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JayW

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JayW last won the day on September 8 2023

JayW had the most liked content!

About JayW

  • Birthday 06/05/1951

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  1. Just a quick post before I visit the land down unda'. I Rhino-designed two important cockpit items over the last few days - the engine quadrant and the oxygen regulator. They occupy similar regions right behind the instrument panel mounted to the upper longerons - the engine quadrant on the LH side; the O2 regulator on the RH side. Pictures: VERY TINY PARTS! 100% 3D printed. It shows what a good modern 3D printer can do. Also, for the umpteenth time, I am so thankful to Peter Castle for the decals. Just amazing. I will bond these components on later, to keep them out of harm's way as I continue to populate the cockpit sidewalls with stuff over the coming weeks (months?). Stick with me.
  2. One of the features that so many modelers can trip up on is the rake angle of the gear struts, regardless of what the model is. Especially true if the model does not have a feature that locks down the angle well. I am not familiar enough with the Spitfire to be able to tell from your pictures if the gear strut angle (when viewed from the side) is good. If by some chance the angle is too severe, and the gear strut should be more upright, and if so, could a repair be made without compromising the model, that would solve part of the problem at least. And could get you into the territory where sanding can accomplish the rest. But, your gear angle might be right on, in which case ignore this. I also notice the lower struts are modelled almost or entirely fully extended. Many model manufacturers make this ridiculous mistake - failing to model the landing gear as they would be with typical airplane weight on them. I have seen examples of gear struts slammed down to the stops, and fully extended. Also true for tail wheels. I suspect (but don't know for sure) a nearly full gross weight Spit would be showing considerably less chrome than what you have here. In theory, if the gear were modified to cut on half (or 3/4) the amount of lower strut shown, then that would act to lessen that tire flat mismatch, although not very much. Just sayin'.....and, to make such a modification involves major surgery of that beautiful gear strut, and a total redo of the torque links. So I would fully understand a decision not to do so! Lastly, that last picture you took suggests to me that the tire flat is very slight; there could be more flat easily. Are you sure that sanding is not a good option? Personally I'd be beside myself, and greatly pissed off at Eduard for an obvious gaff. I suppose chocks are a good fix. A shame though.
  3. I have sanded down tire flats before by gently dragging the model on some fine sandpaper. It was not difficult. Those tires look great, with a nice little flat. Hopefully the gap is small enough that it doesn't produce too dramatic a revised flat.
  4. Last post I described a rather serious mistake I made, installing a LH side fuselage frame on the RH side fuselage panel, and the RH side frame on the LH fuselage panel. The big problem being the frames are not shaped the same at all, and things attach to them. The frames are located just aft of the instrument panel, so components affected are the bomb salvo quadrant on the LH side, and the spare lamp stowage panel on the RH side. I am happy to announce though that after some modifications to the frames, all is going to be OK, and even the most astute P-51 expert will probably not notice. Here is the RH side with the spare lamp stowage panel and door: Almost like a frame on top of a frame.....That is how I restored the proper frame profile. I will show the LH side a bit further down the post. But first - Did any of you see something funny about the oval shaped skin cutout for the flare gun port I posted last time? Here is my model: And a real airplane: IT'S NOT IN THE RIGHT PLACE!!!! Oh gawd - another big gaffe. How did I do that and how can I fix it? It is too far forward by a good .4 inch. Well, it turns out that I put that hole and the flare gun port between two stub frames, instead of immediately aft of the aft stub frame. Why? Cannot explain. A senior moment perhaps. What should go there instead is a small electrical panel which controls those radiator doors (coolant and oil) under the wing. That turns out to be a good thing, because that panel can largely hide the ugly fix I had to do. Here is what it looks like after I dremmeled off the existing flare gun port, and re-installed a new one in the proper place: From the outside: Plugged: Do you think I was focused? Laser focused? I was. Also I was lucky. The electrical panel, as you will see below, does an effective job of covering up the old hole from the inside. And I will skin the outside in aluminum, completely hiding the offending hole. What a dummy I am. Hopefully that is the end of the big mistakes. Along with this fix effort, I actually moved the ball forward some with completion of the control pedestal, the radiator control electrical panel, the cable guard panel directly behind the control pedestal, and the bomb salvo panel and quadrant - all this stuff on the LH side of the cockpit: Many things I can comment on. With almost no exception, everything you see there is 3D printed and designed from the original engineering drawings. Note the bomb salvo quadrant and its support panel in front of the control pedestal, which completely cover the wrongly installed fuselage frame I mentioned at the beginning of this post. I am sooo happy I got away with it. Note also the area on that cable guard with paint scraped off - that is for the flare gun stowage bracket and bag. Components I need to figure out how to make.... Note also the fabulous decals all over the place. Once again - a huge shout-out to Peter Castle aka Airscale who provided me quite a while ago with copies of the Lope's Hope special decal set. They are being put to good use here, and lots of other places as this build progresses. Finally note that there is no sign of that mislocated flare gun hole - blocked by the electrical panel. Whew! Well just getting started with the cockpit. Like any thorough cockpit effort it is going to be very involved and take alot of time. Plenty of options what to do next: RH side radio equipment mounting structure Engine control quadrant LH side Flare gun stowage bag Electrical and fuel control panels under the IP. O2 control unit RH side And one of these days I have to tackle the Malcolm hood mod stuff - drive chains, crank handle, and other trinkets. I have no drawings to help me. Just photos. Lots of photos. OK, no more mistakes!! - Next week I visit Aussieland to see my daughter in Sydney for a week and some. Never been south of the equator before. Probably no post until after that trip. Take care!
  5. Wow Guy - very convincing chipping so far. I cannot remember - did you apply a layer of future between silver and topcoat? You must have.
  6. Hahaha! A double-take picture. For a moment I thought I was looking at a real fort interior! So Pat - you put a decal into every single rectangle?
  7. Had it not been for your post and the picture of that wonderful canopy, I probably would not have gone to Shapeways and their Accura 60 clear. Worked just about to perfection!
  8. I see and understand almost all you are doing here. And it's a master class in aluminum skinning. Tell me - how is your wrist and forearm after pressing thousands of rivet marks? My own body was the limiting factor in many of my past skinning efforts on the Corsair.
  9. While waiting for the Shapeways Malcolm hoods (I ordered two) to arrive, I got to work once again with Rhino. This time the control pedestal. After quite a few hours of work, I got this: I used quite a few excellent engineering drawings to model it up. Worry not about the featureless trim knobs on top - Airscale did some up for his Lope's Hope a couple years ago and I have his Rhino models of them. I will shamelessly plagiarize. The rest of the stuff - mine all mine. And then - The Malcolm hoods package showed up. Oh boy! Recall now what has transpired over the last few months with the Malcolm hood. My first couple of hoods were printed from a problematic clear resin where I got fairly close to an acceptable part, but not quite. The big issue was clarity and a slight brownish hue. My second set was from a more friendly clear resin, which gave me a nicer looking part, but alas I lost some dimensional control and they were too short causing a mismatch with the windshield frame. So what I was looking for from Shapeways was a more dimensionally accurate, and very clear part (after burnishing/polishing/Future). Here is one of the two parts fresh out of the box: Pretty rough, and I was a bit worried there would remain some cloudiness at the more curvy areas. First though, was a dimensional check for proper height. To my immense relief the parts appeared to be right on. That allowed me to print up nominal (current design) side rails without modification to account for height variation. Meanwhile, after many hours of sanding and burnishing and polishing and one Future dip, I got this: Front to back - the new part polished, the second unpolished part, and the burnishing molds. The molds were indispensable. What a difference. Thank you Shapeways! A $40 plus part right there. And to me, worth it. I will be proud for that part to sit atop Cripes A Mighty. That paved the way for another batch of 3D printed parts: Most of these parts are for the control pedestal. The tall slender parts are the Malcolm Hood side rails (two sets). Here is the new hood sporting those side rails, ready to snap onto the rollers: And (drum-roll please) fitted onto the fuselage: Fit to the windshield is nearly perfect. Whew. The Malcolm hood journey - it's been a long worrisome one. But I think the issue has been put to bed. This is going to work great. I now show you all my past and present efforts at Malcolm hood transparencies (the Shapeways polished part in front): It was a process....if you are sick and tired of the Malcolm hood, well you won't be seeing it for a while. It's going to gather dust. Next post I will be building up the control pedestal and also concentrating on addressing the reversed station 104 frames. Recall last post I put the LH set on the RH side, and vice versa, presenting a host of issues. A self-inflicted wound.... A sneak preview of the pedestal: Til next time. Thanks for looking in.
  10. Wow!!! Great 3D print parts. I know what goes into parts like that. Alot of research on the config, and alot of digital modeling time. How is it you are going so quickly? Takes me forever.
  11. On Monday I expect to get two Malcolm hood canopies from Shapeways. A highly anticipated package I can tell you. Meanwhile - I learned enough from the Malcolm hood test to proceed with "production part" fuselage skin panels, with the Malcolm hood panel additions and roller bars incorporated into the parts. Here are the 3D printed parts: The P-51 expert will recognize the oval hole - the flare gun port. The angled edge is common to the firewall, and the other (aft) edge) is coincident with the station 146 frame, just like the real thing. Why not? A close-up of the roller bar: You can see some slight imperfections on the printed surface near the oval hole - no prob, remember this fuselage will be skinned in aluminum. There are groups of three "discs". The center disk is actually a large head for an attachment bolt, and of course the outer discs are the rollers. They scale to .875 outer diameter - it is an educated guess on my part. Or at 1/18 scale - 0.049 inch diameter. What you see is about half of the bar's length. The other half (aft half) will be either a separate part on its own, or incorporated into the aft skin panel. And I wasted little time bonding the skin panels to the framework secured on the jig: Put the windshield on there just to impress y'all. Of course these fuselage side halves can be removed from the jig - and now they have a bit of robustness so I can work on them: This was a thrill, I can tell you. A nice step towards a completed forward fuselage one day not too long from now. And a nice step forward to validate the idea of 3D printing an entire airframe. It was about this time that I noticed something disturbing. Do you see those double frames with the little intercostals in between them? Those comprise the station 104 frame, and that is where the wing front spar bolts to the fuselage at the lower longeron. Well, the LH frame is similar to but also different from the RH frame. The LH frame is designed to interface with the control pedestal mostly, while the RH frame is designed to interface with the spare lamp stowage container, and radio equipment. So their profiles are different. So what did I notice - in an act of amazing stupidity a couple weeks ago I attached the LH frame to the RH side of the jig, and the RH frame to the LH side of the jig. This after paying so much attention to each frame to make sure they are accurate. After putting out my hair fire, I settled in to fix-it mode. I have some ideas, and I think I can make it ok. Not perfect but OK. What I cannot do is disassemble it - the epoxy and CA are too strong. In the coming days, I will be working with the Shapeways Malcolm hoods soon as they arrive, and populating the side panels with cockpit stuff. Lots of stuff. I will start with the control pedestal on the LH side I think, and the nearby bomb release quadrant and support. It is this stuff that now must interface with a wrongly shaped sta 104 frame. Gonna require a magic wand. Then, I think, I will go to the RH side and figure out how to modify that frame to interface with what it is supposed to. Take care, this modeler is a little steamed right now. And motivated.
  12. I have a question for the B-17 experts. Many of us are watching "Masters of the Air", and the show often depicts the top turret and ball turret rotating at an astonishing rate as the gunner tries to lead a passing fighter at high closing speed. I have to believe turret rotation was done manually somehow, without power assist, which would mean the show is inaccurate in that respect. Can anyone describe the mechanism for turning the turret?
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