Steve's Models

[Sailor Steve]

Well, more than ten weeks after I started, nine weeks after I put the fuselage and lower wings together, and more than three weeks after I sanded the upper wing and tailplanes, I finally sat down and did some work again. I'm feeling less guilty than I was before, because I read through my 'Starting Over...Again' thread on SH3, and realized I've done a lot more work on getting playing again than I had thought, and I've actually been playing as well.

I was going to use brass wire for the struts but the FE.2b struts are more exaggerated in the front-to-rear thickness ratio that most, and it's obvious. This meant turning to the toothpicks again. I had only done one when my Dremel tool's battery pack ran out. A few months ago the old one died after thirty years of service, and I ordered a new one. When it came I tested it and it was running fine on whatever charge they sent it with. Even with that it's been running for a couple of months, where the old one wouldn't hold a charge for more than an hour or two. Two hours on the charger and this one's up and running again. I did three more struts out of the twelve I need. One of them is cut too thin and it's not even. I imagine I'll need twenty or more before I have twelve that I'm happy with.

[Sailor Steve]

Another week and more has gone by. The toothpicks take a lot of sanding, and I had to junk just as many as I finished. I finally got the cabanes and the top wing in place.

[Sailor Steve]

Four days later, and three months to the day after I started this thing, the struts are in place. I used to complain when a project took longer than two weeks. On the other hand I've done a lot of work on the other things I have going on, so it's not all wasted.

[Sailor Steve]

I sat down this afternoon to install the tail boom and found out I was completely bereft of 1/32" brass wire! I scrounged around looking for a substitute, then gave up and spent my productive time making the 18-mile round trip to the hobby shop. While I was there I was sorely tempted by the Revell 1/72 Type IXc U-boat for $85, gave some serious thought to the Revell 1/700 RMS Olympic, and finally settled on some sanding sticks - plus the wire, of course. The tail should be in tomorrow.

[Buddahaid]

I know that temptation. Most of those buys are still in boxes but you know, I still get a big thrill just opening them and looking at the parts. The old style balsa rubber flying models are the best for that. Those plans and especially the smell of the wood get me every time.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Most of those buys are still in boxes but you know, I still get a big thrill just opening them and looking at the parts.

I started this thread three years ago with a resin 1/700 scale battleship. It's still on the shelf, in the box. And yeah, I still take it out and look at it sometimes.

[Sailor Steve]

Well, the tail boom is finally on. It took two days of cutting, aligning, gluing, breaking it off and sanding the glue off, realigning, regluing, swearing, forcing myself to take breaks, starting over again.

But that part's done.

[Sailor Steve]

After a few more days delay the landing gear are finally on. They had three different types - the original with the small wheel forward, a modified version of the same without the forward wheel but with some bracing rods going forward, and this final 'V-strut' type, used on the plane I'm copying.



I have some small specialty parts to fabricate and install before I can start painting, but it's finally getting close.

[Buddahaid]

Kind of looks like a Birkenstock shoe in a way. I can't wait to the paint scheme.

[Sailor Steve]

Well, the part I've been dreading the most finally came and ended up going fairly quickly and easily. No 100 Squadron was organized for night bombing, and the paint scheme was mostly black, which I liked enough to want to do that one. The problem was it would look silly without the bombs.

The FE.2b night bombers carried a rack under each wing and one under the fuselage. Each rack could hold four 25-lb 'Cooper Bombs', or two 40-lb bombs, or one 112-lb bomb. In addition the center rack could be modified to carry a single 230-lb bomb. Nothing like the two 500-pounders a P-51 could carry in WW2, but pretty big for the era. The maximum bomb load was 350 pounds, so if they carried the big boy in the middle they could only carry four 25-lbers or two 40-lbers total. I found some 1/144-scale bombs that would do for the Coopers, but where to find the big one? Then, on the top shelf, I saw that I had a 1/72-scale Vickers Vimy kit. I opened the box, and sure enough, there was a whole tree of 230-lb bombs! I only needed one.

The hard part was assembling the bomb racks out of .020 (.508 mm) brass wire. Again it went a lot faster and easier than I expected. I guess I'm having a good day. Anyway the bomb racks are installed and the bombs are mounted. Tomorrow we paint!









Oh, yeah: The reason the big bomb is slung so low is so it won't hit the propeller when it drops.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Oh, yeah: The reason the big bomb is slung so low is so it won't hit the propeller when it drops.

Must have sucked to be the one to figure that out.

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by em2nought

Must have sucked to be the one to figure that out.

[Sailor Steve]

Some days are worse than others.

I planned on painting yesterday, but I spent the day hanging out with a very old friend I haven't see in a couple of years. When I got home I felt the need to fix something that's been bugging me since I put up the last set of pictures. The big bomb is hanging straight, i.e. parallel to the fuselage, where the photos clearly show it hanging nose-down - parallel to the ground when the plane is parked.

I broke the whole thing out and re-installed it. Then I got out the airbrush. At first I couldn't find my bottle of black paint. Then I tried it. It's been almost four months, and the lid was on so tight I couldn't get it to budge. I banged on the cap with a pair of pliers, which usually works, but not this time. I tried using the pliers to twist the cap loose. No luck. I finally held the bottle with one pair of pliers and twisted the cap with another. The bottle broke. Black paint all over the kitchen counter, drawers and floor.

It took several tries with paint thinner to finally get it all up, but there's no sign it ever happened, so that's one good thing. I thought about making the huge round trip to the model shop, but I just couldn't get the energy up so I just did something else instead. Tomorrow morning will have to do.

[Buddahaid]

That really sucks. I'm glad it cleaned up OK.

[Sailor Steve]

More good news: I don't have to make the big round trip tomorrow. I went up to Park City to play music tonight, and had a great time, but there is an Arts & Crafts store up there, and it was open late enough for me to stop on the way, and they had some Testors acrylic airbrush paint, which is perfect. Maybe I will get the painting started, just two days after I thought I would.