Exhausting!

[Bruce_Crosby]

Hi Guys,

 

Here is a short treatise on recent developments at Casa Crosby.  I've got a number of 1/32 Hasegawa Fw190-A models and three PCM Early A series.  A couple of years ago I bought aftermarket hollowed out resin exhausts for the Hasegawa kits, plus some Ki-84 exhausts.  I painted them, along with two of the PCM sets (third one arrived later) and, like you do, put them in a bag or a container and put them away somewhere safe.  Forgot to say, there were two PCM Ta152C-1 exhaust sets as well, but I've used them. MEANWHILE!!! Back to the plot - I've lost them somewhere. I still had one set of PCM A exhausts, but they are clearly taken from the Hasegawa kit and reworked, and they are marginally smaller, which could only get worse if I copied them. 

 

So, here's what I ended up doing: I drilled out three complete Ki-84 sets, wasn't worth the time and effort of making a mould.  Then I modified two sets of Hasegawa exhausts, made a mould box, let it set then cast a pile of bits.

 

Pilot holes drilled in the Ki-84 exhausts with my ancient Archimedes drill.  Yes, one is off but that actually doesn't matter as there's a lot of cutting and filing to take place still.

 

 

First manifold already looking better.

 

 

First set of Ki-84 exhausts drilled and filed.  Obviously, I have cleaned up the seams and refined the lips from this attempt.

 

 

And that's three sets.

 

 

Starting on the Fw set.

 

 

A short while later.........

 

 

Comparison of the PCM resin and reworked Hasegawa by Yours Truly.

 

 

Two sets of Hasegawa parts were modified so I could speed up the casting. Here's the mould and the mould box sans walls.

 

 

A pile of castings in need of some TLC.

 

 

Final result: Ten sets of Fw190-A series exhausts ready to go.  No, not PhotoShop!

 

 

How long did it take? I started looking for useable bits about 8pm on Tuesday and worked until gone 10pm.  On the Wednesday I carried on drilling and cleaning up, having decided to not cast the Ki-84 parts but drill three sets instead, also double up on the Fw parts. I made the mould box in the afternoon, gave it a couple of hours for the cements to gas off and added the RTV in the evening.  I had the mould box cracked open by 8am on the Thursday and spent the whole day casting and cleaning up the results.  All done by about 3pm. 

 

Was it worth the effort?  Yes, as now I'll find the originals inside the week.  If I hadn't made them, the old ones would be lost to the mists of time. That's pretty much a hard and fast rule in modelling!

 

Regards,

 

Bruce Crosby

 

[themongoose]

10 hours ago, Bruce_Crosby said:

Was it worth the effort?  Yes, as now I'll find the originals inside the week.

Dude i was sure the punch line at the end of the thread was going to be that you found them already! 

[MikeMaben]

Whew !  I'm exhausted just reading your post Bruce.

Nice work.

[Greif8]

I echo Mike - very nice work Bruce!

 

Ernest

[dennismcc]

Nice work, slightly more than some modelling skills required !

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[James Rademaker]

Great work Bruce. I’m doing almost the exact same thing for my Hasegawa BF109’s. Question, after drilling the three holes what tool/ tools did you use to get the deeper cut and the smooth edges? I’ve been using a #11 blade to scrape out the insides of the exhausts.

Thanks,

Jim

[MikeMaben]

I'd recommend a  set like this ...

 

 

[Bruce_Crosby]

Hi Guys,

 

This is for James Rademaker about shaping up the exhausts. There's nothing fancy, no electric drill or burrs involved - way too fast and dangerous for delicate work. 

 

I spot the holes with the yellow handle scribing pin from Hasegawa, then drill out the holes with an Archimedes drill.  the drill bit is a lot narrower than the resultant channel we want.  Join up the holes with the drill, nice and slow.  change the angle of the drill to cut into the bottom of the next hole then slowly bring it vertical to cut out the web.  Something like a burr will take away material far too quickly.

 

 

A decent set of Swill files.  Most modelling files are cheap crap metal, these are proper Swiss engineering files that really are worth the money.

 

 

I hold the round file close to the tip and rotate it slowly to clean up the slot.  

 

 

Slow turn speed and run the files along the slot anf it's a few second's work.

 

 

any carving and straightening of the walls are done with this combination - NT Cutter knife and Zoukei-Mura Scraper Tool.  These are invaluable.  I find Swann-Morton blades flex and spring whereas the NT blade is totally rigid, giving far better control.  Similarly you can get a cheaper scraper from Trumpeter but it is nowhere near as capable as this one.  How do I know?  I've got two iterations of the Trumpeter one and pardon the pun, but they just don't cut it. 

 

 

Dremel:  You've got to be seriously deranged to let this anywhere near a model.  Far too fast and far too much power and far too big! You may think otherwise.

 

 

My preferred rotary tool is this old Expo Mini Drill I've had for ages.  It was given to me by Bob Hext of Froude and Hext Models in Swindon, UK, when I was making models for display in the shop window.  Must be the early 1970's as I was still based at RAF Lyneham on C-130's. The model railway controller was battered like this when I got it, so how old is any one's guess.  it will turn at a very low speed, even got a 1/2 power switch.

 

 

I hope this is useful.

 

Regards,

 

Bruce Crosby