Paulster Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 Great detail work. Looks like a fun plane to fly also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkt1 Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Stunning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 evening all been pretty frantic lately so first time at the bench for a while and thought I would drop in with a little postette... ..been working on the rear cockpit parts for the Hornet - first up a bulkhead that closes the cockpit from the rear fuselage and carries the fuel filler pipe from the filling point behind the canopy back into the fuselage (& I assume wing) tanks.. ..the card shape took ages to get right as I couldn't get access and the pipe itself is a bit of rubber pipe with a wire core... ..dressed with some brass rivet detail and fitted... next up will be applying a pressed aluminium face to the curved main spar cover you can see at the bottom of this pic... ...first a sheet of thin brass shim cut to shape with a bit of tracing paper stuck to it to mark out on... ..next I punched out the radiuses and shaped the apertures, followed by 'flaring' the edges to give the impression of a stamped aluminium sheet part. This was done very carefully with an assortment of tools and actually took quite a while... ..I gave up trying to do the centre aperture and ended up covering it with a bit of card... ...the real thing has some embossed strengthening strakes so I tried putting tape on a bit of perspex, taping the part to it and scribing the back with a pin in a pin vise - I tried all these things on a scrap bit of brass before committing... ..then I had to bend it, so taped it to a punch of the right diameter and carefully worked it around it... ...fitted it with CA and added a rear spacer panel to dress the whole area... ..dry fitted it in the fuselage and while a fair bit of work it worked out ok... ...much of the top deck can't be seen with the ammo bins in place, but hey, I build a lot of stuff that can't be seen.... ..good to be back in the groove again..until next time folks.. TTFN Peter 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingco57 Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 Peter, But at least you know it's there. Very nice masterclass as always. Excellent dose of inspiration too. Cheers Cees 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 thanks Cees so, a bit more done... the pilot's seat-back armour plate needs to sort of hang in mid-air - it is mounted to the cockpit sides just under the rails, and has a coupe of braces holding the base to just above the wing spar. The picture below shows David Collins' rebuild of the only surviving cockpit section, but the bulkhead the armour plate is mounted to is a false one to just close off the cockpit area... ...first thing was to tape a bar to the back of it to set the height... then I glued a vertical brace to hold it in place while I attach the braces to the rear... ..you can see the mounting points to the canopy rails sticking out the sides - I will need to remove the brace at some point but am sure it will not be strong enough without it so will need to come up with something at some point... ..I started to make up the rear brackets from airscale parts, RB Motion banjo fittings, scale hardware bolts and a bit of tube as a spacer - these micro parts are not cheap but there is no substitute... ..used more modified airscale parts to make the mounting brackets that go on the fuselage sides - I only have one forward view drawing of this area so this is my best interpretation... ..the rear area is starting to form... ..and again, it can't really be seen but it is how I have my fun... ..the seat will mount to the floor and with braces to the armour panel, for now it's on a blob of white tack.. ..until next time - and if anyone has any photo's or drawings of this area please feel free to post them! TTFN Peter 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators James H Posted August 14, 2014 Administrators Share Posted August 14, 2014 Just superb. I wish you were doing the Me 410, as that's what I have to build next. I love your scratch work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonathanReed Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Fantastic! Such an inspiration! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youngtiger1 Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Man, that is some amazing detail your doing. I need to get some brass sheets and try scratch building/rivet creating work myself. So, keep up the good work Peter. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 why thank you chaps, very kind to drop in with some kind words so, tonight is a mixed bag - first, after I spoke to David Collins by email it seems I got the armour plate mountings wrong - the struts don't go backwards but out laterally from the bottom of the armour plate to the fuselage sides. I have no problem changing them, but it does mean the whole assembly (with the seat attached) needs to be dropped in from the top after the fuselage is closed so a complete rethink is needed (and trust me I spent long enough figuring out what to do to fit it in the way I did!). I am glad really as the brace I put in to hold it in 'mid-air' would have been a nightmare to remove later on, and I also realised all the detailing on the armour plate for the seat belt tensioners, headrest, and stowed boarding ladder would have been much more difficult to do with it mounted to the cockpit floor. so, anyways, a bit of brute force and ignorance and it's history - I can keep the fittings to use later.. ..as I had the armour plate in hand again I thought about detailing it - it has two pretty hefty tensioning springs running down the back of it so I made these from old guitar string. I also made some micro brass parts for the fittings at either end - these few parts are about three hours work... ..nothing like a screw-up to make things better second time around I find and I have to thank David for his help in keeping this build accurate, as there are enough myths wrapped in enigmas about this aeroplane already without me adding to them TTFN Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators JeroenPeters Posted August 16, 2014 Administrators Share Posted August 16, 2014 Applause! I love every micro mm of your work!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted August 28, 2014 Author Share Posted August 28, 2014 evening ladies... pfffff - sometimes stuff just feels like it's fighting me all the way on this build and today is one of those days... ..started by scaling a drawing to understand the internal layout of the cockpit... marked out where the armour plate, trim wheel and instrument panel will go and put the panel I made earlier in place... ...added the floor to make sure I had the stepped area right - I didn't, it needs moving back a bit but that's not difficult... ..held up the other fuselage side to close it in and realised the panel is too wide - you can see the gap at the nose... ..I have stared at it, sworn at it, rubbed my chin a lot and still can't work out why or how it happened. I know I skinned the fuselage walls so thats added some thickness, I think I made the panel from a scale drawing with reference to the kits dimesions so must have just ballsed something up dammit ..time to down tools, chill out and work out how to work around it as much as I love building instrument panels I really don't want to do the whole bloody thing again feels like this one is getting frustrating... TTFN Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators James H Posted August 28, 2014 Administrators Share Posted August 28, 2014 Damn, how will you fix that? Looks a back yard out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grant Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Wow, such a shame but if anyone can resolve it, you can... Your IP is, quite frankly, just superb!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulster Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 Time for a beer and to think about it. Your work so far is inspirational. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkt1 Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 Inspirational. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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