tomprobert Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 G'day Tom, as much as I'd absolutely love to, Kev is indeed correct. Unfortunately we are possibly the furtherest geographical point away from Telford that you can be. Having said that, one year I do want to get there! Craig Ah... my bad! I suppose a day on a plane with limited room for hand luggage also adds to the problem... brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted October 11, 2015 Author Share Posted October 11, 2015 Hi Craig TBH it will be easier just to check this thread out, which is where I found the vast majority of my pics. You'll have to trawl through quite a few pages, but once you find the images it will be well worth it - in fact you could spend hours looking through this... http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=40406 Cheers Rich, actually I have stumbled across this one a while ago and am duly stealing photos for reference. There's some really good ones there. Wow, this is coming along Craig, just love your scratch work. Regards Richard Hi Richard! It's about to get a whole heap more interesting (and non-ferrous ) ). How's the Typhoon coming along? IIRC, Gimp or Inkscape are free vector drawings softwares you can download for drawing your frames before trying to photetch them, Craig. There must be more. I found one of the easiest to learn was EazyDraw (but it is not free), and Qcad-Cam (not really free either) seems quite powerful, but I have not yet tried to use it. all of these are working on my Mac (besides others such Illustrator, etc ...) Hubert. Hi Hubert, I just downloaded Inkscape yesterday but I'm yet to play with it. Does look like it will do enough for what I want it for so hopefully I can get my head around it and get some artwork made up! Cheers mate Craig Brilliant and ingenious. Just a beautiful build to follow and enjoy. Keep 'em coming Peter Thank you Peter! Always a pleasure to have you looking in I've had some really good advice from a lot of guys with suggestions of how to tackle the bomb bay as being my usual self, I don't think about it ahead of time, I usually just wait for a revelation to hit me (usually in the middle of doing something completely unrelated to modelling!) Terry had a good point in that to ensure the integrity of the bomb bay and to facilitate installation and removal now the plastic bulkhead at station #4 is permanently installed, I decided to remove all the detail on it and make a "pseudo" one which could slide in over the top. Not strictly speaking accurate but should look the goods from the outside and give me a nice strong frame to hang everything else off. #5 frame, although I haven't installed it yet will be the same, but I probably won't end up using the plastic one. We shall see.... So here's what it looked like with the detail removed and filled. I had to build up a new "door" at the back to protect the cockpit from the mass of sanding dust I was about to create Then using the RTV mould cross section I made a template of the area. I also reduced slightly the overall dimensions so I could include an internal wall which would contain the bay as a fully enclosed piece. Once I had the template and a fairly good idea of where the main structural beams would go, I got to cutting out some copies in brass. Luckily, past tense Craig had looked after future tense Craig and brought a whole heap of .0125 shim stock some time ago, so I shouldn't run out. Hopefully. The main beams were made from 1/16" square section which I cut to shape and began to solder piece by piece to the larger frame. The bottom piece being circular was interesting to form. I thought I would be clever and made a jig out of a piece of basswood. The was cool, except as I tried to form it around, it tended to roll over on itself and not sit flat. After a while, the dim light in my head came on and I realised that I should probably anneal it as it had work hardened. Surprise, surprise, what a difference! Then I had the fun of trying to attach it while making sure it didn't distort. The rest were pretty straight forward. It did take quite a while to get the heat into such a large part, but in the end I triumphed.... Still has a way to go and many, many details to be added, but it's a start! The main members will be pretty straight forward I think. Where the photo etching is going to have to play is the very fine stringers and formers that support the bay walls. I can't see any other way around it other than etching them. The big bonus I see is that if I do it right, then they should all just slot in together and be easy to solder. Of course if I stuff it, it will be a nightmare!!!! Cheers, Craig Derek B, Rdrunner, Hubert Boillot and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Excellent work, Craig! Truly sensational stuff. Kev brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 I love seeing this kind of work. So far out of my skill level, really aspirational stuff. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Boillot Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 (edited) After Peter and Richard, our two resident "brass-smiths", another great illustration of the benefits of using brass and mastering soldering. Well done Craig ! Btw, maybe you can dispense with PE on "simple" shapes like this one, although it is a good technique to learn and have in one's repertoire. Hubert Edited October 11, 2015 by MostlyRacers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Nice capture and detailing. Sincerely, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRutman Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Uhhh.....wow? J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Uhhh.....wow? J Pretty much says it! Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf Buddee Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Uhhh.....wow? J Pretty much says it! Barry Yup, my sentiments exactly................ Cheers, Wolf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee White Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Ah... my bad! I suppose a day on a plane with limited room for hand luggage also adds to the problem... Maybe Barry can hook him up with a borrowed G650........... Radders and brahman104 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Craig, Beautiful! You sure have a knack for turning ideas in your head into real pieces ---- and quickly! Terry brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Craig, Just re-reading some past posts. You had to travel 10,500mi to see the Sally B and Mary Alice, right? Next time travel East ---9400mi will get you to Dayton, Ohio (USAF Museum) and the Swoose, Memphis Belle and Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby! Hell, plan it for a stop over in Honolulu and throw in the Swamp Ghost! While Chicago has no dedicated air museum (we do have a BoB Spitfire and a Ju-87R Stuka in the Museum of Science and Industry --- unfortunately no CAC Boomerang, Wirraway or CA-27 Sabre!) there are quite a few B-17s nearby --- nearby meaning hundreds of miles vs thousands. Swoose (D), Memphis Belle (F) and Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby (G): 232mi away (USAF Museum) My Gal Sal (E); originally 250mi away, now 836mi (WWII Museum) Aluminum Overcast (G): 156mi away (EAA Museum) Yankee Lady(G): 214mi away (Yankee Air Museum) Miss Liberty Belle (G); originally 112mi away (Grissom AFB); now 662mi away (Robbins AFB) Desert Rat (E): 56mi away (no typo --- 56mi; this is a privately owned restoration project, but a very impressive one!) Usually at least one Fort flys into the Chicago area every summer --- been through Nine-O-Nine and Sentimental Journey. Must admit these distances are really a "walk around the block" compared to your situstion --- I need to get my retired butt in gear and start some driving! Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Hahaha! Yes the is quite true. Really a matter of being efficient isn't it Terry? I really do want to get back over state side, and see if I could score a restoration tour to see the swoose.... although I'd like to think by that time I'd have a fair chunk of it done and seeing it would probably only serve to highlight all this bits I'd got wrong But yes you are correct, there's certainly more B-17's per capita in the states than anywhere else so It would be definitely worth it! Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 I love seeing this kind of work. So far out of my skill level, really aspirational stuff. Jim So not! Anyone can use a soldering iron.... the avionics dudes at work prove that every day...... hahaha, cheers Jim! After Peter and Richard, our two resident "brass-smiths", another great illustration of the benefits of using brass and mastering soldering. Well done Craig ! Btw, maybe you can dispense with PE on "simple" shapes like this one, although it is a good technique to learn and have in one's repertoire. Hubert Thanks Hubert, very true. The main formers are like most things made up of pretty simple shapes so while they look complex, once they're broken down it's pretty straight forward. Where it gets tricky, is the really fine stingers in between, that I can't cut out of either brass of plastic due to the distortion. I can build up more of the structure in the mean time, even if it takes me a while to get some results with inkscape. Nice capture and detailing. Sincerely, Mark Thank you kindly Mark Uhhh.....wow? J Cheers J! thanks for looking in! Pretty much says it! Barry hahaha, well it's trial and lots of error, but I think it's going somewhere Yup, my sentiments exactly................ Cheers, Wolf Thanks Wolf! One day I might be a hundredth of the modeller you are Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted October 14, 2015 Author Share Posted October 14, 2015 (edited) Given the success of the weekend I got excited and found more perfectly good brass to destroy. I decided to attack the longitudinal truss beams that form the outside of the bay, so that when I build the rear bulkhead, I'll have the basic frame structure to work with. This evening I did one side, with the other side being a mirror image. I originally worked out most of the dimensions and started building the structure in plastic. I decided that looked really crappy (I can't remember if I put any pics of that up, but don't lose sleep if I didn't.... it was rubbish ) so I pulled it all out, but not before I had used the shape to make a new template in styrene, which I then transferred on to baking paper, so I could solder (with an "L" my american friends! ) over the top of it and hopefully make each side pretty close to being the same. That's the theory... As you can see, you can make something drowned in melted tin look half decent, merely by investing a little time in the clean up afterwards! So this is what it looked like straight after assembly. Then with it loosely mounted to check alignment. The tricky part is going to be making sure I join the two pieces at the correct angle, because if I don't, the truss won't sit flush with the bottom of the bay, then I'll be sad and may have to go and eat chocolate. Lots of it. Possibly a whole block...... Having said that, as most of you will be able to see, the station #4 bulkhead doesn't come all the way down to the bottom either... my bad, but once it's in there I should be able to do a little sneaky filling and sanding and no-one will ever know! Anyway, that's a little mid week fun at the expense of not doing all the other jobs I probably should be like mowing grass, fixing the car and study. But this is just so much more fun! Craig Edited October 14, 2015 by brahman104 Piprm, Rdrunner and Derek B 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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