airscale

thanks folks, you guys are too kind bit of a hiatus on the P51 as I am off to Mexico for a few weeks for some R&R see you after, when they have won the world cup lol TTFN Peter

..that is one incredible build eric - stunning in every way what I probably fail to appreciate is how small this model actually is - if you told me it was 1/18 I would be impressed at the fidelity and scale presence, let alone that it is 1/32 quite breathtaking.. Peter

evening ladies Not poor form at all Tim - I want everyone to know whats involved so they might try it themselves. The sheet I had made was 40cm by 20cm so massive in comparison to a fret for say a 1/32 aircraft - this one was £92 GBP including VAT and shipping. Compared to the hundreds of hours it would take to fashion the parts, and the precision I could never achieve it is superb value to me. The decals are a bit different as I tack them onto airscale orders, so the downside is I get lots of copies (minimum order is 25 A4 sheets), but it is money I would be spending on stock anyway so its fine for me even though a little wasteful. A sheet like this could probably be done another way on ALPs or something - I am sure I have seen one-off services available or discussed on here somewhere... so a little bit more news on the P51.. I started with the map case - this is just some PE parts with plastic strip to build the body.. ..then another layer was added and the small flap & latch made.. ..and all assembled.. ..no idea what this is, but it is a PE face with shaped card to give body and a dremelled slot where the depression is. The knob is a watch gear with its teeth ground off in the dremel.. ..the throttle quadrant was next - here I am building up a kit of PE parts for it - the main body in the centre has been folded, including the rounded strip at the top which was part of the single part just bent over and rounded to shape.. ..the PE levers are derived from parts plans so are dimensionally correct and allow for the bends yet to come.. ..the throttle lever has a big silver ball as the handle, so I found a bit of plug chain and drilled it to accept the R/T switch and a tiny hole to accept a pin on the top of the lever..(I had to grind this in as I made the PE a circle the size of the ball so I knew the size of it..).. ..a brass spigot was used as a core to assemble all the levers & parts - blobs of CA were used to add the little ball shapes on the ends of the other two levers.. also the main body had a little assembly added to the front which is some sort of adjuster.. ..and the completed assembly - I part cut through the central spigot before assembly so I can just snap the completed quadrant away when the time comes.. ..still millions more to go, but a little kit of parts is coming together... ..thats all for now TTFN Peter

..and you should be proud Jay - that 'pit is a work of art - loving what you are doing with these kits - really special work.. Peter

true staying power in action I am super stoked that you saw this through Brian, and it just goes to show what I always felt was true - that I talk total cobblers and my advice to walk away was clearly more evidence of that brilliant job - and all the more rewarding for having beaten the SOD in a heated battle Peter

anybody got a hanky? ...I just drooled everywhere... unreal work Oliver - quite breathtaking Peter

evening folks been away a bit lately, but have got a little done in the last few days first, thanks to the direction to the aircorps librarary reference to all the external markings on drawing 106-00010 I have finally finished the decal sheet (well except for Don Lopez's name & kills marking but I need to find the right font..) and I started to make up the fuselage structures - you can see here in a pic Denzil from Aircorps kindly provided all the internal formers & stations along the cockpit walls - these I have made in PE and they are designed to sit in some 'U' shaped brass channel which acts as the main fuselage longerons top & bottom they all slot into.. ..I started with a simple first pair (station 89.75) - each of these is a full thickness PE part, laminated with a more detailed one, and now I am adding the strip that runs along the internal edge to make them look like pressed parts... ..each of the parts of station 104 is more substantial, these are a core but laminated both sides, plus another lower laminate for the strengthening plate - seen here with the brass longeron & some strip ali.. ..station 104 is actually two sets of formers joined together so here is each half of the left side with some brass spacers.. ..and assembled.. ..the right hand fuselage side of station 104 is the spare lamp storage which has a little hatch, so the base of the hatch is in PE and the hatch cover will be added later after painting - sprue was threaded through holes to make the bigger bolts at the bottom (these still need cleaning up)... ..and assembled.. the PE panel has cross head screws in the artwork and it is testament to PPD's quality that I can actually see them with my opti-visor ..another bit of PE was made for one of the mounts for a cockpit component - it starts life flat, and again the PE artwork takes the drawings and just adds in each elevation so you end up with what it would look like unfolded flat.. ..quite dificult to fold as it has folds on all four sides - this was the best I could do.. ..so the first parts start to take shape.. ..and this is sort of how they will go to make up the cockpit sides.. ..thats all for now - a LONG way to go TTFN Peter

I will play mine doubles as a home office for when I don't have to go into the City, but even so, aeroplanes are at the heart of it.. ..a very messy desk.. some aeroplane art.. ..and my corner of pride ..I don't have many tips other than get a good light, put things you use a lot within arms reach, and have LOTS of desktop space.. Peter

Unbelievable! thank you so much, that is EXACTLY what I was after ah yes, but I am doing the decal artwork so I need to get all of it gathered together now so i can get them printed with an airscale stock order that is getting overdue Peter

I don't listen to music while modelling, but have Youtube videos or DVDs playing The World at War being my favourite and I can safely say I have played most episodes many, many times, but the Episode 'Whirlwind' about the bombing war I know word for word and must be in the high hundreds of plays.... Peter

Help needed folks... does anyone have any detail on the external labelling on a P51? I can see there are many dotted around the airframe, and have asked Aircorps if they have anything showing what they are, but in the meantime is there a P51 resource somewhere that shows them for a 'C'? TIA Peter

superb work - I love what you are doing and how you are doing it! fantastic build to watch Peter

thanks for stopping by Mark - there is a blank fuel selector seen below it, so I will either use that and the decal, or the etched one will be sprayed black and hopefully I can scrape off the etched relief to leave the bare metal below (like the real one) and not use the decal - so a couple of options in play ..not sure what you mean by anti skid tracks - the pics I have of the rudder pedals just seem to show them in painted metal so I will have to look a little deeper... I couldn't resist making a quick start on a PE part, so started with a floor panel - this was stuck to some 0.4mm ply I have had since I was a kid, I have no idea where I got it, but it's perfect for this application.. ..I drilled out the holes from the back onto a hard sheet of perspex after covering it in tape to stop the surface splintering and put little lengths of lead wire through the holes... ..note also I haven't cut the final shape until all this was finished so I have a larger, more stable part to work with rather than lots of little edges and cut-outs..... ..the underneath is a mess of CA holding them all.. ..then all the stubs are sanded flush.. ..and on the bottom too... ..and then it's cut to shape from the back, using the PE part as a guide.. ..I will likely varnish it or something so I can wear off the black paint later for scuff marks.. ...will repeat for the other wooden panels.. TTFN Peter

I am really pleased about this as I had about 3,000 images in my build threads which would have been 'ransomed' this July. I just couldn't face the effort of moving them so I left well alone until now and then this - they are offering a way of keeping them up without stupid prices while I really don't want to give them my money, I don't really have a choice - it's $29 a year, or move every image to a new host so for me it's a no brainer... Peter

Hi folks The postman has just dropped the PE off, so time to take a lookat what we have... ..rear fuselage floor - this is where the fuselage fuel tank sits... ..and it's rigid layer.. the top layer of the IP, and the IP surround layers.. ..the middle layer of the IP - this carries just the bezels.. ..one of the fuselage frames and inside it a number of cockpit switch panels - you can see the layers - a solid back layer onto which a detailed relief layer is added. From these designs the decals for all the labeling is scaled so I know they will fit.. ..same again with another frame.. ..a bunch of fuselage station formers - these need a strip adding to them so they look like a pressing... ..you can see part of the sub-floor here for the main fuselage - the real aircraft has multiple floor panels - this panel is to mount all those sub-panels to, and inside it some more formers - I think this is the spare lamp bulb hatch.. ..some of the individual floor panels - these will be laminated with micro plywood as the real ones were wood construction, but with a metal backing like this I can be sure I get the shape right and all the fixings & screws... ..the throttle quadrant and levers.. ..and the rudder pedals with their embossed logo & text.. Hi Mark - pretty much all of the PE was traced in Coreldraw from manufaturers drawings so they should be bang on for dimensions / proportions. Each of those drawings is dimensioned in inches so I just convert the inches to mm and scale to 1/18 So, with all the first tranche of parts done, I can start to make things now and start to get the internal fuselage structure built out.. TTFN Peter