airscale

that is a very neat job of a difficult challenge nice work indeed Peter

hello again so while I can't fit them yet, I wanted to get the flaps built up.. I used the same principle as the ailerons in that an inner core with raised rivets was made and then skinned with panels with normal rivets - you can see the raised rivets on the trailing edge in this shot... ..the first thing was to get the drawings into the overall 'folded out' shape along with the rivet markings - the raised ones are in threes along the trailing edge. there are also cutouts & shapes along the leading edge which curves under the wing trailing edge.. ..I always work in pairs if twothings need doing, so I don't do one and get bored doing the other, so bothe were made and folded.. ..the drawings actually had me confused as they show the lines of lateral rivets in paired rows, but all the pics I have show just one row so that was what I went with - here are an upper & lower pair for the panels with recessed rivets - the bottom one has just been done, the top one already burnished out to get rid of the 'pillowing' effect of the rivetting process.. ..the structures were strengthened with thick card and an inner core made up to define the profile and stop sagging.. ..details added and taped up ready to paint YZC where needed.. ..then the rivetted panels were added - here tape acts as a hinge at the top, and is masking where the impact cement goes at the bottom.. ..after painting the details showed quite well - I also noticed the curved edge that goes under the wing is normally seen quite glossy, I guess it doesn't get as much exposure as the rest of the structure, so I polished this area.. ..I also worked up and fettled the wing & fuselage so they fit and painted the recess YZC ..the aileron detail can still be seen.. ..not at the right angle or fixed yet, but you get the idea.. ..and that is the flaps nearly done - I will finish the fittings when I fit them .. ..I have the 3D printed wheels & hubs I designed from Tim Perry now, so they are next to take a look at TTFN Peter

that is quite astonishing - the finesse, the detail, the observation.. you really know how to model I look forward to every update Peter

i like to have a kit as a canvas - it's a shame it's got flaws it seems and that is frustrating when it's a new design and the info is available, but fixing things is all part of the fun right I would rather have a few corrections to make than nothing at all to start with.. Peter

thanks folks Hi Radders, yes we will be there in our usual spot in Hall 2 - the P51 won't be though as it's too near completion so I want to save it for the comp next year. I will most likely bring the Spit XVI and have it on the LSP stand though Good spot Jay - I haven't done them yet as they are a bit fragile to add when I still have a lot of handling to do - thanks for the drawing though, saves me looking it up on Aircorps TTFN Peter

pleased to see we are in our usual spot in Hall 2 opposite Revell and next to the wonderful guys at Copperstate starting to get excited already & looking forward to seeing everyone Peter

'sup Jay I guess you are still hammering out bazillions of cylinder head bits? looking forward to seeing how its going Peter

thank you my friends been away on business a bit so not much done, but I guess enough for an episode.. ..ailerons... lets take a look - see how there are both raised & indented rivets... there is also what looks like an overlapping panel at the forward half of the aileron (forward of teh trim tab) so I thought I would make a folded metal part with the raised rivets, and add the other panel on top with indented rivets.. ..I started by adding both sides of the drawing together to get what it would be if folded out flat and pinpricked where the raised rivets were - also scored the trim tab... ..then after turning it over and adding the raised rivets, i folded it and folded the leading edges to get the inner (and main) part of the aileron ..then I made and rivetted the overlapping panel, also folding down the leading edges.. ..a thick plastic card spar was then added and once I had made both ailerons, they were filled with Alec Tiranti expanding foam - this stuff goes rock hard and was actually a bit of ballache to clean out of the open end where the aileron meets the flaps.. ..with both done, I started removing the trim tabs - these were waste - I made new ones with raised rivets.. ..soon both were completed.. ..the exposed end seen because the flaps are down was detailed according to pictures & drawings.. ..and with two fixing rods fixed into the leading edges, they were mounted to the wings - I might live to regret this but the wingtip fairings after profiling to neatly fit the ailerons were getting really fragile and will break so hopefully this will protect them.. ..Flaps next - they are an interesting, if similar structure.. TTFN Peter

Very slow loading for me too, started this week Sometimes a page loads quickly, but most of the time it just sits there doing nothing and eventually decides to show up... If it's the hosting, as a sponsor I would be happy to up the ante to improve it... Peter

thank you folks - you are too kind carrying on with the wing fillets - the borders are laid out with tape to rub soft metal into to get the shapes in 3D after translating the plan profiles.. ..taped down & burnishing.. ..the forwardmost fillet is one piece and very difficult - there was nothing for it but to have a go at bashing some ali into shape - itv soon kinked and creased and took a lot of work to get even half right... ..you can see here how the material just wouldn't do what was needed and split in one place - no matter I thought I could let in a piece here - this had any inner creases filed down to give it the best chance of truly flattening out when fixed.. ..still working it.. ..and finished & with fixings.. it's not perfect, but good enough for me.. ..same on the other side.. ..the PE arrived for the front vents so I could do this panel too - another tricky one.. ..first step was to add the vent structure and then make the front seam of the panel meet the nose intake casting... the rest of the panel lines could be dealt with with overlaps being removed.. ..with both panels & the vents added..,. the fasteners are added, but not yet all the riveting.. ..and the nose is pretty much coming together.. ..still lots to do despite it looking quite complete... TTFN Peter

I just love the ambition written large all over this thread... brilliant & inspirational stuff Craig Peter

oh boy that is some finish Chuck and the panel work is sublime can't wait to see this one in RFI and see what is next on the block Peter

hi folks Thanks Mark - yes, the panels are trimmed to about a couple of mm from the overlap so it's quite easy to get rid of what is needed, in fact the only problem sometimes is that the panel seam practically disappears.. though that can also work in your favour... Thanks Kag - another book - hmm, that depends on whether Kev is willing to put himself through it all again - in the case of the Spitfire book, that meant filtering all 10,000 images I had (original high res ones) to find the ones I used in my posts - that, and then all the editing and additional stuff the genius that is our Kev adds.. I suspect it's a 'you only want to do that once' experience having finished the upper cowl panels, it was time to move below, the first one to set down was marked out with 3mm tamiya tape to allow another masking tape template to be made of just the straight rear edge... ..once that was done the panel was burnished down to the front defining edge and cut out - her it is once it has been fixed down and some of the fasteners added.. ..then the remaining fasteners & rivets and a hatch was added.. ..I was going to do the panel forward of this one which has the distinctive small air intake panels with lots of holes, but found the PE ones I had made are not scaled correctly as they are too big so PPD are running me up another set - as such I did the panel behind it instead and will complete it when the PE arrives.. ..while waiting for the PE I decided to prepare & paint the wings so I can work on all the wing fillet panels - these had already been etch primed months ago so were cleaned up and sprayed with alclad white aluminium... I was a bit worried about the fragility of the alclad paint, but after a gentle wire wolling to get rid of the dusty finish, it seems to be ok with some tape tests I have done - I have had it in the past where tape just pulls up or damages the finish.. ..with that done, the rearmost fillet was planned - it looks like this and is not only a signature shape, but full of compound curves... thankfully it's in two parts - upper & lower and the seam can be seen - it's actually a weld, but I haven't figured out how to represent it.. ..using drawings I made the upper shape and worked this into shape across the fillet to get the three dimensional shape.. ..and eventually both upper & lower were added to the model... ...the fillet right at the front on the leading edge looks really difficult so back when I have worked that out TTFN Peter

that looks superb - hard to believe this is the old 1/24 kit excellent all round Peter

evening boys & girls ..time for a nose job... ..this is one of the two detatchable panels that sit on top of the engine.. ..step 1 was to prepare the surface so it's nice & smooth and to mark the centreline.. ..then a sheet of soft aluminium was prepared by adding the row of rivets that go along the seam where the two panels meet and the fastener positions that run along the centreline on each side... then this was taped to the centreline... ..you can see rivets along the bottom scrap edge where I ballsed this up once already.. ..then the sheet is burnished down to the cowling with balsa blocks and in some areas around the nose where the curves are most acute, with a ball pein hammer... ..masking tape is used to hold the panel taught where it should be as the surface is worked from the straight edge centreline, to the outer curves.. ..soon the panel is roughly done and the borders appear as raised edges.. ..the masking tape is removed to see whats what.. ..the panel is then trimmed & fixed with contact adhesive, using the centreline tape to as a hinge to keep it's relative position and the overlaps start to get filed / sanded away.. ..with both sides done and the surface sanded smooth to remove irregularities (like glue highspots), the rivet detail was gone over again.. ..with the fastener details defining the lateral rivet detail position, tamiya tape was laid out to set out the spacing - interestingly these rows of rivets are perpendicular to the A/C datum, not the cowling which is tilted slightly downwards... ...also the hatches had been let into the structure by taping them down and tracing the outline with a new scalpel blade with the waste later removed.. ..once complete another burnish to get everything nice & recessed and a wire wool clean up.. ..lower cowl next... TTFN Peter