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HK B-17...C 5/4 sweating the metal

brahman104

By brahman104
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  • 3 months later...
brahman104

brahman104

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On 10/31/2023 at 11:16 AM, aircommando130 said:

Such a great job on the B-17! I have an F model to build myself.

I have been to Townsville several times when I was stationed at 

Kadena AB, Okinawa in the MC-130. You are right...lots of sharks

and they had bins with vinegar for jelly fish stings. The scenery

was pretty good to look at and even better over on Magnetic Island.

I miss my Castlemains XXXX.....:rolleyes:

 

Cheers...Ron

 

Thanks Ron! Yep, cyclones and all it's not a bad part of the world to live :) 

 

On 10/31/2023 at 11:44 AM, JayW said:

Wow Craig!!!!  Now get to work on that Fort!

 

Yes Sir!!!! :D

 

On 10/31/2023 at 3:19 PM, KiwiZac said:

What a place, bravo!!

 

Thanks Zac! Just a tad warmer than the Manawatu ;) 

 

On 10/31/2023 at 7:13 PM, tomprobert said:

Fantastic, Craig - a workspace I can only dream of! I'm still residing on the kitchen table - when her indoors allows me to!

 

Good to see you settling in and the Fort looks as good as ever - we'll be waiting patently for an update when you get back to it. No pressure..!

 

All the best,

Tom

 

Thanks Tom! If you can still turn out the masterpieces you do on a kitchen table, then I have absolutely no excuse!!!!

 

On 11/1/2023 at 12:28 AM, Jim Barry said:

So good to see the new bench! Enjoy your time there! 

 

Thanks Jim! Yep definitely enjoying the new space!

 

Well the Fort has officially gone through her second Category 3 Cyclone and survived :) (first one was in a shipping container on a boat bobbing around just off NZ). A couple of weeks ago, Townsville was subjected to a fairly rare one (not sure that's true any more these days!), but it was glad to see the house (which is the best part of 90-100 years old) weathered the storm easily. The only casualties being a few broken palm fronds! 

 

The bench setup has advanced enough for my to finally resume work on the B-17. After such a long break I'd almost forgotten the process of making the panels (and I had to find and organise all my tools in the first place!) but I was able to make some very slow progress.

 

Firstly though, I thought I'd show you some of my custom tool holders I made using my table saw and laser cutter. A fun exercise, but in the heat of a North Queensland summer, the laser was struggling a little bit ;) 

 

 

2/10

 

2/10

 

2/10

 

The hardest part is trying to work out what tools you want where...... sometimes you only figure it out by doing, but I'm pretty happy with the overall result. I'll add to them in time with some drawers, but the B-17 was calling......

 

As I said, the hardest thing was trying to work out where I as at and how to do the panels again. Annoyingly, a lot of my reference photos for the underside of the wing had disappeared off my iPad (apple does weird things sometimes!) but I started with the flap first as it was at the rear most part of the wing. At this point, this was the single biggest piece of skinning on the whole project, and I was worried that I'd stuff up the alignment when applying it, but it all worked out quite well. 

 

2/10

 

Once I got back in the groove it was the next panel, rear of the spar. A lot of access panels which took a long time to cut out. I have no idea how Peter (Airscale) does it so quickly!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

2/10

 

The flap set a record as the biggest panel on the plane, and then this one knocked it out of the park!!!! I think it took me about 5 hours to do. So many rivets, so many more to come!!!! Just remember each rivet is done 3 times too.......

 

At last my friends, she is back where she belongs..... on the bench!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

 

 

 

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  • brahman104 changed the title to HK B-17...C 11/2 progress resumes!
patricksparks

patricksparks

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14 hours ago, brahman104 said:

 

Thanks Ron! Yep, cyclones and all it's not a bad part of the world to live :) 

 

 

Yes Sir!!!! :D

 

 

Thanks Zac! Just a tad warmer than the Manawatu ;) 

 

 

Thanks Tom! If you can still turn out the masterpieces you do on a kitchen table, then I have absolutely no excuse!!!!

 

 

Thanks Jim! Yep definitely enjoying the new space!

 

Well the Fort has officially gone through her second Category 3 Cyclone and survived :) (first one was in a shipping container on a boat bobbing around just off NZ). A couple of weeks ago, Townsville was subjected to a fairly rare one (not sure that's true any more these days!), but it was glad to see the house (which is the best part of 90-100 years old) weathered the storm easily. The only casualties being a few broken palm fronds! 

 

The bench setup has advanced enough for my to finally resume work on the B-17. After such a long break I'd almost forgotten the process of making the panels (and I had to find and organise all my tools in the first place!) but I was able to make some very slow progress.

 

Firstly though, I thought I'd show you some of my custom tool holders I made using my table saw and laser cutter. A fun exercise, but in the heat of a North Queensland summer, the laser was struggling a little bit ;) 

 

 

2/10

 

2/10

 

2/10

 

The hardest part is trying to work out what tools you want where...... sometimes you only figure it out by doing, but I'm pretty happy with the overall result. I'll add to them in time with some drawers, but the B-17 was calling......

 

As I said, the hardest thing was trying to work out where I as at and how to do the panels again. Annoyingly, a lot of my reference photos for the underside of the wing had disappeared off my iPad (apple does weird things sometimes!) but I started with the flap first as it was at the rear most part of the wing. At this point, this was the single biggest piece of skinning on the whole project, and I was worried that I'd stuff up the alignment when applying it, but it all worked out quite well. 

 

2/10

 

Once I got back in the groove it was the next panel, rear of the spar. A lot of access panels which took a long time to cut out. I have no idea how Peter (Airscale) does it so quickly!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

2/10

 

The flap set a record as the biggest panel on the plane, and then this one knocked it out of the park!!!! I think it took me about 5 hours to do. So many rivets, so many more to come!!!! Just remember each rivet is done 3 times too.......

 

At last my friends, she is back where she belongs..... on the bench!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

 

 

 

Good to see it back on the burner !!!

Pat

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  • 2 weeks later...
brahman104

brahman104

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On 2/11/2024 at 8:31 AM, LSP_Kevin said:

Awesome return to the fray, Craig!

 

Kev

 

Thanks Kev!

 

On 2/11/2024 at 9:12 AM, JayW said:

Oh boy Craig - gettin' out the popcorn.

 

I hope you've plenty of popcorn Jay ;) 

 

On 2/11/2024 at 9:14 AM, scvrobeson said:

I'm happy to see you back to work on this Craig! Glad to see that the bench is up and running, and that you got through a cyclone safe.

 

 

 

Matt 

 

Thanks Matt! It's good to be back at it.

 

On 2/11/2024 at 10:28 PM, patricksparks said:

Good to see it back on the burner !!!

Pat

 

Thanks Pat! Would love to get this one over the line this year...... we'll see how we go!

 

On 2/14/2024 at 7:43 PM, tomprobert said:

It’s great to see you resume on this fabulous project, Craig. And the skins look superb!

 

Thanks very much Tom! Always appreciate you stopping by! :) 

 

Well there's little else to do but settle in to the long hard slog that is skinning the wings. And boy oh boy do the undersides have a lot of rivets!!!!

 

This next effort focuses on the inboard fuel tank access panel, with a blistered fairing for the fuel boost pump. Many a conversation with my late friend Terry (TKB), centred around the presence (or absence) of boost pump fairings for the outboard cells, such as on the E model and later. After scouring many photos we concluded that there wasn't, and so the outer one has been deleted. 

 

I used the spare kit I have to shape the blister....

 

24/2

 

The panel has a complex rivet pattern on the border, so I decided to make the panel up from 3 separate pieces. Disregard the initial rivetting around the outside.....:whistle:

 

24/2

 

And finally the panel is in place.....

 

24/2

 

Not entirely terrible, although I think there is a hinge on the front of the blister I'll have to add, and there may be a little drain hole as well..... 

Sooooo many rivets!!!!!

 

Onto the outboard tank access panels next, and they have their own challenges...... :) Thanks as always for looking in!

 

Craig

 

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  • 1 month later...
brahman104

brahman104

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Thanks Matt! Yep, it's definitely an acquired skill and as long as you're not in a hurry, it's a pretty good way to go. 

 

Been absent for a while with the addition of a new puppy, just to add more complexity and less free time into our lives :o.

 

5/4/1

 

He's a 7 month old German short-haired pointer and if he knows what's good for him, he'll stay away from the bench....... He's actually pretty good, and spends approximately 90% of his day upside-down asleep. :D

 

That being said, I finally got a bit more time on the B-17 this evening. The "stainless steel" material I'd used around the turbos had always bothered me...... It was a crafting material that was a kind of malleable plastic, and just didn't look right. I had to do something about it, but what? I thought about experimenting with trying to darken some litho sheet. I vaguely remember something about boiling aluminium foil with egg shells, but that seemed like a pretty inconsistent approach. I know the real panels were stainless steel to withstand the heat, but actual stainless is an incredibly hard material to work with (nowhere near as friendly as litho and not to mention can't be annealed to make it softer for compound curves), so what to do? :hmmm:

 

I eventually came across some very thin stainless steel sheet (read heavy "foil") from Hobby Tools Australia https://www.hobbytools.com.au/k-s-stainless-steel-foil-roll-300mm-x-760mm-x-05mm/ and decided to give it a go. When I got it the first thing that was readily apparent is that it couldn't be scored and snapped like litho, so I then had to some some jeweller's shears in order to cut it. Cutting very small diameter inside curves is an absolute nightmare (like around the back end of the turbos, but can be achieved with great care. 

 

To remind you of what I had:

16/7

Wow it really does look horrible doesn't it?

 

Not even knowing if contact cement was going to be enough to hold each piece against the slight compound curves, I did what I always do, threw caution to the wind and jumped straight in..... Initial tests with a rivet wheel showed the the stainless actually took and held rivet detail exceptionally well, and despite my fears, there was actually just enough "flex" to coax the panels I needed into shape. Thankfully the contact cement worked perfectly. 

 

And so after a few hours, I actually had it looking much, much, more B-17 like :) 

 

4/5

 

The photos don't really do it justice, but the colour change is noticeable, as is the sharpness of the rivets as opposed to the much softer litho plate..... Can't say I'd want to do a cowling in it, but for the (mostly) flattish panels around the turbos, I am super happy!

 

4/5

 

4/5

 

4/5

 

Not too bad at all! And it was even malleable/thin enough to carefully fold over the lip and into the exhaust/supercharger recesses with a bit of gentle tapping from a hammer. 

 

Compare the inboard nacelle to the outboard...... absolute chalk and cheese!

4/5

 

It was of course, only after I stuck the panels down it occured to me that I could have got some lovely heat staining by using the blow torch, but there's no way I'm pulling those new panels off to try it!

 

The good news is that I feel confident enough with it now to try and do the area just aft of the firewalls with it too. Definitely much more work than litho, but well and truely worth it!

 

Cheers, 

 

Craig 

 

 

 

 

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  • brahman104 changed the title to HK B-17...C 5/4 sweating the metal
JayW

JayW

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Posted

Wonderful engine nacelles Craig!  And with a new material!  The contrast looks good - wish I had done something like that on the Mustang engine cowl behind the exhausts, rather than painting it.  You have to be very pleased that the steel worked for you - another worry addressed.  I have so many worries on my own project I sometimes wonder why I am doing it!

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Archimedes

Archimedes

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This is phenomenal work Craig!

 

Congratulations on the new pup too! He looks great also!

 

I admire your tenacity in keeping going with this build and the methods you are employing to get it completed. I particularly like that you are willing to experiment with different materials. Duly noted on the steel plate...

 

Thanks once again!

 

Kind regards,

Paul

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