1/32 Boomerang - WIP

Finally managed to get a bit more done to the right side, finishing off the electrical boxes. Zoom can be so cruel!

Marvelous work mate.

Dodgy

Thank you

You are pulling out all the stops. Truly impressive workmanship. Keep it coming.

BK

Just to prove this is still moving forward, progress is slow, but still progress. All the frame clamps for the right hand side switch boxes, etc, are now complete and painted. Each of them has been on the floor at least twice, and one had to be replaced completely the original couldn't be found ....... then that one had to find the floor a couple of times! At least my very simple but fidly jig to drill the holes worked. 

I suspect nearly all aircraft with a tube frame fuselage follow a similar system to the Boomerang, whereby items are not attached to the frame but are instead attached to clamps wrapped around the frame. The first couple I made from plastic, but they were a real pain to make and drill, and were too fragile, so I have now started making them from brass strip. Stronger and they look better. I will need to make up a couple of jigs so as to drill them more accurately and consistently in future (there are quite a few to be made).

Mate, this thing is so detailed you're going to be able to climb in and fire it up!!!

Dodgy

The new, improved replacement electrical box, the correct shape and size this time. Zoom can be so cruel!

Funny!

I don't remember having this tw..tw..twitch! Lol

Excellent work mate, but you might need to start taking sedatives if you keep this up! 

ChrisJH666;

   A Boomer in a decent size. I always wonder, When our fliers don't care for a plane, Folks like your Aussies and the Germans with the F-104, fly the heck out of them. Good on you and I like the work you're doing!

After a couple of false starts, I finally got the control locking bar built. Shame I couldn't find this in the kit! Believe it or not, there are 34 individual pieces of styrene to make this. The other photo shows it installed between the footboards in the unlocked position (it was far too much of a challenge to get it right for the locked position!)

Understand and totally agree.

Dodgy

If you go back a couple of posts there are a couple of photo's of the frame. The only difference between those shots and now is the area around the footboards at the front of the cockpit. The plan is, finish footboard area, fuel tank and radios, control rods, electrical box, rudder pedals and controls, finish right side of cockpit, fit out left side of cockpit, control column, instrument panels, then seat, in that order. I rapidly figured out that if I didn't do it in a fairly specific order, access issues would mean I couldn't get stuff in!

Cool! Can you post a pic of the whole frame?

Dodgy

Thank you. It's now painted and installed.

Awesome work mate.

Dodgy

For some strange reason, especially for a large scale kit, there does not appear to be a control locking bar, or the cockpit ventilation tube, both of which sit roughly between the pilot's feet. Here is the vent, which took around half a day to get right, and is only slightly larger than an Aussie 5c coin.

Progress has been slow due to one particular part. I have decided the oil cooler duct in the cockpit is a right royal pain in the butt! I have two surfaces which sit at 90 degrees to each other, but which I cannot join for some time yet, and an object which changes direction in all three axes to meet two very specific points on those surfaces, whilst being hollow at one end where it has to match up precicely with a hole in the fuselage side. I also realised I was going to have to take into account the thickness of the fuselage sides. It took three attempts to get it right, the final solution being to cut the kit part in half, and graft a new fuselage end onto the kit firewall end. The photo shows all three. This is a fairly critical part to get right as so much in this area of the cockpit depends on it.

Due to the thickness of the fuselage sides, I discovered after I had opened out the hole for the duct exhaust, that the hole on the inside face was the wrong size and the wrong place. This meant fixing microstrip into the upper and rear faces of the hole, and then chamfering the edge as shown in the pic. Final filling, filing, and fettling will be done once the cockpit is installed.

Thank you

The resin venders always tell me to apply hot water and reshape warped parts. The frame work is excellent.

BK

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking along those lines, but it's great to have it confirmed.

The cockpit frame looks great. As for the resin problem I use very hot water and gently push it back into shape.

Dodgy

Good news, and not so good news. The basic cockpit frame is now complete. Now for the hard bit. I'm sure I will find bits I wish I'd fitted earlier due to restricted access, as the Boomerang cockpit is a very cluttered beast, where many other aircraft had all the gubbins hidden away under pretty covers! The not so good news is a fairly major fit issue. It appears the Starboard side is the problem. Does anyone have a remedy for out of shape resin other than brute force?

Very impressive. You've only just begun and that's a lot of modelling right there.

Cheers,

Dodgy

Joining the two halves. The two side frames are now joined. Getting the two halves perfectly square and aligned was a real pain and took ages! I'm still not convinced it is 100% right, but it is as close as I can get it. Once the glue is well and truly set all the cross braces will go in, then the real fun starts.

Just a taster of what's to come. The first two bracket clamps on the cockpit frame. The front one is one of the hangers for the electrical box, which will be completed once the new box is in place, and the other is a fuselage shell mount, which still requires the rod to be fitted once I get to the fitting of the completed cockpit into the fuselage stage. There are a lot of these bracket clamps in the cockpit!

Thank you. Alot of the detailing depends upon the replacement electrical box in order to get the correct positioning, so I'm currently making the port side frame, which is pretty much identical.