vvwse4

We've moved a fair distance round the sun since the last update, so probably time to shows some signs that this project is still going - in and around the other cares of life!
 
Derek - that's extremely kind of you - thank-you!
 
Thank you sir  I think a certain absence of sanity is certainly required - that and not knowing in advance what you've let yourself in for!!
Dead decent of you to say that. Thanks.
 
It's my earnest contention that if someone can draw even half-decently with pencil & paper, they can produce this kind of work themselves. It's also great the way these tools can add variety and excitement to this hobby.
 

 
Seriously Anthony - you don't.
You'll just get funny looks when you're out in public like me....
 
Ta Kev.
Thanks Ivan and yes - as you can see below work is still happening.
Happy to sell you a kit when things are ready - can you PM me as to which scale you'd like? (It'll be available in 1/24 and 1/32 scales).
Thanks Håkan! 
 
The short version is the sheer number of CAD components awaiting realization in physical form got somewhat out of hand in that I'd begun to forget what was what, so I sat down and over the last couple of months have been outputting, supporting and test-printing these various parts.
 
I managed to crack the glass on my 3d printer which slowed things down waiting for the  replacement glass to arrive and fitting it. Working out what parts - for reasons of fragility and material strength - would need producing in the (much) stronger Hard Tough resin from eSun which you'd seen me use previously (the black stuff), and which would be happy using just Elegoo's 8k Space grey or Standard Grey resins took up most of the time since the last update. The only sure way to work which needed the tougher resin was to print them in standard grey and see which bits (thankfully not that many) failed or were not strong enough to survive handling/assembly. 
 
These are the successful results of this process:

 - and to dispel any notion that over time you get good enough for anything but single parts here and there to print successfully first time, here is a selection from the 'boneyard' of prints which failed either due to inadequate orientation and/or support design, or the standard resin lacking structural strength for very thin regions on a part:

I'd shown the design for the rear wall of the cabin on here before but have since revised the design of it in Fusion so that the angled rear-window panels on either side of the central panel integrated are now into the one part:

This should make assembly easier in term of keeping them at the correct angle to support the vacformed roof transparencies:

All surface details remain present in the 1/32 version below as well; my guesses about minimum feature size in the 1/24 version that will survive scaling down seem to be holding up pretty consistently across the model so far:

The doors too are now finalized in physical form, both front:

 - and rear sets:

Similarly, I haven't found any detail absent from the 1/32 versions:

One of the door pillars at 1/24.o The lozenge shaped feature is for the naviagation light which will be printed separately using AnyCubic's High Clear resin and tinted:

The sliding windows for pilot/obervers had their frames printed using eSun Hard Tough resin as they were too thin for the 8k resin:

Again the 1/32 version of these also survived reduction ins scale and printed as well. Amongst a number of other components that turned out to need reproduction using the black eSun resin for strength were the jury struts onto which the floation gear attaches as the front:

On the 1/24 version shown here you can see from the translucency down the sides just how thin the edges of that I-beam shape are. The translucency eviudent below also indicated how thin the walls of the recess which the float gear struts fit into are. This necessitated adding a small reinforcing panel inside of there on either side:

The 1/32 version worked fine:

The walls of the strut recesses were so terribly thin at 1/32 though that I could only have holes for the flotation gear struts themselves to mount into, leaving just a visual suggestion of the shape of the recess itself:

The driveshafts from main to reduction gearboxes were also done up in black stuff as they'll aid support and alignment the entire engine/gearbox asssembly when it sits on the egnine deck later on:

The rear cabin framing at 1/24:

 - and at 1/32. Both self-evidently neededthe stronger resin to avoid breakage during kit assembly:

I wasn't sure if the door handles (on the right end) would work at 1/24 but they did:

More improbably however they also printed at 1/32 using the smallest feasible tree support I could devise in VDT:

Using Elegoo's 8k resin, definition of detail on the nose section was extremely rewarding at both 1/32:

 - and 1/24:

The two large holes dead centre aren't obviously present on the actual Wasp but are drain holes added here to avoid suction issues during printing, which had caused print/support failures in early tests. These also coinicide handily however with those traces of striation you can see at the tip of the nose, so both issues can be dealt with in the same operation without the risk of damage to surrounding features.
 
My heavy handling during support removal resulted in some fracturing along the cheek window guttering, though such issues are easy enough repaired with some tape, resin and the UV laser:

UThe lower section of the nose showing RADALT enclosures, which agaqin will have their honeycombed glazing printed separately from clear resin:

Designs for both Bthe Mk44 & 46 torpedoes were tested in 8k resin:

Mk.44 first - this turned out nice and sharp at both scales:

I wasn't too concerned about the support structures for that annular feature at the rear on the 1/24 scale:

But did find an issue with my supports for the fins not being robust enough at 1/32:

This has since been reprinted successfully with the offending supports being made 2 microns thicker. Sometimes all it needs is a little tweak!
 
The propeller assemblies of the Mk.44 at 1/32; I have to say the support design routines in Voxeldance's Tango software have performed outstandingly with everything I've thrown at it on the trickiest of thin features like these:

The Mk.46 reproduced equally well at both scales, with no features failing:

Part definion on the props for both sets. 1/24 looked nice:

1/32 turned out far less of a problem than I'd feared due to the responsiveness of the support processes in VDT:

All the fiddly detail on the carrier racks and sway braces which took so long to do up in CAD had me very happy at the printed results -  there were no features missing or compromised at either scale (both sides shown below at 1/24):

 

Details like the suspension bands on the torpedo bodies also turned out nice and sharp using the 8k resin:

The landing light assemblies and transponders at both scales:

The main fairing sehown here at 1/24:

With the same level of detail still present in the 1/32 version:

Temptation struck and I couldn't resist dlashing together a 1/32 test print of the Mk.46 torpedothe other night 'just to check' that the parts fitted together successfully:

 

 

 

Over last weekend I sat down, went through the existing printed parts inventory and drew up a snag sheet for all the parts still needing to be designed in CAD:

The bulk of this as you can see involves the cabin & cockpit interiors, so in preparation for the next phase, here are the reference mosaics I work from ready to start preliminary sketches for those areas:

There's a lot inside there to get wrong so I'm curently at work on the drawing board with pencil and paper, sketching out the various features and forms to get a better understanding of the various fittings and how they interact in space.
 
Thanks for reading as always and best wishes for success in your own work.

Tony

Sometimes they come back!
in the last few days I have been busy examining the shelf of doom trying to save from oblivion the works that were briefly incomplete.
in this case, after countless attempts to make a frozen puddle I gave up and was pleased (well, more or less) with the last attempt.

to begin with, some photos of the plane complete with the last missing details: doors, controls for folding the wings, air intakes. I added a little mud from below, without exaggerating.

 

 




the engine has the possibility of being partially - or completely - exposed, thanks to the magnets embedded in the thickness of the cowling.



 

 


and to conclude the whole story, some photos of the completed diorama, puddle or no puddle.




the officer won a scarf out of order


and all the other insignia, ranks and various insignia by Alliance Model Works decals, splendid.

 

 

 

and I fixed one... some other updates coming soon! Cheers everyone and thanks for participating, Paolo

Thanks Kev, loving your airliner builds atm by the way!
 
Thank you Niels!  Really appreciate it
 
LOL I dont think I will know what to do with myself once it is finished.  Actually I am kinda hoping the Icelandic Fine Arts FA.2 Seaharrier or my good friend Tony's 1/32 Wasp he's printing me...
Although I should finish some stuff too lol
Hey Matt, yeah the new leg looks awesome dosent it?
I've done a few structural 'tests'and it is pretty darn strong, I have no worries it wont hold the weight of the kit
 
Thanks buddy!  means a lot coming from you
Thank you sir!  It's not without your help and photo's we could get it so accurate!
Thanks John, I am super pleased you are still hanging in here!  I am still using your Phantom for some of my refs
 
Thank you!  Yes that noseleg is is very different when you know.  
Thanks Chris!  Really appreciate it my friend
 
Small update tonight
Undercoat of silver done before a little more tidy up on stuff you just wont probably see 

 
On with some colour, sheesh that red is bright!

 
Now toned down with an oil wash and flat coat.  This area got quite oily and sooty, considering how filthy the belly of the Phantom got it probably should be worse, but I didnt go too overboard

 
On to something else now, running out of things to do before paint!
Cheers team, appreciate your feedback and likes
Anthony
 

Hi gentlemen
This is my last construction, something different today ... this is the Wessex  HU 5 from Fly.... the kit is a "short term", the plastic is thick, the engraving is sometimes "soft", especially the multitude of small holes supposed to represent the rivets (they are raised on the real machine) but no matter that works, we have some nice resin parts ( cockpit consoles , rotor head , wheels etc ....)The decals are thin and nice , for 4 different colorful helos .. The instruction sheet is .....not clear , and I dare to say "messy" , ... But stop chatting, there is a complete review of the kit here....... Well, don’t expect a very detailed construction like "Shark 64 did it here some time ago, I’m nowhere near as skillful as he... My main improvement is in the cargo cabin. there is a lack of detail inside, and God knows this area is " occupied," so I scratch built it, and too bad if nothing will be seen afterwards..... I put some raised rivets here and there on some hatches, panels and so on, especially around the windscreen, for a more pleasing effect, I added some "pipes" along the fuselage on both sides , the rotor head needs more details , a good picture is very useful because of this complex area ........ what else ??, the paint scheme is not provided, but it's nothing, I just painted a big D on the fuselage, the decals are from the kit...... Is it perfect ???? no , but despite some issues , it was a cool trip ......so enjoy ....or not thanks for watching
Alain
some in progress pictures





 





 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks guys, really appreciate it!
 
Well I have actually been steady with progress, but with such things I didnt really have much to show until today
A package arrived in the mail from Kerry!
 
Somewhere in here is an FG.1 leg test print!

 
I know that because I have seen this....

 
So I set about trimming and found this inside

 
Now for those who cant remember, the reason for the completely new leg is because it is very different to a std Phantom NLG.  Aside from the double extension with extra scissor link, the actual oleo itself is of a bigger dia and rakes rearward
 
He nailed it.... a perfect fit!

 
An overall shot showing the rearward rake, only done by eye, not actually glued in properly of course.  I have started testing all the dimensions and so far so good!

 
Also an area that needed attention was the aux air doors top and lower.  Both sets needed scratchbuilding. First up are the lower ones, just basically layer upon layer of plasticard and raised rivet decals, followed by a layer of Mr Surfacer
 

 

 

 
Raised rivets and extra details on the other side....

 
And a comparison on the other side with the kit ones.  The kit ones are smaller and further back.

 

 
Apologies for the lack of updates, had a bit going on.  But still not stopped on this...she is still alive!
 
Cheers guys and thanks for stopping by
Anthony
 

Hi Pat,
 
The best I could find, maybe you can make something out of it.
 
Rick
 

And how they did it
 

This one is brilliant, one of the best I have seen.

Hi,
 
Here's what you need:
 

 
Hth

Hi friends, this is my last project - 3D printed German submarine Type VII-C.
Of course a lot of re-works and scratch-build  were add here for detailing the beast.
Also a great add is Eduard Brasin 88 mm gun at 1:48 scale.
To be more interesting - Tamiya 1:48 scale German figures are a nice touch for the finish.
Special Thanks for Fran Gaur for 3D .stl files of Das Boot
So here she is - 1 meter and 40 centimeters Kriegsmarine Beast :
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Thanks friends for stopping by
Cheers and have a nice day
 

Well, I'm probably going to catch some flak here [ no pun intended] , my favorite ww2 B-17 film is still 12 O'clock  High. It was done when things were still "fresh?" from the experiences a few years before. While it's a fictional account , a lot of the personalities portrayed were based on true life people. Even Gen. Curtiss LeMay  couldn't really find fault with it after viewing . He oughta know! TBF I haven't seen any of MOTA episodes.................. yet.

Hi, everyone.  I guess it's time to get my membership card to the Kotare Klub as there seem to be about a million of these in the WIP forum right now. 
 
Since finishing my Corsair diorama, which took months, I wanted a quick, straight forward build as something of a palate cleanser.  My son said he thought it'd be neat if I did a Spitfire, I had the Kotare Mk Ia (mid) kit in the stash, I've never build a British aircraft before, and so, fate was decided.
 
I departed from my usual MO of recreating an historical photograph and decided to just do a fictional, but feasible scene.  I've wanted to depict battle damage on an aircraft since I was kid, but never really had the skills or practice till now.  So, being that this kit has a low parts count and went together really nicely, I decided it would be a good platform to try my hand at damage.  I thinned the interior plastic walls with a low rpm rotary tool, carefully punched and pried holes in the weakened area, then painted and streaked the area to look the part.
 
Aside from the rigging wire (EZ-line), figures (Black Dog Resin, out of the box), and the base (el cheapo panel board), the kit is presented out of the box.  I even used the decals in lieu of my usual gig of cutting masks and painting.  This experience reminded me that I'm way out of practice working with large decals, but after a few minor scares, they turned out okay.
 
This is a Spitfire Mk Ia of 610 Squadron sometime in the summer of 1940 before it was damaged beyond repair that August.
 
"Bit of a rough go today, eh, chap?"




 















 














 

More transparency work of late, this time huge steps have been taken with the canopy. 
 
The kit part was always suspect in my opinion - it just looked too big, windscreen shape was totally off and the sides too vertical:
 

Something like this would really bug me, so I was thinking about making my own by either doing a master and vacforming it or alternatively doing the framing, much like the bomb aimer’s section, and dropping in the clear pieces using acetate.

Then I had an idea… why not get in touch with one of the greatest model makers of our time, Peter at Airscale?
 
And low and behold…
 
 
 
 
 
And a comparison with the kit part:
 

Here we now have a beautifully printed cockpit framing that will sit on top of a new vac canopy. As the pictures show I originally cut the fuselage to fit the kit part so some work is going to be needed here to get the fit right, but I’m delighted with Peter’s handy work!
 
I’m currently working in finishing off the gear bays so the cockpit will have to wait for a while, but for once I can’t wait to get started on the cockpit and it’s interior - which is usually a job I hate!
 
More when there’s more…
Tom

Nearly time for the Antwerp convention...
 
 

Yeah Russ,
 
Still have a poster of a blackbird and a truckload of drawnings of planes we were going to build. All of them available as kits now by the way. 
 
Swapping gifts from Holland to San Diego and back, unfortunately never had the chance too meet him in person.
 
Great guy and miss him.
 
Rick

Yeah Russ,
 
Still have a poster of a blackbird and a truckload of drawnings of planes we were going to build. All of them available as kits now by the way. 
 
Swapping gifts from Holland to San Diego and back, unfortunately never had the chance too meet him in person.
 
Great guy and miss him.
 
Rick

I can certainly relate to the storage issues @Out2gtcha!!!
 
I’ve done the rear turret fairing tonight which was a lot more straightforward than the front! I’ve once again utilised the HK Lancaster rear turret which will make things much simpler - all I needed to do was make a simple fairing from plastic card. 
 

 

 


More when there’s more…
 
Tom

only one word, brilliant!!

Greetings all,
 
Time for a long over-due update on this build. Various other projects have been getting attention and to be honest, sorting out the nose on this thing was very nearly a complete mojo-killer for the whole project and has taken a lot of time and effort. But, no pain... no gain.
 
ID Models provide some very poorly shaped transparencies for the nose turret (this was more suitable for a MkI Halifax!) and the bomb aimer's windows, which sadly wouldn't be an accurate representation of the real deal. Luckily, when I inherited Cees' stalled project he threw in lots of HK Lancaster parts for the turrets, including all the internals and transparencies. Starting with the nose turret, as this would be the most tricky, I had the problem of the Lancaster turret being a lot wider than the Stirling nose. Whilst the internals are identical, the perspex was a different design but, with some gentle persuasion and some mods to the nose area, I was confident it could be made to fit. Therefore, my first task was to gently sand away all the raised framing seen on the Lancaster turret as the Stirling was devoid of any framework:
 
  
I then set about polishing this back to clarity, using a nail buffing pad (don't spend a fortune on 'modelling' buffing pads and get the cheap ones from the make up section in a chemist or the like!) as well as some of Microscale's polishing compound:
 
 
Turret internals are assembled here and checked for clarity:
 
 
With the glazing good to go it was time to check now the Lancaster part would fit to the Stirling nose. The answer was: not very well....
 
 
I had suspected that the shape of the nose was a bit off - the section between the turret and the bomb aimer's panels is too blunt and flat on the kit, when in fact it should be rounded and follow the profile of the lower part of the turret. This was corrected by first making a plastic card shelf and then filling and shaping this area with Milliput:
 
 
Once the nose was sanded to the correct shape, I began making the upper faring that wraps around the turret. I use card for this to make a template, which is a far cheaper option than wasting plastic card:
 
 
At the same time, I also made the framing for the bomb aimer's window from Evergreen - the glazing will then be made and added at a later stage, by dropping them onto the frames:
 
 
With majority of the hard work done, I then gave the nose section a coat of black to ensure none of the white plastic would show through to the turret or nose interior, and added the home-made turret faring - this time from plastic card. This was then filled with more Milliput, and the whole nose area blended to the correct shape with regular checking of photos and plans:
 
 
To finish off, the lost panel lines were re-scribed and another coat of black was applied:
 
 
 
I think I've just about got away with it...
 
Next up will be the rear end... oh er Missus!
 
Tom

Right enough procrastination - I mean research - time to start... and after about 0.5 seconds, out-the-box went out-the-window.
 
First up is this sorry object, which purports to be the sidecar footwell planking:

 
and ought to look like this:

 
Using some lime wood strip and thin plasticard, I came up with something inbetween the two. The slats are closer together than they should be as I'm not sure how much room there will be in front of the seat base when I slip it in once the sidecar is assembled.  If there's more room than I have anticipated, I'll revisit, and open up the slats.

 
I still haven't decided what colour(s) this will end up, but while looking around I came upon this build by Michael Benolkin on Cybermodeler which I thought interesting, so it will either be an alt history post-war Breton military bike or a modern civvy restoration - either way, it'll need an "open" headlight. Hooray: the kit includes rims for both covered and uncovered lights. Boo: it doesn't include a reflector shell, so you're left with this:

 
which is not much help.  Fortunately, I recently bought a Kotare Spit which includes two spinners. These have a nice socket at the tip, which will do for a bulb holder:

 
After scraping out the mahoosive ejector marks (no insult to Kotare, no reason to be subtle inside the spinner) and some rounded off clear sprue (coloured to represent the selective yellow bulbs used in France until the '70s):

 
It's not wonderful, but behind the lens it won't look too bad on the shelf.
 
Small start, but that's all for now - next: engine and frame.
 
Sepp
 
 
 
 

Turned out some more printed parts today, the panel goes on the left side of the cockpit next to the pilot, the other parts are the oxygen regulators and the heater control boxes for the crews "Blue Bunny" suits..
Pat
 

Pilot Officer George Barclay wrote in his diary on 6 September 1940 whilst based at North Weald:
 
"We are having simply magnificent weather - I've never known anything like it - clear skies and brilliant sun."
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
George was a member of 249 Squadron, but they were flying 56 Squadron's Hurricanes!  249 had recently arrived at North Weald to relieve 56 Squadron, the latter going for "a rest" to Boscombe Down in Wiltshire where their task was defending Southampton and Portsmouth.  But their Hurricanes were fitted with VHF, deemed to be "foolproof" whereas 249's weren't.....so they swapped!  But as depicted above, Hurricane P3135 was being flown by F/O Richard Brooker, it was "his" Hurricane from new and he, presumably decided that with the squadron code of US-U the aeroplane warranted the name "Euthanasia":
 

 
But it almost killed him on 21 August when he crash landed it:
 

 
This is the PCM metal wing kit plus Fawcett nose section, "dog kennel" and lower wing centre section, and the AIMS spinner and prop, build thread here. The pilot is by Black Dog plus additions.
 
Hope you like it! 
 
Had to add this one….thanks Guy!
 

 
 

Anthony,
Its all your fault. Thanks to you I had to persevere and look what happened. I have ended up with not one,
but two UK Phantoms, a FG-1 and FGR-2. The horror!
But seriously, as that Collins chap used to say, I still think that dreary grey livery you plan to use is wrong.

Oh absolutely mate!  This build would be nothing without the help of a lot of other people.
I cant thank enough Kerry, @Derek B, @Gene K, @Greg W, @scjh, @Iain in the early days....... my goodness I am too scared to do a list because the help has been endless, even just the encouragement from people like yourself, @wunwinglow, @airscale, @chuck540z3, @Ali62, @Cees Broere, @Marcel111, @vvwse4, @Spooky56, @Starfighter, @AlbertD, @DonH, @Troy Molitor, @Tony T, @scvrobeson @Kagemusha, @LSP_Kevin, @mozart, @spyrosjzmichos,  @Barry, @GMK, @Chek, @jenshb, @Jet Passion, @Turecki, @Landrotten Highlander, @IainM, @jimbo59, @Rainer Hoffmann, @geedubelyer, @easixpedro, @D.B. Andrus, @MDuv,  @thierry laurent......honestly these are the names that just quickly pop into my head, but I know that as soon as I hit submit I am going to remember more, and I am going to feel terrible about that!  I honestly appreciate everyones help and support, as well as a bunch of guys over at Britmodeller!
 
And sadly, Mike @seiran01, it's all his fault!  He sold me the kit and conversion......and mate, I thought we were friends!
 
Sorry if I missed anyone out, I hate making lists like that because you invariably set yourself up to fall by forgetting someones valuable comment at just the right time, or part supplied to make my life a little easier.
 
THis hobby has changed for sure, but only for the good! 
Now I need to hurry up and finish this so you guys get a state of the art Brit Toom in 1/32!
 
Cheers Anthony