453rd BG Museum Build - USAAF Boulton Paul Defiant TT Mk I (from the Airfix 1/48 Mk I) - FINISHED

[perdu]

37 minutes ago, Fritag said:

Can’t now remember quite how long.  But I think a distance equivalent to the breadth of two counties would probably be the safe minimum….

Oh dear, good job we know you are only kidding...   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are kidding right?

[The Spadgent]

Filling pin marks with plasticard discs. Genius! 

[giemme]

On 31/03/2023 at 08:27, Fritag said:

All I’m gonna say is that one if us is on page 8 of his build and one of us is on page 2.  Who’s working the harder?    

That just shows the amount of banter going on in your thread(s)...   Not that this is a bad thing, mind you  

 

All kidding aside, the interiors look very promising form these first steps - and brilliant solution for the filling of the injection marks, I shall steal file that right away!   

 

Ciao

[RichieW]

I like that punched discs method for filling ejector pin holes. When I was a nipper I thought they were details and was so proud of how accurately I could paint them a different colour to highlight the precious mystery circles. 😁

 

I managed to get some Tamiya 0 1mm pla paper, I'm thinking it might be good for wing skinning.

 

Richie

[Fritag]

On 4/1/2023 at 11:10 AM, perdu said:

On 4/1/2023 at 10:31 AM, Fritag said:

Can’t now remember quite how long.  But I think a distance equivalent to the breadth of two counties would probably be the safe minimum….

 

Oh dear, good job we know you are only kidding...   

...

You are kidding right?

 

 

There was always a depressingly small number of holes in the flag after an air-to-air firing sortie; so you only knew where a small percentage of your cannon shells had gone. Who knows where all the others went?

 

6 hours ago, giemme said:

brilliant solution for the filling of the injection marks, I shall steal file that right away!

 

17 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Filling pin marks with plasticard discs. Genius!

 

5 hours ago, RichieW said:

I like that punched discs method for filling ejector pin holes.

 

Dunno who I first pinched the idea from; a magazine, book or here on BM I s'pose.

 

The good think about using plastic card (obv.s) is that it is has the same material characteristics as the kit and when bonded with TET can easily be scraped and sanded flat. Viz:

 

 

 

Domestic chores got in the way of the hoped for bench time this weekend; but I did continue to make some interior bits and bobs.

 

There are fuselage frames in front of and behind the launching hole and as the hole will be open they'll be visible (and probably also from the cockpit opening).

 

The frame in front of the launching hole was straightforward.  Seen here with the kit cockpit floor and my printed seat and frame.

 

 

The frame behind the hole was more detailed.  It incorporates the sleeve target stowage you can see in @AndyL's photograph:

 

 

And my effort:

 

 

And from below and thro' the 'ole.

 

 

Of course no one will ever look up through the 'ole, but we'll know it's there  (and the bottom of it it might just be visible through the cockpit).

 

Now I need to work put how much more of the rear cockpit structure it's easier to draw and print and how much it's easier to scratch from plastic strip etc.  Not sure yet.

 

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by Fritag
typo

[giemme]

23 minutes ago, Fritag said:

And my effort:

Impressive, to say the least!   

 

You're becoming good at this game....   

 

Ciao

[Brandy]

That is very impressive Steve. Lovely job on the stowed targets!

 

Ian

[81-er]

Amazing work on the target stowage, Steve! While you may not be aiming for the "definitive, I reckon you're in the running for "most comprehensive". Rather like those Hawks

 

James

[Dave Slowbuild]

Holy moly!   The target stowage is amazing.  There’s a special function in Fusion for rolled up material???  
Actually, I don’t know how to do anything in Fusion so I wouldn’t understand any explanation!

[RichieW]

The dark arts of 3d printing grow ever more cunning and powerful. I find myself inexorably drawn toward this brand of sorcery. In all seriousness I am more intrigued and impressed with every update!

 

Richie

 

 

[Terry1954]

3 hours ago, 81-er said:

Amazing work on the target stowage, Steve! While you may not be aiming for the "definitive, I reckon you're in the running for "most comprehensive". Rather like those Hawks

 

What that young man said (as well as all the others)................ very nice indeed.

 

Terry

 

 

[Dunny]

Lovely work on the target stowage Steve! I'm soon going to embark on an ASR Mk.I but will content myself with some 3D printed rescue pods! This is inspirational stuff indeed,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[CedB]

Very realistic stowage. Well done that man!

[Serkan Sen]

On 4/3/2023 at 6:09 PM, Dave Slowbuild said:

There’s a special function in Fusion for rolled up material???

I don't know if Fusion has such feature but I guess Steve made a freehand sketch for profile and extruded it in depth and finally added the thickness to surface. I am right? 🤔

Serkan

[perdu]

I'd have simply folded some plasticised paper

 

Or ordinary paper...

[Fritag]

 

On 4/5/2023 at 10:49 AM, Serkan Sen said:

but I guess Steve made a freehand sketch for profile and extruded it in depth and finally added the thickness to surface. I am right? 🤔

 

Not entirely, Serkan.  I didn’t use surface modelling/thicken - although I could have done and it would have worked just as well.  

 

I did freehand sketch a spiral as you say - using control point splines:

 

 

But I then created a closed profile using the offset function (in the end by 0.15mm) on the spline and closing the ends off:

 

 

 

I did it this way so I could visualise the profile and play about with the position and thickness of it by moving the control points around and playing with the offset distance before extruding it.

 

I then closed off the whole shape to give 2 extrudable profiles.  One sleeve itself and the other the ’gap’ between the sleeves.

 

 

It was then two extrudes.

 

The sleeve:

 

 

And then, offsetting it by 1mm I filled the ‘gap’ between the sleeves leaving 1mm ‘unfilled’ at the front   I didn’t think it was feasible/sensible/desirable to try and print the sleeve with the gap open through the whole depth.

 

 

Repeat x 3 and join or combine to the bulkhead:

 

 

 

 

The’s always more than one way in Fusion isn’t there Serkan, and I can see some advantages to using surface modelling and then thickening the extrude to produce the sleeve.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Fritag
typo

[CedB]

It's alchemy I tell you!  

[Biggles87]

Don’t upset him, he might make a 3D Ced and stick pins in it!

[giemme]

1 hour ago, CedB said:

t's alchemy I tell you!  

Or sorcery!

 

   

 

Ciao

[Terry1954]

3 hours ago, CedB said:

It's alchemy I tell you!  

 

1 hour ago, giemme said:

Or sorcery!

 

As they say down here in Dorset, it just baint be natural!

 

That said, it do look a tad good!

 

T.

[perdu]

Blimey...

 

 

 

 

 

In other news my copy of The Long Drag has landed

 

 

happy dayze

 

 

Now you're talking...

[AliGauld]

He goes off and tells us he's away skiiing but I have a feeling that he was booting Robert Johnson out of the way at the crossroads.

He'll be shredding against Stevie Vai next.

 

Incredible stuff here yet again.

It just amazes me.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Terry1954]

3 hours ago, perdu said:

 

 

Ooooh! Excellent subject material for our Target Facilities SIG, for which I will quite unashamedly post this plug .......

 

https://ipmsuk.org/directory/target-facilities/

 

T.

 

PS, nice curly target banner printing Steve!

[hendie]

Impressive results and an ingenious approach. Thoroughly entertaining to watch this develop.

[Fritag]

 

On 4/6/2023 at 3:23 PM, perdu said:

In other news my copy of The Long Drag has landed

 

Mine too.

 

 

Excellent recommendation by @Troy Smith

 

TBH before I started reading Don Evans book I didn’t even really know what a target ‘sleeve’ was, despite having just modeled 3 of ‘em rolled up and stowed  

Now I also know  the differences between the types ‘B’ and ‘E’ winches used in the Defiant TT, which is useful (I I assume the two Defiants the USAAF had must have been fitted with the electric ‘E’ winch as there’s no winch arm and windmill visible in the few photographs there are of them).

 

Anyways; we’d better have a type ‘E’ winch then;

 

 

 

I seem to have digressed into modelling a crustacean:

 

 

I put some thought into how to fit the various bits together in the real world and hopefully compatibly with the kit 

 

A few bits, including the Type’ E’ winch and the ‘deck’ it sits on:

 

 

Winch in close up; still with its print supports:

 

 

Still at the present printing at 0.05mm layer height for speed of test-printing.

 

Sleeve stowage and fuselage frame and the section of decking between.  Fixed together with UV curing resin.

 

 

And thankfully the unit fits as intended in the rear fuselage of the kit:

 

 

Poor photo (sorry) showing the sleeve stowage and bulkhead visible through the open hatch (which I think I’ll have to make squarer as I think it was modified thus for the TT Defiants).

 

 

And looking up through the hatch looking forward:

 

 

 

And the winch and winch deck joined with UV cured resin:

 

 

The Type ‘E’ winch was also secured to the fuselage with a couple of brackets; which I’ve added to the fuselage insertnthus:

 

 

And the winch and winch deck slots into the fuselage insert like this:

 

 

And the winch and the support brackets are visible through the operator’s cockpit opening:

 

 

 

And all of the printed bits seem to fit as they’re supposed to:

 

 

 

 

And that’s sort of where she’s at just now.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Fritag
typo