?

 

This was embossed by rolling a diamond cut riffler across it.

 

The paint smears were added to help the 'holes' show up.

 

The usual perdu quality photographic assistance - not much!

 

No better without the flash but maybe you see what I am trying to suggest

 

The other end tried out a diamond cut  riffler and the ordinary flat needle file

 

The red paint is not anything to do with oddball experimentation in Erin by the way, just a grade marker from the factory to tell the shop how much to rob me of.

 

Red isn't cheap.

 

 

I am.

[hendie]

33 minutes ago, perdu said:

Wondering about your query, how about embossing the holes ON the rod?

 

This was embossed by rolling a diamond cut riffler across it.

 

good idea Bill.  Thanks

I wonder if knurling would work?

[AdrianMF]

If you want perforations, try a fine black fibre tip pen? I’ve done it on gun barrels to simulate cooling holes.

 

Excuse thread drift with a pic:

 

The build is looking magnificent by the way...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[CedB]

9 hours ago, hendie said:

I think I got the right amount on first try.  Not too black, and not too brassy.

I think so too - great effect hendie  

[hendie]

On 9/27/2020 at 4:52 PM, giemme said:

Ah, so you also use "chemical stuff", right?

I see, I see....

Excellent effect, hendie

Ciao 

 

if the FBI ever raid my basement I'm in trouble Giorgio

 

On 9/27/2020 at 5:02 PM, TheBaron said:

I'd be tempted to wrap some fine gauze/mesh around it as a mask and blast - sorry, I mean of course delicately spray -  a little dark grey to give an expression to that patterning.

Them brackets'll be nothing to a craftspersonage of your dexterity to rustle up in short order.

As to:

- you seem to be enjoying this one a whole lot more?

 

The AMG kit has certainly brought a lot of enjoyment back into my modeling Tony

 

On 9/27/2020 at 6:38 PM, AdrianMF said:

If you want perforations, try a fine black fibre tip pen? I’ve done it on gun barrels to simulate cooling holes.

Excuse thread drift with a pic:

<snip>

The build is looking magnificent by the way...

Regards,

Adrian

 

ooohh... great tip Adrian, I'm going to try that out

 

On 9/28/2020 at 2:35 AM, CedB said:

I think so too - great effect hendie  

 

Thanks Ced.

 

After staring at the Audax over the last week or so, I decided that I did not like the silver color. It was way too chintzy for my liking.

So I changed the color.

There.

Done!

 

 

I had one of those whaddyamcallthems? an idea. That's right. An idea.

Now whether it would work or not is a different story but it was worth a shot.

I had some Alclad dull aluminum kicking around from who knows when and thought that that may provide a better looking silver finish than 'silver'.

I've always had issues with durability of alclad before so rather than cover the Audax in black gloss I wondered what would happen if I covered it in semi-gloss? Would the alclad stick any better?

The semi gloss went on fine, though I had three "spots" on the underside of the wing. No idea what happened there, but I let it dry for three or four days then micromeshed it back, taking great car not to remove any of the AMG detail, of which there is plenty.

 

 

My reckoning was that the black, not being gloss, would not provide such a glossy finish, and maybe, not being glossy, the alclad would have a decent base to adhere to. 

First pass on the dull aluminum and I think the Audax looks a lot better for it. 

 

 

I think the grain of the aluminum is much more in scale than the previous silver.

 

 

It also appears that the alclad can actually be handled without damage which is a bonus.  I think a gloss coat or semi-gloss coat over that will look much better.

 

A quick before and after comparison...

 

 

Then I was a victim of the Law of Sod as I ran out of the dull aluminum just as I was spraying the last section of the upper wing.  And I just placed an order of alclad last week. Buggrit and all that. I don't think it will prevent me from progressing on this though. I still have a few bits and pieces to be going on with - not least, the very shiny polished aluminum of the nose section.