dodgem37 Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 Good show. Nice update. Sincerely, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Barry Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Nice Craig. I have only limited experience in casting. Always helps to see other do it to get my head around it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Cross Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Wow. Freakin' wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 Wait what... You have a laser cutter at home... Thats insane!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richdlc Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 brilliant so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiZac Posted November 15, 2017 Share Posted November 15, 2017 Loving the model work, and the seasonal etchings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissPokerAce Posted November 24, 2017 Share Posted November 24, 2017 Most amazing B17 EVER!! brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted November 25, 2017 Author Share Posted November 25, 2017 Most amazing B17 EVER!! Yours is pretty darn good too mate. Speaking of which, how's it going? Any more progress to share? Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 Craig, Your handcrafted ammo can prototype is very impressive --- down to the linked .50 rounds! Casting came out equally impressive; would have been alot of work scratchbuilbing a whole bunch of them and getting them all to look exactly the same! Just my two cents worth here, but I recall reading the O-1 was galvanized, so I'd avoid a shiny bright metal look and go with more of a greyish silver, except for the top loop handle and the mounting clip band, which had a yellowish tint to them. Might give you a bit of subtle difference against the interior "shinny aluminum." fuselage. O2 bottle looks right on the mark; you captured just the right amount of "portliness" to it. Is there anything you don't have a knack for doing? Seems no matter what, you have the tenacity to see it through until you get the results you're striving for! Terry brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted December 6, 2017 Author Share Posted December 6, 2017 Hey Terry! Thanks mate, unfortunately the .50 belt was resin and it snapped when I went to bend it to conform to the surface of the can, so the casting shows my mistake too ....... anyway, I'm pretty amazed at just how well they actually came out; the vario15 silicon rubber works so much better than pinkysil and you get a much friendlier pot life. I'll absolutely take your advice on the colour of the cans.... you are right with the variations and I think I have a few different metallic paints to try my hand on when it comes to them. Work has been hellishly busy of late, although I only have one more week left of the year before I can get stuck into making up for some lost time on the big girl. I've been puddling around with the fin, stabilizers and nose cone, so hopefully I'll have some progress to share soon. In the meantime, please continue doing what you do best and a) check my work, provide all those little snippets of great information at just the right time and c) keep the "have you thought about this?" coming! Every comment or bit of feedback is directly contributing to the (hopeful) success of the this build! Cheers Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted December 17, 2017 Author Share Posted December 17, 2017 (edited) Yay! I'm finally on holidays after a horrendously busy end to the year, which means I can finally devote a bit of time to the big girl. I quite often get distracted. It's generally not a bad thing and potentially something that has been keeping the interest in a project as extensive as this. The latest distraction happened when I suddenly remembered about Paul Budzik's video on vacuum forming. I did a search on eBay and found that little machines like his (designed for dental work) were available, and seemed to give promising results, so I took the plunge and got one. Way back when I was printing the solid pieces representing the nose cone and the one separated into segments to make the brass frame, I also printed one slightly smaller, in the hope that later I could vacuum form it and with the material thickness it would be almost an exact match to fit in my newly made frame. It sounded way too hard at the time so I put it aside to deal with at a later date. Fast forward to the postman delivering my new vac former and all of a sudden there was a need to fashion the 3D printed part into a smooth master for forming. I wasn't even sure if this would work, or if the heat would distort the printed plastic, so I also made a couple of resin copies just to be safe... Once that was done, and a lot of trial and error (at least 20 attempts) later, I managed a fairly successful look pull. I found out later that acrylic is one of the most difficult materials to vac form, as it tends to bubble under the heating element. I also found that in my particular case, heating for a minimum of 2 minutes was required to make the acrylic soft enough for pull down, but 2 minutes and 8 seconds was when bubbles began to form. Even sticking to the 8 second window was no guarantee, but with 4 or 5 moderately successful pulls I felt I had enough bits to proceed with.... I was using 1mm acrylic, which meant it could hold up to a little sanding if I needed to tweak the edges as well, and would not yellow later like some styrenes do. I then had to solve a little mental gymnastics about how exactly I could mark out on the copies the correct dimensions and curves to cut out to fit in the frame. After a while it came to me to trace the frame onto styrene, measure and mark all the frame locations, and then trace over the top on the clear part. I still had no idea if this was going to work, and it has possibly been one of the hardest modelling challenges I have ever done! Piece by piece I began to make progress, and the first piece was ever so slowly trimmed and filed down to fit the frame. I also made a solid styrene vac copy to use for the non-clear segments, one of them will eventually have the door fitted too So far so good! I think this will end up looking quite good, especially once some rivetted litho goes over the top to tie it all in (it will also hopefully hide all my glue marks!). I've also been slowly shaping the rudder and stab for eventual casting. The reason for making copies of these is that, like the nose cone, if I stuff one of them up, I'll be able to make a new one easily. The eventual intent here is to cover these in a heat activated covering, but plenty more R&D to do first on that one! Terry, you can see I have now added the counterweight on the leading edge as per our discussion, I think it looks much better than just a straight section. Thanks again for the info! Anyway, there you go, a little more progress, but it is indeed progress! Craig Edited December 17, 2017 by brahman104 Trak-Tor, Gazzas, Jim Barry and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted December 17, 2017 Share Posted December 17, 2017 Brain surgery looks less complex than what you're attempting with the nose glazing! I'd have taken the easy route and just added painted or foil frames to the vacformed clear piece. Massive credit to your dogged persistence - no doubt the end result will look stunning. Tom brahman104 and Shawn M 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted December 17, 2017 Share Posted December 17, 2017 Rocket surgery for sure! Shawn M and brahman104 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richdlc Posted December 17, 2017 Share Posted December 17, 2017 looking great! brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 (edited) No way ... you're such a pro Craig, it's a real pleasure to watch your work. Jim Edited December 18, 2017 by ClumsyDude brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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