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Messages - Second Air Force

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4921
Aircraft Modeling / Re: Free styles
« on: November 28, 2010, 02:05:59 PM »
Welcome, Goran, and great work!

Scott

4922
Wonderful photos, and thanks for sharing them!

Scott

4923
Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale
« on: November 26, 2010, 05:14:08 AM »
It's not much yet, but here is the early stage of the tailwheel assembly. I was forced to make a mold of a C-47 tire/wheel assembly and then glue two of them together to get the correct width tire for the B-17. The fork and balance of the strut are aluminum parts.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5792.jpg


Scott

4924
Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale
« on: November 21, 2010, 05:12:56 PM »
Almost like building a real thing... :-think :-clap

I almost think it would be easier to build the real thing sometimes! :)

Scott

4925
Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale
« on: November 21, 2010, 03:38:35 AM »
This evening I tackled the problem of making the gun blisters. I first got out the calculator and calipers, figured the size of each emplacement in 1/1 and copied No.1's profile view of the lower blister, scaling it to 1/48. Here's some of my math project and the final size of the lower blister:
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5779.jpg


I then laid the drawing up against the fuselage to get an idea of the dimensions before committing to making parts:
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5780.jpg


Here is the first mold being made for what will become the male master that'll go in the vacuform machine:
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5784.jpg


The first male die just after being popped out of the mold. Now I will start the shaping and fitting process, and once I'm happy with the result, I can use this piece of resin to vacuform the clear parts. If I make a mistake, I can always pour as many more pieces as needed to get the four enclosures.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5786.jpg


Scott




4926
Warplane Art / Re: Boeing YB17
« on: November 19, 2010, 06:40:26 PM »
My God, Scott you are amasing. :-eek :-ok :-ok :-ok I am unpatient to see further steps.
 :-flo :-wave

I'll make it a point to show you all of my mistakes when I make those blisters!!!!!! It ought to be a pretty ugly process!

I poured a block of resin this morning and I plan to whittle it into the shape required for the master mold. If resin doesn't work I will move on to wood as a second choice. Perhaps balsawood would be a better option than the resin but I have plenty of resin here at home. I reckon I'll post the process and results on the thread in Modeling.

Scott

4927
Warplane Art / Re: Boeing YB17
« on: November 17, 2010, 07:12:38 PM »
Yes, that is the plan. I believe I can easily build a male master. The only difficulty is fitting the fairing to the fuselage and getting it to conform correctly. At this point I think (not certain, though) all four blisters used the same plexiglas and basic framing with the fairings being different for each position. I'd hoped to build one master and then modify the resulting vacuum formed parts as needed. Stay tuned! ;)

Scott

4928
Aircraft Modeling / Re: HOW TO: Natural Metal Finishes
« on: November 17, 2010, 07:00:18 PM »
I made a lot of extra work for myself when I was painting the yellow chromate on the wheelwells and the cockpit green. This was originally going to be an O.D./neutral grey paint scheme but I decided to use it as a NMF practice kit. I've done a lot of sanding to smooth the yellow and green you see sprayed all over. If I'd known I was going to do NMF I would have very carefully masked off the skin so I wouldn't have oversprayed it.

S

4929
Warplane Art / Re: Boeing YB17
« on: November 17, 2010, 06:57:04 PM »
I'll have to vacu-form the blisters. The Koster kit is actually a B-17C/D upgrade with parts to do an E. Also included is a Cheyenne tail turret for later Gs.

Scott

4930
Aircraft Modeling / Re: HOW TO: Natural Metal Finishes
« on: November 17, 2010, 06:15:46 PM »
I dug out the little P-47 I am using for practice with my NMF methods. Most of the surface preparation is done now. Next will be painting the anti-glare panel and dusting a little primer on the various seams to verify that there are no gaps. This Tamiya kit fits so well that almost no filler is necessary.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5776.jpg


Scott

4931
Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale
« on: November 17, 2010, 06:12:39 PM »
Very quick update--a couple of pictures of the waist and ventral gun openings. Next will be making the die for vacuforming the actual blisters.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5774.jpg


http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5775.jpg


Scott

4932
Warplane Art / Re: Boeing YB17
« on: November 17, 2010, 06:10:32 PM »
Now all I need to do is make the blisters! :-roll

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5774.jpg

4933
Warplane Art / Re: Boeing YB17
« on: November 16, 2010, 06:16:42 PM »
I happen to be working on the blisters for the 1/48th model so I'm going to shamelessly "borrow" your profile for reference.  Good work!

Scott

4934
Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale
« on: November 12, 2010, 08:35:00 PM »
I am sure I've already done so, but here is another shameless plug for Koster vacuform kits. The fuselage halves fit perfectly into the original Monogram forward section with only a very minimum of work. I've never been disappointed in anything Mr. Koster has produced and can hardly wait to start working on the PB4Y-2 modification that I photographed earlier.

Scott

4935
Aircraft Modeling / Re: Boeing Y1B-17 Project--1/48th Scale
« on: November 12, 2010, 06:28:22 PM »
I tend to agree with Nico on adding transverse bulkheads in the fuselage. On this model I won't be able to add any full bulkheads as I want the entire aft fuselage to be open for viewing. Instead I'll build up several frames with longerons and stringers to help beef up the fuselage much like Boeing did it. Fortunately the Koster kit is molded of sturdy plastic and can be built without much additional strength.

Here's another little update. One of the modelers on WIX, Steve Nelson, posted a suggestion to use a marker pen to outline where cutouts are to be made and around the perimeter of parts when cutting from the sheets. I added that process into the update.

I followed the tip that Steve posted about outlining cutouts with a Sharpie and it is a nice guide for trimming, indeed. On a Koster kit there is a light outline molded into the parts such as where the horizontal goes through the aft fuselage. I simply ran the marker around the perimeter of the molded-in guide marks in this instance.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5763.jpg


I should mention for those who haven't done much vacuform modeling that you have to be careful when cutting holes into the fuselage halves for wings and stabilizers. Study the particular kit you're building to make sure that the left and right halves agree with one another. I once built a Wyvern that was molded with the left wing opening 1/4" further aft than the right. If I hadn't done some measuring first I would have made a mess of it. Today's kits, and especially the products I've gotten from Koster, are very accurately molded but some of the old vacuforms weren't quite so precise. It makes building vacuform all the more satisfying when you are able to build a poorer quality kit into a presentable model, but it can also be exasperating to make cuts that don't line up. Measure twice, cut once!

Here's the stab cutout during trimming. Lots of filing and test fitting, but the process isn't anything difficult.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5765.jpg


After making both cutouts I slid the horizontal into the fuselage. Notice that it isn't 100% perpendicular to the vertical in this photo. A tiny bit of tweaking will make this come into line. I'll probably build a little fixture so that I get it just right.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5772.jpg


Just because I could, I assembled the sections together for the first time to get a feel for how the airplane will look someday. I haven't built a 1/48th B-17 for twenty years---darn it's big!!!!
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5769.jpg


http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w117/2AF/IMG_5771.jpg


Scott

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