Uilleann Posted March 9, 2015 Author Share Posted March 9, 2015 (edited) OK, a touch of progress. Sadly, not in the area I was hoping for. Because - SHINY! Yeah, got distracted by a couple other issues to work on in the nose gear well as I was waiting for the hex rod to arrive for the door uplocks. A few more bits and bobs in the well here. New hydraulic reservoir and small tension spring just forward of the drag brace actuator arm attachment to the roof of the well: Added some missing rivet detail to a small panel up front, missing from the kit and the Eduard update. (Needs a paint touch up in a bad way...but the bumps are there at least): And lastly, another bit of (relatively) large surgery for the nose gear itself. There is an upper hydraulic piston that the kit had molded on the direct center line of the strut. In reality, it is offset to the port side. The more I looked at the images, the more I wanted to correct this error. Particularly as it helps to make the part much more visible, and helps to busy up everything. So a few cuts with the Xacto later, and the part was free to be modified. A notch added to the rear, and a new mount made from 0.010" card. The mount was a complete guess really, as the only images I have show it only edge on. Mounted to the port edge of the upper strut, and carved to what I hope isn't an outlandish final shape. I am pleased with the final look of things with the new and improved offset: A touch of paint here and there, along with a few minor touch-ups, and I should be ready for work on the door uplocks very soon. Cheers B~ Edited February 21, 2017 by Uilleann allthumbs, A-10LOADER, F`s are my favs and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilleann Posted March 10, 2015 Author Share Posted March 10, 2015 Work continues on the uplock mechanisms. Here's a question for the class - how on earth do some of you make multiple tiny bits in styrene, and get multiple parts to come out exactly the same? Here's my current state: The 1:1 part is on the left there of course. I have the 0.060" hex rod for the cylinder there on the far end. And now I'm trying to work out how best to replicate those two side plates. My eye thinks they look something like the little poorly drawn image on the right there: Now, ideally, I need to replicate this part no fewer than 8 times. I was hoping I'd be able to find a way to do it simply from 0.010" card, but I don't think I can cut out even one of those parts precisely enough. Dimensions are roughly looking like something around 5mm long x 3mm high. I figure I can throw some stuff inside there easily enough to fill in the guts...but these side parts have me stumped. PE would be ideal, but for this build, (and being as I'm not cool in any way like Peter from airscale) it's not within my abilities. And I certainly don't want to get above my station. Any thoughts here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Amazing work !!.........Harv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richdlc Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 looks great re: multiple parts. I do one, then hold it on plastic sheet and score around it with a pin held in a hand drillbit (or with my dentist's pointy tool thing). As they are so thin, they will score very closely around the original part. Then cut out each copy and compare. tedious but do-able Uilleann 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 (edited) Uilleann, great work on the Stealth fighter. I really like the extra stuff you are putting into it and you are doing a good job. As far as the small part, maybe make a master from brass sheet left over from a photo etch sprue and then do as Rich suggested? Eric. Edited March 10, 2015 by ericg Uilleann 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilleann Posted March 10, 2015 Author Share Posted March 10, 2015 I'll have to look about and see what PE I have. I've not got any of the fancy jigs for folding and cutting the stuff sadly, just my own mark I eyeballs, and scissors, nippers, the Xacto blade, and a few small drill bits. I'm not sure if I am handy enough with brass to be accurate with the shape? The styrene route may be the only do-able option if I can't get the brass to play nice. Does anyone know if there are inexpensive DIY photo etch kits worth anything out there? I remember seeing a few over the years...but the reviews were sometimes less than happy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkis Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Uilleann - if it were me, and, in this case I'm glad it's not , I'd make a stack of blanks, I think you said you needed 8...double-sided tape them together and file away everything that is not part of your desired part...sounds like you might have an issue holding something that small to work on it, though...good luck! In my experience, you'd waste more time trying to get a good etch than if you just went the styrene route. clarkis Uilleann 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Have a look at my CAC sabre build and you will see that I made a template out of brass using drills and a needle file, it would be about the same size as the part you are doing. Eric Uilleann 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilleann Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 (edited) So I've spent a bit of time learning how to push some new buttons, and after a good deal of technical assistance and expert psychological counseling provided by Peter at airscale, I've decided it's worth the time to learn how to create my own PE. I know the plastic parts will never be able to hold the level of fidelity I'm hoping to achieve. And so, I've come up with something that looks like this: I believe I will add a few more cable/hydraulic line straps to finish out the main gear legs properly at the bottom of the sheet here, but this has the uplock mechanisms more or less done. I've replicated several of the parts as the PE is too thin to properly make the thickness required of the smaller parts of the latch mechanism. So those bits will be double and quadrupled in a bit of a PE sandwich. A bit more refinement to go yet, and then with the tiniest spot of luck, it's off to the etchers to create a little bit of brass colored magic! Edited February 21, 2017 by Uilleann A-10LOADER, F`s are my favs, Uncarina and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youngtiger1 Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Buddy, that's pretty cool. If this works out good for ya then I'm sure it will be a first set to many one off a kind details we will see here Uilleann 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Lifting the bar higher ! Great idea......Harv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Talk about pushing the bar up and notch or two. Just amazed and in awe. Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilleann Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 Heh - well, no joy yet. Apparently my Adobe skills aren't up to scratch, and I can't seem to get the file imported from photoshop so I can turn it into a high quality vector image. I've got the .psd and/or .pdf files saving ok, and they look great in PS. But when I try to import them and use the image trace function in Illustrator (this is what their tutorial said to do...maybe there is some other way to create full resolution vectors that I don't know of?) it's a disaster. Everything comes out muddied and much/most detail lost. Curse my own computer ineptitude! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loic Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Very fine detailling Uilleann 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Most excellent. Sincerely, Mark Uilleann 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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