Brigbeale Posted August 17, 2021 Author Share Posted August 17, 2021 (edited) I had an interruption last yesterday as finally, after 18 months, got back to the rented garage to carry out restoration work on my son’s classic Mini (a 1990 Racing Green). Then take his 2002 Cooper S for an MOT which it failed on the HID headlight pattern (probably the bulb) and a suspension bush we replaced only two years ago🤬. My son then borrowed a 1977 Mini from the Bournemouth Mini Club ‘president’ and we went for a spin in it to get some fuel fo my son to go to work today. So there’s not much dramatic change in the appearance of the Meteor. With the intended subject going to be a FAA Meteor, I followed fatalbert’s recommendation on cutting off the extended exhausts and slowly drilling the now blanked off holes up to 3.5mm in .5mm increments. I also decided to scribe panel lines around and along the fuselage and around the engines. The longitudual lines were simple enough, but I had varying degrees of success on the ones around the fuselage/engines. I used a part troll of dymo tape (quite old as I remember) and I think the adhesive on it is not as good as it once was as it moved a few times where I was scribing the panel lines. I must get some new rolls. I tidied them up with 400 grit paper and used Mr Surfacer 1000 to cover the slips and keep the lines as straight as possible. The underside is looking a lot better now Edited August 17, 2021 by Brigbeale 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted August 17, 2021 Share Posted August 17, 2021 I thought you'd end up pretty much rescribing it. Great job. With the guide tape I use Dymo tape for some but for tge curvey area I can recommend fineline tape, the type used in ghe Automotive industry for pinstripes etc it's great stuff to use and is very flexible to all sorts of shapes. Comes in various widths 1.5 mm, 2mm etc etc. It's great stuff. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 19, 2021 Author Share Posted August 19, 2021 (edited) Again, there’s not much that’s changed. I’ve decided to fill in the scribing on the front of the port engine as I wasn’t happy with it at all - it was no where near straight so I will re-do it. More fine filling and sanding of the wing roots and other scribe lines took place. While I was waiting for the Mr Surfacer to dry, I started designing a basic 3D printed nose-wheel bay which included an actual recess that the gear would retract into. SWMBO asked me to do something while I was doing it. I finished the design and printed it. I offered it up to the Meteor and found I’d put the gear mount at the wrong end! At least it’s not that big a deal as I can easily redesign the part and print another. The overall size was pretty good though. Edited August 19, 2021 by Brigbeale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 19, 2021 Author Share Posted August 19, 2021 (edited) The redesigned wheel bay with slight adjustment to the wheel housing size. Edited August 19, 2021 by Brigbeale 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 Good idea, us blokes aren't supposed to do two things at once you know!!!😄 Chris 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 19, 2021 Author Share Posted August 19, 2021 (edited) 22 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said: Good idea, us blokes aren't supposed to do two things at once you know!!!😄 Chris I keep telling her that but I have to stop what I’m doing to tell her and then try to remember what I was doing in the first place!😆 Edited August 19, 2021 by Brigbeale 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 53 minutes ago, Brigbeale said: I keep telling her that but I have to stop what I’m doing to tell her and then try to remember what I was doing in the first place!😆 Yep know where you are coming from there!!!😄 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 19, 2021 Author Share Posted August 19, 2021 I 3D printed the replacement nose-wheel bay this morning and dad to take a file to the top corners as the nose weights prevented it from sitting level in the hole. The forward panel line was re-scribed on the port engine and a couple of touch-ups to hide scratches was done. I just need to let the sprue goo on the wheel well and the applied Mr Surfacer dry to sand the area back to a smooth finish. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 You're doing an amazing job on this. I do think rubbing back the rivets was a good idea, they were a pretty smooth aircraft anyway, the Airfix kit's rivets are really a bit superfluous. Now I've caught up here, I'll be hanging around a bit. Steve. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 The front U/C bay looks great , fantastic work Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 20, 2021 Author Share Posted August 20, 2021 (edited) Tonight I smoothed the area around the nose-wheel bay and a few other areas which had blemishes. I also decided it was about time I designed the replacement air brakes for the top and bottom of the wings. I measured the best looking hole and noted it on a sketch pad. Then I used Onshape to design a simple(ish) version which emulated the original kit items but with less deep louvres in them. I know the air brakes themselves have slots in them and I could have gone the extra mile and done the air brakes extended but the scale is so small, I wondered if the extra work was worth it. I’ll mull it over and, no doubt I’ll probably do it anyway. The only problem is the hinges are all in different places which is my fault hurrying the process along instead of taking it at a steady pace. I’ll fill them in and cut new ones once I’ve go to fit the air brakes. Anyway, I printed off four closed air brakes and cut the nibs off one to see if the size was about right. It looks good to the naked eye but the photo close up makes it and the panel lines look shockingly bad. Which also is a +1 for open air brakes to add another dimension to this classic Meteor kit. While the air brakes were printing (they took about 10. Inured to print the 4), I decided to add some detail to the main gear bays. I found very few photos of the gear bays showing the construction of the wings inside, but I found one which had an image of some of it, so I got my box of 3D printer prime strips (the printer prints a line prior to every print job and I keep these for jobs like this. I started off with a thicker piece down the centre of each wheel bay and then added thinner strips to go across. I simply ran longer strips into the recesses on each wing to hide the ends. They were fixed in place with sprue goo, tweezers and a bit of patience. They’re not perfect so I might add some odd bits here and there to make it a bit more interesting. Edited August 20, 2021 by Brigbeale 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 22, 2021 Author Share Posted August 22, 2021 (edited) While I had a few minutes spare yesterday, I redesigned the cad image to make the upper and lower parts of each air-brake. It was easier than I was thinking last night and so I printed them out. The first photo is of the lower section if each brake with a 5mm nut for size comparison. A lower section placed in situ. All of the air-brake parts requiring some clean-up The air-brakes were fitted last night and some Mr Surfacer added around the edges to seal the gap. Sprue goo was added to the hinge slots to fill them in. This morning, I checked to see if the sprue goo had set fully and I gave it a sand back to again see if any further filling was necessary. It was to more Mr Surfacer was added to slowly fill any unwanted recesses. Edited August 22, 2021 by Brigbeale 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 25, 2021 Author Share Posted August 25, 2021 (edited) I’ve had things going on which left me either too tired or little time to indulge in my favourite hobby restoring the Meteor. Repairs to my son’s Mini which failed the Mot test which showed another couple of parts which needed replacing as well and a stepson who’s taken up residency in the spare room where I do my modelling. I did try to get some modelling done on Saturday back in the lounge, but then my neighbour decided he needed someone to talk to after he’d been drinking for the best part of the afternoon🙄. So that put the mockers on that! This afternoon, while the wife went for a nap, I did some more touching up on the air brakes and some seam lines. While that was drying I set about designing the replacement undercarriage starting with the main wheels/struts. Due to Airfix’s design I decided to emulate the originals. This is the preliminary sketch in Onshape on my IPad Pro. And the rendering - different colours show the different sub assemblies in the cad program. It will all be sent as one to the slicing program and then the 3D printer. I have also added a small wedge for a bit more support for the model at the hinge joint the originals are a bit weak in that area. And finally after I tweaked the tyre and mudguard to make them more round. Edited August 25, 2021 by Brigbeale 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted August 25, 2021 Share Posted August 25, 2021 Excellent stuff! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted August 26, 2021 Share Posted August 26, 2021 Crikey that's some cracking effort of those Airbrake sections, once all cleaned up they should look good, looking forward to seeing how the front undercarriage comes out Great work Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 26, 2021 Author Share Posted August 26, 2021 (edited) 34 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said: Crikey that's some cracking effort of those Airbrake sections, once all cleaned up they should look good, looking forward to seeing how the front undercarriage comes out Great work Chris Yeah, so am I !!. I had a slight problem with the printing of the main gear though. I printed them flat (on their sides) which meant the printer had to put supports in as it can’t print larger areas in mid air - bridging small gaps is fine. The prints looked good when I removed them from the print bed. But, when I went to remove the supports from the wheel area, there was a void and the detail was lost. So I went back to Onshape and, as I designed and extruded (bought up the thickness from the sketch) half of the assembly and then mirrored it to make a whole assembly, it was a simple case of just removing the mirrored half. This will allow me to send that half assembly to the slicer program (Cura), multiply the part so there’s 2 or 4 of the same part, mirror 1 or two respectively so I have a left and right of each part, and send them to the printer and print them off. I should them be able to glue them together, sand the seams and nobody will ever know (apart from anyone who reads this obviously!) i felt the wheels weren’t quite right and the mudguard was too thin to notice so I played with the design again. Edited August 26, 2021 by Brigbeale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 26, 2021 Author Share Posted August 26, 2021 The main gear has been 3D printed. The parts require some clean up but on the whole, they’re much better. The 4 halves printed. The centre on is 2 of the parts glued together. The others are the halves of the other main gear. Both main gear glued together and Mr Surfacer 1000 applied around the seam prior to sanding. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 (edited) While fiddling around near the 3D printer this morning, I found the broken nose wheel which I thought I’d lost. The only thing - it was still black gloss, so into a small pot of Dettol to strip the paint off. I’ve just given it a quick clean off after it’s been soaking for the day. There’s still a couple of spots so it’s back in to soak over night. And now back to the fuselage. Various applications of Mr Surfacer are slowly dealing with the misplaced air brake hinges.. I then decided to make the fairing for the arrestor hook. I’ve seen one image with one fitted - although it’s not a photo, just a side view image of the colour scheme. I did find a blog online where somebody else has depicted the same aircraft, but it has the arrestor hook simply glued into place with no fairing. I started off by designing it and then 3D printing it, but the centre was so thin, the slicer program decided it wasn’t needed so, once the print had finished I had 2 triangular wedges. I simply sprue-goo’d them into position and filled the centre with n=more goo. Once that had set, I filed it back and started filling the remaining dip with Revell Plasto filler. 2 more applications had it filled to near enough where I wanted it, so it was painted with Mr Surfacer to fill the finer divots and make it grey to blend in with the plastic. Edited August 27, 2021 by Brigbeale 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 Excellent progress on the main undercarriage they look good. What a bonus finding the front wheel, the carpet monster was not hungry !!! Great work Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 29, 2021 Author Share Posted August 29, 2021 (edited) I have been in that well known auction website again and bought three more patients requiring patience! See what it did there?……I’ll get my coat…….. The first is a Fairey Firefly which looks almost complete. It looks Frog to me. https://ibb.co/1mJRD87 The second is an A4-E Skyhawks which is missing it landing gear but otherwise looks ok. With the decals - which need some sun bleaching - which also were being sold by the same seller, I can make another addition do my display team aircraft, currently sitting at a Red Arrows Gnat, 2 Red Arrows Hawks, a Thunderbirds F-16D, a to be restored Patrouille De France CM170 Magister to be built Patrouille De France Alpha Jet. https://ibb.co/qkYS726 https://ibb.co/kJT1qp3 The third is a Hawker Hurricane IIC. No landing gear prop blades and the cannons have suffered. I think with the to be built Hurricanes I have in the stash, I could easily copy some replacement bits. https://ibb.co/kccsJr2 I also bought some old decals for a Sea Hawk in the restoration line up - which will also need sun bleaching or copying. https://ibb.co/N7L5Vz5 That little lot cost me £6 + £5 postage which I’m quite chuffed about. I've posted this trying out the imgbb picture hosting, but I might just continue with imgur as it adds the photos and not just a link- but I might be doing something wrong. Edited August 29, 2021 by Brigbeale Got my Faireys mixed up! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatalbert Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 The First one is a Frog Firefly, i love that kit,and with referance to your Hurricane and its broken cannons,some aircraft in the far east had two cannons removed to improve performance,so maybe you could do one of those. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Gordon Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 I've recently started using ImgBB.When you upload images it throws up a little window of Viewer Links to copy.If you toggle that to Direct Links and then press the copy button in the window your images will show. The Meteor is looking rather good with the attention she's receiving,I've got one somewhere that could use some similar pampering. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 29, 2021 Author Share Posted August 29, 2021 Thanks Alex. I thought it was something I was or wasn’t doing properly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigbeale Posted August 29, 2021 Author Share Posted August 29, 2021 (edited) I gave the Meteor a clean up this evening by cleaning out the panel lines, masking the underwing light and wiping it down with isopropyl alcohol to remove dust and oils deposited during handling. It was then given a coat of Halfords Plastic Primer. There’s a faint perfect round circle on the underside of one wing which must have been where the decal was - only noticeable from certain angles. It’s strange it never showed until it was primered. Hoprefully, it’ll cover when the Sky paint goes on.🤞 Edited August 29, 2021 by Brigbeale 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted August 30, 2021 Share Posted August 30, 2021 That is looking a bit good, hard to believe it is the mess we first saw. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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