airscale

evening folks Hi Tim - the only place I know of is where I got mine, but I got 100 x sheets bigger than A4 - I don't know if they do smaller amounts - it's called Jade long runs There is nothing here beyond you Thunnus, in fact I think if you for example lost the main gear door on one of your glorious Fw190D's you could and would scratchbuild one equal to, or better than the kit part - it's all about shapes and basic construction, I just make it look fancy it was time to sort out the under wing area - quite a lot to do here.. the wing join needed filling, the flap housing in the fuselage needed doing, the lower keel parts needed making etc etc .. I started by filling and fairing the wing join - I also added some false flaps so I could fill and sand over them and leave a perfect outline for the recess.. ..here masked up for a shot of primer so I can see whats what.. ..you can also see the big hole at the front - thats where I ripped off the fairing I had made before as it was wrong.. ..the false flaps doing their job well - these were just bits of litho exactly the shape of the recessed flaps bordered in tamiya tape.... ..once it was primed I added the ribs right at the end where the flap meets the fuselage.. moving forward, there are no drawings I can find of the forward fairing - I just have to go off photo's and in fact this whole area has been really hard to interpret in terms of the fairings & LE wing root fairings.. ..you can see behind the cowl flaps is a ducted fairing from the back of the radiators (the dull ali fairing on the right..)- this I made ages ago and now I find it's not quite deep enough, or long enough ..I remade the fairing to meet that ducted fairing and used the cowl flaps to understand and set out the geometry of the fuselage edge... ..I did my best to interpret it and compensate for the earlier error - you can see the fairing below the cowl flaps - this should be as long as the cowl flaps are... ..these pictures belie the amout of making, re-making, measuring, re-measuring etc that has gone on in this area and I am still not entirely happy.. ..I reshaped the cowl flap borders, the leading edge fairing area and still think there is more to do.. ..I also need to cut the slots in the forward fairing for the big ammo ejection chutes and do a lot more finessing here.. ..once I get all the keel parts made, the shapes & fairings right I can start skinning it all, though there is a lot going on under here so it will take a while.. TTFN Peter

I have a great way to solve the tape problem... ..don't put any on

Congratulations Jay - you have reduced me to a gibbering wreck... those cowl flap mechanisms are just unbelievable quality - so uniform and clean. I have said before about how I cheat by designing bits like that in PE and then proudly building up little kits of parts, but to make them from nothing and make them look like factory parts like that is an unbelievable talent glad the decals finally arrived - they look great in place Peter

Oh boy - that is TOP class

howdy folks Hi Matt - I use the proprietory adhesive cleaner that goes with the cement I use - it dilutes it to any consistency I need and in fact I found recently that I can almost take it down to the consistency of water and it still works as a contact adhesive Hi Craig - thanks that is a great tip - I will try it Hi Tim thanks - yes there are a couple here and here - good luck and if you have any questions just ping me Hi Pete - it's really simple - I just leave a slot in the skinning and get some Albion Alloy ali tube of the diameter I want and score it at 1 - 2mm spacing so there are ridges on the tube. You need to apply enough pressure that you get a good score line, but not so much that you actually cut the tube. Then I put it on a bit of tape and run it up and down a sanding stick so a flat forms - be careful peeling the tape off as the tube is now weakened at all those score lines and you have the hinge part ready to add so, just a small update today, but a pretty big step forward as the wings have been added... ..the model was laid on plans and levelled in all axis - the right dihedral was already fixed from the slide tubes added on day one of this build.. then they was epoxied into position and left to set.. ..with the wings added, it was time to understand and set out the fillet structures.. seen here on the real one, they are quite substantial.. ..I used drawings to create templates and then mark out the borders using lining tape, bulked out with tamiya tape.. ..also added a brass definition shape at the back of the fillet to define the scalloped outline, and a little card section at the leading edge.. ..then P38 filler was added and shaped - I thought I had done things in the right order by skinning some of the wings & fuselage, but actually it made for a harder task in doing some pretty agressive sanding & shaping right next to a buch of finished panels.. ..you can see a missing panel by the access door - that was victim of a slipped dremel and will need to be remade... ..then a first coat of high build primer was shot to see how it looked.. ..it's certainly close - a bit of fettling needed and then it will be fine to carry on skinning.. TTFN Peter

very well said - I think this is how most of us feel so sad, she was the nation's soul Peter

Just my opinion but this is all on the seller.. Ebay collects the tax and issues a unique code to be put with the address We do this every day from our store By not putting the code in a visible place on the parcel, the postal system of whichever destination country where the tax was due has no way if knowing it was paid so is seeking it from you (plus fees) The seller is responsible for labeling that tax has been collected as per the eBay terms of service and in my view for your costs Peter

Jay - I have the advantage of knowing exactly what you are doing... find the drawing, scale it, make the sub components, make the part... however, the threshold for the level of iddy, biddy bits I would go down to and actually be able to reproduce is waaaay lower than yours, and the ability to have the engineering accuracy to make parts that actually fit together rather than just representative shapes shows this is what I would call extreme modelling - in fact it's not even modelling, its scale reproduction - you have a God-like talent for this... very, very impressive Peter

just stunning.. when I grow up I want to be able to paint like that... those prop blades are hyper realistic Peter

hi everyone thank you so much for stopping by and your kind replies Hi Craig - I did consider 3D printing and I sort of tried it, but they are quite organic shapes and I am not very good at those so soon decided to just make and cast them like I did with the Spit Thanks Andy - those pics are lovely - I really like they show the tonal difference in the stainless steel exhaust panel which is reassuring as I made this in PE out of laziness, but actually it is good having it in nickel silver as it contrasts with the litho Hi Paul - thanks. Good question - I think it could work - I wanted to do an HK Lancaaster as a Lancastrian, or a B17 as a Boeing 307 Stratoliner, both of which would lend themselves well to skinning, but then if you tried it on say a Spitfire it might be a bit too hard as the compound curves would be pretty tight and I think skinning a smaller model would be pretty tricky. Not impossible, but hard I would say Hi Tim - I am not sure what that is? I have my 3D designs printed, and as yet have not had to use a 3d print as a master for casting resin, but sure it would be pretty straightforward - that or resin printing is neither of these things in which case the answer must be no Hi Thomas - the trick to making holes & cut-outs is to do them first when you have more material in hand - just scoring around an access panel for example means I can drill a hole and score into the corners then hold the sheet in a hold & fold and neatly break out the panel. The flap ribs however were designed in PE so it may be you are seeing things I didn't actually make I moved onto start skinning the upper nose - this is aa complicaated little area with the big caarb intake and two gun fairings meaning it's not a simple task. one plus is that the anti-glare panel is painted over this so I had decided to not try and skin the gun covers but see if I could get away with fairing them into other sheeted areas.. ..first step was get a tape template of the central skin panel covering the carb intake & mark the rivet lines in situ so they are right vertically & horizontally.. ..the template is removed and put on a sheet where the borders are scored, rivets added and in this case a Prestone access paanel cut out.. ..with that panel laid down it sets the borders of the main upper cowling panels.. ..same process repeated.. ..both sides done at the same time so the rivet patterns carry over both sides & line up.. ..those panels were made up - it took a few tries to get them right and good neat panel lines where they meet top and bottom.. ..the black dyno tape is where I need to add material next time i try, and the top panel was perfect but I laid it down in the wrong position and it got stress wrinkles on removal so a hours work became scrap pretty quickly.. ..when they were right they were fitted.. you can see where the gun covers have just been cut around and a small nose panel added & faired into the Carb intake casting at the front.... ..then the skins were masked up ready to fill the gaps around the gun covers.. ..filled and primed with mr surfacer but sanded back.. ..and then a template used to score the panel line for the gun cover fairing.. ..and the nose cap of the fairing scribed & the whole lot cleaned up - I aalso went over any rivets that needed it.. ..not happy with how the raised rivets at the front of the main panel came out, but it is what it is... ..the panel behind this has two piano hinges, so I made up the full set and added the top one first, bordered by the hinges... ..then the side panels were added using the same masking & thin contact cement process.. ...both side panels added.. ..and the area is about as complete as I can get it before adding the wings & fillets as these need to be there for subsequent panels.. ..I guess its wings on soon and working up the considerable wing fillets.. TTFN Peter

Such tragic news Mike, I am so shocked and my heart is just broken for you I read your post a few days ago and immediately sympathised as my wife goes into hospital on Tuesday for an operation for the same cancer and I thought how I felt for you and almost felt what you were going through. But this, this terrible news has just floored me. I can't imagine your pain and what you and your loved ones are going through My deepest sympathies, you are in my and I am sure everyone's prayers So sad Peter

BOAC Lancastrian

nuff said...

very nice job Craig - these are about THE most challenging parts when skinning and you have nailed it!

Max, this model and those period pics are mega motivation the IP looks fab