BACK IN THE SPOTIGHT--THE BOMBER GROUP BUILD (Medium and Heavy bombers from all eras)

Thanks, Josh!

It is a lot of rigging, but it's looking pretty good, and all that rigging has given me a chance to perfect my technique.

My son is wonderful, but being only a month old, he's not doing much just yet: he sleeps, fusses every now and then, and looks cute most of the time. I'm looking forward to helping him with his first model in a few years.

Regards,

sounds like alot of rigging, also late congrats on your son!

Hi all,

Sometimes a task goes quickly and sometimes it goes very slowly. I rigged three lines in an hour last night compared to twelve in an hour and a half a few nights before that.

I bought model railroad grass and paste this past weekend. The same stuff that Matt Usher used in his article on making a diorama in the last issue of FSM. I bought a picture frame that I'll use for the base. I'm debating right now weather I'll raise the base to even with the frame, or let the frame sit higher than the base.

Regards,

Okay, I'm back in the saddle. Or, at least, partway back in the saddle.

I thought I'd describe how I rig the wings, since I can't remember if I've done that earlier in this thread or not.

I first drilled the required holes, with a pin vice and a small drill bit, around the struts in the top wing, but I did not go the whole way through the wing. Then I drilled the corresponding holes in the bottom wing, but did go the whole way through.

To rig, I flip the model on its back, draw the invisible thread line through the hole in the bottom wing, anchor it with super glue (applied with a sharpened toothpick) in the hole in the top wing (and then spray the accelerator). Then I pull the line taut and anchor it with a length of masking tape. I carefully place super glue in the hole in the bottom wing and spray it with acelerator too. Then I snip off the excess line.

I've gotten better as I've gone along. I'm getting better at not using too much super glue, but the bottom wing looks a little rough now. A more traditional approach to rigging would be to drill all the way through the top wing too, and then string from hole to hole until one gets to the end of the wing. I'm glad I didn't do that as I'm still getting the hang of repairing the holes I drilled in the bottom wing.

For my next rigging adventure, I'm thinking about making mini turnbuckles from wife and threading the rigging line through them.

I've only got 16 more lines to rig, and then I all I have to do is four control wires for the alierons. I rigged 12 lines last night in about an hour and a half's work.

Regards,

Now THAT's progress !

Congratulations to all three of you !

Chris

Bossman wrote:

How's progress....    Dad ? Chris

Yup!

My son, John Richard, was born Saturday, November 19th at 12:01 P.M.! He was 6 pounds, 7 ounces, and 19 inches long at birth. He came out butt first after a pretty intense 3 hours and 40 minutes of labor; my wife was simply astounding!

Between end of semester stuff, and having a newborn in the house, I'm not getting much modeling done right now.  But I expect to be able to do more work on the MB-2 soon. After this week, my homework situation will calm down quite a bit.

Regards,

How's progress....    Dad ?

Chris

Hi all,

A quick update:

One whole wing is rigged, and the other has the fore and aft rigging applied.

The baby is due any day now!

Regards,

Wear them with pride Brother !

I can think of one concert (circa 1978) that I wish I had them at... Sammy Hagar opened for Boston. My right ear rang for three days.

I've come to accept my dorkitude/geekness/dweebdom - whatever term you want to give it. My wife and kids see modelling as the ultimate manifestation of it, but they also seem pretty comfortable with a geek for a dad.

I still go to concerts, but the music is not the type that would require ear plugs.
Chris

"Dork vest"! I like that.

I'll tell you a secret that will mark me as a geek forever: I wear ear plugs at concerts.

Regards,

Drew,

When I get a chance to go running for excercise (usually at night) my wife or one of the kids will yell to me: "Don't forget the DORK vest dad !". (my reflective mesh vest)

No one will ever accuse me of being a slave to fashion. Sounds like I could "accessorize" with one of those hats.

Chris

Hi all,

I've been working on the rigging for my Glencoe MB-2 biplane kit, and it has been going slowly. My two problems were that I had a hard time seeing the holes I had drilled in the wings (where the rigging lines go), and the super glue would take too long to cure.

So this weekend I picked up a Panter Vision (that's the brand) baseball cap, which has two bright LED lights at the end of the brim! I also picked up some superglue accelerator.

Now I can see, and the glue sets instantly. Rigging is going much more quickly.

Here's a link to the hat: http://www.perfectionoptics.com/prd_hat.html

My wife thinks I look funny, but I don't care.

Thanks, Chris.

I've seen a lot of parents, and they all seem to be okay. Some even make models! So it can't be too bad.

"Tying up loose ends."

Part of the reason the rigging is taking a while is that I did not drill the whole way through the top wing. So I thread the invisible thread through the hole in the bottom wing, add a little super glue to the tip, and place it in the hole in the top wing. The plane is inverted this whole time.

When that dries, I pull the thread taut, and apply super glue to the hole in the bottom wing. It works well, but is slow going.

Regards,

Drew,

You will soon know "taking precedence" like you have never known it before.
Be encouraged though... It's good - and it goes by way too fast. - but you've probably heard that before.

I guess this gives a whole new meaning to "tying up loose ends".

Chris

Hi all,

A quick update: finishing the nursery has taken precidence for a time -- especially since the baby is due next month. However, I've continued to rig the plane, and that is going pretty well. There's just a lot of rigging.

Regards,

Hi all,

Naturally I didn't finish the model in time for the show. However, I've got all the struts installed, have started rigging, have installed the aft Lewis gun and Scarff ring, and installed the radiators.

The struts on the right wing ended up too short due to kit fit issues. So I wrapped some thin, flat styrene strips around the ends to extend their length.

For the radiators, I "painted" some wedding tolle (a fine mesh fabric) with a Sharpie marker to make it black, and then cut it to fit the back of the radiators. I had to sand a huge ejector pin mark off the backs of the radiators, and in the process destroyed the raised mesh pattern there. I used white glue to afix the mesh to the radiators.

As mentioned previously, the radiators do not fit inside the cabane struts as they should due to kit fit problems. So, I installed them just aft of the cabaen struts. They look okay there, so I'm not going to worry much about the lack of accuracy.

The Aeroclub white metal Lewis guns and Scarff rings are fantastic! They look great painted with MM Acryl gunmetal paint.

Fitting the landing gear will be tricky, but no trickier than anything else with this model.

Regards,

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Chris.

Tonight and tomorrow morning is the final push. There's a model show at my local Hobby Town USA, and I'd like to enter this plane.

I need to glue in two more struts, do a little bit of paint touch-up, install the radiators, rig the wings, and paint and isntall the landing gear.

I may not finish in time, but I think I can do it! If not, I'll still have significantly more done by noon tomorrow than I do now.

I'm getting pretty fond of the WWI-era biplane bombers. Roden makes a couple of nice ones, but they require a lot of work -- as you say: a long-term project!

Regards,

Drew,

Keep up the good work. WWI models are relatively rare on this site (and probably in general), but I think they are among the most impressive finished products. Rigged bombers are even fewer ! You'll have a really unique build when you're done.

Whenever I see the 1/72 Roden Felixstowe flying boat in magazines or in the LHS, I think: Someday ! That'll be a long term project.

Chris

Chris,

It's good to read that your build is almost done.

Quite frankly, I'd probably have given up on my kit if it hadn't been for this group build.

I took more photos, and hope to have them posted in the next couple of weeks.

Regards,

OK, back in the saddle again.

Finally finished the decaling. Need to spot cover some areas with dullcoat, do more weathering, and then install the cockpit side windows. After that - I just need to figure out how to display the monster.

Chris

Hi all,

Back again.

I've got all but two of the struts installed. Installing the struts on the port wing went pretty well, but for some reason the wings are farter apart on the starboard side, so the struts are too short by 1/16th of an inch (or so).

What I've done is wrap thin plastic strip around the top of the struts that are too short. This extends them a bit and looks okay to boot.

Regards,

John,

Great stuff! I really like the B-29. You cockpit and nose art, especially, look great.

All,

I've got the top wing mounted on my MB-2! I'm in the home stretch.

Regards,

Nope, built them all at seperate times. I just love B-17s.

real nice job john. it take me forever just to build one of those big bombers.

Very nice job on all of them John. That's a whole lotta modelling wrapped up in those three kits ! Did you do the two B-17's at the same time - like an assembly line ?

I really like the nose art on Chow Hound - very cool. Thanks for posting.

Chris

Okay, so here's the pics I promised. I'll post links, so that I don't bog down this thread too much.

B-29:
Entire aircraft, nose art, cockpit view

B-17G Chow Hound:
Entire aircraft, nose art, tail

B-17F Memphis Belle:
Entire aircraft, nose art, tail

Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed building them!!

QUOTE: Originally posted by knight667 I'm in: 1/48 B-29 "Special Delivery" 1/48 B-17G "Chow Hound" 1/48 B-17F "Memphis Belle" The B-29 is already complete...probably doesn't count, huh? The other two are in progress (still waiting to receive the "Belle").

Good grief! I can't believe I'm such a slacker! I've completed all of these aircraft and posted no pics! I'll take some tonight and post tomorrow. Sorry for that!

Drew,
Sounds like luck is with you after hearing about that "tail plant".

To all,
Luck was with me this weekend too. Remember that pesky nat insignia decal that I've been looking for for the B-24 wing ?.. No - I didn't find it... But I was able to get a replacement for it at the local IPMS show this past weekend. Had to buy a decal sheet for a B-25 in order to get the right one. The show, in Rochester, NY was a very small turnout of entries. I can't complain though. I couldn't enter any cuz I simply couldn't stay for the ending. But it is always good to see other people's work. Also came away with two incredible bargains: A Matchbox Westland Wessex (That I've wanted to do since seeing the unbelievable build article in FSM a few months back.) for 2 bucks. And a 1/72 Eduard Albatross V Profipak for 7 bucks. Cha Ching !

My 8 yr old son and I had a good time - although he was a little bummed that he couldn't enter his Ferrari Modena... (he's not an airplane kinda guy) Oh well, there's always next year.

Chris

Josh,

Your He-111 looks great! Thanks for sharing the photos.

Regards,

Hi all,

Quick update: I finished drilling! I had to make a very quick repair when I dropped the plane and the tail snapped off. Luckily it broke at the attachment points and a little super glue put it right back on. The control cables to the tail kept if from flying off.

My next big step is mounting the upper wing on the lower one. Wish me luck.

Regards,