Those Magnificent Martians In Their Flying Machines

[Martian]

4 hours ago, corsaircorp said:

something like this ???

CC

Exactly like that!

3 hours ago, perdu said:

Ah yes that takes me back

 

Bare feet, wet carpet and absolutely no idea why the world wouldn't stop rotating last night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or this morning!

So it's still a regular feature of Perdu life then Bill?

 

Martian 👽

[Terry1954]

3 hours ago, perdu said:

Ah yes that takes me back

 

Bare feet, wet carpet and absolutely no idea why the world wouldn't stop rotating last night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or this morning!

 

I'm completely baffled by all this. I don't recall ever experiencing this sort of thing.

 

Terry

 

Aka Pinocchio of Dorset

[Martian]

30 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

 

I'm completely baffled by all this. I don't recall ever experiencing this sort of thing.

 

Terry

 

Aka Pinocchio of Dorset

Ah! So it was your nose that grew so long that it put some-ones eye out in Swanage High Street. All is explained.

 

Enlightened of Mars 👽

[Martian]

I have been plugging away at this for a good few days now with most of my time spent in getting the detail painting of the rudders how I want it. The hinges have been a bit of  a pain as they are not that well defined in the kit. I think were I to do this again, and I may well do just that at some point, I would separate the rudders from their supporting struts, carve away the hinges and make new ones from thin brass.

 

On the subject of the rudders, study of original Boxkite pictures reveals that Inpact got the position of the centre rudder wrong, having it in the forward position. I got round this by carefully removing the rudder from its strut and gluing it to the rearmost central strut of the tail assembly. One this that greatly annoyed this alien is having thought I had got rid of all the ejector pin marks on the kit, I find I missed one on the outer face of the port rudder. This is going to be a pig to put right without breaking anything,. Bugger!

 

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and as always, thanks for looking.

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

 

[RichieW]

Well that is looking very much like what I saw at Old Warden! What a pain in the backside the ejector pin mark is. I'm sure you will fix it, I will take notes on your method because that would have me crying into my rum bottle!

 

Richie

[Terry1954]

That looks soooo "fabric and wood" Martian. Very impressive.

 

Terry

[heloman1]

Looking rather neat there Martin.

 

Colin

[Brandy]

Very nice. Almost time for rigging!

 

Ian

[perdu]

"Blimey, ain't that lovely©"

 

re: ejector pin sink mark, lead bullets bite with less agony than brass/copper jacketed.

 

What a sod...

 

 

I too wonder what wonders we shall behold as you tackle it?

[Martian]

50 minutes ago, perdu said:

"Blimey, ain't that lovely©"

 

re: ejector pin sink mark, lead bullets bite with less agony than brass/copper jacketed.

 

What a sod...

 

 

I too wonder what wonders we shall behold as you tackle it?

Thanks Bill. The ejector pin mark is not at all apparent to the naked eye, which is probably why I missed it in the first place. It would be mostly hidden by the control horn so I might leave it as is. We will see.

 

Martian👽

[perdu]

Much crossing of fingers here, no doubt of tentacles there.

 

I wish you well.

[TheBaron]

Quite charming Martian. I think your hinges look just fine.

[Martian]

I have been slowly plodding away at this beast, and as it comes together, one realises that it really is a beast. I have got all of the interplane struts in and the top wing fitted. There is a problem with the struts that go diagonally from the bottom wing to support the upper wing extensions. some of the struts provided in the kit are long enough and some are up to 3mm too short. I remember now that I had a similar issue when I built the kit all that time ago. I only wish I had remembered before I painted the struts. I shall see if I can get one good set of struts by raiding the gash kit I have but failing that, it looks like I shall have to scratch build a new set. I would use some of my dwindling stock of Contrail strut section stock but the struts on the Boxkite were not of aerofoil section so it looks like I face the laborious process of reshaping plastic rod or strip and getting all four struts to come out looking the same.

 

I have dry fitted the forward elevator booms and I had to do some fettling to get them to fit into their locations in the wing leading edges. They are now a nice snug push fit so once I have touched them up and fitted some preliminary rigging, they are good to go onto the model. I anticipate having to fettle the rear booms as well at their forward ends but as I chose not to fit the booms when I assembled the wings as the instructions would have one do, in order to make cleaning up the wing joins easier, this is no big deal. I am having to handle the model very carefully at the moment as it is only when the structural rigging gets fitted, that the model gains strength.

 

More soon and thanks for looking.

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

 

[LorenSharp]

Excellent job Martian.Looking at the model its hard to get a sense of scale, but,and this may be totally off the mark,the struts that are too short in stead of raiding the stash, would common bamboo skewers work instead? The type I have here are about 1 1/2-2 mm in dia. or a simple wooden toothpick that here are a little over a 1 1/4mm and they already have a built in grain. I just don't know if you have anything like that in the U.K.

[Martian]

47 minutes ago, LorenSharp said:

Excellent job Martian.Looking at the model its hard to get a sense of scale, but,and this may be totally off the mark,the struts that are too short in stead of raiding the stash, would common bamboo skewers work instead? The type I have here are about 1 1/2-2 mm in dia. or a simple wooden toothpick that here are a little over a 1 1/4mm and they already have a built in grain. I just don't know if you have anything like that in the U.K.

I hadn't thought of that Loren. We have a posh supermarket just up the road from where we live. If anyone does that sort of thing, they will. We obviously have cocktail sticks/tooth picks in the UK and I have a load in the Martian cave but, sadly, in this instance, they are too short. To be honest, I can be a lazy bugger and although perfectly capable of carving a set of struts, have been trying to wriggle out of having to do so.

 

Indolent of Mars 👽

[treker_ed]

On 7/15/2021 at 7:56 PM, Martian said:

Ah! So it was your nose that grew so long that it put some-ones eye out in Swanage High Street. All is explained.

 

Enlightened of Mars 👽

Ah Swanage, a place I have come to know very well.

 

My wife has been holidaying in the area for a large portion of her life. Her parents used to stay in a hotel in the area, and then when she was 3 or 4 bought a holiday home in Langton Matravers. They have recently sold it, and bought another in the area just near one of the stations for the Swanage Steam Railway. She is now nearing her 40th birthday! We have spent many a holiday in and around Dorset and in fact have just had a week down there at the beginning of July. I always make it a "policy" of calling in at Setchfields whenever we are in the area (and always buy too much...)

[Terry1954]

10 hours ago, treker_ed said:

Ah Swanage, a place I have come to know very well.

 

My wife has been holidaying in the area for a large portion of her life. Her parents used to stay in a hotel in the area, and then when she was 3 or 4 bought a holiday home in Langton Matravers. They have recently sold it, and bought another in the area just near one of the stations for the Swanage Steam Railway. She is now nearing her 40th birthday! We have spent many a holiday in and around Dorset and in fact have just had a week down there at the beginning of July. I always make it a "policy" of calling in at Setchfields whenever we are in the area (and always buy too much...)

 

I holidayed down here a few times as a child, and have ended up settling here in my retirement. We actually live in Langton Matravers. A very different world to the City of London where I spent the majority of my working life! Setchfields is often a port of call when I feel the need for a quick fix. There is also an excellent art shop in Dorchester that sells quite a few kits and other bits.

 

Oh and on a clear day, when the atmospheric conditions are correct, I can often catch the distinct sounds of Martian chanting soporific sea chanties from over the water in Poole!

 

Terry

[perdu]

Terry mate we all have our crosses to bear, yours is an awful burden.

 

Cheese, I have seen cheese offered as audibility modifiers.

 

I wish you well.

 

Martian the beast is becoming less beastly, more dainty and as usual rapidly approaching WOW!

[Martian]

1 hour ago, Terry1954 said:

 

I holidayed down here a few times as a child, and have ended up settling here in my retirement. We actually live in Langton Matravers. A very different world to the City of London where I spent the majority of my working life! Setchfields is often a port of call when I feel the need for a quick fix. There is also an excellent art shop in Dorchester that sells quite a few kits and other bits.

 

Oh and on a clear day, when the atmospheric conditions are correct, I can often catch the distinct sounds of Martian chanting soporific sea chanties from over the water in Poole!

 

Terry

🎵 Heave away, shoot the jetskis, Haul away ram the jetskis, Heave away shoot the jetskis and harpoon their riders 🎵

 

Musical of Mars 👽

[treker_ed]

1 hour ago, Terry1954 said:

 

I holidayed down here a few times as a child, and have ended up settling here in my retirement. We actually live in Langton Matravers. A very different world to the City of London where I spent the majority of my working life! Setchfields is often a port of call when I feel the need for a quick fix. There is also an excellent art shop in Dorchester that sells quite a few kits and other bits.

 

Oh and on a clear day, when the atmospheric conditions are correct, I can often catch the distinct sounds of Martian chanting soporific sea chanties from over the water in Poole!

 

Terry

Frank Herring & sons - have called in there as well. Once last year - had an awful experience with the member of staff in the shop. Both myself, and my wife were/are exempt from wearing masks due to various health conditions, not only that we both carry our own hand sanitizer with us. On arrival at the shop, they tried to insist on masks, until we pointed out the sunflower lanyards and exemption badges we both wore, and tried to force us to use their hand sanitizer - this is as we were using our own as we walked in! As we pointed out we had our own, the shop assistant, very snarkily told us NOT to touch anything, as she did not know where our sanitizer was made and it was not made the same as theirs! We quickly left. We made another trip there this year after restrictions had been lifted, and the attitude was completely different. I was happy to buy a couple of kits.

 

(The holiday home the in-laws had was pretty much opposite the large play park on the main road)

[general melchett]

Great progress my betentacled brethren, coming together nicely. I recall a wonderful childhood holiday in Swanage, back when was Methuselah was a nipper and you got change out of a tanner. We stayed at a rather posh gaff, for the time, (the Royal Victoria Hotel) ...My abiding memory of the stay was my younger sister being violently ill, all over the dining room Wilton, during breakfast, adding a splash of welcome contrast to the rather staid sixties tone of the place. I remember sniggering to myself, cheering uproariously and clapping out loud before receiving a rather swift clip around the ear from my somewhat unimpressed father...ah, how I miss the good old days when belting six bells out of your offspring and them being grateful for it, was the order of the day.

Edited August 6, 2021 by general melchett

[DonH]

Scratchbuilding some wing poles should be a small job compared to scrapping the wings and building them from formers and linen as you have clearly done. Don’t tell us they are painted plastic, they are too real for that.

 

Ahhh, Swanage. Never been there.

[Martian]

8 hours ago, DonH said:

Scratchbuilding some wing poles should be a small job compared to scrapping the wings and building them from formers and linen as you have clearly done. Don’t tell us they are painted plastic, they are too real for that.

 

Ahhh, Swanage. Never been there.

Thanks Don. It was just a case of laziness rather than capability. I had a good talk with myself yesterday and knocked out a new set of struts. I should finish painting them today.

 

Martian 👽

[Martian]

I have been a bit busy over the last week or so, preparing for and then hosting the visit to Martian Towers of a Very Important Earthling; @general melchettand Lady Melchett. Consequently, time at the bench has been a little limited. However, I have managed to get the airframe of the Boxkite together and make a start on the rigging. The tail was very floppy before the structural rigging went in but is now nice and rigid. The only thing that is frustrating me is that the booms look wonky in some of the pictures and fine in others. I know that this is an optical illusion as, to the naked eye, it looks fine. The other thing that is causing me peridiscombobulations is the position of the turn buckles. All of them being some distance up the rigging wires, rather the ends. Still, that is how they appear on pictures of the real thing. 

 

Once I have got the rest of the rigging done and the model is strong enough to tolerate being constantly handled, adding the engine , controls and undercarriage should be relatively straightforward. 

 

More next week when I have more time on my tentacles. Thanks for looking.

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

 

[abat]

Very Nice work.