thaipham101 Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Hi guys, I'm Thai, from Houston, Texas. I'm starting a new scale model business, TTModelworks, and I'd like to introduce you guys to my first product: The fat faced 1/32 Douglas AD-5 (A-1E) Skyraider. I'm opening my website to take pre-order till the end of the month for the special price of $150 free shipping within the U.S. and an additional $25 shipping elsewhere in the world. Release date is expected to be around May-June. I'm still finishing the design of the website but it's working now on ttmodelworks.com Following Ben Schumacher's of Scale Navy Stuff advice after initial print, I'm reworking the recessed panel lines and the first part with the new, deeper, and narrower panel line has just finished printing. Expect to gradually release pictures of more parts the coming days. I learnt 3D modeling specifically for printing not for rendering so my rendering skill aren't that good, so I decide to show printed parts instead. The kit will be 3D printed by me, decal will be printed by third party, depends on the order volume but I'm willing to cut profit to try to aim for the high-quality guys like MicroScale or Cartograf since I'll also build it myself, and clear parts will be injection molded if the order number meet my source's minimum requirement, if not I'll go for casted resin, but I'd rather have them injection molded for better consistency and longer life. Due to being a small business with small budget, I'd sadly have to start with pre-order basis so I can make sure I order enough supply, hopefully if things goes well I can have future releases ready to ship before opening orders. Any question please contact me here, or through my email at ttmodelworks@gmail.com This horizonal elevator is the first printed part after panel line rework. The scratches on it are by my grubby hands, other than that it's spotless. The elevator has the old wider panel lines. chukw, Learstang, Juggernut and 16 others 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dutik Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 @thaipham101 This should sell well Is this a full kit or a conversion for one of the kits by Trumpeter and Z-M? Regards - dutik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaipham101 Posted February 6 Author Share Posted February 6 7 hours ago, dutik said: @thaipham101 This should sell well Is this a full kit or a conversion for one of the kits by Trumpeter and Z-M? Regards - dutik Hi Dutik. It'll be a full kit. I see no point in spending more than $100 to get the plastic Trumpeter or ZM kit to just throw away pretty much the majority of the kit and spend even more on a conversion (the whole fuselage, interior, canopies, lanfing gear shroud, the main landing gear themselves, lower portion of the inboard wing because the landing gear bays are different and various details like capatult hooks are too) Youngtiger1, geedubelyer, dutik and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youngtiger1 Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 Wow, it looks promising!! thaipham101 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaipham101 Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 (edited) Hi guys, little (or big) update. With the help of Dan O'Hara and his reference pics I'm able to correct the fuselage section between fuselage station 90.5 and the engine mount. It's too much work adjusting things around so I'm redoing the whole section since I'm redoing the panel lines anyway. Will add the surface detail tonight and hopefully have it print by tmr Edited February 8 by thaipham101 Scotsman, LSP_Kevin, Daniel Leduc and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony in NZ Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Wow, very cool! You are very talented and your printing and panel lines look exceptional! I look forward to seeing your future projects...awesome entrance into LSP manufacturing! geedubelyer, thaipham101 and scvrobeson 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dutik Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Nice progress What is your idea for the clear parts? Vacu or 3D printed (if this is possible nowadays, don't know about this)? If vacu is your choice - will you add two canopies? Regards - dutik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quang Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 Hi Thai As I understood it, you have finished the complete kit and are still working on refining the panel lines and other surface details. Do you already have the photos of the complete kit or do we have to wait until your website is online? As you would have guessed, your A1E project is attracting mucho interest over here in LSP and we’re most anxious to see the next step. Cheers, Quang Martinnfb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantom Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 I would consider buying your kit but would like to see more. Will it have a complete interior, decals weapons? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old spad pilot Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Hello Thai, How do I submit a pre-order? Will be pleased to send $$$. Best, Dave thaipham101 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthonyWan Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 I...I think I'm gonna need one of these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaipham101 Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 Hi guys. Sorry for going AWOL the past couple days. It's Lunar new year so I was little busy preparing and celebrating, plus my girlfriend wanted to go to California to celebrate with our friend so here I am. Took the chance to visit March Field Air Museum in Riverside to do some measurements on parts that I don't have good info/drawing of and also to check some details on the underside, especially the recessed area between the oil cooler and wing leading edge. Originally I interpreted the drawing of fuselage station 90.500 that the fuselage has something recessed around that area, but I couldn't find any good reference pic of it, took a while to find one in flight with its belly exposed but it wasn't clear the front of the recessed area has any vent/opening or not, given that the same area is the oil cooler vent on single-seat variants. So I was able to confirm that it was just a recessed area and doesn't have any vent or anything, just an access hatch. Also got some good reference pics for areas that don't show up that well on pictures and drawing. So back to the drawing board once I am back in Houston this weekend Scotsman, Kagemusha, Martinnfb and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaipham101 Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 Hi guys, again sorry for the long wait. California weather doesn't like me, both I and my girlfriend go sick as a dog after the trip. This is a long post so brace yourself I'm finally able to rework the fuselage and just have it finished printing a few hours ago. Just some minor faults due to my impatient ass wanting to rush the print time but overall it turned out quite well. Reprinting the rear half as I'm typing this. I think I'll need to thicken the exhaust strakes a little more and redesign the fuselage connection plug for a better fit tolerance. Somehow Photobucket doesn't let me upload photos as a batch today, just one at a time. A little about the trip to March Field Air Museum. They're just incredible. I emailed them ahead asking about measuring the AD-5W they have and Sherry quickly gave me the ok. The staffs were fun to talk with and they even loaned me Alex the restoration guy to meet me at the aircraft and let me pick his brain. Good news are I was able to get some reference pics and measurements that I needed. Bad news are that this aircraft doesn't have any weapon pylon on to measure, no guppy radome of the AD-5 either. That is both good and bad because I can't photograph and measure the radome but without its presence, I was able to photograph the recessed area that would have been covered by it. as previous post, when doing research on the aircraft I found that fuselage station 90.500 indicates a recessed area around there but most kits on the market portraits it as a flat area. Then there's this photo of the A-1E Bu.No. 135152 looking like the recess ends abrubtly at fuselage station 90.500, made me think that there's a vent or something there. turned out there's no vent there but it conforms with the fuselage a little further beyond fuselage station 90.500. You can see the row of fasteners indicating where 90.500 is. I'm looking port, forward is to the right. From what I can gather that's a removable panel to install radar equipments. Next is the rear canopy/fuselage joint. Canopy doesn't sit flush with the fuselage at all. Unfortunately, the wings were down so I couldn't measure and photograph the wing fold either. Alex was nice enough to open the rear canopy for me to have a peek, front canopy is totally stuck, but the Navy stripped it almost bare before handing it over to civilian so not much to see in there but the radar operator's side panel and the floor structure. Overall a pretty nice trip and nice museum, definitely I'll be back. Kagemusha, Learstang, LSP_Kevin and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaipham101 Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 And now for the big news. Some shots of the printed fuselage. I'm fine tuning the print and support setting for these but it should be good. Since I'm designing this as a base fuselage for all AD-5 variants, armors would be separate to add on as needed. Expect to see the interior furnished within this week. I'm redesigning the floorboard and sides since they don't look that flat and bare as I thought. Also need to finish my logo and furnish the webstore. P/s: The elevator is the piece I printed earlier in the post, gonna print new ones with updated panel lines too, couldn't squeeze them onto the build plate. Any suggestion and critics are welcomed guys Martinnfb, scvrobeson, Fanes and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaipham101 Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 On 2/9/2024 at 11:26 AM, dutik said: Nice progress What is your idea for the clear parts? Vacu or 3D printed (if this is possible nowadays, don't know about this)? If vacu is your choice - will you add two canopies? Regards - dutik Hi Dutik, Ideally, if I can reach around 200-300 orders I'd rather do injection moulded part despite heavier cost. 3D printed clear parts aren't of that high quality yes, plus they continue curing and get more brittle by the day under the presence of UV light so that's a no. If I can't do injection moulded then it'll be a mix of 3D printed frame and details with vacu "glass" dutik and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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