1/32 BE2c

[RichieW]

Just a little update but quite an important step I think.

 

20221208_170540 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

The tailplane parts are pretty much finished, I added a few more details, washers from punched styrene and nuts which are just punched rivet heads. I still had a length of 0.5mm brass rod in my pin vice so I just used this instead of the obscenely expensive tool I bought when I used to earn a reasonable living.

 

4 short brass rod pins from 0.5mm rod were then added to the elevators, I was worried about lining up the holes in the tailplane parts, measuring things precisely never seems to work out very precisely for me. My solution was to start with just one pin in the elevator flap, put a blob of black paint on the pin, line up the elevator and wing and push them together. A neat little paint blob gave the exact drilling location. the next pin was added and the process repeated until I had all four perfectly located and the parts pinned together perfectly. Note this was the second attempt, my first effort involved all four pins at the same time and it didn't work without a lot of fettling.

 

The process was repeated for the rudder and tail fin and it was time for a test fit on the fuselage frame.

 

20221208_165440 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

Quick check for translucency, after all the painting decaling and general mucking around;

 
20221208_165545 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

Job done! There are still little brackets, washers and bolts for the underside and rigging holes to be drilled but otherwise the tailplane is finished.

 

I just noticed that one of my elevator flaps has warped, to straighten it would be to risk popping the ribs and ruining it. To leave it as it is would look pretty excremental. Luckily, unlike a kit, a scratch build comes with virtually an infinite number of spare parts so it looks like a hair dryer and modelling vice will be pressed into service later.

 

Richie

 

[lone modeller]

Superb looking tail unit Richie, and a simple but effective method to add the elevator bolts. I am sure that the elevator can be straightened with little trouble.

Stephen.

[FAf]

For someone who says that precise measuring s tricky, this looks awfully precise. Little nuts and bolts spaced evenly, as well as everything else!

Happily following along!
/Fredrik

[KiwiZac]

20221208_165440 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

That looks superb, Richie! Set it up right and it could be a TVAL factory photo!

[RichieW]

Superb looking tail unit Richie, and a simple but effective method to add the elevator bolts. I am sure that the elevator can be straightened with little trouble.

Stephen.


Thanks Stephen, I'm going to wait a few days to see if I still find the warp utterly offensive. I may decide it was a cunning ploy to introduce instability to the BE2c to increase agility and so gain the upper hand on those pesky eindekkers.

For someone who says that precise measuring s tricky, this looks awfully precise. Little nuts and bolts spaced evenly, as well as everything else!

Happily following along!
/Fredrik

Thanks Fredrik, yes when I try to measure things with precision I usually go very wrong. I stuck the nuts and bolts on by eye this time. Much less hassle!

20221208_165440 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

That looks superb, Richie! Set it up right and it could be a TVAL factory photo!

Thanks so much Zac, I love those TVAL pictures of aircraft in the making. I spend many hours staring at them for inspiration. I suspect I need to go out more!

Well I had a bit of time yesterday and thought I would set about the cockpit coaming which is quite complicated with cut outs needed for inspection windows as well as the apertures for the crew.

 

The first step was to use my former to bend 0.5mm styrene into shape and here it all went very wrong straight away. I heated the sheet first with a hair dryer then bent it round the former. I used rubber bands to hold it all in place before plunging it first into boiling water followed by cold water so it would hold the shape. Unfortunately the the rubber bands caused indentations along the whole length of the piece. I can't stand throwing out plastic so I spent a few days filling, sanding, priming in what felt like a never ending cycle until I had rescued it. It would have been much better to use the vacform machine as originally intended.

 

The next step involved transferring the positions of the cut outs onto Tamiya tape before applying it to the coaming piece. I was aware enough to make sure the centre lines were marked for correct alignment. Sadly after heavily sampling a rather pleasant overproof rum the previous night I was not aware enough to allow for the slope of the sides before marking out the two forward inspection windows.

20221211_110633 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

The cutouts were made by drilling lots of little holes and then playing join the dots with a scalpel. As you can see the forward inspection windows are far too close to where the windshield will sit so there will be yet more filling and sanding in my future.

20221211_124945 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

The inspection windows were adjusted by cementing styrene sheet underneath and filling with milliput.

 BE2c cockpit coaming by Richard Williams, on Flickr

The propeller was stained with thinned MRP paint, I can't remember the exact mix. I had hoped that the wood grain would show through but I can live with that result, from a scale distance you most definitely would not see it anyway.

BE2c propeller finished by Richard Williams, on Flickr

As I have no work for a while (hooray!) I decided to make the rear attachment point for the lower wing which can be seen here in James Fahey's photograph;

2022-12-12_02-53-16 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

I started by laminating squares 0.5mm styrene sheet, two layers to each square. These were then tacked together with a small dot of CA gel. A 1.5mm hole was drilled and the outline cut out before separating the block into two pretty much identical pieces. I didn't photograph any of this process.

Next I measured the thickness of the parts and subtracted from the width of the fuselage cut a piece of styrene sheet to act as a spacer. With a 1.5mm brass tube to keep things aligned I glued this together with plastic weld.

BE2c lower wing rear mount by Richard Williams, on Flickr

more styrene sheet was layered up either side of the tube and filed to shape before annealed aluminium sheet was bent round it and rivets added after giving the styrene parts a spray of car primer and a lick of ochre oil brusher.

BE2c lower wing rear mount by Richard Williams, on Flickr

The aluminium was dulled down by a wash made of turps and white oil brusher. For once my measurements worked out well first time, here is the part sitting in place in its approximate location.

BE2c lower wing rear mount by Richard Williams, on Flickr

I may get back to the bench later today to sand down the filler on the cockpit coaming and make the turtle deck. I think I know how I will make the rest of the fuselage frame and remaining major parts now so hopefully progress can be a bit more rapid from here.

Thanks for dropping by, apologies for the lengthy essay!

Richie




 

[DaveB]

Impressive work and some really good positive progress, Richie

Looking forward to next update, mate!

Regards

Dave

[Tim Mixon]

Wow! That is looking fantastic. 

[KiwiZac]

Superb work Richie, I'm enthralled!

[lone modeller]

Excellent progress, especially on the cockpit openings. The spar locator under the fuselage also looks very realistic.

Keep up the momentum!

Stephen.

[RAGIII]

I have just made a trip through your build log in order to catch up. WOW, WOW, and another WOW! Everything you have done is superb Richie! The coaming with the cutouts, the Tail plane, spar cover, etc. etc. look FANTASTIC!
RAGIII

[RichieW]

Thanks so much for your kind comments chaps, you really do help keep me motivated and feeling positive about this tricky (for me at least) project.

Rick, so great to hear from you! It's been a while. I went missing in action for over a year, I hope you have been well during this time.

One of the things that has been bothering me is haw to make the exhaust stacks, my initial idea was to squeeze lengths of brass tube in a vice and bend them, seemed reasonable until I tried it. Even if I could make accurate parts this way they would be far too heavy. When I closely examined photos I saw that upright section is made separately and slides over the part that leads from the engine which is bent.

 

After a quick play I had bent 1.6mm styrene rod round an engineers square and file it flatter at the bend. The upright was made by bending 0.13mm styrene sheet round a length of 1mm brass rod and glued with plastic weld. After a quick trim and file I had a slide fit part. This only took 15 minutes last night, if it had taken 45 minutes I might not have had to spend a few hours tidying up where I got glue on my fingers and melted fingerprints into the styrene.

 
I decided to make the undercarriage in the same way, on the real aircraft thet are wood with a metal rod through them. The legs are then bound with canvas to prevent splinters wounding the crew in case of damage.

2022-12-14_04-12-03 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

I gently scribed a fold line with my caliper and again bent the sheet round 1mm rod. This time (no picture, sorry I had my hands full) I taped the rod down and heated the styrene with a hair dryer. Another length of rod was taped in place over the folded styrene so I could accurately glue it the correct width and not get my fingers in the way.

20221214_144939 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

For glue I used cellulose thinners this time which is a bit less aggressive ( I saw a tip on youtube). I then ran my caliper along the glued surface to give me a cut line before trimming the piece.

20221214_145624 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

1mm Tamiya tape for the windings ( I tried decal strip first, don't ask!)

20221214_151526 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

A quick spray of primer and I have undercarriage legs and exhausts. I'm waiting for brass rods and tubes to arrive so I can finish the legs. I will make the cabane struts the same way, I like this slide fit idea.

20221214_153819 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

I got a little distracted last night and had a little play at starting a Lewis gun with a cotton bud that had been used for airbrush cleaning, Tamiya tape and a piece of styrene.

 

20221214_185329 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

This morning there was filing and drilling of brass tube, slicing and filing of styrene sheet which resulted in this;

 

20221215_105957 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

Later, after much faffing around with foil and styrene, eye straining and did I mention swearing?

 
20221215_130630 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

Much later, I mean several hours!

 
20221215_140523 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

It's definitely time to stop now, my poor brain can't take anymore. Still nowhere near finished but it's beginning to look like a Lewis gun. 

 

Richie
 

[KiwiZac]

You've earned some off time Richie, that's superb work!!

[RichieW]

You've earned some off time Richie, that's superb work!!

Thanks Zac, I couldn't resist another play today. Several hours worth in fact.

2022-12-15_06-26-04 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

I don't think Gaspatch have anything to worry about but I'm pleased with how the Lewis is working out. Therr have been many failed attempts to make an ammo drum today but I have a cunning plan...

Richie

[RichieW]

Sorry for another micro update but I was excited because it's nearly Christmas and I solved the riddle of the ammo drum this morning,

 

I found a couple of washers pretty much the right size, glued them together, gave them a shot of primer and added tiny slivers of Tamiya
tape.

 
Lewis ammo drum by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

The hole was filled with punched styrene discs, a few more bits and bobs were added from foil and styrene strip;

 

Scratched Lewis Gun finished by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

A bit of paint and a brush down with pencil graphite and it's finished:

 
 

20221216_132113 by Richard Williams, on Flickr
20221216_132306 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

 

I'm pleased with that and will use it on the model, another piece of aftermarket gear avoided.

 

No modelling time for a couple of days, back soon. Thanks for reading.

 

Richie

[Berman]

 Here is a one minute video of a Lewis gun.       https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VcP1zG5d-4o