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1/18 Fairey Firefly VX376


airscale

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Nice progress Peter.

 

Just as a bye-the-bye, when (real) BAC Lightnings were being stripped down with a similar lack of topside panels, spacer bars were inserted to maintain structural and dimensional integrity.

 

Not saying your Firefly will end up banana shaped, just thought it worth mentioning as something to be aware of, if not guard against.

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evening folks :)

 

 

Fantastic Peter! I still don't understand how your mind is able to determine in advance all the right shapes and sizes to design the PE before you begin the build.... I'd have to build the model about 5 times first. Do you use some kind of mock up to determine the dimensions of bulkheads and the like? It looks like it'd take years of research to do that....

 

Craig

 

Hi Craig - thanks for dropping in :)

 

it's relatively simple to scale things like PE in this way - all I do is take the plans I have where cross-section formers are shown and scale them to 1/18. From there I take photo's etc and scale those to the former size so I can draw all the stuff in relative scale. After that it's a case of building to the shapes - I can print out the PE in real size on paper and make sure that skinning or bulkheads are exact matches so they drop in no problem..

 

 

Nice progress Peter.

 

Just as a bye-the-bye, when (real) BAC Lightnings were being stripped down with a similar lack of topside panels, spacer bars were inserted to maintain structural and dimensional integrity.

 

Not saying your Firefly will end up banana shaped, just thought it worth mentioning as something to be aware of, if not guard against.

 

Thanks Chek - I have some big brass sections running laterally so it is pretty straight & stable - including the big gap for the observers station - it seems to be very rigid even though it looks weak & fragile :)

 

..the bits I have been working on lately are mainly bulkheads and part of the observers station..

 

first the rearmost bulkhead - this is a sandwich of one full thickness PE, one etched layer with details and another peripheral piece carrying the rivet & bracing strap detail for that..

 

WIP81_zps24xfrxpz.jpg

 

..similar story for the forward bulkhead, though this has some additional parts - the rear solid part has one big hole in it to allow all the little fixing holes in the detailed layer to be seen without being blanked off...

 

WIP82_zpsp8ipipct.jpg

 

,,after assembly & detailing with structural parts - you can see all the little holes :) ...

 

WIP83_zps33wsisyy.jpg

 

..having made it I had some trouble with the skin fitting correctly to the mid-section, and also the sheet I used to skin this section was too thin & had started to settle in like fabric on stringers - so off it came & it was re-skinned.. if ever something is not quite right, it's best to just do it again :)

 

WIP86_zps0gbi6cmb.jpg

 

WIP87_zpsi0vbbisx.jpg

 

..the observers position itself is defined by a flat area - again layers of PE..

 

WIP85_zpselsawasp.jpg

 

..it needs structural rigidity so some brass square stock was CA'd to keep it flat & rigid - also some plastic cross members to give something for the edging strip to bond to..

 

WIP89_zps9numhure.jpg

 

..then the strip running around the inside to look like the real one.. this is just a strip of litho I have started to put bends in...

 

WIP88_zpsyqhawt9w.jpg

 

..and the finished section with a small seat belt fixing added at the rear....

 

WIP90_zpsnssutcwm.jpg

 

..and all these parts start to give some definition to the crew areas..

 

WIP91_zpskucnaueq.jpg

 

WIP92_zpsvxf9qugj.jpg

 

WIP95_zpshojsywsz.jpg

 

WIP93_zpswpscyok5.jpg

 

WIP94_zpsybcbk2wt.jpg

 

Telford soon so hope to see everyone there - I think I will put this on the 32SIG/LSP stand on the WIP bit as is tradition with my projects :) Please drop by my stand in Hall 2 to say hello :)

 

TTFN

Peter

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