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Australian BOOMERANG in 1/56

Started by johnnytodd, May 09, 2017, 12:58:18 PM

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johnnytodd

My next project is the Australian Commonwealth Boomerang.  Its a plane I've loved since I was a kid - always wanted the Airfix model but never got around to buying one.    After comparing a couple different measured drawings - of course none of the measurements agree - I've settled on this set.  They are sized to my peculiar 1/56 scale.

lastvautour

#1
Looking forward to your Boomerang.

Lou

johnnytodd

Made a few photocopies of my plan, glue to the wood and then band saw through:


lastvautour

Moving along nicely. May I suggest you move this Boomerang project to its own post. I will move it if you wish.

Lou

johnnytodd

#4
Today I started shaping the fuselage with my favorite tool:  This is a 1x4x24" board with 60 grit emery cloth (belt sander belt) glued to one side and 100 grit to the other side.  My technique is to drag the piece along removing quite a bit of material with each pass.  As I get closer to the desired thickness measurement I'll switch to finer grit on smaller sanding blocks.  Not much blade work in my method. As I sand I keep replacing the horizontal registration pencil marks to maintain the symmetry.


lastvautour

Keeping those reference lines can make or break the model. Good work.

Lou

johnnytodd

#6
Progress today - fuselage is pretty much done and got the horizontal stabilizer glued.  Wing has correct airfoil shape - now need to set the angle for the dihedral. 

johnnytodd

Over the weekend I got the four main pieces assembled and wing fillets done.  I use 2 part epoxy putty for fillet and for filling in all the seams.

lastvautour

Looks great John. I use wood filler for my filets.

Lou

johnnytodd

#9
Doing a bit of excavating today.  I use a dremel to hollow out the cockpit and front of the engine cowl - no bloody fingers yet!  Still deciding if I want to build this with landing gear up or down. Also, not sure yet how to simulate the boomerang's "porcupine" exhaust baffle...


lastvautour


Model Maker

#11
Model is looking great!!

I have the same problem with the porcupine exhaust for the Halifax models I am currently working on. I've been pondering this for a while and have come up with three possible approaches.

1) Placing some "dabs" of body filler onto either a piece of brass tubing or a wooden dowel and then filing / shaping the "dabs" to a uniform shape. I'm not sure how well the dabs will adhere  to the dowel / tubing long term, so this may not be a viable option

2) Crank up the Dremel with a cut off disc and grind diagonals into an oversized dowel. Alternately a triangular file could be used to cut in the diagonals / final shaping on the oversized dowel.

3) Use a wood burner / soldering iron with a wood burning tip to burn away material from an oversized dowel.

Not sure which would be best approach, but hopefully the above may provide you with some options for consideration.

-ken

johnnytodd

Ken,

I had one last idea regarding the porcupine exhaust which involved filing/dremeling cross hatch through the threads of a brass wood screw...  :o but in the end I wimped out and decided on the early style straight exhaust pipe...   

Model Maker

The concept of a threaded "something" to assist with establishing a uniform pitch is certainly a great idea. I will have to do some pondering, but I'm thinking of a jig using a large diameter bolt with a course thread rotated through a correspondingly sized nut to advance / reverse  a wooden dowel attached to the bolt. A wood burner held stationary would then to burn away the excess material. Will have to do  some experimenting.

I'll keep you advised. - thanks - ken

johnnytodd

Just about finished.  Now on to the primer.  I use a spraybomb sandable auto primer, with some 220 grit sanding between coats 1&2