HubertB

That’s because they are focused on their phone screen … Hubert

Good catch, Dennis. i am delighted with the tilting drawers’ module from Hobbyzone. https://www.hobbyzone.pl/en/modular-workshop-system/127-om02u-tilting-drawers-module-x-3.html It will take most paint pots or bottles, one way or another. Hubert

I’m using a SLA 8K resin printer, with 20 microns layers. The resolution you get is absolutely great. But I am moderately happy with the grey resin I am using. I find it has a tendency to blurr the finest details, at least as viewed with a 3x magnification in the Optivisor Hubert

Whilst I was 3D-printing some parts for the Potez 25 TOE in the "Sandbox" GB, I also added on the plate some acccessories for the Cutlass, namely a tow bar, two wheel chocks and a boarding ladder. I will probably revisit the design of the tow bar, that looks a bit skinny now that it is printed. The Cutlass is on the back burner whilst I focus on the Potez. I had a tough time smoothing out the wing slats, as Fisher's design is less than optimal in the area, IMHO. Now that I have revived my 3D-designing and printing skills, I may have a go at redesigning the slats and their struts as an integral part. I had to cut off the struts from the kit in order to smooth the slats recesses on the wings, and, although I have already done some new struts using plastic strips, I am not keen on smoothing the inside of the slats and am not 100 % sure I can obtain a solid link between the plastic struts, the wings and the slats … Hubert

So, the third printing trial of the supplementary fuel tank was successful . I used the printing opportunity to print a dozen fuel drums, that will be useful for the small vignette I intend to dispaly the Potez on. I will leave before dawn tomorrow morning for a 5-days trip to France. More when I come back, in 10-days time. Hubert.

The printing is going well, and started building Well, finished with virtual work, and on to the real one. I have done some printing of the designed parts. Gotta say I had to re-learn a few tricks with the exporting of the printable files, and the slicing software. My first printing trial on Friday did not end well, and it's 125 % operator’s error. When exporting the design file to .stl format, I missed specifying the resolution settings of the .stl files. Silly me, I thought the 3D software would automatically choose the highest resolution, but it didn't. When imported in the slicer program (Chitubox), I thought that the square wheel was just a dispaly artefact. But it was not ... So, after 10 hours of printing, I ended up with heavily pixelated parts, a square spare wheel, and some parts not printed 🤣 ! Trial #2 yesterday. In the meantime, I found that I could import .obj files in Chitubox, which worked for all parts but one, for some reason I cannot fathom. That part was exported in hi-res .stl, and I have to say the printing went mostly well ! I just missed adding enough supports for the supplementary conformal fuel tank, so it fell partly off during the printing process, resulting in a misshapen part. Here are the pics of my printed parts : I am pretty pleased overall. There are a few print lines however, in spite of the 20 micron layer resolution. It looks like I got some slight wobble of the printing platform, but nothing really major here. The supplementary tank, plus a few fuel drums and the parts I designed for the Cutlass, are in the printer now, so we'll see tonight how this turns out. In the meantime I started the build, by attacking the cockpit work. The 3D-printed part from Likgraph has been cleaned from the prining supports. I broke two parts in the process, easily reparable. Ànd I have started bending these teeny weeny PE parts ... Did I say they were tiny ? TTFN Hubert

I think Tamiya San should give you some free shares of his company for your outstanding contribution to their sales of Corsair kits in the last 10 years, John Hubert

This M-346 has already a very "racy" look. A kind of mini-fighter, the aircraft equivalent to fighters of Lotus cars (when they were still conceived by Colin Chapman, i.e. light ) to other sports cars. It is even better in the new "Frecce" colors 👍 Hubert

What Peter and Chris said Hubert

VIRTUAL, YET REAL, PROGRESS So, after my "study trip" in sunny, and dry, Morocco, I have completed this morning the round of designs for the conversion parts. Next steop will to print them, and starting cutting the kit ... Compared to the screen captures I posted above of some conversion parts designs, I have kept untouched 4 of them, namely the second seat, the spare wheel, the radiator, and the fairing above of the cylinder banks, with the water tanks extensions. I have modified the main tank enlergement part, following some better pics and a some (bad quality) drawings, and also because I decided that, rather than design the conversion parts around the inaccurate shape of the belly as represented by Lukgraph - a shallow V rather than a flat bottom in reality), I would remove the bottom altogether and add the conversion parts from a flat base. This has led also to more accurate measurements of the true profile of the kit fuselage, and changes to take them into account. For the main tank enlargement, I also took into account the fact that the whole tank was jettisonable in flight on the 1:1 aircraft, and had therefore to clear the undercarriage struts. Old (top pic) vs new (bottom pic) : I found a factory drawing for the supllementary CFT, which although heavily pixaleted to the point of being mostly illegible, had enough "good" information and numbers to allow a more accurate redesign. Old onb top vs new on the bottom : New shape (the difference is more subtle to see) for the new lower engine cowling, with slightly moire depth and revised angle for the carburetor intakes : Then there were the new parts needed for the conversion. The lower rear fuselage fairing : The new rear skid. The oleo-pneumatic Messier skid was a fairly complex contraption compared to the original simple one. The landing gear has been redesigned to represent the oleo-pneumatic Messier, and also to have a more accurate tread (thanks to some technical drwings from Potez I found on-line) : I next tackled the revised cockpit coaming for the rear passenger, with the gun ring deleted. I then noticed on pics that the pilot coaming had a small hump under the winscreen, when Lukgraph has it flat. So another part of the kit to cut off , and a complete coaming for the two seats to be designed : Next, and final - so far - is the radio equipment. I struggled to find proper references for the gear used by French aircrafts at the time, but, again, Potez "Notice Technique" about the changes to the Black Cruise aircrafts was of some great help. I just assumed the gear for the Pink Cruise Potez would be the same. The drawings showed an installation with three boxes, spread in the rear cockpit. TBH, the faces have some creative "gizmology" added, as I failed to find accurate references. So here are radio sets 1, 2 and 3. That's it for now. I now have to get all parts printed. Next week, I am off to France for a few health checks, so it may be a bit of time before the next update. Hubert.

Good to hear you are on the mend, Peter. As you point out, as we grow older, medical issues have a nasty tendency to creep on us, and this forum shows it (it also shows that the forum's average age is not that low 😂 ). I will not bother anyone with more of these health issues, but we have had our share of those in the last year. Things seem to get better now, but the alert was very very very serious and worrying - last Xmas the perspective was very somber at short term - for my elder son ... Hubert

Well, as I was labouring on the design of the conversion parts for my Potez 25, and looking at other’s submissions, I had an idea for a future group huild, maybe to park in the back of Martin’s mind ? « 3D-printed. Any kit that uses, in full or part, 3D-printed components in its build, whether the parts are home design or manufacturer’s design » I thought that could be an interesting way of taking stock of the arrival of this new technology. And then, in 20 years’ time, we could have a « any kit that still uses injection-molded parts » Hubert

Sorry to read this, Scott. My wife Patricia went through this (in the cervical vertebrae area) in early 2017. With numbness gaining the arms and hands, it was a matter of urgency. The neurosurgeon, a brilliant lady, did the procedure you describe for two discs and decided to leave the third one untouched, not wanting to push luck too far. It went very well in two operations (from the front then the back) 3 weeks apart. The second op, cutting though the cervical muscles, which are some of the strongest - and most solicited - muscles of the body, left her in pain for a few weeks. Don’t miss on the rehab / physiology training. When you have a number of vertebrae welded together, there are movements you took for granted you cannot do anymore, and you have to learn other ways of achieving the same result, and re-train the brain for those. Anyway, good luck with this. What is important is that you have a (very) good neurosurgeon for the procedure, and that you trust him/her. Even if you have a long period to grind after that, you’ll be happy to recover a more mobile life for the following years. Hubert

My better half sewed me one such apron, and I wear it permanently when modelling. It has saved me crawling under the desk an invaluable number of times. Besides finding the stray part, the toughest issue is getting up after having crawled. Surprisingly, the older I get, the harder it is 🤣 (who is the wise philosopher who said that the problem of becoming an old man is that stiffness moves from where you want it to where you don’t want it 😇 ?) This is called a jewellers’ apron. Jewellers have one in leather, where they collect all dust particles of a day’s work, besides small parts. Gold dust is worth its weight in gold, literally. Hubert

Great work on those loops. I feel the pain of this micro-work. I often wonder why we inflict this to ourselves… Now producing these loops was the easy part. The tough one is going to be threading the elastic thread, which seems to have a life of its own more exciting than a snake’s one, through those 0.3 mm tubes Hubert

Now, that’s a serious modelling project Is it finished yet ? So happy for you Ernie. Hubert

And another masterpiece « expedited » in one month Well done, Mike. Hubert

Well, guys, just to show how seriously I take this GB theme, I organised a study trip to Marrakech, to get a better feeling of the desert atmosphere and the local hump-backed fauna .. Please just don’t tell Mrs B. She believes it was for our wedding anniversary 😇… Joking apart, I will have some virtual (literally) progress to report when I come back on Tuesday. I have gone through some iterative improvements / redesigns of the conversion parts, and should soon be ready to attack the build in earnest … Oh, and, while roaming the souks, I think I found what could be an interesting 1/32 scale sand fac-simile, in terms of colour and granulometry. And, on top of it, it should smell good 🤣😂🤣 . If it does not work as I expect, I will still have the option to use my « sand » to flavour some couscous or tajine 😋 So, that’s a win-win ! Hubert

I am with Kevin : just one more light coat to blend in the starkness of the contrasts a little better … Hubert

Daco have just announced the availability of a first batch of 1/32 Fouga Magistr kits (in white boxes with a delivery of the decal sheet in a second stage) This accelerated shipping is to coincide with their 35th anniversary. Orders here : http://www.dacoproducts.com Hubert

On the penultimate picture, it really looks like they deposited a garbage container on the roof of the cabin 😂🤣 ! I hoe they removed the wheels, though … Hubert

X3 ! Hubert

You could have thinned the lips of the radiator intakes. That would make it more realistic anyway . As for the gear trunks, you could thin them from the top, to keep as much of the depth as possible. Nice progress anyway. Hubert

Nice work on the pit, Peter. To answer your question of why 3 parts for the fuselage, the answer is in the way they look, and as posted on your picture. The shape of the MLG well, with its « ears » at the front, and narrower at the wing root than at the centerline, would have implied a slide mold to mold only two fuselage halves, with a slide that would go up during the injection process, then down to be able to eject the two fuselage halves from the mold. The problem is a slide mold implies a special stainless steel alloy and super-precise milling. Which is incompatible with the short-run production approach of SH, with a different, softer, alloy, far more economical to produce (but the mold is far less durable). I’m with you on the cost of high quality sable brushes. I have a few of them, and boy they are not cheap. About 10 days ago, Kevin posted a tip about using « nail-art » brushes. True, they are not sable, but synthetic, but, if you look on sites like Amazon, you can get find offers for those for a few $. I bought four sets, so 20 brushes overall, for 38 Euro. Now, if people can paint the fine details they achieve on nails, I thought that these brushes could probably be useful for modelling. And, at a few dollars for a set of brushes, you don’t really care if they don’t last years like fine sable brushes. I have not tried mine yet, but Chris has. Keep it coming Hubert

I’d have been all over a 1/32 SMB-2 ! Unfortunately, it seems kit manufacturers in 1/32 have not realised France produced some aircrafts between the Spad XIII and the Mirage III (just slightly exaggerating there , as Special Hobby is the one exception ) As for Special Hobby, you see the difference between resin casting, and short-run injection molding of polystyrene … You can produce an accurate master, but converting it a mold is a mistakes-frought operation. Still, without SH, my 1/32 stash would be somewhat smaller … Hubert