Author Topic: 1/32 Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)  (Read 29587 times)

Offline KiwiZac

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #165 on: February 22, 2022, 02:41:19 AM »
I'm thinking of making one wing in the folded position, to show the mechanism. David and I have made some drawings for that part also.

Willem
I recently build a 1/72 Grumman Wildcat with one wing folded - a totally different beast of course - and that sounds like a great course of action.

Offline Rookie

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #166 on: September 11, 2022, 09:54:59 PM »
This build log has been on pause for quite a while for reasons explained here:

https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12587.0

Fortunately, thing are getting a little back to normal. Her progress is slow, but promising, and the dining table / workbench is back again. 
I have been quietly working in the background on several other segments of the aircraft, of which I included some photographs.

Tailplane and struts

The stabilizers and elevators need a little more work before they can be primed.
The rudders and fins are almost finished. The surfaces are sanded down again. There is a lot of single-colour surface to cover later on the whole aircraft and my fear from the start was that the overall result may look dull and monotonous.

So I decided to experiment a little. The need some more layers of colors, which I will try to mix in slightly different shades to make it look more interesting. (Thank you Gary for your inspiration). Also, the hardware for the struts and the rigging have to be installed. The stabilizers and elevators wille receive the same treatment.

The struts are made from bamboo snack sticks.







Propellers

Two member of this forum kindly donated unused propellers from WNW kits to make the 4 bladed variant, but ultimately I decides to give it a go with wood veneer I made two sets of the four propellers, because I know I will mess them up at some point. I have some serious carving to do now.



Fabric lacing

I did some testing here too in scrap styrene, cotton thread and 0.2 mm copper wire. I taped my precision ruler to the styrene strips, and punched the holes directly through the holes of the ruler. That way the holes are neatly aligned. The holes were made with a steel needle in a pin vice with a good grip.

I flattened the wire by covering the laces with a scrap strip of styrene and just hammered the lacings flat.





Cockpit

The cockpit is literally crammed with gauges, meters, tumbler switches, pushbuttons levers and more.
I got the shape right, but I think I will follow the WNW assembly method.

But that’s not all:

On the starboard wall of the cockpit was a group of eight levers on a common vertical axis. The upper four were the mixture controls, and the lower four were on-off controls for the petrol supply to the engines. The oil-pressure gauges and the revolution counters for each pair of engines were mounted on the inboard side of each forward engine, where they were supposed to be visible to the pilot; consequently there were few instruments in the cockpit. The airspeed indicator and altimeter were duplicated in the bow gunner’s cockpit [and under the pilot’s seat], and the bombsight was mounted externally on the nose. And then there are the control column with cables for the rudders, elevators and ailerons.

These are all very tiny part, even in 1/32. So I took the liberty of cheating a little and bought the Airscale instrument bezels and decals.

Rib stitching

My rib stitching experiment (see reply #122) failed miserably, but I have another idea or two. I’m not sure if they will work, but I hope to show some results soon.

Engines

I was fortunate enough to buy 4 Wingnut Wings sprues with the Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines before they went out of business. I am very glad with those, because the engines on the V/1500 had no cowls. But figuring out all the fuel-, oil- and water plumping is challenging enough. And then there is still the cables and wires to and from the carburetors, radiator shutters etc. etc..

That’s all for now folks, but,

I’ll be back

Willem
« Last Edit: September 10, 2023, 11:14:01 PM by Rookie »

Offline lone modeller

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #167 on: September 12, 2022, 05:02:56 AM »
Truly wonderful to see you back Willem, both because it means that family life is improving and because you are doing sterling things with this model.

The tail surfaces look good as does the pres-hading. I am also very interested in your other ideas, especially the lacing. I suggest that carving the propellors will not be as difficult as you imagine - see my current build thread for ideas for 4 blade props.

Looking forward to more updates in future.

Stephen.

Offline Dirigible-Al

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #168 on: September 13, 2022, 05:22:00 AM »
Hello Willem
Re: stitches.
The only thing I can think of is to cut a huge amount of thin copper lengths and glue them on. Tedious and time consuming but trying different methods in vain may take longer. I would imagine you have already thought of this, making a special tool or technique may speed up this process.
Alan.
I heard that it all started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry!

Offline Tim Mixon

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #169 on: September 18, 2022, 07:23:26 AM »
Have you seen these Archer fine transfers?  I’ve used the 1/72 louvres with wonderful results.

http://www.archertransfers.com/AR88164.html


Offline Rookie

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #170 on: September 25, 2022, 03:07:25 AM »
@ Stephen,

I already bookmarked your thread  ;)

@ Alan,

I hadn't thought of that. Copper and brass are firmer and stiffer that styrene and card. I'm going to try that!

@ Tim,

Yes, i know these, but I would need a hell of a lot of them. Meanwhile, I'm still not sure what the ribstitches precisely looked like. The RAF museum holds part of the upper wing of a O/400 and of the tailplane of a V/1500, but the photographs are too grainy to discern what tape or stitches were used. And so far I have been unable to find any old photographs on which the rib stitching can be seen clearly.

Willem


Section of the upper wing of a HP O/400 (RAF museum)

(Note how small the roundel is compared to the size of the wing section)


Section of the tailplane of a HP V/1500 (RAF museum)
« Last Edit: November 02, 2022, 04:01:56 AM by Rookie »

Offline lcarroll

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #171 on: September 25, 2022, 04:48:21 AM »
So nice to hear that your wife is starting to recover Willem, and also great to see you back at work on this interesting project; excellent news both! This is a spectacular project; the sheer size and the super detail you are producing make it truly unique and I am really enjoying following your progress.
Cheers,
Lance

Offline Rookie

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #172 on: September 25, 2022, 05:53:24 PM »
Thank you for the kind and encouraging words Lance, they are very much appreciated. 

Although my time to work on it is limited, I have every intention of bringing this project to a good end. 

Willem

Offline Brad Cancian

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #173 on: October 09, 2022, 06:56:46 AM »
This really is an amazing build. I am learning so much crawling back over the pages. Well done and keep at it!

Cheers,

BC

Offline RichieW

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #174 on: October 22, 2022, 03:25:34 AM »
Hi Willem,

So glad to hear that your wife is recovering, it must have been a very stressful year. Your progress is meticulous as always. All those little brass parts and stabilisers look incredibly precise.  I have a feeling this will be one of my all time favourite builds!

Richie

Offline Rookie

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #175 on: November 02, 2022, 04:18:13 AM »
Thanks for that Brad, I hope to show something that should resemble a steering column shortly. Soldering the tiny brass parts is hard.

Good to hear from you again Richie! It's a lot of trial and error, but I am inspired by Bertl (Umlaufmotor) who keeps on trying until he gets it right. It only takes me much more time to get it the way I want  though ;)

Willem

Offline Rookie

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #176 on: November 21, 2022, 02:00:12 AM »
My pace is slow, but I'm making progress. I am working for days a week now, (two days from home and two days from the office) instead of five, which means I have a four-day weekend every two weeks.

The steering wheel is 24” in diameter (same as a bicycle wheel!) and in the center there is a pulley for the ailerons. The  wheel is made from 1mm brass tube, formed around a drill bit. The pulley consists of three parts: two 0.3mm brass tube rings, also formed around a drill bit and then flattened in the vice. In between these flattened rings is a third ring, also of 0.3 mm brass tube. I superglued these together, because they are too fragile to solder. Also I made the hub that fits in the pulley.

The spokes are made from copper⁹ sheet, which is also glued to the brass. They are not as sleek as the spokes in the original, but after six attempts and five fails, I decided to keep this one.



The windings are made from 0.5 mm Plusmodel lead wire. I was afraid that it would break or disform easily because the lead is so soft, but it worked out well, no problems there.


























Next is the actual column, with two more (much smaller) pulleys and the rudder pedals.

I'll be back.

Willem
« Last Edit: November 21, 2022, 04:22:28 PM by Rookie »

Offline RichieW

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #177 on: November 21, 2022, 02:31:59 AM »
Ah Willem, that is brilliantly clever, the pulley wheel especially. I'm definitely taking notes of that method!
The wheel spokes look perfectly good to me, and winding the lead wire round wheel is another nice touch carried out with immaculate precision. It doesn't matter how slow the progress, it looks like you are enjoying the project and every piece you have made so far is another perfect step towards the finished model. This is such an enjoyable build to follow!

Richie

Offline lone modeller

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #178 on: November 21, 2022, 05:35:44 AM »
What is there to criticise about the wheel? That is extraordinarily good, especially as the inner wheel is so small. The spokes look very good indeed - in fact I think that is much better than you would have found in a kit.

Stephen.

Offline KiwiZac

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Re: Handley Page V/1500 scratch build (slowgress report)
« Reply #179 on: November 21, 2022, 09:46:53 AM »
Magic work Willem! How neat to see the raw material transformed into small replicas of the original. Brilliant!

It doesn't matter how slow the progress, it looks like you are enjoying the project and every piece you have made so far is another perfect step towards the finished model.
Hear hear!