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HK B-17...C 11/2 progress resumes!


brahman104

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Craig,

 

"Doesn't look like much!" --- I'm exhausted from reading and looking! Always the "little things" that escape attention and turn into a "big bite in the ass." Very nice work all around. Cutting a grove into the stabilzer edge has to take a steady hand ... especially with a grinder!

 

You're going to have some nice contrast between the "shiny" skinned stabilizer and trim tabs and the "duller painted" elevator.

 

You are "getting there someday." As much as I look forward to seeing all your work finally come together, I not in a hurry to see it come to an end. As much as WIP posts adds to the work, you have to promise to do so with your next build (s) as well. Just with the "E/F," B-24 and numerous other models you've mentioned in your future, you're going to be one busy man for years to come!

 

Terry

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nice work Craig - thing with this sort of stuff is that each element is an exercise in learning, and each time we do them we discover new or better ways of doing it.. I find even with parts I really struggled with that ultimately I have banked something that will make it easier or better next time

 

..the stabs look great, and if flush riveted even better - I am having a go at my first dome riveted panels and I must admit they are much harder than just whizzing along with an awl and giving the panel some burnishing elbow grease after..

 

this is a joy to watch

 

Peter

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On 3/24/2021 at 2:51 PM, TKB said:

Craig,

 

"Doesn't look like much!" --- I'm exhausted from reading and looking! Always the "little things" that escape attention and turn into a "big bite in the ass." Very nice work all around. Cutting a grove into the stabilzer edge has to take a steady hand ... especially with a grinder!

 

You're going to have some nice contrast between the "shiny" skinned stabilizer and trim tabs and the "duller painted" elevator.

 

You are "getting there someday." As much as I look forward to seeing all your work finally come together, I not in a hurry to see it come to an end. As much as WIP posts adds to the work, you have to promise to do so with your next build (s) as well. Just with the "E/F," B-24 and numerous other models you've mentioned in your future, you're going to be one busy man for years to come!

 

Terry

 

Very true indeed Terry! I really am my own worst enemy. I want to do everything!!!!!!!! hahaha! I've just got to work out the rib stitching on the elevators now. Time to refer back to Airscale's builds :)

 

14 hours ago, airscale said:

nice work Craig - thing with this sort of stuff is that each element is an exercise in learning, and each time we do them we discover new or better ways of doing it.. I find even with parts I really struggled with that ultimately I have banked something that will make it easier or better next time

 

..the stabs look great, and if flush riveted even better - I am having a go at my first dome riveted panels and I must admit they are much harder than just whizzing along with an awl and giving the panel some burnishing elbow grease after..

 

this is a joy to watch

 

Peter

 

Spot on as always Peter! Everything is a learning experience. So glad you're having a crack at raised rivets. They're quite the challenge, especially as you have to work in reverse! 

 

8 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

I do always enjoy the trial and error aspects that you go through on this build, and it's all leading to one spectacular finished product.

 

 

 

 

Matt 

 

Thanks very much Matt. There's definitely a lot of trial and error in this build!!!!!

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

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  • 1 month later...

After what has been an insanely busy 2 months, I finally managed to slip in a few brief moments of shed time.

 

Still plodding away slowly with the elevators, so not much more in the way of new material to show there. Both are pretty much done now until I get my decal film to simulate the rib tape (techniques shamelessly stolen from Peter :) ).

 

I've been pondering for ages about the best way to do the main gear legs. As many of you know, the HK kit's strut extension is way too long, which makes the model look like it's standing on tip toes. Most B-17's have hardly any chrome showing at all, so that's the look I wanted. I had considered making a whole new strut from scratch, but I'm not sure the effort would have really produced anything better than what was already there, with a bit of tweaking of course.......

 

Firstly, the strut was chucked in the lathe so I could drill an alignment hole with reasonable accuracy....

 

15/5

 

As a precaution, I wrapped the chuck fingers in aluminium tape to avoid them marking the plastic. It took a while to get it set as central as possible, then very carefully drilled it out to accept a 1.5mm brass rod.

 

I also wanted metal for the chrome part, so I polished up some aluminium rod and once centre drilled, cut a 2.1mm section to insert once all the other strut work has been completed. 

15/5

 

I thought it was worthwhile including a comparison shot to illustrate just how much I took out to make it look convincing!

 

Other things which take a long time but don't illustrate a whole amount of progress are the C model cowls that I 3D printed a while ago. For some reason, and I have no idea why, no matter what orientation I print them in, they always ended up with a concave section on the front. You can see it outlined in black. Super annoying, but the only thing to do was fill and sand....

 

15/5

 

And another photo of the corrective work.

15/5

 

No matter how many times I printed it I couldn't get it perfect. This surface was swept between the rails too, and was created using a single cross section, so there's no explanation for what it did. Many hours of filing and sanding have gone into these, but I feel I'm almost at the point of covering them with aluminium. Wish me luck!!! ;)

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

 

 

Edited by brahman104
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  • brahman104 changed the title to HK B-17...C 15/5 taking it down a notch.

Thanks mate. Yes I am very fortunate to have built up my collection of equipment into a fairly capable workshop over may years. However I've seen others much more talented do amazing things with considerably less. All down to how much effort something is worth to you! :)

 

Loved your B-17 efforts by the way!

 

Craig

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Taking it down a notch Craig? I don’t think so.........

 

.......unless of course you’re referring to the length of the MLG oleos. This build is going to be absolutely fantastic when finished and it’ll take a book for people to clearly understand the amount of work you’ve put in to this!

 

Cheers,

Wolf

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Thanks for your VERY kind words Wolf!

 

Hahaha! Yes it was in reference to the struts, although in respect to some of the exceptionally fine work that graces the forum, I could almost be justified ;) ......I'm still very much enjoying the build but time is always scarce. 

 

There's actually not a huge amount of work required to close up the fuselage, but perhaps I'm procrastinating as I know there's no going back once I do!

 

Cheers again Wolf, hope everything is going okay in you neck of the woods :)

 

Craig

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great to see you back Craig - I have missed the big Fort

 

I had a devils own job skinning an Fw190 cowl much like those look like - my only tip is try to make the panels as small as possible - if there are four quarters that make up the cowl ring all the better - if not, I think I tried both ways, fixing on the forward ring face and working back (kinks at the rear), or fixing a strip around the back of the ring and working it forward over the lip (kinks at the lip) - the first one worked best from memory..

 

looking forward to whatever you do :)

 

Peter

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Craig,

I have to agree with Wolf ... when have you ever taken down a notch. The only way you've ever gone was up a notch ... or two!

 

Having the tools to work with goes a long way, but add nothing without the effort you mentioned. But added to effort is the dedication that you've shown from the start. You started out with a huge project of building a C and correcting the "face." You've achieved both ... and look at everything else from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail ... as well as everything inside! THAT'S dedication! Even without your "tools," I'd venture to say you be right where you are now except you would have taken different roads to the same end.

 

Those cowlings are going to be pain right to the end, aren't they! It's worth it though, knowing when you finally attach them, they are a close to the real thing as you can get. Admittedly most will simply assume you simply eliminated the cowl flaps and slapped on the stock G cowlings. What counts is you'll know all the subtle differences are there --- and I for one will sure appreciate the work you put into getting it right!

 

Terry

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On 5/17/2021 at 3:16 AM, airscale said:

great to see you back Craig - I have missed the big Fort

 

I had a devils own job skinning an Fw190 cowl much like those look like - my only tip is try to make the panels as small as possible - if there are four quarters that make up the cowl ring all the better - if not, I think I tried both ways, fixing on the forward ring face and working back (kinks at the rear), or fixing a strip around the back of the ring and working it forward over the lip (kinks at the lip) - the first one worked best from memory..

 

looking forward to whatever you do :)

 

Peter

 

Thanks Peter! I'm getting in whatever I can, whenever I can, but I guess that still means it's going forward! Thanks very much for the tip. At least I've got a few spare cowls to try some different approaches on, but I'll gladly accept any advice I can get :)

 

On 5/17/2021 at 5:39 AM, scvrobeson said:

Nice fix on the landing gear!  That's weird that the cowlings had issues printing, but you definitely were able to work it out with some filling and sanding.

 

 

 

Matt 

 

Thanks Matt! Yeah really puzzles me what went on there, luckily though it was an easy, if labour intensive fix. Happy with the landing gear corrections so far, hopefully get some more detail into them soon....

 

On 5/17/2021 at 9:18 AM, TKB said:

Craig,

I have to agree with Wolf ... when have you ever taken down a notch. The only way you've ever gone was up a notch ... or two!

 

Having the tools to work with goes a long way, but add nothing without the effort you mentioned. But added to effort is the dedication that you've shown from the start. You started out with a huge project of building a C and correcting the "face." You've achieved both ... and look at everything else from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail ... as well as everything inside! THAT'S dedication! Even without your "tools," I'd venture to say you be right where you are now except you would have taken different roads to the same end.

 

Those cowlings are going to be pain right to the end, aren't they! It's worth it though, knowing when you finally attach them, they are a close to the real thing as you can get. Admittedly most will simply assume you simply eliminated the cowl flaps and slapped on the stock G cowlings. What counts is you'll know all the subtle differences are there --- and I for one will sure appreciate the work you put into getting it right!

 

Terry

 

Thanks for the never ending encouragement Terry! :) The landing gear seems to have turned out okay so far, looking forward to getting some more done on it soon. You are so right about the cowlings...... they'll continue to fight me to the end, but I'm going to win one way or another! 

 

You know if it hadn't been for all your tireless help, simply taking the flaps off would've been my solution to the problem! This build is just as much a credit to you with your exceptional eye for detail..... Thank you!!!!

 

Craig

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm sure there's a little saying in modelling about checking your references at least 5 times, because if you don't........

 

After correcting the strut length, I added the brake line details and some ANYZ connectors for some extra detail.

 

6/6

 

Feeling pretty chuffed with myself, I was flipping through the ever faithful "Fortress in the Sky" when I found out this glaring omission..... Like so many things on this build, another case of not being able to see the "forest for the trees!"

 

6/6

 

Turns out that the brake booster on the HK kit is only good for the G and possibly some F models. Otherwise the booster is on the front of the leg and a bit smaller, like the above...

 

So after 3 hours of work I was back to the drawing board. Another 3 hours after that I had the makings of the new booster, and added the brake mounting.

6/6

 

I also redid the retaining bolts on the collar, as they looked a little soft on the kit part. Once painted, I thought it came out looking pretty good!

6/6

 

I didn't redo the hub, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks now......

6/6

 

I also added the air valve and fastener detail to the hub cap..

6/6

 

Not that I'll be installing these for a while, but it's nice to have some more bits done :)

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

 

 

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  • brahman104 changed the title to HK B-17...C 6/6 a leg to stand on.

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