fubar57
General
Wow, very nice.
Geo
Geo
1:32 scale Lancaster Mk.1 Hachette Partworks
- Thread starter Gerry
- Start date
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Crimea_River
Marshal
Well, if it's not perfect, it's damned close! Well done Gerry.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Bl**dy marvelous Gerry !!
That is nothing short of brilliant Gerry.
Great work so far Gerry!
- Thread starter
- #906
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
Thank you all yet again for your very positive responses. It reassures me and confirms that I was right in attempting the correction.
Andy thank you for your links. Interesting to catch up on the Facebook build and I managed to transfer all the additional info via Dropbox. It's sure to prove very useful as the build approaches a conclusion.
Sláinte,
Gerry
Andy thank you for your links. Interesting to catch up on the Facebook build and I managed to transfer all the additional info via Dropbox. It's sure to prove very useful as the build approaches a conclusion.
Sláinte,
Gerry
Crimea_River
Marshal
More than welcome Gerry.
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
Can one bacon a whole thread?
- Thread starter
- #909
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
Hi again,
You'll be relieved to know that some more progress has been made on this build. Still following the build sequence from the magazine, a lot of the progress has been in preparing skins and parts of components, only to be greeted by the words " Store carefully for future use" at the end of each set of instructions. I have, at the moment, three storage boxes containing parts that have yet to be completed, skinned or painted. This means that, despite all the work, there's not a lot I can put up as finished photographs.
However, as a lot of the issues I'm working from cover skinning, I thought that some modification to the instructions would help get a better result. The problems I've been coming across are the joins where each section of skin butts against the next. This point can be along a stringer (1mm wide) or along a wing spar (2mm approx). This gives very little area to get a secure bond with adhesive and has resulted in gaps in the joins, which will require filling.
My solution was to glue some metal strips (above) across the join areas to act as a more secure base for the skins. This is the port outer wing, with the metal bases applied, and will be skinned in its entirety. Because of this, I've taken some short cuts in painting the interior, leaving it in grey primer. This technique appears to work and gives much better support for the joins. Just not sure if I can get it to work on the sections where I'll have parts cutaway to show interiors
Another problem I'm having is with which adhesive to use. Because the points of contact are so narrow on stringers and ribs, I've been using a strong contact adhesive, Evostik Impact, which gives a good strong bond. The problems with it are that it's very thick, with a tendency to clot and string. This is not a problem when the area is totally skinned but could be a problem where interiors can be seen. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a contact adhesive that's thin (brushable) and doesn't string? Cyanoacrylate (superglue) doesn't work, as it dries too fast (max 20 seconds) for me to cover relatively large areas. I need something that would give at least two minutes application time before drying. Any suggestions would be very welcome.
Next, the wing nosings were added to the port wing, top and bottom and worked well with the new supports underneath but will need some filler. The outer engine frame parts were assembled and test fitted before painting and a metal firewall skin was fitted to the wooden engine support. This is an area very easy to get wrong, as I'll explain next. (The masking tape is protecting the landing lights, as the firewall will be painted in situ).
It's important that that the outer engines are perpendicular to the ground and aren't parallel to the dihedral of the outer wing (see below).
You can see from the illustration that a perpendicular line from the ground, perfectly bisects the outer engine (red line). This is not clear in the magazine's instructions below.
If you were unlucky enough to follow these visual instructions, your placement of the engine would be at an odd angle. This is complicated by the fact that there are no location pins or marks to indicate the correct positioning of the metal firewall to the wooden support and because both surfaces are curved, it is easily mispositioned, as I found at my first attempt.
Instruction 26 is wrong, but easy to be misled by. I've tried to show just how wrong by overlaying the dihedral grid in red. Again, the square mounting frame should be parallel to the horizon line and be bisected by the perpendicular line. Having stuck the metal firewall to the support initially, it just didn't look right so I had to peel it off and start again, this time taking great care to do it properly, which was done with much measuring of angles. Provided that the dihedral of the wing is 5 degrees when attached to the inner wing, it should now be correct.
This is it correctly positioned, and painted, with the engine support cradle added. As this port outer engine will be completely enclosed in the nacelles, I'm just going to do the minimum required of the build. I'll keep super-detailing for the partially exposed starboard engines.
Here is the complete port outer engine skeleton painted and positioned with the oil tank in place. I learnt some valuable lessons mounting this and would change the sequence when assembling the starboard version. I have test fitted the nacelles and so far, everything fits.
Then a test fit of one of the Merlins. There are still parts to be added to the Merlins, particularly the exhausts and the wrap-around coolant tank. However, I know that there are fit problems with both of these when the nacelles are added, with later instructions to remove and cut the coolant tank to fit properly! We'll try and avoid that unnecessary kind of work.
I need to continue this post with a second post, as the original is too long.
To be continued...
You'll be relieved to know that some more progress has been made on this build. Still following the build sequence from the magazine, a lot of the progress has been in preparing skins and parts of components, only to be greeted by the words " Store carefully for future use" at the end of each set of instructions. I have, at the moment, three storage boxes containing parts that have yet to be completed, skinned or painted. This means that, despite all the work, there's not a lot I can put up as finished photographs.
However, as a lot of the issues I'm working from cover skinning, I thought that some modification to the instructions would help get a better result. The problems I've been coming across are the joins where each section of skin butts against the next. This point can be along a stringer (1mm wide) or along a wing spar (2mm approx). This gives very little area to get a secure bond with adhesive and has resulted in gaps in the joins, which will require filling.
My solution was to glue some metal strips (above) across the join areas to act as a more secure base for the skins. This is the port outer wing, with the metal bases applied, and will be skinned in its entirety. Because of this, I've taken some short cuts in painting the interior, leaving it in grey primer. This technique appears to work and gives much better support for the joins. Just not sure if I can get it to work on the sections where I'll have parts cutaway to show interiors
Another problem I'm having is with which adhesive to use. Because the points of contact are so narrow on stringers and ribs, I've been using a strong contact adhesive, Evostik Impact, which gives a good strong bond. The problems with it are that it's very thick, with a tendency to clot and string. This is not a problem when the area is totally skinned but could be a problem where interiors can be seen. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a contact adhesive that's thin (brushable) and doesn't string? Cyanoacrylate (superglue) doesn't work, as it dries too fast (max 20 seconds) for me to cover relatively large areas. I need something that would give at least two minutes application time before drying. Any suggestions would be very welcome.
Next, the wing nosings were added to the port wing, top and bottom and worked well with the new supports underneath but will need some filler. The outer engine frame parts were assembled and test fitted before painting and a metal firewall skin was fitted to the wooden engine support. This is an area very easy to get wrong, as I'll explain next. (The masking tape is protecting the landing lights, as the firewall will be painted in situ).
It's important that that the outer engines are perpendicular to the ground and aren't parallel to the dihedral of the outer wing (see below).
You can see from the illustration that a perpendicular line from the ground, perfectly bisects the outer engine (red line). This is not clear in the magazine's instructions below.
If you were unlucky enough to follow these visual instructions, your placement of the engine would be at an odd angle. This is complicated by the fact that there are no location pins or marks to indicate the correct positioning of the metal firewall to the wooden support and because both surfaces are curved, it is easily mispositioned, as I found at my first attempt.
Instruction 26 is wrong, but easy to be misled by. I've tried to show just how wrong by overlaying the dihedral grid in red. Again, the square mounting frame should be parallel to the horizon line and be bisected by the perpendicular line. Having stuck the metal firewall to the support initially, it just didn't look right so I had to peel it off and start again, this time taking great care to do it properly, which was done with much measuring of angles. Provided that the dihedral of the wing is 5 degrees when attached to the inner wing, it should now be correct.
This is it correctly positioned, and painted, with the engine support cradle added. As this port outer engine will be completely enclosed in the nacelles, I'm just going to do the minimum required of the build. I'll keep super-detailing for the partially exposed starboard engines.
Here is the complete port outer engine skeleton painted and positioned with the oil tank in place. I learnt some valuable lessons mounting this and would change the sequence when assembling the starboard version. I have test fitted the nacelles and so far, everything fits.
Then a test fit of one of the Merlins. There are still parts to be added to the Merlins, particularly the exhausts and the wrap-around coolant tank. However, I know that there are fit problems with both of these when the nacelles are added, with later instructions to remove and cut the coolant tank to fit properly! We'll try and avoid that unnecessary kind of work.
I need to continue this post with a second post, as the original is too long.
To be continued...
- Thread starter
- #910
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
Back again...
Then some other aspects of the build were tackled, starting with the rear wheel.
This involved creating a cradle of 5 curved pieces of ply to receive the oleo. This slots into the underside of the fuselage in front of the tailplane. The tyre supplied has the anti-shimmy groove. First thing to do was to paint everything, then assemble.
Here's a montage of two views of the assembled system. The two small metal collars go top and bottom of the wooden frame and allow the wheel to swivel. The green cap is glued to the centreline keel spar. This was an absolute nightmare to position in the already enclosed space but this, after much swearing, was eventually achieved. Not something I'd want to do again in a hurry!
Then the completed assembly was added to the rear fuselage.
Here the wheel is in position and fully moveable. I positioned the now painted crew door for fit, but will have it open in the finished build. And then a preview of how I hope to have the cutaways on the rear starboard. fuselage These will have to be cut individually for each panel, before they're attached,and will need careful measuring to line up properly.
Next I mounted the crew door and hinges in an open position.
Despite the instructions stating that the door wasn't designed to work, I was hoping that I could get some movement when it was hinged. Alas, despite my best efforts, this didn't prove possible as it kept falling off the hinges because the pins weren't long enough to hold it securely. So I compromised on a not fully open position, so that both sides should be partially visible in the finished model.
The fourth Merlin has now been partially assembled.
The two best of these will be chosen for exposure on the starboard wing and be fully detailed. The port engines will be positioned only to hold the exhausts and give weight balance.
Finally, the frame for the starboard outer engine is partially assembled ready for painting. The rear frames each consist of three parts and the front cradles of two. The front cradles are supposed to be pre-bent to fit at the correct points. Of course, this wasn't the case and most had to be bent to fit. Some broke and had to be replaced with brass rod., which you may be able to see. One thing I learnt from the port assembly was that the actual engine mounting brackets would be better attached to the engine block rather than to the engine cradle, as this should ensure a better fit. But as the starboard wing hasn't begun to be skinned the immortal words appear yet again :"Store these parts safely for future use".
This brings me to issue 98 of a 125 part build. I had hoped to reach the magic 100 before I made this post. Unfortunately, there's at least another week's work to get to that point and I'm about to take a holiday in the sun with my wife. When I get back, I'm going to be in the midst of organising our IPMS Ireland Nationals for late September and completing an entry for same. Realistically, I can't see myself getting back to the Lanc build until late September, after the show. However, once I get back, I'm determined to work exclusively to finish this build before I take on anything else.
Let's see if that works and still hoping to get it finished before the year's end.
Gerry
Then some other aspects of the build were tackled, starting with the rear wheel.
This involved creating a cradle of 5 curved pieces of ply to receive the oleo. This slots into the underside of the fuselage in front of the tailplane. The tyre supplied has the anti-shimmy groove. First thing to do was to paint everything, then assemble.
Here's a montage of two views of the assembled system. The two small metal collars go top and bottom of the wooden frame and allow the wheel to swivel. The green cap is glued to the centreline keel spar. This was an absolute nightmare to position in the already enclosed space but this, after much swearing, was eventually achieved. Not something I'd want to do again in a hurry!
Then the completed assembly was added to the rear fuselage.
Here the wheel is in position and fully moveable. I positioned the now painted crew door for fit, but will have it open in the finished build. And then a preview of how I hope to have the cutaways on the rear starboard. fuselage These will have to be cut individually for each panel, before they're attached,and will need careful measuring to line up properly.
Next I mounted the crew door and hinges in an open position.
Despite the instructions stating that the door wasn't designed to work, I was hoping that I could get some movement when it was hinged. Alas, despite my best efforts, this didn't prove possible as it kept falling off the hinges because the pins weren't long enough to hold it securely. So I compromised on a not fully open position, so that both sides should be partially visible in the finished model.
The fourth Merlin has now been partially assembled.
The two best of these will be chosen for exposure on the starboard wing and be fully detailed. The port engines will be positioned only to hold the exhausts and give weight balance.
Finally, the frame for the starboard outer engine is partially assembled ready for painting. The rear frames each consist of three parts and the front cradles of two. The front cradles are supposed to be pre-bent to fit at the correct points. Of course, this wasn't the case and most had to be bent to fit. Some broke and had to be replaced with brass rod., which you may be able to see. One thing I learnt from the port assembly was that the actual engine mounting brackets would be better attached to the engine block rather than to the engine cradle, as this should ensure a better fit. But as the starboard wing hasn't begun to be skinned the immortal words appear yet again :"Store these parts safely for future use".
This brings me to issue 98 of a 125 part build. I had hoped to reach the magic 100 before I made this post. Unfortunately, there's at least another week's work to get to that point and I'm about to take a holiday in the sun with my wife. When I get back, I'm going to be in the midst of organising our IPMS Ireland Nationals for late September and completing an entry for same. Realistically, I can't see myself getting back to the Lanc build until late September, after the show. However, once I get back, I'm determined to work exclusively to finish this build before I take on anything else.
Let's see if that works and still hoping to get it finished before the year's end.
Gerry
fubar57
General
With all the thought that went into designing the kit, I'm surprised they didn't come up with a solution for the engine mounts, nicely overcome.
Geo
Geo
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
Outstanding work as always Gerry! 
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Great stuff Gerry.
Regarding the adhesive, would a two-part epoxy do the job maybe ?
Regarding the adhesive, would a two-part epoxy do the job maybe ?
A4K
Brigadier General
Man oh man Gerry...please tell me this is going to a museum when finished! FANTASTIC work mate!
- Thread starter
- #916
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
Thanks Geo,
The instructions for the build leave a lot to be desired. It's as if they lost interest after the first lot of issues were published.
Thanks also to Jan, Terry and Wurger for replying. Terry, I did try a two-part epoxy but it was very thick. Evan, I've been trying to reply to your last PM but it seems your inbox is overfull and won't accept any new messages.
Gerry
Looks great so far Gerry!
Crimea_River
Marshal
Looks great as always. I was going to suggest the same as Terry for the glue. What about silicone caulking?
A4K
Brigadier General
Evan, I've been trying to reply to your last PM but it seems your inbox is overfull and won't accept any new messages. Gerry
Sorry Gerry! Definitely need to clean it out!
- Thread starter
- #920
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
Thanks Gnomey, Andy and Evan.
Andy, hadn't thought of Silicone caulk but I'll investigate it. Initial thought would be too thick? I also found a suggestion on a thread that Evostik impact can be thinned by liquid poly or cellulose thinners, which is something I'll experiment with.
Evan,I finally got that reply away to you. Hope you've seen it.
Gerry
Andy, hadn't thought of Silicone caulk but I'll investigate it. Initial thought would be too thick? I also found a suggestion on a thread that Evostik impact can be thinned by liquid poly or cellulose thinners, which is something I'll experiment with.
Evan,I finally got that reply away to you. Hope you've seen it.
Gerry
