Phonix DI

[DMPopa]

I glued in place the rear part of the fuselage structure to the side panel.   To ensure a tight fit and good alignment, I pinned the side panel in place as I did the forward part.

The kit has the seat sitting on a representation of a single board that is glued to each side panel.    Since I am working on one side at a time, I added another piece of cardboard structure under the seat and glued this piece, and the single board to the side of the panel.



This is the fuselage structure with the left side panel glued in place.   To achieve a good alignment, I trimmed the cockpit floor to shorten the distance between the forward structure and the rear structure.  Always pays to test fit everything before gluing.   

[DMPopa]

Taking pictures of airplane details and blowing up the views makes me see things that do not look very pretty in retrospect.  One area is the instrument panel.   The instrument panel looked too dull and the attachment points of the black levers was very messy.    I smoothed out the attachment points and added gloss, first applying Testors Glosscoat followed with several coats of Future Floor Wax.   The reason for first coating with the Glosscoat is because putting the Future Floor Wax directly on inject printed graphics causes the ink to be activated, i.e.  it liquifies and smears.   The result is still not as good as I would like, so next time I will try printing the instrument panel on photo paper, the glossy version. 

[DMPopa]

Adding the right side panel , pinning the panel to the bulkheads.



Adding the bottom panel, also pinning the panel to the bulkheads



Next step is to add a glaze to the seam lines and the pin holes.  Then sand the joints smooth, first using 220 grit and following up with 800 grit.    The bottom.    panel was a bit wide, so the edges that protruded past the side panels need to be sanded to shape.  The thinner paper skins that will be glued on top of the fuslage structure will look much better if the prep work is done right.



The glaze I use is MH Ready Patch, a household glaze that is targeted to wall repair.  This glaze goes on smooth, dries hard, does not shrink, sands smooth and is a white color.   Plus it comes in a big can that can be put to other uses around the house.   I am a sucker for non-hobby specific products that does the job and is cheap and easy to get. 

[DMPopa]

I have continued to work on the fuselage structure. I glazed with MH Ready Patch, sanded and primed the fuselage structure.   And I repeated this process until I got smooth surfaces.  For primer I used Dupli-Color Primer Filler.  I sanded with 220, 600 and 800 grit.  Primer has a way of showing off imperfections.  In my experience if the corners, where the top color paper pieces will meet and create a seam are not smooth and the edges of the cardboard are exposed, the seam looks bad.  And I have experienced ridges in the structure panels where a bulkhead is underneath, these have to be smoothed out.   The analogy holds, what you see is indicative of what you don't see.



It is starting to look pretty.

[NigelR]

That's looking very good, excellent building work so far.

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Smooth!!!!!!! 

Dan

[DMPopa]

I am working on the engine.  The engine printed in the kit does not represent an engine that would have been used in the Phonix D1 so I will use a combination of scratch built and kit parts.    With the number of small parts in a small space, this engine is a tough build. 

I am using repainted cylinder rounds and I am using craft beads/cylinders for the valve springs, which are the size of the kit paper parts and save me from having to make 24 very small parts.

I started by gluing the springs to the cylinder heads



Then glue the cylinder heads to the cylinder rounds



Next up is to fabricate a camshaft.   For this style of engine the camshaft drive is in the middle of the engine and a shaft runs from the crankshaft to the camshaft.  This was fabricated out of rolled paper and painted a pewter color from a rattle can.



This is with the camshaft installed

[NinetythirdLiberator]

Springs are always so much fun to make! 

Coming along nicely.

Dan

[DMPopa]

Springs from paper are really tough   I decided to give paper springs another try and I still don't have the theory.  The paper pieces are tiny! 

After cutting the paper, I end up with a very tiny square, below these are held in fine tweezers.   My first try was to hold in the tweezers and roll the paper around the tweezer.  Then put a little white glue on my fingers and roll the pieces until round.   Sometimes I get a good result, sometimes not.   



Perhaps practice makes perfect.  Perhaps on a future model I will use paper springs.   Question:  Does anyone construct their springs uning paper and what is the best technique to get consistent round pieces from such small pieces?

I decided to improve the valve train by trying another bead, a smaller one and in a metallic color.    I also re-positioned the cylinder round to get more separation at the middle of the block to allow more space for the camshaft.   I repainted the camshaft stainless steel from a rattle can and added a stiff wire to add strength and straightness.



These are the beads I used, sourced from Hobby Lobby:

[NigelR]

Paper modelling certainly has its own unique set of challenges. Very good progress here.

[DMPopa]

I did not give up making paper springs and I believe that I found a way to do it.

The technique that I came up with is to pass the paper pre-folded into a shape close to a cylinder through a small hole drilled in a piece of plastic.

This is the tool/gauge that I made



The hole is 0.030" diameter drilled with a pin vise, and a lead-in chamfer is added using an exacto knife and needle file.

I do not pre-moisten the paper with water or glue as the paper looses stiffness and will not go through the hole. I push the pre-folded paper in the chamfer side and push it through.      It is at this point that I add some white glue on the exposed end.  I push the exposed end back through the hole and them push it out again.   

This is going in:



This is going out.



This is the final product.



The paper I used for this exercise is 20 lb. 100% rag velum.   I had some better success with this paper as it is thinner and a bit stiffer than regular ink-jet paper.

A conclusion that I came to is the importance to get the diameter as exact as possible and the way to do this is to use a tool/gauge that the paper is passed through. 

The importance knowing the desired diameter and hitting it closely happened when I realized this when the camshaft that I was planning to use was two big for the valve covers that will fit over top of it.

For example, below is a trial piece using the aforementioned velum that I pass through beads that have a consistent .040" inside diameter.   I wrap the paper around a specific diameter wire, prefold it and pass the beads through it then add the white glue.  The white glue will not stick to the glass beads.  The paper came out to a consistent roundness and with a smooth seam.  Ounce I have the theory down for a particular diameter, I store the tool/gauge, note the paper width, the wire type and the paper type so I can do this again.  I plan to get it together so I will be prepared to do other diameters.   






 

[NigelR]

Wow, impressive work. There are some things that are a lot easier with plastic and wire.......

[DMPopa]

it is true, plastic and wire can simplify things.   In the posts to come I make ample use of Evergreen and Plastruct round plastic rod.    Modeling in paper has the advantage of being able to use a printed part, as well as allowing for diameters that are not on the pallet of available plastic and wire.   Since paper model kits include such small parts, I default to believing that these parts can actually be made in paper and it is the hobbyists job figure out how to make 'em.   Posts in this and other paper modeler forums includes some incredible work in paper leading me to believe that being able to render small parts in paper is possible and is good to do so on its own merits. 

[DMPopa]

The engine provided in the kit differs significantly from pictures depicting the actual design, so a lot of scratch building is necessary to achieve a satisfactory model.   The camshaft drive is in the middle of the six cylinders and two cooling pipes are positioned over the cylinder heads.   The camshaft is supported by two bosses, one on each end of the engine that have to be scratch built.  The camshaft assembly is made from velum wrapped around a K&S .032 music wire.  A narrow strip of velum is wrapped around the camshaft that makes the point where the camshaft drive meets the camshaft.  The entire assembly is painted stainless steel from a rattle can.  The two bosses are made from Evergreen 1/6" Rod that is bent and heated under a flame to make the bend.  These are painted black.



This is what it looks like assembled:



The valve "rockers" (can't think of a better name) are taken from another kit.  They are printed on inkjet paper, folded over and I cut the parts so they are longer than the final version, to make gluing them to the engine possible (these parts are tiny).   I glue them to the camshaft and the springs, trim them to size and use a brown marker to color the exposed side.  In reality there would be a box over the camshaft where the rockers would attach, but since space between the springs and camshaft is limited, and because this area will get covered up I went with what I share here; no box.  If I went with tiny springs like I write about above, attachment of these rockers would be problematic so the bigger springs worked out. 



Next is the cooling pipe that runs over top of the cylinder heads.  The pictures show the pipe going through what looks like valve covers with a riser in the middle so I replicated this as best I could.  I used Plastruct .040 Styrene Rod (Item No. 90855) for the pipe and velum for the riser and valve covers.   White glue did not stick well to the Plastruct, so I used a drop of super glue to attach the velum which also had the positive result of stiffening up the velum.  The entire assembly was painted matt grey.    Below is the sub-assembly.



Below is the sub-assembly attached to the rest of the in-process engine.

[DMPopa]

I did some more work on the engine.   The valve covers did not look right as a single piece of paper so I filled the under concave side with glue and glaze.   And primed and sanded, primed and sanded, on and on....  .   I added the upper hot water pipe with the above mentioned Plastruct.   The fixture on the upper water piped is rolled up velum.