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1/18 Curtiss P40C - Finished :)


airscale

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hi everyone :) thank you so much for stopping by and your kind replies

 

On 8/28/2022 at 8:37 PM, brahman104 said:

And just when you thought that old school methods were dead! Great to see the casting work Peter! I assume you considered a 3D print as well, but went with casting instead? 

 

They came out very nice indeed!

 

Craig

 

Hi Craig - I did consider 3D printing and I sort of tried it, but they are quite organic shapes and I am not very good at those so soon decided to just make and cast them like I did with the Spit :)

 

 

On 8/28/2022 at 8:37 PM, monthebiff said:

Absolutely stunning work as ever Peter, and here she is sat quietly in the hanger last night not taking part in the Duxford evening airshow which was spectacular!

 

Regards. Andy

 

 

Thanks Andy - those pics are lovely - I really like they show the tonal difference in the stainless steel exhaust panel which is reassuring as I made this in PE out of laziness, but actually it is good having it in nickel silver as it contrasts with the litho

 

On 8/29/2022 at 1:57 AM, Paulpk said:

Peter,

Really great work! Thanks for sharing your techniques. I am familiar with the litho sheet process but it still amazes me the burnishing process works so well. You have sparked an interest in trying this technique, just need to clear a few projects off the desk. Is 1/32 too small a scale for this litho process in your opinion?

regards,

Paul

 

Hi Paul - thanks. Good question - I think it could work - I wanted to do an HK Lancaaster as a Lancastrian, or a B17 as a Boeing 307 Stratoliner, both of which would lend themselves well to skinning, but then if you tried it on say a Spitfire it might be a bit too hard as the compound curves would be pretty tight and I think skinning a smaller model would be pretty tricky. Not impossible, but hard I would say

 

On 8/30/2022 at 4:20 PM, BiggTim said:

Peter, that exhaust stack work is so incredible! You are quite good at casting as well. Have you done any 3D resin printing? (I can't recall). 

 

Hi Tim - I am not sure what that is? I have my 3D designs printed, and as yet have not had to use a 3d print as a master for casting resin, but sure it would be pretty straightforward - that or resin printing is neither of these things :) in which case the answer must be no :) 

 

On 8/31/2022 at 4:40 PM, Thomas Lund said:

I was just going over the last couple of pages (marvelling !!) but it made me think - how do you cut and drill those thin plates and avoid distortion of the cut edges ? I was looking at the flap ribs with the cut-out's in them especially...

 

Hi Thomas - the trick to making holes & cut-outs is to do them first when you have more material in hand - just scoring around an access panel for example means I can drill a hole and score into the corners then hold the sheet in a hold & fold and neatly break out the panel. The flap ribs however were designed in PE so it may be you are seeing things I didn't actually make :)

 

I moved onto start skinning the upper nose - this is aa complicaated little area with the big caarb intake and two gun fairings meaning it's not a simple task. one plus is that the anti-glare panel is painted over this so I had decided to not try and skin the gun covers but see if I could get away with fairing them into other sheeted areas..

 

..first step was get a tape template of the central skin panel covering the carb intake & mark the rivet lines in situ so they are right vertically & horizontally..

 

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..the template is removed and put on a sheet where the borders are scored, rivets added and in this case a Prestone access paanel cut out..

 

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..with that panel laid down it sets the borders of the main upper cowling panels..

 

..same process repeated..

 

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..both sides done at the same time so the rivet patterns carry over both sides & line up..

 

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..those panels were made up - it took a few tries to get them right and good neat panel lines where they meet top and bottom..

 

..the black dyno tape is where I need to add material next time i try, and the top panel was perfect but I laid it down in the wrong position and it got stress wrinkles on removal so a hours work became scrap pretty quickly..

 

4i4mRf.jpg

 

..when they were right they were fitted..

 

you can see where the gun covers have just been cut around and a small nose panel added & faired into the Carb intake casting at the front....

 

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..then the skins were masked up ready to fill the gaps around the gun covers..

 

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..filled and primed with mr surfacer but sanded back..

 

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..and then a template used to score the panel line for the gun cover fairing..

 

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..and the nose cap of the fairing scribed & the whole lot cleaned up - I aalso went over any rivets that needed it..

 

..not happy with how the raised rivets at the front of the main panel came out, but it is what it is...

 

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..the panel behind this has two piano hinges, so I made up the full set and added the top one first, bordered by the hinges...

 

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..then the side panels were added using the same masking & thin contact cement process..

 

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...both side panels added..

 

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..and the area is about as complete as I can get it before adding the wings & fillets as these need to be there for subsequent panels..

 

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..I guess its wings on soon and working up the considerable wing fillets..

 

TTFN

Peter

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Beautiful work as always Peter! Some very tricky panels to attend to there. Regarding the raised rivets - Have you had a play with using some very small diameter stainless tube in a pin vise to push the surrounding area down? This has been working very well for me on the B-17 (every rivet done three times; two from the back, and one from the front) and it creates a much sharper rivet.

 

Definitely worth a try if you haven't already! :) 

 

Craig

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On 9/4/2022 at 4:53 AM, airscale said:

Hi Tim - I am not sure what that is? I have my 3D designs printed, and as yet have not had to use a 3d print as a master for casting resin, but sure it would be pretty straightforward - that or resin printing is neither of these things :) in which case the answer must be no :) 

TTFN

Peter

Hi Peter,

 

I was referring to SLA type 3D printing (such as with a printer like an Anycubic Photon or Phrozen Sonic)- done with photoreactive liquid resin. If you have been having parts printed for you, it was most likely done using this method. There are quite few of us on LSP who are using it now, including pros like Steve at Model Monkey, though his printers are VERY high end. SLA allows for much higher detail and quality, and the resin parts can be used directly in the build - no need to recast in resin unless you wish to make large quantities of copies. Those exhausts would have been the sort of thing that would turn out amazing with an SLA printer, though I'm doubtful it could improve on your finished product, as your quality is second to none. The only advantage is that it most likely would have been much quicker and less tedious than scratchbuilding them.

 

Again, your skinning abilities are inspiring, and continue to push me toward trying it myself. Is there a thread where you describe your process so I can give it a try? 

 

Tim

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howdy folks :)

 

On 9/4/2022 at 6:21 PM, scvrobeson said:

How do you thin out the contact cement? Or do you use it straight, and just apply a very thin layer?

Matt 

 

Hi Matt - I use the proprietory adhesive cleaner that goes with the cement I use - it dilutes it to any consistency I need and in fact I found recently that I can almost take it down to the consistency of water and it still works as a contact adhesive

 

r1X2MT.jpg

 

 

On 9/4/2022 at 7:56 PM, brahman104 said:

Regarding the raised rivets - Have you had a play with using some very small diameter stainless tube in a pin vise to push the surrounding area down? This has been working very well for me on the B-17 (every rivet done three times; two from the back, and one from the front) and it creates a much sharper rivet.

 

Definitely worth a try if you haven't already! :) 

 

Craig

 

Hi Craig - thanks that is a great tip - I will try it :)

 

On 9/5/2022 at 7:46 PM, BiggTim said:

Again, your skinning abilities are inspiring, and continue to push me toward trying it myself. Is there a thread where you describe your process so I can give it a try? 

 

Tim

 

Hi Tim thanks - yes there are a couple here and here - good luck and if you have any questions just ping me :)

 

 

2 hours ago, Pete Fleischmann said:

Hi Peter,

you may have mentioned it and I missed it; but would love to know how you did the piano hinges- I have several to do for my model, and am always open to a new technique! They look great!

 

cheers

P

 

 

Hi Pete - it's really simple - I just leave a slot in the skinning and get some Albion Alloy ali tube of the diameter I want and score it at 1 - 2mm spacing so there are ridges on the tube. You need to apply enough pressure that you get a good score line, but not so much that you actually cut the tube. Then I put it on a bit of tape and run it up and down a sanding stick so a flat forms - be careful peeling the tape off as the tube is now weakened at all those score lines and you have the hinge part ready to add :)

 

so, just a small update today, but a pretty big step forward as the wings have been added...

 

..the model was laid on plans and levelled in all axis - the right dihedral was already fixed from the slide tubes added on day one of this build..

 

then they was epoxied into position and left to set..

 

AlaXHc.jpg

 

..with the wings added, it was time to understand and set out the fillet structures.. seen here on the real one, they are quite substantial..

 

0fSfgR.jpg

 

..I used drawings to create templates and then mark out the borders using lining tape, bulked out with tamiya tape..

 

..also added a brass definition shape at the back of the fillet to define the scalloped outline, and a little card section at the leading edge..

 

PqfZgO.jpg

 

..then P38 filler was added and shaped - I thought I had done things in the right order by skinning some of the wings & fuselage, but actually it made for a harder task in doing some pretty agressive sanding & shaping right next to a buch of finished panels..

 

..you can see a missing panel by the access door - that was victim of a slipped dremel and will need to be remade...

 

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..then a first coat of high build primer was shot to see how it looked..

 

 

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..it's certainly close - a bit of fettling needed and then it will be fine to carry on skinning..

 

TTFN
Peter

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