parche Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 I'm back...no work yet (I've been sleeping like a bear since returning from sea), but I should get a little done over the weekend. Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted April 30, 2007 Author Share Posted April 30, 2007 Well, progress has been less than desired since returning from sea, but work has been a bear since I relieved as the Combat Systems Officer. We have also recently had a change of command which has numerous get togethers associated with it so that took a bit of time. Today I managed to get a significant period of time with the bird (read: more than 15 minutes) and managed to bang out some of the final touches on the nose gear bay. I also did one of the "no going back" steps by cutting out the photo bay so that I can show it lowered. I have been avoiding the intakes like the plague. I have decided that I will do this bird with intake and exhaust covers because if I don't take that step I may never finish it. I am still working on a detailed exhaust for later Foxbats, but I am not going to hold this bird up much longer to get it done. The intakes have also turned out to be a bit of a puzzle (ok, everyone can go ahead and laugh), but I will have open intakes on build #2. Again, just don't want to delay this bird anymore because I will just lose interest. Sorry I don't have any pics, but there was nothing really interesting I completed today. I stopped after around 40 minutes of work once I had cut myself for the fifth time...too long since I have worked I guess. Hopefully I will have something picture worthy in a few days. Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BjornB17 Posted April 30, 2007 Share Posted April 30, 2007 wow great job!! that must really take a lot of patience!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 6, 2007 Author Share Posted May 6, 2007 Thanks for the comment. Patience is required, but more than anything I just need some time. I've been working like crazy at work and then end up sitting on the computer instead of working on the plane. I have made some headway on the intakes. I'm also going to start detailing the landing gear and start fiddling with the inside of the camera bay. I should be able to pour half the mold for the NLG bay today. There is only a little bit of clean up I need to do to the master. Hopefully I'll have some pics in a little while... Cheers, Dave (ed. 500th post) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 6, 2007 Author Share Posted May 6, 2007 Ahh pictures... First off is some detail on top of the air intakes (I'm drawing a total blank on what the duct is called)... Here's a shot of the master for the NLG well. Some minor detail still has to be added. I added putty to the outside of the shape to give it some more structure. Once the putty dries totally I'll sand it to clean up the fit and start making the rubber mold of it... Two shots of the nose of the bird with the NLG well master installed to show what it will look like. You can also see where the camera bay was cut out... I also did some sanding on the section of the camera bay that I cut out. I was gonna use plastic sheet to replace the cutout section, but I decided it would be easier to simply sand the removed piece to proper thickness instead of trying to duplicate the curve with sheet....we'll see how it goes. If it comes out alright, I may just make a mold of it for later use. Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
janman Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 You're really gonna make this kit rock! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MaRiO FDZ Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 HOLY Crap, what a wonderfull work you're doing!! Take Care Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GodHammer Posted May 7, 2007 Share Posted May 7, 2007 Ohhh, good to see some new pic online! It's coming out really well, whenever I'll buy a Foxbat I'll take this 3D as a guide, indeed! Very good work, Sir! :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 14, 2007 Author Share Posted May 14, 2007 Made the mold of the NLG well. Poured the first one tonight along with another set of MLG wells. I'll hopefully post a set of pics tomorrow once the new copy has set up. Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 14, 2007 Author Share Posted May 14, 2007 Ok, well, I pulled the NLG well out of the mold. I guess I had a bubble of air in it so I'll be tweaking the mold some and pouring it again. Can't win 'em all, right? Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
eaglebeagle Posted May 14, 2007 Share Posted May 14, 2007 (edited) great work Dave (as usual) how long have you been a navy man? how do you fit in the modeling in? anyway keep plugging away at it as we are all eager to see how it turns out. What you've done so far is a real education in scratch building, top notch! well done! Cheers Brad Edited May 14, 2007 by eaglebeagle Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 15, 2007 Author Share Posted May 15, 2007 great work Dave (as usual) how long have you been a navy man? how do you fit in the modeling in? anyway keep plugging away at it as we are all eager to see how it turns out. What you've done so far is a real education in scratch building, top notch! well done!Cheers Brad Thanks for the comments, Brad, but my skills are nothing compared to the great builders around here. I've been in the Navy for almost 8 years now. While on shore duty it is relatively easy to work on models, but now that I am back on a boat I will just have to find time when and where I can. Once I get qualified as duty officer, you will be able to find me in the submarine wardroom working on a model after hours (provided there is not a huge pile of paperwork to complete). Off to pour another NLG well. (fingers crossed) Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FIREFOX2007 Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 pretty progress parche. do you change the underfuselage post intake section to show the flattened surfaces after the intakes? i wll see your progress with interest. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
agelos2005 Posted May 16, 2007 Share Posted May 16, 2007 parche my friend thats a fantastic job so far!!!! Excellent!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 19, 2007 Author Share Posted May 19, 2007 First off, thanks for the kind comments. As for your question Firefox, I'm not quite sure which area you are referring too so I can't really give an answer. Do you mean the variable inlet parts or are you speaking of further back? So I had less than total success with the casting of the NLG wells...I ended up with 4 sets of MLG wells, three NLG wells and a set of Tomcat bombracks... There was a problem with the mold for the first NLG well that was cast. There were large bubbles of air caught in unfortunate spots making it relatively useless. It is the one on the right in the picture below. You can see all the problems around the edge. I tweaked the mold some to eliminate a couple rough spots. The second one that I cast is all the way to the left. It had some minor bubbles in it that can easily be fixed so I'd say it came out about 90%. The third cast came after a little more tweaking of the mold combined with a very long, slow pour of the resin. It came out even better. I'd say about 95%. I think with the next cast, I'll try brushing some of the resin into trouble areas, assembling the mold and then pouring into it. I've also been contemplating the intakes again. Maybe I'll leave them open as I think I came to an epiphany one how to deal with the deeper trunking. I'll keep it secret for now and try it out before I admit to what I am gonna try. Oh, well. Hopefully I can get some solid work done over the weekend. Happy modeling! Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cabo91 Posted May 19, 2007 Share Posted May 19, 2007 Trust me when I say that I think your skills are just fine by comparison to any great modeler. I caught this thread when I saw the magic word (well, acronym anyway...) MIG! If it's a MIG or an SU prefix, I'm interested so I took peek and was wowed by your in progress ideas and also the great idea of casting the scratchbuilds so that you can use em later on. I actually started doing that after reading about it in an old FSM some time ago. I don't know if you have a vacuum chamber but if you don't, I've taken a shop vac, and a tupperware container with a hole cut in the side. When I place the original part in its pour box, I first dust it with talcum powder (baby powder) and then take a small detailing brush and brush the originals with the RTV to make sure it covers all of the knobs and switch details then I pour the RTV and place it on a flat surface, cover it with the tupperware container and place the shop-vac hose in the hole. I turn on the hose and leave the mold for 10 minutes. Since I've started doing that, I have had almost no bubbles on my castings. Of course if you do have a vaccum chamber.. never mind. Anyway, I think the work so far is awesome and I can't wait to see this bird in finished pics! Keep it up! Steven First off, thanks for the kind comments. As for your question Firefox, I'm not quite sure which area you are referring too so I can't really give an answer. Do you mean the variable inlet parts or are you speaking of further back?So I had less than total success with the casting of the NLG wells...I ended up with 4 sets of MLG wells, three NLG wells and a set of Tomcat bombracks... There was a problem with the mold for the first NLG well that was cast. There were large bubbles of air caught in unfortunate spots making it relatively useless. It is the one on the right in the picture below. You can see all the problems around the edge. I tweaked the mold some to eliminate a couple rough spots. The second one that I cast is all the way to the left. It had some minor bubbles in it that can easily be fixed so I'd say it came out about 90%. The third cast came after a little more tweaking of the mold combined with a very long, slow pour of the resin. It came out even better. I'd say about 95%. I think with the next cast, I'll try brushing some of the resin into trouble areas, assembling the mold and then pouring into it. I've also been contemplating the intakes again. Maybe I'll leave them open as I think I came to an epiphany one how to deal with the deeper trunking. I'll keep it secret for now and try it out before I admit to what I am gonna try. Oh, well. Hopefully I can get some solid work done over the weekend. Happy modeling! Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 19, 2007 Author Share Posted May 19, 2007 Steven, Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for the idea on the vacuum. I've considered trying it before just never got around to it. I have just tried to be very careful with the setup of my molds to minimize the chance of bubbles. I should give it a shot. Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 20, 2007 Author Share Posted May 20, 2007 (edited) Arrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, I feel better now. Today has been one step forward and two steps back. Well, I decided to fit the NLG bay into the forward fuselage. When I tested it I decided that I needed to remove the lips inside the fuselage that the bay slots into. I cut them out and sanded them down. I then added a new lip in that was a little bit higher to allow a little better fit. So, I slotted the bay in and then decided to check clearance with the cockpit so that I didn't make the cockpit master to large. Well, the two parts wouldn't fit together at all because I added too much putty to the top of the NLG well for extra support. I tried cutting it away with a hobby saw...no luck, I could remove enough with out cutting all the way through the roof of the NLG bay. I ended up grabbing my master and cutting the top off of it. Then I sanded like crazy until enough was gone to allow the cockpit to fit with a new roof installed in the NLG bay. So, I am left with detailing a new roof and making a new mold for the NLG bay. This does allow me to tweak the master some more and make a better mold. So not a total loss. I have continued to sand down the camera bay and mark it up so that I can sand the camera ports properly. I have also started to add some detail to the inside of the camera bay. It is totally fictional, but something is needed so it isn't an empty well. The camera pallet will only be partially lowered so most of the detail might not be seen. I also worked on sanding down the joint between the mid fuselage and after fuselage. I'm gonna have to invest in sandpaper. I should take some pics tomorrow and post them. Cheers, Dave Edited May 20, 2007 by parche Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Timvkampen Posted May 20, 2007 Share Posted May 20, 2007 Dave, I enjoy following this build with the techniques you use! Tim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 27, 2007 Author Share Posted May 27, 2007 Well, Memorial Day weekend so far sees me redoing the molds for the engines and the NLG well. Nothing all that exciting so far. NLG well should be done by noon and the engines sometime this evening. Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
janman Posted May 27, 2007 Share Posted May 27, 2007 I'll be watching for those engines! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 28, 2007 Author Share Posted May 28, 2007 New NLG mold is complete. Poured the third and final part of the engine mold a few minutes ago. Should pour a pile of resin in the morning. Then I can get back on track with the flameholders and cockpit and inlets and... Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
eaglebeagle Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 looking good Dave, thats one thing i'd like to start doing- casting my own resin parts that is, and making my own P.E. Scratch building is fun but only the first time round the second and third time it gets a little dull, what sort of resin is it you're using? and does it shrink much after curing? Cheers Brad Quote Link to post Share on other sites
agelos2005 Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 ;) Fantastic job my friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
parche Posted May 28, 2007 Author Share Posted May 28, 2007 looking good Dave, thats one thing i'd like to start doing- casting my own resin parts that is, and making my own P.E. Scratch building is fun but only the first time round the second and third time it gets a little dull, what sort of resin is it you're using? and does it shrink much after curing?Cheers Brad Brad, I've been using the CR-600 resin from Micro Mark for everything so far. I've also used the 1-1 RTV from them, but I need to find a bulk supplier. The cost of the rubber is killing me since I've gone through alot of it and I have ideas for some rather large parts for other projects. I haven't had any shrinkage problems with the resin at all. It's really easy to cast stuff. D Bellis and I got together last weekend and I showed him the ropes real quick. By Tuesday of last week he had some gorgeous Fw-190 wheel wells to use on his old Revell birds. He's off to casting wheels like a madman now. The Micromark starter set runs around $70 I think and gives you everything you need. If you have the $ it is worth it. Cheers, Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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