Fillets just about done.
Working on cowlings, nacelles and inlets.
Your Beaufort looks beautiful. How did you make your engines or are they store bought? What type of wood are you using? Why 1/48?
Lou
Looks great Boomerang.
Barry.
Engines are made with a balsa dowel for the crankcase. Cylinder heads from balsa dowel thats been run through an appropriately
nut to give the fin effect. Push rods from thin copper wire.
Cowlings are from a thick walled cardboard tube salvaged when the last garbage bag was used. Had to adjust circumference slightly.
Finished off with two laminations of 1/8 balsa at rightangles and sanded to shape. Next time I'll use thinner laminations. Gills are from .4mm ply steamed around a former. Brass tube /rod propeller shaft.
Gordon
Well Gordon your ideas and materials have worked well,its surprising what scrap we can use in making our models and you have proved it.
Barry.
I like the nut cylinder maker. I never would have thought of that. I must try it soon.
Lou
Lou you can also use a die as well,they cut wood really well,look out for old thread chasers as well,a brilliant tool that you hold and thread the bolt through,instead of a bolt use dowel and produce as many cylinders as you want.
Barry.
I have used taps and die a few times in my career but never envisaged using them on my hobby. Sometimes things just don't connect. Thanks for the idea. Please place a post in the Tips and Technique area for others to see.
Lou
Lou when I get a minute will gather tools and dowel together to do a photo shoot of the technique plus building a simple radial engine this way,bear with me lots of projects on the go as we work towards the end of the years model folder.
Barry.
We have a group engine build on the go as they never close. You may consider placing your contribution here or in the tip section
Lou
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/SMF/index.php?topic=365.0#top
I had forgotton about that particular build in the cook up section,something to work on for the future and work up more ideas for radial engine builds.
Barry.
Working on nacelles cowlings and inlets.
One propeller started.
What are you using for a propeller hub? I used wooden dowels to do mine. It looks fairly good from a distance.
Lou
Lou,
I used a piece of brass tube with some brass rod soldered at the appropriate angles. Bit fiddly but it seems to work.
that's the way I've done all the others.
Gordon
There is always more than one way to skin a cat or in our case, build a prop.
I have no skills when it comes to soldering.
Lou
Lou,
As you say mate there a more ways to one task than meets the eye.
It's good fun just exercising the grey matter and enhancing the fine motor skills
Are the blades on your's butt joined to hub?
Cheers
Gordon
I use a center hub drilled to accept the blade ends. On large scale such as 1/32, the blade end is drilled to accept a dowel that goes into the hub. A spacer is inserted between the blade and hub. We should both do tutorials for the tip section to show different methods.
Lou
Making three bladed propellers is a challenge in itself,I adopt a very different approach to this but as long as works for us then that is all that matters,we learn a lot from each others methods.
Barry.
Decided whilst painting the Spit, Airacobra and P-43 to start adding colour to the Beaufort.
The chin turret has been added. Nacelles are progressing and when time permits work on the propellers.
More work required on the oil cooler inlets .
Not to sure on adding the Radar antenna's on the fuselage yet.
You are having a purge on finishing Boomerang,something that I am looking forward to doing as well with lots of 'greys' on the bench ready or almost for some colour,no point in wasting expensive paint at this moment due to the bloom problem with the damp weather,yes its still raining here in the UK ! and more on the way.
Barry.
Your Beaufort is shaping up to be a great model.
Lou
Does look like a bit of purge. I think everything is just at the same stage at nearly the same time.
The weather here is anywhere from the mid 30° C 's to the low 40° C and very little rain in site.
cheers
Gordon
Gordon you are playing your part in keeping Solid modelling alive with some lovely subjects.
Barry.
Oil cooler inlets finished. Cowling to nacelle cleaned up on both sides. I got a hold of some RAAF Sky and have redone the
undersides. I will be painting this up to represent "KT-L " of 7 SQN a Mark VII A9- 1124.
There is a picture which raises a lot of questions .
http://www.airpages.ru/eng/ot/raaf_03.shtml
it has a black serial where the specs ay sky or grey. I'm still deciphering the colours ( Scheme A or B . Odd serials A evens
B - Following the British system) but in the words of Ian K Baker "Aviation History colouring book 14 "DAP Beaufort ".
He says "After an extended scrutiny of numerous photos ... this writer is unable to discern rhyme or reason in the
Australian application of the two schemes".
All good fun though.
Pics to follow when available.
Cheers
Gordon
Looking forward to those photos. As to colour, there are exceptions to every rule!!!
Lou
To true Lou.
I'll make a decision based on what I can further decipher from the picture.
The serial should read A9-124 not 1124
Cheers
A bit of success with black serials. Have found a couple of photos of beauforts with with serials around 124 and they are
black. Will preceed down that path.Also might look at doing the landing light
Cheers
Gordon
I look forward to your next step.
Lou
Progressing...
Plodding away on the propellers, Landing lights, fuel dump pipes, Antenna and DF Antenna.
Well done Boomerang with your progress on the Beaufort.
Barry.
A wee bit of progress.
Radio mast and DF Antenna have been made. They are just dry fitted at the moment. DF Antenna from basswood , Copper
wire, a bit of balsa and the white bit is plastic from a cotton bud.
The fuel dump pipes are done. ( on top of wing other wise will get lost in background).
Have been experimenting with the landing lights. Clear plastic plunged into "hot water" and then moulded around leading
edge seems to work a treat. Pushed the boundaries a bit and had a go at making the formation /nav light covers by the
same method ( bit more work required). The straight line on the port wing is the result of these experiments.
I've revised my thoughts on upper colour scheme and had to cut it back prior to a new base coat of brown.
Propellers are progressing
The carburettor intakes are from balsa and clear plastic . The plastic holds its shape when bent .
Balsa trimmed down to suit and the plastic square slipped on and glued in place.
Seems to work OK.
Gordon
You are making great progress.
Lou
Have cut back the upper surface and reapplied the brown overall. rechecked available pictures of Beauforts with black serials
and found I'd done the reverse of what's required. That's this weeks seniors moment out of the way.
Gordon
There are so many differences that it is impossible to know everything. I am sure your Beaufort will come out spectacular.
Lou
(Just found out some cam jobs depended on the even/odd serial numbers.)
Upper surface Green has been done.
Marking out the framing of canopy, turret etc..,
Bit of fixing required on one wingtip ( result of falling from hands while carrying).
Onwards and Upwards
I never learnt how to repair crushed wood without handing to spice a plug and re-carve/sand/etc. We await further photos.
Lou
A bit of progress
Have repainted the upper surface. Started work on the canopy, nose and turret framing.
You will notice the rear edge of the port wing tip is a bit square. The result of drop damage.
This may work to my advantage . I am considering doing the formation/nav lights in some sort of clear plastic
shaped to suit. Already experimented with this on the Dolphin.
Cheers
Gordon
Good process.
Lou
Both propellers have been built. Further work required but basic units turned out OK.
had to manufacture one more blade as one was lost during some spinning tests. I heard it hit the table (somewhere)
but to date the search has proved fruitless.
In between that slowly doing the canopy framing.
I've picked up some acrylic type material which I think I will use for the formation/Landing lights. Will need to be need
to be laminated for the landing light. Initial joining tests are promising.
Cheers
Gordon
Beautiful work Gordon.
Lou
Had to paint the propellers. More work required on the hubs.
Just leaves the landing and formation lights to come to grips with.
pic to follow
Gordon
Props painted. more work required on hubs.
Gordon
It looks very artistic. Well done.
Propellers have been finished. I won't be putting the counter weights on.
Landing light has been commenced useing some acrylic type material.
Cleanup and touch up paint where required and complete cockpit framing .
Pic to follow
Looking forward to the pictures.
Lou
Propellers finished. Now on to the last little fiddly bits.
Gordon
Very nice props. Little fiddly bits can take quite a bit of time.
Lou
Landing / formation lights done using acrylic material sanded to shape and polished with some old metal polish
( Brasso) which I still had lying around. The landing lights were put in using a rotary tool with a bit of silver for effect.
The formation lights were done as one piece with the bulbs drilled out and red/green paint put in the resulting holes.
I remember seeing this in a model mag years ago. Looks OK.
Some decals added. The roundels and fin flash are from proprietary sheet and the serial is home made
All that's left now is to touch up the canopy framing and add the radio mast/DF antenna and fuel dump pipes.
And make up a stand.
I'm going to leave off the radar antenna's on the fuselage and the undercarriage indicators on top of the engine.
Cheers
Gordon
Your techniques are certainly very effective. Looking forward to more updates.
Lou
Plodding away with the framing and the squadron codes. I'm painting the codes.
I have to rework some of it. ( got a bit ahead of myself and reversed the Squadron letters).
when I get some suitable sized tube I'll make up some Vickers K gun barrels.
Cheers
Gordon
Canopy framing complete. Mostly done freehand .
Homemade upper and lower wing decals applied.
Nearly finished squadron codes. When they are done will add the fuel dump pipes,guns, antenna and DF aerial.
Stick the props on and she's done . Hopefully by end of year.
Cheers
gordon
Beaufort finished.
Bristol Beaufort MKVII A9-129 7 SQN RAAF
Oops! Serial is A9-124 not 129
Very nice Gordon, great detailing work. Regards Paul J.
Thank You Paul
Excellent workmanship Gordon.
Lou
Thanks Lou.
Some more pictures.
Have given it as a present to the person that I made it for.
On to other things
Gordon
Cheers
Gordon
Lovely shot showing your talents.
Lou