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OK. Now that the smoke has cleared, let's get back to building. She's not finished yet I left off with the rigging. I made small fittings for the wires from brass tubing and aluminum rod. These were soldered to the wires and attached to scale brackets on the plane with brass pins.Each wire was then tensioned by heating the solder in the fitting and applying presure with a tool I made. It was a lot of work, but I think the results were worth it. Steve
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Here's a shot of the finished engine compartment. Not much room for anything else in there. Everything works fine. The muffler is under the engine and the exhaust exits through the large half circle opening over the bombs. Steve
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I made a little progress this weekend. First, the pitot tubes. Iused 1/16 brass tubing for the tubes and 14gage copper wireup the strut. A piece of 3/32 brass tube was partially flattened, the tubes placed inside, and then I crimped it in between the tubes. I ran the copper wire and soldered the brackets on. Second are the boots to cover the holes where the flyingwires go through the wings. These are small pieces of cloth wrapped around the wireand tied with rigging thread. A little CA, and some paint, and there we are. I started on the dummy engine, and I'll post some pics tomorrow. Steve
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Someone asked me how I made the Interplane strut brackets a while back ( I think it was Don) and I completely forgot to answer. Sorry about that. I used this photo to make a CAD drawing for patterns. So, here are the photo and drawings. You can scale them to whatever size you need. I form each bracket around it's own strut end. First I clamp a piece of card stock around the end. Then I cut the bottom to fit and use a pattern piece to draw the top line and to locate the holes(push lightly with a pin). Next, take it off, bend it in half, mark the hole locations to the other side, and cut the top. You should have a pattern like this. Transfer it to tin or brass(I used tin), drill the holes, clean it up with a file, and wrap it tightly around the strut. Keeping it clamped, remove it and silver solder the inside seam. Mark the tab and cut it out. I leave about 1/32" of soldered seam all the way down. I know it sounds like alot, but it only took a couple of hours to make all eight brackets. Steve
< Message edited by smcouch77 -- 8/13/2007 11:15:16 PM >
Steve, Where did you find the Vise Grips with the big flat jaws? I went looking for some a couple weeks ago and couldn't find them at Lowe's, Sears, or Home Depot. Fortunately the ugly bends I made in some metal with needle nose pliers were not for models! Chuck
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I don't remember where I got them. They are for sheet metal work. I'll take a look at the plumbing supply store tomorrow. If they have them I'll pick one up for you. In all the excitement of the contest I forgot to pick up my score sheets. If you could send me a PM with any comments or suggestions I would appreciate it greatly. I did manage to repair the damage done by the pull tester. He also damaged Jacks plane. Steve
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I made the step plates on the wings using a method I found on another build thread.It's an excelent thread with a lot of really good ideas. Check it out.http://www.scale-models.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2417 . The method is to solder a bunch of music wire side by side on a tin plate, lay lithoplate over it, and scribe lines with a sharpened piece of wire. I've also made some progress on the dummy engine. I made the block and rocker covers seperatly. The mateing surfaces are 1/32" ply. I taped two peices together, drilled 1/8" holes for the lugs, then cut them out on my band saw. this way everything lines up when they'er glued together. The spark plugs are toothpicks with a #1 nut and a peice of white shrink wrap. The wire is wraped around a brass pin and soldered. The end of the plug is drilled out for the pin. Steve
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I did some more to the dummies. I added the flanges for the exhaust. They are 1/32 ply. the nuts, bolts, and washers are 00-90. The aluminum wraps with the rivets are .005 foil. The exhaust tubes are Estes 1/2" dia rocket tubes. I wrapped the front ends with bond paper and spray adhesive to "thicken" them up a bit and sealed the paper with SIG Clear Dope. Here's a pic of what I'm aiming for. Steve
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Progress has been a little slow lately. This is my busy season for work. I have made some progress on the exhaust. Also I added the half moon latches for the lower cowl and the brackets for the exhaust. hopefully I'll finish up this weekend and get started on the Lewis gun and rail. Steve
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RE: SE5a 1/6 Scale - 
