The Spadgent Posted June 17 Posted June 17 Catch up of the GODS!!! I’m not sure which bits I like the best. (The floats) but let’s just say it’s all rudder good. 🤯🤩💪🫡 your print and print and print again technique is working well for you. I’m lazy and use pretty much what pops out. (Ced🥳🤣). I’ll not leave it so long next time. Johnny 7
hendie Posted June 18 Author Posted June 18 Floats? Spawn of the devil I say. Starting off with something easy today to ease myself in. (The mojo is waning lightly). I added some small vent/pipe thingy sticking out the side of the nose, along with a red cap for filling up something inside. Scrabbling about in my deal stash I found a completely illegible decal that looked like appropriate labeling so it was duly stuck down. That was gloss coated to seal it in, then I remembered that the Harbour Air seabirds carried a number just forward of the cockpit door. The numbers could have done with being in bold type but this was all I had in that size so on they went. While the airbrush was fired up I sprayed the struts/spars with high speed silver, then a touch of black detail painting. Now to those devils tormentors, the floats. A lot of Aizu tape was used up in this process, and without it I think I'd have gone mad. (okay, more mad then). Even with the Aizu, my masking wasn't great but trying to find a 0.2mm raised edge black on black strains the eyes somewhat. Each float took me over two hours to mask and that wasn't helped by the fact that on my first attempt I masked up two (dammit!) port side floats! I have a habit of printing out spares and my work area is such a mess that I hadn't separated out the spares and picked up the wrong one by mistake. Coloring in was done with Mr Color Black Grey, and Alclad White Aluminum. This still isn't finished coloring in as there's a small panel at the rear end which need aluminummed - but my masking mojo had gone walkabout by this time - and can anyone spot my deliberate mistake? That panel with the aluminum rectangle inside? The rectangle shouldn't be there. Somehow I missed that when masking it up. Here's the corrected version along with her sister float, and you can spot that I've finished the (out of focus) panels at the back end. After that I couldn't resist a dry fit with the struts and spars ... compared to the original kit offering... Apologies for all the dry-fit photos but my mojo is taking a bit of a battering and I need something to jolly myself along with, so here's another - this time with added nose and spinner, but missing the nose caps on the floats. Just before sealing in the paint with Mr Color Flat Clear, I added a couple of transfers to the floats. A "NO STEP" on the large aluminum colored panel and a completely wrong decal on the front end which at least makes things look like a manufacturers plate. Job done. Oh, and nose caps added. (for the moment anyways) Those unfortunate enough to have been studying my ramblings and taking notes will remember that I printed up a set of wings last week, but they were ridiculously heavy - so I went back to the CAD and cored the wings out to save some weight. Those were printed, turned out fine, then I remembered I hadn't added any support around the wing cantilever strut location. That meant there was always a danger of the underside of the wing caving in at some point in the future and ending up with droopy wings. Enter stage left... wings number three! This shot shows how the wings were cored out... with a plan, no less. The square hole (second from left) is intended to hold a 3.2mm square brass rod, and the round hole (second from right) will hold a Ø2mm brass rod - all of which will hopefully let me align things when the time comes. I even had the foresight to angle those location holes at 3° so the wings will self align without any ham fistedness from moi. All I have to do now is ACCURATELY cut a 3.25 square hole in EXACTLY the right position, at EXACTLY the right angle relative to the longitudinal axis, then ACCURATELY REPEAT the operation on the other side and make sure ALL THE HOLES ALIGN. wot could go wrong eh? After all that I realized that I still haven't checked if the location hole for the wing strut on the underside of the wing is in the right location, so there may well yet be a wing version number 4. Stay tuned. In other news, the propellers got a little (incorrect) decal purporting to be the manufacturers label, followed up with a gloss coat then a flat coat. Interestingly, when applying the gloss coat, it sort of dissolved the black coat slightly leaving a nice transition from black to less black as it heads out to the tip. It was completely unintended but catches how the blades appear slightly weathered on the 1:1. Still avoiding all the scary work to be done ahead of me, I printed up and painted some steps for the front strut. Then it was back to the scary stuff... Cross braces were added from Ø0.5mm brass rod (sprayed white aluminum). Then I started having a go at the rigging. You'd think after having completed a few biplanes that rigging a pair of floats would be easy... WRONG! I hummed and hawed about whether I should do the rigging before or after attaching the floats to the aircraft, and decided that before is likely to cause just a tad less damage. THen, from what few photos I have, I ad to figure out where the rigging wires came from, where they went, and how they were routed. There's going to be a lot of guesswork. One small area has me flummoxed as I see two wires going into pulley's/faileads but three wires emerging from t'other end and I can't figure out where the third wire came from. Anyways, I got as far as this today before the mojo fell on the floor and slunk away Instead, I looked for something else to do and this miraculously appeared. Somehow I don't think I'll be using the kit ladder. I also broke one of the struts when dry fitting and this is one of the rare occasions where I didn't print any spares when they were being done. Then looking at this photo the surface finish on those floats is rather horrible, so I may have to drag some micromesh across those panels. It was time to quit before I started making any more stupid mistakes but wanted to leave on a high note so another dry fit was called for. off to start laying out some mojo traps now... I'll let you know how it goes. 19 9 1 1
chrispisme Posted June 18 Posted June 18 Looking at yours I think I should throw mine against a wall. Night n day differences! 2
Terry1954 Posted June 18 Posted June 18 Beautiful work Alan. This particular Otter is quite a looker actually. Love that last picture. T. 1
marvinneko Posted June 19 Posted June 19 Beautiful work... I deeply empathize with all the challenges! 1
heloman1 Posted June 19 Posted June 19 Drooping mojo aside Alan, you're doing wonderful work here. It really does look like a Beaver now. The floats do look impressive. Chin up ey! Colin 1
MrB17 Posted June 19 Posted June 19 11 hours ago, hendie said: One small area has me flummoxed as I see two wires going into pulley's/faileads but three wires emerging from t'other end and I can't figure out where the third wire came from. Possibly the wires for retracting (pulling up) the water rudders. They are often a Y harness, so they retract or deploy simultaneously. BTW those are the most realistic and incredible floats I have ever seen! 💯 Cheers Jeff 2 1 1
rholland Posted June 19 Posted June 19 11 minutes ago, heloman1 said: Drooping mojo aside Alan, you're doing wonderful work here. It really does look like a Beaver now. The floats do look impressive. Chin up ey! Colin Pity it’s an Otter…😋 Richard in NZ 4
giemme Posted June 19 Posted June 19 Those floats are just outstanding! Comparison with the kit ones is totally unfair, you might cause the kit designer a panic attack from shame... Ciao 1 1
klubman01 Posted June 19 Posted June 19 Despite your diminishing mojo quotient the results of your endeavours still look pretty damned good from where I'm sitting. Hope the mojo traps are successful! Trevor 1
81-er Posted June 19 Posted June 19 That's looking really rather splendid now, Alan, particularly the floats and the rather fortuitous self-weathering props. I'd have thought that was deliberate if you hadn't said otherwise. The angled support holes in the wing are a great bit of thinking too. Regarding getting the holes in the correct place on the fuselage, can you print a slice of the wing nearest the fuselage and use that as a template for marking out? James 3 2
MOK61 Posted June 19 Posted June 19 Absolutely fantastic work on the floats...well...on everything to be honest. As a relative newbie I have found that when my mojo droops (fnaaaar) posting what little I have achieved on here and seeing the feedback, and the banter, is a great motivator! Thanks for the inspiration! Murray 4 1
heloman1 Posted June 19 Posted June 19 7 hours ago, rholland said: Pity it’s an Otter…😋 Richard in NZ That's what I meant to type! I was just looking at Pedru's Beaver before I came to this build... 5
MOK61 Posted June 19 Posted June 19 2 hours ago, heloman1 said: That's what I meant to type! I was just looking at Pedru's Beaver before I came to this build... You'll go blind! 7
heloman1 Posted June 20 Posted June 20 13 hours ago, MOK61 said: You'll go blind! Half way there I wearing glasses... 3
perdu Posted June 22 Posted June 22 Oh dear, what made me do this? Anyone? It is really a Hobby Craft Otter and I intend, at a later date acos I'm busy, to emulate my hero with a sweet turbo Otter.. But huge drawbacks await I was hoping they might have drawn different sketches to mould from. They didn't. Decals, utterly horrid The red is misaligned by a mile, luckily I do not want to build a turbo Otter so the decals won't matter but what will is the wing to fuselage join, set too far forward just like the 1/48th one Hendie is working on. QW established that the wing is set way too far forward of the sloping panel line, work to do there and as I haven't started I may be able to sort it before any work got done unlike Alan having to go ahead with the window adaptations. A thing that does fill me with dread the ribs on all the control surfaces, they're all innies when they really must be outies... The leading edges might be easier to droop in 1/72 scale though Perhaps even this might help. I might need help with sketches though if you felt inclined at a later date OK I am off now and we can dump this interruption any time, 12
TheyJammedKenny! Posted June 22 Posted June 22 2 hours ago, perdu said: I am off now and we can dump this interruption any time, Whoop! Whoop! Terrain! Pull Up! This is going to be quite the diversion. You know what you're getting into. 2
CedB Posted June 22 Posted June 22 More amazing stuff Alan, my gob is truly smacked. On 18/06/2025 at 20:03, hendie said: …along with a red cap for filling up something inside. Scrabbling about in my deal stash I found a completely illegible decal that looked like appropriate labeling so it was duly stuck down. In my head the illegible decal says 'Something'. Glad to help 3
hendie Posted June 22 Author Posted June 22 4 hours ago, perdu said: A thing that does fill me with dread the ribs on all the control surfaces, they're all innies when they really must be outies... As far as I can tell, Bill, the flaps and ailerons have innies while the rudder and elevators have outies. 2
perdu Posted June 22 Posted June 22 I pray it shall be so, but that is for another time, another place. Mine is out of here. Cheers Alan, as you see I have even more reason to watch this already compelling build unfold. 1
hendie Posted June 23 Author Posted June 23 Back again. This time around there's not really a lot to show in the way of progress though it's taken quite a bit of work to get where I am now. Which is.... oh, I dunno. Let's deal with the elephants in the room first On 6/19/2025 at 5:15 AM, 81-er said: Regarding getting the holes in the correct place on the fuselage, can you print a slice of the wing nearest the fuselage and use that as a template for marking out? Great minds again James. I had already printed out a couple of slices but just hadn't bothered to show them yet as I wasn't sure if they were going to work. There is a slight step but all in all, I'm quite happy with the result. Given that the profile of my wing differs from that of the kit, I think it turned out pretty good. I don't think I'm going to bother blending in any mismatch as I think that will end up looking worse than just a neat step. The wing also changes color at that point so I (hope) believe that may help disguise the issue even further. I will only really know when the wings are finally stuck in position. The usual dry fit Very happy with that given that the wings are completely unsupported other than the two dollops of brassware in there. The floats got a further seeing to as I spotted more cross braces in my reference shots. Has I spotted those earlier I could have designed and printed the holes in situ, but ended up having to manually drill 4 x Ø0.6mm holes right on the apex of that corner strip. Not the easiest of tasks but no drills were harmed in the taking of this shot. Jumping back to the wings again, another elephant was the wing to fuselage struts. With so many variables at play and no real way to take a good measurement, I took a punt and printed out the wing strut at three different lengths in 0.5mm increments. As luck would have it, the shortest strut just made it. I designed a Ø1.1mm thru' hole which allowed me to insert a Ø1.0mm length of brass rod for added strength. As shown here, the left end sits against the fuselage and the right end is the wing connection. I've bent the brass rod slightly which allows it to slot into the mounting hole in the wing. The bottom end is as bit more dicey. I can't bend it in situ, and it won't fit through the strut if pre-bent. However, if I leave a short length protruding, it sits in the location hole in the fuselage just enough for support. Like so... A dab of superglue will help it do its job when the time comes. More elephants - this time the wing fences. It will come as no surprise that the kit parts are pretty atrocious and not worth bothering about. Brass seemed the order of the day here so out came the 0.005" sheets. 5 Thou' seemed very flimsy so I ordered some 0.010" sheet and when it arrived I decided it was too chunky. Hey ho. Back to the 5 thou' then. The process began with scribing a 0.2mm wide slot in the wing. That was pretty hairy to begin with but once I had the first few passes it became a lot easier. My very inexpensive Chinese scriber was the tool of choice - I'd be lost without that tool. Once the slot was deep enough, I made up a rough template and it was a process if fit, file, fit file ad nauseum until I got somewhere near the shape I was looking for. I used the rough template to shape another two pieces of brass sheet. Then it was time to stick 'em in. Superglue was the only real choice here - I used a piece of thin wire to weep some superglue into the slot then before it went off on me, forced the wing fence into the slot. There's still some final shaping to be done but the pieces were getting too small to handle and I kept bending one or the other. I figured it was easier to glue them in position then do the final shaping in situ. The last item of interest for this episode is not an elephant, thankfully. Just something quite straightforward but necessary. We need some way to get in and out of the aircraft, so some steps are required. On C-FIUZ, the port side passenger boarding steps are treadplate while the starboard side is just a plain old ladder type thingy. There we have it. More elephants than you can shake a stick at, and they've all had their buns now. 16 5
TheyJammedKenny! Posted June 24 Posted June 24 Shoot, this thing looks so good I should just hand off my next project to you, Hendie! Betcha wouldn't like that though...not what I've got in mind.... 1
perdu Posted June 24 Posted June 24 I love that step! No that doesn't mean that I don't love the rest of this genius build, but the checker plate step is wonderful. Those refuelling ports, they look similar to Wessex ones, I wonder... 2
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