May 2010 Ping!

[R.F.Bennett]

PING!


STATUS REPORTS! ALL HANDS REPORT!

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[Balsabasher]

May comes in with a batch of solids readying in the wings with templates and plans at the ready for cutting timber,as at today these are my plans for May 2010-

FAIREY PRIMER trainer,the wings were carved today and the dihedral angle incorporated,just returned from my workshop having set up and rigged the wings,photographs will be in the gallery tonight,scale 1=24th.

BRITISH KLEMM EAGLE light touring aeroplane-Wings cut out today and aerofoil section added,wing trailing edge strengthened with cyno,scale 1=24th,I am building bigger solids these days it seems ! they look more impressive and easier on the old eyeballs.

FAIREY JUNIOR-Drawing up plans soon for a solid.

DE HAVILLAND DH.89A RAPIDE-Large scale solid planned soon when the drawings are located.

DE HAVILLAND DON trainer-Research now being undertaken for a super solid.

BLACKBIRN B2 biplane-Project.

STEARMAN HAMMOND Y-1 High aspect ratio wing version in RAF colours.

SCUD MK.2-Pre war glider with octagonal fuselage seems a challenge.

PAYEN FLYING WING-When I can work out the best way to put this together will start cutting templates.

MILES PEREGRINE twin-Plans have been added to the archives.

PIPER PAWNEE-Project behind schedule.

PLANET SATELLITE-Plans to be drawn up shortly,May start envisaged.

VICKERS NENE VIKING-Need to modify existing conventional piston engined design for jet Nene power.

WATERMAN FLYING WING ROADABLE CAR/AEROPLANE-Plans to be drawn up,drawing office being lobbied !

Thats all for May,longer working evenings means more productivity providing that mundane tasks do not get in the way.

WORKSHOP TASKS-
Rebuilt a vintage 1900's bench grinder today,purchased on car boot sale for £3 stripped down and cleaned,repacked bearings with grease,assemblies cleaned up and primed/painted,a nice working vintage item.

Still looking for a bandsaw,either too small a throat or not man enough for the job,really miss my old Black & Decker model.

Need to sort out my Surforms and replace a few well trodden blades providing the sizes are still available ?

Need to extend balsa rack to accomodate ongoing stock being purchased.

SANDING SEALER-Need to mix up a new batch to replace depleating stock,still using a gallon tin purchased commercially 15 years ago ! very economical,when I had the model shop used to tin my own dope and sanding sealer,best quality glider dope.

Need to buy a few more PERMAGRIT tools to replace ageing items,they do not last forever and the old ones are phased out to do more subtle jobs,they do not come cheap.

Thats it,over and out now for May 2010.
Balsabasher.

[lastvautour]

Little activity these pass few days.
1/32 Skymaster - I hope to add the last decals today. Photos to follow.
1/32 Bolingbroke - Engine rocker arm blisters added to cowls. Need a few engine details and final painting before month's end(hopefully). Need to make a stand for it.
1/32 Luscombe 2A - balsa cut for all major parts. Carving/Sanding to follow next week.
1/48 Canadair Argus - Wings still in sanding stage. Waiting for warm day to complete sanding in garage.
1/144 Hangar - complete except for hanging the LED lights. I chose dollar store units with 5 LED units per assembly. These use 3 AA batteries and are push on/off. When taking photos, the flash needs to be off to get the proper lighting effect.

New shelves have been put up in the display room using laminate floor sections. At $1.00 brackets and as low as $.99 a foot it is a pretty cheap way to go. These were left over from home renovations. They come in 4 foot+- lenghts and are approx 8 inches wide. They are great for small 1/32 and 1/48 scale models. Photos to follow later.

 

[Oceaneer99]

It's always neat to hear what Lou and Balsabasher are up to!  Lou, your shelf material is very creative: you get a pre-finished shelf right away.  There is a building salvage place near me that sometimes has half-boxes of Pergo for a very low price.

I'm trying to finish off some of the workbench queens, so here goes:

Pinewood derby cars: taught my oldest son how to airbrush and helped him finish up his pinewood derby car, which won his Den's competition, but the races were VERY close.  My daughter is making a Smart Car, but it is currently lathered in latex putty and needs to be sanded.

1/500 USS Preston: Almost finished!  I just need to make boat davits and mount the boats.  She now sports depth charges.

1/72 VKA-23 Spaceplane (USSR): I made some touch-ups and have drawn on the canopy in preparation for masking and painting.  I'm planning to use gold paint since some spacesuit visors use thin layers of gold for UV protection.  I still need to design and print decals.

1/72 Bristol Spaceplanes Ascender, Comet plans full-hull PT-9, and an International Build with Lou are on deck.

1/72 Bristol LRQ-1 and 1/48 Speed Spitfire are just parts, so they'll stay in a box for now for a rainy day.

1/72 or maybe 1/48 Cessna O-2B Super Skymaster: new project, so I'll start after the Preston and VKA-23 are complete.


Other:
I've started a pretty major basement clean-out (I build my models in the basement workshop).  It's starting off slowly, but I try to pick off one small box or pile a day.  On Sunday, I went through and threw out about 300-500 floppy disks and copied Zip disk over to a hard drive!  I did find ones that had airplane plans on them and copied them over to the hard drive, but the resolution of those scans was horrible!  And I did keep my Microsoft Word 5.1 installation floppy disks.

I have a bare 250 GB hard drive and USB controller board/power supply that I plan to make a case for.  I haven't decided whether to convert an old LaCie case or to build some cool wooden case.  If it's wood, I'll use some model-building techniques.  Maybe I should make it look like an old Comet kit box.

Moved all of the models off of their display shelf, cleaned them, got rid of old broken plastic ones, and gave away two airliner display models.  I fixed up models that needed repair and put everything back.  I'm now considering a display cabinet with a DOOR to keep the dust out.

Garet

[lastvautour]

Garet, dust is a problem where ever you go. Left over laminate floor pieces should be pretty cheap to get and brackets are a dollar or less if you watch the sales.

As to an update, the Cessna Skymaster is complete.
. The Argus has the wing joint cut out and the contour sanding is done. The latest Air-Toon is ready for decals and that should be done by week's end. The Bolingbroke has the nacelle blister attached and this morning, a radiator scoop was attached to the bottom of the nacelle. Next will be a tail wheel. Other than that, the skunkswork has started an SC-2.

Lou

[Ken Pugh]

Still making progress on the Fireball XL5.  Thoughts are brewing for my next project.

Ken Pugh

[Boomerang]

Greetings all,

                Miles M20/2 - 1/48th - Work progressing

                Miles Hawk Speed Six 1/32 - Blanks cut out

                Hammod Model Y - Blanks cut out, wings and tail shaped and sanded

                Curtiss XP- 55 1/48 -  Work progressing.

                Supermarine Type 224 1/48 - Work progressing.
                               
                               
                Cheers

                Gordon