brian-f

Hi Simon, I can see what you are getting at with your photo, the little indent at the edge close to the side of the flap. I had been looking for something that made the part completly wrong, not something that can be changed in about 15 seconds with a small round file. I can alter a pattern for the next batch of castings to include a flap with the little indents for anyone that wants that version. I disagree with you about engines built to a low tolerence being more suseptable to heat/cold but perhaps it's best to agree to disagree on this. On the inlet/outlet proportion size, I was going from research done a few years ago when I was designing and building a cooling setup for an up-engined light aircraft which had overheating problems. The corrct proportions are pretty well impossible to get but act as a guide. The redesigned cowl worked very well as it happens. You may well be correct when you say that the common photos that show the flap without the little indents could be B1's that have been brought up to B2 standard but as these out numbered the aircraft built as a B2, I think that I have covered the most common ones with the resin part as it is. As I mentioned, I will include a second cowl flap with the next batch of castings and if anyone who has already bought the set wants the extra flap rather than putting the two little indents at the rear of the flap, I will post the new one to them. Every one happy now? Cheers, Brian.

Hi Simon, I completely agree that the whole cowl on the early B1 and B2 were quite different, but looking through the fairly large collection of photos that I gathered for this project, I cannot find a photo that has the oil cooler flap that looks as you describe it. Of the ones that I have, I can see three different oil cooler flap shapes, The first and least common one has rounded edges at each side and a convex curve on top. The second most common is the square cornered flat top one which is the one in the resin correction and the third one the looks very much like second but with a very siight convex curve on top of the tailing edge. The second and third ones are so close that a few seconds with a sanding stick would give the third. I do keep in mind that the oil cooler flap is very difficult to see in the majority of photos, so I'm not saying that you are wrong but that I don't have a photo showing what you describe. I understand what you are saying about over cooling the engine but do think that the reason for closing the radiator and oil cooler flaps would be far more likey be to stop buffeting and stop them being ripped off the aircraft than to stop over cooling. Although very important, I don't think the time that the aircraft would be in the dive would be likely to cause the tempertures to drop to a dangerous level after all these engines were built to a much lower tolerence than a modern aircraft engine let alone an F1 engine that is put together with a tolerance that would make watchmaker green with envy. The intake and outlet sizes on the real aircraft were rather out of balance to work well, the outlet should be considerably larger than the inlet to work efficiently, 1 to 3 I believe is the optimum proportion. That could explain why the flap was curved on top to increase the volume of air as the more powerfull engine was fitted to the B2. Quite a large number of B1's became B2's during servicing when all the mods were done, this may be another factor in the different oil cooler flap shapes. I have to disagree with you about the nose shape being reasonable, the oil cooler intake/exit and main radiator bath being obviously totally wrong but also the thrust line is way off and the exhaust position incorrect. The nose is too narrow and too short and lastly the diameter of the area behind the spinner back plate is about 2mm too small. Once these have been put right, you don't have a lot of the kit nose left. Again I'm not saying that you are incorrect with your comments about the shape of some oil cooler flaps but I feel quite happy with the resin nose shape espesially when compared to enlarged photo's Cheers, Brian.

Hi KingK,I can see on some photos what you mean but others show it as the resin part is, but when researching the nose I did find three quite different shapes to the top of the cowl. If the particular subject being built has the slight curve on top of the oil cooler it would be a very quick and simple matter to round the top edges and flap, the resin is thick enough in those areas. Cheers, Brian.

Thank's Kevin for sorting me out. Cheers, Brian.

Hi,<br />The missing letters in the email address above are "elsand"<br />Sorry about this, I have maybe done something wrong with my post.<br />Brian.

Hi Guys, I am finally able to tell you that I have the correction set completed and on sale at my web site. The set corrects the nose shape, the prop/spinner with optional blade types and the undercarriage spat shape. This has taken longer than expected to bring out but I hope you feel it is worth the time and effort. The instructions are available on my web site @ http://www.fawcettmodelsandpatterns.co.uk/ I realise that the set is so easy to use that the majority of LSP'ers won't need to use instructions but I put them up incase any beginers try the set. Thank's for looking. Brian.

Hi Peter, I've got the German guy about to swing the prop almost done, just his hands and a few little details to finish. I would think I should have him ready for moulding by the weekend. What do you think about some bits and bobs, petrol cans, oil cans, tools and toolboxes, that sort of thing? These have been something I have been thinking might be worth doing. Cheers, Brian.

Hi LSP'ers You may find the figures on my website of interest, these have been quietly in the works for some time. These are the first releases from what I hope will be a good range of WWI pilots and ground crew. Samples have been sent out for review, which should be on the web soon. Almost ready for production is a seated pilot and ground crewman swinging the prop for the WNW Fokker Eindecker family and also almost ready is a pair of crewmen to go in the FE-2. Late war seated and standing pilots to go with the Fokker DVII will be the next ones to be sculpted. Any ideas of what you would like to see produced for this range would be looked at seriously, so far the figures are what I wanted so I'm open to your ideas. Anyway, have a look here http://www.fawcettmodelsandpatterns.co.uk/ and see what you think. Cheers, Brian.

Hi Nick and He who shall not be named (just ordered your book from Hannants) To help sort the Lightning wheel types, I looked through a couple of my refs, AIRDOC "British Lightnings", Page 16 top shows the prototype and very early F1 style with 16 oval holes, Page 12 bottom left and page 13 bottom show XM215 F1A with recessed faces this style seems to be common on F1A's and early F3's, Page 20 bottom left shows F2A style dished face wheels, in this case on an F6 ! I have only seen these dished wheels on F2A's and on a very few F6's. Modellers Datafile (SAM) "The English Electric Lightning". Page 27 top F1 with recessed wheels, Page 32 F1A with recessed wheels, The drawing on page 66 labeled "main undercarriage assembly" shows prototype and early F1 16 hole wheel. Martin Bowman "Lightning Strikes" Page19,31 and 43 all show the recessed style wheel. To sum up, the 16 hole wheel can be seen on prototypes and F1's The recessed wheel can be seen on a few F1's more commonly on F1A's and F3's. The dished type wheel seems to first show up on F2A's and a small number of F6's The flat fronted wheel is the common F6 wheel but also is seen often on F3's It looks to me as if the wheel types were time dependent rather than which Mark, any airframe still in use in the later days would have the flat fronted wheel, but if you know different please let us know. The wheels in the Trumpeter F1A/F3 1/32 kit are poor representations of the flat fronted wheel and could be used for the F3 but not on the F1A. One way to spot the recessed wheel in a side view photo is to look for a ring around the ten bolts that hold the wheel on. On the recessed wheel these bolts sit on a raised ring. On the flat fronted wheel each bolt sits in its own recess, so does not show the ring. I hope this is of use, Cheers, Brian.

Ref the Mastercasters Lightning resin parts. The wheels will represent the early F3 style wheel with the recessed outer face, the F6 style with flat outer face will be the other wheel but you can see these fitted to F3's later in life. The F2A type with dished outer face my be made at later date if requested. The other item that could be of interest is a replacement nose ring, which has been exended back to mate up to the kit intake trunking, These parts will be available very soon, the hold up has been getting the brake details correct. Cheers, Brian. (patternmaker)

Hi David and Manu, I don't know when Bob will get the pictures up on the MDC site, but the conversion should be very easy to fit to the Tamiya A6M2. On the Tamiya kit, you just cut off the little fin fillet on the spine and fit the corrected fin, you have a little cutting on the rear fuselage to remove the tail cone but these cuts follow panel lines and then just glue in the rear fuselage plug and its ready for the rudder. I used dimentioned drawings from Japan which showed the corrected angles and lengths of the taller fin and rudder, I also enlarged photos as a double check. Cheers, Brian.

Hi David, I encountered this change in the fin/rudder when making the patterns for MDC's new conversion kit. The fin seems to start about 1.5mm further back and at a much steeper angle than the standard Zero, it is also taller and of course the rudder goes all the way to the bottom of the fuselage. I believe that the tail was the same on all grey and green/grey airframes, it certainly looked that way in the photos that I had available. I hope this is of use. Cheers, Brian.

Hi Guys, Just to put the record straight, the Extra 300 coming from MDC will be the low winged version. The high wing version that airshowmodels released may follow after the patterns have been breathed upon. Non of the moulds used to produce the airshowmodels kit are being used, but I feel justified in letting MDC use the modified patterns as I never got the agreed payment from airshowmodels for the Extra pattern work. Whenever I make patterns for a customer, the same rules apply, the patterns are my property until paid for. Yes it is a difficult business to be in! Cheers, Brian.

You could count me in for one. Brian.

Hi Guys, I can't help with a fix on the model but I think I know why it was built this way. On single rotor helis the torque from the rotor tries to rotate the fus in the opposite direction, The tail rotor prevents the fus from rotating but the rotational force is still being applied to the fus, so the only way it can move is sideways and as the fus is suspended from the rotorhead it swings to one side out of vertical. If you fly radio control helis you would know how the model always lifts off on one side first and tries to go sideways but once in the hover you tend not to notice anything strange, some modellers jack the u/c up on one side so that it will lift straight up. On the Mi-24 I bet that in the hover and slow flight the whole aircraft is hanging vertically. (Guess who's trying to learn how to fly r/c helis) I hope this is of interest, Brian.