Blackadder's Scratchbuilt Thunderhawk

Status
Not open for further replies.
Right now I'm gluing on the second layer of sheathing to strengthen the hull and provide a good base for the armour.







Not really much to see for all the work involved but as a matter of interest the hull is square and true to the width of a sharpened pencil line in cross section and in length. Speaking of length I may have gone overboard in extending the aft hull I'll have to see after the forward armour is installed. I'm trying to avoid the blocky look of the FW model but right now I feel it may be a decimeter too long.
 
Whew, after a month of convalescing I'm back and finally feel like building models again. I don't recommend spending three weeks in a hospital.

Anyhow here is my first days labor on my long neglected project. I've decided to install the armour as I proceed back to the unfinished stern section. This is probably a mistake but I believe the hull is too long so once the armour in the front is done I'll be better able to trust my eye than actual measurements. As per usual I shall be doing this the hard way. No wonder I have ulcers.



I've laid out the coordinating lines on the hull and am fashioning the armour to fit. This is why it would be prohibitive to duplicate and sell copies of this model aside from copyright infringments



Front view more of the same. The hull walls are approaching the proper thickness now.



Side view of the nose armour which I calcuate to be 1.5 MM thick.
 
Whoops big errors, have to re-do the nose armour.

Strangely I had forgotten I made this enlarged image on my photo editor to plot coordinating intersections. The actual model superimposes rather well on the 3D image with the exception of the most recent work which will be rectified. It appears that 6.0 mm is the proper thickness for the front cargo door and the aligning recesses in the side armour. The image has a two pixel margin of error due to the fuzziness of the enlargement. I can live with that.



Rather poor in my estimation.



This is the goal.



With coordination lines superimposed on model



With pencil lines adjusted on model; by god that is close enough for government work.

E. Blackadder
 
Corrected a few mistakes and then added some armour. This ugly beast is starting to grow on me. I can't wait to start on the wings and engines.



The lateral line belt armour and the nose section seam in place. and a start on the second layer of upper hull armour.






--
E. Blackadder
 
Did you upload those pictures today? Could you please explain how you did that. We are having a problem with "Uploading" and successes are just as important as the failures

Also, you really have the hands of a person who works with them, nice to see! Your model and the explanation/instruction you give is so excellent. I appreciate it, as I am sure do many others.
 
Zathros said:
Did you upload those pictures today? Could you please explain how you did that. We are having a problem with "Uploading" and successes are just as important as the failures

Also, you really have the hands of a person who works with them, nice to see! Your model and the explanation/instruction you give is so excellent. I appreciate it, as I am sure do many others.
Click to expand...

I post on several forums and I compose a reply on Google. I use an external image host:

http://imgur.com/

It's difficult to find one that doesn't advertise porn, this one seems safe for now. I used to use Photobucket but I kept exceeding the monthly alloted bandwidth. There appears to be no restriction with Imgur.com.

Anyway, I copy and paste the thumbs into the composed reply and then copy the reply and post it on the forum.

I enjoy sharing techniques and the exchange of ideas on how to accomplish scratch built models. There is such a wealth of new materials and glues on the market today I am constantly on the lookout for new products. I benefit from other scratch builder's threads, I feel I can do no less than to share what I can to further the hobby.

Happy to be of help,

Blackadder
 
I was wondering how to do the intricate double layered top of the hull armour without a seam in the finished skin. Part of the beauty of the 3D rendering is that seamless broad expanse of armour with all the cutouts in the edge and compound angles and vent fan cutout, set. Cutting this piece out of 2.5 mm styrene would be very difficult to get perfectly straight cuts and 90° vertical edges.



My solution (if it works) is to make the substrate of 1.5 mm sheeting with 6.3 X 1.5 mm edging strips using all together 5 pieces and then after all is cut out in the substrate tracing the pattern onto the 1.0 mm single piece top armour plate. Then cutting out the square vent fan hatch in the 1.0 mm sheet and the edge cutouts will be easy. Then gluing the top and 1.5 mm substrate together and gluing the whole assembly to the top of the hull should give me the complex piece I want without the seams and knife nicked edges. (I hope)



You can see that this is a very involved section.



The pieces of required substrate to the right and one of the edge pieces tacked onto the underside of top layer.



Another view of the penciled in lines.



And a front view for no particular reason.

E. Blackadder
 
There is a lot of confusion as to what I am trying to achieve regarding the top armour plating.

Well it's clear as mud to me and I wrote it. The thing is there are two layers to the armour; a 1.5 mm thick layer I call the substrate i.e. that which lies beneath the top layer and the 1.0 mm thick top sheet that I call the top layer. I want the top layer to be in one piece so I cut the substrate layer out of 5 pieces of 1.5 mm thick sheet styrene to be exactly the size of the top of the hull. Then I cut out the 1.0 mm armour sheet's side notches and the center opening for the fans because the 1.0 mm styrene is easier to cut exactly. Then I glued the five substrate pieces to the top armour sheet to make the requisite thickness of 2.5 mm. Now all that is left is to trim the remaining edges of the top sheet to the exact size of the completed substrate that is glued to the back of the 1.0 mm top sheet.

Mebe I should take a picture? :question:

It's hard to describe the procedure but suffice it to say here is the result.


The underside of the 1.0 mm top armour with the two 1.5 mm edge pieces installed and the three pieces of the base armour.


The topside of the 1.0 mm top armour showing the end of the edge pieces.


The assembled top and base armour 2.5 mm thick with detail cutouts and edges dressed.


Top view of the armour assembly.


Edge on view of the top armour assembly.

--
E. Blackadder
 

The moment of truth, does it fit?


Seems like a good fit but too much flash.


Less flash more detail.


The front edge needs trimming.

--
E. Blackadder
 
Not much to show for yesterday's work. The secondary layer of armour is attached, the cut outs on the side 90° corners have been dressed out with file and knife and sanded clean with fine sandpaper and file so the seams barely show. This is a downfall of many of the scratch built models I see, that the corners are not clean and crisp. No amount of greenstuff or filler will give that precise intersection and it is relatively easy to achieve with the proper knife and a good clean new 'single cut file'. I use a 'Nicholson' single cut with a coarse side and a fine side that also has one of the edges capable of cutting for a nice crisp interior 90° angle cut. Invest in a file card wire cleaner and clean your file regularly to keep the file teeth from clogging.

In all, the whole of the secondary armour is out of true by less than a quarter of a millimeter which is satisfactory to me and once it is rounded in the finally dressing that discrepancy will blend in I'm sure.


The right side is the master side I do all the planning on. Always use the same side for sketching and fitting pieces and don't shift your on model plan lines from right to left sides if you can help it or you will build in discrepancies that will make your work look lopsided.


The left side pieces I cut using the right side pieces for a guide making allowances for penciled or scribed lines and dressing the two pieces to insure they precisely match one another. It's easier to do this before they are glued on than trying to correct them after they are installed.


The front view appears satisfactorily symmetrical.

Now for the front cargo door.

--
E. Blackadder
 
use a 'Nicholson' single cut with a coarse side and a fine side that also has one of the edges capable of cutting for a nice crisp interior 90° angle cut. Invest in a file card wire cleaner and clean your file regularly to keep the file teeth from clogging.
Click to expand...

Do you think you could post a picture of this tool? I am a machinists, among others things, and I am not familiar with this tool. Thanks! The model is coming out excellent. It really cool watching you build it up like this.
 
This is as near as I can find to my particular file which I've had for ages. The file part less the handle is about 8 inches long so I guess that is considered an 8 inch file. I have dozens of other files but this one is only used for plastic so as not to contaminate it with other material. I also have 'jewelers' files from 'Micromark' tools but I haven't employed them as yet on this model.

one side is medium coarse and the other is fine single cut and as I said one edge has fine cut vertical grooves and the other edge is uncut, i.e. smooth.

http://www.powertoolsdirect.com/nicholson-farmers-own-file

And the file card:

http://www.jamestowndistributors.co...stributors/p/4224-File-Card-File-Cleaner.html
 
There has been a few questions regarding the amount of tools necessary to build my projects. I do have a lot of special tools that I need for work. I have been a mechanic all my adult life but to work on styrene models the material being so soft and malleable I find the most basic hand tools are sufficient to perform any of the work you see here.

Aside from the tools pictured here I would add an X-acto razor saw and the small diameter X-acto knife with a goodly supply of the # 11 blades.

When I get into the fine detail work I will break out my Jeweler's files as well but aside from that this is all I have used so far on the Thunderhawk.



You can see that:

A good quality combination square is essential.

A good quality utility knife with a supply of sharp blades.

A medium sized X-acto knife handle with #18 X-acto chisel blade. chisel.

A wooden cutting board is essential as opposed to one of those plastic self healing cutting mats. That's just my preference but I'm a creature of habit.

A 8" sized single cut file.

Home made sanding blocks with coarse and 80 grit sandpaper adhered with double back tape

A 6" scale graded in 1/64th inch and millimeters.

A calculator

Sharp Pencils

I use Ambroid ProWeld thin plastic cement but as the brush is so clunky and thick and the bottle so easy to tip over I refill the Tamiya thin plastic cement bottle; it has a much more stable bottle and a very fine tipped brush. When the fluid level in the bottle gets too low I drop in a few glass marbles to raise the level.

--
E. Blackadder
 
Simple hand tools and a calculator. I think I get too hung up on software sometimes!
 
Blackadder said:
Whoops big errors, have to re-do the nose armour.

Strangely I had forgotten I made this enlarged image on my photo editor to plot coordinating intersections. The actual model superimposes rather well on the 3D image with the exception of the most recent work which will be rectified. It appears that 6.0 mm is the proper thickness for the front cargo door and the aligning recesses in the side armour. The image has a two pixel margin of error due to the fuzziness of the enlargement. I can live with that.



Rather poor in my estimation.



This is the goal.



With coordination lines superimposed on model



With pencil lines adjusted on model; by god that is close enough for government work.

E. Blackadder
Click to expand...

I do use software, i.e. Photo Impact Pro ver. 10 to assist me in plotting position and the size of pieces.
 
This was harder than one would suspect, not just cutting out rectangles in 5 mm thick plastic but the angles are actually rhomboid shape in the front elevation and set at compound angles to boot.



Also the 'bonnet' cover plate is installed.



--
E. Blackadder
 
In spite of my attempt to render this model as close to the 3D image I just can't bring myself to make the cargo door projection as thick as it appears on the 3D picture. I have to trust in the fact that these are prospective drawings and that my effort will bear a reasonable likeness when completed. Not much to show for the week. Heavy work load recently.

The cargo bay opening:


The door in place 6mm thick and it appears still not enough! Egad!


The reinforcement stringers being applied as I type; 4mm X 2mm that should be enough by god:


--
E. Blackadder
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom