Bristol Ascender 1/72 Scale. . . . . . . (Completed 04 Oct 08)

[lastvautour]

The space race begins with my copying Garet's entry of the Bristol Ascender. The fuselage/wings (blended wing body) is blocked as well as the vertical fin.




Who will reach the outer limits first? Garet it's your move!!!!

Lou

[Oceaneer99]

Drat! You've nearly caught up  .  I've been sidelined with some emergency repairs to our house's balcony, which has apparently spent the last dozen years rotting.  I would much rather have been in the workshop than at the top of a ladder in the rain with a pry bar and saw!

It is interesting to see how everyone has their own techniques.  It looks like you carved the wing down from a thick blank, leaving the fuselage at the full height of the blank, plus some extra glued on to form the top of the fuselage.

I'll be sure to send my engine order to a different company than the one that made the torpedo tubes for my PT-9 (they finally arrived!).  [for those who haven't been following this, the torpedo tubes have been an long-running joke in this forum.  I took a very long time to make them, even though the rest of the boat was nearly done]

Garet

[lastvautour]

The rocket engine and turbojets arrived this morning as well as the vertical fin. You on the other hand need new contractor. Using the drawings gives you quite a different model than what the computer animated pictures give you. To that end as I complete the Ascender Mk I, I have started the Mk II which will be the highly contoured computer graphic I found in the flickr site I sent you. The Mk II has a low priority so don't hold your breath. I should have pictures latter today.

[lastvautour]

Pictures as promissed.


I am not satisfied with the results.

[Oceaneer99]

Lou,

The contractor was worried that they'd buy the engines overseas, so they ran the machinery late into the night.  When I ran out of 8, 10, and 12-penny nails while working on the balcony repair this afternoon, I realized it must be time to stop for the day, which gave me time to print out some patterns for the Ascender's engines.

The rocket nozzle needs some touch-up and is still attached to the rest of the dowel.  I turned it on a drill press.  It's not as good as a lathe, but I did make a fairly reasonable shape.  I drilled out the center and carved it out to thin the wall.  I used my old trick of soaking the end-grain with superglue when the wall gets to be 1 mm or so.

I cut the engine nacelles from a single block of basswood.  After I squared up the block, I drew reference lines and then drilled out the intakes and exhausts using a drill press.  Then I cut out the parts on a scroll saw.  Cutting the second view was a bit tricky, since there was a stack of the two nacelles and the waste from the first view. I actually managed to score my thumbnail with the blade at one point.  I'll need to carve them round yet.

I also turned a spinner for my I-16.  It somehow ended up with a lump on one side, so I glued it to a piece of wood with white glue so that I can get it perfectly round using sandpaper.  Once that is done, I'll soak the piece off with a few drops of water.

Garet

[lastvautour]

I don't have a lathe either so my round is so so round. Looking forward to some pictures.

Lou

[R.F.Bennett]

You Guy's and your contractors! 
I do everything "in house" now. That way I can be guaranteed that my parts will be way over budget, of the lowest quality and most importantly, finished sometime in the future . . . Maybe.       

[lastvautour]

Contractors will promiss everything to get the contract then !!!!!!!!!. Free enterprise is great.

[Oceaneer99]

I found out my contractor was sub-contracting to me!

[lastvautour]

Ah yes, free enterprise is not necessarily free. I placed my ascender in the paint shop this morning for its first coat of primer. I will probably start the white paint job this afternoon. I also made the undercarriage but still need to make the doors for it. I previously planed some baseboards down to 1/64" thickness that should do well for this.

[lastvautour]

Landing gear appears to be to small, but I followed the drawings. Regardless, work is progressing along.

http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-1846

http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-1845
The MK II Ascender is still on hold pending signing of work contracts. I was thinking of running a cook-off using the sub-orbital ship as a model of choice. Any personnal design as long as it would fit the sub-orbital catagory. Just a thought.

[lastvautour]

The association of Bristol Spaceplanes Limited (BS) and Bombardier Aerospace (BA) will produce the Ascender Mk III as a joint venture with flight testing taking place in northern Canada. The Mk III is basically a Mk II wing platform with near vertical winglets and modified engines. The fuselage/wing combination will be built BA  and the engines subcontracted out of BS. Pictures will follow shortly.

Note. Mk I is currently in the paint shop having its bottom fuselage/wing heat shield painted black.

[Rafael]

Good-looking, elegant spaceplane. The Jet engines are very well shaped. How did you manage to get that shape?

Rafa

[lastvautour]

Thank Rafa. Th engine are first shaped from a block. I don't have a picture but Garet does on his Ascender project board. http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/SMF/index.php?topic=58.0 Page two contains some nice photos of blocked engines. The remainder is to carve slowly until you get the desired shape.

[lastvautour]

Mk I with Mk II on the right. The Mk II has since been modified by Bombardier to reflect the Mk III configuration and a copy of a photo will be placed in the Fictional Cook-Up album when completed.

http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-1901
Two additonal pictures can be viewed in the http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/thumbnails.php?album=171 album

I anticipate a Mk I launch within a short period of time. The only thing remaining is the decal coating that is drying as I type.
How far from the launch are you Garet?
Lou