Juggernut Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 (edited) Amazing! You're not coming to any US IPMS National Conventions in the near future, are you? IF you are, let me know which one and I'll omit that event from my competition list... That's a hands-down top of the mark, show-stopper. Edited March 7, 2022 by Juggernut brahman104 and scvrobeson 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted March 7, 2022 Author Share Posted March 7, 2022 6 minutes ago, Juggernut said: Amazing! You're not coming to any US IPMS National Conventions in the near future, are you? IF you are, let me know which one and I'll omit that event from my competition list... That's a hands-down top of the mark, show-stopper. Hahahaha! Thanks mate!!! As much as I'd love to, I'm terrified at the thought of transporting it anywhere! It might make an appearance one day in an Australian or NZ show, but that's about as far as I think it'll go Thanks so much for the kind words though. I'd love to go and spectate at one of those epic US conventions one day! Juggernut 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
levier Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 Bravo Brahman! Excellent sheetmetal work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthumbs Posted March 8, 2022 Share Posted March 8, 2022 Patience and perseverance are necessary to see one through a project so involved as this. You also bring considerable talent to the table (bench?). Quite a stunning model to behold. Bravo, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted April 9, 2022 Author Share Posted April 9, 2022 On 3/8/2022 at 2:50 PM, levier said: Bravo Brahman! Excellent sheetmetal work. Thanks mate On 3/8/2022 at 2:57 PM, allthumbs said: Patience and perseverance are necessary to see one through a project so involved as this. You also bring considerable talent to the table (bench?). Quite a stunning model to behold. Bravo, Rich Thanks Rich! Been a while since my last update, but rest assured there's still things happening I wanted to get to grips with the pitot probes and "football antenna." As you guessed it, these differ yet again from the HK kit so the probes were scratchbuilt and the football was modified from the kit part. I think the Football should be natural metal too, so I'll probably use some kitchen foil for that a bit later on. The pitot probes took a surprisingly long time to get aligned and covered. I still need to add a little silver paint to them but they're otherwise finished. While I was on a roll, I also covered the top hatch. This remains removable but was a very tricky part to skin as the acrylic was already glued to the styrene. I had to slowly and carefully refine the inside shape first, then slowly remove material from the outer edge to make sure it sat nicely in the existing hole. Came out pretty well I think I'd put it off long enough, but it was time to cover the bathtub. Again, there's some interesting and nasty curves, but for the most part things seemed to go well. Still a lot of glue residue to remove, but I think you get the idea I wanted to move on and get as much of the underside done as possible so I could add the vertical fin and in order to do that I had to tackle the bomb bay doors. Sooo, remember waaay back when I scratchbuilt the bomb bay? Well that came back to haunt me now.... Have a look at how the doors are sitting right now, what's going on there? Oh dear........ Despite my best efforts when I built it, it didn't quite fit the hole exactly and a big beefy brass rail ended up poking out above the surface, which I conveniently decided to ignore until now.... The only thing for it was to mask up the area as much as possible, then grind the excess brass away until the door sat as it should.... Messy, but I couldn't see another way around it. However, during this process I noticed something..... I'm pretty sure this is not just me, the little holes are original kit and when I aligned the tabs on the door with the kit part, I noticed that the indoor rib detail is actually backwards.... the rectangular shape should be on the aft half of the door, whereas the kit part has it on the forward half...... (left side of pic is forward....) Compare this to the real Memphis belle doors.... Anyone else with the kit found this? On ya, HK!!!! Not that it matters for me, I have to remove all the rib detail anyway to get the door to fit, then build it on again in metal.... "sigh" more work!!!! Anywho... after another solid bout of Craig butchering, I coaxed the door into fitting reasonably well.... Still room for improvement but a lot better than before! I hope my taping effort has held up okay and the bomb bay is now not filled up with brass shavings, as that would be bad..... Still got the other side to go, but I think I should be able to walk away from this with my dignity intact Just when you all thought the fuselage done and dusted! To be continued......... Craig geedubelyer, Dadeo911, Landrotten Highlander and 14 others 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patricksparks Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 3 hours ago, brahman104 said: Thanks mate Thanks Rich! Been a while since my last update, but rest assured there's still things happening I wanted to get to grips with the pitot probes and "football antenna." As you guessed it, these differ yet again from the HK kit so the probes were scratchbuilt and the football was modified from the kit part. I think the Football should be natural metal too, so I'll probably use some kitchen foil for that a bit later on. The pitot probes took a surprisingly long time to get aligned and covered. I still need to add a little silver paint to them but they're otherwise finished. While I was on a roll, I also covered the top hatch. This remains removable but was a very tricky part to skin as the acrylic was already glued to the styrene. I had to slowly and carefully refine the inside shape first, then slowly remove material from the outer edge to make sure it sat nicely in the existing hole. Came out pretty well I think I'd put it off long enough, but it was time to cover the bathtub. Again, there's some interesting and nasty curves, but for the most part things seemed to go well. Still a lot of glue residue to remove, but I think you get the idea I wanted to move on and get as much of the underside done as possible so I could add the vertical fin and in order to do that I had to tackle the bomb bay doors. Sooo, remember waaay back when I scratchbuilt the bomb bay? Well that came back to haunt me now.... Have a look at how the doors are sitting right now, what's going on there? Oh dear........ Despite my best efforts when I built it, it didn't quite fit the hole exactly and a big beefy brass rail ended up poking out above the surface, which I conveniently decided to ignore until now.... The only thing for it was to mask up the area as much as possible, then grind the excess brass away until the door sat as it should.... Messy, but I couldn't see another way around it. However, during this process I noticed something..... I'm pretty sure this is not just me, the little holes are original kit and when I aligned the tabs on the door with the kit part, I noticed that the indoor rib detail is actually backwards.... the rectangular shape should be on the aft half of the door, whereas the kit part has it on the forward half...... (left side of pic is forward....) Compare this to the real Memphis belle doors.... Anyone else with the kit found this? On ya, HK!!!! Not that it matters for me, I have to remove all the rib detail anyway to get the door to fit, then build it on again in metal.... "sigh" more work!!!! Anywho... after another solid bout of Craig butchering, I coaxed the door into fitting reasonably well.... Still room for improvement but a lot better than before! I hope my taping effort has held up okay and the bomb bay is now not filled up with brass shavings, as that would be bad..... Still got the other side to go, but I think I should be able to walk away from this with my dignity intact Just when you all thought the fuselage done and dusted! To be continued......... Craig Great progress Craig, follow up surgery is a bad feeling for sure, but it looks like you have pulled it off well !!! Looking awesome !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted April 10, 2022 Author Share Posted April 10, 2022 Thanks Pat. Yeah a little nerve wracking, but I'm hoping it's worked out. Really want to get the vertical stab on! Craig patricksparks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted April 10, 2022 Share Posted April 10, 2022 Oh man I’m so enjoying this build! There’s quite a chunk of that HK kit gone now. Just amazing work with the skinning etc brahman104 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted April 12, 2022 Author Share Posted April 12, 2022 On 4/10/2022 at 8:04 PM, Anthony in NZ said: Oh man I’m so enjoying this build! There’s quite a chunk of that HK kit gone now. Just amazing work with the skinning etc Thanks Anthony! Sure is, but you'd almost never know as it gets covered in metal...... Hanging out for some uninterrupted modelling time at Easter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted April 12, 2022 Author Share Posted April 12, 2022 On 4/10/2022 at 9:09 PM, MARU5137 said: Craig, Incredibly impressive work! PHENOMENAL detailing. MY modelling hero. (and modelling at the very highest level too !! ). Thank you so much Maru! Hopefully I can get some better overall pics soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 Balls of steel, Craig - balls of steel! I would not have fancied taking heavy duty tools to that, knowing the time and effort that’s gone into the bomb bay. One slip… doesn’t bear thinking about! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 My lord Craig - the before and after pictures of the compound curvature skinning are remarkable. Bravo sir. From butt-ugly to beautiful. Amazing.... I do hope that I can develop that skill as well. Because it's coming for me too one day not too long from now. And the bomb bay doors - another example of a mission impossible made possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted April 21, 2022 Author Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 4/13/2022 at 1:06 AM, tomprobert said: Balls of steel, Craig - balls of steel! I would not have fancied taking heavy duty tools to that, knowing the time and effort that’s gone into the bomb bay. One slip… doesn’t bear thinking about! Thanks Tom! I was definitely dreading doing the work, but it was more of a case of not really having a choice..... my past tense self did not do my present tense self any favours........ On 4/13/2022 at 2:09 AM, JayW said: My lord Craig - the before and after pictures of the compound curvature skinning are remarkable. Bravo sir. From butt-ugly to beautiful. Amazing.... I do hope that I can develop that skill as well. Because it's coming for me too one day not too long from now. And the bomb bay doors - another example of a mission impossible made possible. Thanks Jay! I'm getting hang of them more and more these days, with even more challenging ones to go yet. Really is quite amazing what you can get a flat piece of fairly rigid metal to do On 4/14/2022 at 8:24 PM, MikeMaben said: Thanks Mike! Little bit of progress (as always at the cost of another few days of work!). I'm very pleased to report that the corrective butchery (let's not even call it surgery) seems to have been successful, not only did I manage to get away with not destroying the bomb bay, I also managed to keep pretty much all the brass dust out of it in doing so! Still got a bit more work to do in hiding the brass and blending it all in nicely, but it's definitely better than it was before! The keen eyed among you will se also that I've skinned pretty much everything now except the bomb bay doors (lots of internal work to do yet). The doors fit quite nicely now...... Rivet patterns were mostly made up (and probably wrong). This area is notoriously under-photographed.... You can also see the that the wing root fairings have been finished on both sides. The leading edge pieces were super fun! And the trailing edge.... Ahhhh!!!!! So much glue!!! sorry guys I really need to clean that off!!! I've added some styrene supports where I've taken the brass away. These will be progressively hidden once I work out what details go there. I also have a hydraulic tank and a fair amount of plumbing and other details to go in the bomb bay, but tomorrow @TKB I promise I will do the fuselage flight control access covers! And one more overall shot to illustrate my very untidy bench...... I'm getting close to being able to finally attach the vertical fin! Hopefully I'll get another post in real soon! Cheers, Craig LSP_Kevin, themongoose, easixpedro and 19 others 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 Super work, Craig! Aluminium Overcast, indeed. Kev 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