brahman104 Posted April 23, 2022 Author Share Posted April 23, 2022 17 hours ago, TKB said: Craig, Nice "recovery" with the bomb bay "adjustment!" Looking forward to seeing your bomb bay doors interior face. I'm sure you'll capture that unique curvature of the ribs. I was waiting with great anticipation to see how you pulled off the wing root fairings. As usual, you did --- and beautifully done! You must be getting really amped up with the steady progress your making. You still have a lot of work ahead of you, but you must be feeling that you're coming up on the "home stretch." Terry Thanks Terry! Not entirely sure how I'm going to attack those ribs on the bomb bay doors yet, but hopefully the solution fairy that's been helping me on this build will come up with something soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Love it Craig. Can't wait to see all of the pieces brought together on the Fort. Nothing looks more like metal than metal. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted April 23, 2022 Author Share Posted April 23, 2022 5 hours ago, scvrobeson said: Love it Craig. Can't wait to see all of the pieces brought together on the Fort. Nothing looks more like metal than metal. Matt Thanks Matt, me too! She's got a really interesting patina already, and that's without much in the way of polishing and cleaning of the metal, so I can only guess it's going to look a heck of a lot better when that's done and she has her wings too! It seems the solution fairy is still working hard to help me along with this build! I was thinking about how best to do the internal ribs for the bomb bay doors and settled on drawing them in Rhino and 3D printing as the easiest method. This would not be without trouble though, as some of the pieces would be incredibly fragile, and I would always have some issues trying to get the surfaces all sitting nicely. As I'd already started to remove material from the doors I had (original G kit), I though it best I start with a new pair, so I raided my E/F for some clean ones to measure up. Only when I had them on the bench I noticed that they in-fact were the correct orientation! You can see the external rivet patterns match, but..... When you flip them over, very different story indeed!!! So HK did notice, and did something about it when they brought out the E/F!!! Hooray!!! Happily, all the tabs line up too!!! While this will save me a hell of a lot of work, I'll still have to modify the end ribs and a few other bits to make them fit, but it's definitely a win for me! I can still use the G doors on a planned (much) later F build where the doors will be closed, so happy days! Still need to work out how I make the doors so they can be opened and closed, because as much as I want to show off the bomb bay, I still want to preserve those nice clean lines of the early forts. I'm thinking potentially magnets (I can steal them from the Tamiya P-51), but I'm open to any suggestions or ideas........... Cheers, Craig easixpedro, chukw, John1 and 12 others 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 6, 2022 Author Share Posted May 6, 2022 So who thought the bomb day door saga was done and dusted? Be honest.... After thinking about how best to do it and being very much aware that any solution would need to be pretty durable long term, I decided on making some working hinges using brass. While not entirely accurate (not even close really), they were a necessary concession to correct something that I really should have seen coming quite some time ago . Anyhoo.... after I did some trimming of the edges that were causing the bomb doors to not sit flush with the bay, I started to fashion some little hinge parts from brass. No fancy PE here..... I really need to learn how to do that! These were then glued to the existing ribs with the intention (hope) that I could do a reasonable job of hiding them later. I fashioned the other side of the hinge using brass rod soldered on the end of another strip of flat brass. This in turn was glued to the outside faces of the bomb bay insert and clearance was established by grinding away excess plastic from around the edges. I'll have to rebuild (hide) a lot of this once I'm happy with the "track" of the doors as they open and close. I used a piece of stainless steel tube to complete the hinge and surprisingly, it works pretty well! The door is a little "floppy" at the moment as it's only held on by the centre two attachment points, but it should become more stable once I add the retraction screws at either end of the bay. I can still separate the door from the rest of the plane at this point until I'm happy I've got everything right with both doors and painted/skinned. I'm playing with how to keep them closed at the moment. Magnets, like JayW is thinking with his build are probably my best option, and I'll attempt to hide them under the inner racks at the bottom of the catwalk truss. The bomb doors will incorporate a strip of nickel steel from a PE fret that will provide the attraction point for the magnets. Much more to follow with this one. I still have lots of detail to add into the bay yet, and here's me thinking I was almost ready to put the tail on!!! Cheers, Craig patricksparks, dodgem37, Greg W and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted May 6, 2022 Share Posted May 6, 2022 Amazing stuff, Craig! Kev brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted May 6, 2022 Share Posted May 6, 2022 (edited) Great save on the bomb bay doors Craig! We have similar challenges these days, with removable (or in your case hinged) panels! Functional simple hinges on scale models are almost always problematic, as the out-of-scale skin gages tend to mess with the kinematics and cause either clashes or excessive gaps. Edited May 6, 2022 by JayW brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 Craig, Position-able bomb bay doors! Your hinge might not be totally accurate, but unobtrusively "blends in" nicely. I said I wasn't going to present you with anymore "challenges." I was tempted --- but obviously you didn't need me to "plant a seed." Terry brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 7, 2022 Author Share Posted May 7, 2022 9 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said: Amazing stuff, Craig! Kev Thanks Kev! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 7, 2022 Author Share Posted May 7, 2022 8 hours ago, JayW said: Great save on the bomb bay doors Craig! We have similar challenges these days, with removable (or in your case hinged) panels! Functional simple hinges on scale models are almost always problematic, as the out-of-scale skin gages tend to mess with the kinematics and cause either clashes or excessive gaps. Thanks Jay! It certainly seems we do...... although I feel you definitely plan those challenges, where as I tend to stumble upon them as they arrive I totally agree about the challenges of scale; there's always going to be elements that simply can't be totally authentic in their reproduction, but I guess that's the challenge we all strive for! Very keen to see how you solve the challenges that lay ahead on the Corsair! JayW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 7, 2022 Author Share Posted May 7, 2022 43 minutes ago, TKB said: Craig, Position-able bomb bay doors! Your hinge might not be totally accurate, but unobtrusively "blends in" nicely. I said I wasn't going to present you with anymore "challenges." I was tempted --- but obviously you didn't need me to "plant a seed." Terry Well they ain't done yet.... There's some pretty wishful thinking that needs to go into making that happen but hopefully I can pull it off. Guess time will tell!!! JayW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 13, 2022 Author Share Posted May 13, 2022 So I think I've come up with a workable solution for the actuators. With some rod ends from RB Motion that fitted nicely inside a brass tube, I figured I could use 3mm magnets in the actuator gearboxes that could provide enough "grab" to hold the doors in the open position, yet still loose enough to allow them to move closed. Not entirely sure it'll work yet, but I think I'm off to a reasonable start.... To give the magnets something to grab onto, I inserted a steel pin inside the brass actuator tubes. They can slide freely through the gearbox bodies. I just have to figure out how I'm going to mount them into the bomb bay now while still allowing them to pivot when the doors open. I luckily had a 3mm end mill to machine the recesses into the brass rod. I hadn't used the lathe and mill in well over a year, so it was really fun to get back into some good old fashioned machining. I could have 3D printed the gearbox bodies, but at least I know they won't break! Here's the actuator more or less assembled. You can see the steel pin which sits inside the brass tube which is attracted to the magnet. The pin runs the length of the actuator, so I can position the rod at at point. The end of the pin was ground off and a brass "limit cap" was soldered on which also contained the steel pin. I still need to add some styrene details to it, but that's pretty much what the 4 actuators will look like. Next up, I need to mount them in the bay and fabricate some brackets for them to attach to the doors. Stay tuned! Craig LSP_Kevin, Greg W, scvrobeson and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted May 17, 2022 Author Share Posted May 17, 2022 Well after many hours of intricate and super-fiddly work, I have an actuator! I still need to make another 3, but this is an important step, as it proves if my concept for holding the doors open is viable or not.... First up, some actuators. Still a lot of detailing and painting to do (and I'm waiting on some burnishing fluid for the sliding parts as paint will come off). Impetuous me soldered the end caps on and then I couldn't get them off, before I realised that I had to add the funny shaped "collars" at the door-end of the rods. So the only thing for it was to turn them down in styrene, cut them in half and add them onto the ends. I don't recommend doing this!!! I then fabricated the door attachment bracket in brass based on photos. Actually came out pretty well, unfortunately I couldn't get any light on it properly for the photo... The solder "pin" is temporary.... I just wanted to see if it would work The "body" of the actuator sits mounted to a hole on the face of Blk #4 which allows it to pivot, just like the real thing... Here it is in the fully open position... Appears to sit at a nice angle And the actuating part. See, it works! And fully closed. Really hard to make out but you can see it's there and acting like it's supposed to Pretty darn stoked with how they came out! Only have to do another 3 but now that I know HOW to do them, it should be pretty straight forward! I might just be able to pull this off you know....... Cheers, Craig Model_Monkey, easixpedro, Landrotten Highlander and 16 others 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 Excellent. Sincerely, Mark JayW and brahman104 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 Wow, Craig. Wow! Kev JayW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 This project just continues to amaze and inspire. Great stuff, Craig! Tom JayW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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