crazypoet

This is utterly beautiful- much more than a “model” this is a stunning representation in miniature of every fastener and system - more like an engineering prototype beautifully rendered

@DocRob I did a bit of digging around. I found one maker who *did* 1/32 scale hose and line fittings, but they are sadly no longer in production. Based on this one find, I’m betting there are others. for this particular line I’d need .4mm (plain) and .6mm (flex) fittings. Some of the internal feed lines would work in .8mm, but that would be way too large for this. I’m using .3mm wire and .5mm braided line stretched over the .3mm wire, and that seems to be working size-wise. Absent actual scale fittings, I’ll be painting those in, with maybe some drops of CA that I can sand/file to shape that said, you certainly got me thinking, and I’ll see if I can dig up some of the fittings in all sizes before I start gluing things down 🙏🙏🙏 I appreciate the feedback - that’s part of what I love about this place 🙏💯🙏

Oooooooooooooo!!! These could work well for some of these fittings thank you!

I finally had a bit of bench time today, and sort of got this sorted for one of the struts 😂 getting the flexible parts of the line to look natural while keeping the rest suitably straight, with proper bends in the proper places was a bit of a chore 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ but it’s finally “close enough” to match my references. right now it looks a mess as it’s just temporarily taped in place - nothing’s been glued down, no cable clamps yet, and no primer or paint but the fit is finally right, and I can do the final fine-tuning of the bends as I glue it into place I’ll make the cable clamps from 1/32” strips of tamiya tape and CA - there will be four of those on each side I’ll have to prime and paint the brake line and strut separately, so I don’t mess up the braided sections. Then glue the line down, add the clamps, paint the final details and add appropriate oil stains and dust and suchlike. The final connection to the wheel hub will wait until I’m ready to mount the wheels themselves, since I’ll have to add a final 90 degree bend in the line, cut it to length, and glue it to a pinhole I’ll drill in the hub wheee 😂

This is gorgeous! I also wish they’d been a bit more careful with the support placement, but with 3D printing that’s not always possible 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️ great work so far! I have a life-long love affair with the Grumman float planes. I have a 1/48 Goose with some resin conversion parts to convert it to the armed military version sitting in the stash - this may motivate me to pull it out and get working 🙏😂

There is a practical kind of elegance to this kind of rigging, then done properly you can sort of “read the minds” of the early engineers - seeing how they solved problems and made the structure work - an exercise in practical minimalism this is beautifully done!

(This is one of many times when I wish I had Jeroen’s mad CAD skills and access to a good 3D printer… 😂)

Gorgeous!

OK…. I’ve worked out the routing, based as closely as I can from different sources (thanks Doc and Denders!) I decided that I’m going to try doing this as a single wire piece on each side. getting appropriate scale wire around here is a bit of a challenge, but I made the happy discovery that the twist-ties used by the local bakery to close their bread bags have steel wire at their cores that is just about perfect in terms of length, scale and flexibility 😎 So my approach to this… I used a bit of too-thick copper wire to build a full-length template from the gear bay to wheel hub, then used a sharpie to mark where connectors and cable clamps will need to be added, and the curves for the flexible hose sections that I’ll replicate with .5mm braided line with the twist-tie wire threaded through so… each piece will have two sections of braided line with line connections at both ends, plus four cable clamps that I’ll make from thin strips of plastic masking tape. The final version of the braided line sections will be a bit more “curvy” than the template, to emphasize that they’re flexible and affected by little things like gravity and being long enough to flex with gear extension and the oleos extending/retracting The gluing, priming, and painting sequence will be a bit of a challenge, without messing up the braided line sections with paint from other areas even so, it’s a lot simpler that doing these lines as different pieces (braided line, then bare metal line, then braided again and so forth) then gluing them down with the proper alignment so here’s one of the copper wire templates (right wing side), next to a piece of twist-tie wire with the first bit of braided line. I’m using drops of micro crystal clear (and a light touch with files and such) to secure the braided line and also form the connection line adapters and such along the length this will be a bit fiddly, but I’m having fun with it

Just spent a happy couple of hours catching up on this build. you're from another planet when it comes to details and research - I can only sit here and stare in awe

I love your attention to detail on this! The rigging is making me a bit cross-eyed even from here - great work!

Thanks, Doc! I’ve been digging through every reference I can find, including the docs at Aircorps Library. Even the brake and hydraulic schematics only show the general routing. you'd think that there would be a technical manual on brakes and their maintenance for this bird, but I’ve not been able to find it. I’m going to roll the dice a bit, and plug the lines into the back of the plate at about a 30 degree offset (rotated forward) from the axle. That looks like it would kinda align with what I see in the pic of the salvaged struts I dug up, along with the Corsair pic that Denders found Next is to build these. Along with the clamps that secure them to the struts and the some version at least of the various line connectors i know it’s more than a bit OCD of me 🤣🤦‍♂️ I’ve watched folk finish entire kits in the time I spend scratching my head over one tiny thing. But I have fun with it anyway 😎

This is truly helpful! I wish that at least one of the half-dozen P-47 books I have had even one shot like this 🙏 I’ve figured out that, yah, it would be overly complicated to route this line through the axel, so there’s that. i *think* I’ve figured out sort of where the line connects to the plate with the brake pistons (ish). This photo actually gives me some good ideas about how to “translate” the pics that I do have. granted that it’s a different manufacturer and engineering team on the Corsair, but there’s only so many ways to skin this particular cat thank you for digging around - it truly helps 🙏

This…is beyond cool. I had no idea the Germans did anti-tank as well as anti-aircraft cars for their trains, so I learned something entirely new today 🙏 I am loving this build and I’m breathless at both the scope and scale. Here I am obsessing over single hydraulic lines and you’re busy adding entire kits in that same amount of time 🤣🙏 this is beyond brilliant

I have a subscription for AirCorps, but not even their references and manuals (so far) have shown this in detail i agree that it’s a bit of a snug fit between the wheel, gear covers, and strut - but it would be just my luck to have this in a contest and find that I got it wrong 😂