Thanks Brad, Patti has to take alot of the credit for the pilot look !, with out her painting tips I think he would have looked like a supprised clown, her tips on painting the eyes made a massive difference.
Cheers Steff.

A few pics of the latest 1/3 pilot with Frank Perego's head. The next couple of heads on the list are of individuals for their own planes - like Steve was.

I'll be starting a 1/5 female body as soon as I get hold of some more blue foam for Richard to cut the body into, then I'll make a fibreglass mould over that. The first female head for that will be Milla Jovovich (by request). Other female body sizes - 1/4 and 1/3 will follow and that will open a whole new range.

cheers
Patti

Wow, great new 1/3 pilot there!

Cool, the girls will be coming off the assembly line soon too!
And what a way to start it off with Milla Jovovich! Such a beauty.

So glad to see the progress Patti.

I have a question for you Patti so I will PM you.

Dan

I will wait to see Milla as RC pilot

I have just managed t source some blue foam which is surprisingly hard to find here. I see it used everywhere in the UK and the US. Now the body plug can be cut then the mould made. That's the start of the female creation

cheers
Patti

OK, I got the steering gismo worked out. Came out better than I thought it would on the first try.
It was a bit of a strain on my little brain but I'm glad I did it.

I owe it to you Steff, your cockpit videos inspired me to give it a try after watching them.
I know I will never come close to the amazing detail you have in your cockpit but this is a good start for me.

I'll do an update when I get the pilots in there and modify the limbs to move with the yoke.

Enjoy,

Dan

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf7KrMqIbqk[/youtube]

Hi Dan,

Looks awesome would you be interested in selling these out to some of us other TMMY 35% Cessna 182 guys?

Cheers,
Steve

Thanks Steve,

Wow, I don't know about that, it was SUCH a pain in the A** to make it.
I don't know if I could keep my sanity if I had to make another one. lol
Besides,I think with all the labor it would cost too much.

That'sone of the reasons I made such a detailed video,so anyone could copy the design if they wanted.
Otherwise I would have only showed the front of the dash and kept the mechanism a secret.

Of course the first one is always the hardest, it would be a bit easier now that I've done one.
I'll think about it a little and see if there is a faster way to do it.
Since I only planned on making one I didn't make a jig.
If I had a jig it would go fast, but making a jig would take longer than the part itself, and would only make sense if I planed on making a bunch.
Plus I really need some machines(lathe, mill, etc).
Man, do I wish I had a machine shop!
Let me mull it over a bit.

Dan

Wow, RCU is so messed up lately. It posted my last post 3 times. I'll just edit them to be more relevant.

Steve, I thought it over and I think I'll go ahead and make some more of these steering controls.

I don't want to hijack Patti's thread, so send me an email or PM and we'll work it out

Cheers,

Dan

RCU glitch!</p>

Wow Dan that looks cool !. The whole set up looks well thought out & engineered !, how many sleepless nights did you have thinking about it ?[].
Your Main panel looks really great also & a nice touch with the panel indicator lamps as well.
Thanks also, it's nice to know I've inspired some one to give it a go,makes it all worth while then.
Look forward to seeing your pilots in action.
Great work !.
Cheers Steff.

Hey Steff,

Sorry, I didn't get an email notification of your post. (RCU has gone haywire lately)

Yea, a few sleepless nights for sure on that one.
The instrument panel came with the TMMY Cessna, I just made the steering rig to attach to the back of it.

I also added the indicator LED's, they are for 1 - the ignition, and 2 - the nav light system / steering yoke system. (they share a battery)
They are RCEXL remote opto ignition kill switches but can be used to control anything from your receiver.

Yes, your work got me thinking and definitely inspired me.
I know that many of us do this hobby as a way to earn praise from our peers and it always fees great to receive some.

Keep up the great work.

Dan

OH, and I am now selling the steering setups if anyone is interested. more info here.

Great looking creation Dan. I have also not been receiving the notifications but all good again now

For anyone wanting to do animated limbs, if you let me know when you order we can make the body with cord instead of wire in the limbs that you want to move freely. For Dan's, I suggested that he cut away a small section of the foam from the elbow then cut the wire and make a small loop on each end. Then rejoin the loops by tying together. I hope that works for you Dan.

I've been making new sets of hands in 1/3 scale for glider pilots. We had a relaxed left hand and right hand in the grip position so have made the alternative pair. They're tricky things hands and have to be machined with the hand holding a ball so that no damage is done to the fingers by the machine trying to get inside the palm. I then have to carve out the wax and shaped the inside of the hand and fingers so it's a fiddly process. I broke the thumb from the open hand and had to rejoin with some hot wax then gently smooth and carve the join.

The blue foam drew a blank and I'm still chasing it. The guy we got the one sheet from recently is away for a month til the end of Feb and I'm chasing it from the manufacturer in Sydney. What a performance getting a sheet delivered interstae! I will persist!

I'll watch with interest to see the pilots in the working cockpit Dan.

cheers
Patti

Hi Patti,

I made some modifications to my pilot to make his arms moveable and then I did some preliminary testing of him working the steering controls of the plane.
(Or should I say the controls working him, lol)
Looks like it might just work out OK.

Patti, with all your new 1/3 hands, do you have a right hand that would match the left hand on my "Steve" pilot (the one that holds the steering wheel (yoke))
I don't know if his left armwill reach the dash to pull the throttle knob so maybe I'll just have them both hold the wheel.

Dan

Here is a short video:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XladzfX5Gvc[/youtube]

That's a great job you've done Dan, you've got the arm moving freely. How much butchery did you have to do? lol As for the hands, almost every combination except that one! We can cut that but just at the moment there are quite a few jobs on the go but we'll do one of those right hand grips and let you know when it's ready. I've finished a mini French manin 1/3 who should just about be arriving in the lovely country side of France by now and currently working on another mini 1/3 me. I was hoping to have him cutting tomorrow while we were at work but have spent half the night debugging a Windows 7 problem that stopped ZBrush from working [:@] I need to add a goatie and Zrush has the tools for that. Sometimes the best made plans hit speed bumps, often actually in modelling as you'd all know

I've managed to source some blue foam at last so body making will start again soon. We've actually been a little preoccupied with another project - the first fully composite P-47 out of the mould has just been test flown Not painted as it's proof of concept version and looks pretty rough but it flies wonderfully without any nasty habits so now to refine it. The next one will come out aluminium colour which will look a lot better than the grey. Anyway, I digress! The pilot in this is the 1/5 Frank Perego head on a 1/6 body with the 1/6 clothing. Worked well.

I'll post some pics of the latest mini person soon. I'm also finishing a 1/3 helicopter pilot, now that's a big heli!

cheers
Patti

ThanksPatti,

I made a video of how I modified the arms etc. (see below)

Basically, after cutting I flattened the wire ends and drilled a hole in each, then made pins out of smaller wire (aluminum welding rod) to put through the holes and smashed the ends of the pins to keep them from falling out.
Only a couple aggros during the whole process so not to bad. lol
I still may try to get mini Steve to work the throttle so we'll see about the hand thing.

Nice job on the P-47, looks great even unfinished.

Dan


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsqorSYk6A8[/youtube]

Terrific micro surgery Dan. You're taking the bodies to a new level. The hand will happen, it'd be good to have a pair of each of the hand positions anyway, except for that specific throttle control of the right hand, probably not a lot of call for a left hand version of that! Your videos are great, pictures tell a thousand words.

cheers
Patti

Thanks Patti,

Little by little it's getting there.
If I wasn't waiting for an engine all this time I probably wouldn't have done all this detail stuff.

TTYS,

Dan

Hi all, thought I'd post a link to the vid of my Zero maiden, flew really great & the pilot looked awesome Patti.
Cheers Steff.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9fvZ...1&feature=plcp

Very Nice!

Congratulations Steff. It looked terrific and you'd have to be happy with the way that flew. I love seeing the different flying fields too and yours is so Western Australian with that red dust!

I've just finished our first black pilot - 1/3 scale for a Cessna and he's also going to be cut in 1/4 and again in 1/3 with the head set on. He looks terrific (not wanting to blow my own trumpet!) but the new mill is cutting so finely now the results are much more detailed and smoother. I'm really happy with the results. Katherine has made up the flight suits for him and his co pilot and they are quite a team.

I've got a new website with a photo gallery and will have a gallery of pilots in their cockpits over time - and links to their videos as well Steff I'm developing it with Weebly ( a really great free hosting that is as easy to use as a desk top publisher)and am currently trying to change the hosting over to Weebly as well so I don't have to change the address but the current hosts aren't being very co-operative. I must get back on to them today. If you want to have a look, remembering that it's still a work in progress! www.properlittlepeople.weebly.com and hopefully soon it will just be the old address without the weebly to keep things simple.

cheers
Patti

Wow! Patti, your new pilot looks fantastic!

Patti
Just got back from having a peek, quite a distinguished group of aviatiors if I do say. Luck with the new site, the new fellow looks great!
Doc

Oh yes, and the new website looks great too! Much more useable than the old one.