On Heather's Workbench - Strike Hard, Strike Sure: RAF Bomber Command 1940

[Heather Kay]

43 minutes ago, stever219 said:

replace the kit mouldings altogether

Now you say it it’s so blindingly obvious! *slaps forehead*

 

Note to anyone else planning one of the Lanc-to-Manc conversions: take a profile copy of the bomb bay bulkheads before you glue everything together! 
 

I shall now attempt to do it the hard way!

[Gondor44]

2 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

Now you say it it’s so blindingly obvious! *slaps forehead*

 

Note to anyone else planning one of the Lanc-to-Manc conversions: take a profile copy of the bomb bay bulkheads before you glue everything together! 
 

I shall now attempt to do it the hard way!

 

You could always fit a block of balsa and carve that into a buck to vac-form or plunge mould or whicever method you desire, unless you have another Lancaster kit to copy the profile from?

 

Gondor

[Heather Kay]

1 minute ago, Gondor44 said:

You could always fit a block of balsa and carve that into a buck

Another neat idea - but I don’t have any vac equipment, and I’m not that experienced at plunge moulds, either - certainly not that size.

 

I traced the shape by slotting some tracing paper in the bay and trying to mark the outline. It more or less worked, just needs a bit of refining. 
 

Another day. The coming week is another one of medical appointments for Best Beloved, and mucking about sorting out Life stuff for me. Oh, and paying work if I can fit it in. 

[Gondor44]

Hope the medical appointments go well. Depending on how this dam chest cold that I developed on Friday does overnight I may have to have a medical appointment myself on Monday. Can't really cough or sneeze over optics when your job is to align them

 

Gondor

[woody37]

Great progress Heather, looking forwards to seeing it in paint.

 

I didn't bother adding windows for the escape hatches, just painted gloss black and masked off for the camo to be applied. You can't really tell and neater than trying to add windows.

 

 

 

[Heather Kay]

33 minutes ago, woody37 said:

I didn't bother adding windows for the escape hatches, just painted gloss black and masked off for the camo to be applied.

I had planned exactly that - having seen how you’d done it!

[europapete]

Now THAT is one nice looking Lanc! 

And also to you Heather, been lurking in the background following along. Grabbing idea's, and appreciating the quality of the models being built. Regards, Pete in RI

[Gondor44]

Was someone looking for a Blackbird Manchester conversion set? If so one just popped up on a very well know auction site

 

Gondor

[Terry1954]

Some fantastic work here Heather (as always!).

 

 

On 9/7/2023 at 4:40 PM, Heather Kay said:

So, no actual plastic-bothering progress, but ducks getting aligned for a Silhouette session soon

 

I may have asked before, but which specific Silhouette cutter are you using? I feel the need to get one soon!

 

Thanks

 

Terry

[Heather Kay]

38 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

I may have asked before, but which specific Silhouette cutter are you using? I feel the need to get one soon!

I have a Cameo 4. I try to, for such equipment, buy the best I can afford, and after researching the market this was the version that seemed to fit my requirements. It doesn’t need the sticky cutting mat, though one is in the box. It has two tool mounts, so you can have different cutting or embossing tools fitted at the same time. I quickly outran the supplied software - I like to draw in something I’m familiar with, then import the results, rather than fight the slightly clumsy Silhouette software - so add a bit to buy the professional upgrade. It’s still a bit clumsy, but does the job of driving the hardware.

 

There you are.

 

[Gondor44]

Adendum to my block of balsa suggestion Heather. If you are doing the bomb bay doors closed you could just treat the surface of the block once it is the shape you need and then kept in place.

 

Gondor

[Heather Kay]

On 12/09/2023 at 20:08, Gondor44 said:

you could just treat the surface of the block once it is the shape you need and then kept in place.

That’s a good idea. I’m attempting it right now. The bomb bay really needs to be sorted out before I get on with the rest of the build.

 

I only have various grades of balsa in the house, so my first attempt has been to glue some blocks in place in the bomb bay and reshape. It seemed to be going well, but the wood grain remained very prominent. Realising I needed to seal the surface, my first idea was to apply layers of filler and sand back. 
 

Let's just say my first passes are not encouraging. I wonder if a filler primer might be useful?

 

On the positive side the blocks will be easy to remove if I decide to just go with the original kit doors. It's taking me far too long to sort this out, and I’m finding the process rather discouraging.

 

 

[Heather Kay]

Okay, I’ve given in. The amount of effort for a suboptimal result means I’ve decided to just used the Lancaster doors and be done with it. Too bad if it’s not correct for the period I’m trying for.

 

It's one of those things where it would be nice if the conversion kits included such details.

 

I'm in a bit of a grump now. I’ll post piccies later - but not of the wooden failure. I didn’t take any photos of that debacle.

[Gondor44]

32 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

I'm in a bit of a grump now.

 

 

That's not good, and neither are the results so far by your words which I have no reason to doubt. Another couple of possibilities would be to made the doors out of metal or even to ask is someone in the 3D Printing forum can help?

 

Gondor

[Heather Kay]

2 minutes ago, Gondor44 said:

That's not good

I am a bit out of my comfort zone, having never used wood for a model in anything other than a structural sense. I don’t have the skill set, nor do I have some of the tools needed, to achieve what seems a simple task of making a smooth surface.

 

I could fabricate from metal - it’s in my "day job" remit, after all. My excuse for not doing that is I’m not confident I could get the shape right, despite having the right tools. Then there’s engineering ways to fix the metal to the plastic. If I had more experience, and the right equipment, I might well have had a go at forming the doors from plastic.

 

Engaging someone to model and print the doors in 3D would be a good solution, but I fear I’ve set myself a deadline to get this model finished. SMW is looming, and I’ve been invited to display my bombers on a club stand. I have something around six weeks to complete the builds and refurbs under way.

 

So, later MkIa bulged doors on an early MkI it is. Hardly anyone will know the difference!

[Paul Lucas]

If it's not already too late, may I offer a suggestion?

 

Remove the balsa block and cut it down so that it is smaller than you need it to be all the way around the outside to a depth of about 2mm.

 

Fix it back in the bomb bay with a low grip adhesive such as PVA and then cover it some cling film, or perhaps  better, kitchen foil. Then cover the block with Milliput, making sure that where the Milliput comes into contact with the plastic at the front, rear and especially down the sides of the bomb bay where there is a lot of moulded detail, the plastic has a liberal coating of talcum powder to serve as a release agent.

 

To get the Milliput something like the correct shape while it is still pliable, put some cling film or kitchen foil over it and roll the fuselage from side to side on a flat surface. This should give you something like the correct profile and section. You won't be able to get it absolutely perfect because the wing spars will get in the way and there is a fairing on the port side of the fuselage that will cause a 'bump' in the profile.

 

Don't put too much weight on the fuselage as you roll it in case it splits the seams. Surplus Milliput will find its way out along the edges and can be redistributed if necessary.

 

When the Milliput has cured, it should be possible to fill any flaws and sand it to shape in situ. When you have done that, scribe in the centre line and then carefully ' crack' the Milliput moulding away. It should come away fairly cleanly, probably bringing the film or foil that was put over the balsa core with it, but any chips are relatively straightforward to repair.

 

If you make a half decent job of cutting down the balsa, this should leave you with a hollow Milliput moulding that is fairly smooth on the inside that you can then use as it is, or perhaps even cut down the middle to give an open doors option.

 

[Heather Kay]

11 minutes ago, Paul Lucas said:

If it's not already too late, may I offer a suggestion?

Paul, thank you. Sadly, it is too late. The original kit doors are already in place and the cement is hardening.

 

(Also, sadly, I’m firmly in the "hate" camp with Milliput. I usually fail to get it to work for me reliably for me. That makes it something I only use as a last resort when everything else has failed.)

[Heather Kay]

Sitrep.

 

 

Not perfect, but I can work with this. 
 

Once I’m happy with the seams, I can finally get on with whatever the next steps are supposed to be. Tailplane and sorting out the wing spars, I guess.

[Gondor44]

6 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

(Also, sadly, I’m firmly in the "hate" camp with Milliput. I usually fail to get it to work for me reliably for me. That makes it something I only use as a last resort when everything else has failed.)

 

I am in the same camp with you Heather. I can never get the mix right, the same goes for anything "two part" unless the dispencer dispenses the two parts together.

 

Gondor

[Heather Kay]

8 minutes ago, Gondor44 said:

the same goes for anything "two part"

It took me ages to learn those plunger-style dispensers for epoxy glues never work. I always buy the packs with separate tubes now, and the stuff works properly nearly every time. 
 

My biggest problem is patience. I like near instant results, and waiting hours for jollop to go off (or not!) doesn’t sit well with me. 

[Hamden]

 

You could have treated the balsa wood in the tradition of the late Alan Hall and coated the wood with talcom powder and dope mix to seal the surface or use sanding sealer if it's still available the  flying model use on there balsa models. It is smelly though!

 

   Stay safe          Roger

[fatalbert]

6 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

It took me ages to learn those plunger-style dispensers for epoxy glues never work. I always buy the packs with separate tubes now, and the stuff works properly nearly every time. 
 

My biggest problem is patience. I like near instant results, and waiting hours for jollop to go off (or not!) doesn’t sit well with me. 

Get yourselfs a cheap set of digital scales,that way you can accurately measure the mix.

[Andrew Patmore]

Sometimes a 'Sod it' result is good enough.

Perfection is admirable precisly because it is uncommon.

😀

 

No one mention turrets for goodness sake!

[Zephyr91]

On 17/09/2023 at 10:45, Heather Kay said:

Hardly anyone will know the difference!

What difference?  See?  I've forgotten already .......

 

 

Rob

[Killingholme]

Nobody is going to notice the profile of the bomb bay! Better done than perfct.