airscale

thanks Jeroen - Tim Perry (Wunwinglow on LSP) is helping me out with this one, but yes in future I will try shapeways. As part of getting the designs ready to make, Tim kindly added the bulging to the tyres and has told me how to do it in cage editor but I haven't tried it yet... ...so, I have not been doing much at the bench - nothing worthy of note in fact. I only have the 3D programme on trial for a short time so have been thinking about what I can do with that to help me out with the build in the longer term. I have finished the wheels, they were obvious candidates and hopefully they will be 'made' shortly - the nosewheel is complete below... ..the next part I tried was a bit more ambitious - the engine core for the P&W 2800 - I am still figuring out how to cast the cylinder I made and will ultimately need a core to mount them on. In addition the main crankcase cover is festooned with nuts & bolts & weird shapes so thought it might lend itself to more 3D modelling.. ..still more to add but here is where I am at... ..in 1/24 it is still a fair sized hunk of engineering so I am hoping the details will reproduce well.. anyways, thats it for now - normal service will be resumed shortly, hope to get more of the cockpit done at the weekend TTFN Peter

evening chaps.. I have been tempted by watching some WIPs into trying 3D modelling in Rhino to make some parts that might otherwise be challenging - you can get it on a 90 day free trial from their site. I spent the last week with youtube tutorials and had a 2 hour phone call with my good friend Tim Perry who really helped make sense of some of the things I wanted to do.. ..it's a lot like modelling in reverse - I seem to make things by taking away bits that don't look like a Tigercat wheel... I am pretty much finished now so here it is... ..and a rendered version to see what it should look like once 'printed'... a very interesting excercise - just got to make sure I still get some bench time in I recommend it - it's certainly got me thinking about how I might develop some new things under the airscale banner.. TTFN Peter

absolutely eye poppingly stunning.. I want to paint like you when I grow up Ralph... truly you are a jedi master of the art of finish & realism and it leaves me slack-jawed every time I see it... Peter

Thanks Remco - great advice - I tried it and had much better & more permanent results. In the end I painted it anyway as it came out a bit of a patchwork as the blackening couldn't get to where there was CA glue... another lesson learnt! thanks also for your kind comments chaps ..had to get a little bit of paint on as it would be too difficult to paint the throttle quadrant in situ.. ..first I shot alclad in the hope I can chip through the paint down to this later on... ...the Tigercat has a green interior below the bottom of the instrument panel, so I shot black uppers - as soon as I had done this I remembered I was going to try out the hairspray thing for chipping - will have to try it on a test part now (probably for the best anyway...) ..then masked the green - I had put maskol on all the control rods as I figured nothing looks better than metal than, well... metal... ..and this is the basis for detailing this side.. ..also painted & finished the throttle control... ..it's probably pretty hard to see, but there is a tiny letter 'M' on the reddish brown handles under the silver throttle handles - added this from an old decal I think from a 1/32 Beaufighter stencil.. there is also a 'P' on the rear black knob but that is even harder to see .. ..now I can fix it and connect it all up... TTFN Peter

thanks chaps so, now I needed to make the throttle quadrant - it's a bunch of complex handles & levers and took some time to mentally dis-assemble into components I could try & recreate... ..there are the two main throttles at the top with their 'bullet' like handles, and then a number of other controls (I can't profess to know what they are...).. ..I cut a thin strip of brass to start making up the two lower handles and put a bit of plastic rod in my new dremel to turn the ball-like handles.. ...I made up the others and cut out the first few of the body panels from the PE I had made... ..and started making the first section - the main rod serves as the base for everything else to orient to.. ..working through the levers... ..also made the throttles by turning some tube in the dremel again.. ..the second section only has one canted lever and a different kind of handle... ...during assembly - using rods to keep alignment... ..and the finished part - again, a full day's effort at the bench... ..I think I will paint it next as I have had trouble in the past trying to get in all the crevices - I might try the uschi blackening agent I have to turn brass black, but I have never managed to get it to stay on very well.. ..once painted I can think about hooking it up to it's connector rods etc.. TTFN Peter

many thanks Cees - it doesn't always work out like that! woohoo! my custom Photo Etch just arrived and I have to say I think it is exquisite PPD just do amazing things - so in the spirit of the big reveal.... ..well packed as always... ...they helpfully did two copies - one in 8 thou and one in 6 thou brass... ..and the detail is fantastic... ..can't wait to get on with it now... TTFN Peter

thanks Jeroen - I am sure I will! ...the next part on the F7F bench is all the control rods underneath the throttle quadrant - they are helpfully picked out in different coulours on this restored bird... ..I made a shaft and many, many tiny cams & lever arms added some tube and banjo fittings for the rods that go upwards to the throttles - these parts were super-tiny and pretty tricky to assemble... ..also made up the control rods from albion alloy tubes - crimped & drilled the ends to take tiny rivet fasteners... ..after assembly I taped the unit to a square to get the control rods straight and make up a bracket to hold them later on... ..and eventually it was complete and ready for fitting... ..and fitted into place on the sidewall.. ..and another dry fit to make sure it doesn't foul anything and I can still get all the sub-assemblys in, and out of the cockpit opening... ..so thats it - about 50 parts in another little bit - at least at this rate in 11,756 days I will have finished... TTFN Peter

evening chaps just a little update as to be honest I haven't got very much done recently! ..the objective was to build the Rudder & Elevator trim control unit - it's this box with the wheel on it below... ..first up was the wheel itself - I cut a very thin slice from some brass tube of about 7mm diameter and added a plastic card flange to it. Then cut a three spoked bit of brass sheet and punched out a centre cap.. ..assembled the parts to make the trim wheel.. ...for the control body, I built the shapes onto a length of square stock - this serves as a useful handle until the time comes. The bits are just punched discs and brass sheet again - the forward knurled knob is made from airscale bits of PE... ..aded the part to the side wall and added the torque rods. To support the rods at the rear, I made a small brass sheet bracket - this can't really be seen once it's in place.. ..and here it is dry-fitted, waiting to be hidden by the seat so, one little bit in a few hours modelling - this build may take some time... TTFN Peter

thanks chaps ...on to todays bits and bobs.. ..the control column.. I got a few pics to work from and picked up on a few things.. the column itself is wider at the base with a sort of gradual flare, it is also quite curved and the grip itself has a fine ribbed texture that might be a bit challenging to reproduce.. the pic on the left is actually the column from N7654C.. ..to make the column itself I sketched a scale version so I knew the size / shape to work to and bent some rod over a flame to get the basic shape. Then I drizzled CA over the end to bulk out the bottom and then shaped it as near as I could to the true shape... ...for the pistol grip I set a bit of guitar string into another bit of rod and shaped & added detail - this was the only way I could think of to get regular even spacing... ...I gave it a little wash to try and show how it looks... ...added the linkage detail from brass etc and the main torque tube that goes under the seat... ..and assembled... ..and checked it all slots together as it needs to be assembled in situ through the cockpit aperture.. ..and in place... ..thats it for now - back soon TTFN Peter

happy to what would you like to see? I would love to share what little I know... thanks too Grant - very kind - I just do my thang and hope it's worth tuning in - I enjoy myself so one of us is happy! anyways, another few small steps on the tigercat... ..I started making the seat mount - the key here is the seat needs to be dropped in after the cockpit is together, so I made a mount and pin for it to slide onto from above when the time comes... used heat shrink tube to make the extraneous bits of the frame and airscale PE bits for the bits & bobs around the mountings.. ..then added the upper mounts to the frame - these are just card & brass bits.. ..added some small bracing rods above the seat and soon had most of the rear bulkhead complete... started on the mounting bracket for the head armour that was removed from N7654C - marked it out on some brass sheet and drilled the holes first... after the holes I scored the shape and 'wobbled' the bits I wanted to break off - doing this with brass means no cutting, just carefully score and break... ..I always hold parts in the bending tool while I work them - here the lower mounting point has been filed/worked and the upper one is still raw.. ..and the part added.. I think this is what it looked like, but with no clear photos I am taking an educated guess... ..I know, another shot of the 'pit but hopefully it shows how it all hangs together... .. every single part of a model is a model - my thing is to treat each little bit as if it were up for some grand champion award - the first attempt at it might work, but if it doesn't, by the second it has taught me enough to do it properly (or the third, fourth etc etc) TTFN Peter

thanks Cees - yes it really helps and it seems on the whole to be pretty accurate.. so, on to what little progress made since last time... while I was looking at the few pics I have of the seat back & rear bulkhead I noticed there are cut-outs in the fuselage that the canopy fittings seem to slide into. It took a bit of figuring out as there appear to be sliding cover panels on the outside skin that cover these when the canopy is closed. You can see below on the left photo the two triangle shapes either side of the seat back, and on the right photo the sliding cover panels.. ..I started by cutting the fuselage about and lining the area with card. They do not extend all the way back like they should, but they don't need to - it's just the view from the cockpit that needs depth... ..and after a bit of finishing they were done... ..I then started to prepare the bulkhead parts - there are also two small brass 'wing' fittings that are something to do with the canopy mechanism I think so added these too.. ..also wanted to make the bar that goes across the back so started messing around trying to shape a thick bit of copper wire - the advantages of this is that the ends can be flattened to form the mounts and it doesn't kink like tube does... it took a few goes and trying different tools before I was happy.. ..squared and filed the fitting ends and drilled them to accept a micro-bolt... ..also added some more to the seat - there are two pressed depressions in the back I had to make a punch tool to make, and added the square mounting point plates either side of them. Lastly added a bit of brass sheet and a bolt as per references to the bottom of the seat... ..ultimately every part I make needs to be removable, and to be able to be fitted from the top through the cockpit opening - the order I have arrived at is first the floor, then the back, then sides, then instrument panel, then drop the seat in and lastly the control column and a few levers etc that would otherwise foul things as they go in... ..this is where I am at and all this will need to be built & left until the wings are on and then dropped in after (I think anyway..) it's like a mental 3 dimensional jigsaw puzzle.. thats it for now - back soon.. Peter

Hi Remco - thanks for stopping by. The rivets are from Scale Hardware - they do amazing tiny brass nuts/bolts/rivets etc todays little update.. ..I was looking for reference for the seat mount and bulkhead the seat is fitted to (and still looking... hint ) and while looking at one of the amazing period shots of N7654C at Sequoia in the 70's I noticed the fuselage is actually canted backwards from the cockpit sill - I put a couple of lines on the picture to show what I mean.. ..the red line is 90 degrees to the cockpit sill and is the angle the front and rear canopies meet - the bit I spotted is in front of the yellow dashed line which is the fuselage canted back at an angle - its not shown on any plan normally as the canopy is shown closed... I checked on a Grumman drawing in one of my books and there it is for the F7F-3P.. ..I drew the outline on the model and toyed with leaving it as is (for about 10 seconds..) as it's a bit of work and I thought it might destroy the structural integrity of the area if I started hacking away... ..so I started sawing it off.... ..the foam filler is really stiff and well bonded to the plastic so it kept it's shape during surgery... ...much happier with the angle now... ..I used the pattern from the card kit as a template to make the lining bulkhead for the area... ..I modified it to fit and changed the floor and sides to make it all fit to the new angled bulkead... ..starting to get some of the basic structure together now... ..having a ball with this one - the only frustration is a lack of detailed references on the seat mount & bulkhead details - all the restored Tigercats I can find pics of had a second cockpit so the whole area is different... ..back to google... and please if you have any details drop them into this thread TTFN Peter

evening all.. I got a little more done - just started making up the cockpit sidewalls with plastic stock and some brass bits... .,.also added the canopy slide rails - they are folded brass into a tiny 'U' shape though you can't really see it here... ..also started on the seat - I redrew the pattern and made it from one peice of plastic card, bending & folding to form it. I used steam from the kettle to help it keep its shape and added a brass section to strengthen it across the bottom edge... ...added some brass rivets where I could see them on references and made a paper template to work out the shape of the lower insert... ...scored the shape onto some brass shim and punched out the radiused corners - I always struggle to get them square when doing this... ..finished working the part and embossed some details.. ..and the seat is getting there - I am hoping it is a stock seat found in other Grumman aircraft as I have no details on the mount or in fact anything other than the seat shape itself... time to get on to google.. ..thats it for now folks - thanks for stopping by TTFN Peter

thanks Rick I use Model car parts quite a bit for details - the hose is from Tuner Model Manufactory available from HLJ - they do some great stuff.. haha Cees, very true - it's going to take double the planning to get stuff made that will slot in and not conflict with each other. I have been a busy bee, but not in a traditional way - I decided to get some bespoke PE made up for the cockpit so have been busy designing it.. ..I don't know how to drive the layered graphics program needed (Illustrator or Coreldraw) so I just do it in Powerpoint and give the designs to my very clever graphic artist who will do what's needed before I can get them off to my PE supplier PPD in Scotland for a one off job. It's not cheap, but worth it for the effect and the work it will save me. I am very fortunate to have a few period shots of N7654C's cockpit so have designed against this... it seems like it had a new panel fitted after military service as it is subtly different from the other reference I have - that said, much of the rest of the cockpit is common so pretty straightforward to get better reference shots to work from.. anyways, here she is in 1980... ..and here is the artwork.. ..I printed negative paper copies to get the sizing right... ..onwards & upwards... TTFN Peter

evening ladies thanks for all your kind comments - it keeps me going when things get tough! so a few more dolly steps forward towards my bench being well and truly dominated by this monster - I keep dinging the fuselage on tools, lamps, my bench edges etc - I think I will need a bigger bench by the time the wings get on.. ..last time I had added the lower nose casting so I set about sorting this out with filler, CA & primer - it took a lot of messing about actually as the join kept opening up so it took quite a bit of re-work and so many layers of primer I need to let it go off for a few days to settle down... ..I needed to find something else to do so I started looking at the cockpit area - this is the start of my favourite part of building models and I have a totally blank canvas... ..first I looked at getting the shape of the opening right - after lots of looking at photo's and measuring and an hour or two of playing around with 1mm tape to define the shape, I suddenly realised I was building from a card model so should have a template canopy part... ..I cut it out and got the Airfix Typhoon pilot that came with my test shot and soon got my bearings - it may also proove useful when making the canopy itself.. ..something wasn't quite right as things weren't symmetrical and after lots of head scratching I realised one of the cockpit sills was lower than the other, so i had to sort that and reinstate some of the fuselage I had cut away.. ..one of the main challenges is going to be building a cockpit into a hole - I figured out the only way will be to make assemblies I can insert - a floor, sides etc.. ..the floor won't fit in one piece, so I split it along a break in the real thing's floor at the bottom of the instrument panel..to help figure this out I mocked up a panel shape... ..soon I had the basic inserts for the floor and the sides - this is the start point for a fair bit of work ..and how in principle lining the cockpit will work... ..thats it for now, thanks for stopping by... TTFN Peter

hehe - funny you should say that Jeroen... I started weathering with a MiG Dark Wash - this went horribly wrong when I knocked the pot over my bench and into my lap. One pair of jeans ruined and I now have a fine wash bringing out wrinkles where I didn't even know I had them... ..the photo's aren't so good for showing the effects after weathering, but it looks ok to me... ..I then fixed the whole assembly to the nose and added the part I made to house the top of the nose leg... ..then added a small control rod that is part of the retract mechanism.. ..finally, it was time to close it all in and add the lower nose casting - I had a gap on the lower edge so used some dark plastruct to close it and not be seen too well from the inside - lots of CA bonded it strongly.. ..to get nice clean straight edges to the rear nose door aperture I added some brass 'L' section - I can also use this to fill and sand up to without fear of rounding it as it's pretty tough stuff.. ..and a view of the finished structure... ..finally I started cleaning up the joins and have since added a bit of green stuff which can go off overnight... feels good to be through this bit and can now focus on getting the fuselage ship shape - might do the cockpit next TTFN Peter

got a little paint on so thought I would put up a couple more pics... ..the trouble with building complete detailed assemblies is they are hard to detail paint - I wanted to spray the heater so masked around it... ..a couple of shades of alclad and it was done.. ..and after taking the masking off.. ..then a couple of hours carefully painting.. ...I need to look at learning some weathering techniques now - I can do a wash and dry brush, but have seen some spectacular effects out there so will have to gen up.. ..any good tutorials out there on salt / hairspray / whatever black magic they use? can't spend too long as I want to close the nose up and crack on... TTFN Peter

evening folks Thanks Cees - you better tune away - there is paint in this episode - I must admit I like to look at the engineering in models too... Thanks Ted - very few actually, the only machine I have is a dremel - the rest are just standard kit - scalpel, ruler, files, rivet wheels & a punch set (oh and a micrometer..). I do have other stuff but really most work just uses the basics... ..so on with a bit more Tigercat mayhem and a few more bits and bobs done.. I started by refining the rear gear door aperture - a bit of cotton gave me a centreline and you can see here the lower part of the aperture needs correcting - a bit of work with a file and all was square.. ..then added some internals to the lower nose casting... ..also added a bit of detail to the main fuselage parts where the gear bay extends into them.. ..after a bit of work I was happy that it was getting near to being ready to close up and that I should stop detailing & move on... ..I primed all the parts with mr surfacer to give a good key for the paint across the different materials... ..anyone who has seen my other WIPs will know I am terrified of painting - I don't have much airbrush experience and really see it as an opportunity to balls up a lot of building work.. ..any way I looked at it, it was time for paint... ..I mixed up a pot of Tamiya Acrylic with greens, blue & yellow until I had what I thought matched the colour found on an interior shot of N7654C's cockpit and bit the bullet... I also tried a few shadows of Tamiya smoke to see if I could make some lowlight contracts before I detail paint and weather the area - I can see it in real life but think the photo's might bleach it out... ..so, thats it for now - I have to do the detail painting in the next few days (hopefully...) TTFN Peter

awww thanks chaps Grant, it was great to see you again at Telford - I missed you when you couldn't come last year - always a pleasure to catch up! ..not back to work yet so got a little bench-time and a bit more done... ..first a torsion arm that controls many things it seems, including the rear gear doors and is linked to the retraction jack so I guess sequences the order of things as the gear retracts.. ..it is a wire core with bits of tube and a number of 'banjo' fittings from the model car world that allow a rod to be inserted at 90 degrees - also made up the arms that control the gear doors. I had to take the brackets off the assembly I made earlier so I could put it all together and lower it a bit so as not to foul the gear leg.. ..I also modified the fuselage so I could add the rear bulkhead and have the whole bay as one slot-in assembly... will m ake things easier to work on... ..next I started to make up a compressor or something that goes in the rear gear bay - it doesn't seem to figure on restored Tigercats so may be something to do with the cannons, but I like the challenge and it fills some empty space... used a bit of clear tube & started to dress with plastic & brass.. ..added some airscale PE bits and made it up into a sub-assembly... ..added it and some hose that runs the length of the bay - also mounted the torsion bar... ..and some views of the bay so far... ..few more bits to do and then hopefully I can prime & paint it - anyone any ideas on an acrylic match for 'Grumman Interior Green'? TTFN Peter

Happy New Year folks & thanks Jim a little more done so another little update.. ..first up, I routed out some of the bulkhead and foam filling with my new dremel flexi (Xmas pressie from Mrs A... ) to prepare for the rear bulkhead in the nosewheel bay... ..made up a bulkhead from card and what I think is the rear cockpit of a 1/72 SBD Dauntless from the spares box - it is the right shape (or near enough) and added some details from brass and rivet transfers... this part of the wheel well is pretty much enclosed by the partly open rear doors so not much will be seen anyway.. you can see some small model car PE cable seperators fixed to the top of the grey part - these will hold a bunch of pipework.. ..got some wire & bent them to the size / shape needed... ..and with the pipework in place... ..and in place.. I also added the two flanges (with the punched holes) that will hide the internal join between the lower nose casting and the fuselage, they will also strengthen it.. ..and with the lower nose added to make sure it all fits... ..need to get the internals done here so I can paint the interior of the bay and add the nose, then finish & detail the fuselage, then build the cockpit & canopy, then build some wings, then build some tailplanes, then build some nacelles & engines, then some undercarriage, then it will be about 2017.... TTFN Peter

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<THUD>>>>>>>>>>>>>> that was my jaw hitting the floor (again...)... simply superb Jim, words fail me.. I love the cockpit especially - what punch set are you using? it looks far superior to my waldron set... thanks Peter

Seasons greetings all I hope you had a wonderful Xmas and are all set up for a great New Year... Thank you Daywalker - very kind of you to say so - I get most of my ideas from others I watch at work too, so hope I can help add to people's toolchests in how to do some things... I have been a little tied up over the festive period so only got to the bench for a bit today... pressing on getting the nosewheel bay finished.. ..first up a bulkhead at the very tip of the nose - I used plasticine to get a profile and carefully sectioned it with a blade to get a flat to derive the shape from.. ..punched out and filed some slots and added details from brass and a couple of airscale PE bits for the brackets that hold the main nosewheel door hinges... ..and fitted in place.. ..there are two half-bulkheads I needed to make so started by cutting the shapes from card & adding brass - here I am using a punch to roll the brass into a nice clean edge part.. ..added some rivets too and some brackets to the rear - here I am using a drill bit to ensure the brackets are aligned to the base so the torque rod that will go here is perpendicular to the roof.. ..also started to make up what I think is a retraction jack from bits & bobs... ..and dry fitting to make sure it all fits - the half-bulkheads are slightly diffterent shapes to compensate for the different wall thickness of the home cast resin lower nose - as long as the central view along the centreline is right this won't matter... ..and the roof as it will sit in the airframe.. ..thats it for now - I need to stick a sign on the nose saying 'DON'T GET LOST IN HERE' as I spent 3 months doing my last wheel bay to the utmost detail on a Sea Fury and to be honest no-one will ever see it - I should just represent what is there and move on.... TTFN & Happy New Year Peter

I think I have virtually finished the cylinder master for the front row... first I set out where the exhaust ports are and added some short bits of ali tube... ..then tried to build up the structure around them with bits of card, stock and CA as filler - I also added the fins in this area with the micro-saw again... ...then shot some mr surfacer 1200 (carefully) to see the flaws that needed dealing with... I added a bit of wire temporarily for the 'U' shaped pipe that runs between the rocker covers.. ..and the rear.. ..and dry fitted together - these two parts hopefully can be cast separately after I clean them up a bit.. ..and again the rear - I blanked off the exhaust ports so when cast they just act as housings for the pipework that needs to fit to them.. ..and that's pretty much it - three weeks or so since I realised the Kinetic P47 engine I cast a copy of (thanks LSP_Ray!) wasn't really up to the shape/detail level I would be happy with, I have my first engine part... sigh - good job I'm not in a hurry, just hope folks stick around long enough to actually see an airframe come out the other end of this saga TTFN Peter

well good evening chaps thanks for stopping by.. ..so, life has got in the way lately and I only had a little time at the bench in the last couple of days so there is only a little progress to show for it.. ..first up, I made a mould of the rocker covers - after I added a few micro brass bolts to the corners... ..made a couple of copies to use on the cylinder head master... they look like little animal skulls... ..then a bit of a make or break moment - I tried to represent the finning on the head casting by cutting very fine saw cuts into the head.... I also cut out the two sections where the new pushrod housings will go... ...I added a dummy pushrod to help aligning the first one... ..then added the other and the little resin rocker covers on the tops... the idea is this part (when I have done the back with the exhaust ports) will be cast separately though I am a bit worried about undercuts etc so will likely call in the experts... ..and then a dry fit with a couple of dummy pushrods and the front / top of the full cylinder is just about done... ...need to get this wrapped up soon so I can get a casting to rework for the rear cylinder heads - the rocker covers there have a different layout and are canted in at an angle... ..also been looking at the nosewheel bay and cracking on with that as I need some aeroplane time as this has been pretty fiddly stuff so might need a little diversion.. so much to do... TTFN Peter

oh boy that looks great.. an under appreciated classic I think and you are making a superb job of it Ralph Peter