splinterz25

I've added a base w/ 15 degree angle it now has two coats of sanding sealer on it and drying.


I've also been working on the canopy, nose turret and nose cone more on that later.


The other thing I've been doing is sanding and sanding on the fuse base where the resin was applied; now it time for spot putty on the base only.


I've also added a few more coats of sanding sealer on thetop side of the fuse, virt stab, stab.


You can see the added beveled base here,

splinterz25

Okay over a year later and there's paint going on the fuse JUST PRIMER
But some color; don't get to excited though there's a great deal of RIVETS on this plane.

I should get a hold of Chad Vick and order some more he's a bit busy these days and they may take awhile to get?

The bubble turret plug has Epoxy paint on it now and has to dry I won't touch it for 48 hrs; it looks like there's two pin holes on it? but I'm leaving it alone.

The fuse needs 24 hrs at least to dry before I do anymore to it; so I'm back on the canopy and nose turret.

CHECK THE DAYS PROGRESS,

Bruce

splinterz25

I was able to get a small bit of work done, stuck some rivets on the canopy and shot the fuse w/ primer; on this busy weekend

Bruce

splinterz25

I've finally picked
it's going to be the SQD 52 BLACK MAGIC Captain W.J. Lahodney and crew were some of first to take the black cats on the offensive; instead of the single machine gun in the nose they removed the alum. plate in the bow and mounted four 50 cal's bolted to the keel and still had the 3 aft machine guns plus bombs or torpedoes.

I'm still trying to find out more info on this subject.
Near as I can tell this plane was VPB-11.

splinterz25

Well I pressed on today went to a LHS and picked up some styrene to make the base of the removable cockpit.
This won't be perfectly scale but it will due for this build; I wanted a sort of pan to catch an water that may leak into the cock pit.

So I made another plug this one very simple just to get a rough shape for the bottom
my plan is to make the seats and dash from scratch using bits and pieces of plastic I have on hand and some sheet styrene .

The other thing I've been working on is the plug for the bubble turrets there's a small hole I'm going to have to fix before pulling those.

Check it out it may help you to understand where I'm going w/ this,

Bruce

splinterz25

Here's where I'm at today, the seats are well under way; I finished the hatch between the seats.

And then I carved out one of the steering wheels and mounted it to the control bar/ this still needs to be cut down to a lower position.

The seats are glued to the back wall, but the wall is just sitting in there.

Check out the days progress,

Bruce

splinterz25

I took the summer off to build myself a cedar strip canoe; I needed a recovery boat and just wanted one for my camping trips; I'll post a few photos of it as well.

Well I'm trying to pick up where I left off in the nose turret & cockpit area; I've came to the conclusion that the nose needs to be sealed and so I can pick up the pace there will NOT be a rotating turret, and I'll use a thin layer of silicon to glue the nose once ready.

On the turret I'm not even cutting in the aft windows since it's going to be fixed; but I think I'll put in a floor, the scale plane I'm modeling didn't have a gun in this turret.

Instead it had FOUR 50's that were behind the front hatch; I don't know a way to show this and still keep the model dry inside, so I'm leaning toward the hatch just being closed.

Check it out and I would love to hear from you guys on this,

Bruce

rcten

This man is an artist, I take my hat off to you, the Lord has blessed you, amen! Enjoy yourself in this blessing.

splinterz25

thank you very much for your kind words rcten.

Bruce

splinterz25

Well today I made the bow hatch and started to apply the chart tape and rivets but I was having a very hard time getting the rivets to stick to the project?

So I stopped and shot a thin coat of primer on the whole nose; maybe this will help them stick to the project and release from the scotch tape?

Bruce

splinterz25

Well I made some headway today; I still need to fabricate the pieces around the sides of the turret, litho? or plastic?
On the scale bird there curved alum. panels.

Bruce

splinterz25

I'm working on those curved panels that will cover the raw wood beside the turret; seen in the last photo.
And I'm gearing up to do the blister pulls some time very soon.

Bruce

splinterz25

Okay Iwas able to get a bit accomplished today even though I had a DR. APT.
And the varnish came in yesterday afternoon so when I got back I gave the canoe another coat on the bottom.

Once I was done that I got back on the PBY's nose; I went w/ litho plate for those curved pieces I was talking about and put some more rivets on the turret.

These rivets I get from Chad Veich; there mylar laser cut in various sizes and spaced w/ different spacing to suit your needs.

The smallest size 1/32" that I have really test you nerve to apply; these are what I used yesterday on the nose, the turret has a bit larger rivets w/ larger spacing.
These went on much easier for me today; there's definitely an art to applying these rivets.

Here's what she's looking like now,

splinterz25

I'm not real happy w/ the way the turret looks
It's not even close to scale I may remake this
It's to tall not a large enough radius and the windows are wrong.

But for today I'm moving forward, I dusted off the Heat - Vac- U- Former and I'm going to try to pull the aft blister turrets; I'll post later on, weather they came out good or bad.

Bruce

splinterz25

OKAY guys....The good news is that the Appliance Epoxy Paint that I used on the plug works like a charm; no wax, just an air hose gun and they pop right off.

I did 8 pulls and maybe have 2 that can be used each one had at least one crease form
BUT there's two that will be covered if my next idea will work.

I plan to trim one of the clear pulls to size then pull some white styren over the clear; then I can cut out the window grid pattern in the styren & paint it before the install.

I hope this works it's getting very CO$TLY using a piece 12"x 13" each pull.

So here's what I have so far, I've tried the plug in many different directions put keep having the same thing happen some worse than others.

splinterz25

Okay I was given some info over on RCSB.... When heating the clear plastic starts to sag at 2 min.; I let it run 4.15 -4.30 min.

From what I read I was getting TO MUCH sag; So from now on I'll heat the first 2 min upside down then flip for the rest of the time this should solve the problem.

The Styren works much easier got those on the first 2 pulls; I should be able to make two of the clear pulls that I've already made work for this project.

This has been my test bed for the BV-138's Vac-U- Form pieces parts and to figure out my new set up for making parts.

I need to make some escutcheons for the top side of the wing struts these will be Vac- U- Formed, so I need to make a few plugs so I can pull 4 pieces at a time.

I may also make a new turret this way?

Check out the days progress,

Bruce

splinterz25

Where's everyone this weekend?
Most of the forums have been dead?

Anyway: I'm drawing lines on the white styren for the grid pattern, I'll post some more to
show where I'm going w/ this and it looks like something.

Bruce

splinterz25

Well I did some lay out and started cutting the grid on the aft bubble turrets today.
The white styren will get primer; then rivets and finish coat before there installed.

splinterz25

UPDATE: Today's progress photos,

Bruce

splinterz25

Today I did some more vac-u forming for the gunners station walkway/ gangplank corrugated metal and part of the gun mount & platform.

I'll still need to make a few more parts but these are a good start.

Bruce

splinterz25

Well as it turns out I'm not even going to be putting the gunners station in after all
There's to much going on in there; push rods and the main spars go right through there.

So as I do when I make a mistake I show that as well; I started w/ a small hole to find the forward former then opened it up almost the size of the blister, and then could see it wasn't happening.

But I am showing how to fix this; I was smart enough to cut a clean hole each time, so the pieces got glued right back in place.

Then filled the drill hole w/ a 3/ 32" balsa plug and sanded smooth; I didn't even go through the 3/4 oz fiberglass, but I still added another layer about an inch larger than the hole all the way around.

I applied the glass patch w/ Deft Sanding sealer and now have two coats on, next I give it a few coats of high build primer.

So it won't have a great detailed look but it will not have the chance to leak there; I did however find a great glue for something like this and will use it in the nose section it's E-6000.

CA GLUE WAS USED TO FIX THE HOLE....E6000 is for gluing on the blisters turret and nose

Here's where I'm at now,

Bruce

splinterz25

Maybe I could get a very high quality photo of the inside from the correct angle and put that inside?

Here's the repair w/ one coat of primer,

Bruce

splinterz25

I've been working on the wing strut location and putting the wings tips back on today; there's a discrepancy on Robert Sweitzers plans though.

The front view shows the bottom of the struts 1 3/4" from the top of the V hull

The side view shows that dim. to be 3 5/8" BIG difference

I think the front view is the correct setup:

This is an important dim. for the beaching gears size; the first thing I need to do is make the mount for the forward struts w/ the clip that the beach gear locks into.

This will be all one piece soldered brass; the strut tube is alum w/ brass tubing glued inside bent at the correct angle and will slide into another piece of brass tubing that will get glued into the fuse.

on the top of the strut thee will be a machine screw that will thread into a T-nut.

The drawings are on page 1 of this build.
Well I figured out and made the first clip that holds the beaching gear to the fuse; just under the forward strut, this clip will get soldered to a plate that will have a hole for the brass tube.

I will glue the tube& plate in to the fuse and maybe a counter sunk screw or two.

After I make the second clip I start on the male piece that fits in to it check the tec. drawing and photo.

klord125

Looks great!!! Again fantastic work...

splinterz25

Thank you klord.
Well I made 2 male insert for the beaching gear today now on to the oleo and back plate.

Bruce