brahman104

Thanks Pat! Can't wait to see some more progress on your D model
 
 
Thanks Terry! It is true, but as we've discussed many times before, half the fun for me is the R&D! As long as I learn something from each time it goes wrong, it wasn't wasted right?  Yeah the rivets are a lot of work, but the results are worth it, regardless of how long it takes me to get it done. Hopefully as I refine the process, the speed will also improve.
 
 
Thanks mate!
 
 
Cheers Kev! You know me, I love to challenge myself
 
 
Thanks very much Adam! Really appreciate your comments.
 
Having developed a plan for the way forward I decided to attack the entire inner-aft wing in one go (template-wise). This means that I should be able to ensure that all panels are the right size and shape to match up to each other as well as all the rivet lines matching from panel to panel. To get this much masking tape on to a very large area was one challenge, trying to get it off the wing and onto a flat surface without any creeping of the tape sections was quite definitely another! A very careful and delicate process not to rush, but this is the result...
 

 
As you can see the piece is roughly 10 inches long, rather tricky when you only have two hands!!!
 
Anyway, off to Rhino to make the magic happen....
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 

Craig,
 
All I can say is that the lengths you are wiling to go, as well as your patience are unbelievable! I have to admit, even with all the different methodologies you've incorporated into this build, I never expected a microscope! Those rivets are sharp!
 
Being your "first off" panels --- they aren't bad at all. Shame you have to put so much work into them to "live and learn," but unfortunately that goes with new territory, doesn't it? I'm sure your "re-dos" are going to look excellent.
 
Trust me, HK will not come out with a C/D version until your C is done --- so they can refer to all your work and duplicate your model! Believe me ... they are following this build as closely as the rest of us!
 
You are one dedicated modeler!
 

thats some truly remarkable work, Craig! Awesome stuff

Just when I think this build can't get any more epic! Fantastic work, Craig.
 
Kev

My gob is well and truly smacked, yet again. Great thought and artistry at work.
 
Adam

Great learning curve !!! Awesome work !!!
Pat

Hahaha! Thanks for the reality check as always Terry  And yes, it did seem like a bit of an oversight on HK's behalf not to include them. Perhaps they'll fix that when they bring out their C model.......... 
 
 
Thanks Tom, at least you have the benefit of experience the second time around right!
 
So another 6 weeks has flown past, what have I been up to? Lots of R&D, not so much progress towards completion though...
 
Armed with Peter's (Airscale's) Patreon videos about skinning with litho, it was definitely high time to try my own. From my early experiments with embossing divots into metal using a PE guide in 1/32 scale I knew that the probability of the template moving, even when taped, would induce too many errors on my part, so I wanted to go down a more predictable path.
 
Also, as my rivets would be applied in the reverse to Peter's (as in not countersunk like most fighters), I had to find a way to preserve the protrusions once I'd added them. During my trip to Canada a few years ago, I was fortunate to meet a Gentleman who produces some of the most exquisite models I have ever seen from scratch. If you have a few minutes, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed....
 
https://www.precisemodeling.com/
 
Anyway, he very graciously shared with me how he uses a microscope and a very small diameter tube to push down the deformation around each rivet from the top side once it has been applied from the bottom. Definitely not a quick process but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well!
 

 
In the above photo you can see the top three rows of rivets. This is what they look like when embossed from the back.
 

 
This is the "tool" I've made. It's really just a piece of 0.018" dia stainless tube in a pin vice, and is just the right size to push back down the surrounding metal.
 

 
Here's my microscope, just a cheapie from ebay, but it's got a nice LED ring light over the end so seeing what you're doing is pretty easy.
 

 
Not the best photo, but on the right is before the area has been pushed back down, on the left has been done. They look a lot sharper!
 

 
My "working" view through the microscope...... this was super hard to photograph by the way!
 

 
This one was a comparison of various "rosie the riveter" wheels and my use of template guides...... you can see why I wanted something more precise! 
 
A few years ago I purchased a Curio craft machine from Silhouette. This is the same company that makes the mask cutters so many of us use. It's primarily designed to be used for cutting shapes out of card, but can be used to emboss designs onto light metal surfaces. However, because it is a craft tool primarily made for bored housewives to do scrapbooking (no offence intended to anyone!) it needed some tweaking to get it to perform the way I wanted.....
 

 
Here's the machine. As you can see I've made an MDF frame to clamp the aluminium sheet in between. If you look closely you can see the white cylinder in the tool carriage. This is a 3D printed replacement I made to hold a cut off beading tool to give my the right rivet "shape" when in moves along. Clamping the frame to the base was also problematic, as the bottom of the base looks like the next photo....
 

 
Needless to say, it took some effort to work out where to drill the clamping screws! 
 
The next challenge was trying to work out their proprietary software. Luckily I found I could still draw most of the design in Rhino and import into the program as a dxf file, like I would for laser cutting. I then had to convert the lines I wanted as rivets to "stipple" lines. This is super cool, as it allows to control the rivet spacing and patterns, although it lacks the precision of Rhino which is a little frustrating. In the end I got there though...
 
Good rivet patterns for the B-17 wings are almost impossible to come by, but after comparison with many many photographs, I came to the conclusion that the HK presentation was actually pretty good. I then marked out and identified the individual panels I would need to make, starting at the trailing edge of the inner wing and working forward and out for the overlap.
 

 
Here's panels 1-6 look like as rivet patterns. Just so you know, this took a long time to get from the above, to the below picture.....
 

 
A close up of the rivet representations...
 

 
Once in the machine it's not too bad, just set it up and let it go. It's supposed to score out using the other (blue) tool, but I found it struggles with that task (remember this is a "craft" machine!) so I used marker "rivets" to indicate the borders of each panel for later scoring.
 

 
This is what you get once the machine has done its work. Again, because the machine is light duty, all the rivets still need to be deepened, and then pushed back from the other side....... a lot of work!!!!
 
This is what an earlier test looks like without deepening....
 

 
Fast forward to last night, when I finally was able to cut out the panels. I had incorporated what I thought was enough overlap for each piece, so I was hoping that everything would work.....
 

 

 

 

 
Here's what they looked like test fitted onto the wing. It became immediately apparent where I'd gone wrong...... As I'd measured and traced each panel individually, I'd induced errors into each piece, so when transferring them between programs, it made them even worse. Am I disappointed? Well, yes, as I spent many hours of work to get to this point only for them to be unusable, but at least I know what I did wrong. Next time around I will do the whole section as one piece in Rhino, then separate them once all the rivet lines are drawn!
 
On a positive note, it proves the process and the use of the Silhouette Curio as a means to make the initial rivet pattern, and it's easily repeatable for the right side later on!
 
Note: The above panels did not get the microscope treatment or were properly finished, I just wanted to see how they fitted....
 
Sure, it's not physical progress towards completion, but I have now developed what I hope will be a robust process for the rest of the model!
 
There's a silver lining in everything if you look hard enough right?!!!
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 
 
 

So I finally reached a significant milestone....... 6 years into the build and I have glued one wing together!!!!!!
 
But of course it wasn't straight forward.
 
There was still lumps and bumps that were not present on the early wings that had to be removed and filled, then there was still a significant amount of dry fitting to make sure my redone outer nacelles would fit without causing the rest of the wing to deform etc.
 

 
I also had one of those modelling moments where something seems so easy to do, but yet you struggle to the point of questioning your ability as a modeller!!
 

 
Those pesky intakes on on the leading edge. I wanted to blank them off so they looked like they were going somewhere, but do you think I could get it right without gaps or alignment issues? It seriously took me 3 attempts to do this...... what is wrong with me? 
 
Anyway, got there in the end and finally got this!!!!!!!!!!
 

 
Yay!! a whole wing in all its glory! So I'm ready to start skinning right? Wrong...... I still have a huge amount of sanding and filing to remove all the raised details. These will then be added back over the top of the main skins later on. Just when you thought you were out of the woods hey?
I also figured the old Tokyo tank vent would look a little out of place on a C model, so that got filled too  
 


 
Lots more sanding to do. Hopefully with NZ going back into lockdown I can get some contact adhesive before the shops close.......
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 

Hahaha! Thanks for the reality check as always Terry  And yes, it did seem like a bit of an oversight on HK's behalf not to include them. Perhaps they'll fix that when they bring out their C model.......... 
 
 
Thanks Tom, at least you have the benefit of experience the second time around right!
 
So another 6 weeks has flown past, what have I been up to? Lots of R&D, not so much progress towards completion though...
 
Armed with Peter's (Airscale's) Patreon videos about skinning with litho, it was definitely high time to try my own. From my early experiments with embossing divots into metal using a PE guide in 1/32 scale I knew that the probability of the template moving, even when taped, would induce too many errors on my part, so I wanted to go down a more predictable path.
 
Also, as my rivets would be applied in the reverse to Peter's (as in not countersunk like most fighters), I had to find a way to preserve the protrusions once I'd added them. During my trip to Canada a few years ago, I was fortunate to meet a Gentleman who produces some of the most exquisite models I have ever seen from scratch. If you have a few minutes, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed....
 
https://www.precisemodeling.com/
 
Anyway, he very graciously shared with me how he uses a microscope and a very small diameter tube to push down the deformation around each rivet from the top side once it has been applied from the bottom. Definitely not a quick process but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well!
 

 
In the above photo you can see the top three rows of rivets. This is what they look like when embossed from the back.
 

 
This is the "tool" I've made. It's really just a piece of 0.018" dia stainless tube in a pin vice, and is just the right size to push back down the surrounding metal.
 

 
Here's my microscope, just a cheapie from ebay, but it's got a nice LED ring light over the end so seeing what you're doing is pretty easy.
 

 
Not the best photo, but on the right is before the area has been pushed back down, on the left has been done. They look a lot sharper!
 

 
My "working" view through the microscope...... this was super hard to photograph by the way!
 

 
This one was a comparison of various "rosie the riveter" wheels and my use of template guides...... you can see why I wanted something more precise! 
 
A few years ago I purchased a Curio craft machine from Silhouette. This is the same company that makes the mask cutters so many of us use. It's primarily designed to be used for cutting shapes out of card, but can be used to emboss designs onto light metal surfaces. However, because it is a craft tool primarily made for bored housewives to do scrapbooking (no offence intended to anyone!) it needed some tweaking to get it to perform the way I wanted.....
 

 
Here's the machine. As you can see I've made an MDF frame to clamp the aluminium sheet in between. If you look closely you can see the white cylinder in the tool carriage. This is a 3D printed replacement I made to hold a cut off beading tool to give my the right rivet "shape" when in moves along. Clamping the frame to the base was also problematic, as the bottom of the base looks like the next photo....
 

 
Needless to say, it took some effort to work out where to drill the clamping screws! 
 
The next challenge was trying to work out their proprietary software. Luckily I found I could still draw most of the design in Rhino and import into the program as a dxf file, like I would for laser cutting. I then had to convert the lines I wanted as rivets to "stipple" lines. This is super cool, as it allows to control the rivet spacing and patterns, although it lacks the precision of Rhino which is a little frustrating. In the end I got there though...
 
Good rivet patterns for the B-17 wings are almost impossible to come by, but after comparison with many many photographs, I came to the conclusion that the HK presentation was actually pretty good. I then marked out and identified the individual panels I would need to make, starting at the trailing edge of the inner wing and working forward and out for the overlap.
 

 
Here's panels 1-6 look like as rivet patterns. Just so you know, this took a long time to get from the above, to the below picture.....
 

 
A close up of the rivet representations...
 

 
Once in the machine it's not too bad, just set it up and let it go. It's supposed to score out using the other (blue) tool, but I found it struggles with that task (remember this is a "craft" machine!) so I used marker "rivets" to indicate the borders of each panel for later scoring.
 

 
This is what you get once the machine has done its work. Again, because the machine is light duty, all the rivets still need to be deepened, and then pushed back from the other side....... a lot of work!!!!
 
This is what an earlier test looks like without deepening....
 

 
Fast forward to last night, when I finally was able to cut out the panels. I had incorporated what I thought was enough overlap for each piece, so I was hoping that everything would work.....
 

 

 

 

 
Here's what they looked like test fitted onto the wing. It became immediately apparent where I'd gone wrong...... As I'd measured and traced each panel individually, I'd induced errors into each piece, so when transferring them between programs, it made them even worse. Am I disappointed? Well, yes, as I spent many hours of work to get to this point only for them to be unusable, but at least I know what I did wrong. Next time around I will do the whole section as one piece in Rhino, then separate them once all the rivet lines are drawn!
 
On a positive note, it proves the process and the use of the Silhouette Curio as a means to make the initial rivet pattern, and it's easily repeatable for the right side later on!
 
Note: The above panels did not get the microscope treatment or were properly finished, I just wanted to see how they fitted....
 
Sure, it's not physical progress towards completion, but I have now developed what I hope will be a robust process for the rest of the model!
 
There's a silver lining in everything if you look hard enough right?!!!
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 
 
 

Hahaha! Thanks for the reality check as always Terry  And yes, it did seem like a bit of an oversight on HK's behalf not to include them. Perhaps they'll fix that when they bring out their C model.......... 
 
 
Thanks Tom, at least you have the benefit of experience the second time around right!
 
So another 6 weeks has flown past, what have I been up to? Lots of R&D, not so much progress towards completion though...
 
Armed with Peter's (Airscale's) Patreon videos about skinning with litho, it was definitely high time to try my own. From my early experiments with embossing divots into metal using a PE guide in 1/32 scale I knew that the probability of the template moving, even when taped, would induce too many errors on my part, so I wanted to go down a more predictable path.
 
Also, as my rivets would be applied in the reverse to Peter's (as in not countersunk like most fighters), I had to find a way to preserve the protrusions once I'd added them. During my trip to Canada a few years ago, I was fortunate to meet a Gentleman who produces some of the most exquisite models I have ever seen from scratch. If you have a few minutes, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed....
 
https://www.precisemodeling.com/
 
Anyway, he very graciously shared with me how he uses a microscope and a very small diameter tube to push down the deformation around each rivet from the top side once it has been applied from the bottom. Definitely not a quick process but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well!
 

 
In the above photo you can see the top three rows of rivets. This is what they look like when embossed from the back.
 

 
This is the "tool" I've made. It's really just a piece of 0.018" dia stainless tube in a pin vice, and is just the right size to push back down the surrounding metal.
 

 
Here's my microscope, just a cheapie from ebay, but it's got a nice LED ring light over the end so seeing what you're doing is pretty easy.
 

 
Not the best photo, but on the right is before the area has been pushed back down, on the left has been done. They look a lot sharper!
 

 
My "working" view through the microscope...... this was super hard to photograph by the way!
 

 
This one was a comparison of various "rosie the riveter" wheels and my use of template guides...... you can see why I wanted something more precise! 
 
A few years ago I purchased a Curio craft machine from Silhouette. This is the same company that makes the mask cutters so many of us use. It's primarily designed to be used for cutting shapes out of card, but can be used to emboss designs onto light metal surfaces. However, because it is a craft tool primarily made for bored housewives to do scrapbooking (no offence intended to anyone!) it needed some tweaking to get it to perform the way I wanted.....
 

 
Here's the machine. As you can see I've made an MDF frame to clamp the aluminium sheet in between. If you look closely you can see the white cylinder in the tool carriage. This is a 3D printed replacement I made to hold a cut off beading tool to give my the right rivet "shape" when in moves along. Clamping the frame to the base was also problematic, as the bottom of the base looks like the next photo....
 

 
Needless to say, it took some effort to work out where to drill the clamping screws! 
 
The next challenge was trying to work out their proprietary software. Luckily I found I could still draw most of the design in Rhino and import into the program as a dxf file, like I would for laser cutting. I then had to convert the lines I wanted as rivets to "stipple" lines. This is super cool, as it allows to control the rivet spacing and patterns, although it lacks the precision of Rhino which is a little frustrating. In the end I got there though...
 
Good rivet patterns for the B-17 wings are almost impossible to come by, but after comparison with many many photographs, I came to the conclusion that the HK presentation was actually pretty good. I then marked out and identified the individual panels I would need to make, starting at the trailing edge of the inner wing and working forward and out for the overlap.
 

 
Here's panels 1-6 look like as rivet patterns. Just so you know, this took a long time to get from the above, to the below picture.....
 

 
A close up of the rivet representations...
 

 
Once in the machine it's not too bad, just set it up and let it go. It's supposed to score out using the other (blue) tool, but I found it struggles with that task (remember this is a "craft" machine!) so I used marker "rivets" to indicate the borders of each panel for later scoring.
 

 
This is what you get once the machine has done its work. Again, because the machine is light duty, all the rivets still need to be deepened, and then pushed back from the other side....... a lot of work!!!!
 
This is what an earlier test looks like without deepening....
 

 
Fast forward to last night, when I finally was able to cut out the panels. I had incorporated what I thought was enough overlap for each piece, so I was hoping that everything would work.....
 

 

 

 

 
Here's what they looked like test fitted onto the wing. It became immediately apparent where I'd gone wrong...... As I'd measured and traced each panel individually, I'd induced errors into each piece, so when transferring them between programs, it made them even worse. Am I disappointed? Well, yes, as I spent many hours of work to get to this point only for them to be unusable, but at least I know what I did wrong. Next time around I will do the whole section as one piece in Rhino, then separate them once all the rivet lines are drawn!
 
On a positive note, it proves the process and the use of the Silhouette Curio as a means to make the initial rivet pattern, and it's easily repeatable for the right side later on!
 
Note: The above panels did not get the microscope treatment or were properly finished, I just wanted to see how they fitted....
 
Sure, it's not physical progress towards completion, but I have now developed what I hope will be a robust process for the rest of the model!
 
There's a silver lining in everything if you look hard enough right?!!!
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 
 
 

Hahaha! Thanks for the reality check as always Terry  And yes, it did seem like a bit of an oversight on HK's behalf not to include them. Perhaps they'll fix that when they bring out their C model.......... 
 
 
Thanks Tom, at least you have the benefit of experience the second time around right!
 
So another 6 weeks has flown past, what have I been up to? Lots of R&D, not so much progress towards completion though...
 
Armed with Peter's (Airscale's) Patreon videos about skinning with litho, it was definitely high time to try my own. From my early experiments with embossing divots into metal using a PE guide in 1/32 scale I knew that the probability of the template moving, even when taped, would induce too many errors on my part, so I wanted to go down a more predictable path.
 
Also, as my rivets would be applied in the reverse to Peter's (as in not countersunk like most fighters), I had to find a way to preserve the protrusions once I'd added them. During my trip to Canada a few years ago, I was fortunate to meet a Gentleman who produces some of the most exquisite models I have ever seen from scratch. If you have a few minutes, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed....
 
https://www.precisemodeling.com/
 
Anyway, he very graciously shared with me how he uses a microscope and a very small diameter tube to push down the deformation around each rivet from the top side once it has been applied from the bottom. Definitely not a quick process but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well!
 

 
In the above photo you can see the top three rows of rivets. This is what they look like when embossed from the back.
 

 
This is the "tool" I've made. It's really just a piece of 0.018" dia stainless tube in a pin vice, and is just the right size to push back down the surrounding metal.
 

 
Here's my microscope, just a cheapie from ebay, but it's got a nice LED ring light over the end so seeing what you're doing is pretty easy.
 

 
Not the best photo, but on the right is before the area has been pushed back down, on the left has been done. They look a lot sharper!
 

 
My "working" view through the microscope...... this was super hard to photograph by the way!
 

 
This one was a comparison of various "rosie the riveter" wheels and my use of template guides...... you can see why I wanted something more precise! 
 
A few years ago I purchased a Curio craft machine from Silhouette. This is the same company that makes the mask cutters so many of us use. It's primarily designed to be used for cutting shapes out of card, but can be used to emboss designs onto light metal surfaces. However, because it is a craft tool primarily made for bored housewives to do scrapbooking (no offence intended to anyone!) it needed some tweaking to get it to perform the way I wanted.....
 

 
Here's the machine. As you can see I've made an MDF frame to clamp the aluminium sheet in between. If you look closely you can see the white cylinder in the tool carriage. This is a 3D printed replacement I made to hold a cut off beading tool to give my the right rivet "shape" when in moves along. Clamping the frame to the base was also problematic, as the bottom of the base looks like the next photo....
 

 
Needless to say, it took some effort to work out where to drill the clamping screws! 
 
The next challenge was trying to work out their proprietary software. Luckily I found I could still draw most of the design in Rhino and import into the program as a dxf file, like I would for laser cutting. I then had to convert the lines I wanted as rivets to "stipple" lines. This is super cool, as it allows to control the rivet spacing and patterns, although it lacks the precision of Rhino which is a little frustrating. In the end I got there though...
 
Good rivet patterns for the B-17 wings are almost impossible to come by, but after comparison with many many photographs, I came to the conclusion that the HK presentation was actually pretty good. I then marked out and identified the individual panels I would need to make, starting at the trailing edge of the inner wing and working forward and out for the overlap.
 

 
Here's panels 1-6 look like as rivet patterns. Just so you know, this took a long time to get from the above, to the below picture.....
 

 
A close up of the rivet representations...
 

 
Once in the machine it's not too bad, just set it up and let it go. It's supposed to score out using the other (blue) tool, but I found it struggles with that task (remember this is a "craft" machine!) so I used marker "rivets" to indicate the borders of each panel for later scoring.
 

 
This is what you get once the machine has done its work. Again, because the machine is light duty, all the rivets still need to be deepened, and then pushed back from the other side....... a lot of work!!!!
 
This is what an earlier test looks like without deepening....
 

 
Fast forward to last night, when I finally was able to cut out the panels. I had incorporated what I thought was enough overlap for each piece, so I was hoping that everything would work.....
 

 

 

 

 
Here's what they looked like test fitted onto the wing. It became immediately apparent where I'd gone wrong...... As I'd measured and traced each panel individually, I'd induced errors into each piece, so when transferring them between programs, it made them even worse. Am I disappointed? Well, yes, as I spent many hours of work to get to this point only for them to be unusable, but at least I know what I did wrong. Next time around I will do the whole section as one piece in Rhino, then separate them once all the rivet lines are drawn!
 
On a positive note, it proves the process and the use of the Silhouette Curio as a means to make the initial rivet pattern, and it's easily repeatable for the right side later on!
 
Note: The above panels did not get the microscope treatment or were properly finished, I just wanted to see how they fitted....
 
Sure, it's not physical progress towards completion, but I have now developed what I hope will be a robust process for the rest of the model!
 
There's a silver lining in everything if you look hard enough right?!!!
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 
 
 

So I finally reached a significant milestone....... 6 years into the build and I have glued one wing together!!!!!!
 
But of course it wasn't straight forward.
 
There was still lumps and bumps that were not present on the early wings that had to be removed and filled, then there was still a significant amount of dry fitting to make sure my redone outer nacelles would fit without causing the rest of the wing to deform etc.
 

 
I also had one of those modelling moments where something seems so easy to do, but yet you struggle to the point of questioning your ability as a modeller!!
 

 
Those pesky intakes on on the leading edge. I wanted to blank them off so they looked like they were going somewhere, but do you think I could get it right without gaps or alignment issues? It seriously took me 3 attempts to do this...... what is wrong with me? 
 
Anyway, got there in the end and finally got this!!!!!!!!!!
 

 
Yay!! a whole wing in all its glory! So I'm ready to start skinning right? Wrong...... I still have a huge amount of sanding and filing to remove all the raised details. These will then be added back over the top of the main skins later on. Just when you thought you were out of the woods hey?
I also figured the old Tokyo tank vent would look a little out of place on a C model, so that got filled too  
 


 
Lots more sanding to do. Hopefully with NZ going back into lockdown I can get some contact adhesive before the shops close.......
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 

Hahaha! Thanks for the reality check as always Terry  And yes, it did seem like a bit of an oversight on HK's behalf not to include them. Perhaps they'll fix that when they bring out their C model.......... 
 
 
Thanks Tom, at least you have the benefit of experience the second time around right!
 
So another 6 weeks has flown past, what have I been up to? Lots of R&D, not so much progress towards completion though...
 
Armed with Peter's (Airscale's) Patreon videos about skinning with litho, it was definitely high time to try my own. From my early experiments with embossing divots into metal using a PE guide in 1/32 scale I knew that the probability of the template moving, even when taped, would induce too many errors on my part, so I wanted to go down a more predictable path.
 
Also, as my rivets would be applied in the reverse to Peter's (as in not countersunk like most fighters), I had to find a way to preserve the protrusions once I'd added them. During my trip to Canada a few years ago, I was fortunate to meet a Gentleman who produces some of the most exquisite models I have ever seen from scratch. If you have a few minutes, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed....
 
https://www.precisemodeling.com/
 
Anyway, he very graciously shared with me how he uses a microscope and a very small diameter tube to push down the deformation around each rivet from the top side once it has been applied from the bottom. Definitely not a quick process but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well!
 

 
In the above photo you can see the top three rows of rivets. This is what they look like when embossed from the back.
 

 
This is the "tool" I've made. It's really just a piece of 0.018" dia stainless tube in a pin vice, and is just the right size to push back down the surrounding metal.
 

 
Here's my microscope, just a cheapie from ebay, but it's got a nice LED ring light over the end so seeing what you're doing is pretty easy.
 

 
Not the best photo, but on the right is before the area has been pushed back down, on the left has been done. They look a lot sharper!
 

 
My "working" view through the microscope...... this was super hard to photograph by the way!
 

 
This one was a comparison of various "rosie the riveter" wheels and my use of template guides...... you can see why I wanted something more precise! 
 
A few years ago I purchased a Curio craft machine from Silhouette. This is the same company that makes the mask cutters so many of us use. It's primarily designed to be used for cutting shapes out of card, but can be used to emboss designs onto light metal surfaces. However, because it is a craft tool primarily made for bored housewives to do scrapbooking (no offence intended to anyone!) it needed some tweaking to get it to perform the way I wanted.....
 

 
Here's the machine. As you can see I've made an MDF frame to clamp the aluminium sheet in between. If you look closely you can see the white cylinder in the tool carriage. This is a 3D printed replacement I made to hold a cut off beading tool to give my the right rivet "shape" when in moves along. Clamping the frame to the base was also problematic, as the bottom of the base looks like the next photo....
 

 
Needless to say, it took some effort to work out where to drill the clamping screws! 
 
The next challenge was trying to work out their proprietary software. Luckily I found I could still draw most of the design in Rhino and import into the program as a dxf file, like I would for laser cutting. I then had to convert the lines I wanted as rivets to "stipple" lines. This is super cool, as it allows to control the rivet spacing and patterns, although it lacks the precision of Rhino which is a little frustrating. In the end I got there though...
 
Good rivet patterns for the B-17 wings are almost impossible to come by, but after comparison with many many photographs, I came to the conclusion that the HK presentation was actually pretty good. I then marked out and identified the individual panels I would need to make, starting at the trailing edge of the inner wing and working forward and out for the overlap.
 

 
Here's panels 1-6 look like as rivet patterns. Just so you know, this took a long time to get from the above, to the below picture.....
 

 
A close up of the rivet representations...
 

 
Once in the machine it's not too bad, just set it up and let it go. It's supposed to score out using the other (blue) tool, but I found it struggles with that task (remember this is a "craft" machine!) so I used marker "rivets" to indicate the borders of each panel for later scoring.
 

 
This is what you get once the machine has done its work. Again, because the machine is light duty, all the rivets still need to be deepened, and then pushed back from the other side....... a lot of work!!!!
 
This is what an earlier test looks like without deepening....
 

 
Fast forward to last night, when I finally was able to cut out the panels. I had incorporated what I thought was enough overlap for each piece, so I was hoping that everything would work.....
 

 

 

 

 
Here's what they looked like test fitted onto the wing. It became immediately apparent where I'd gone wrong...... As I'd measured and traced each panel individually, I'd induced errors into each piece, so when transferring them between programs, it made them even worse. Am I disappointed? Well, yes, as I spent many hours of work to get to this point only for them to be unusable, but at least I know what I did wrong. Next time around I will do the whole section as one piece in Rhino, then separate them once all the rivet lines are drawn!
 
On a positive note, it proves the process and the use of the Silhouette Curio as a means to make the initial rivet pattern, and it's easily repeatable for the right side later on!
 
Note: The above panels did not get the microscope treatment or were properly finished, I just wanted to see how they fitted....
 
Sure, it's not physical progress towards completion, but I have now developed what I hope will be a robust process for the rest of the model!
 
There's a silver lining in everything if you look hard enough right?!!!
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 
 
 

Hahaha! Thanks for the reality check as always Terry  And yes, it did seem like a bit of an oversight on HK's behalf not to include them. Perhaps they'll fix that when they bring out their C model.......... 
 
 
Thanks Tom, at least you have the benefit of experience the second time around right!
 
So another 6 weeks has flown past, what have I been up to? Lots of R&D, not so much progress towards completion though...
 
Armed with Peter's (Airscale's) Patreon videos about skinning with litho, it was definitely high time to try my own. From my early experiments with embossing divots into metal using a PE guide in 1/32 scale I knew that the probability of the template moving, even when taped, would induce too many errors on my part, so I wanted to go down a more predictable path.
 
Also, as my rivets would be applied in the reverse to Peter's (as in not countersunk like most fighters), I had to find a way to preserve the protrusions once I'd added them. During my trip to Canada a few years ago, I was fortunate to meet a Gentleman who produces some of the most exquisite models I have ever seen from scratch. If you have a few minutes, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed....
 
https://www.precisemodeling.com/
 
Anyway, he very graciously shared with me how he uses a microscope and a very small diameter tube to push down the deformation around each rivet from the top side once it has been applied from the bottom. Definitely not a quick process but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well!
 

 
In the above photo you can see the top three rows of rivets. This is what they look like when embossed from the back.
 

 
This is the "tool" I've made. It's really just a piece of 0.018" dia stainless tube in a pin vice, and is just the right size to push back down the surrounding metal.
 

 
Here's my microscope, just a cheapie from ebay, but it's got a nice LED ring light over the end so seeing what you're doing is pretty easy.
 

 
Not the best photo, but on the right is before the area has been pushed back down, on the left has been done. They look a lot sharper!
 

 
My "working" view through the microscope...... this was super hard to photograph by the way!
 

 
This one was a comparison of various "rosie the riveter" wheels and my use of template guides...... you can see why I wanted something more precise! 
 
A few years ago I purchased a Curio craft machine from Silhouette. This is the same company that makes the mask cutters so many of us use. It's primarily designed to be used for cutting shapes out of card, but can be used to emboss designs onto light metal surfaces. However, because it is a craft tool primarily made for bored housewives to do scrapbooking (no offence intended to anyone!) it needed some tweaking to get it to perform the way I wanted.....
 

 
Here's the machine. As you can see I've made an MDF frame to clamp the aluminium sheet in between. If you look closely you can see the white cylinder in the tool carriage. This is a 3D printed replacement I made to hold a cut off beading tool to give my the right rivet "shape" when in moves along. Clamping the frame to the base was also problematic, as the bottom of the base looks like the next photo....
 

 
Needless to say, it took some effort to work out where to drill the clamping screws! 
 
The next challenge was trying to work out their proprietary software. Luckily I found I could still draw most of the design in Rhino and import into the program as a dxf file, like I would for laser cutting. I then had to convert the lines I wanted as rivets to "stipple" lines. This is super cool, as it allows to control the rivet spacing and patterns, although it lacks the precision of Rhino which is a little frustrating. In the end I got there though...
 
Good rivet patterns for the B-17 wings are almost impossible to come by, but after comparison with many many photographs, I came to the conclusion that the HK presentation was actually pretty good. I then marked out and identified the individual panels I would need to make, starting at the trailing edge of the inner wing and working forward and out for the overlap.
 

 
Here's panels 1-6 look like as rivet patterns. Just so you know, this took a long time to get from the above, to the below picture.....
 

 
A close up of the rivet representations...
 

 
Once in the machine it's not too bad, just set it up and let it go. It's supposed to score out using the other (blue) tool, but I found it struggles with that task (remember this is a "craft" machine!) so I used marker "rivets" to indicate the borders of each panel for later scoring.
 

 
This is what you get once the machine has done its work. Again, because the machine is light duty, all the rivets still need to be deepened, and then pushed back from the other side....... a lot of work!!!!
 
This is what an earlier test looks like without deepening....
 

 
Fast forward to last night, when I finally was able to cut out the panels. I had incorporated what I thought was enough overlap for each piece, so I was hoping that everything would work.....
 

 

 

 

 
Here's what they looked like test fitted onto the wing. It became immediately apparent where I'd gone wrong...... As I'd measured and traced each panel individually, I'd induced errors into each piece, so when transferring them between programs, it made them even worse. Am I disappointed? Well, yes, as I spent many hours of work to get to this point only for them to be unusable, but at least I know what I did wrong. Next time around I will do the whole section as one piece in Rhino, then separate them once all the rivet lines are drawn!
 
On a positive note, it proves the process and the use of the Silhouette Curio as a means to make the initial rivet pattern, and it's easily repeatable for the right side later on!
 
Note: The above panels did not get the microscope treatment or were properly finished, I just wanted to see how they fitted....
 
Sure, it's not physical progress towards completion, but I have now developed what I hope will be a robust process for the rest of the model!
 
There's a silver lining in everything if you look hard enough right?!!!
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 
 
 

Hahaha! Thanks for the reality check as always Terry  And yes, it did seem like a bit of an oversight on HK's behalf not to include them. Perhaps they'll fix that when they bring out their C model.......... 
 
 
Thanks Tom, at least you have the benefit of experience the second time around right!
 
So another 6 weeks has flown past, what have I been up to? Lots of R&D, not so much progress towards completion though...
 
Armed with Peter's (Airscale's) Patreon videos about skinning with litho, it was definitely high time to try my own. From my early experiments with embossing divots into metal using a PE guide in 1/32 scale I knew that the probability of the template moving, even when taped, would induce too many errors on my part, so I wanted to go down a more predictable path.
 
Also, as my rivets would be applied in the reverse to Peter's (as in not countersunk like most fighters), I had to find a way to preserve the protrusions once I'd added them. During my trip to Canada a few years ago, I was fortunate to meet a Gentleman who produces some of the most exquisite models I have ever seen from scratch. If you have a few minutes, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed....
 
https://www.precisemodeling.com/
 
Anyway, he very graciously shared with me how he uses a microscope and a very small diameter tube to push down the deformation around each rivet from the top side once it has been applied from the bottom. Definitely not a quick process but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well!
 

 
In the above photo you can see the top three rows of rivets. This is what they look like when embossed from the back.
 

 
This is the "tool" I've made. It's really just a piece of 0.018" dia stainless tube in a pin vice, and is just the right size to push back down the surrounding metal.
 

 
Here's my microscope, just a cheapie from ebay, but it's got a nice LED ring light over the end so seeing what you're doing is pretty easy.
 

 
Not the best photo, but on the right is before the area has been pushed back down, on the left has been done. They look a lot sharper!
 

 
My "working" view through the microscope...... this was super hard to photograph by the way!
 

 
This one was a comparison of various "rosie the riveter" wheels and my use of template guides...... you can see why I wanted something more precise! 
 
A few years ago I purchased a Curio craft machine from Silhouette. This is the same company that makes the mask cutters so many of us use. It's primarily designed to be used for cutting shapes out of card, but can be used to emboss designs onto light metal surfaces. However, because it is a craft tool primarily made for bored housewives to do scrapbooking (no offence intended to anyone!) it needed some tweaking to get it to perform the way I wanted.....
 

 
Here's the machine. As you can see I've made an MDF frame to clamp the aluminium sheet in between. If you look closely you can see the white cylinder in the tool carriage. This is a 3D printed replacement I made to hold a cut off beading tool to give my the right rivet "shape" when in moves along. Clamping the frame to the base was also problematic, as the bottom of the base looks like the next photo....
 

 
Needless to say, it took some effort to work out where to drill the clamping screws! 
 
The next challenge was trying to work out their proprietary software. Luckily I found I could still draw most of the design in Rhino and import into the program as a dxf file, like I would for laser cutting. I then had to convert the lines I wanted as rivets to "stipple" lines. This is super cool, as it allows to control the rivet spacing and patterns, although it lacks the precision of Rhino which is a little frustrating. In the end I got there though...
 
Good rivet patterns for the B-17 wings are almost impossible to come by, but after comparison with many many photographs, I came to the conclusion that the HK presentation was actually pretty good. I then marked out and identified the individual panels I would need to make, starting at the trailing edge of the inner wing and working forward and out for the overlap.
 

 
Here's panels 1-6 look like as rivet patterns. Just so you know, this took a long time to get from the above, to the below picture.....
 

 
A close up of the rivet representations...
 

 
Once in the machine it's not too bad, just set it up and let it go. It's supposed to score out using the other (blue) tool, but I found it struggles with that task (remember this is a "craft" machine!) so I used marker "rivets" to indicate the borders of each panel for later scoring.
 

 
This is what you get once the machine has done its work. Again, because the machine is light duty, all the rivets still need to be deepened, and then pushed back from the other side....... a lot of work!!!!
 
This is what an earlier test looks like without deepening....
 

 
Fast forward to last night, when I finally was able to cut out the panels. I had incorporated what I thought was enough overlap for each piece, so I was hoping that everything would work.....
 

 

 

 

 
Here's what they looked like test fitted onto the wing. It became immediately apparent where I'd gone wrong...... As I'd measured and traced each panel individually, I'd induced errors into each piece, so when transferring them between programs, it made them even worse. Am I disappointed? Well, yes, as I spent many hours of work to get to this point only for them to be unusable, but at least I know what I did wrong. Next time around I will do the whole section as one piece in Rhino, then separate them once all the rivet lines are drawn!
 
On a positive note, it proves the process and the use of the Silhouette Curio as a means to make the initial rivet pattern, and it's easily repeatable for the right side later on!
 
Note: The above panels did not get the microscope treatment or were properly finished, I just wanted to see how they fitted....
 
Sure, it's not physical progress towards completion, but I have now developed what I hope will be a robust process for the rest of the model!
 
There's a silver lining in everything if you look hard enough right?!!!
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 
 
 

Hahaha! Thanks for the reality check as always Terry  And yes, it did seem like a bit of an oversight on HK's behalf not to include them. Perhaps they'll fix that when they bring out their C model.......... 
 
 
Thanks Tom, at least you have the benefit of experience the second time around right!
 
So another 6 weeks has flown past, what have I been up to? Lots of R&D, not so much progress towards completion though...
 
Armed with Peter's (Airscale's) Patreon videos about skinning with litho, it was definitely high time to try my own. From my early experiments with embossing divots into metal using a PE guide in 1/32 scale I knew that the probability of the template moving, even when taped, would induce too many errors on my part, so I wanted to go down a more predictable path.
 
Also, as my rivets would be applied in the reverse to Peter's (as in not countersunk like most fighters), I had to find a way to preserve the protrusions once I'd added them. During my trip to Canada a few years ago, I was fortunate to meet a Gentleman who produces some of the most exquisite models I have ever seen from scratch. If you have a few minutes, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed....
 
https://www.precisemodeling.com/
 
Anyway, he very graciously shared with me how he uses a microscope and a very small diameter tube to push down the deformation around each rivet from the top side once it has been applied from the bottom. Definitely not a quick process but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well!
 

 
In the above photo you can see the top three rows of rivets. This is what they look like when embossed from the back.
 

 
This is the "tool" I've made. It's really just a piece of 0.018" dia stainless tube in a pin vice, and is just the right size to push back down the surrounding metal.
 

 
Here's my microscope, just a cheapie from ebay, but it's got a nice LED ring light over the end so seeing what you're doing is pretty easy.
 

 
Not the best photo, but on the right is before the area has been pushed back down, on the left has been done. They look a lot sharper!
 

 
My "working" view through the microscope...... this was super hard to photograph by the way!
 

 
This one was a comparison of various "rosie the riveter" wheels and my use of template guides...... you can see why I wanted something more precise! 
 
A few years ago I purchased a Curio craft machine from Silhouette. This is the same company that makes the mask cutters so many of us use. It's primarily designed to be used for cutting shapes out of card, but can be used to emboss designs onto light metal surfaces. However, because it is a craft tool primarily made for bored housewives to do scrapbooking (no offence intended to anyone!) it needed some tweaking to get it to perform the way I wanted.....
 

 
Here's the machine. As you can see I've made an MDF frame to clamp the aluminium sheet in between. If you look closely you can see the white cylinder in the tool carriage. This is a 3D printed replacement I made to hold a cut off beading tool to give my the right rivet "shape" when in moves along. Clamping the frame to the base was also problematic, as the bottom of the base looks like the next photo....
 

 
Needless to say, it took some effort to work out where to drill the clamping screws! 
 
The next challenge was trying to work out their proprietary software. Luckily I found I could still draw most of the design in Rhino and import into the program as a dxf file, like I would for laser cutting. I then had to convert the lines I wanted as rivets to "stipple" lines. This is super cool, as it allows to control the rivet spacing and patterns, although it lacks the precision of Rhino which is a little frustrating. In the end I got there though...
 
Good rivet patterns for the B-17 wings are almost impossible to come by, but after comparison with many many photographs, I came to the conclusion that the HK presentation was actually pretty good. I then marked out and identified the individual panels I would need to make, starting at the trailing edge of the inner wing and working forward and out for the overlap.
 

 
Here's panels 1-6 look like as rivet patterns. Just so you know, this took a long time to get from the above, to the below picture.....
 

 
A close up of the rivet representations...
 

 
Once in the machine it's not too bad, just set it up and let it go. It's supposed to score out using the other (blue) tool, but I found it struggles with that task (remember this is a "craft" machine!) so I used marker "rivets" to indicate the borders of each panel for later scoring.
 

 
This is what you get once the machine has done its work. Again, because the machine is light duty, all the rivets still need to be deepened, and then pushed back from the other side....... a lot of work!!!!
 
This is what an earlier test looks like without deepening....
 

 
Fast forward to last night, when I finally was able to cut out the panels. I had incorporated what I thought was enough overlap for each piece, so I was hoping that everything would work.....
 

 

 

 

 
Here's what they looked like test fitted onto the wing. It became immediately apparent where I'd gone wrong...... As I'd measured and traced each panel individually, I'd induced errors into each piece, so when transferring them between programs, it made them even worse. Am I disappointed? Well, yes, as I spent many hours of work to get to this point only for them to be unusable, but at least I know what I did wrong. Next time around I will do the whole section as one piece in Rhino, then separate them once all the rivet lines are drawn!
 
On a positive note, it proves the process and the use of the Silhouette Curio as a means to make the initial rivet pattern, and it's easily repeatable for the right side later on!
 
Note: The above panels did not get the microscope treatment or were properly finished, I just wanted to see how they fitted....
 
Sure, it's not physical progress towards completion, but I have now developed what I hope will be a robust process for the rest of the model!
 
There's a silver lining in everything if you look hard enough right?!!!
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 
 
 

Hahaha! Thanks for the reality check as always Terry  And yes, it did seem like a bit of an oversight on HK's behalf not to include them. Perhaps they'll fix that when they bring out their C model.......... 
 
 
Thanks Tom, at least you have the benefit of experience the second time around right!
 
So another 6 weeks has flown past, what have I been up to? Lots of R&D, not so much progress towards completion though...
 
Armed with Peter's (Airscale's) Patreon videos about skinning with litho, it was definitely high time to try my own. From my early experiments with embossing divots into metal using a PE guide in 1/32 scale I knew that the probability of the template moving, even when taped, would induce too many errors on my part, so I wanted to go down a more predictable path.
 
Also, as my rivets would be applied in the reverse to Peter's (as in not countersunk like most fighters), I had to find a way to preserve the protrusions once I'd added them. During my trip to Canada a few years ago, I was fortunate to meet a Gentleman who produces some of the most exquisite models I have ever seen from scratch. If you have a few minutes, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed....
 
https://www.precisemodeling.com/
 
Anyway, he very graciously shared with me how he uses a microscope and a very small diameter tube to push down the deformation around each rivet from the top side once it has been applied from the bottom. Definitely not a quick process but once you get the hang of it, it works pretty well!
 

 
In the above photo you can see the top three rows of rivets. This is what they look like when embossed from the back.
 

 
This is the "tool" I've made. It's really just a piece of 0.018" dia stainless tube in a pin vice, and is just the right size to push back down the surrounding metal.
 

 
Here's my microscope, just a cheapie from ebay, but it's got a nice LED ring light over the end so seeing what you're doing is pretty easy.
 

 
Not the best photo, but on the right is before the area has been pushed back down, on the left has been done. They look a lot sharper!
 

 
My "working" view through the microscope...... this was super hard to photograph by the way!
 

 
This one was a comparison of various "rosie the riveter" wheels and my use of template guides...... you can see why I wanted something more precise! 
 
A few years ago I purchased a Curio craft machine from Silhouette. This is the same company that makes the mask cutters so many of us use. It's primarily designed to be used for cutting shapes out of card, but can be used to emboss designs onto light metal surfaces. However, because it is a craft tool primarily made for bored housewives to do scrapbooking (no offence intended to anyone!) it needed some tweaking to get it to perform the way I wanted.....
 

 
Here's the machine. As you can see I've made an MDF frame to clamp the aluminium sheet in between. If you look closely you can see the white cylinder in the tool carriage. This is a 3D printed replacement I made to hold a cut off beading tool to give my the right rivet "shape" when in moves along. Clamping the frame to the base was also problematic, as the bottom of the base looks like the next photo....
 

 
Needless to say, it took some effort to work out where to drill the clamping screws! 
 
The next challenge was trying to work out their proprietary software. Luckily I found I could still draw most of the design in Rhino and import into the program as a dxf file, like I would for laser cutting. I then had to convert the lines I wanted as rivets to "stipple" lines. This is super cool, as it allows to control the rivet spacing and patterns, although it lacks the precision of Rhino which is a little frustrating. In the end I got there though...
 
Good rivet patterns for the B-17 wings are almost impossible to come by, but after comparison with many many photographs, I came to the conclusion that the HK presentation was actually pretty good. I then marked out and identified the individual panels I would need to make, starting at the trailing edge of the inner wing and working forward and out for the overlap.
 

 
Here's panels 1-6 look like as rivet patterns. Just so you know, this took a long time to get from the above, to the below picture.....
 

 
A close up of the rivet representations...
 

 
Once in the machine it's not too bad, just set it up and let it go. It's supposed to score out using the other (blue) tool, but I found it struggles with that task (remember this is a "craft" machine!) so I used marker "rivets" to indicate the borders of each panel for later scoring.
 

 
This is what you get once the machine has done its work. Again, because the machine is light duty, all the rivets still need to be deepened, and then pushed back from the other side....... a lot of work!!!!
 
This is what an earlier test looks like without deepening....
 

 
Fast forward to last night, when I finally was able to cut out the panels. I had incorporated what I thought was enough overlap for each piece, so I was hoping that everything would work.....
 

 

 

 

 
Here's what they looked like test fitted onto the wing. It became immediately apparent where I'd gone wrong...... As I'd measured and traced each panel individually, I'd induced errors into each piece, so when transferring them between programs, it made them even worse. Am I disappointed? Well, yes, as I spent many hours of work to get to this point only for them to be unusable, but at least I know what I did wrong. Next time around I will do the whole section as one piece in Rhino, then separate them once all the rivet lines are drawn!
 
On a positive note, it proves the process and the use of the Silhouette Curio as a means to make the initial rivet pattern, and it's easily repeatable for the right side later on!
 
Note: The above panels did not get the microscope treatment or were properly finished, I just wanted to see how they fitted....
 
Sure, it's not physical progress towards completion, but I have now developed what I hope will be a robust process for the rest of the model!
 
There's a silver lining in everything if you look hard enough right?!!!
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 
 
 

Congratulations on reaching this milestone, Craig! Psychologically, these moments make a huge difference and if my experience is anything to go by, you’ll get the other wing done in no time at all 
 
It’s still an absolute pleasure to follow your progress - keep at it!
 
All the best,
Tom

Craig,
 
Everything you've surmounted  over six years and you "question you ability as a modeler" over those lousy inlets! I think that's being a bit hard on yourself!
 
Besides something that like those inlets are bound to have "Murphy Law" written all over them!
 
In 1-32, surprised HK didn't provide inlet inserts.
 
Terry

And that's exactly the reason I'm considering converting my x and y axes on the mill to be stepper driven with button control...... it takes the "me" out of the equation! I actually have the complete CNC conversion kit, just need to find time to actually make it happen.

Nice work Jay! If that was me I totally would have turned the hand-wheel the wrong way at some point and stuffed the whole part up!
 
Getting closer with this one.
 
Craig

Another outstanding update Peter!
 
You've covered a huge amount of work in one post. I really like the bull nose step you put in. How did you get it so crisp? Did you use a "buck" of sorts to form it prior to fixing the panel in place? I've also got a lot of catching up to do on your patreon as well.....looking forward to it!
 
Your litho work is really becoming second nature to you these days, a true master!
 
Thanks for giving us our fix of awesomeness!
 
Craig

The turret looks like it's always been part of the kit!
 
Nice
 
Craig

The turret looks like it's always been part of the kit!
 
Nice
 
Craig

G'day Everyone,
First of all many thanks for the kind comments guys.
 
Craig to answer your question I use ordinary contact adhesive  - the sort one would use for gluing linoleum etc. In Australia it goes under the name of KwikFix and is marketed by Selleys.
It can be removed with lacquer thinners or toluene and you can also by a specialist solvent. However they all attack plastic so caution is required.
 
Finishing the model
Since my last post the model has now been finished and this involved attaching numerous pre-assembled parts and also painting etc.
The biggest job and one which I had been dreading was the u/c doors. On the P-38 they are attached by Studebaker hinges see below and I had dreaded this part of the build.
 
To re-create these I had several sheets of photo-etch made up in the belief that i could then make the individual hinges and they would work. Unfortunately dealing with the small brass pieces proved almost impossible and in the end they were glued in place. I had to make a small jig to hold the doors in place whilst I affixed them to the actuating cylinders and then methodically set about gluing up the hinges on each door. A fiddly time consuming job that took the best part of two weeks.
Once this was done the wheels could be attached. I had these 3D printed by my nephew who runs an engineering shop and they came up beautifully.
Next was the canopy and although I had built a hinge I decided to glue the top piece in place but not locked down. I figured this was a safer option than having the top section sticking up in the breeze waiting to be knocked off!
Final details for the superchargers, lights radio aerials etc were attached, once painting was completed.
The aircraft was painted prior to all these biyts and to facilitate painting a rough jig was constructed. This made spraying markings etc considerably easier than manhandling a very heavy model with which the slightest slip could result in ruin!

 
Colour scheme.
This was a vexed question.
I had from the beginning decided to finish it in the markings of Jack Purdy from the 433rd FS of the 475th FG in the Pacific. There are a number of schemes floating about in various publications, however nothing is simple. I managed to track down his family and they were very helpful but unfortunately many details had been lost over the years.
Purdy flew several P-38s marked with the name Lizzie and toward the end of 1944/45 he had two; Lizzie IV and Lizzie  V both of which crashed within a short space of time.
In tracking down the serial numbers of these a L1 and L5 respectively it would appear that serial numbers have been mixed up when it comes to applying markings. The markings of the restored example in the Museum of flight would appear to be a combination of both the IV and V Lizzies. The serial number on the nose does not fit for an L-5. After much searching and exchange of information the final scheme was based on that shown in the Osprey book on the 475th FG which I think on balance is probably the most accurate depiction. 
The blue colour was also a subject of much debate and and I must acknowledge the help of a number of LSP members in earlier correspondence on this.
Markings were sprayed using stencils cut from Frisket and in the case of the flags and No-step, photo etched stencils from Custom photo-etch in Melbourne. The airframe stencils are dry transfers made by Allout graphics in West Vancouver and they worked a treat.
 
Anyway to cut a long story short here's the beast in its glory and so after 8+ years of toil the story is concluded.
 
I concede the photos could be better - apologies.

 
 


 
In conclusion this build was a challenge and were I ever stupid enough to do another I would do things differently and follow more closely the original design by building and attaching the outer main planes separately to make handling easier. To permit the model to sit on its u/c there is a large amount of lead in the nacelles and I estimate the completed model weighs well over 5kg.
Its now safely stuck in its cabinet.
 
Apologies for not providing more details of the build - I guess I'm just not that good at this sort of thing.
Many thanks for viewing
 
Cheers
Kevin