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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

1/18 Supermarine S6B - S1595


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  • 2 weeks later...

hello all :)

 

I kept thinking I will stop in a minute and take a picture of what I am doing, but then I would think, I will just finish this bit... well before I knew it the engine cowling was done.. it is a complicated structure, but shouts early aviation..

 

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can start the fuselage proper now..

 

TTFN

 

Peter

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  • 2 weeks later...

Happy Friday my friends :)

 

On 1/17/2024 at 7:05 PM, KUROK said:

Wow!!!!

I need details on how you did those little round louvers!

Hey hey Kurok - I used these jeweler ball things on a rod, don't know what they are called, but I have a set of different sizes. I made a buck with a half round in it and just whacked the metal with a hammer to stamp form them - then cut them in half with a slitting disc in a dremel and cleaned them up :)

The fuselage is skinned like a Spitfire, from back to front with some overlaps - the fist step was analysing pictures to work out the skinning order - I started at the rear with a tape template, using dymo tape to define borders where needed. I always mark out rivet lines on the tape template so they are right on the model as what can look a straight line rarely is...

 

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these are those panels after rivetting and making the holes for the circular hatches..the next step is to peel the tape off, wash them with a stiff brush and solvent to get all the tape discs left by the rivetting off, and then finally turn them over and burnish hard with a rod to remove the 'quilting' effect...

 

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..with that panel down and the others that form the bottom layer, I need to fill the upper edges as with another panel to go on top if I don't a visible ridge will appear when I lay it down...

 

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..then the next panel that wraps across the spine - you can see some rivets done with the panel in place have deformed as the foam/filler skin has given out under pressure.. nothing can be done about that..

 

..the edges are also filled again..

 

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..with that done, the skins on the tail are marked out....this is an intersting design feature as the tail is actually the oil cooler so the surface air cools it rather than a cooler sticking into the airflow and causing drag..

 

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..it has a very distinct 'quilted' appearance which is exactly what you get if you don't burnish a rivetted panel, so this will be fun to make..

 

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..same principle applies - tape templates & dymo tape..just thsi time i only lightly burnish the panels before adding them..

 

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..with the fuselage skinned another distinctive feature needs doing - there are radiators running the full length of the fuselage each side (again to reduce drag by hanging them off the wing or under the chin)..

 

..like this..

 

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..I pondered how to do it and eventually tried 3D printing a male mould I could work from - I figured I could burnish the shape in one piece if I was careful..

 

..it had to be in two parts to be printed though..

 

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..these were then superglued to a bit of perspex.. and the work started..

 

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..millions more damned rivets...

 

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..and then scored & carefully broken away..

 

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..I was worried that I would need to fill the 'tubes' but it seemed rigid enough so I bit the bullet, took a deep breath and got ready to stick it in place..

 

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..quite a bit of work that, so here is a walkaround..

 

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..gonna be a shame to paint it :)

 

TTFN

Peter

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you gents, you are all very kind :)

 

With the fuselage coming along, it was time to start another major sub assembly in the floats...

 

the former structure was filled with hard foam to give it a basic profile..

 

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..this was then skim filled with P38 and templates used to get the chines the right shape...

 

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..I would say there were over 30 filling/sand/prime excercises before they were in their final forms..

 

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..then the undersides were skinned...

 

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..there were a few structural features of interest, one is the lapped panels where on the real aeroplane the panels are joggled into an overlap, and the other are these sort of serrated panels which I assume have something to do with disrupting water suction on the step of the float - these were cut one serration at a time so quite tiresome :)

 

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..on to the top surfaces now and these are covered in spaced fittings & rivets so are going to be a challenge...

 

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TTFN

 

Peter

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Thanks gents :)

 

On 2/4/2024 at 6:34 PM, FullArmor said:

Fantastic build. 👍🏆What kind of tools are you using? Please share picture.

 

 

Will do next time :)

 

The saga continues with skinning the floats - these are covered in symetric rivet patterns and rather than do panel by panel, I did pairs of panels for each float. I would say over the course of a few days I did ~5k rivets..

 

..here are two pairs with about 1200..

 

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..again these were only lightly burnished to retain the oil canning seen on the real one - also any panel overlaps on the real one were copied..

 

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..once complete, I started the struts - I used a 3D extrusion to sheath the brass rods I set at the beginning, and then used ali foil on the floats and fuselage so I can fill to them and it will all unstick cleanly with a matching mating face..

 

..it can all be seen in a jig I had to make so I can get everything aligned properly & the yellow sponges apply enough upward pressure to hold them in place without distorting the position..

 

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..the forward upper strut mounts have these odd tails, maybe to deflect water..

 

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..these were made by embedding stiff wire into the strut and filling around it..

 

some of the mounting stubs are a bit short for my liking, but they can't intrude into the cockpit or they are as long as they can be before they cross each other

 

hopefully when mounted with JB weld they will be ok..

 

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..skinning these is going to be problematic as it won't be easy for one thing, and they would need to be a perfect fit when assembled so I haven't quite figured out how I will do it all yet..

 

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TTFN

 

Peter

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