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1/32 Matchbox PK-505 Tiger Moth Floatplane G-AIVW


Archimedes

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2 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

It looks awesome so far! Glad the punch and die worked out for you.

 

 

 

Matt 

Thanks Matt,

 

Great suggestion: I was thinking of scribing the, in using an Eduard template I have before putting the seams in the channels I had cut but that seemed too finicky so I went with your suggestion which worked out well.  Thank you!
 

Best regards,

Paul

 

 

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Hi Everyone,

 

Keeping the ball rolling here I have begun putting the angled uprights onto the float base. The result is this little cat’s cradle:

poiILFS5j

 

Again I have used 0.09 gauge guitar string. Because it is so stiff it made setting the angles of the uprights that connect the fuselage to the floats reasonably easy to set. They are definitely not perfect however but there is enough play in the assembly to pull everything into alignment when I introduce the fuselage. 
pnzXmFLCj

 

I know it is over-scale but hey, this is a rigging experimentation build and through this part of the experiment I have learned that maybe 0.07 gauge that is used on mandolins may be better suited for 1/32 scale.  For this build I will be using 3 types of rigging material to get the maximum ‘bang for my buck’. 

1. Guitar string nickel wire for the float assembly;

2. EZ line for the interplane rigging;

3. Nylon invisible mending thread for the control cables. 
 

The photo below demonstrates well why I have chosen the invisible mending thread for the control cables:

pn4NTe6ij

 

The control cables are far finer than the rigging between the wings. This is also a nice shot because it shows the routing of the  cables that control the water rudders and, for me, shows definitively that the rudder bar controls both the air and water rudders at the same time.

 

Now for some ugly stuff:

 

I shot some Tamiya grey primer over the float assembly:

po8qDP2Aj

 

first the good bits: The circular access panels on top of the floats look less obvious but are definitely ‘there’. The seams don’t look so over-scale as when they were white. Now for the downsides (shown in the photos below)

1. I still need to fix the sit of the port water rudder

2. there is an ugly gouge that needs to be filled and sanded on the inside of the port float

3. The glue seam on the underside of the starboard float has come apart which will need some attention to close it up

4. the cross braces need to be glued back together where they cross

5. the front of the float needs a rub down where previous ‘Mr Surfacer 1000’ has been used and is still showing

poAibbukj

 

po03rtkgj

 

pnlrjrKYj

 

So that is current state of play!
 

Best regards,

Paul

 

 

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Thanks Alain, Matt and Max, 

 

Well, we’ll see what this build throws at me. All one can do is give it a bang and, if it goes wrong try something else to solve the problem.  
 

Max and Alain: how are you doing with your builds? They have been both inspirational and informative for me so far. So, thank you for all of the information you have put up!
 

Best regards,

Paul
 

 

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11 hours ago, Archimedes said:

Thanks Alain, Matt and Max, 

 

Well, we’ll see what this build throws at me. All one can do is give it a bang and, if it goes wrong try something else to solve the problem.  
 

Max and Alain: how are you doing with your builds? They have been both inspirational and informative for me so far. So, thank you for all of the information you have put up!
 

Best regards,

Paul
 

 

Funnily enough I was looking at my Silver Wings one recently Paul and contemplating how to progress with it, I’m hoping that the sturdier jig that has been so reliable with my Fury could be a game-changer with the Tiger Moth……it’s wings haven’t been clipped yet!! 

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Sorry for the hiatus all; the day job tends to get in the way of the workflow! 

 

First a big thank you to Sandbagger (Mike) who gave me some gold dust tips on soldering techniques which may come in rather handy for my next project.  But for now we are still focusing on this Tiger Moth.  So; now that the float assembly is primed and ready for paint I turned my attention to the instrument panels and the rest of the cockpit: Of all of the parts of what is a pretty reasonable kit, the cockpit is the least impressive with its blob-like approximation of the Tiger Moth instrument panel's compass and work-of-fiction front seat.  So, what to do?

pmlOc285j

 

I used the kit instrument panels as template shapes to get the outline which was cut out of some 0.2 mm styrene sheet. I then sent the offending kit parts to the spares box.  I had ordered some Airscale instrument bezels and decals  (as an aside;  Holy Canoli have you seen Peter's 1/18 Hawker Fury? :coolio:). I added some HGW wood decals to the freshly minted styrene instrument panels. After perusing a great many pictures of Tiger Moth panels I added the right instrument decals. I pre painted the instrument bezels and attached them using simple PVA.  Finally I represented the glass for each instrument by using Krystal Kleer. Apologies for the phone camera picture below being out of focus. Not the neatest job but I wasn't done yet with these (and yes; the rev counter at top right on each panel is meant to be turned anti clockwise just like on the real thing). 

pmfzvxmXj

 

Next was the compass platform which is very distinctive on the Tiger Moth. I broke out some sheet brass and fashioned what looks something like metal platform the compass sits on. 

pnQINkzLj

 

Next I went back to my lathe and turned down a piece of aluminium bar to represent the compass. I painted the circumference in a light blue-grey, a band of satin black around the top circumference and put a compass instrument decal on top, rounding off the whole thing with a brass bezel which I left au naturelle:

poUzaxYuj

 

The result is 90% there. I think I need to redo the compass platform so that the compass sits more into the panel. The panel also needs to have some warning placards so I will order those from Airscale. 

 

That is the current state of affairs!  Not perfect but a long way from where the kit panel is.

 

Kind regards,

Paul

 

 

Edited by Archimedes
Correcting flipping typos….
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7 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Very nice work, Paul! Tiger Moth instrument panels seemed to vary wildly across the ages and according to application, so there's certainly some wiggle room for your own interpretation if required.

 

Kev

Hi Kev - Thank you! I couldn't find any pictures of G-AIVWs panel so this is a generic amalgamation of about 35 that I looked at on line. The panels need warning signs and placards and I need to site the compass further back into the panel on one of them. I think I got the instruments right including canting the rev counter over so that the needle would point vertical when at optimum revs.  More to follow in the next few days. 

 

Have you felt brave enough to dive back into the RAAF ambulance yet?

 

Kind regards,

Paul

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