HK B-17...C 5/4 sweating the metal

[brahman104]

I haven't had a great deal of time at the bench lately, but as I've said before the beauty of a 3D printer is you can design things when bumbling around in the evening and then have the printer make it for you during the night, ready for the next chance you get to play with it!

 

One of the tools I've had for a while is an Etchmate 3C. I know most of you probably have one of these and use it a lot and it is good, but the one things that's always bothered me is the lack of a decent, long straight edge (not the one on the backs it's more of a step). So I took a few dimensions and this is what came out...

 

 

As you can see, I now have a nice long flat edge for bending my litho plate, which I'm doing a lot of these days for my B-17. I can now bend single 1x1mm angle pieces up to 160mm in length. Probably not overly useful for most people just doing photo etch but really handy for me

 

 

And still swappable with the old I also included a 1x1mm step on the back edge if I need to bend up some "U" channel.... which I also have done from time to time.

 

 

HOWEVER...................

 

Now my imagination started go a little silly. I thought to myself, what if I could bend up the 1mm angle, then build a rolling mill to bend it into a curve?

 

Sounds simple enough, well at least youtube thought so...

 

After a bit of playing around, this is what I came up with:

 

 

 

Two fixed rollers with a third that is adjusted by the top screw against a spring on the other side. The concept being simple; just feed your angle back and forth between the rollers, slowly reducing the distance between the top and the two lower rollers to induce the bend....

 

 

Like so

 

 

So like pretty much everything I do, did not nail it at all first go.....

 

 

 

Yucky!

 

The issue I realised, was that the angle could twist on the rollers (I used straight cut ones first) which then induced a horrible distortion and you get what you saw above.....

 

How do I fix that?

 

See next post.......

[brahman104]

Thinking about it and watching the process, you could see the metal twist "longitudinally" in protest to what was happening to it radially through the bender. To make this work, I needed to secure the angle in the rollers better, so I replaced the old ones with a new stepped design..

 

 

Probably difficult to tell here, but the top one has a male step, while the two lower ones have a female step, which "should" hold the angle in place and stop it distorting.

 

So how did it go?

 

 

Success!!!!!!! I think

 

 

 

Still a tiny bit of distortion there, but much, much better than the first effort. A bit more refining and I think I'll have something workable

 

 

Now I just have to practice to refine my technique, but overall, I'm pretty darn happy with the state of play!

 

Now back to your regular scheduled B-17 programming

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

Edited July 6, 2016 by brahman104

[TKB]

Craig,

 

As much as I await the finished "solid" model, the quality of the detail work you're putting into the interior does merit a "cutaway" or "skeleton" model. Still the "glimpses" through the windows, hatches etc will look astonding in the end.

 

You have a real knack for turning "problems" into "opprotunities" and then coming up real solutions and even "gizmo devices" --- like you rib roller.  By the time you refine your roller, you'll be mass producing B-17 ribs.

 

I wouldn't sweat using G photos as a source of reference. I'd wager there was very little difference in the basic layout of the "cockpit basement" between the B through the G.

During wartime production, I'd venture to say that changes were only made when absolutely neccessary. You can't keep an assembly line running smoothly if there are constant minor changes coming down from the Engineering Dept..

 

Terry

[TorbenD]

 

Problem solving at it's finest - I'm full of admiration on your wonderfully inventive blend of CAD and Trad skills - thx for sharing!

 

Torben

[TKB]

Craig,

 

You obviously live a life of a full schedule, but you be great in the aftermarket business!

 

I imagine a #3 thru #4 cockpit compartment, roof/turtle deck, along with a selection of #1 thru #3 nose compartments would be welcomed to correct the most glaring issue of the HK Fortresses --- CRAIG'S DOWN UNDER PARTS LTD.

 

Not only modelers, but HK would love it to boost overall sales!

 

All you need is 48 hours in a day and 10 days to a week!

 

 

Terry

[brahman104]

Last post 5th of August? Where does the time go?

 

I've finally been able to get some time back at the bench, but first things first a bit of a bench clean up was in order. After a bit of digging, I found the big girl waiting patiently for me while I was at it, I made some custom tool holders on the printer.

 

 

 

Something that I'd been avoiding for a long time, was the gun support structure above the radio room. I had a crack at forming the turret ring to mount the 50's.

 

 

 

Then the bit I really had no idea about how to do. Even though I'd taken an RTV "cast" of the area (which turned out to be rather unhelpful), because I'd installed the radio room, it made things very difficult to discern the correct shape. Oh well, live and learn!!!

 

 

Eventually, after a while, I managed something passable for the structure

 

 

 

 

 

So hopefully if I can do the same to the other side, it will end up looking something like this:

 

 

Not much to show for nearly 5 months away, but it's a start.....

 

Craig

[Shawn M]

wow, thats nice!

[ClumsyDude]

Great to see you back again mate. That is looking superb!

 

Jim

[brahman104]

Thanks Shawn and Jim!

 

It's good to be back into it. One of the problems I have with having such a long gap "in between drinks" is that I go back and feel I can do a better job of what I've already done, so I end up going about 8 steps backward for every step forwards. In the end though, I feel the extra effort is worth it and,

 

I GOT MY E/F TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hehehe, just had to say it. Actually it comes at a good time, as I can use most of the E model specific parts now as I'll be doing an F with that one (in my next life).

 

Stay tuned!

 

Craig

[TKB]

Craig,

 

Good to have you and the Fort back!

 

I don't think you'll ever get to the point of not thinking you can do a better job. Looking at your own work with a critical eye is a trait of a dedicated modeler

 

Very nice work on the MG ring mount and track structure. Two fifties in the photo --- have we committed to a D?

 

Congratulations on getting your E/F; should work out nicely building a F and rolling the E parts into the sharkfin.

Even with the donor parts you still have a lot of work ahead of you --- and we get to sit back and enjoy!

 

I'm still fighting the urge to get one --- just to have it!

 

 

Terry

[brahman104]

 Two fifties in the photo --- have we committed to a D?

 

Nothing gets past you, Terry! And with that I would say that I am. The only question is do I do the Swoose? It would seem like a no brainer, but since I'm going to be "skinning" it too, do I really want to paint all that lovely metal? Anyway, I'm a loooong way off that decision, especially when I decided to re-open the side of the radio room too (one of the seats broke off, so that kind of justifies it!)

 

So I decided to make a little two part die to make the dome light housings. This is a concept I tried a few months back, but didn't take into account material thickness in between the male and female halves and we all know what the end result was. Here's the new one (6x6mm so they're pretty tiny)

 

 

Then I drilled a hole for the wires to go through. I did this while it sat in the female die so all the lights will be the same ( I think I need 8 all up).

 

 

I also filled them with 5 minute epoxy. This serves to keep the little LED in place in the centre, and also works to diffuse a bit of the light so that it looks more "globe like."

 

 

 

Now, all my references say that the light is facing forward (and they're all G model ones) but the 1 photo I have of the Swoose in that area seems to show it mounted on the rear of bulkhead 3, so that's where it went...

 

 

In the meantime, I had to do some trimming off the top edges of the bomb bay to make it fit again due to the bottom of the "tunnel" behind the radio room gun being fitted. Luckily, the bay is lined, so I could get away with taking a fair amount of brass off and not losing any of what I had done on the inside. Lucky, as I thought with my luck, I would have to do the whole thing again from scratch!!!!!!

 

 

Another thing I noticed, was that the back end of my bomb bay is 0.8mm wider than the front, which then gives you this gap when the fuselage is joined....

 

 

Can't really blame kit warpage, the plastic is about 1.6 - 2mm thick through that area! A bit of sneaky sanding should sort it out though, and make everything much better in the long run.

 

I've also installed the cockpit permanently into the fuselage so it's not getting damaged on the workbench and for a few other reasons. I added most of the cockpit "soundproofing." I tried to make it look awesome like David Parker's G model build, but I suck at sculpture, so hopefully I can do a convincing paint job...

 

 

I also think my colour on the existing soundproofing is way off. I feel it should be more of an olive drab, but if anyone had any better ideas I'm all ears

 

That's about it at the moment, lots of fiddly little jobs that kind of all need to be done before too much visible progress can happen. I'm leaning heavily towards getting the bomb bay to a point where it can go in permanently, so I can fit and wire the three dome lights in it, but there's a fair bit of work to get it there.

 

Thanks for following on this year, I hope you'll join me as the build enters its third year(!)

 

Merry Christmas

 

Craig

Edited December 22, 2016 by brahman104

[richdlc]

looks fantastic! The working lights are a great idea. One of the things that irked me most on my Fortress was buttoning up the fuselage...and immediately eliminating 80% of the visible work I'd done. The lights should make all of that disappear on yours.

[Bomber_County]

Late to the party on your build Craig but wow looking gooooood............

 

Love the idea of lighting, how many times have we all spent hours on interiors and we see 20%

if that when we button them up.

 

Merry Christmas to you and yours and looking forward to more pics.....

[TKB]

Craig,

 

Astonding! You have achieved  "scale" lighting! Looks real without the glaring "flashlight" effect.

 

As far as the insulation padding color, I'd go with an olive drab that leans towards bronze green.

Follow your usual instinct and go with what looks right to your eye. That approach as been serving you pretty well.

. 

I'm willing to bet that if we were able to compare all these colors we fret about, none of them would match the spec!

I just can't see a Boeing inspector going around with color sample chips and verifying colors were an exact match, or an Air Force inspector not accepting a B-17 due to a color shade being slightly off.

Now, just as then, the "close enough" rule probably should apply.

 

Bare metal or camouflage?

That's the same debate that's going on at the Air Force Museum.

Restore 40-3097 as she originally was in the Phillippines, "Ole Betsy", or later in her career after the initial rebuild "The Swoose"..

 

Personally, I'm with the "Ole Betsy" group --- that's her true historical significance, a Phillippine survivor.

 

My own opinion is that you should go with the bare metal finish of earlier 40-3097, "Ole Betsy" rather then the later camouflaged 40-3097, "The Swoose", mainly because that's what you've had your heart set on since the stat of this build!

 

While many feel that this is boring, the different panel shades, insignia and tail strips will give plenty of "pizazz".

 

And in the end, you can always build anothe "D" as "The Swoose", along with your new B-17F!

By then you will have will have procured another "E/F"  for an "E" build!

Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong!

 

 

Terry

[LSP_Kevin]

Fantastic work, Craig! This thread - and your build - just keeps getting better and better.

 

Kev