Out2gtcha Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Great build as others have stated. Wonderful! Yeah, great scratch-building indeed! For the brass tubing, I used a hobby knife fitted with a curved blade (no idea of the blade #), and then roll the knife blade over the top of the tube repeatedly. You'll find that the blade with quite quickly begin to cut through the soft brass. It's hard to stop the blade wandering and keep the cut straight, but it's a very effective technique, especially with smaller diameter tubing. It did take me a while to perfect the technique though, and the first few times I tried it I was convinced I'd been conned and that it didn't work at all! Anyway, practise on some spare tubing and see how you find it. I can try to explain in more detail (or with photos) if you like. Another popular method is to use a cut-off disc in a motor tool, but I find that too messy (leaves too many burrs), and a bit of a hassle. Kev As for cutting brass tubing......................I have found 1 very effective, exceedingly accurate and CHEAP method that produces 100% (or as close as we will ever come to that) perfectly straight cut around the tube (and this goes for aluminum, copper and thin steal as well). Can pick up this little K & S cutter for under $5 USD HERE. works like a treat, and makes a virtually perfect cut on quite small tubing each and every time Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 As for cutting brass tubing......................I have found 1 very effective, exceedingly accurate and CHEAP method that produces 100% (or as close as we will ever come to that) perfectly straight cut around the tube (and this goes for aluminum, copper and thin steal as well). Can pick up this little K & S cutter for under $5 USD HERE. works like a treat, and makes a virtually perfect cut on quite small tubing each and every time Cheers, I've actually got a generic version of one of those Brian, but there's no way it closes far enough to cut the really small diameter tubing we tend to use. I think the smallest it will handle is 4mm or so, which is quite thick for our purposes. Are you saying that this K&S version solves that issue? If so, I'm down for one! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 I've actually got a generic version of one of those Brian, but there's no way it closes far enough to cut the really small diameter tubing we tend to use. I think the smallest it will handle is 4mm or so, which is quite thick for our purposes. Are you saying that this K&S version solves that issue? If so, I'm down for one! Kev Not sure what its limits are, but Ive cut pretty damn small tubing with mine. If its thats small you would think it would be almost impossible to roll the blade around it? Ive cut some pretty small tubing with that simple little K & S cutter.......there is barely any space at all between the cutting wheel and the back tubing support when its clamped together fully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Thanks Brian. I've just ordered one. Typically, the best local price is more than twice what you Yankees pay, and with postage, about 4x. The worst price I saw (without postage) was $17.95! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Cook Kev. Hope I didn't lead you astray! I honestly cant recal how small of tubing Ive cut, but hopefully it will cut as small as you need. On the bright side, it does do well on the bigger stuff (IE bigger for our scale not actual "big" tubing") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 (edited) Kev I've had mine for what seems like a million years and it always works like a charm. I bought it so long a go, I bet I paid under $10 for it but who can remember that ,many decades back? Peter Edited August 16, 2012 by Peterpools Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee White Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Not sure what its limits are, but Ive cut pretty damn small tubing with mine. If its thats small you would think it would be almost impossible to roll the blade around it? Ive cut some pretty small tubing with that simple little K & S cutter.......there is barely any space at all between the cutting wheel and the back tubing support when its clamped together fully. I've cut very thin tubing with that exact tool- much smaller than 4mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradG Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Looking good so far. I recently picked up the 1/48 Black Bird decal sheet which has an interpretation of this aircraft on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaffyMan Posted September 3, 2012 Author Share Posted September 3, 2012 Hi Kevin / Brian / Peter – Thanks for the info Brian. Thought there would be something out there, once again the great knowledge base here comes up trumps!!! Uhm Kevin that’s a bit pricy I found one in the UK for a fiver. Min order though so will wait till I need some other bits and order it all from them. Thanks for the help - Taff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaffyMan Posted September 3, 2012 Author Share Posted September 3, 2012 Looking good so far. I recently picked up the 1/48 Black Bird decal sheet which has an interpretation of this aircraft on it. Hi Brad - Yep saw these when I was looking around tinterweb. There seems to be lots of disputes and stuff flying around about how these planes looked in both paint and insignia – so I will make mine up as I want, the profile I am following seems to be more of a gate guardian but hey who knows! Happy Days - Taff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaffyMan Posted September 3, 2012 Author Share Posted September 3, 2012 Hi all – Haven’t been able to do much on this lately with the return of what ever virus has decided it likes me so much that it would came back for some more. Plus whatever the drugs where it all just knocked me for 6. Just about managed to muster enough energy to drag my arse out of bed get to work and back home again. So now feeling a bit better here is the small bits I have managed. I am trying to get all the bits together and sorted so I can close up the fuselage – so first up was to finish the front panels and fitting the exhausts. I used some foil for the heat reflector stuck the front panel in place then used the exhausts to hold everything in place. Just need to clean up the edges some and I will call these done! With the exhausts done this leaves the tail wheel to do before the milestone of shutting up the fuselage. So inspired by the work Peter has done with his I though I would have a go at scratching it – Gulp!!!!? I started by drawing some scaled outlines in Illustrator for a guide. From these drawings I cut some circles out of sheet and stuck these together this got rubbed to shape for the wheel. Also made up the forks and started to cut out the next bit. This was two small bits of sheet stuck together with some Spraymount – so fingers crossed only need to cut and shape once. Okay touch of OSD decided I would have another go at the wheel as thought the first one was still a bit balloon and couldn’t get the tread to work. So this time after some tea and biscuits and a think about it I cut several smaller circles. Once all sandwiched together and rubbed to shape this time with the smaller circles I got some tread! Also stuck the forks together – can’t get them to sit square but don’t want to force them so will hope when they are stuck to the axel this will hold them in line. As you can see in the pic have started to stick together the next bit with some luck and a lot of delicate rubbing and shaping should look okay! Thanks for looking in any pointers / suggestions always welcome Happy Modelling till next time - Taff Out2gtcha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaffyMan Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 Hi Folks – Using up some hols plus a day of for my birthday cool. So managed to get some plastic time in! (Whilst the Mrs’s was at work ). My aim is to try and get the fuselage sealed up to push this one along! This meant reworking the tail wheel and well – this is just hinted at by the kit parts – So I took my measurements and some moulds with blue-tack which allowed me to draw up some plans in Illustrator. I have a profiler on order so I hope this will be easyer and more accurate in future! So after many hours cutting, fiddling and a bit more rubbing plus three attempts at gently rubbing the wheel recess……. You know how it goes, just rub it a bit more and oh watch as it rips the foil and lets do it all again and again!!!!! ….. I also bashed some spam can metal around a knife handle to give me the curve. I then draw around the kit tail wheel door and cut this shape out, finishing of with a fine needle file. Then cut two thin piece of plastic sheet slightly smaller and supper glued these on to the insides. But here are my homemade bits with the kit parts. Hope you think there is an improvement? A selection of pictures doing a dry fit – looks okay to me. Quite like my beer can hinges – the content was quite tasty aswell! Next dry fit with the bottom of the wheel in then the forks in place Side view – need to clean up the glue I was happy with the fit so glued and painted everything – Then Doh! Noticed the connector rods to the door where to far forward and didn’t line up – think I got my front and back mixed up! Okay I will live with that. But I then put a pin wash of oil paint mixed with Turpentine on, to do some weathering. This reacted with the varnish I had put on and went all crazed on me. Did may best at cleaning this up and what was left I will put down to use and grime! Okay up against the picture limit so back in a mo. Taff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaffyMan Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 Okay back Next step to move this puppy on to the close up is to put the cockpit in. This needed a bit of a rub and tweak to get it to fit, but I was expecting that. Okay some bits a bit to big for what is there in real life but taking that in account I am quite pleased with my first attempt at a scratch build cockpit. What do you think? Okay with all these bits in place it is time to go for the big close up Yeah I like this stage you seem to work for ages and all of a sudden you have a bit that looks like a plane!! Or part of it! Whilst the fuselage was setting I moved my attention to the wings. First job was to open up the cartridge ejector ports. This was a real pain as the plastic is very thick but managed to stick a bit of wet and dry to a thin bit of tin to help tidy it up. Moving onto the under wing lights. For this I traced off the positioning from the plans. Then using a 8mm wood drill took the surface down about a mm. I then used a 6mm drill to go all the way through. I had some nice stiff clear plastic from some packaging using a guide and the point on a compass I carefully cut out two discs. Then using the compass with two points in I cut two hoops out of thin plastic sheet. I pushed some dimples onto the other side to represent screw heads. This all got carefully stuck in place using some clear fix. I cut out two 10mm discs of thick tea candle foil. These where shaped into dish shapes and given a spry over of Tamiya white primer. For the signal lights I used a leather hole punch to stamp out two discs of the thick foil, which again got shaped into three dishes. I then used some small punched plastic for the bulbs and lastly using the leather punch, punched out discs from red, green and yellow acetate. This was all stuck together with some clear fix. After they where set I used a two part super glue mix so that I could check the alignment before it became permanent. Okay wow I did do a bit last week so back in a mo with some more Taff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaffyMan Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 Okay back with the last bit for now - FEW The fuselage was left over night to set. So after removing the rubber bands and masking tape I started to make up the platform that sits at the back of the cockpit, I once again draw this up in Illustrator to give me a pattern to work from, The nice thing about this kit is the wing area under the fuselage is even big enough to get my fat sausage fingers into. This allowed me to push this bit up from underneath and hold it in place whilst the glue and strips I used to hold it set. Whilst this was setting I carefully rubbed down a bit of thick tin foil onto the DryTack double sided. I then cut out my paper template and tacked this in place on the back of the tin foil with SprayMount. I just gently pushed through for the bolt heads and cut the shape out using a scalpel. Then pealed the backing off and stuck it in place. Finally I gave it a rub down to make sure it gives a good bond. And final bit for this update I managed to paint up and finish the tail wheel. The bits of tube on the ends of the forks broke of whilst doing this hence the glue mess at the end as I stuck them back on. But all in I am quite pleased with the overall effect and think it’s a country mile from the kit bits. Plus it all adds to the skill base for future builds. Any way hope you enjoyed the update. Quite a big one and I seemed to get quite a bit done over the last week, oh the pleasure of having not to work! Till next time enjoy - any coments crits or pointers always welcome Happy Days - Taff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 Super duper! Great work, Taff. Love that! Sincerely, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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