HubertB

The day after I went to Shuttleworth for the Dragon Rapide, we went to the Newark Air Museum, and I had a photo spree on the Folland Gnat. Just another project still waiting to come to fruition. But, with - at last ! - the current interest in LSP trainers, who knows ? Anyway, here is the link to that album, of 282 pics only ( ) this time. If you wonder where the in-cockpit pics are coming from, no, they did not open the canopy, nor did they obligently cut the Gnat, for me. There was a section of the front cockpit, used for training purposes, I guess, displayed next to the Gnat, under the giant wing of a Fairey Gannet. https://hubertboillot.smugmug.com/Folland-Gnat-Walkaround-Newark-Air-Museum-052013 Hubert

When reviewing the pics, some of them are actually not relevant for the DH-89. The day we visited, they happened to have in the same hangar DH-86 Comet G-ACSS, the London-Melbourne race winner, going through some maintenance. So I took pics as well. The red wing, and all pics of black-enamelled retracting undercarriage are for the Comet, not the Dragon Rapide. I'll leave them as they are interesting as well, IMHO. So that makes 410 pics of the Rapide, and 11 of the Comet Hubert

I now regret to never have taken the plunge on the Skystreak, bot the Jetmads release and your sale, Mike. I am however like you on the Learjet, and have reserved one. And I'm game as well for the Skyrocket, and the Ouragan, and the Trident, if they ever come to fruition. I am still reserved about the X3. It looked spectacular, but ... Hubert

Thre is an excellent 1/32 (not 1/33) paper model of the Tu-95. Now, THAT would dwarf you, my friend Hubert

Some of you may know that I had initiated the project of releasing a 1/32 resin kit of the DH-89 Dragon Rapide. The project went as far as having a master created, then life, business and the ancillary choices associated with both came in the way. To cut a long story short, the - huge - step of moving from master to kit never came to fruition, all of my (un)doing . And then, Lukasz, of Lukgraph, had the very good idea of releasing its own kit, which was done last year, which folded definitely my project. Such is life ... In the preparation phase for this project, I, and the modeller producing the master, Martin Field, asked the Shuttleworth collection if we coud come, measure and photograph their Dragon Rapide, to which they graciously agreed, all for the price of just two entry tickets. I thank them again for their excellent welcome. We were able to crawl around, in and out of the Dragon Rapide, me with a camera, and Martin with a measuring tape, tees and squares. Attached is the link to the walkaround of the Shuttleworth Dragon Rapide I did that day, all 421 pics of it (which is why I did not download them directly on this site) I hope you will enjoy it. Hubert https://hubertboillot.smugmug.com/De-Havilland-DH-89-Dragon-Rapide-walkaround

Here’s a brave man tackling a great subject Hubert

And the engine ahead of the crew compartment ... Hubert

The forerunner of the Merkava ! Hubert

That is pushing the hub concept far far far far along ... Hubert

Man, I wish I could photoshop paint figures like you do . A fitting tribute to your outstanding build Hunert

Made an order (not modelling related) in January in the US. This was a "made-to-order" product. It took two weeks for production and flying to Portugal ... and close to 4 weeks to clear the customs in Lisbon . I should get it tomorrow or Friday. Patience you must have, young Padawan ... Hubert

Very nice work ! Hubert

Be careful what you ask for, Ernie I may have some spare prints asking for fresh Texan air ... Hubert

I have my Anycubic Photon available for a good price, if you’re interested. Nice printer, but with a risk of « wobble » on the Z-axis when printing long (along the Z-axis) parts (problem cured with the Photon S which has two rails for the Z-axis). But the shipping may be a killer anyway . You’ll find great deals on 3D printers on the US continent. For example here : https://www.3dprintersbay.com/anycubic-photon-s or here : https://ultimate3dprintingstore.com/collections/all-printers?view= or Amazon, of course. Mine is an Epax 1-N. Epax, Anycubic, Phrozen, Elegoo are safe names to go to (you need a SLA or DLP printer with UV-curing for small details). For 3D design, I’d recommend Fusion 360 (free licence for hobbyists/private use). Be aware that 3D design softwares need fairly robust hardware to run smoothly. Finally, the Anycubic washing/curing machine was a real bonus when going serious about regular prints. And finally, yes, being able to print transparencies is great news. Casting clear resin is effectively a nightmarish process. HTH Hubert

3D-printed transparencies: success at last ! This is the windscreen for the Mistery Ship. The part is 0,5 mm thick. It was printed (4 at the same time) on my printer with the following settings: - Phrozen SC-801 clear resin - 30 microns layer thickness - 120 seconds exposure time for the base (the one adhering to the platform), then 15 seconds per layer. After the print, rapid wash with ethanol, blow dry, then 15' curing in a 40W UV curing machine. Whilst perfectly clear when just printed, the resin develops a slight frost when curing. The following photos show the result. From left to right: 1. Windscreen as printed and cured 2. The same, but then Future (Johnson Klir in fact) applied with a brush 3. The windscreen, after some micromesh sanding on the outside (the inside was just not accessible as I wanted to keep the support for demonstration purposes), and subsequent application of Future with a brush. 4. Finally, the winscreen without any micromesh sanding, but with some Pebeo varnish (a Fine arts varnish for paintings) applied with a brush. Conclusions: 1) Micromeshing, and probably polishing the part after micro-sanding, is needed to restore full transparency. This is advised by Phrozen in their explanations 2) The Pebeo varnish wins hands down in terms of restoring transparency. It will also help to prevent yellowing of the resin over time. A much better result will also be obtained by airbrushing it, of course. 3) Above all : transparent parts can be printed and look like transparent parts. Yeahh ! Now, the sky is the limit 4) For this specific part and resin, I probably need to increase the thickness to 0.6 mm to get higher structural strength - but the Anycubic clear green was OK with 0.5 mm. I hope this will be of interest for you guys. Hubert

In this case, it is like the resin manufacturers want the printing process to be a nerdy thing « only for the initiated » To illustrate my point: most resins for DLP printers have a in-process curing time of 6 to 8 seconds for a 50 microns layer. in the case of the resin that is supposed to produce cristal-clear, non-yellowing parts (Phrozen SC-801 - not cheap at a minimum of 120 € for one liter) I finally found-out that the time setting was supposed to be ... 20 seconds ! You would think that they would write something down on the label ! Oh well, you live and learn as they say Hubert

For the time being, I am the guinea pig... So far, I have failed my print runs twice, with the resin sticking to the vat rather than the building plate. Opening rant: why are printer settings not more clearly indicated by resin manufacturers ? It seems like this is a more closely guarded secret than the code for the safe at Fort Knox ... Oh well, trial #3 tomorrow, with tweaked printer settings Hubert

Pheeewwww ! Thanks. I was worried about what I would do of my retirement time ... Hubert

Yes, Phil. It is very satisfying. This is an all-new approach to scratchbuilding, and I personally find it as rewarding to see the printed parts as producing them with my own hands. The fact that I spent a close-to-3-digits number of hours (maybe 3-digits with hindsight, after all ) to design this engine contributes to the feeling that this is MY unique work. And it is reproduceable « ad-infinitum », which is good, because I have a few kits craving for a good R-985 replica. I am currently in the printing process of yet another experiment : clear parts. If the Mystery Ship windscreen comes out as transparent as I expect, even if it needs a bit of post-finishing, this will open another universe of possibilities. High on my list would be designing-then-printing an accurate windscreen and canopy for the EE Lightning to replace the completely botched ones of the Trumpeter kit. One can also think of a complete fuselage for the Sikorsky S-39, or for a Republic Seabee ... Thanks for the compliments. Hubert

Thank You Ernie. In fairness, when I started this design, there was not even the Kingfisher kit available, so tehre was no 1/32 R-985 at al on the market, be it injected - the Williams' kits representation is not that accurate), or AM. The KH Kingfisher engine is not bad, but I dare say my design is vastly superior . Especially as the first printing trial turned out beautifully. The only glitch I encountered is that my slicing software was unable to cope with 9 cylinders in one go (each .stl file for a cylinder is 318 Mb big), but that was overcome by having split printing runs. But all the parts turn out incredibly well, especially as the printer is a (very very good neverthless) less than USD 500 piece of hardware ! Ron should be happy for his Beaver kit . Here is a pic of the printed components, fresh out of the curing process. The resin is Anycubic's transparent green for those that want to know. Not only reasonably priced and easily available, but excellent on the details' rendering (some details like bolt heads are 0.3 mm in dia, and the cylinder cooling fins' thickness is 0.15 mm ), even though the color is a bear to photograph. (click on the pic if you want to see it bigger) It's a very good way to start the day, I tell you Hubert

The more I use my 3D DLP printer, the more I realise that resins have a HUGE impact on print quality. I am not suprised that this yellow resin yields superior finesse in printing. I am not yet through my (costly) voyage of trying different resins, but this is worth a « Hints & Tips » subject in its own . In the meantime, my « tweaking » of the R-985 design resulted in an extra 6 (or 8 ?) hours of work, but I can call the design project « finished ! ». Now begins the printing trials, which most likely will be beyond the capacities of my printer, requiring re-designing for less scale-accurate detailing ... Hubert

It will be my pleasure, Ron. I just need to tweak the design of two components on the cylinder (thought about this tweak after my posting) and do the intake pipes. PM me your email address and you’ll get the files during the course of next week. The design is in 1/32, but I am sure it will withstand scaling up to 1/24. If anything, it will be easier to print in this scale. It will look much better than your current alternative anyway Hubert

Well, to continue on the virtual workbench drift, I have, as I indicated above, extracted my R-985 design from the SOD. Close to 6 years ago, I stalled at the design phase of the (complex) cylinder's head. With renewed energy on the use of Solidworks, and the help of excellent pictures I found on the net this week, I could redo the design of the full cylinder, as follows. Needless to say it is a very compex shape, with multiple planes and angles, and this is worth a few hours of work in front of the screen ... And assembled with the rest of the engine, designed 6 years ago : The eagle-eyed among you will spot that the full engine is still missing the manifold-to-head intake pipe. But that's an easy-peasy one to add, I dare say It now remains to see whether my home 3D-printer will be able to cope with the finesse of the details If yes, a fun fact is that the #2 of the long series of the R-985s was used successively on: - The Gee Bee model Z, which I have - The Gee Bee R-2, which I also have - Then the "Spirit of Africa" Sikorsky S-39 which I had started to scratch some time ago (and will now try to design, at least for some components, in 3D). So, if the print is succesfull, I will have plenty of uses for it ! Hope you like it. Hubert

1000 % with the Felixstowe, Ernie. Besides my interest for the bird triggered in the 80s by a fantastic set of drawings published on Scale Models, and the bewilderment of a dream come true when WnW released theirs, your build is the one that convinced me I could also do something (probably just passable ) with my kit. But the Lanc is « not bad ar all » Hubert

I take your word that there are amazing resources available there, from what I have seen many times through others. And that sometimes it helps people build a better world, whichever way this is ... On the other hand, there are plenty of examples of the obnoxious impact of FB, enough that I am using my only power, which is to decide not to feed the monster. The examples range from the Australian lock-down of late, to the self-feeding algorithms that help build bubbles of disinformation and conspiracy theories in which people loose their final remnants of common sense and become zombies living in an alternative world detached from reality, to the bullies of all kinds flourishing in all groups, to your private life being exposed to anyone, to the « let-go » for racism, sexism, hate and violence, to ... FB posted $ 11 bn of profits in the last quarter of 2020. We are facing a situation of monopolistic behaviour to serve individual and corporate greed. I can do two things to this: not participate if I can (consumer power is still a very potent weapon) and encourage governments to reign in on the monopoly ... Enough of the rant ... let’s go modelling ! Hubert