TorbenD Posted June 11, 2017 Author Share Posted June 11, 2017 (edited) Mornin' all One of the quirks of this kit is that whilst pretty nicely detailed overall on the exterior, every now and then a pretty obvious detail seems to have been completely omitted - case in point is the steering linkage in the tail which is totally AWOL ... the trim tab link also needs a little love as I wanted to offset both slightly. This led to a little unexpectedly lengthy journey off piste - As I wanted to offset the tail my references showed the inner structure of the tail itself would be visible. So out came the knives/file etc to carve back the tail frame so I could detail that area. Noe committed I wanted to try and replicate the slightly raised edges to the lightening holes as seen on many pressed steel features. After experimenting I found a method that produced quite a nice result. Basically I punched out a slightly smaller hole than was needed then inserted the point of a set of a compass (or dividers etc.) which had a diameter slightly greater than the punched hole - by gentle forcing this point part way through the hole the thin plastic card subtly bulges are the edge of the hole. A very careful twist withdraw of the compass point and Voila! It took about 10 goes to get this right across all four holes - getting them in a perfect line took ages too. The shot below shows my first version al glued in before a faired in the sides to give me more scale thickness to the skin of the plane so imagine my frustration once everything was fully finished when I offered up the rudder to find that I had misread my cutting marks when I trimmed out the section. The lightening holes were set too low!!! so had to do it all again... more pics in a minute Torben Edited August 12, 2017 by TorbenD Hubert Boillot and Shaka HI 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorbenD Posted June 11, 2017 Author Share Posted June 11, 2017 (edited) Once I'd decide to offset the rudder and trim tab, as well as creating the steering mechanism I realised I'd have to go the whole hog on the more exposed detail around the fixtures and fittings around the main spare too. The rudder was cut and hollowed out to accept the steering mechanism which I created from thin discs of plastic card and some fine jewellery wire twisted to to represent the cables that disappear inside the fuselage. I also decided to detail up the main spare attachment hole - the image below shows the initial enlargement along with a slight step cut around the whole area so that the new skinned edge made off thin plastic card would have some thing the glue onto before being sanded back to closer to scale thickness. I then cut open and detailed up the trim tab connector with filed down brass sheet. The hole at the front was fared over and all sanded down - at the same time reducing the rudder ribbing a fraction. The new slot was then cut revealing a hollowed out section with thin ‘skinned' sides Confession time... I had to redo this whole front end skinning too as the first attempt my hand slipped and the cut was too big! So once both elements were redone I then finished the tail at the top and created the spar from plastic card and rod. All assembled - nothing glued yet but pretty happy with how this all turned out so far. Lesson learned (again) Measure twice, cut once!!! Thanks for looking Cheers, Torben Edited August 12, 2017 by TorbenD MikeMaben, Shaka HI, Hubert Boillot and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdthoresen Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 (edited) Nice work Torben. The rudder actuator pulley looks spot on. A lot of work on the tail to be sure, but comparing it to what comes in the box there really is no comparison!Looking forward to the next installment.THOR Edited June 12, 2017 by bdthoresen TorbenD and Joel_W 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 Wow, that is seriously cool! Kev TorbenD and Joel_W 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Boillot Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 Great detailing work, in line with all your previous work ... Hubert TorbenD and Joel_W 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel_W Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 Torben, Now that's detailing at it's highest level. I'm 100% positive I've never seen any detailing of the rudder area anything like you've accomplished. Joel Shaka HI and TorbenD 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaka HI Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 Damn.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moksha Posted June 17, 2017 Share Posted June 17, 2017 What a fantastic build. Love that rudder! TorbenD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radders Posted June 17, 2017 Share Posted June 17, 2017 Thousands would be happy with it out the box and you generally see them built out the box too. This is what I love, modifying a kit to make it your own, nice work on the rudder! TorbenD and Shaka HI 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandiego Posted June 18, 2017 Share Posted June 18, 2017 Really nice scratch building, Torben. Dan TorbenD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorbenD Posted July 23, 2017 Author Share Posted July 23, 2017 (edited) Well what can I say that hasn't already been said... Not much I'm guessing... what were the guys and gals thinking of at Photobucket when they decided to do that? I, like many others, genuinely wouldn't have minded paying a fair price for the use of 3rd party sharing but the fees they're asking for is a bad joke. Bad enough but when you compound it by blocking all previous links unless...... well that's just.... Nuff said - here goes a Smugmug test. If this works well... I'll aim to backdate all the old PB links as soon as I can Cheers, Torben Edited July 23, 2017 by TorbenD Whitey 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TorbenD Posted July 23, 2017 Author Share Posted July 23, 2017 (edited) Test seems to be successful - time for a few belated thank you's and a small update - Damn.... Damn what? Nice work Torben. The rudder actuator pulley looks spot on. A lot of work on the tail to be sure, but comparing it to what comes in the box there really is no comparison!Looking forward to the next installment.THOR Thanks Thor - she can be pretty minimal in a few departments - even if I was going OTB (as opposed to OTT!) this is one of the fixes that would be near the top of the tweak list. Wow, that is seriously cool! Kev Thx Kev - that means a lot to me coming from your good self. Great detailing work, in line with all your previous work ... Hubert Cheers Hubert - I look forward to seeing more of your wonderful builds as and when you're able... Torben, Now that's detailing at it's highest level. I'm 100% positive I've never seen any detailing of the rudder area anything like you've accomplished. Joel Thanks Joel - much, much appreciated - slowly does it, I only wish I had more time. What a fantastic build. Love that rudder! Ta muchly Moksha - all encouragement most welcome Thousands would be happy with it out the box and you generally see them built out the box too. This is what I love, modifying a kit to make it your own, nice work on the rudder! Cheers Radders - I love doing this too... can't you tell? Really nice scratch building, Torben.Dan Thanks Dan - in for a penny... lots and lots of inspiration on this site to spur one on. Work continues at a gentleman snail's pace... From references I've gathered it appears that the elevators had quite a scallopped shape underneath where they join the horizontal stabilizers which like the vertical stabilizers tend to show quite a lot of the inner structure. The same is true of the top view so, in for a penny in for a pound I started detailing this area. After drawing up a quick scaled guide based on photographs in Adobe Illustrator I set up my punch and die with a little plastic jig/runner taped in place so I could get such a long line of holes all lined up. This way I only had to mark out the spaces between the centres of each hole. I then got some 20thou plastic card and temporarily fixed two thin lengths together, one on top of the other, so that two matching sets could be created the same time. In reality there are three different groups of diameter of these lightening holes - 10 larger ones nearest the fuselage, then a group of 4 medium with 5 of the smallest diameter towards the outer edge. In order not to have to re set the jig for each set of sizes I punched through both sheets using the smallest diameter hole for all the necessary holes. Once this was completed, keeping both lengths together still I then used a series of fine jeweller's reamers to widen the medium and larger holes to their required diameters It only took four goes to get it right first time!!! I then adapted the horizontal sabilizers in the same way as the vertical to produce the detail I wanted - apologise I was on a role so I didn't capture the construction of these but here's the end result: I then reshaped the elevators to recreate the correct profile on the leading edge - in the photo of the end on view below the one on top is uncorrected, the one underneath sanded within a fraction of the remaining thickness of the plastic on the underside to get the correct shape. I also thinned down the rear edge of the elevators, cut open the port trim tab, and reduced the ribbing. As shown below I was a bit over zealous with the sanding on the far outside tip of the elevator so will need to add a little back there to return the profile but that aside from the plan view it looks like nothing has changed.... .. but from all other views it is far more interesting and I'm pretty pleased how well all this extra effort seems to captured the scale thickness and detail I was trying to achieve. Thanks for looking, Torben Edited July 23, 2017 by TorbenD Joel_W, LSP_Kevin, Shawn M and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 Amazing! Kev Joel_W and TorbenD 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hartmann52 Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 Mega build! TorbenD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinnfb Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 Exceptional ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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