brahman104

If the tail wheel was fitted I'd almost swear I was looking at my Oshkosh pics again!
 
Amazing work Peter
 
Craig

If the tail wheel was fitted I'd almost swear I was looking at my Oshkosh pics again!
 
Amazing work Peter
 
Craig

Exactly! The idea is to force the illusion of a shiny or otherwise, metallic surface without using metallic paints such as alclad etc. The way an artist would paint a metallic object on a 2 dimensional canvas. A mixture of blacks, greys, whites and blues combines in such a way to represent a light source that doesn't exist.
 
It's in much the same way as Fancherello has done on his exceptional black and white Mustang and Corsair.
 
I'm going to try it on my next model (as much as that will be sometime away). Just wondered if anyone had ever tried anything similar?
 
Craig
 
 

Great job! She really came out looking amazing. Love your work on the remote turret!
 
Craig

Hi Mike,
I suppose when printing such pars with a resin printer, somewhat satisfying surface details could be achieved (when you are able to createt those details on the 3d-model - which proves to be challenging for me ). I once printed the forward fuselage section with my resin printer (Anycubic Photon). Once printed, such resin parts need further curing with UV-light. Thereby, I experienced much warping of the part what made the part more or less unusable. So in this regard there is still much to learn for me to achieve good results. Then, there is the challenge to glue large resin parts to the styrene fuselage of the kit...
 
Therefore, I printed all parts (with the exeption of the very forward frame where the clear nose is attached) with a FDM printer using a printing filament called HIPS what stands for High Impact Polystyrene. Such parts can be glued with ordinary modeling cement to the styrene kit parts. Theoretically, you could print such parts with surface details, but those details propably wouldn't tourn out sharp enought. And parts printed that way will always need further sanding, no matter how high the printing resolution (meaning fine layer hight)  is, so the printed panel lines are likely to disappear in this process.
 
Meanwhile, I glued the printed fuselage sections to the kit. parts. Once attached, I glued an Evergreen styrene rod along the seam, and sanded it down. Then the seam got a thick layer of old (orange) paint to fill up small gapes, and was sanded as well. Now I have to scribe some panel lines (did I mention I hate scribing panel lines ). After that, I'll spry some primer so see how it all tourned out.
 

 

 

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

I've just caught up on this. Brilliant work Alex! One day when I get to my B-24 I'll try out your drawings...... many thanks!!!!!

Craig

Thanks!  Not much in the way of photos yet, but the interior construction is complete and base coated.  Both horizontal stabs and the right wing are primed.  Next comes some light weathering/washes on the interior, then I button her up for the arduous process of sanding, rescribing, and re-riveting.  Here we go!

Hi Jay - thanks for all that info - I did actually spot those door mount lugs were the wrong side when I was offering up the door to get the door / wheel relationship right, which as you say is critical for the sit of the model..
 
they have been reversed now - though close up some of the welding I tried to imitate looks a bit rough!
 

 
the spigots in the wing that the gear plugs into are pretty solid and were done a looooong time ago so with a tight fit into holes in the gear legs they pretty much define how the model sits and would be hard to change - I think in length they are ok - the compression strut showing is 5.89mm and 0.2 inches os 5.09mm so its ballpark - the forward rake is perhaps a degree or two off, but I took this pic & transposed it onto side pics of real 'C's' and everything looks to be right enough - I can pull a degree or two of rake back when I cement them..
 

 
thanks for the brake info too - I have the bit that line goes into as part of the wheel hub, not the leg hub so will have to wait until the wheels are on to connect it..
 
its so good to have an expert with an encyclopedic knowledge of the drawings on my wing
 
Peter

If it wasn't for the blue background those pics could've been taken at the NAA factory! You make complex castings look very straightforward Peter
 
Beautiful work as always.
 
Craig

Here are some pics of the printed and vacuforemd nose:
 

 

 

 

 
The plan to put clear vacuformed pieces into recessed ares to recreats the side windows seems to work.All parts were printed with a normal FDM printer, exept the forward frame which, once glued to the fuselage parts, enables a more or less troublefree attachment of the vacuformed nose. You can also see the modified floor part from the Hobby Boss kit.
 

 

 
Cheers
Alex
 
 

Hi there, I just uploaded the 3d models for the new nose section on the Sketchup Warehouse, where everyone can download it.
 
Due to its size, it is divided into three parts:
 
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/5bb50881-142c-4842-ac8a-4bbba9c9a69a/B-24D-132-Hobby-Boss-Alternative-Nose-Part-1
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/8775800f-7d9a-4641-a034-056da43f8e31/B-24D-132-Hobby-Boss-Alternative-Nose-Part-2
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/698a848c-e8cd-430b-87b8-041a7535bffb/B-24D-132-Hobby-Boss-Alternative-Nose-Part-3
 
Tomorrow, I'll post some new pictues of the printed parts. Here is the whole description:
 
 
Scale of the 3d-models is 1/32 x 1000. So, for 3d-printing, the parts must be scaled down to 0,1% in the printing software.

It consists of 3 parts. The first part contains some plan drawings and basic inner and outer fuselage halves. It also contains a 3d-model that can help to remove the forward section of the fuselage from the Hobby Boss kit with a scriber or saw.

The second part contains the actual fuselage section for 3d-printing, as well some interior frames and the ring for the upper cupula. The fuselage section consist of both halves, 0,5 mm apart, with a recessed line between, and a rear extension. After printing, if will probably benefit from primer and sanding. Once you are satisfied with the surface of the printed part, the rear extension can be cut/sawed away. Then the two halves can be separated along the recessed line. The red areas of the 3d-model must be removed after printing. The recessed areas for the small side windows show 4 small holes. After printing, these can be widened with a 2 mm drill to achieve the rounded corners of the windows. For the forward frame, I suggest printing with a resin printer, while the rest can be printed with a FDM-printer.

The third part contains the parts for vacuforming for the side windows and the clear nose. ATTENTION: The part for the clear nose is far from perfect, and definitely needs more sanding after printing, especially at the red area of the 3d-model to get rid of the bump shape.  The third part also contains a template for the interior floor. Make a screenshot viewed from above, print it on paper with the square 10 cm large, glue it on a thin sheet of styrene, cut out, glue it on the actual floor part of the Hobby Boss kit, and sand this to shape.

I encourage everyone to modify and improve these parts. Happy modeling!  
 
Cheers
Alex

I'm on it. Weekend means modelling time
 
Here is the current status of the 3d-model:
 

 
The 3d-model consits of both fuselage halves, with a 0,5 mm wide recessed line between where it can be cut appart later on. It also contains a 15 mm extension at the end. When printing something like this upwards with a FDM printer, there can be some temperature-related warping inwards at the lowest area of the printed part. Here, if such warping occures, only the rear extension will be affected, while the actual fuselage area should be fine. The extension also helps sanding the part smooth after printing, preventing too much sanding at the rear edge of the fuselage. At the end, the extension can be cut/sawed away along a recessed line.
 
The side-windows are tricky. At the moment, my idea is a larger recessed area at the fuselage, where later vacuformed clear parts will be added. The actual window-openings are further recessed, and must be carefully removed from the printed part. I also mady a separate forward extension, which can be pluged (not glued!) into the fuselage. This also helps when sanding the actuall fuselage, without damaging the forward edge while sanding. Here is the printed part with a coat of primer and a first sanding:
 

 
That's the current status:
 

 

 
Here is a comparison of my printed part with the Hobby Boss kit:
 

 
Now, I'm working on the actual clear nose, which proves to be difficult to recreate in 3d.
 
Cheers
Alex

You are a filleting master!!!!!
 
Just let me know when you're available to do my B-17's ones.
 
Craig

Congratulations Dennis!
 
that is one veeeeeerrry nice looking Fort. I’m super impressed at how neatly you joined that turtle deck on. 
 
You should be very happy with this!
 
 Craig 

Thanks for the feedback guys. It does seem there is some genuine interest out there. Unfortunately with an international move rapidly approaching, it'll probably be the best part of about 12 months or so before I can progress this any further. The resin one out of the Photon looks much better (check out the WIP section), and I think may end up making more out of normal cast resin, as it will be a lot more predictable and reliable than the printed versions. I'm also looking forward in the future to doing a bomb bay gas tank for my E model, so keep a look out
 
Cheers,
 
Craig

G'day guys,
 
Since this topic seems to come up about every 3 months, I thought I'd show you what can be done if you want it badly enough  These parts are just a rough trial, but my initial impressions are that it improves the look of the kit immensely. It also *should* be compatible with most of the existing kit parts once I've got it properly cleaned up, apart from a new instrument panel/#3 bulkhead of course and the cockpit glazings.... 
 
Anyway, I thought I'd share it here in case you miss my build.
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 

 

 

 

 
 

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

Wow that last pic reminds of movie scenes where the genetic experiment goes wrong and some horribly deformed creature is the result!

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
 
 
 

I’m interested in a set too, if they come on market. I hadn’t heard that Fencer (Alex) was doing one. If he does do one, I’ll get that one too.
Bill M.

+5

I would totally buy; 

I've got two kits in the stash....just sayin'.  I always use correction parts when available.

If you did decide to sell the set, in whichever state, I'd be interested, however if you didn't, no worries.

Fantastic, just goes to show what can be done. If you do sell any, I'd be happy give one a good home and to do the final fettling!! Folks are too used to having stuff just effortlessly drop in their lap these days!! Awesome job!