B-25G "Shark Mouth"; 1/48, Academy

[Wurger]

There is a couple of ways to get it sorted out. One of the ways to correct the cylinder rings would be to cut off the entire engine like it is marked in the pic below. Then, each cylinder of the rear ring should be cut off , moved back and stuck again. Other way would be to cut off the front cylinder ring with a razor blade. The plastic is quite soft and there shouldn't be any trouble with getting the piece separated putting the razor blade between the two cylinder rings. The way of cutting requires slowly pressing at the razor blade with moving it around the engine base a couple of times.

BTW.. firstly I would check the length of the engine cowling if it is correct.

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[SANCER]

Thanks Wojtek for the tips.

I had already thought about cutting each cylinder and pasting them further back. I could even work more easily on the exhaust pipes.
I do not see fit to cut the tube because I can not make that tube shorter or longer, because it would affect the position of the propellers.
(but I think you say it because you think that the tube is stuck to the wall of the engine, and it's not like that, I just held the piece with a bit of Tak.)

I think it is also a very viable option.

Gracias amigo

 

[Wurger]

I see. I have suggested the cutting of the tube not only because of making easier for the accessing to the rear cylinder ring but also because of the possibility of the correct setting of the engine part.. And I understand your doubts. Persoanlly, I use a piece of thin plastic plate to compensate the loss of the plastic because of the thickness of the razor saw. Here are shots of a fusealge of my 1/72 B-25 I started some time ago. All of these yellow horizontal and vertical lines seen there , are areas where I had to compensate the plastic loss in order to keep the proper dimensions. I used for that the overflows from another model .The thickness of a such remnant is about 0,1-0,3mm and it is enough to compensate the plastic loss because of cutting. In the same way you may get the proper height, length etc.. of any part using more thick or thin plates.. As you may notice the rear part of the fuselage had to be cut twice with removing some of plastic while the front part was cut vertically and horizontally in order to get the cockpit moved 4mm forward. The area at the bombardier station also was cut off and set at another angle to get the correct shape of the fusealge there.

 

[SANCER]

That is an excellent job Wojtek, with any cut that is made, there will always be that slot that leaves the plastic removed by the blade or saw and the thickness of it ... and when the precision of the measurements is necessary, now I know the technique to do it.

Gracias

 

[Wurger]

 

[SANCER]

The riveting lines are progressing very little by little.
But I have got in my head how to solve the question of this semi-nude engine !!

I have decided to cut only four of the cylinders that may be visible in the space I have left uncovered (I hope it is not necessary to cut the remaining three too)
I have put a black mark to identify them and not make mistakes. These are the tools that I will use to do it.

Making a new dry fit with cowling, I can confirm that those four cylinders were more than enough.

With a template sheet of circles I drew the two measurements to created the disc (*1) that divides the two cylinder rings (making the best use of my "calculómetro") and cleaned of plastic waste the area where this disc will go ...

It is not necessary (besides that it was not possible) to put all the new disc completely, so I removed a quarter part and put it in its place ...

... and this is the result so far ...

(*1) I do not know if I had already told them in some other occasion (Thread), about my stock of styrene sheets.
Of the disposable plastic plates of food, I have cut the base of these and with several brands and measures of plates, I have achieved 6 or 7 different thicknesses of plastic sheets, practically free !! (because until when I discovering a different dish, I have taken it out of the trash can !! ... that which I have arrived to do! ... )
The reality is that although I have bought styrene sheets for modeling of various thicknesses, I do not need to use "none" yet. (Well, it's a small tip, in case is useful for someone)

For now I am in the process of doing those exhaust pipes ... by thinning out a styrene bar that could have the right thickness.

In a next review I show you how was the result.

Thanks again for your comments and visits, I thank you.

Saludos

 

[turbo]

Nice work Luis, and good tip on the plates! Is that a bit of burrito I can see in the disc?

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far!

 

[Airframes]

Good work Luis.
However, note that the part you have added was a ring, not a disc, which was bolted between the two banks of cylinders. The rear cylinders were visible through the front of the cowling - see below.

 

[SANCER]

You're right Terry, I'll see how to correct it (and I already have an idea ...)
Thanks for the observation.

 

[Airframes]

Your'e welcome my friend.
When I did it, I used a length of thin plastic strip, bent into a semi-circle, and supported by plastic rods, out of sight between the cylinders.

 

[SANCER]

I'm going to do something similar Terry, but in the same piece; I'm going to slot a hole that allows to see the second series of cylinders and the ring will be fastened to the center where the front cylinder obstructs and does not allow to see how it is attached to the center.
It is likely to be viable.

 

[Airframes]

Sounds good.

 

[Ohm-men]

Fantastic Luis! Cutting the cylinders from the engine is pretty brave imho... you are doing a great job on those engines!
Love following your build threads as I always learn from them. And thanks for the plastic food tray tip. I "think" that most "formed" plastic food packaging is very usefull for plastic modelling as most of them contain styrine. i've been using plastic buttercup containers for various scratch build parts.

There is a modeller on the large scale forum that has scratch build and super detailed an almost entire B-17 fuselage out of yogurt pots. Pretty amazing...

 

[SANCER]

Thanks Jerry for your comments, it should be really interesting to see that work done in the B-17.

Continuing with this part of the engine, I made these first holes to locate where the exhaust pipes will go ...

I made a first bend by holding each pipe with small pliers and doing a bit of pressure with my finger, ... but in my three attempts the fold was cracked; I did not give it more importance because with Tamiya Cement and later with a bit of CA I will be able to repair and strengthen the fold and sand a little.

I did not think of these three pieces before, so with the other three of the other bank of cylinders, I made the exit holes ...

They did not look so bad, I hope that in the first three does not have more complication.

Something that also occurred to me to avoid cracking these three, was to put them a few minutes in hot water, do the same procedure of the tweezers and my finger and then put them in another container with cold water ...

I did it a couple of times to achieve the desired angle.

For now, I must make the exit holes to the first three, and make the second fold to the six pieces ... let's see how it goes!

Taking into account the observation of Terry and do as it should be that ring between the two banks of cylinders, this is what I came up with to correct the appearance of that disk and look like the ring that should be.

... and it seems that I achieved the desired goal ...

...What do you think?

This is all for now and we will see how I continue to advance in this section with the engine.

Hasta pronto y ...If I do not have something before, I wish that all of you have an excellent Christmas Eve in the company of your loved ones and that Santa Claus brings you many gifts.

Luis Carlos

 

[Airframes]

Nicely done on the scratch-built exhausts Luis, and the modified ring works.
The real ring of course was just that, and not as deep as the one you have made, but that doesn't matter, as the support is required in this much smaller size, and the depth won't be seen once everything is assembled inside the cowling.

 

[SANCER]

Thank you mate, I owe you this good observation of yours, to correct the error I had in the beginning with the disk and it would have been very difficult to correct later.

 

[Airframes]

You're welcome my friend.

 

[fubar57]

Looking good