brahman104

Fantastic project Iain! I've just got my hands on the kit today and while I won't be starting it for quite a while yet, I am following your progress with much interest. As you know, I'm keen keen to hack into a model if there is a reason to do it, and I feel doing what you are here is entirely something that I will do too. Very interested to see how your efforts turn out, and many thanks for taking the plunge and sharing your work! Cheers, Craig

Thanks guys! You're not wrong Terry! And yet, even MORE HK plastic has had to go in my latest adventure! Happy New Year everyone! Definitely high time for some work on the big girl. First of all, I really wanted to get back into some litho-plate skinning and the new fin was the target. Left and Right sides were carefully done, then the nose cap was added. Apart from the fact that I totally forgot to anneal the side pieces, which meant they were a little springy to try and stick down, but I got there in the end Just before Christmas, I came into possession of some very good information about the location and dimensions of the observer's dome and hatch. Looking at the cabin roof I had made out of acrylic, and knowing that it was imperative to align the hatch accurately in relation to the aircraft's centerline (the actual hatch is offset, not the dome on the C/D) I decided the only reasonable way was do use the laser cutter and redo the piece as one. I wanted to have a solid foundation for the cockpit window frames to attach to, so with considerable difficulty, I machined a small recess in the edges of the bottom side. While I had the "roof" upside down and mounted on the mill, I channeled out the excess material, hoping I wouldn't go too deep as I still had to shape the piece from the outside. As this was the first real opportunity to check out the alignment of the windows between the left and right halves, I was expecting some issues. Also, what was interesting to note, is how far back the hatch opening sits, with the #4 Bulkhead sitting about 1/5th from the rear of the hatch. This also meant that the entire roof piece had to be longer than I had initially planned for, which now called for removing MORE of the old HK fuselage!!! What was also of note, was that after I had adjusted for length, the right side window frame was sitting about 1.5mm higher than the left (correctly positioned) towards the rear of the frame, which meant it was crooked. It must've stemmed from when I soldered the windscreen sections on, in my efforts to line them up. Unfortunately for me, not only had I puttied, painted and detailed the interior of the cockpit where the "soundproofing" was now very well attached to the brass window sections, I had also JB welded the exterior to make sure they weren't going anywhere........ This is where Past Tense Craig did not do Present Tense Craig any favours at all!!!! So how do I fix that? *WARNING - THE FOLLOWING IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS* I VERY carefully cut, aiming to hopefully get under the brass, into the exterior of the fuselage and along the front of the windscreen, praying that I didn't cut too deep into the instrument panel! I then used a sharp blade to carefully part the soundproofing putty away from inside...... Not pretty, but it worked. Knowing that the windscreens were out of alignment, I very carefully melted the solder joint and removed the left hand piece. Despite my best hopes, I also had to remove the left hand side windows as well, as they were too far forward to suit the new roof. Am I a glutton for punishment or what? Still with me? I'm sorry, but that had to be shown.... Now for the comeback. With the new roof sitting nicely in position, I "hung" the two side pieces from the top with some superglue to get their alignment correct. So far so good, now to the front windows... I had resigned myself to having to make these again to ensure a nice fit of all the angles involved, but I was very happily wrong, with only some very slight shimming being temporarily wedged under the right side.... Once all looked good, I held my breath and soldered the windscreens back in place.... Well just look at that!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not going to lie, I'm absolutely ecstatic about how everything came together, with a nice close fit between the windscreen halves to boot!!!! Before the modelling Gods realised I was having too much good fortune and withdrew their support, I mixed up some JB weld and glued the windows back in their new, PROPERLY ALIGNED places! Edit: I still have quite a bit of shaping of the roof to do yet, so the profile will still look a little odd in these photos..... So ends another saga involving some very brutal reconstructive surgery. It is a step I had been dreading for a long time, not really knowing how to proceed. In the end, a sequence worked itself out and I was on a roll. Soon hopefully I'll have the hatch and dome under construction, and with some more good fortune and information now at hand, I have the correct shape and dimensions for the waist gunner's windows and the clear tail cone. Yes friends, things are finally starting to happen! Cheers, Craig

Wow Jan! Looks awesome.... I think I need one of these in my life. Great progress. Craig

Geez, slow down Peter! I can't keep up! I'll give you this, you certainly know how to make efficient use of your time Good show! Craig

Brilliant work! Certainly puts my scuplting efforts to shame! Craig

Thanks Jari, ANY B-17 info is always appreciated Craig

G'day guys, I've been going through my original factory drawings of the B-17, trying to find a good schematic of the upper observer's dome and hatch (dimensions ideally) behind the flight deck on the early model (Shark-fin) B-17s. I could've sworn someone may have posted a drawing showing it previously, but I can't remember or find it again. If anyone could share any info I'd be very appreciative! Cheers, Craig Edit: Aircorps library uses pretty much the same drawings I have, so I don't think they're going to be much help either.....

Looks great Troy! The real 104 would be proud! If you're ever around Toowoomba way, she resides in the AAAVN museum at Oakey.... Glad I could help with the build. Craig

Thanks Tim! I'll have to the free floating planar object a go.... sounds fun! Sooo, last post was September hey? Geez, where does the time go? So along with a myriad of other (non-modelling projects) I've been working on, I finally found some long awaited time to do a little on the big girl. In the background, I've spent a long time re-doing the tail (again). 3rd time lucky I guess! Anyway, here it is.... (thanks for your help again Tim!) Yes it's tail 3.0 in all her glory!!! This time I feel I've finally nailed the shape, which was bugging me a lot (just like the nose saga!) Compare it when overlayed on tail 2.0.... As you can see, the real issue was the chord of the fin. It doesn't seem like much, but once you see it, you can't unsee it! I also built in a male and female edge to allow the fin and rudder to actually sit together..... Couldn't resist a little mock up with the nosecone and bathtub too Moving on, the driftmeter is pretty much done. Some litho plate wrapped around the bottom and a decal for the compass card to be added, but she's pretty pretty much ready for duty! I made some progress with the "aisle stand" too! I combined HK's rear panel (with the master battery switch) and my printed version, as well as the correct amount of levers for mixture and prop control Gets busy! And with a basic coat of paint to tie it all together.... I gave it a coat of clear too, as these seem to look a little glossy in most photos..... I think it'll do the trick! Now, back to some basics...... I'm keen to work for a while on getting the cockpit roof underway. I have a fair amount of scrap 6mm acrylic so I roughed out the shape. This will then get progressively filed until I can obtain just the right "look" for the "face." The clear acrylic should work well as it files nicely, and I see through it for the most part about where I need to address. I'll also use this piece to work out where to put the observer's done.... Once this piece is shaped I'm going to make a silicone mould of the exterior shape, then come up with an interior profile so I can cast the overhead console into it in one go. Ambitious yes, scared maybe! Cheers, Craig

Oh man Jay! You certainly don't like taking the easy option do you? I've got to say you certainly have a knack for replicating complex mechanisms..... a theme which seems to come up in each of your builds!!! Exceptional work my friend..... Keep at it! Craig

Dayum!!! That is just spectacular and absolutely worthy of winning the category! Spectacular effort Ben!!! Craig

Outstanding Kent! In this digital age, it always blows me away the results that can be obtained just using "traditional" modelling methods and materials like styrene. Awesome work..... I'm not really into WW1 stuff but I will absolutely make an exception for this! Cheers, Craig

Great to se you back at it Peter! I would've loved to go to telford..... one day maybe! Glad to hear your Lanc cockpit set was a hit! Very clever the way you use the different colours to indicate the fold lines She's really coming along now. Cheers, Craig

Looking great Troy! Yes you are correct, the D models had yellow fire extinguishers (you know the bad stuff) but Padubon is also correct; the F models now have red (slightly less carcinogenic) fire extinguishers. I can't speak for US ones though, perhaps they were different. Our D model flare buckets were side by side as you have depicted as well. I don't know why, most of the US D models had each bucket offset from the other like you see now on ours. Quick one on your rotor heads. Where you have the yellow circumferencial lines on each blade grip (the bit where the blade attaches to the head) only one of the blades should be yellow......... one is green and the other is red.... that's how you tell them apart! The aft is the same. For alignment, if you were to put the "red" blade facing the direct front of the aircraft, the rear rotor's red blade would also face forward. As you rotate the forward blades around (always anti-clockwise when viewed from the front) the aft blade will rotate in the opposite direction by the same amount. When stationary (shut down) we always have the front-most blade offset about 30 degrees to the aircraft's left. The yellow marks half way along the blade are where we attach the lifting slings to remove the blades. It marks the centre of gravity of the blade so it doesn't upend when you pull it off..... trumpeter got it wrong with the two-line decal, but as you have it on there, I certainly wouldn't change it now! Looking great though mate! I must admit I was nearly about cry out in dismay when I saw your first photo in the cabinet with the blades the wrong way though! Glad to see you corrected it.... that's one of my biggest bug bears with chinook models!! hahaha Cheers, Craig

absolutely! Craig