"A Stearman Earns Its Stripes" A PT-17 Stearman in Recall Markings. ++++FINISHED++++

[81-er]

This one's looking really good, Mark. I'm glad it looks to be an easy fix for the excess dihedral in the lower wings too. I'm also sure you're more than up to the task of rigging this beast

 

James

[2996 Victor]

Hi Mark, 

 

hope the recovery is going well - better to take it easy than worry about chunks of plastic, however great they look. And it is looking great, absolutely superb, if I may say so.

 

Sorry to hear about the lower wing dihedral thing, I'm certain it won't be at all noticeable once the upper wing is fully attached. I wouldn't worry about the rigging, yet - if you're not feeling it, it'll wait til you are. 

 

Take it easy!

Mark

[AliGauld]

Oof looking beautiful.

The dihedral will be sorted out in a trice. I'm sure.

Then the rigging. 

I feel your pain.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[bigbadbadge]

Hope you're feeling better Mark, sorry tobhear about the Dihedral on yhe lower wing causing issues, fingers crossed the fix goes well.

I take it there is no way to coax the lover wings down a bit?

Great work, paint looks amazing.

Chris

[marvinneko]

If you're running low on mojo, just take some time to admire your work so far and let go of the to do list for awhile. It's a beauty. So much to enjoy looking at it.

 

I've done that with my builds, just looking at the aircraft and appreciating the shape and colour and its 3-dimensional presence in my world. 

[heloman1]

Sorry to hear about the 'heart thing' Mark, hope you are recovering well?

Bummer with the paint peel and as always a great recovery. Hope you have found the energy to tackle the rigging, gonna' look perdie...

 

Colin the Wessex nut.

[Pete in Lincs]

Mark, that's a beautiful looking Biplane. I hope your Wife will be very happy with it.

Regarding your heart. The Catheters are supposed to last for at least fifteen years. I had three fitted at age 50. 

Despite healthy eating and a fairly healthy lifestyle, I had to have a quad bypass at 57. Just so you are aware, Mate.

I'm 70 in April and still here. I Retired in September having spent the last eight years delivering barrels of beer. Hard work!

Just goes to show what your body can do if you push it that little bit further! Eat well and take care.

[corsaircorp]

Great job and recovery on the Stearman !!

Glad that the heart is going on better.

I've had my fair share of clocks problems, they even wanted to have a pacemaker fitted in that old CC 

By luck, I got to another doctor, have been through another battery of tests and the heart is good.....

But the nerves have to be calmed down.....

It's now 4 years of self policy and everything is fine...

Almost no drugs which is another piece of luck, I tried beta blocking drugs ans I was sick as hell with that...

Toxic masculinity.... @marvinneko  That's just my first name... 

Ask Miss CC if you have any doubts...

Sincerely.

CC 

[mark.au]

On 06/02/2024 at 18:17, heloman1 said:

hope you are recovering well?

I am, thanks ☺️.  I’ll know more next week when I have my follow up appointment with the surgeon.

 

On 06/02/2024 at 20:24, Pete in Lincs said:

The Catheters are supposed to last for at least fifteen years. I had three fitted at age 50. 

Despite healthy eating and a fairly healthy lifestyle, I had to have a quad bypass at 57. Just so you are aware, Mate.

I'm 70 in April and still here. I Retired in September having spent the last eight years delivering barrels of beer. Hard work!

Just goes to show what your body can do if you push it that little bit further! Eat well and take care

 

Hi Pete.  Glad you’re doing so well mate!  Mine was a different sort, it was catheter surgery meaning they went in via a vein in my leg and fed a probe up into my heart from the inside.  They used the probe to burn away the short circuit areas in the heart which were causing the AFib.  They didn’t need to put anything in there.  The rest of my heart is in good shape apparently; no plaque at all in my arteries and all valves operating perfectly.

 

On 06/02/2024 at 20:53, corsaircorp said:

It's now 4 years of self policy and everything is fine...

Almost no drugs which is another piece of luck, I tried beta blocking drugs ans I was sick as hell with that...

Good to hear, CC.  The beta blockers suck, I hate them.  I have an appointment next week with the cardiologist and I’m hoping he’ll start weaning me off them now I’ve had the surgery.

 

Thanks for all of the kind comments, I’m feeling better each day and confident that the procedure worked first time for me (it typically has a 70% success rate on the first one, they do up to three if necessary…).

 

Turns out finishing the upper wing join was very easy and no drama at all.  And, it fixed the lower wing dihedral.  

 

 

It’s not out of the woods yet as there’s something a bit funky about how it’s sitting, but that’s for another update.  I also realise looking at these photos I haven’t detailed the struts at all.  That’ll be easy now they’re installed… 🤦‍♂️

 

Cheers.

[2996 Victor]

Good news all round, Mark! Take it easy and keep on getting better!

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

PS the Stearman is looking great - pleased to hear the lower wing dihedral sorted out alright!

[corsaircorp]

That's good news Mark !! 

70% of success at the first time, it's fine, you are in Man !!

I really love the Stearman !! great piece of modelling...

Then it is marked U.S Navy on it.... What else ??

Sincerely.

CC

[AliGauld]

Good news all round and the Stearman looks fine too.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Pete in Lincs]

❤️ Keep on keeping your tubes clean! Well done.

[bigbadbadge]

Great news Mark.

Good to see the Stearman wing sorted too

Chris

[mark.au]

Options sought…

 

I’m experimenting with 0.4mm OD stainless tubing for the major rigging elements (I’m going to use something else, smaller, for the cabane strut rigging).  
 

They’re straight, metal, easy to install and a bit oversized.

 

Do they look oversized or do they pass muster? 
 

Cheers.
 

 

 

 

[AliGauld]

They look good to me.

Nice work.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[bigbadbadge]

They do look good to me too Mark, it is 32nd scale so don't look over sized.

Looking forward to the rest now.

Great work

Chris

[81-er]

They look good to me as well

 

James

[jackroadkill]

They look superb from here, Mark.

[Dunny]

Mark,

 

Glad to hear you are recovering well. I think the rigging looks good for scale,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger 

[marvinneko]

14 hours ago, mark.au said:

Do they look oversized or do they pass muster? 

 

All that matters is whether it will bug you in the future when you look at it.

[heloman1]

Looking good Mark. Are you able to source the Albion Alloys range of Ali tube and wires, they have some very fine SS wire. Which should suit your rigging needs. Alternately try you local fishing tackle store for Trace wire, available in different breaking strains and diameters. Whilst your in there take a look at the line and lure accessories. Also look at he fishing line, available in different colours. Always good for  detailing parts, as is you local beading outlet.

 

Colin the Wessex nut.

[2996 Victor]

+1 for the rigging - looks great to me!

[mark.au]

There’s definitely a positive consensus for using the stainless wire.  But…

 

On 10/02/2024 at 11:12, marvinneko said:

All that matters is whether it will bug you in the future when you look at it.

…it did bug me.  Buggah, so to speak.

 

On 10/02/2024 at 18:09, heloman1 said:

Are you able to source the Albion Alloys range of Ali tube and wires, they have some very fine SS wire. Which should suit your rigging needs. Alternately try you local fishing tackle store for Trace wire, available in different breaking strains and diameters. Whilst your in there take a look at the line and lure accessories. Also look at he fishing line, available in different colours.

 

All of the metal wires I could find that were the right size were on spools, and so not straight and unstraightenable. I thought about fishing traces but none are thin enough.  
 

My original plan was fishing line however, and I had already bought some at 0.23mm OD with a metallic sort of sheen to it.  So I tried that.  I had already drilled a few holes in preparation but needed a few more.  My plan was to the fix the line at one end and then thread it through the wing to pull it tight.  Like this…

 

 

When it was fixed, I cut the line stubs off and repaired the holes.  This was much easier.

 

I did the same at the tail.  This a bit trickier because I needed to fix the one end and terminate it at the same place.  In the pics below, both lines are fixed into the port side, threaded through the port stabiliser from underneath, then through the fin, and then the starboard stabiliser from the top and finally through the fuselage.

 

 

I then had two ends I could pull to tension the lines while the glue set.

 

The cabane struts were another matter; I was unable to get tension on the crossing lines on each side so I had to use ezline which I then painted aluminium to sort of match the rest of the rigging.

 

Done.

 

 

The fishing line doesn’t look quite as real as the stainless tube did, but it’s to scale and that works better for me.  Most importantly, my wife loved it and I’ve repaid the debt incurred when I sold the first one.

 

 

Thanks for following along on my third rigged biplane.  I’m rather fond of this one and I think have settled on my preferred rigging technique.  I’ll put up an RFI in due course.

 

Next up for me is another captured airframe, this time a Bf 110G-4 for which I’m using the Eduard 1/48 kit.  That WIP will be over in the WW2 Twins Mega GB, hope to see you there!

 

Cheers.

[AliGauld]

A lot of very fiddly rigging. 

Looks absolutely fantastic and if the good lady likes it then that's a major bonus.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair