brahman104 Posted May 10, 2017 Author Share Posted May 10, 2017 (edited) Craig, Seems like ages ago we were discussing Bulkhead #9 and the tailwheel. You've captured the "heavy-duty" look of #9 beautifully. Your updates are always well worth the wait! Terry Indeed it was Terry! That's because I'm clearly dragging my backside on this build hahaha. I ended up taking most of the "grime" off it, but it does still have a used look to it. I think you're right, most of the rear fuselage details could stand a bit of this treatment too. I will also include a couple of random DDG bits in the mix for good measure.... It might be time for me to revisit your pencil sketch for the next part. We are in the presence of genius......... That's just beautiful.......... Hahaha, I don't know that I would have ever described a butcher as a genius, but I'll take it Thank you Sir! Not sure what's more impressive, the modelling skills on show, or the fact that you needed to 3D print some parts, so you bought a 3D printer & taught yourself how to use 3D software. Seriously cool. Hi Dean, thank you. Mate I've got to tell you, learning the 3D printer was only the beginning....... you should see what's coming next! Cheers, Craig Edited May 10, 2017 by brahman104 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted May 10, 2017 Share Posted May 10, 2017 Craig ... jeez you're good. Inspirational stuff every time I clock in. I've chickened out of learning the 3D stuff, but at some point I think I'll have to go there. Watching with great interest. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 Here's the #9 bulkhead after cleanup. I think the effect looks okay, so I'll hit the other ones with it too So starting to get closer to the tail end, there was several aspects of the structure that were still baffling me. First of all, I had several conflicting sources of information on the relationship of the horizontal stab to the classic shark fin, and where exactly the main spars for each sat. I looked over and over again at the photos I found from dayton, which show what I believe to be the #11 bulkhead. According to the excellent blueprint drawing that I got via Terry from Mike Kellner restoring the Desert Rat, that would agree, but what was that plain white fairing structure beyond? Here's the real #11.... We know the early B-17's had a clear "cone" on the very tip, but what about the bit in between? In any case, I decided to cut off a bit of the fuselage beyond the #11 and deal with that later. Hopefully this would make it easier to work out where the stab's trailing edge came back to. Sounds confusing? Believe me, it is! A bit messy now, but it'll clean up okay........ So what now? Well after a few hours of going back and forth between the side profile, another excellent 3 view from Terry, the warpaint drawings, the koster 1/48 vac form and the academy 1/72 models, none of them really matched up. Rather than procrastinate any further, I took the plunge and decided that the #10 bulkhead would most likely support the rear spar for the stab, just forward of the elevator. At this critical juncture, I also decided that it would be in my best interests to incorporate the spar and bulkhead as much as I could into one piece, to ensure everything had a line up point and was nice and straight later on. So how did I do that? Introducing a new weapon in my modelling arsenal: I've been keeping this not so little tool under wraps for a while until I could work out how to use it. It is in fact, a 50W laser cutter. I brought it on eBay at the end of last year, but due to supply problems I never received it until early February. I then had to build a trolley for it (teach myself to TIG weld at the same time) and figure out how to use it. These machines are made in China, and despite the perceived "roughness" associate with such purchases, from some of the videos I'd seen on youtube, they were more than capable of producing great results and are for the most part surprisingly well built. There was however, a few small problems associated with it. First of all, the instruction manual was next to useless, being poorly translated english, which wouldn't even do for spare loo paper. Second, the operating system was in Chinese, so all the menu functions were unreadable, thirdly, of the three methods of transferring files to the machine, NONE of them seemed to work. At this point I didn't even know if the laser would operate! Had I just brought an $1800 dollar dud? A series of long, frustrating days followed where the machine and I slowly developed an understanding (I'm getting pretty good at troubleshooting these sorts of issues these days!) and I finally started to make progress with it. Eventually I managed to find out how to change the menus back to English, which helped the proceedings enormously . Of note in the above photo is the emergency stop button. I should stress that this machine cuts through burning and vaporising the base material, and as such it can be quite dangerous. Unlike the 3D printer, which is for the most part "set and forget" this machine demands constant supervision, and one of the first forays into acrylic I did actually resulted in a fire. Also, some materials can produce extremely harmful vapours (like cyanide) so you need to be VERY careful about what you're cutting into......... A few preliminary projects later, including a christening cake decoration for a mate of mine in 3mm acrylic, and I felt I had enough confidence to try something model-related. Bulkhead #10 seemed a fine challenge. Luckily, all my previous expertise built up using Rhino 3D did not go to waste. I produced a 2D drawing of the spar and bulkhead set-up..... Then, after several more hours of frustration where the machine apparently "forgot" where the 0,0 origin was, I was able to produce the piece. This took all of about 1 minute to do....... These photos are exactly as it came off the machine, with no clean up. What can I say? I am massively impressed! That this can be made, with such finesse, and no cut stress to the material is absolutely incredible. This is big news for future projects, as I'll be able to "build" complete structures for vac forms and 3D printer shells. The machine can also "etch," as in do a partial thickness cut to engrave details in to the material. Gentlemen, the world is my oyster!!!!!!!! I'm sure a few of you are wondering if it does metal, specifically, aluminium. Unfortunately, this process requires an extremely powerful laser, such as one of the large commercial machines and even then, they are limited. The main materials that this will do are MDF, ply/balsa and acrylic, but that's definitely good enough for me. Before I went down the path of using litho for the ribs and stringers, I was going to make them all using this machine. It arrived too late for this project, but it's something I'll definitely be trying in the future. So far so good, it'll be even better if that bulkhead fits, hahaha! Cheers, Craig LSP_Kevin, Gazzas, Anthony in NZ and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Barry Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 That thing is cool. Wow! You are nearly out of bounds (except that there aren't any) I wish I lived next door, anyway. brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 Hahaha, thanks Jim! Yeah I know I guess you could say it's cheating, but I look as it a highlighting that there are many different ways to skin the proverbial cat. There are the traditional (and still very valid) approaches like yours and many others, I'm trying something new because a) I can and if it saves some time for me (noting this build is in its 3rd year already), then I'm up for anything! I also note that I am extremely lucky, as most modellers would not have access to the things that I do, and I'm certainly not intending this as a "rub it in your face" type thing........ Sometimes, I think I should have just stuck to plastic...... I'd probably be finished by now! Another quick update from this morning: So I decided to try and make the spar out of acrylic, just to see how it would turn out. If all goes well, then I might look to paint this part for a bit of variation in the sea of silver So here it is during test fitting..... definitely not as bad as I was expecting and have a look at how it lines up to what I've already done.... Just for fun, I lined it up with the G model stab, just to illustrate the size difference..... So there you have it, I'd do more but unfortunately I have to go work...... can't get new toys without money...... Cheers, Craig Hubert Boillot, Gazzas, Derek B and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Amazing stuff, Craig! Kev brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Wow! so much awesome stuff. I'm amazed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Barry Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Just being cheeky, of course, Craig. This laser just needs some superlatives! As I said, no bounds. Master scratch builder, John Alcorn, once pondered in the 1990's what a new generation of scratch builders would do to advance the hobby. This laser cutter and 3D printing is perhaps what he could feel coming. Keep it going. This is a huge project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimW Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Wow. The manly ambition and epic projects I see on a regular basis on LSP are a major inspiration for me, even if I'm just doing some minor mods or building OOB. This is amazing! Going to do Colin Kelly's B-17? Cheers, Tim W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 Wow! so much awesome stuff. I'm amazed. Thanks mate! Just being cheeky, of course, Craig. This laser just needs some superlatives! As I said, no bounds. Master scratch builder, John Alcorn, once pondered in the 1990's what a new generation of scratch builders would do to advance the hobby. This laser cutter and 3D printing is perhaps what he could feel coming. Keep it going. This is a huge project. Very true Jim. Isn't amazing how far this hobby has come in the last 20 years or so? Even when I first started this build, I never would have thought that I would be incorporating printed and laser cut parts and yet, here they are. But at the end of the day, the quintessential goal of modellers has not changed; a good model still relies on you being able to bring all bits together and produce the outcome no matter how they are produced. Wow. The manly ambition and epic projects I see on a regular basis on LSP are a major inspiration for me, even if I'm just doing some minor mods or building OOB. This is amazing! Going to do Colin Kelly's B-17? Cheers, Tim W. Hi Tim, That's exactly why I joined LSP. There's never a shortage of inspiration and talent in the builds going on here So I've been thinking about which particular one I'll end up with, but I'm still leaning towards the Swoose in her Philippine days as 'Ole Betsy. Speaking of which, where's some updates on your F model.........? Cheers, Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimW Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Oh, I'll get back to the Front shortly. I just had to take a break from mega projects and do something simpler (the Jug). Tim W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 17, 2017 Author Share Posted May 17, 2017 Oh, I'll get back to the Front shortly. I just had to take a break from mega projects and do something simpler (the Jug). Tim W I know the feeling Tim...... Although I am loving this build, it is doing nothing to reduce the size of my unbuilt model stash....... A little more progress. Nothing spectacular but a few more important steps in the overall journey..... As I find myself focusing more and more on the area around the tail wheel, I figured it was time to more or less iron out the correct shape of the wheel well hole. Despite there being only a few pictures of the surrounding area, luckily Terry (TKB) had invested some considerable time to make a series of dimensioned drawings of the area, which made my job pretty straight forward. Now that the #9 bulkhead was fitted, it was a good start point. I was having some trouble with the numerous pen marks seeing how close I was to the finished shape, so I painted the area around it with black for some contrast. Still a bit more to go, but pretty close. You can now also see, that my efforts with this bulkhead were not in vain, although there is still the retract mechanism to be fitted yet.... I also, as best as I could, removed the aluminium lining from the opposite side where the bulkheads would go. This would also give me locations to start the stringer and rib work soon. Now for the fit check. This was a nagging fear in the back of my mind that I would have to do some serious rework of all the bulkheads to ensure a decent join along the two halves. However, with the above work done, all looked pretty reasonable. Not perfect, but reasonable And another shot of the #10 bulkhead in place and everything lining up pretty nicely. Yes, I am surprised as well!!!!! Lastly, an interior shot of the #10. This should be visible from the wheel well looking rear, so worth dressing up, but that'll come later. On the rear face of the fuselage right now is where the #11 will sit. Hopefully that will be pretty straight forward. I'll probably base it out of acrylic again, and incorporate the main fin spar. Like I said, a quick, but important update. A step that certainly would have taken a lot longer to figure out without the support of you guys.. your help is ALWAYS appreciated! Cheers, Craig Jim Barry, Anthony in NZ, Starfighter and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 I'm really liking where this is going! Inspirational! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 OMG.......stunning! You are really showing us all how to do a complex conversion with class Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Barry Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 The bulkhead is pretty sharp. These are the things that when they are all added up make for the knock out effect. You just have to sweat each one out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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