Author Topic: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project  (Read 5014 times)

Offline Alexis

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #15 on: September 03, 2020, 09:21:55 AM »
All I got right now is thumbs up ! You have a sound plan for moving forward , looking forward on the next up-date .


Terri
Hurra ! , Ich Leben Noch
Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .

Offline IanB

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #16 on: September 03, 2020, 11:43:26 PM »
Looking very nice so far. Thanks for the detailed explanation of the alterations too


Ian

Offline kensar

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #17 on: September 04, 2020, 09:29:34 PM »
Quite an extensive looking conversion.  Nice work going on.

Offline Old Man

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #18 on: September 09, 2020, 04:34:50 AM »
Thank you all very much for your kind comments, and interest in the effort.

A bit more done here, small but important. The 'cowling' on the D.I rises more steeply than on the C.II, and its opening is differently shaped, by drawings and more importantly, the that of the kit pieces. This was done by extending the opening to the very front, placing a small piece of card there, bent to an initial curve, placed at a steeper angle. Once the front half circle was cut out,  the kit's opening was made regular, and further card added. I popped thing open, tacked the engine in and re-closed. I think there will have to be a bit at the leading edge of the center section before I am through, but figure I should leave that till the fuselage is assembled.








Offline RAGIII

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #19 on: September 09, 2020, 07:07:16 AM »
Continuing to impress!
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline Alexis

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #20 on: September 09, 2020, 10:15:15 AM »
Shaping up nicely Oldman !

 Nice nose job  ;) heheheheeee



Terri
Hurra ! , Ich Leben Noch
Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .

Offline FAf

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #21 on: September 10, 2020, 12:32:51 AM »
Shaping up nicely Oldman !

 Nice nose job  ;) heheheheeee



Terri

Quite the plastic surgeon then?!  ::) ;D

Impressive work!
/Fredrik

Offline Old Man

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #22 on: September 17, 2020, 11:17:22 AM »
Continuing to impress!
RAGIII

Shaping up nicely Oldman !

 Nice nose job  ;) heheheheeee



Terri



Quite the plastic surgeon then?!  ::) ;D

Impressive work!
/Fredrik

Thanks a lot, guys! This is involving a bit more than I imagined it might.

Once I started seriously looking at it, it was clear the lower wing was going to need a center section as well, and that it would need to be a duzy. So good intentions regarding the wing panels went by the way, and I turned to the center of the lower wings. Not only must the curves of the belly continue, but there is small but distinct 'gull' to the lower wing root fillets. From very front to very rear of the fillets is a millimeter or so shy of an inch.

Here is the open gap in the belly:



While putting this in, the brittle plastic cracked towards the rear, necessitating some patching with curved sheet.

The piece at the top in shadow shows the cnter section shape shape better than the working piece does under the flash. The piece in shadow became a 'proof of concept' piece because I got a little carried away putting the fillet curves in, so that the actual mating surface for the panels is a bit short of chord. The working piece started as a bit of 3mm sheet, 12mm x 24mm. From this was removed everything but the shape I wanted, with a curved blade and heavy grit emery mostly, but here and there a needle file. The belly was shaped first in a 'channel', then the 'gull' extracted from what was left.

Here it is in place, with the shy-chord effort, and the upper wing center section in the foreground:



The fillets on the upper wing are much slighter than those on he lower wing, and I had figured they could be done by some liquid filler or other, but I will be looking more closely.

Some adjustment may be needed to get the leading edges of both wings identically placed, but it did not strike my eye till the photograph below....

« Last Edit: September 17, 2020, 11:24:22 AM by Old Man »

Offline Alexis

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #23 on: September 17, 2020, 09:06:14 PM »
Might be a bit more then you imaged , but you are doing a excellent job on making those changes to the fuselage  :)


Terri
Hurra ! , Ich Leben Noch
Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .

Offline RAGIII

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #24 on: September 17, 2020, 11:01:46 PM »
In spite of the unexpected challenges you are making great progress! Once this stage is past it will be Smooth Sailing  ::)
RAGIII
"A man has to know his limitations": Harry Callahan

"Don't slop it on" Lynda Geisler

Offline Old Man

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #25 on: September 18, 2020, 12:26:17 AM »
Might be a bit more then you imaged , but you are doing a excellent job on making those changes to the fuselage  :)


Terri

Thanks, Terri. I do tend to plunge into these things without a lot of planning, just a conviction it can be done. I just sort of assumed I could attach the lower wings with a contoured mating surface and some filler. The gull was a nice challenge, and I like how its coming on. It will get slimmed down a bit more here and there.

In spite of the unexpected challenges you are making great progress! Once this stage is past it will be Smooth Sailing  ::)
RAGIII

Thank you, Sir. At this point I really need to stop putting off the chore of dealing with the wing panels. I have to have them attached to the center sections to do the likely bits of fettling necessary to get them to stack right above one another when attached to the fuselage.

Offline lone modeller

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #26 on: September 20, 2020, 05:22:08 AM »
I am like you OM: I too rush into a project thinking that all will be fine....until it isn't! However with your skill anything is possible - just takes a little longer that is all.

Super work on the underside of the lower wing - a challenge but one which I too would enjoy.

Stephen.

Offline IanB

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #27 on: September 23, 2020, 12:41:32 AM »
It's never as straight forward as we hope it will be, but that's part of the challenge. You're rising to that challenge and the way it's going this is going to be a beauty!

Ian

Offline Old Man

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #28 on: October 15, 2020, 02:35:08 AM »
I am like you OM: I too rush into a project thinking that all will be fine....until it isn't! However with your skill anything is possible - just takes a little longer that is all.

Super work on the underside of the lower wing - a challenge but one which I too would enjoy.

Stephen.

Thank you. It is a tricky shape, but it was fun to do.

It's never as straight forward as we hope it will be, but that's part of the challenge. You're rising to that challenge and the way it's going this is going to be a beauty!

Ian

Thank you. It's the improvisation that makes it fun. As the man said, no plane survives contact with the enemy....



Well, I have finally buckled down to the chore of dealing with the wing panels. I will be getting back to 'El Sonora', and in somewhat the same vein, but the general madness has been too distracting lately to keep my mind clear for the numbers juggling needed for making the pieces that project now needs.

Here is a look, courtesy of a nose-over, at what the wings looked like:



The 'half-ribs' (actually more 2/3rds ribs) do show, but not definitely in some instances. The Windsock drawing indicates tapes on the full ribs.

To indicate tapes, I am scribing in their 'borders', a technique I used a while back on this model:




By happy chance, the portions of the C.II kit's wings outboard of the center sections are just about the right size for the wing panels of the D.I.

Here is the first step:



The far piece has just been smoothed down. On the near pieces, the port panel has ribs and short ribs laid down with pencil, while on the starboard panel, the 'plane' has been broken between the full ribs and short ribs, by scraping with a curved blade and use of emery 'salon board' tips.

Here you can see the next stages on the upper surface of the panels:



The near piece shows the scribing of the tape borders. I use a flexible piece of thin plastic to guide a needle in a pin-vise for several scrapes, then use that as a guide for a #11 blade with its tip broken off, to give a chisel front, with which the lines are deepened. All on one 'side' of the tapes on a panel are put in, then the other 'side' is done, with the guide positioned so the earlier line can be seen, and tge Mk. I eyeball has a chance to get widths more or less regular. Each single step is not particularly difficult, but there are an awful lot of them, and that's what makes it a chore. The upper piece shows what ithe fully scribed surface looks like after a first spray of primer. There will be more primer when the separated panels are fixed to the center sections, and then brushed paint, so everything will be a bit less prominent once completed.

Here are the undersurfaces, at the same stage:



The somewhat distressed surface of the primed panel on the right (actually a port undersurface) reflects the difficulty one may encounter when a better way to do something comes to mind in the middle of a project. On the upper surface, the presence of a detectable 'ridge' helped keep the scribings narrow and regular. On the undersurface, there is no need to 'break the plane', and lines can be be scribed in directly after layout in pencil. Going for both sides of the drawn line did not give me results I was too happy with on that panel to the upper right, and going to the next panel it occurred to me I could, after scribing in one 'side' of the tapes, rub a lot of pencil onto the panel, then wipe it all down with a lick of spit on a fingertip (The more fastidious may employ damp paper towel or cloth). Doing this leaves the scribed line full of graphite, and starkly visible, so when doing the other 'side', it is easy to see the width being scored. Filling in the scribing on that first panel, and going over it again with the new technique improved things somewhat, but I am not too happy with it even so. I am going to live with it, though, because I suspect further efforts at repair will only do damage --- the wing pieces are pretty thin, and I would not put it past this brittle plastic to snap while being scored if it is abraded down too thin.

So the next step will be getting the panels on the center sections, so final placement of the wings to the fuselage can be gauged. There is no stagger, positions of leading edges have to match. Some small scalloping must go in at the trailing edges, and the panels chosen for the lower wing have to have their tips trimmed back by one rib, as the lower wing had a slightly shorter span. I expect the piece with the substandard panel will provide the makings for the lower wing,

The great chore, however, is out of the way....


Offline Alexis

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Re: Airfix Roland CII/DI Project
« Reply #29 on: October 15, 2020, 06:06:16 AM »
Wings are coming along super Oldman . Bit of work but I do like your method on scribing the rib tapes for this scale , very effective .

Looking forward on the next up-date  :)



Terri
Hurra ! , Ich Leben Noch
Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .