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Little Miss Mischief Diorama


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Thanks Shawn. That's some good shots there!

Between the incredible diagram provided by Karl, and your pictures there, plus a crap load of shots I've found of the area from searching the web, I've got enough to get 'er done. The idea will be to indeed have the mount slid back in the stowed position, but minus the actual 50 and barrel (removed, on a bench being "worked on") with the plexiglass piece slid back as well. It'll leave a good view into the radio room, and fill up the space between the life raft bin and the opening. The framing will be put in, with all the cables running back to the life raft bin, along with the round mount as well.

As for the radio room itself, and the No. 5 Bulkhead, I figured out that I'd be shooting myself in the foot if I put it in before doing up the framing in the radio room itself. So, work will be done in order to put in the appropriate framing inside the radio room half and the upper portion. Simple enough, build in the framing in the bomb bay, all the applicable pieces/formers on the upper portion, build up the life raft bin, then move aft by building up the walls/framing there, insert bulkhead No.5, build the floor, and then bulkhead No.6... rinse, and repeat the framing on the other half...

Sounds simple... I hope it is. And here I thought all this AM stuff was going to make my life easier... there's going to be a lot of white plastic inside this build.

Happy stress relieving drinking... errr... modeling!

Mark.

Edited by Kostucha
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Quick update tonight.

I started with the framing in the area where the RO's .50 is stored, and the front and rear portions of the life raft stowage bin:

DSC05745.jpg

From there, I went onto the bomb bay and started puttin in the 'ribs'. I wanted to get the ribs done, and the top layers of the stringers going back so that I could then put in the No. 5 bulkhead and roof without a problem. A bit of a tight fit that bomb bay was becoming:

DSC05746.jpg

Here's a look at what the fuselage half has so far:

DSC05760.jpg

There is a bit of a wonky shape to the piece of bomb bay at the life raft bin, but never fear! For another layer of the good ole white plasic is going to be layed down on top of it to give the right "shape" and look inside the life raft bin. With it in there, it'll stiffen out the plastic and the roof will lay flat (I've already tested this out, all that's left is the second half, and then the glue will do the rest.

Anywho, continuing on quickly here, here's the view through the pulled back plexiglass of the work so far (use your imagination):

DSC05757.jpg

And though the "door" of Bulkhead No. 6:

DSC05753.jpg

The Life Raft Bin thus far looking aft:

DSC05758.jpg

The kit piece of that small sliver of clear plastic is a piece of junk - fits like junk, sits like junk, and a little thick too. What I'll be doing is simply cutting a rectangular piece of thin clear plastic, masking off where the plexiglass would be, scribe a panel line, pop some rivets in, cover it in foil, and mount it in as one single piece. It'll be clear, thin (both from the outside, and from the inside, as without the larger piece of plexiglass one will be able to see the thickness of the plastic at that point... I've talked too much, here's the picture so far:

DSC05755.jpg

And two quick shots into the bomb bay thus far:

DSC05749.jpg

DSC05756.jpg

As for the need to build the bomb bay up like that... and the question that I know someone will want to ask "will it be seen"? Yes, LMM and everything along with the main body is going to be sitting on a mirror - so everything will be seen from underneath... I really asked myself the worth of going through all of the framing inside (plus then theres a layer of paing, followed by more framing after that, followed by wiring, hooks, door mechanisms and a few other lovely things)... but, as she'll be sitting on a mirror for everything to be seen, I figured why not.

Thanks for looking,

Cheers,

Mark.

Edited by Kostucha
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Thanks for the comments guys.

Tonight I'm hoping to finish the framing on the lower portion and get the framing done on the upper portion as well. Doesn't sound like much, but we'll see how it goes... once that's done, I'll be looking to marry up the other half of the fuselage as well with the bomb bay, and then start on getting the radio room done up.

This is all just the 'major construction' portion. Once that is done, then it's the painting, and the smaller details like wiring, boxes, the PE sets from Eduard, resin parts from a few of the sets, etc.

Cheers for now,

Mark.

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Gents, thank you very much. I really appreciate the comments - yet I'm looking at the pictures and thinking to myself (especially about the frames under the cockpit) "thank God there's going to be a lot of 'gizmology' in there and the majority wont be seen"

So far the construction has fallen into four groups:

1. Stock piece, no need to work on it, is fine how it is - I'll let you know when that comes up

2. AM piece added, no modification needed - same as 1

3. Modified AM piece, and

4. Scratch built.

I'm seriously kicking myself for all this AM stuff at this point - sitting back and looking at the framing though, it's no wonder why this isn't offered as an AM piece. I want to just make a quick bit of noise in regards to the Paragon bomb bay set:

It's great! It really, really is! If you're planning on dropping the bomb bay doors, and showing the bombs hanging on the racks, this is a superb addition. You get the bomb bay doors (and the framing on the doors was far from the thin PE offerings (the door yes, the frame no). Both bomb racks (inner and outter racks inside the bomb bay). A perfectly molded cat walk/walk way. Instructions are superb too. The whole thing is literally designed almost like a "bolt on part" for a car. Assemble the box (two outter pieces, and the forward and back piece under the floors of the bulkheads), toss in the walk way, trim some kit plastic, and slide in the bomb bay. Really, when loaded up with bombs, you wont see much of the side walls anyway! So, if that's the route you want to go, or want to leave it empty and sitting with the doors down, you wont see high enough into the bomb bay to see the lack of upper detail.

As LMM is going to be opened up everywhere (doors, bomb bay doors) and the fuselage cut in half to allow the viewer a better glimps within, added to the fact that she's going to be sitting on a mirror, with functioning lights as well, I really painted myself into a corner by saying "sure! I'll build the bomb bay". I don't mind of course, I honestly love the researching, and building portion of this hobby. If I could find a painter to deal with that portion I think I'd be set for life.

In all honesty, if anyone were to make an AM set for the ENTIRE bomb bay, it would go a few ways - there's a lot of sanding& filling to take care of in order to get the shape of the bomb bay just right in there. You'd be needing to paint everything first, assemble it, and hope that it sits right. It'd be bloody expensive (as there would be a lot of resin, a lot of detail, and I can't see many sets being sold because rarely would one be able to see all of it, unless on a mirror, or hanging up in the ceiling somewheres). So, there is no bitterness with the additions to the bomb bay, in no way do I see the Paragon set as falling short - in fact, it made my life a whole heck of a lot easier.

Okay... so, there was something else I wanted to talk about... Ah, yes.

So far I've managed to avoid filler. It will be used in some places (the gap up in the nose for example between the upper and lower TD parts. But otherwise it's been good). What I want to avoid as much as possible is trying to sand down the filler and make it flush in between all the formers and stringers. Sanding those spots in 1/24 is a pain... half the room to do it is going to be a nightmare. That being said though, I've got a sinking feeling that I'll be pulling that stuff out for the bomb bay.

I'm tossing around ideas right now as to what the best way to tackle both halves is going to be.

Firstly, the nose is easy enough - most of it is done right now. The only major issue is the gap between the floor and the side walls. The cockpit has a lot of details that need to still be added to the side walls. And as you notice the entire upper canopy has been cut off. The plan is to use the Squadron vac form canopy, build in the "doo-dads" between the two upper windows, open up both sliding windows, and mount it into the cockpit at some point down the road. My plan is to mount the seats complete, and the upper turret well after the fuselage halves have been glued together.

The bomb bay is going to be a pain already, overlapping the white plastic wrap in order to get it cemetrical, while keeping all the frames still in line. The pain here is that once the fuselage halves are together, there's little access to that point, so pretty much everything in the bomb bay needs to be complete prior to joining the halves... and then join the halves without any large noticeable errors. FUN! Sandwich effect going starboard to port (finish up the side I'm working on as mentioned, paint, fine details, mount in the walk way, do the same there, line up the other half, and build up that side just the same. Then it'll all be ready to put together, saving the bomb bay doors for the very end.

Are you still reading at this point? Well, I thank you for your patience and interest into my slow spin of insanity.

Radio room is the radio room. Only thing that really needs to be done before the two halves are joined, is the frame work and the .50 cal stowage area. The rest can be applied in there after painting, with the No. 6 bulkhead being the last thing added..

Wow. I got all that down. I'm going to be falling back on what I said as between now and when I sit down tonight, I'm going to forget most of it and re read this whole thing.

Anywho, this thread is little without pictures, so hopefully later on tonight I'll be able to put up some good progress shots.

Cheers!

Mark.

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Thank you guys very much!

Tonight... well, it's kind of funny really. I started with the plan and soon realized it was doomed to fail - or look like crap. So, I sat with a coffee for almost an hour trying to come up with a plan that will work well here. Ultimately, the bomb bay will have to be done last. As tedious and painful as it will be, the upper sections should be done with the halves together to ensure that the framing is even and done right.

So... I continued aft and began to work on the radio compartment. The first step was to lay down the wall, with some formers near the bottom of the floor to curve the bottom of the walls inward and match the contour of bulkheads No. 5 & No. 6. This was done using nothing more than pieces of balsa wood glued in, and sanded round to match the shape:

DSC05762.jpg

From there, the template for the wall section was made from tape, and the piece of white wall was cut, bent, and glued in - the upper portion is cut short as there are no formers that I could use to make a round shape:

DSC05763.jpg

A flat piece matching the right shape was cut out and glued in. It's not bent at all, but as the piece is so narrow, the lack of shape is hardly noticed, especially as the large majority of it will be covered from up top by the construction of the 'rails' for the .50 mount. It was glued in from inside, and then sanded smooth using the dried super glue as the gap filler:

DSC05764.jpg

The framing underneath was added along the sides now, and the back piece for the rail system was shaped and put in. This piece is perfectly vertical coming down from the edge of where the plexiglass windows line up on the sides (hence most of that thin narrow piece being covered):

DSC05765.jpg

The remainder of the framing, rails, heavy frames along the lower portion, thin wide frame on the upper portion, and what appears from the pictures to be the emergency exit release for the plexiglass were added. The window was cut out and edges sanded smooth, all 'run-away glue' was removed, and this side of the .50 mount, plexiglass edges, and other small things were finished up. All it needs now is paint, cables, and all the other fine details that will be added down the road, but the next step will be the frame work inside the radio compartment, and the making of a new floor and bulkhead No. 6:

DSC05766.jpg

A few shots from the outside. I also opened up the life raft compartment on the other side, and did some work on the other fuselage half while I was waiting for glue to dry on the startboard half:

DSC05767.jpg

DSC05769.jpg

I also cut back the center piece of the upper bomb bay just forward of Bulkhead No. 5 to level it out. There is a significant warp now where the liferaft compartment is, but as mentioned before, there will be an additional piece of plastic put in to flatten it out when construction of that area begins. The important thing was to get that area between the lift raft compartment and the .50 mount as even and flat as possible:

DSC05770.jpg

Here's a quick shot of the one Paragon piece glued in along with the lower half of the port side bomb bay wall glued in as well, along with the forward (thick) former of the life raft compartment above the bomb bay:

DSC05761.jpg

And lastly, here's where I leave off tonight - a quick shot of where progress is with the fuselage halves:

DSC05771.jpg

As much as I wish I could say everythings been scratch built with no AM, I must say, some of those pieces have certainly made life a whole heck of a lot easier. And let's call a spade a spade, when it comes to the radio boxes, the instrument panel, the ammo chutes, the details that'll go onto the .50, the quality of some of these PE and Resin sets really can't be competed with (especially not in 6 months). I don't know if I'll ever commit so much AM to a project again though - I still am not happy with the thickness of the floors for the front end in the TD set - but then again they weren't designed with nuts like me in mind... a mute point.

Alright that's it for me tonight. Thanks for looking, and happy model building!

Cheers,

Mark.

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Taking a second look, I'm going to sand down the rail a little more flush, add the "stop" at the end of it, as well as the thin little "lip" that runs along the upper 'rim' that the plexiglass sits on.

Quick and very odd question for you guys... just to confirm something. When the .50 is brought forward, where does the plexiglass go? Hahahaha... ha... no, really. Where would it go?

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To quote myself and better explain my confusion...

Quick and very odd question for you guys... just to confirm something. When the .50 is brought forward, where does the plexiglass go? Hahahaha... ha... no, really. Where would it go?

I've seen some pictures where it's stored where the .50 sits in it's stored position. Sure, except that those bombers don't have the .50 mounted in the radio compartment - wouldn't fit otherwise. So, where would it go?

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