Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure

NARSES2 · January 18, 2017, 06:31:07 AM

Quote from: Old Wombat on January 17, 2017, 08:29:10 AM
Coming together very nicely!

It is indeed

strobez · January 19, 2017, 07:40:09 AM

The canopy is giving me a bit more trouble than I thought, but we're still soldering on. I've been able to get one cut to fit, now I just have to attach the frame to it. It's very difficult to glue and bend because the super glue won't hold it secure before it sets, so the bends keep lifting off. I made a putty canopy mold and will try to heat bend the styrene strips to fit before I glue them. More on that later.

In the meantime, I got the top fin in place and scratched up a propeller out of a rocket nose and some carefully cut plapaper.

zenrat · January 20, 2017, 01:12:27 AM

Try steam bending the styrene by holding it in the steam from a kettle.
It doesn't get hot enough to burn or melt the styrene but softens it. You can still scald your fingers though so be carefull.

strobez · January 20, 2017, 02:53:45 PM

That's a good tip. I tried putting strips in boiling water, but it still wasn't easy. So I decided to try a bit of 1mm wire instead.

First thing I did was fill one of the pill capsules with epoxy putty and let it harden into a bending blank.

Then I carefully bent the wire around the blank and then clamped it to another pill pack and glued it in place. Then I repeated the bending process for each of the cross sections and carefully glued them on.

After everything was in place, I used the double cross section bars as a guide and sliced (and then trimmed with a razor) the pill plastic between them.

With a bit of tape for now... voila! Open cockpit. The only problem is I got excited and rushed glueing the cross sections and got ca glue on the clear parts. It isn't fogging, but it is very noticeable. So I'm going to try again... now that I'm sure it will work!

TheChronicOne · January 20, 2017, 04:33:08 PM

That's pretty smart thinking right there! Making the "form" to bend your metal pieces..

Progress is looking good.

NARSES2 · January 21, 2017, 04:43:43 AM

That is looking good

strobez · January 21, 2017, 07:15:32 AM

Thanks for the encouragement! After scratch building an open canopy... I needed it. Now that I've waded through the bog of trial and error (and have become less anxious and in a rush to see if the result will work) it was actually quite easy to do one more final canopy. I used tape to make sure I didn't get glue all over the place, and improved the fit generally. So I'm calling the canopy done. A bit more sanding and we'll be ready for primer and paint,

Dare I say I think that'll be the easy part of the build...

strobez · January 22, 2017, 02:11:41 PM

Sanded and primed... and then more putty and more sanding...

su27rules · January 23, 2017, 10:59:04 AM

strobez · January 23, 2017, 08:45:10 PM

After all my hard work on the canopy, I'm starting to think the wire looks a bit funny and out of scale. As luck would have it, my wife walked in the door with some metallic tape (more or less foil with an adhesive already applied) and asked me if I had any use for it.

Now I'm not sure what to do. The wire was a hard fought win... but perhaps the foil strips are the better choice. Then certainly went on with very little fuss.

NARSES2 · January 24, 2017, 06:30:35 AM

This is looking better and better

Quote from: strobez on January 23, 2017, 08:45:10 PM
As luck would have it, my wife walked in the door with some metallic tape (more or less foil with an adhesive already applied) and asked me if I had any use for it.

She's a keeper

TheChronicOne · January 24, 2017, 02:32:46 PM

That's a conundrum. I'd have to say that, if it were me, I'd roll with the foil tape.

It was a brilliant process and stop-gap solution but I see what you mean about it being just now quite right with the rounded stuff. About the only other optoin would be to reduce the size of the "form", go back again, and have the metal rod stuff on the inside of the canopy glass rather than the exterior. Then, at least, the out of scale size would be a bit less noticeable.

But still.... roll with the foil is what I'd do.

Otherwise, this is looking cooler than a fan and I can't wait to see it finished up.

TheChronicOne · January 24, 2017, 02:34:54 PM

ALTERNATIVELY, do a trick I picked up from Chris up there (Narses) and paint then cut strips of masking tape and use that.... What was it? About .5 mm is about right?

kerick · January 24, 2017, 02:45:52 PM

Go with the foil and keep the wire form trick in your mental tool box. Never know when that might be used in a different situation.

PR19_Kit · January 24, 2017, 03:41:31 PM

Quote from: TheChronicOne on January 24, 2017, 02:34:54 PM
ALTERNATIVELY, do a trick I picked up from Chris up there (Narses) and paint then cut strips of masking tape and use that.... What was it? About .5 mm is about right?

I just tried that with my MB5 Monsoon cockpit and failed abysmally.

When it was cut that narrow it just wouldn't stick, not to the matt green painted seat anyway. Maybe I should have glossed it first?