ironman1945 Posted July 11, 2006 Author Share Posted July 11, 2006 Thanks very much everyone for the kind words; I have to emphasize that everything/everyone that has posted on this site has been an inspiration for me to keep going . I really dont consider myself highly skilled or very capable at model building, but as my wife says, I am very very stubborn, so in the case of the Whirlwind its more me saying to myself "I'm not letting this beat me" then anything else. And I am very much enjoying it; someone posted an earlier comment on how the satisfaction of doing something like this is huge, I fully agree. If your thinking of giving scratchbuilding a try (and hey if I can do it all of you can), I highly recommend getting ahold of copies of John Alcorn's 2 books, Scratchbuilt, and The Master ScratchBuilders. Both books live up to the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words". Matt, dont let the agony get to you, the feeling you get when you figure out solutions is more then worth it. Take care everyone and hopefully I will have more pics this weekend. Dave/Ironman1945 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironman1945 Posted July 16, 2006 Author Share Posted July 16, 2006 Hi everyone Well, work continues on the topside fuel tank reinforcement covers on the wing. Here are two photos of the new plastic covers, sanded down and with the reinforcement strips glued on. After the glue dries, more sanding to make the strips thinner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironman1945 Posted July 16, 2006 Author Share Posted July 16, 2006 Back in November I asked if anyone knew what type of radio was fitted on the rear deck of the Whirlwind. Derek B. was kind enough to contact the Duxford Radio Society to find that the radio was a British TR1143, which was eventually superseded by the US SRC522. (Thanks again Derek for finding this info for me). After a little digging on the internet, I discovered that the SRC522 was pretty much a copy of the TR1143 (if this is wrong, please let me know), so with some photos of the SRC522 off the web I went ahead and built the components. Here is the result, one shot of the radio gear alone, and another as it will look installed on the rear deck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironman1945 Posted July 16, 2006 Author Share Posted July 16, 2006 And finally, progress on the cockpit framing. I'm adding strip styrene framing to the white styrene canopy I vacuformed earlier. The plan is to sand the strip styrene dwn, cut away everything inside the framing, and if all goes well fit the earlier clear vacuform canopy inside. In this photo the strip framing has been added to the front windscreen and I have left the mold inside to provide support while dealing with this. Thats all for now, thanks for the kind words everyone and I hope your having a great summer! Dave/Ironman1945 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker Posted July 16, 2006 Share Posted July 16, 2006 coming along nicely there dude keep up the good work hacker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattlow Posted July 16, 2006 Share Posted July 16, 2006 Dave, lovely work. I do like your approach to the canopy framing - I'll be watching this. I only hope my BV looks as good when its finished. You're right about the extreme pleasure you get when things come together and I have just had one of those (hopefully some more pics today/tomorrow). Cheers Matt Low Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsarnoffca Posted July 16, 2006 Share Posted July 16, 2006 Beautiful work. It's a real treat to watch this build progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klaus H Posted July 16, 2006 Share Posted July 16, 2006 your plan with the canopy framing sounds very interesting. i am curious how it works out. very good and interesting idea to aproach it like that. cheers klaus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironman1945 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Share Posted September 5, 2006 After a busy summer I have managed to get to the point of deciding about rivets... yes or no? On the one hand I thought why bother, it would be a real pain? On the other hand, I figured " this is supposed to be an exercise in testing my limits so why not?" In the end, after a long discussion with Jeff at the local hobby shop, I decided to give it a go. Here she is primed, and partially rivetted. Because of all the disimiliar materials (plastic, superglue and milliput) I decided to lightly rivet over a primer coat of Tamiya grey. At least that was the theory; as you will see "results vary" (and I understand now one of the big reasons Alan Clark covers all his plank and fram scratchbuilt aircraft with metal/printers plate). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironman1945 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Share Posted September 5, 2006 Another overall view from the other side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironman1945 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Share Posted September 5, 2006 A close up view of the fuselage. I used the MDC rivet making tool... basically embossing each rivet seperatly using a line template. Tedious to say the least, and I contemplated using Rosie the Riviter instead, but I liked the "dome" rivet made by the MDC tool. Unfortunatly my plan of doing this on primer resulted in some of the "dome " primer rivets falling off, leaving a shallow hole instead. As well, after endless hours of rivets, sometimes I have trouble keeping the lines perfectly straight. Ah well, they were hand rivetted in real life so I will attribute any imperfections to human error... at least thats my story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironman1945 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Share Posted September 5, 2006 Starboard side by the tail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCote Posted September 5, 2006 Share Posted September 5, 2006 Exciting and magnificent are but two of the words that come to mind in seeing this great project unfold. Cheers, Jean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironman1945 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Share Posted September 5, 2006 Starboard side wing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironman1945 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Share Posted September 5, 2006 And finally the port side by the tail. Something else I hadnt realized until the primer coat. Some of the panel lines look like trenches. I believe this happened because of the variance of pressure I used on the different materials I scribed through..again, plastic, superglue and milliput. Yes, next time (heaven forbid!) I will be sure to follow Alan Clark's example of covering with metal. My experiments with the seperate plastic canopy framing have met with mixed results. More to follow. Jean, thanks for the kind words. I hope everyone has had a great summer! Dave/Ironman 1945 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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