Another Hasegawa T bolt Bubbletop, my first LSP. November 12, 2022, It is DONE at last!!!!!!!!

[JayW]

Scratch that last comment - I found the mast install that applies to the bubbletop, and it isn't the same as the razorback.

 

Mast is 3 3/8 inch left of centerline (.105 inch @ 1/32), and 1 7/8 AFT of Sta 101.75 aft (not to be confused with Sta 101.75 fwd).  1 7/8 is 0.059 inch @ 1/32.  TAG has it almost right.  Locate it aft of that panel line .059 inch, and left of the center panel line .105 inch.

 

 

Note the hole for the mast is not in line with a fastener row - it's all by itself.  

Edited December 14, 2021 by JayW

[Citadelgrad]

6 hours ago, Archer Fine Transfers said:

 

Your biggest worry should be the drill bit "wandering" off the mark and scratching the paint. Aircraft sheetmetal workers employ a center punch to make an indentation in the metal to avoid this, but of course that's not going to work on plastic.

 

If you have a scribe or any pointed tool with a little heft you can make an indentation where you want the hole. I've also used a #11 Exacto blade by twisting it to make a divot to hold the drill bit in place.

 

In lieu of that you can can hold the drill perpendicular to the surface to get it started and then rotate it to an upright position. 

Thats exactly what has me worried.  In my mind i’ve marred the finish a dozen times.  I will try to put a divot and hope for the best. 

3 hours ago, TAG said:

Hey, Bill

 

It shouldn't be so far off the centerline, I've placed a red dot where the bead sight should go.

Here's some pix, you can see how close to the centerline it is on this first shot:

The bead was quite prominent, in fact.

This last one is a resto, but it's Dottie Mae, which we all know is arguably the most authentically restored Jug flying today, so I reckon it's safe to assume they got the placement of the bead right.

 

Hope that helps, good luck with the last steps, they always seem to take longer than the build per se...

 

She looks a beaut, Gabby would be proud!

 

Cheers,

Thomaz

 

Thanks so much, Thomaz, those photos are exactly what i was looking for.  Thanks for the kind words. 

2 hours ago, JayW said:

Scratch that last comment - I found the mast install that applies to the bubbletop, and it isn't the same as the razorback.

 

Mast is 3 3/8 inch left of centerline (.105 inch @ 1/32), and 1 7/8 AFT of Sta 101.75 aft (not to be confused with Sta 101.75 fwd).  1 7/8 is 0.059 inch @ 1/32.  TAG has it almost right.  Locate it aft of that panel line .059 inch, and left of the center panel line .105 inch.

 

 

Note the hole for the mast is not in line with a fastener row - it's all by itself.  

Thanks, Jay, i will haul out the calipers and see what that looks like.  I will post a photo when i get the spot dialed in.  
 

thanks, all of you, for the invaluable back up on this and all the issues that have popped up on this build. 
 

i really appreciate the advice and insight. 

[JayW]

TAG - I must ask - where did you get this image, and do you know anything about it?

 

 

Look at the battle damage on that thing!!!  Clearly, the pilot did not have the benefit of landing flaps.  I wonder if it isn't Robert Johnson's wreck after his famous encounter with an FW with no way to fight back....

 

BTW - for some odd reason the gunsight mast was closer to the centerline on razorbacks than on the bubble tops.  Only thing I can think of is that the gunsights themselves were different - one being wider than the other...

[TAG]

3 hours ago, JayW said:

TAG - I must ask - where did you get this image, and do you know anything about it?

 

 

Look at the battle damage on that thing!!!  Clearly, the pilot did not have the benefit of landing flaps.  I wonder if it isn't Robert Johnson's wreck after his famous encounter with an FW with no way to fight back....

 

BTW - for some odd reason the gunsight mast was closer to the centerline on razorbacks than on the bubble tops.  Only thing I can think of is that the gunsights themselves were different - one being wider than the other...

Hi, Jay

 

Not sure where I found this pic, whenever I run across an image I like I just save on my computer, but I never kept track over the years where I found them, apologies. In any case, it sure does look like Johnson's bird after that epic story of survival, alas this plane is from the 358th FG, not the 56th. Also, Johnson's incident with the 190 happened about a year before D-Day, so no way his ship would have had invasion stripes. Here's an accompanying shot for the 358th Jug in question, note the field-applied NMF rear-view mirrors on either side of the cockpit, pretty cool detail. The 358th also painted their tails in orange (which you can tell if you look closely at the photo, the tail is clearly a different hue to the rest of the plane), so definitely a striking scheme:

 

Just look at how shredded his port wing is, it's astonishing how much punishment -47's could take!

 

And yes, it is curious the bead sight post was placed in a different spot on the Bubbletops, I am pretty sure both Razorback and Bubbletop D's all came with factory-installed Mk. VIII optical gunsights avec ring & beads up till the D-40 block, which had the K-14 gyro sights instead.

 

An interesting conundrum, I'll take a look at some of my refs when I get a chance, thanks Jay!

 

Cheers,

Thomaz

 

[easixpedro]

59 minutes ago, TAG said:

Hi, Jay

 

Not sure where I found this pic, whenever I run across an image I like I just save on my computer, but I never kept track over the years where I found them, apologies. In any case, it sure does look like Johnson's bird after that epic story of survival, alas this plane is from the 358th FG, not the 56th. Also, Johnson's incident with the 190 happened about a year before D-Day, so no way his ship would have had invasion stripes. Here's an accompanying shot for the 358th Jug in question, note the field-applied NMF rear-view mirrors on either side of the cockpit, pretty cool detail. The 358th also painted their tails in orange (which you can tell if you look closely at the photo, the tail is clearly a different hue to the rest of the plane), so definitely a striking scheme:

 

Just look at how shredded his port wing is, it's astonishing how much punishment -47's could take!

 

And yes, it is curious the bead sight post was placed in a different spot on the Bubbletops, I am pretty sure both Razorback and Bubbletop D's all came with factory-installed Mk. VIII optical gunsights avec ring & beads up till the D-40 block, which had the K-14 gyro sights instead.

 

An interesting conundrum, I'll take a look at some of my refs when I get a chance, thanks Jay!

 

Cheers,

Thomaz

 

Found this at the American Air Museum Website: Ground crewmen lift out the unconscious pilot, Lt. Jacob C Blazicek from a Republic P-47D Thunderbolt after his flak riddled plane crash-landed on a newly constructed Advanced Landing Ground (ALG-A3) at Cardonville, France. 16-Jun-44. P-47D 42-76436 CP-D 367FS, 358FG, 9AF

42-76436 | American Air Museum in Britain

 

-Peter

Edited December 14, 2021 by easixpedro
Memory was wrong, so found the right answer

[JayW]

And to finish off my contributions to the gunsight discussion - 

 

2 hours ago, TAG said:

I am pretty sure both Razorback and Bubbletop D's all came with factory-installed Mk. VIII optical gunsights avec ring & beads up till the D-40 block, which had the K-14 gyro sights instead.

 

Thomaz - with one exception - the D-30 block, which had the Mk. VIII, but lacked the ring & bead!  Here:

 

 

According to the application block, D-30RE aircraft get the "-3 installation".  And note the -3 does not get the ring assembly or its support.  The D-25RE, however gets the "-2 installation", which does include the ring.  A bit more digging, and I am sure we would see that the bead or mast is also not included with the D-30RE. 

 

I am happy about this, because my 1/18 Thunderbolt is a D-30RE, and I did not include the ring & bead.  MOF - I am getting deja-vu.  I have travelled this path before a couple years ago.

[Citadelgrad]

4 minutes ago, JayW said:

And to finish off my contributions to the gunsight discussion - 

 

 

Thomaz - with one exception - the D-30 block, which had the Mk. VIII, but lacked the ring & bead!  Here:

 

 

According to the application block, D-30RE aircraft get the "-3 installation".  And note the -3 does not get the ring assembly or its support.  The D-25RE, however gets the "-2 installation", which does include the ring.  A bit more digging, and I am sure we would see that the bead or mast is also not included with the D-30RE. 

 

I am happy about this, because my 1/18 Thunderbolt is a D-30RE, and I did not include the ring & bead.  MOF - I am getting deja-vu.  I have travelled this path before a couple years ago.

I would just like to take this rare opportunity to post a photo of something I pretty much swagged and gloat that it turned out very close to the way it should be.

 

 

Thanks for this information, this community is amazing.  

[Citadelgrad]

Tonight i just had time to get the calipers and run one piece of tape at .105” left of the centerline, helpfully marked by the first line i ever successfully scribed, and another line .059” behind that panel line, to borrow Jay’s calculations. It wa actually only slightly closer to the center line than i eyeballed it. 
 

as near as i can measure without actually scratching the finish, the left edge of the fore aft tape and the front edge of the port starbord tapes are the correct measurement, therefore the left front corner of where they cross is where the pin should go. 
 

 

Edit, that's partly the camera angle, partly that I got lazy and was precise only from the front edge to the area where the pin will go.  The line is straight and parallel to the panel line where it needs to be. 

 

My OCD appears to be way out of hand today.  

Edited December 15, 2021 by Citadelgrad

[Citadelgrad]

Tonight i used my beadmaker tool’s sharpest needle to make a divot, and then held my breath and drilled the tiniest hole i have ever drilled. I held my breath, hoping that the hold was small enough to NOT let the tiny post slip all the way in.  As it turns out, it looks like it was machined with a collar that is larger than the pin that goes in the .4mm hole. 
 

as it turns out, success!  This is just a dry fit, afterward i shot it with some black, but my guess is i will wipe that off just installing it.  Im happy with the placement, and really happy it sits so vertically. 
 

 

 

another of those small (no pun intended) details that goes a long way. 
 

heres a version of the canopy release handle that i might or might not use 

 

 

to the naked eye, it looks the part but under the macro lens and blown up to fill the screen, it kind of looks like a cleat for a boat. Jury is out on that.  
 

i also sprayed the jettison arms when i shot the front sight pin, but no photos of that. I just hope i remember the pin is in the sponge, that thing is impossibly tiny and will never be found if i drop it. 
 

i decanted some Future to glue the post in place, how long should i let that go before trying to use as a glue?

 

 

thanks for looking!   Thanks especially for the help figuring out where to drill that teeny hole.  

[MikeMaben]

Nice tight fit Billl, should be fine the way it is.

[JayW]

OMG!  Don't sneeze!  And don't let anyone near this masterpiece.  I worry about my pitot tubes, and they are alot larger and more robust than that little mast!  Well done, and it looks placed correctly.

[Woody V]

13 hours ago, Citadelgrad said:

but my guess is i will wipe that off just installing it.

 

Use a self etching primer. That stuff is amazing.

And yes, it also works on brass.

 

[Citadelgrad]

Tonight i experimented with different ways to depict the IFF lights under the wing.  I drilled 3 holes in the inside of the mule wing and used molotow liquid chrome to simulate the reflector.  Then i put straight Liquitex acrylic gel in one, the others i put varying amounts of tamiya clear red.  I hope the results will extend to yellow and green (they look blue when unlit, any thoughts?)

 

i will paint the clear one with straight clear red, the other two already have the red.  An issue appears to be, the really red one had about 1/3 to 1/4 paint, which seemed to change the consistency of the gel, the other one i added more gel to the same mix, but it became pink, but behaved more like the untinted gel.  I hope the very white gel, which becomes clear when dry, will look more red when dry.  
 

heres the steps, no verdict yet because the clear one is not yet clear, so its not dry yet. 
 

 

First try at red mixture

 

before the second red attempt. This shows

the chrome effect nicely

 

And all 3

 

the bottom one looks messy, i got some chrome outside the opening before i figured out how the pen works.  
 

not sure i want to risk the finish this way but we will see what it looks like. 

[Citadelgrad]

Results:   Top is clear resin painted with clear red.  
 

middle is diluted red tinted resin

 

bottom is heavy tinted red resin

 

 

wondering if careful masking will clean up the edges.  I think the resin is water soluble, but when the paint is added that quality is minimized. The bottom one shows how wrong this can go. 
 

ideas?  Thoughts?

 

thanks for looking.  
 

edit:  best way to cut masking material?  I have a silhouette cutter.  I suppose i could cut masks any size i want?

Edited December 20, 2021 by Citadelgrad

[Fanes]

2 hours ago, Citadelgrad said:

 best way to cut masking material?  I have a silhouette cutter.  I suppose i could cut masks any size i want?

That's what it's meant for

Maybe not any size - stuff smaller than 1mm didn't work for me when cutting Oramask 810.

For the really small and/or precise circles a punch and die tool works great, especially with Tamiya tape