Post-Scriptum to "Very nice sandy beach ... but the sea is really far !". French Aeronavale (Navy) Potez 25 TOE. 1934 "Pink Cruise"

[Martinnfb]

All considered, this is highly impressive build, full of mad skills and great research. Bravo!

 

[HubertB]

18 hours ago, CANicoll said:

By the way, I actually think that is a pretty cool effect the accidental spilling of the MRP paint on the cowling.  Hmmm.. Have to remember that!

I mopped (but did not wipe) the excess paint from the spill with a paper handkerchief. Wiping the paint woudl have resulted in the base color being removed as well.

Then, when dry, I rubbed the areas of the spill with a fiberglass pen, before respraying the damaged araes with aluminium. There are some areas which have kept a very slight grain effect under the aluminium paint, but it adds texture and interest to the aluminium IMHO.

Hubert

 

[HubertB]

Thank you all for following along my trans-saharian trip into madness.

I thought I'd add some shots of the last details before closing the build ...

The windmill generator and mudguard have been added on each side ...

The pushrods fro the ailerons were added from 0.2 mm nickel-silver rod. The "park-bench" aileron compensators were a PITA to install, but submitted to persistant swearing and gluing 🤣

@DocRob, yes the French Navy Potez overflying the Sahara were taking a spare wheel. I thought the feature pretty irresistible. But installing the spare wheel as per original, using EZ Line was even more a PITA than the "park-bench" aileron compensators. This bloody thing has a way of snaking around that can be pretty irritating, especially when you are trying to tie it in the middle of the rigging ...

By the way, I had repainted the wheel-centers from dark blue grey to silver, as the pics seemed to indicate this was the color, rather than the DBG shown on some profiles.

I also added the fuel line, connecting the main tank, the supplementary tank and going into the fuselage to the engine.

That's about it ...

So is it finished yet ?

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind ...

 

See you in RFI

Hubert

[CANicoll]

Beautiful work! Thanks for the journey, great following along. Looking forward to the RFI pics.

[BlrwestSiR]

Lovely build with an amazing attention to detail. 

[HubertB]

Afterword : back to metalsmith works and Good Ol' Scratchbuilding

 

Well, afetr having spent so much time worrying about the weight of the finished kit, and how to avoid potential problems, I have been caught up by my lack of oversight ...

To be honest, when I completed the design of the Messier tailskid, and then installed it at the end of the build, I asked myself whether it would be up to the task of holding its share of the kit's weight. It was designed as a scale-accurate contraption, but I was not sure about the ultimate mechanical resistance of the 3D-printed resin. I now have my answer, after three weeks of static display. The resin may be nice for fine details, but one should not expect it to have a significant mechanical resistance, especially when printed in relatively thin sections.

When displaying my finished Rutan Quickie next to the Potez, I noticed that the tail skid had collapsed under the weight of the kit. Truth is that, even if the bulk of the kit's weight is borne by the main wheels, a portion of it will be transferred, logically, to the tail skid. My maths are too rusty to calculate it using the precise formulas, but I estilmate it is  about 20 / 25 % of the total kit's weight, and that amounts to at least 70 grams (whicj should have been the real total scale weight of the Potez) ...

So, as for the main landing gear struts, and the lower sesquiplane, some metal reinfocement was needed. I toyed with the idea of cheating and inserting a brass rod to hold the skid in position, but finally voted for coming back to some good ol' metal scratchbuilding, and building a new tail-skid out of brass. I have a good supply of various rods, tubes, sheets, plus some Scale Hardware nuts and bolts, so that was theoretically possible. And, having designed the scale-representation of the Messier tial skid in 3D, I had a good idea of its breakdown.

So, after a few hours of work, here is the result of my efforts, next to a spare 3D-printed part I had kept "just in case". Not nearly as perfect as the 3d-printed part, and some of the smallest details have been omitted, or represented slightly overscale, but overall, "good enough for govenment's work" as the saying goes ...

Now, to paint it, rermove the old broken one and glue the new tail skid in place ...

THE END

Hubert

 

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Amazing metalwork Hubert. 

Is there anything you can't do?

And don't say basket weaving. 

[CANicoll]

Me thinks Hubert is expert at basket weaving, too!    Fantastic metalwork, Hubert!  Wow.  

[HubertB]

3 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Amazing metalwork Hubert. 

Is there anything you can't do?

And don't say basket weaving. 

 

2 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Me thinks Hubert is expert at basket weaving, too!    Fantastic metalwork, Hubert!  Wow.  

I’ve never tried basket weaving, but that should not be too difficult 🤣😂🤣 !

Thank you guys. This metal work is just about being patient and taking your time. And I avoided soldering, which  always makes my life far more complicated. So I have relied on some mechanical links on top of CA …

Hubert

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, nice job Hubert!  Looks fantastic!  That should add a lot more structural strength for sure.

[KevinM]

Looks better than the resin in my eyes Hubert Nice work!

[DocRob]

I love it Hubert, as an ex engineer, I can only admire your capabilities with metals. Bummer, you need to paint it.

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

13 hours ago, KevinM said:

Looks better than the resin in my eyes Hubert Nice work!

 

9 hours ago, DocRob said:

I love it Hubert, as an ex engineer, I can only admire your capabilities with metals. Bummer, you need to paint it.

Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin and Rob.

@ Kevin : the compliment is really more than the part deserves. I see a number of small discrepancies that the 3D-printing process alleviates, by definition.

@ Rob : it’s very satisfying to work with metal. One thing I have learned in this work : I need to buy a more precise vise / clamp for my Proxxon XY table, under the press-drill. The one I have is not up to precision tasks, and has resulted is slightly out of true (plane-wise) drillings, which impact the assembly. I also need to train a lot more to master soldering. My soldering attempts all too often result in messes I need to clean up afterwards. On this part, I was definitely concerned that the thick skid part would have far too different thermal responses to the other, thin, ones, and I just generally fail miserably to place properly the heat sinks that will allow to avoid problems.

Anyway, after a lazy day off the bench yesterday, today is about priming, painting, weathering, and replacing the resin part.

Hubert