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Little Miss Mischief Diorama


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Mark, Brilliant! on the IP insulation snaps, gives the "in work" feel your going for (nothing too shabby about the craftsmanship either).

"I really do appreciate all your help, as well as everyone elses. Without all the reference material, incredible amounts of insight, none of this would be coming through like this. So, really, this is as much my build as it is yours."

RE: the model being Karl's as much as yours........if he dosn't want his part kin I have it??

Model on Dude!

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Thanks Steve! We'll have to wait until next week when Kar's back to see if he wants his part or not... hahahaha...

No building tonight - a million and one other things to take care of, typically last minute... BUT! Tomorrow night is a different story.

Cheers all,

Mark.

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Well, the only thing right now left to do before the cockpit & nav's floor go in, is to mount in the .50 in the cheek gun position. In order to do this, all the rigging needs to go in. In order to do that, the windows needed to go into the nose... see the pattern?

SO, I started by cutting a rectangular piece of 0.25mm thick clear styrene, and wrapped it on both sides in tape, not for the finger prints, but to prevent any rough splintering or cracking along any and all cut lines when trimming the plastic:

DSC06275.jpg

Next up, it was taped to a glass bottle - the reason is so that unlike taping the piece to a round section of wood, the glass bottle will allow for equal heat applied to BOTH sides of the plastic:

DSC06276.jpg

And then submerged into fairly warm water (but not boiling water... just a smidgen cooler), left it in there for a wopping 3 minutes, than SLOWLY cooled it by running luke warm water into the pot - not for the plastic, but to ensure that a sudden change in temperature wouldn't cause the glass to shatter or break... lesson learned the hard way. Cool... very cool... but very silly and dangerous:

DSC06277.jpg

As you see in this picture, the section of plastic is up, and not touching the bottom of the pot. This will prevent any burning of the plastic from direct contact with the heat element (element --> bottom of pot --> plastic = very bad)

Once cooled and removed, the piece of clear styrene has a shape that will allow the windows to fit better (more flush) with the rounded shape of the nose:

DSC06278.jpg

From there, a 'mask' was cut, and the clear window piece was cut, and sanded to shape:

DSC06283.jpg

The fit was tight - what you want - and then a small amount of thin CA glue was run along the seam:

DSC06285.jpg

Here is a shot of how the shape conformed to the fuselage:

DSC06290.jpg

And prior to any future being added, here's lookin through at the fine writing on he back of a Q-Tip box:

DSC06287.jpg

As the future dries... time to move onto the rudder pedals.

Cheers!

Mark.

I forgot to add, the other windows are complete as well, this was just a quick how-to on what I did with the windows and will do for all the rest as well. Cheers!

Edited by Kostucha
Forgot to add...
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A couple of quick shots through the window. I was fairly happy with the results, and the small amount of distortion in what you see when looking through it.

DSC06294.jpg

DSC06298.jpg

I'll show how I used the kit piece for the cheek gun window as a guide tomorrow to make it all work. PITA at first... but at this rate, the cockpit floor, with the .50 in the cheek should all be mounted into the starboard fuselage half by the end of the weekend (I hope).

Here's the rough work on the rudder pedals - still a lot to do... and the "just for fun" paper taped to the throttle quadrant (I'm hoping you can make out the "Don't Touch No. 1"):

DSC06300.jpg

DSC06301.jpg

Anywho, that's it for tonight. Cheers! And thanks for looking,

Mark.

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Shawn,

It's a bit of patience to shape the window just right to fit, but once you've got that... easy as pie. I'm really happy with how thin it is, and how it looks. The cheek gun windown, with it's odd shape really works very well too.

Cheers!

Mark.

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Shawn,

It's a bit of patience to shape the window just right to fit, but once you've got that... easy as pie. I'm really happy with how thin it is, and how it looks. The cheek gun windown, with it's odd shape really works very well too.

Cheers!

Mark.

I've always disliked the molded in mounting "discs" they used, you can see them from the outside!

I will have to try this in the future, thanks for the tips!

Post a pic of your cheek gun windows, cant wait to see how they turned out!!

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Mark

What can I say? Genius pure genius!! once again

Thanks

*****************************************

now lets see, I've got:

  1. a pot
  2. water
  3. a stove
  4. clear plastic
  5. tape

OH NO! I'll have to go to the recycle yard and get bottles the match all the fuselages in my stash sweatingbullets.gifWheew! this detailing is not as easy as I thought

getsmileyCAG8F3MF.gif

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Hahahaha... well, thanks! Steve, as for the recycle yard... metal works just the same too, I just happened to have a glass jar on hand.

So, yes, the cheek window. After getting the fuselage shaped for the cheek gun before, it left a larger opening... needless to say, the kit piece didn't fit at all (and from building the PM "A Bit O' Lace" OOB (mostly) years ago, it didn't fit too well then either... But the shape is good! So, no throwin this part out. Here's a shot of the 3 mm gap:

DSC06305.jpg

I used the piece to cut a template from tape, leaving a 3 mm lip on the forward end:

DSC06311.jpg

From there, a flat piece of the .25 mm clear plastic was cut, and then with the tape, the one side was glued to the outside of the clear piece:

DSC06312.jpg

I then took a spoon and taped it to the tip. Reason being is that the spoon has a rounded narrow end going wider as you move down the shaft. I'm sorry... there was no other way to explain it... if you got the same inuendo from that last step as I did... you're either completely normal, or right out to lunch (I still don't know what I am).

Now that we've collected ourselves... the flat piece of plastic was taped to "wrap" around the kit piece:

DSC06313.jpg

*sick... sick minds... all of you!*

Again, water that's just a little cooler than a full out boil. The spoon and the pieces were left in there for 3 minutes, being cooled down exactly the same as above:

DSC06314.jpg

And once cooled, here's what you're left with:

DSC06318.jpg

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The piece is still relatively soft, so working with it is easy, and all I did was take one end, the back end, between two pieces of balsa and a clothes-pin. Then I went and had a beer. Once the beer was done, the back end was relatively flat (still maintaining a curve fairly close to the shape of the fuselage). Here's the piece showing the shape and little distortion:

DSC06325.jpg

From there it was glued in, and no overlap (it literally butts up against the edge it's supposed to sit on):

DSC06329.jpg

DSC06331.jpg

Although there is a slight distortion at the bends near the top, it falls in with what I see from reference pictures. The important thing to me was to maintain a look of a very thin piece of plastic, with clarity. Here are some shots of the piece (before) being cleaned of my grubby little finger prints and future being applied:

DSC06332.jpg

DSC06333.jpg

DSC06335.jpg

Right now, with the small rectangular windows in place, it's the fun time of mounting that .50...

As for the rough edge on the outside, there is going to be a thin (1 to 0.5mm) strip of bare metal foil going over the edge, as there was some overlap of metal from the outside:

909StbCG.jpg

Cheers!

Mark.

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And the .50...

First and foremost, the cocking handle is on the wrong side. Should be on the left hand side - however, I don't have a single .50 with a mold of the cocking handle on the other side... so, right hand side it is... it's in there now, complete with the long spring from the nose, and the 3 point rigging... thanks to a stray hair from my wife:

DSC06358.jpg

And a view from the 'dirty' windows... (they're sitting with future on them right now, drying overnight...):

DSC06347.jpg

DSC06353.jpg

And Karl... the rubber matt... yay or nay?

DSC06359.jpg

So, the whole thing is wrapped up, drying overnight as the cockpit floor was glued into the starboard side. The light at the end of the tunnel for the forward fuselage is getting brighter and brighter. Thankfully.

Anywho, thanks for looking. Cheers!

Mark.

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Holy crap, that cheek window looks great! If you could manufacture those, you could make some money. The cheek window pieces are one of the major flaws to the Monogram kit.

As for the matting, color looks right on. The only observation I would make is it would go right up to any edges (the opening to the nose, the hydraulic panel) and things like the seats and inverters were just mounted right through the mat, no need to cut it out as you did on the left. What did you use, that looks very authentic?

Off to Indy, later!

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Thanks Karl!

As for the matt, it's dark grey 1000 grit sandpaper, with various black & grey pasterl chalk dust brushed into it.

I'll pull out the ole flat blade and try again. A bit of a shame, not going to see any of those wooden floors... but oh well... at least the NAV section will still be there and no need to make them for the Radio Room, just straight rubber matting.

Indy?! You lucky... person.

Cheers!

Mark.

Edited by Kostucha
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1000 grit paper, what a great idea! I have a bunch of that stuff...somewhere :wacko: .

Spent way too much money at Indy as usual, none of it B-17 related. Met up with Steve N and his bride. He had his Blast From The Past Revell B-17 there. Ya know, with a little work, that kit doesn't look too bad!

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well Damn, that looks amazing. :(

And now with your super windows we can see more of the goodies you've painstakingly added.

Well done.

That was certainly the hope. Even though it's 1/48, having really thin windows with little to no distortion is key to see all the little things. Up front, combining a "trouble light" under the cockpit shining through the entry way into the nose and with the nose piece removed completely with a second trouble light shining in from the front will hopefully give enough illumintation in there to prevent anything from being hidden.

In the cockpit, having both side windows slid open and the two top windows being done the same way, I hope that everything can be seen too. Even though the doorway at the aft being open, I think the top turret will be in the way of any light from the bomb bay to help do anything but illuminate the top turret. Which reminds me... Still need to make that top turret...

1000 grit paper, what a great idea! I have a bunch of that stuff...somewhere ^_^ .

Spent way too much money at Indy as usual, none of it B-17 related. Met up with Steve N and his bride. He had his Blast From The Past Revell B-17 there. Ya know, with a little work, that kit doesn't look too bad!

I have to say, I'm definitely a little green. Sure, it's no NASCAR, but it's still racing. (if racing were anything like aviation, Indy cars are like Mustangs... Pretty, streamlined, high speed - low drag, but can't take much damage before they're out of the running, where NASCARs are the Thunderbolts of the racing world... Sheer power gets the bigger, louder, less nimbler cars through, even after a rediculous amount of damage... Just my opinion)

what's making me more green with envy is that I only get to see his build of the ole venerable B-17 kit through pictures... I can only imagine how it looks in person.

Cheers!

Mark.

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Fromula 1 is where it's at. In your evaluation Formula 1 is the F-22s of racing. Biggest baddest fastest most technological. I'm sorry to say but NASCAR sucks. I hate every inch of it and wish it would die away. There is absolutely nothing you need to talk about for 4 Fn hours before every race. And every race I see there are empty seats everywhere. I could go on and on but I won't.

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I think at some point I promised to get back to you on the navigators floor. Anyway, here it is: Per Boeing drawing 12-839, the navigators floor was made of 5/16 plywood and finished with clear lacquer. No matting, so you can keep your wood grain showing there!!!!

Edited by 100th BG
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thank you very much Darren!

In that case I'm going try to dry brush some acrylic gloss coat over the floor, keeping most of the gloss to the sides and aft edges where there would have been less foot traffic.

Thanks Karl!

I think by now it's starting to really show how much the research plays a HUGE role in this build.

I've got to go to work later on, but while the little man is down for his nap

right now I want to try and get

some work done.

I'm going to put this out again... Aside from Monogram/Revell figures, does anyone have any 1/48 scale USAAF or Race Crew mechanic figures they're willing to part with for this build (frankly, anything that would be found in a hangar? Thanks in advance)

Cheers,

Mark.

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