TKB Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 Craig, What can I say! You just keep outdoing yourself with your "do overs!" I thought your original ammo box was a work of art, but your new ones look fantastic --- and must be a timesaver! I have to wonder sometimes if the C will ever be "truly" finished with your eye always on accuracy and revisiting items that where thought to be put to rest! I'll love to see her when fiinshed, but each "delay" is an interesting project in itself! I for one can wait as long as it takes. Every step you take us through is well worth the wait! Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted August 17, 2019 Author Share Posted August 17, 2019 On 6/26/2019 at 12:31 PM, TKB said: Craig, What can I say! You just keep outdoing yourself with your "do overs!" I thought your original ammo box was a work of art, but your new ones look fantastic --- and must be a timesaver! I have to wonder sometimes if the C will ever be "truly" finished with your eye always on accuracy and revisiting items that where thought to be put to rest! I'll love to see her when fiinshed, but each "delay" is an interesting project in itself! I for one can wait as long as it takes. Every step you take us through is well worth the wait! Terry Thanks Terry, You know between this and the Desert Rat, I'm not sure who'll be finished first the way I'm going! Anyway, back home after 6 weeks in the States, I've found some time finally to get some runs on the board with the C..... First up was the rudder pedals and centre pedestal, followed by the permanent fixing of the two rear seats in the cockpit. I really like the green I ended up with Then, in a change of direction I decided to get done something I've been procrastinating about for a while - the nose windows. I covered the interior of the nose section with putty in an attempt to replicate the soundproofing felt. How successful that will be remains to be seen, but it has made the walls quite thick. I drew up some frames in Rhino and printed them on the Photon; still have a huge amount to learn about resin printing! Once cleaned up, each will form the inside border for the window. On the outside, the windows will be oversize acrylic which will be sanded and shaped, then the final window dimensions will be depicted by the aluminium skin. Takes a lot of grinding and test fitting to set each one as they are bevelled to allow support of the acrylic pieces..... Then fixed in place with epoxy. On the last photo you can see how the support will work so my clear bits don't fall in More of that, then hopefully some colour and fitting out of the nose section to come soon! Cheers, Craig Gazzas, LSP_Kevin, Fvdm and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted August 17, 2019 Share Posted August 17, 2019 Craig, Nice to have you back and recovering from your vacation! I have to ask --- do the window frames have "rolled edges!" Cockpit looks great. The overall cockpit coloring is very effective.The shade of "bronze green" you came up with is just right. The more "oliveish" sidewall insulation isn't at stark contrast, but enough to keep things from being soporific; the yellow seat cushions/floatation devices add that "glitz" to the surrounding greens. Your control yokes will also set things off. You avoided the cockpit from becoming a "green chamber." Excellent work and very realistic looking --- you pulled it off nicely. I'm sure all of your "major" work on the "C" is rewarding, but it must be truly relaxing when you work on something like the "finishing" details of the cockpit. Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted August 22, 2019 Author Share Posted August 22, 2019 On 8/18/2019 at 8:09 AM, TKB said: I have to ask --- do the window frames have "rolled edges!" Haha, well the skin isn't on yet, so if I can find a mini-Mike to do my metal work, I might be in with a chance! So as I've found out recently, the outboard engines are situated too high on the wing. Not really enough to worry most people, but if I'm going to build this C, then an E and an F, I figured it might be worth my while to see if I could something about it. Also, I had to get rid of the intakes between the two engines in each wing and the outboard fuel boost pump blister underneath as, after lengthy discussions with Terry (TKB), we've concluded that they weren't fitted until probably the E model. After studying a myriad of top photos of the wings, it became apparent that the rear of both nacelles are the same distance from the rear spar line of the wing. When I examined the kit, here's what I found: Assuming that HK at least got the length of the nacelles right, that means that the outboard is too high by about 3-4mm, which is what I'd figured. So what to do about it? Well as you know, I'm no stranger to drastic surgery... The wing plastic is ridiculously thick, so it took ages to remove the upper and lower nacelles... Now off the wing, you can see quite clearly how high it sits on the kit.... After a while of thinking, I got to what I feel will be a reasonable fix: First of all, I had to bridge the gap where the original was. (this is the lower nacelle, as it needs to move down) Then, using laminations of plastic to follow the wing profile, I built it up (down) to 3.5mm Then placed back on the wing, you can now see it has had the desired effect... Still a huge amount of work to blend it back in, but I think I'm on the right track....... Cheers, Craig scvrobeson, D.B. Andrus, Dennis7423 and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 Peter.... JayW, brahman104 and Shawn M 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kkarlsen Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 Whaaat? JayW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted August 22, 2019 Author Share Posted August 22, 2019 9 hours ago, airscale said: Peter.... Hahaha!! you're too nice Peter! I'm just doing once a fraction of what you do in every post! Craig JayW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted August 22, 2019 Author Share Posted August 22, 2019 8 hours ago, kkarlsen said: Whaaat? Hahaha, probably don't follow me down this road with yours Kent!!!! Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKB Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 Craig, I have to admit, "dumbstruck" is exactly what I was by the simplicity of your nacelle fix! You're the exception to the saying "Those that can do, those who can't teach." YOU DO and TEACH! Absoulutely great work! Terry Derek B 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 WOW!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fvdm Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 Wow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted September 2, 2019 Author Share Posted September 2, 2019 Thanks for the encouragement and interest guys! It always helps on such a long project such as this one (5 years and counting!) First up, the engine work is going really well. The engine halves have been reattached and everything is looking good. Still have a bit of reconstructive work to do on the wing/nacelle join and reshaping of the lower nacelle but I actually think I'm going to be able to pull this off! And for a comparison shot..... definitely worth my while! Leaving the wing/engines for while, I wanted to jump into something I'd been procrastinating about for quite a while: lighting. The big issue I had was that the wiring for the lights would have to travel through/around the bomb bay at some point, not to mention the two dome lights that needed to be added in there. Every time I temporarily fitted the bay inside the fuselage I was potentially doing damage to the frame, so I really just needed to suck it up and get on with it. I made some new lights, which were surprisingly easy out of soft foil.... I then drilled a hole to route the wires outside the bom bay shell and to a little LED distribution board I got from a model train company call ngineering. This board allows me to hook up 8 individual LEDs and will regulate the voltage and current to them equally. Solves my problem of making bus bars! Positioning it in the life raft bay was convenient and it meant I could still display the right hand side open... I had to redo the forward entry door light as constant test fitting of the fuselage must've broken one of the very fine wires at some point. Hence my desire to start getting things permanently in place... Apart from the two new bomb bay lights, I also drew and 3D printed the little work lamps for the navigator and radio operator. I then drilled and threaded a little LED into it. Hard to photograph, these lamps are a grand total of 6mm high! Then tested everything prior to fixing the board upside down for the remaining 4 LEDs to be hooked up at a later stage..... I also spent two whole days re-running braided cable across the top of the bay. This was to replace that horrible black thread I used that went horribly saggy in the humidity. This was NOT fun at all, as I had to do everything from the bottom of the bay turned upside down, but looks infinitely better! With the bomb bay set in place, I now really wanted to get on with the nose. First task was to smooth out the putty around the windows to make a surface that would loosely resemble the felt lining in the compartment... I forgot to take many photos, but I also worked at adding the detail to the front of STA #3. Once painted, I thought it came up looking pretty good... From what I can interpret of period photos, the "hard" surfaces may have been painted the DDG colour like the cockpit, so I added that along with my previously printed oxygen bottles. Getting the rest ready to install in the radio room and the rear fuselage... The heating ducting in the nose was always going to be challenge, considering the multitude of angles that it turned through. It was also supposed to be made of unpainted metal, but I had a plan.... First of all, I found some nice box section styrene that I could work to get the shape. I wanted to make it in one piece so I could finish it completely prior to permanent installation. Eventually, I had the piece ready. The black in pen ink used to sand the piece smooth. Then, and I don't know why I hadn't thought of this before, I covered the piece in aluminium tape. The same principle as the litho plate, but much easier to work for something like this and not having to worry about that horrible contact adhesive.... Roughly installed... looks the part! I'm not entirely happy with the placement of the double O2 bottles, so I'll probably move them down to make room for the driftmeter case and the meter itself. Finally! I'm actually getting somewhere with this! Very happy! Craig Gazzas, Out2gtcha, Trak-Tor and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark64 Posted September 2, 2019 Share Posted September 2, 2019 Well, that s just amazing. the detail the details....wow brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted September 2, 2019 Author Share Posted September 2, 2019 1 minute ago, shark64 said: Well, that s just amazing. the detail the details....wow Thanks very much Oliver! Quite humbling from a master such as yourself...... got a lot to learn about painting and I often look to your builds for inspiration Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdthoresen Posted September 2, 2019 Share Posted September 2, 2019 Craig- it is absolutely awesome to see this build starting to come together. Keep the updates coming! THOR brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now