Author Topic: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner  (Read 7811 times)

Online Rookie

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #15 on: July 08, 2021, 07:38:54 PM »
This very much the same technique (some) ship modelers use Stephen.

Beautifuly done!

Willem

Offline Dave W

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #16 on: July 08, 2021, 08:35:35 PM »
What a shame Wingnuts closed down... that was their next 1/32 scale kit :) (Not true in case anyone starts speculating).

Fascinating project Stephen and it's great to see some real model making utilizing all the materials to hand.

Many thanks for posting this.

cheers

Dave Wilson
Gold Coast
Australia
Owner and Administrator of ww1aircraftmodels.com and forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com

Offline kensar

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #17 on: July 08, 2021, 10:04:48 PM »
Great start on this, Stephen.  The hull shape looks good, and being wood, it will offer firm support for all the things you stick to it.

Offline RAGIII

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #18 on: July 09, 2021, 02:09:08 AM »
Excellent job on trimming the "Flash" from the part Stephen  ;D The Hull shape looks outstanding.
RAGIII
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Offline Manni

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #19 on: July 09, 2021, 04:00:31 AM »
Very interesting subject, Stephen. So unique and everything scratched. I think this will be an other beautiful build.
Bye Manni
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Offline lone modeller

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #20 on: July 24, 2021, 07:19:30 AM »
Evening All,

Thanks to Sandy, Richie, Willem, DaveW, Ken, Rick and Manni for your comments which are much appreciated indeed. I have been away for the past week or more visiting my family for the first time since the end of October last year, but before I left I had done some work which I did not report because I did not have the time, so here is a catch up to take us to where the model is approximately at the moment.

I mentioned in the last post that I wanted to use a milling bit to open up the engine and gunner's cockpits in the top of the hull. I do not normally like using power tools but for this operation I had to do so. For those who do not know what a milling bit is, it is simply a drill head with two sideways cutting teeth instead of a spiral cutter that is found on a drill bit. The milling bit is fitted to the chuck piece on a  drill in the same way as a conventional bit. With a conventional bit a hole is drilled in a single vertical movement. A milling bit allows the person to cut a hole using a sideways motion. I hope that the following illustrations will show what I mean:

I started by putting a conventional 1/4 inch drill bit into my (old) power drill which had been mounted on a pillar stand to hold it vertical and rigid. A pilot hole was drilled in the centre of what was to become the larger upper hull opening:



The hole was a slightly larger diameter than the milling bit. The milling bit was put into the drill and the drill lowered and set so that the bit would cut approximately 1mm depth into the wood. The drill was switched on and the milling bit lowered into the pilot hole: now the wood piece was firmly but slowly moved from side to side to cut a shallow indentation in the top of the hull:



The above process was repeated many times until the desired depth of hole was achieved:



The small damaged areas on the top of the hull were caused by the piece jumping as I was attempting to cut to the edges of the hole while it was still shallow. It required quite a lot of firm handling to stop that from happening, and as can be seen I was not wholly successful! Those areas will fortunately be concealed beneath the wings on the completed model, but I will still fill them later before the wings go on. Once the hole was more than 2-3 mm deep the problem was much easier to control. The sides of the hole are not completely square when they are milled so they had to be cleaned up carefully with a new scalpel blade.





Similarly the bottom of the holes are not as flat as I would have liked them to be, but as both the sides and bottom have to be sealed in some way I will solve the unevenness and seal in one go by lining the sides and bottom with thin plastic card!

I have also worked on two small but important parts. The first was the streamlined gear housings for the propellor mounts - these were shaped from some sprue which had been given to me by a friend and which just happened to be perfectly round and of the correct diameter:


I have also carved the propellors from hardwood strip - one is shown here with the marked blank for the second:



I will make the small spinners later from the same piece of sprue.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

Offline DaveB

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #21 on: July 24, 2021, 06:39:15 PM »
Well done on the milling out of the hull, Steve -

Going to be an interesting subject matter once done

Regards

Dave
As we say in fencing, what's the point!

Offline RichieW

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #22 on: July 24, 2021, 07:24:04 PM »
Welcome home Stephen, some great work here as always. Those little streamlined gear housings look absolutely symmetrical. Milling out the spaces in the Hull must have been a scary business but has worked out really well. Looking forward to more now!

Richie

Offline Alexis

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #23 on: July 24, 2021, 10:39:58 PM »
Nice to see you back with a bit of progress Stephen , how did you shape the gear housing ? I have tried making similar items before with limited success .
I  hope you had a wonderful time visiting family and every one is doing well  :)

Alexis   
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Offline RAGIII

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #24 on: July 25, 2021, 01:06:37 AM »
I am sure you enjoyed your time with your Family but it is also nice having you back! Thanks for the detailed photos of your process. Very well done and closer to looking like a boat with wings  ;D
RAGIII
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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #25 on: July 25, 2021, 03:34:23 AM »
Stephen, it is not easy to keep a mill under control if only handhold. The forces should not be underestimated. Luckily I have a xy-table on my little mill which makes it a lot easier.

these were shaped from some sprue which had been given to me by a friend
Sprue is the most underestimated scratch material ;)  In any form, e.g. stretched or even turned in lathe.
I can't drop this stuff into the bin, but to save storage space I cut it in straight pieces. It is very handy to have different colors of different grey, tan, black and even clear sprue.

Your propellers in 1/72 are always little gems.

Cheers,
Frank

Offline lone modeller

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #26 on: July 25, 2021, 03:52:11 AM »
Thank you everyone for the kind comments.

Alexis: I use the end of the length of sprue that I wish to shape and use the rest as a handle. I make a mark on the sprue with a shallow cut the part that I wish to shape and then use a file to round the end. I round it by constantly turning the sprue in my fingers and filing away from my body. I apply more pressure at the end (which will be narrow) and very little at the end which is widest. When I have the narrow end shaped I cut the piece off the sprue length and the shape the rounded end in the same way as above. Shaping the blunt rounded end is tricky because there is little to hold in the fingers, but provided that I am patient and take my time and keep turning the piece between my fingers, I can achieve the shape that I want. I finish the piece with fine glass paper. I had to make three of these to get two good ones if that is any consolation!

Frank: this was the first time that I had used a milling bit but I did know about the torque effects because I had been warned! I completely agree with you about sprue - unfortunately I do not have a regular supply because I do not build kits, bu I do have a stock which has been given to me by my model club friends! Wouldn't be without it!!

Stephen.

Online lcarroll

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #27 on: July 25, 2021, 07:18:28 AM »
    Coming along very nicely Stephen. It must have been intimidating to apply a power tool to that beautifully finished hull but turned out well worth the effort!
    I too use a lot of sprue, there are several model boxes of it stashed in our storage room with my Stashed models and I visit them regularly...... it's a rare subject that escapes my desk without some added detail from the sprue box! Several times a year I take an hour or two to top up the box of different gauges of stretched sprue that I keep handy to the bench. It's also a great material for things like you describe, and so easy to work with.
    Great Build Log as usual, a pleasure to follow along.
Cheers,
Lance




Offline lone modeller

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #28 on: July 31, 2021, 06:16:56 AM »
Evening All

Yes Lance I did hold my breath while i was milling the hull as I did not relish the prospect of having to make another one. There was also the fact that I had used some wood left over from other projects for this hull and I was most reluctant to throw away what I consider to be useable materials!

This week I have been indulging in some more non-injection modelling - ie I have been soldering and making some other parts from bits and pieces, including plastic card of course. First though I wanted to try to finish the hull as much as possible, so I CA'd some 10 thou card to the sides and bottom of the engine/crew compartment which I milled out as described in the last post. I also added the coaming around the two cockpits from 20 x 30 strip - also CA'd into place. Two coats of talcum powder and dope filler followed and a coat of clear dope to give the final mirror finish when sanded with worn fine glass paper. I filled in the damaged parts of the upper hull with filler but as suggested before, these will not be visible when the wings are in place. Finally I added the strips to the lower front of the hull. (I do not know what the correct name of those strips is: if anyone can tell me I would be very pleased).









Now for the brasswork. The boom at the rear which supports the rear biplane wings and tail unit will need to be strong - plastic rod simply will not take the strain and be to the correct scale, so brass rod has to be used instead. I used 1mm (3/64) rod: the lengths were measured from the plans and two sets of pieces cut from rod. The pieces were laid on a block of balsa and pinned so that they could not move, after the ends had been rubbed severely with glass paper and dipped into flux. The soldering iron was set to hot and also dipped into flux prior to putting solder on to the end. After the parts had been joined the whole was washed to remove the flux and the joints cleaned with a file:





The fins and rudders were cut and shaped from 30 thou card as shown in the image above.

To make up the rear frame the side pieces had to be joined with horizontal bars which meant that the side pieces had to be held in a vertical position so that I could solder the cross pieces. I pinned the side pieces and inserted the cross pieces and soldered them while they lay on the balsa block. Getting everything square was vital and required some careful juggling of pins and side frames, but eventually I managed it. Please note that in the first two images the cross piece is only held in place by friction - it had not been soldered:







Again the piece was washed to remove any remaining flux and the joints cleaned with a file. The brass pieces are now ready for priming. Next will be the engines and flying surfaces.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

Offline RichieW

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Re: Something Completely Different: Oertz W6 Flying Schooner
« Reply #29 on: July 31, 2021, 07:13:02 AM »
So clever and resourceful as always Stephen. Woodwork, metal work and plastic craft all carried out with great precision. This is so impressive and inspiring!

Richie