Scratchbuilding a 1/32 1927 Ford AT-4 Trimotor

[Skyking]

Thanks for the comments everyone. My apologies for not acknowledging them sooner. I had a minor accident at home thanks to black ice in the driveway. My right foot went one direction, my left when 180 in the other, and my legs spread as far as my old tight muscles would let them plus a little more. Scott Hamilton I am not, (thankfully) and since the male anatomy was never designed to do a proper split, it's a little difficult walking around right now. Thank goodness "the boys" are fine, but you never realize how much you use your groin muscles until they hurt..lol.

I do have one question, which I hope won't reveal my ignorance......why vacuform the fuselage?.....why not use the same technique on it that you used on the rudder/elevator?

Hi Jim. Good question. I wanted to keep the sidewalls as thin and in scale as possible. Using the Renshape would have left the sidewalls overly thick. That's really the only reason.

I'm eager to see more from my favorite build thread.

Hi Guy. Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully I can get back to the bench this weekend and get something done. The last couple of weeks have been spent mainly recuperating, but I am getting around better now.

Cheers

Mike

Edited January 13, 2010 by Skyking

[Liberator24]

Freakin beautiful!!

-Jim

[oldHooker]

Hope you get to feeling better Mike; that was quite a nasty fall you had!

I know I haven't been commenting through your magnificent build, but I have been watching and admiring your great scratchbuilding skills! Thank you for demonstrating techniques of this dying art!

The tri motor looks like it will actually be airworthy once it's done!

Take care of yourself and looking forward to further progress when you're up to it! :D

Frank

[theseeker]

Mike,

I don't know how how I missed this thread? Stunning and fascinating! This is a work of art!

Rocky

[Skyking]

Hey Jim, Frank and Rocky, thanks for stopping by and the well wishes.

The last 6 weeks have been spent doing a makeover on my modeling room. I had to take a couple of weeks off with the pulled groin muscles, so after I was up and around I spent pretty much every spare minute after work and on weekends to get caught up and get it done. That's the main reason I have been pretty much absent from the Forum, but I have been keeping track of all the great builds over the past few weeks.

It's not 100% finished yet, I have to hang the bifold doors on the one closet, plus do some final painting on the drywall in the corner and some final trim work, but it's done enough for pictures. I've already begun organizing some of my modeling stuff, but I have a long way to go yet. Hopefully by next weekend I can get going on the Ford again.

In a nutshell I Dry-Locked all the cement block foundation walls and floor, then studded them out and insulated them with styrofoam insulation board. Over this went 1/2 drywall, then two coats of flat white primer. I added two storage closets, plus ran a 100 amp auxilliary panel off the main so I could run more electric circuits for lights, outlets, and a wall heater. Everything is on locking casters so I can move stuff around, and I'm sure I will be changing things around as I use it and find better ways of doing things. the floor is Resiliant vynal floor planks, and the ceiling is Armstron Heritage ceiling planks. I haven't decided on colors yet, but I need to do something as it's too "steril" looking with everything being white, but that's a future project.

The other side of the basement will be my study/office, but I won't begin that until summer. This has me happy for now.

Before pictures

After

Thanks for taking a look. If you ever find yourself in the Rochester NY area let me know. The very end of my workbench also doubles as a small refrigerator, and the beer is always cold.

Cheers

Mike

"The aeroplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth."

- Antoine De Saint-Exupery

[AnthonyWan]

Looks great Mike!

I noticed u had the pegboard in the background there..looks like you can hang your entire toolbox up there if needed :D

-Awan

PS...I'm back on campus after winter break. Can you give me a heads up if you're going to any modeling events? I'll see if I've got some spare time. :D

[BOC262]

Nice makeover! Enjoy your new shop.

Karl

[GreyGhost]

Nice redo, Mike !

I love that drafting table ... :D

Gregg

[HOLMES]

VERY NICE..!

Dab hand at EVERYTHING...

as they say EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING..!!!

[Youngtiger1]

Man, that's some improvement over the old room. BTW, isn't that Witkof's painting?

Mike

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Sweet Mike! You "pimped" your shop!!

Looks awesome! really super job

Pig

[geedubelyer]

Hey Mike,

How's the war wound? Feeling any better?

I wondered if you'd managed any progress on your Tri-motor lately? I'm itching to see more of this corrugated splendour.

Hope you're doing well.

[Skyking]

Pete, Guy, Holmes, Gregg and Karl, thanks for the comments. Pete I will get your drawings out tomorrow. I went to the PO today, forgetting it was Presidents day here in the US, and they were closed, so I'll head over tomorrow.

PS...I'm back on campus after winter break. Can you give me a heads up if you're going to any modeling events? I'll see if I've got some spare time.

Hiya Anthony. Yep I'll give you a call in March for the next meeting, which I think is Monday March 1st. Welcome back to Rochester, hope you had a nice holiday back home.

BTW, isn't that Witkof's painting?

Hi Mike. Yes it is. I have two others of his also, the smaller B Mustang and the Corsair, the same size as the large Mustang. They will get hung over in my study when I get that finished.

It's been a while since I did anything on this, and with the fuselage waiting for PE to come back for the seats and a few other details, I decided to move on to the engines. I am not so masochistic to attempt to make my own engines, so I opted to use the Wrights that come in the old Williams Brothers Sparrow Hawk kit. It's the correct engine, and although the molding is a bit dated, it's a good starting point. I had one Sparrow kit on my shelf so I pirated that one to get started, and two others were kindly provided by a fellow over at HS (Thanks Mark!) who provided the other two. I've also since discovered that you can buy them seperate from Williams Brothers directly, so I ordered another to replace the one I took from my Sparrow Hawk.

Here's a shot of the raw sprue. There's quite a bit of flash, but they aren't terrible. With a little cleaning up they will be presentable.

Here's a closeup of the cylinder heads. I needed to do some extensive filing and sanding to clean them up.

Here's the heads after several days worth of cleaning up. I drilled out the spark plugs and inserted a length of wire isulation to simulate the plug socket. I'll run the leads for the harness's through these to the ignition rings to be added later. I also drilled out the heads for the intake and exhaust ports. They will be made from .050 soft wire later on. The exhaust will be the most challenging, as there's a large collector ring on the front of the engine that will need to be made, with seperate headers coming off each head.

Here's the basic engine assembled. The heads were painted MM Gloss Black and the crankcase is Engine Gray. Once everything is assembled I'll tone the gloss down with some dullcoat to even everything out. I want to add a light wash around the crankcase and into the engine fins to make them pop out a bit. I'll use a light gray on the heads and a darker gray on the crankcase. Tomorrow I'll start adding the pushrods and INtake tubes, then I have to figure out how to replicate the exhaust. I'll post some shots of the finished engines afterwards.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Mike

[geedubelyer]

Hey Mike, good to see you back on this one.

I hope the recovery is continuing apace and that you're back at 100% before you know it. No more ballet steps for a while though.....

Great start on the motors. Choosing to paint the cylinders black and use a light wash to make the detail pop is an interesting technique. I'm eager to see how that looks when you're done.

The exhausts will be a challenge. Your undoubted ingenuity and craft should provide a fascinating solution to that little conundrum so I'm glued to my monitor in anticipation.

See you soon I hope,

Cheers.

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Hey Mike!

Thanks for saving my bacon-

Hey, those engine parts don't even look like the same parts anymore. Tedious I bet but well worth the effort! They look great. Sometimes I think the most important tool in your toolbox is a hefty dose of patience!

Looking outstanding, as usual!

Pig

[Skyking]

The exhausts will be a challenge.

Hey Guy thanks for the visit. Here's what I am faced with on the exhaust:

The exhaust collector is a large donut on the front of the engine. My plan at this point is to turn a master from Renshape and vacuform it in two halves, then add individual pipes from solder of appropriate diameter. If you have other suggestions I am all ears. (eyes?)

Hey, those engine parts don't even look like the same parts anymore.

Thanks Pete. You know after looking at your T-38 and how you are going together with that, that is just the bees knees. I thought of scrapping what I have on this so far and redoing it, but I am so far along on it now it would be a waste, so I'll plod along the Old School way for this one, but on the next one I will be contacting Timmy. As much as I like doing things the old fashioned way, you just can't beat modern CAD technology. The difference in quality between the two will be hugely apparent.

Cheers

Mike

Edited February 17, 2010 by Skyking

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Thanks Pete. You know after looking at your T-38 and how you are going together with that, that is just the bees knees. I thought of scrapping what I have on this so far and redoing it, but I am so far along on it now it would be a waste, so I'll plod along the Old School way for this one, but on the next one I will be contacting Timmy. As much as I like doing things the old fashioned way, you just can't beat modern CAD technology. The difference in quality between the two will be hugely apparent.

Cheers

Mike

Wow Mike, That exhaust is a bear..You'll figure it out though-You always do. First look I thought of a circular collector ring with the individual pipes to the cylinders scabbed-on, then blend the whole mess with Miliput and cast a copy for #2..

Regardless I know you will come up with the perfect solution!

Old school or new school, your work is always incredible. The CAD stuff does a great job of engineering out my inadequacies! Now I just have to build it-

Keep going there Mike-You are kicking *** again-

Regards,

Pig

[FlyingLow]

I had a similar problem once - I needed to have such fluid, soft lines around a complex shape.

I built the main shape with styren rods and some pieces of metal and then dunk everything in Gunze Liquid Putty and then let excess run off. It worked out perfectly. Liquid Putty is pretty soft after drying so perhaps Mr.Surfacer could be used too but might require more than one dunk to achieve proper coverage.

BTW. amazing project!

Edited February 17, 2010 by FlyingLow

[Skyking]

Hey Pete, Thanks for stopping by.

First look I thought of a circular collector ring with the individual pipes to the cylinders scabbed-on, then blend the whole mess with Miliput and cast a copy for #2..

Yeah that's the way I'm leaning but we'll see. I'm thinking of vac-forming the ring in two halves to get the flange on the inner part, then adding solder for the individual pipes, and filling it in with Mr. Surfacer. Do it three times and I'll have them. It's going to be a ton of work no matter what I do though, so I'll jump in and git er done.

Hi FL.

I built the main shape with styrene rods and some pieces of metal and then dunk everything in Gunze Liquid Putty and then let excess run off. It worked out perfectly.

That certainly is an interesting idea. I could make a crash test dummy and try it and see how it works before I commit my final pieces. It might save me a ton of time in finishing. Thanks for the suggestion.

Well today was a good modeling day. I was able to get a lot done on the engines, except for the above mentioned exhaust. I had to do everything in "layers" beginning with closest to the cylinders and working my way out. First off was the pushrods, which were a piece of cake. I used .020 copper bell wire, painted them black, then poked them into predrilled holes in the crankcase. The holes are staggered front to rear like the original to simulate the plane of the cams, with the intake being closer to the cylinder, and the exhaust closer to the intake plenum.

After these were in place, I needed to add the intake tubes. Because I needed to make 27 of the silly things ( After all this I'm glad there was no such thing as a Ford Quad-Motor) I wanted them to be all uniform, so I made the simple jig above out of a scrap of lumber and some straight pins. This allowed me to insert the tube to the correct length, make the bend, and then snip off the excess. I used .050 solder for the tubes, as it's easy to bend in place to make and final tweaks to fit. On the real aircraft these are painted black, but with the black cylinders and black pushrods, I wanted a little contrast, so I left them natural aluminum to give some visual interest. The exhaust on the real aircraft is chrome plated, so it'll balance nicely front and rear.

Looking like a really bad hair day, next up was the ignition ring and harness. I fashioned the ring out of .032 solder, and used metallic thread I found at Jo-Anne Fabrics for the ignition leads. These were poked into the holes I drilled in the heads earlier at the plug locations, and a dab of CA keeps them from pulling out.

Here's a peek at the rear of the engine showing the installed pushrods, intake tubes and ignition leads to the rear plugs. It's wired as the original, with the left mag providing spark to the rear plugs, and the right mag goes to the front.

And a final mugshot of the engine front. All that remains is to fabricate the exhaust collector and pipes, and then I'll give everything a final toning down with some dull coat to even everything out. I'll post some shots of my trials and any tribulations with the exhaust later on.

Thanks for looking, comments and suggestions always welcome.

Cheers

Mike

[Skyking]

Well the exhaust collector didn't tun out to be as bad as I thought it would be. As I was sitting at my bench I glanced at one of the extra sprues that my engines came on, and had a minor brain Low Pressure Area. The rear of the crankcase is molded with intake tubes in place. I said to myself "Self... why not take that part, flip it around 180 degrees and do some minor reshaping and turn it into an exhaust collector?" Not knowing if it would work or not, I began whacking plastic.

Here is the part I am referring to. It's actually the rear of the crankcase. I thinned it down by removing that large open cavity, then hogged out the center to the appropriate diameter. I now had the basic shape, but it was a bit on the anemic side, so I mixed up some Milliput and squidged it onto the center part forming a round ring, with the existing plastic stubs sticking out, and around these I formed the Milliput into the flairs around the pipes. I was able to do the majority of the shaping while the Milliput was still uncured, which required very little sanding later on.

After it had cured, I did a little touch up sanding and grinding until I got it to the shape I wanted, then slathered red stuff glaze all over it to smooth things out. That cured overnight and I wet sanded it again. I then made the exhaust outlet from a piece of Evergreen tube and glued that in place, and after the CA cured that was also faired in with CA and Red Stuff and sanded smooth. After that I shot it with Tamiya white primer, and the end result is what you see here.

There's two stubs that attach in a funky way because of the location of the exhaust outlet, they had to be cut off and then replaced after I had the outlet in place.

It's still a little rough, but once I get the final sanding and cleaning up done I think it'll work just fine. I have to put the flange in the center yet, and I am going to cut off the plastic tubes just above the flange and drill .050 holes for solder to be inserted in their place. I'll be able to bend them to fit the cylinders much easier.

Compare this shot to...

...this and I think I got it pretty close. A little fine tunning and I think it'll be just what the doc ordered.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Mike

[BOC262]

Beautifully brilliant!!

[Pete "Pig" Fleischmann]

Well there you go! Simple and perfect-

Regards,

pig

[Skyking]

BOC, Pete, thanks for the comments. I have the Master completed and ready for casting, which I hope to get accomplished this weekend.

On to some other areas, I have the artwork done for the PE, and I will be making the trip to beautiful downtown Erieville NY to deliver it to the Master of PE himself, Fred at Foto-cut. I think Fred's PE is the easiest to work with. It doesn't come on a fret like the others, but adhered to a rubber carrier film. A little lacquer thinner dabbed on with a brush instantly releases it from the carrier, and theres none of those annoying little nubs to deal with from snipping off a sprue.

Here's a shot of my artwork I took at work. It's printed 2x original size onto 11 x 17 paper. Fred will reduce this 50% to the actual size, then make the PE sheet from this. It includes my seats, door and door frames, window frames and a master pattern to cut the window openings, and a bunch of other little details. I have yet to add the clamps for the exhaust stubs, and a couple of other items, but I can draw them on this evening with a draftsman's pen and oval templates. I used a cheapie Raster based CAD program I got years ago for Windows 95 that barely runs anymore on XP. It's going to be time for an upgrade soon. I've downloaded Sketch-up from Google but haven't played around with it much yet. Not a terribly exciting update, but I'm at the point of the build now where the boring stuff has to be done before the exciting construction stuff resumes.

Thanks for looking

Cheers

Mike

[theseeker]

Mike,

The collector turned great!

Rocky

[mareku]

Hi Mike!

That kind of modeling work make me speechless. It is in my mind the real thing. I just wish I could do thesame. Realy great Keep posting, please!