Foiled HKM B-25J Strafer - 345th BG Air Apaches - Lady LiL

[alaninaustria]

My goodness.... those are the nicest set of radials I have ever seen.... excellent job mate!

Cheers

Alan

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks for all the continued support and positive comments guys........its sometimes the only thing that keeps me posting when Ive been getting mottled down in "engine land".

 

Leo, I think you would probably be ok, especially if you painted the erroneous set of push rods a flat black to hide them even further. Take a look at my update below, and the pics of the engine and how visible you think they are, and it might help you determine further if you want to add or cut them off.

 

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Update time!

 

These power plants are killin me. I thought making, painting and weathering the valve covers and push rods was bad....................I hadnt seen anything till I got to the exhaust stacks and cowl panel doors!!!

 

Id say if I had to give any advise, it would be:

 

1. Number your cowl doors for later reference or leave them on the trees. They each have a specific spot and need to be placed as such.

 

2. Leave your exhaust stacks on the numbered sprue trees till installation on the power egg.

 

3. If your going to use the Eduard PE internal cowl door covers (they DO show through the front opening and the OOB parts are loaded with IP marks) make sure you take time to line each one up with the exhaust stacks (which also show from the rear a bit too) and know that your going to have some panel lines to fill/sand.

 

 

Since the cowl opening has been bothering me a bit, I went down the road a bit and took a piece of dowel I bought at the local hardware store, and had him turn this on a computer lathe, till it was perfectly symmetrical and round. I forget the exact circumference/diameter dimensions I used for him on this –

 

 

 

As you can see, the OOB cowl ring does NOT fit through it what so ever………but not by much –

 

 

I had the guy make two of these symmetrical dowels one for a course grit sand paper and one for a smoother one. I wrapped pieces of each on with a bit O self adhesive spray and started honing the cowl openings till the dowel just passed through each –

 

 

 

Next I sanded and smoothed the lip back into the cowl itself, so it made a realistic smooth transition. I then glued these forward cowl rings to the engine framing and cowl flaps, and glued the PE inner cowl panels to the OOB parts and painted/weathered them with Alclad Airframe Aluminum and flory models wash respectively –

 

 

 

THEN came the unenviable task of first assembling the exhaust stacks on each engine, followed by the cowl panels. This was NOT a fun process to me, but had to be done……if its worth doing its worth doing right……….……if its worth doing its worth doing right……….……if its worth doing its worth doing right……….……if its worth doing its worth doing right……….I just had to keep saying it to myself.

 

Per HKs directions I managed to get all 46 individually numbered and configured exhaust stacks on –

 

 

 

Any yes, kitties, they will show from behind slightly with the open cowl flaps, so as much of a PITA as it is…….put em on is my advise –

 

 

 

MORE…………………………….

 

[Out2gtcha]

Next came the even LESS fun task of installing the 14 cowl panel access doors. Because of the way the Edard PE stuff is, I knew these would make the access doors a bit harder to fit, (and I knew this would be the case going in) but the OOB parts were so full of IP marks I got lazy and added the PE parts instead of filling the OOB parts. These inside panels DO show from the front a bit, especially with my wider cowl openings.

 

So on I went…………

 

It took a few hrs but I got them all knocked out, and as expected had quite a few panel lines between each door to fill and re-scribe. I have NOT done any of that yet, and you can still see the awful alignment of some of the doors. I did it this way, because I wanted the forward panel gap between the access doors and the forward cowl ring to be nice and tight, so I only had to deal with filling and sanding a gap in 1 area of the both power eggs. I think these panels would have fit a lot better if the PE parts were not installed on the inside, but in the end, they did fit. I will fill, sand and re-scribe the bad gaps later –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These things are in fact two smaller but very complex little kits into themselves. In the end they also are quite heavy little chunks too –

 

 

 

I have not figured out how Im going to do the cowl flap push rods yet, but you can see with the flap/intake plate on, that the exhaust stacks and inner panels are visible. Not as good in pics as IRL but you can def see them –

 

 

Ok so now here is the proof in the pudding………or however that expression goes…

To some…….maybe even most, the difference between the OOB cowl openings the mine are imperceptible………..but to me, there is a WOLRD of difference with them opened up literally just a few mm.

 

You can see here, the OOB part along side my modified part –

 

 

For a better and more accurate comparison look at my part………..

 

Then look at my part with the OOB cowl ring over it for comparison………

 

 

Then the Real deal...........

 

 

Not tooting my own horn too loudly, but from my view the results speak for themselves.

Now you can get an idea of how much more closed off and in-turned the HK opening is.

 

 

That’s all for now ladies…………….cant hack any more of the engine work. Ill be sanding and filling the panel gaps later…………….I’m off to get a drink and look at Taffs Sea Fury in RFI!

 

 

Cheers all!

[Guest]

Brian, my friend, you ROCK, dude. Look real to me !..............Harv

[shepard]

nice Brian.. really inspires me up.....

[DaneBramage]

Outstanding as usual. You ever thought of politics as in running for office?

[PhilB]

AND.............................................................................Relax......................

Your orifice looks just the right size now.

Carry on.

 

[JRutman]

Yes,I can see the difference very much. Nice job on the opening mod and course,those little gems that we call engines.

J

[Phartycr0c]

Superb stuff Brian as usual.

 

That's some great work and come to think of it some real world practice for when the HK B17 lands on your desk!

[Guest Peterpools]

Brian

OMG ...Way to go. Just can't believe the incredible detail and fidelity of the assemblies. Brilliant work .

Keep 'em coming

:popcorn:

[LSP_Ron]

Hi Brian,

 

Looking great. I do agree with your assessment and fix of the cowl opening. It truly does look much better. My kit is in a holding pattern, I need a break an build a smaller project.

 

Ron

[TaffyMan]

Hi Brian – That’s some of the neatest engines I’ve seen I'm just love this! Keep um coming.

 

Its amazing what you can do with some sticks and sand paper – very nice solution.

 

So engines done! does this mean its time to get the foil out Or do we have to wait a bit longer?

 

Happy days - Taff

[shaky962]

Outstanding work!!!!!!!

[Poopstack69]

It looks soooooo gooooooood...

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks all............kind words are appreciated. Tornado sirens just got done going off here as I was finishing up in the man cave............haha............guess it was a big deal for a min but I guess I missed it all.

 

In case I hadnt mentioned it up to this point in this thread, thanks again to Ken Laurence @ PCM and HKM for supplying this model for a build review that will come out once complete.

 

 

I did get a significant feeling of completion and progress after this weekends work. It doesn't show that much in pics but I got a lot of loose ends wrapped up, and things I was not sure on figured out so I can move on.

 

I took a break on the power eggs, and looked over the new P-61 wheels I bought to repace the mains I messed up. Well blah..........I decided to fix the Eduard/Brassin mains and nose I started earlier. It was just too much work to modify the B-25 hubs to go in the P-61 wheels I think the Eduard ones turned out Ok, but there are just some things you have to live with.

 

I also got the forward gun mounting system figured out (Milliput) and got the nose glued on, and 95% of the re-scribing and re-riveting done.

 

I also got the horizontal stab, and vertical stabs glued on. The elevators and rudders here are just resting in position -

 

 

 

Just for S's and G's, I put things together to see where I sat with the big girl before I made a mess and glued on the nose permanently..................with mah boy Sam in the background, nervously watching the impending weather
-

 

 

 

 

 

The wheels were not 100% done in these close-ups, as I stilll had quite a bit O mud wash to wipe off, and still needed to paint the brake hose, which I did both later. I also at this point have not taken the silver painted masking tape off of the 3 Oleo struts either. Ill leave the tape on to protect the highly polished surface until final assembly. -

 

 

 

Both look much better even still since I knocked off little of the mud, and detailed the brake hose. I also have to admit, I like them MUCH better than OOB, as IMHO Brassin made them (especially the nose wheel) way too wieghted.

 

Finally I mixed up some JB Weld, and mounted the nose, along with all 6.something ounces of lead in it permanently to the fuselage -

 

 

Ill let this cure off, and start sanding, as the lead in the bottom of the nose made it slightly wider after curing, and therefore created a slight step to deal with.

 

Chees til next time lads,

Edited May 27, 2013 by Out2gtcha