P4Patti

........ and the pics, hit the wrong button!

BobH

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Patti thanks for posting that picture. I can see the detail very clearly. I think your mate is a Wiz for making the machine and your a Wiz for putting it to good use!

P4Patti

Just an update to let you know what's happening. There's been a slight change in emphasis this last week as I push to finish a "Tom doll" to send to him and his wife. Just to let those of you who don't already know who Tom is, he was a Boomerang pilot in WWII who flew the "U-Beaut 2" that Richard is making. We managed to track him and his wife down about 6 months ago and have been in constant contact ever since. They are both 89 and up until a few weeks ago were fighting fit and driving all over the country but Tom had an asthma attack just before ANZAC Day (April) and ended up in hospital. That was followed by an inflamation/infection around the heart and while in hospital for that he got an infection via the tube used to feedother Tom the antibiotics. He is really not well at all. A while ago his wife Beryl asked that if/when I made Tom, could she have one. I've been meaning to get them one for ages but just keep on doing other stuff. So this week I committed to getting an finished and am almost there. The picture of Tom is with Richard's Corsair when they came up to visit last year.

I h about 3 different moulds of his head and stupidly hadn't labelled them [:@], they're hard to tell the difference from the outside so had to cast one of each to find the final good version. They're now labelled! I'll attach a couple of pics of the raw body sadtraight from the mould. It looks like Elivs with the wings before it's trimmed. I took a pic of the 1/5 body beside it for size comparison too. The shirt on the 1/5th body is actually a 1/6 size from China but you can see it fits the body quite well but is just short in length. You could get away with it probably and the arm length would be covered with gloves too.

Speaking of gloves Brad, I'm assuming you'd want the gloves posed in the flying position with hands on the throttle and joy stick? For the hands, which would be used for general posing, let me know how you want them posed??

I had to get the paints out again this week to do Tom and I've found that by giving the casting (head) a good rub with fine steel wool I didn't have to etch prime it. That is so good as the etch primer is dark grey which meant I had to then base coat that with white to apply the skin colour over - no good putting it over dark grey. By using so many coats it filled in some of the fine detail too so the steel wool is a good step.

The uniform is more or less finished and just needs the finishing bits and pieces - buttons sewn on, epaulettes etc. I'll post some pics of the epaulette making process soon incase it's useful to anyone else. I just use cotton tape and run rows of very narrow, close zigzag stitching down the length. I sew over this again to thicken the stitching and fill in any missed bits. The length of tape with stitching stripes is then cut into lengths and joined into a band. A picture will tell a thousand words tho and I'll try to remember to take some when I make the next lot. The little buttons can be bought from tinyzippers.com and she also sells thin, lightweight velcro which is a lot less stiff and bulky than regular stuff.

I got Richard to cut some more boots as the first ones were done in foam and were a bit rough which meant a bit of sanding whereas the wax comes out smooth as anything. So he did 1/5 and 1/4 scale ones and I moulded them both.

As soon as I get Tom finished and sent off to him I'll be able to make the mould of your head Brad which is sitting pretty and patiently Dying to do it actually and get it painted up and see if you recognize it at all!

cheers
Patti

BobH

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Patti, looking good. Im thinking your doing a good thing by making Tom. He and his wife will cheerish it, no doubt.

FYI.. IF you need the anthro data on the body etc I have it. It's for 50% (average) males. It's VERY accurate (used for analysis etc)..

If you like I can send you the file.. just let me know.

P4Patti

Thanks for the offer of the body data Bob, it would be interesting if you wanted to send it to me.

For the bodies I'm using a program called Poser which has been developed with everything in the correct proportions. I'm working on 7 1/2 heads high, which makes 1/4 scale head 60mm (2.36") from chin to top of head (that was Richard's head anyway so a good start). I've scaled the body from a 6' (1.8m) male although I know a lot aren't that tall but you have to choose something as I'm not making a different body mould for every person! I've also extended the limbs so that they can be trimmed to suit either taller or shorter people. In the photo the wire is even longer than the extended limbs which does make it look a bit out of proportion. The shoulder width should be 2 x head lengths wide, making the outside width 120mm. The following is what I'm planning for the head sizes- chin to top of head:

1/6 - 40mm (1.57")
1/5 - 50mm (1.97")
1/4 - 60mm (2.36")
1/3 - 80mm (3.15")

You'll notice that they haven't been made anatomically correct, I thought that might add too much weight , but it can be added if that's what everyone wants.

Tom is now finished and will be posted off tomorrow so then I can get back to moulding and casting Brad's head. I'm really looking forward to painting that and putting it onto the body. We've had so many interruptions lately but that's just what happens isn't it? Richard is helping a friend make a cnc machine and he was having problems fitting things together so we were in at his place on the weekend helping him out. Richard's new lathe also arrived last week (yes, he's incredibly spoilt ) and it was so heavy I had to organize a crane truck to deliver it so they could lift it down. I didn't fancy lifting it down from our ute - it weighs 200kg! We borrowed a pallet jack to manouvre it into the shed. Anyway, it's now installed and guess who has the biggest grin on their face?

I've also attached a pic of the epaulette making, you just choose the neatest patch along the line, cut the length you require plus some seam allowance and then when you've sewn the circle, turn it the right way out with the seam on the inside.

Now I can get on with the spitfire uniform at last.

cheers
Patti

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

Patti,
I'll be happy to send you the files. Just PM me with your email address
FYI I'm going to a warbird event out of town this week. So I may not get you the files till next week.

Cheers Mate.

Brad330l

My Feedback: (1)

Patti,
I'm so sorry for not replying earlier as I have not been receiving any email alerts of your posts[:@]
I didnt even think to check the thread as I thought you must be busy with other stuff and didnt want to post and have you think I was giving you a push

So yes is the answer to the posed hands in gloves.

I'll talk again soon as I have a very demanding little girl on my lap now who wants to watch Bananas in pajamas!!

Cant wait to see me.

Cheers,

Brad

P4Patti

No worries Brad, that happens to us from time to time as well.

I've posed the gloves and they've been cut in wax but as yet I haven't moulded them. We've been trying out adding goggles to the mesh(by 3D drawing them on) to see how they come out. We constructed a pair of Spitfire goggles with the split lenses and added the strap and other detail and I'll put a couple of pics of the wax model up. It's still in it's rawest state without any smoothing but in the meantime it will give you an idea of how it's going. There was a hick up during cutting so it had to be done again (lucky the wax can be easily recycled, just back into the pot!) and the new one will be ready tonight, it's cutting now. Tomorrow I'll give it a smoothing off with steel wool to remove any tooling marks then add stitching detail into the wax before moulding version 5!

It's absolutely freezing here which will really slow the basil up so maybe we'll have even more time in the coming weeks. And yes it does get cold in the sub-tropics, especially once you acclimatise! We got down to single figures last night []

More progress pics soon hopefully.

cheers
Patti

Brad330l

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Wow Patti, that is so uncanny[X(]
Please keep up your wonderful efforts for all of us mear modelers.

I do hope you actually cover your costs and make some spending money with it all.
I can 'see' the effort you are putting in and wonder if these pilots should cost $400!!!!!!!!!

My wife said "oh no not two of you in the house"
I said "Yep, looks like me doesn't it"

Cheers,

Brad

P4Patti

That must be really funny to see yourself. We thought that the likeness was there, even at that stage - in wax photographed under yellow lights, but the test was whether you'd recognise yourself! Mind you, we have a line up of about 6 different versions, each progressively better, ironing out the mistakes along the way. Will post a pic when the final one is in position!

Since that one, the latest Brad has the proper spitfire goggles with the split lenses.

It's all R&D and I couldn't recoup costs in time but what we've learnt in the process is invaluable and been a heck of a lot of fun along the way. I've just been playing with a Pappy Boyington face and did the first rough cut tonight and it's amazingly recognizable for starters. The idea is to eventually be able to do the faces fairly quickly.

I've also started making sculpted clothing and accessories in ZBrush so they can be cut and moulded.

It'll be great to see the final one painted, hopefully not too long now.

cheers
Patti

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

Patti, I hope you got the file I sent on the anthro data. Let me know

P4Patti

No Bob, I didn't. Where did you send it? There is no PM for me.

Patti

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

Patti, I sent it to the email you sent me in a pm.. should be there mate. I sent it yesterday.

P4Patti

Bob I've just sent you a PM with my address again, just incase I typed it wrong. Haven't received anything from you as yet though.

cheers
Patti

BobH

My Feedback: (2)

Just in case the email doesn't ever arrive.. here's a pic of it for you.

P4Patti

Thanks Bob, the email has come through now. It'll be interesting to check the measurementss against the Poser standard man. Thanks for that.

How was your warbird event?

cheers
Patti

Brad330l

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WOW, there is a formula for a standard man???[sm=bananahead.gif]
I wonder how many of us fit into the standard?

Cheers,

Brad

BobH

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Patti, glad you got the email(s) lol.
The warbird event was GREAT.. the venu is on Mac Hodges field in Georgia. He has a 1500 Ft grass runway that's like a golf course. the quality of planes was for the most part.. outstanding with several Top Gun planes flying.

There's a wonderfully stocked hobby shop right off the flight line.. the people and planes were just great.


Brad yes there's formulas for everything lol.. The 50 Percentile man is the "average" person. Some are smaller and some are larger. It's useful for calculating clearences, abilities of reach, etc.

P4Patti

It's been a while but at last I have some photos of Brad prototype. He's not finished and the face needs more painting, it's only had an initial coating as I have been busy making uniform patterns and uniforms. The pictures are a bit small once compressed and it's a bit hard to see the face but once it's painted up better I'll get some closer ones to compare to Brad's mug shots.

I made a mae west - the pommy one that ties up in the front, not the American one that slips over the head but after closer inspection of the photos I've finally decifered it and my version is actually a little bit wrong! It will have to do for the time being til I get a moment to redo the pattern. The inflatable bit goes in a panel with a rounded bottom, up the front and around the back of the neck - which makes sense. I've made the whole front panel and the neck bit padded. There's a lot more detail you could add like the pockets and tubes but for the moment I think I'll leave it like that Brad and move on. The general effect is there. There are parachute harnesses etc but the 1/6th range of accessories like oxygen masks actually fit the 1/5 heads and look OK. I've got a 1/6 oxygen mask, so I'll take a photo and show you the fit.

The clothing really is quite easy to sew if anyone is wanting to have a go or get someone to make it for them. Now that the patterns are drawn it's quite a straight forward process. I was thinking of doing a little youtube video or just some instructions with photos in here maybe? Would that be of use to anyone, or are you waiting for the fully moulded, paintable pilots instead?

I couldn't resist putting big Eric in as well, he's such a cheery looking chap

I have a snoring puppy beside me so better put her to bed, til next time ...


cheers
Patti

Brad330l

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OH WOW Patti,

That is such a spin looking at ,,,,,, well,,, ME!!!!!!!!!!

Yes the Mae West is a bit off but wow you have all my respect.

I was getting a bit worried that you had not posted in a while but now I can see why.
All I have managed is hurting my back and starting to put the markings on my Spitfire.
(i was posting such when your alert came through)

Cheers,

Brad

P4Patti

I didn't realise it'd been that long since I'd posted til I sat down to do it last night [X(]. I've been so busy doing things and time passes quickly, I forget that I'm 10 steps ahead and no-one knows! Richard was up me as well -"you should be posting as you go"!!!

I'm posting a couple of pics I'm using for reference for the Mae West. It really does look very wrong and I'm going to redo it tonight. Looking more closely at some of the b&w photos, I now notice that the ties in the front are a darker colour. Any suggestions as to what they might be made of and what colour they would be? I had white cotton tape which I dipped into strong yellow food colouring because white looked wrong but so does the bright yellow and they're way too big/long. The yellow of the mae west is a bit bright too but there's a very limited range to choose from, perhaps it could be toned down with a dip into some bleach. In the colour pic, the very light coloured ones look like original '40's vests but severely faded from time.

Any sketches or clear photos of the detail would be good - there looks to be lots of pockets and tubes and ties but it's very hard to decifer what goes where!

Will keep you posted!

cheers
Patti

Brad330l

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Here is a couple more for you to look at Patti. You can click on the right hand side of the pictures for more and the lower part of the page has other Mae Wests to look at as well plus some gloves and helmets.

Doh!!! Must add link. http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...-mae-west-vest

The pilot (me ) looks great Patti, keep up the good work.
Really amazing stuff.

Cheers,

Brad

P4Patti

Thanks Brad, that really makes sense now and could see close ups of the detail which was what was really lacking. Some of the differences I was confused over are from the Canadian and British. The Canadian one (from what I have seen on that site) is much simpler. How about that fabric bladder?!! Must be like the old fabric covered, rubber "lilos".

How's the back?

cheers
Patti

Brad330l

My Feedback: (1)

Returned from Perth now. Feeling much better thankyou.

Cheers,

Brad

P4Patti

Hi Brad

Glad to hear it. No fun having back problems.

I've made another mae west pattern and it's almost finished, still pinned up so haven't taken photos yet. It's not perfect but everything is a work in progress. I've discovered a problem with the left eye as I've been painting and it's come about from the mesh on the computer. A while ago I tried outlining the eyes in ZBrush to define them and make them easier to paint. However, in the process I've accidentally holed the mesh and the cutting bit has gone into this. It makes the eye a bit rough and I'm not happy with the result.

Basically, there's a lot more to do before I'd be happy with the whole thing but I don't want to hold you up. Would you want me to send it as is for now so you can see it and fit it into your cockpit or are you happy to wait a month or so? It's all a big learning curve and lots of trial and error. As we learn more we'll continue to refine and add and can send you another head to slip onto the body when it's fixed. Every problem and mistake we just learn so much but it's 2 steps back to go 3 steps forward!

Let me know what you want to do

cheers
Patti