Piprm

Wow! .... Many Thanks for the kind words and encouragement ( and 'Likes' too) to the guys here whom I Admire Greatly for their talents and skills you ALL display and share. Pip

Crew Door Mounts : This can be tricky as there is very little area - around the top of the door opening frame ( or sill) to play or work with ( door mounting -wise) as the gap on top of the door is really @ 2mm square. I've also got to design the structure, so that the mounting brackets is concealed above the door frame. ( in those 2 square notches above the door - pivot points really) So I had to put my ideas to paper to conceptualize ( Big word) my thoughts to see if my ideas will work in 3D reality. I've got the added complexity of the inner walls / Outer fuselage mating up as one and both these inner and outer door openings that align up and a door ( and it's associated brackets) that must fit into it seamlessly. ( Eek!) Here is my approach... With my plan in place ( or THE plan - should I say) .. I begin and hope for the best... ( Gulp) With some tinkering - this is what I came up with ( of course - checking with both door openings each time) The Brackets don't protrude any lower than the door frame - which is what made me sweat a bit and I was really trying for .... by this whole exercise. I Think I hit a home run with this challenging part - at my first attempt ( More luck than anything) .. but it's done Pip

Thanx Andy, Happy to know you are enjoying my journey with this Canberra. Pip

Hi Thor, Thanx Matie... There's plenty of stuff I can't make.... like a Pavlova for example - though I'm sure I'll come upon something here sooner or later that will have me stumped - ....and that's where you guys come in. Pip

Thanx Gazza, That's thinking with your feet! ... My model-room ( man-cave) is upstairs so the stairs can be the problem with moving stuff around to the cool downstairs. Pip

Ray, That Cockpit looks Awesome! I hope mine turn out as good as that! Pip

Crew Access Door - Continued...... Good! - body of the Door to the Inner wall entrance and outer Fuselage entrance FITS ...... as it should Note: The the 2 door arms shown above, will be trimmed and modified / shortened - so as to be brackets to attach to the inner wall/interior piece. All that done in one sitting - compared to weeks of work.... if I had done it, any other way... Pip

Cockpit Crew Entry /Exit Hatch Build: (Choices) In times gone by, I have done projects like this, that require a lot of work, time, ,material , method, thought etc and seeing this project has taken some time and longer than I anticipated, I have decided to work smarter- not harder! So, instead of making this crew access door/hatch using a lot of stepped processes - materials and a Hell of a lot of time...... my approach is simple, yet gets me the same results: Its called ' The Squish method' The photos following show how it's done... (Firstly, I start off with a cut to size - flat Plastic styrene 'plug' of about 2.5mm thick )... NOTE: Don't try doing this without Gloves!!! But for this process - I choose an opposite area of the fuselage ( because the fuselage entrance right-side has an opening now - so I can't use it) In this case of the Canberra, the forward fuselage gets narrower to the front and the door follows the same contours - So by reversing the finished molded piece, horizontally front to back ( L /R fuselage ) you reverse the mirror- copy! .... ( you turn the left-side copy to now a right side) and there you are! I always test-fit every piece I make , as i move along... I don't want to come back to it later after I made a lot of other pieces to find this doesn't fit or what-ever - which effects every other piece i have worked on since

Cockpit Crew Entry /Exit Hatch: We now move onto the Crew door as i have decided to make this as one separate piece that can be displayed either open or closed. ( having detail on both the inner and outer surfaces) This piece will be made of resin eventually with all the other parts I have ear-marked for small production. Please see photos below for your reference: You will notice in following inner-door photos that there are differences .... This one above is without any lining ( though it should normally have..) This is a normal inner door lining painted cockpit Black - though fading now and looking a little worse for wear This one has recently had its inner liner renewed, though lacking any paint.

Modelling Relief: I decided to get an Air-conditoner for my Man-cave as I am sick and tired of sweating and feeling ill from the heat and humidity in recent times. Maybe i'm getting older i don't know , but last year or so of summers heat , I had to down tools because of the heat and the discomfort over my work-bench. Thank God for small mercies

Thanks Troy - Yes I'm going - I'm Going to do! Yes, as remarked previously, the white bare styrene finish does take away detail from the parts in the photos... so the sprayed grey finish will be the Go from now on .. I won't touch the inner wall liners for now - I need the detail in the fabric as raw as I can get it for copying. I'm also shaking the primer can as I write! Pip

Many Thanks Guys! ...I really appreciate your encouragement Your comments give me stamina to move forward on this project Pip

Hi Eric, Thanks for Chiming in Matey! Your Comments mean a lot to me Pip

Pilots console Master - Construction and 'Detailing' Phase I've started with one of the centre-pieces of the Cockpit - the pilots left-side console... as it's mostly seen from the top through the Canopy and also through the open crew excess hatch. I've already made the 'Basic' shape as seen in previous threads.. but now's the time to detail it... The real cockpit photos and additional drawings are for your reference and familiarisation.. Note: the drawings below aren't accurate but gives you some references and understanding of components and placement within the cockpit... The raised panel lines or crosses on the console sides are for reinforcement and in 1/32 nd scale ....are a little small for my eyes... so I used the magnification light to help.. Starting with some offcuts of half-round strip styrene ... Me thinks it's finally starting to take some shape Pip

Hi Peter, This is Popping some of my brain - cells. Erh, so is the engine going to run on Ethanol or Aviation fuel? Pip

Hi Tony, Ha Ha! ....Yep, Feather one minute, Sledge hammer the next - that's definitely my modelling style. Materials? Some local ( AUS)... some overseas... Ebay is a good source - long list of other suppliers - msg me if needed. Weight? strangely no. Apart for the odd bucket of nuts & bolts I've been using , I try to use alloys/plastics/copper in the accessorising/mastering parts of the build. Mind you- these parts will be converted to resin later , so what- ever weight there is in the mastered original parts right now - will be lessened later on in resin copies ( except for metal landing gear and the wing / fuselage structures) Pip

Hi Troy, Great minds think alike - Yes that did occur to me in recent weeks ( for photographic purposes) Yes, I will try this from now on Pip

Give Photobucket the flick - Try Imgur Far-far better! Pip

Me too! - will be watching with interest.. I've got one in the stash with all the Aftermarket gear to go... same boat too... not much experience with P/E but you gotta start sometime I guess! Pip

Hi Max, Thanks for your kind words... Yes, that Canberra in Moorrabin Victoria is #236 which is the subject of this model I hope to finish here - I had the privilege to crawl over a few Canberras in my time... maybe each time I was hoping for less clutter! .. but apparently not! With the extra resin parts i'm making...I will leave the over the top/excess cockpit clutter to the modelling experts - my plans are more finite - though I plan for a good level of detail. Pip

Hi Torben , I'm glad you are enjoying my build mate... just wished i didn't have to work for a living and spend the next two months full-on finishing this off! Pip

Thanks Jack and Ben - your kind words are very appreciated! ( AND Thanks everyone for the 'Likes' ) Front fuselage structure : My focus now is the flooring / Back wall , and Front wheel well areas. I must construct and design the 3 areas to connect together as the following drawings and photos explain.... The red areas above , I am working on - in terms of design /fit / detailing ( rivets etc) and construction of individual parts... The common areas are that everything 'hinges off' is the back wall of the cockpit ( more of a reinforced station or bulkhead of the fuselage ) as ... 1/. the front is pressurised and the flooring is attached to the rear cockpit wall 2/. the back of the wall is really a fuselage bulkhead sealing the front of the fuselage to the bombay and also must carry .... 3/. the front wheel well and the landing gear structures ( which includes the weight of the aircraft) as well as absorbing the forces of landing.... The problem is : as shown previously .. the front landing gear mounting points are to the front of the wheel well - which is also part of the rear wall bulkhead. So I must incorporate the front wheel well attachment point to the rear wall bulkhead as one molded piece. First I must enclose all open areas in terms of molding processes... The piece to the right ( above) must be merged or incorporated into the rear wall / Bulkhead This piece must be square and also needs a tidy-up before the next process..... I have made and incorporated some bracketing pieces to make construction of the individual parts more easier for everything to line up and go in it's proper places - as it should.... The red arrows show the alignment strips, so that each parts simply clips in place " Like so! ".... Now we move to the other side of the rear cockpit wall/ bulkhead to the inside back cockpit wall for rivet detailing..... starting with photo references... From this 'Base' I can begin with detailing cockpit.... wish me luck ! Pip

Cockpit Walls - Continued I have to consider the molding processes as I build the walls for copying in resin during every stage of this build... The entry hatch has to be built open and molding openings is difficult at best ...So I will make a very thin cut-out piece for this area... I am doing this because i am making the hatch-door itself, as a separate piece and the model can be displayed with the hatch-door opened for internal viewing or closed because you don't want to see all that cockpit clutter! The thin sheeted cover/opening that's above - back lit .... gets cut out in the resin part copy - obviously, as I've marked it with an 'X' You will notice above .....the 'lip' around edge of the frame of the back-lit crew entrance OK, Now we move to detailing phase - something that's a little intimidating - considering how busy this cockpit is ( probably the most cluttered cockpit ever made in history!!!) ... and that's probably an understatement.... In any case, I will start from the floor up and the most difficult bit is the ancillary compartment recess under the floor - of the pilot . The photos show what I mean... The first is a 1/48th model version to show details and some clarity.... This area had me rather intimidated for a while... mostly in the area of how to design it in a way to make it easy for copying as well as constructing all the pieces together .... the challenge here is to segment the flooring into pieces that will go back together easily like a jig-saw puzzle and get the effect or look that I am chasing.. I had to think of a few variations before i came up with this version.... and mostly for ease of molding... again fit and design for molding, is driving this process in this stage of the build - phase.. The pilots floor is a thin separate piece with the side recess openings made in an inverted L-shape .. and now to finish off with floor riveting ( yes rivet-counters , I put the rivets in the right places - just for you!) Getting over these tricky stages... I'm starting to feel that i'm making some 'REAL' progress. Pip

Cockpit ( Continued) working further on the inner wall 'Shell' below shows the edges cleaned up and ready for the next part.... The photos tell the story.... Time to mock - up the inner-wall liners and back wall to check fit and look .... I am happy with look and more importantly - the fit of the parts so far.... ( they will be cleaned up more before I mold these) Now we move to the next area.... The crew access hatch ( Inside and out).... Looking from the outside > in , the entry hatch edging has this small 'lip' as shown in following photos..... Pip

Cockpoop Wall Liner - Continued Time to clean up and detail the cockpit wall liner - as you have seen already - it's rough around the edges ( mostly because of the raised or widened mating surfaces of the fuselage halves ) so I had to under-cut the edges but now i have to build them up again for copying into resin for standard molding to cover all applications. My resin copy of these particular parts for this build at least - will be cut back again at the fuselage-halves edges... to fit again. Readjusted edges - Before and after comparison..... Now, I have moved to the crew door access hatch because of alignment of the openings ( inside and out) that need to be addressed before molding.... I need to scribe and cut right around the access door edges, with some accuracy because any mistakes at this stage - especially with the outer fuselage sides.. will need a lot of extra work to correct and/or fix and why make any extra work for myself? So for the need to making a sturdy full door sized scribing-cutting template - I have turned to using the thin alloy metal strips you find in your everyday household window venetians blinds ( here we go again - stripping your house for useful tools and parts - Pip ? ) Erh!! maybe... I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story....