ClumsyDude Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Wow, Craig, this is some really good work. Cleaned up great - good luck with the alignment on the other half! Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted October 14, 2015 Author Share Posted October 14, 2015 Haha, cheers mate. I'm going to need it! Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Craig, You just keep raising the bar with each step, don't you? Every update is a gold nugget; just hope our anticipation doesn't pressure you. There must be a framed "Failure is not an option" quote above your work area! Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Nice capture. Sincerely, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted October 20, 2015 Author Share Posted October 20, 2015 (edited) Just kidding!!!!!!! It's no-where near finished! Hahaha, thanks Terry! You wouldn't believe how close that is. As much as I don't have a motivational quote wall, I'm not particularly fond of giving up on something (which has been to my detriment more than a few times!) Nice capture. Sincerely, Mark Cheers Mark! No progress on the weekend as I decided to climb a mountain instead. Got to get out of the house occasionally! However I did get an early mark from work so I took the chance to do a little catch up. I had the other side truss to make and most of the station #5 bulkhead. As much as I though things were going swimmingly (considering I was so clever to make myself a template so the trusses would both be the same), I hit a minor snag.... You might not be able to pick it from that picture, but this one should highlight the error of my ways.. Hmmmm, what happened there!? I realised I had lined the upper piece up with the wrong line on the template which I went to solder the first vertical piece, then consequently everything was out after that. I didn't even notice initially, until I lined them up like so. Easy enough fix. I grabbed the butane torch and moved it back and forth over the whole piece until it all fell apart (try doing that with styrene!) Then it was simply a case of lining it all up properly and soldering back together. 10 minutes work and she was good as new Meanwhile, the station #5 bulkhead was coming along nicely. Obviously a lot more details are yet to be added, but the main parts are there. I should have stopped for the evening to ponder my next move, but curiosity got the better of me and now that I had "four walls" I was dying to know if they'd actually fit in the bay, but how was I going to line it all up? After marking where the truss ends would sit in relation to the bulkheads why dry fitted in the bay, the next step was attempting to solder all the big bits together and hope they'd line up. In reality, I either completely jagged it or it wasn't actually as hard as I'd worried it might be.... The the other side and the all important test fitting.... Win! Craig 1, model 0 And a few more as I can't believe I pulled that off..... One soldered joint at a time......... Edited October 20, 2015 by brahman104 Derek B, Bill Cross, Piprm and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Very impressive, Craig! Besides the soldering iron, what other tools are you using to work with the brass? Kev brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted October 20, 2015 Author Share Posted October 20, 2015 Very impressive, Craig! Besides the soldering iron, what other tools are you using to work with the brass? Kev Thank Kev! Everything so far is pretty simple. For the sheet I'm running a sharp knife around the templates I made to give me a nice line to work off, then cutting them out with scissors. For the internal doors I drill a hole in each corner using a very small bit then use an abrasive disc on the dremel to cut it out. The square tube sections are all cut the same and then cleaned up with files and sandpaper. For the soldering, that white soldering block is incredibly useful and with everything pinned there's no chance of one joint re-melthing and moving, which I thought may be an issue on this considering the thickness of the top and bottom pieces of the trusses. Recently, I have found that tape is very good for temporarily holding parts together and to get the bulkheads at a nice 90 degrees, I used a steel angle plate and taped everything directly to the glass so it would be nice an smooth. I do have a turbo carver and milling machine which I suspect I'll be using soon for some of the bay's detail parts, but what you see here was all pretty straight forward. And fun! No real trickery or magic was used in this process! Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 No real trickery or magic was used in this process! Soldering is trickery and magic as far as I'm concerned! Kev brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Craig, that just ROCKS, true modelling. Awesome win getting the solder job all square, I couldn't do that in a month of Sundays. Jim brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Craig, Unfortunate extra work having to redo the truss, but glad you caught it right off instead of latter.That would have been a PITA, to find one side fits perfectly and the other was riding high. The fit of you bulkheads and trusses is somthing else! That had to give you a feeling of accomplishment. My Dad was a wood pattern maker for 50+ years and he would call your work a "wedding night fit!" This is probably a stupid question, but have you verified the fit with both fuselage halves together? From the looks of things, you should have a pretty solid structure to fit the rest of your brass to. Are you going to add the center truss or hold off and have a large open "hole" for access. You've already come a long way from the "silicone brick" So you think you'll be using the same technique for Bulkhead #6 aft? Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 (edited) G'day Terry, Cheers mate, interesting term that one of your Dad's! Never heard it but it gets the point across I think I'm going to officially appoint you as my "independent inspector" on this build... you don't miss a thing! It is very much appreciated that you are checking my work and processes and having said that, I fear I am certainly not out of the woods with that one. Your question was far from stupid, I actually haven't verified the fit in the other side yet. I did have a reason, but having a quick look at the other side just now I was mistaken so I should get onto it! I feel that there will definitely be some rework required, just exactly how much I don't know. I would have to agree, it would certainly be worthwhile at this stage to have a bit of a gross error check. Spot on again Sir with the centre catwalk! . As the whole bay will end up being fully enclosed, I'll build the centre piece but it will probably end up being one of the last pieces to go in, precisely for access as you said. That adds issues of its own, for reasons you'll see soon! Looking ahead, I'm thinking a very similar technique for the back, but I have quite a large quantity of hydrocal, so I'm thinking I should give that a try, as at least it won't distort like the RTV. This is particularly important as the rear fuselage is not a constant cross section as you well know like it was with the bomb bay. Failing that, I was actually looking at reverse-engineering the original 3d drawings for the rear fuselage and printing the "void" as it should essentially be the exact inside dimensions.... more things to consider! Thanks very much for your comments as always mate, I really do appreciate them! Cheers, Craig Edited October 22, 2015 by brahman104 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 In response to Terry's question about whether or not I had tried the bomb bay inside both fuselage halves to see how everything would line up, I must admit that I hadn't. I had a feeling that while it looked like I had pulled off a complete fluke with the lining up of all the brass work, I would be in for a nasty surprise later on when offered up to the other side. With that in mind, I figured I should try it now before things got really messy, so here's how it went.... I'll let you guys be the judge on this one, but that's it just sitting there with no undue pressure and the fuselage halves held together by one tiny rubber band and a piece of tape. I'm not one to blow my own trumpet as the expression goes, but I'm pretty sure I can live with that! Still, I can sleep soundly knowing that I've checked it now so thank you Terry! Some of you may be thinking... So this being an early model B-17, the bomb bay probably wasn't painted, and no aircraft I know of has been made out of brass, so what's going to happen there? Well I'm glad you asked as I really hadn't thought about that till now. Inspired by all the fun Peter is having with litho plate and his incredible results on his Tigercat, I thought I'd see what it's all about and have a crack at trying to make the bomb bay look like I built it in aluminium instead. This process has just increased my workload considerably, but I do like the look of it and it's easy enough to do, just time consuming. So here's my first efforts with it...... Interestingly, the plating of the square tube is that tight a fit once it's folded up that it doesn't require glue. I found this out when test fitting a piece and realised I couldn't remove it without the possibility of distortion, so that's where it's staying! Anyway, it all seems to be going well so far, which is good, seeing as past tense Craig brought a stack of it from America I also have a plan for making the rib detail on the "roof" section, and it will require the manufacture of a special roller. I don't know if this plan will work, but I might as well try, plus I have a brand new lathe that I need to cover in metal filings.... Till next time Craig Rdrunner and airscale 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Boillot Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 (edited) Another succesfull first for you Craig ! Don't know if it really would work, but pasta machines (for making fresh pasta) could be used to roll thin metal. I need to try with mine, one day... Hubert Edited October 24, 2015 by MostlyRacers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alaninaustria Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Just really amazing work bro!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 that really is something else Craig it looks amazing and for me was well worth the extra effort and all the mental gymnastics involved. You also look to have already mastered these cool new skills where metal can seriously compliment plastic modelling - the end results I think speak for themselves brilliant to watch - are you going for an NMF finish overall? hope so, it would look stunning as one of those early ones with the striped rudder more please! Peter Derek B and Anthony in NZ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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