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crazypoet

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Everything posted by crazypoet

  1. I bit the bullet and ordered a PE set for the Revell HE-111 P1 - cockpit/seatbelts, exterior, undercarriage and paint masks This build is on the far back burner, but wanted to get these while they were still available
  2. With the engine finally done, I dusted off the cockpit and crammed all the plumbing (well, actually *some* of the plumbing - only that which was visible, necessary for fit or both) into the left side of the fuse, took a deep breath and closed the door its pretty much a one-shot thing, since the wing spars are a very snug fit and don’t like to pull back out. (sounds like me as a teenager, come to think on it) so everything fit, with the exception of one slightly stubborn gap in the belly, which will resolve with some judicious pressure and virulent chemicals. i haven’t glued the sides yet, But this thing is finally starting to look like an airplane
  3. I would love to see some of the larger aircraft in larger scales one of the things I’d love to build is a set of the white-painted Bettys who carried the Japanese surrender delegates, along with their B-25 Strafer escorts
  4. What tricked me was the everything fit perfectly when assembled incorrectly until I went to connect the firewall and nothing lined up even when I did v2, it took me finally having to shave off the alignment tabs and use a bit of force to make it fit correctly just bad engineering from Trumpeter but it got me a second kit to play with, so it was kinda worth it
  5. I went in through the out door on the first engine - I plugged the intakes into the exhaust ports. if I’d paid closer attention I’d have realized that - despite everything still sort of fitting, the whole back of the engine was twisted slightly to the left. The exhaust and collector ring still - oddly fits, even in the wrong ports, but it screws up all the connections to the firewall doh!
  6. For the tail wheel you may be right. The main gear seems pretty substantive. When I get to that point I’ll clean up the metal gear - the castings are pretty rough - and see which works best thanks for the feedback on the tail!
  7. Harv - I used the P-47D interior and exterior sets from Eduard, plus I’ll be using their gun bay set. Beyond that, I’m using barracudacast wheels and Aber turned-brass gun barrels i bought a set of cast metal landing gear from scale aircraft conversions, but the kit plastic actually looks better and weight shouldn’t be an issue
  8. Greetings all - it’s been a minute since I posted, for reasons that will soon become obvious! Ernie - the engine is the R2800-21, with the smooth crankcase casting. I’m building this aircraft as a D-5 RE variant, and that’s the correct motor. The two-piece crown-style crank goes with the later C-series motor, on later editions of the P-47. that said... I cheated a bit on the valve covers. The correct covers for this have, for lack of a better term, “fit issues”. So after much frustration, I switched to the flat valve covers which happen to fit and align perfectly. As it happens, they are also all but invisible after assembly, so I took a deep breath and made the switch. This build will be cowl-on, with the only view of the valve covers being a wee sliver from behind via open cowl flaps. It’s an incorrect pairing, but one that I’m happy with. All that said...when we last met, I’d just about finished the engine and was starting to cast a stink-eye on the internal plumbing of this beast. then... it happened. Engine v1.0 just would not sit right. After much head-scratching, it hit me. It seems that I’d managed to route the air intake lines into the wrong connections on the back side of the cylinders very early in the process, shifting everything about five degrees off. in hindsight, I realized that I’d sided with part fit over drawing accuracy. As-cast, the intake lines simply do not fit where they are intended - the keys that align the intake manifold with the rear bank of cylinders only fit one way. As it happens, it fits the *wrong* way. It requires cutting off the alignment keys to make it fit properly. Who knew? so a conundrum! I could take the approach that another builder did (cut off the back of the engine entirely, go with closed cowl flaps and use a magnet or similar approach to connect the engine to the firewall) or I could rebuilt it correctly. i bit the bullet and decided to build a new engine. Which involved buying a new kit. I’ll eventually build a second complete aircraft and find a way to correctly mount engine 1.0 after taking a hacksaw to its backside. I’ve attached front and rear views of the two engines... Note the odd alignment on the back of the engine on the right. I submit myself to your abuse for the asinine assumption that someone at the factory had actually test-built one of these and that the part alignment was indeed correct. Mea culpa! so. Now that’s fixed, and I have a whole spare kit to do other things with! next, on to the whole -5-RE thing. the obviously visible differences between the -5 (that I’m building) and -20 (what’s in the kit) variants of the P-47D involve the cowl flaps and external stores. The -5 still had the older squared-off cowl flaps, and no hard points/shackles on the wings. The wing hardware is a simple adjustment - just don’t install the bomb racks. Life is good. the cowl flaps were a bit of a challenge as I had to *add* material. This involved mostly cutting a piece of card to fit, plus some sanding and filling. That’s all now done, except for redoing the rivet holes and painting. and I am now back to where I was at the beginning of the holidaze, ready to stuff all this into the fuselage and close it up
  9. I am coming to really appreciate the ANYZ spark plugs and braided line its sometimes a pain to connect, but it looks gorgeous when it’s done
  10. Step by slow step! i keep hoping for more Bench Time, but it comes in drips and drabs over the holidaze... at any rate, I did finally have a chance to finish the engine. I debated some additional hoses And such, but they would be mostly buried, so I decided to pass also, since the cowl will be on and closed, I didn’t pay *too* much attention to the back and side views of the engine. the parts that might be visible through open cowl flaps will get a bit more attention later, but for now this is it. Now, on to stuffing all the plumbing inside and closing up the fuselage... that will take a bit of hammering and sawing, and possibly some explosive
  11. Managed to get a bit further on the engine - it’s beginning to look a bit like an engine now...
  12. Some additional early Christmas goodies at the Poet Household Eduard once again made off with chunks of my personal net worth... A Big Ed set for the Trumpy P-40B, and a mess o’ goodies (including a complete replacement cockpit) for the Revell Spitfire MkII
  13. And... something to warn everyone about i was looking at getting a resin replacement for the P-47 engine, as there are thing about it that I just didn’t like in terms of the engineering approach taken by Trumpeter. so I ordered the supposed-correct replacement from Engines & Things. gawds what a mess - this is the sloppiest casting I’ve ever seen. Some of the bits are utterly unrecognizable, while that that can be recognized are simply...wrong. i don’t know if the have better versions of other engines, but I am embarrassed on their behalf for selling this stuff
  14. Santa made an early delivery at the Poet residence... I’m looking at a Battle of Britain grouping after I do the 8th Air Force and southwest pacific stuff I have already on the queue... so I nabbed the 1/32 Revell Spitfire MkII and He-111 P1 kits for that then... since I’ve always wanted one and this is likely as close as I’ll ever actually come to owning it... the old AMT 1/16 ‘55 Chevy Nomad kit. This kit has both stock and factory speed options, so I’ll have some fun with it. The interior is sadly lacking detail inside the roof - I’ll have to decide if I want to fix that or just shrug and go with it. I’ll probably let my OCD out to play and find some way to finish the pillars and roof liner, just because I’d always be irritated if I didn’t...
  15. Harv - what scale is that figure? It’s amazingly life-like!
  16. Greetings all! It’s been a minute or two since I had bench time - too many distractions and the odd bit of familial drama... but I’ve made a tiny bit of progress... the engine has the base painting done and it’s ready for final assembly, connecting lines and weathering I did a fair bit of head-scratching on how best to attach the Anyz braided lines to the ignition ring, before remembering that canopy glue is a wonderful thing for any number of odd bits. Each connector on the ignition ring has multiple wires, so I cut and glued the braided lines first, then glued them to the ignition ring. Looks a bit like someone one having a truly bad hair day at the moment! I’ll cut each wire to length And glue to the spark plugs and such after I assemble the engine
  17. Puttering along with the front of the engine. holes drilled for the spark plugs, oil crossovers in place and getting ready to attach the rocker arm covers. for the record, I *love* the ANYZ spark plugs!!! They seem overly fiddly until you actually work with them. They have a pretty robust stub that sits neatly into a .33” hole. So far everything is fitting nicely, though I found an interesting hitch on the rocker arm covers, reinforcing the old adage to test fit many before gluing once... to align properly with the pushrods, you need to force a slight bend in the oil crossovers. So I’ve temporarily connected the pushrods with rubber frisket so I can get everything properly aligned...
  18. Times like this require...time you have a ton of “stuff” to process. Grief. Anger. Ennui. Loss. it takes time, my friend. Stay close to the people you have. Talk - don’t hold things in. Listen - those around you may also need an ear and a shoulder. Lean in with each other and you’ll emerge - there will be a point where you can again turn to the things you enjoy with anticipation rather than “what’s the point” indifference it will come. meanwhile, hang here - we are a community and we’re here to listen and to care
  19. Wow... great question! For me, it's about the story - what is a mission/moment/person/situation that made that particular [fill in the blank] interesting? The Picket Boat got my attention because it was a trifecta of historic inflection points: Linear ancestor of the Torpedo Boat, commanded by the linear ancestor of the Navy SEAL, in the first mission where a large ironclad vessel was sunk by a much smaller surface combatant. The P-47 build I'm doing now is based on the mission flown by "Shorty" Rankin on May 12, 1944 - he shot down 5 German fighters, air-to-air, on a single mission, on my birthday (May 12) - what's not to love? Besides which, I've always had a soft spot for the razorback Jugs... The B-17 build I'm planning is based on B-17 44-6573, N7-K in the 603rd Sqdn, 398th Bomber Group. It was piloted by Donald Christensen, who was the Grandfather of a good friend of mine. It was shot down on March 2, 1945, with the loss of 10 out of 11 crew (the Tail Gunner survived) The B-25 build will go one of two ways - I'd been planning a Southwest Pacific suite of builds with the B-25 strafer as a centerpiece. Then, I found out that one of my Great-uncles had flown the B-25 as a Canadian in the RAF... If I can get sufficient detail on his assignment(s) and aircraft, I'll build *his* plane and gift it to his family All good stories! At least to me. Perhaps not the most interesting topics in terms of design, color, camouflage, etc. - but certainly *good* stories - stories that resonate in this crowded, fevered brain of mine...!
  20. This points out the good and sufficient reasons why I don't do more than occasional lurking over at that other site...
  21. I prefer larger scales, mostly because I don’t have the digital finesse to bring out some of the details I like at smaller scales On the other hand, there are some subjects that either won’t ever appear in 1/32 (B-52? B-36? Pan Am Clipper?) or are prohibitively expensive (the HpH 1/32 PBY comes to mind here) and then there are the 1/200 ships and 1/35 gunboats... So as much as I’d prefer to stay with 1/32, I can’t ...
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