airscale Posted September 1, 2017 Author Share Posted September 1, 2017 evening ladies Just a quickie to (eventually) add some work in the finishing dash ... I assume you drilled a hole at the end of the pitot tube ? Hubert Hi Hubert - yes indeed - there is a hole in the pitot - in fact Aeroclub John has told be they are a dark brown brass colour so will have to age it a bit... Nice double telescope tube on the front end of the starboard door. I like that. Great stuff, Peter. Great show, as always. No door springs? Thank you. Sincerely, Mark Hi Mark - no, no springs, there is a direct actuator linkage on the leg to each door so I assume when the leg retracts the doors go with it.. Superb, Question.... No registration added to the rudder, or the logo on the fin or are these coming?? Hi Tony, yes these are on the way - I have decals & masks for the Registration & will see what works best - it is not the best surface for either actually so will be an interesting challenge I am sure,, as it has been lots of fiddley bits, I decided to start the last major construction - the elevators.. started with scaled plans.. ..the outline & structure is then transferred to sheet brass to act as the stable keel to build off with a nice fine (and strong) trailing edge.. this is cut out with a fine cutting disc.. ..soon had both done.. the trim tabs have been nearly cut out, but just leaving enough to keep them in place, but weak enough they can be broken out later.. ..the structure is then built up with plastic stock and wooden coffee stirrers (thanks Starbucks ).. ..twice.. ..final shaping to ensure a neat fit.. ..and the first one is covered in solartex - its quite tricky and I could do with a tiny iron to work it rather than Mrs airscales finest, but it is good enough to finesse later.. ..you can see the trailing edge is a bit raggedy, but this will be sorted out.. ..thats it for now, I want to get these done, the rib tapes on and then painted, that way I can get on with applying the rudder registration & then fit them all.. TTFN Peter LSP_Kevin, Starfighter, MikeMaben and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ron Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Excellent airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 (edited) Once again I take my hat off to you Sir, I tried and failed this method on the B-17 . It's probably bee asked before, but I take it you don't get any melting of the styrene with the iron if you keep it moving over the surface? Craig Edited September 1, 2017 by brahman104 airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Peter, I really enjoy seeing this part of your technique. The elevators (along with everything else) are looking awesome. Would love to be a fly on the wall of your workshop! Amazed, still... Gaz airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Wannabe Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Small irons specifically designed for R/C covering films aren't all that expensive.. https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=trim+sealing+iron&ul_noapp=true But I guess you knew that already! airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyKing Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 The late John Alcorn would surely approve. John recently passed away at age 85 due to a combination of many things including Alzheimers, heart troubles, pneumonia, and aspiration of food, as well as other unspecified causes. John was the author of two books, Scratchbuilt! and The Master Scratchbuilders, both published by Schiffer in 1993 and 1999 respectively. Many of you will remember his scratchbuilt 1/24 DH-9A that not only won the IPMS-USa nationals in 1998 but also won the 2000 UK Modelworld. He spent about 6 years and an estimated 8,000 hours on it. airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted September 2, 2017 Share Posted September 2, 2017 Hells Bells man................. airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted September 2, 2017 Share Posted September 2, 2017 Really looking good! airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted September 5, 2017 Author Share Posted September 5, 2017 thank you chaps & good evening Once again I take my hat off to you Sir, I tried and failed this method on the B-17 . It's probably bee asked before, but I take it you don't get any melting of the styrene with the iron if you keep it moving over the surface? Craig Hi Craig - I find it doesn't melt it - our iron has three settings for heat & I have it on the middle one, I just stand the iron up and work the part against it - i found the key is to push the whole thing flat to get the main surface down and stuck and then work edges and corners, Don't worry about how it looks as most of the sagging & pinching can be worked out by just applying heat to it again. It does take a little practice but I find it quite a forgiving material to work with, it seems to take compound curves reasonably well and sticks very well where it touches.. having made the elevators and it now being time to add the rib tapes etc, I was troubled when I looked back at the rudder.. I always felt the tamiya tape was too heavy and the picture is quite flattering, in the light it looked overdone - the real thing looks like this - the tapes are subtle, and if anything the ties and rods underneath the tape is what needed to be captured.. ..rather than make the elevators bad like the rudder, i stripped it all off and recovered the rudder to do the whole lot in a new way.. ..after experimenting with fuse wire, cotton and sprue for the rods under the tape, I settled on some ultra fine wire from a laptop lead, I also experimented with using solartex and decal strips for the tape, but found the best material to be some foil tape I have that is what heating engineers use (I think) it is like bare metal foil on a roll.. I tried running a rivet wheel along it and cutting along that line with a scalpel to attempt to replicate the 'pinked' edges - the real thing has zig-zag edges to prevent fraying (I think again).. ..after carefully adding wire on each rib, I added spots of CA gel to act as the fixings on each row and covered them in the home made rib tape... # ..compared to the original, I think the effect is about as close as I can get... ..same for the elevators.. ..these were wire wooled and primed with mr metal etch primer - I had a sudden nightmare it would react with the solartex, but turned out fine... then primed with mr surfacer 500.. ..and now i have the full set ready for paint.. ..speaking of which, I guess it's aluminium dope, it looks quite blueish in this photo - will have to try & mix something up.. ..then it's on to all the trim tab fittings and getting the registration right on the rudder.. TTFNPeter monthebiff, Uilleann, 109 and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Very cool. I like the overall effect airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
109 Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Well done! I have that foil, too. Also available with copper foil. 🤗🖒 airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackCanopy Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Zigzagged tape? Really? If you ever allow people to see this "model" in person, they will be forced to stick their noses to a *very* close proximity, in order to fully apprehend all the unreal detail. Protective suits might be required... monthebiff, airscale and Shaka HI 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monthebiff Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Zigzagged tape? Really? If you ever allow people to see this "model" in person, they will be forced to stick their noses to a *very* close proximity, in order to fully apprehend all the unreal detail. Protective suits might be required... Peter had it on show at Telford last year and it looked just awesome so I can only imagine whatit looks like now in the flesh after following the build for heading towards another year. Regards. Andy airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Peter, Thank you as always for taking the time to answer all my never ending questions I think you definitely deserve two gold stars; the first for the furnace tape, which looks just right and the brilliant solution to the pinking of the edges (very clever!) and the second, for redoing the rudder all over again The effect looks spot on! While I think the solartex looks just right for the scale of your Spit, have you heard of another similar product called "coverlite?" It appears to have a finer weave texture which may be of use if you ever decide to go back to a smaller scale..... I've got some on order for the B-17. I'll let you know how it goes! Cheers, Craig Shaka HI and airscale 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Barry Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 aluminum hardware tape is my whole Fury metal solution (except for the litho panel behind the cockpit). Glad you found it useful for this application. I love it. airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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