Orlik PBJ-1H Mitchell

Bomarc

Member
Hi Ron!

Yeah, I've been keeping dual citizenship lately, partly thanks to Peter's nudging. Guess the other hangout is dead in the water at the moment, so good I can still keep the thread alive here.

Hows the Berg/Corsair double feature going?!

Mike
 

Bomarc

Member
not to hijack here, but does anyone know whats happening over at PM?

No problem Barry, I'm sure others are wondering the same. The exchange below occurred on the "Cardmodelers" mailing list last night.

Mike

--- On Wed, 2/17/10, cardmodelrick@comcast.net <cardmodelrick@comcast.net> wrote:

From: cardmodelrick@comcast.net <cardmodelrick@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Cardmodelers] Status of Papermodelers.com
To: "The Cardmodelers Mailing List" <list@cardmodelers.org>
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 4:36 PM

Don and others;

Yes I am monitoring this list and others.


From what I have been told by Jason, there were some server side issues, including a hard drive in the server we are located on failing.
The server has been fixed, and Jason has been working on reloading the database that is the forum, which due to the popularity has grown to some 5.8 gigabytes
But it seems that Murphy has been playing games with Jason lately, so he is working with the hosting company to upload the database.


As it stands right now, the forum is current as of January 26th 2010
I could not guess how many posts since that time were posted, or members joined.


Any other questions just ask


Rick
admin papermodelers.com


----- Original Message -----
From: boosed@pa.net
To: "The Cardmodelers Mailing List" <list@cardmodelers.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 2:21:04 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [Cardmodelers] Status of Papermodelers.com

If Jason or Rick are guarding this push, perhaps they could tell us
what is happening at the papermodelers.com Forum, which has been out
of battery for several days.

Don Boose
Carlisle, Pennsylvania

_______________________________________________
list mailing list
list@cardmodelers.org
http://www.cardmodelers.org/mailman/listinfo/list
Cardmodelers web site at http://www.cardmodelers.org
 

Bomarc

Member
Been pretty busy this week so little progress, but some! I did notice one detail on the gun controller. Seems the top where the hand grips emerge has more dimension to it (green arrow):

h-tail02-1.jpg


Can’t let that go by. In a tweak to the tweak, made a little “cap” on top:

IMG_3720.jpg

IMG_3721.jpg


Also added a data placard from an old Waldron P-51 placard set. Gives it that added “zing”, no?

So on to new stuff. In the only other photo I have of this position, it appears there’s some quilted pads on the floor (red arrows):

pbj1h025copy-1.jpg


No doubt for the knees of our hapless gunner. I want to add these, but how to make the diamond quilt? After some head scratching, came up with a method I think works. The armor guys might like this too (tanks have the quilted liners inside, don’t they? I don’t know).

So start with a food strainer from the kitchen (shsh! Don’t tell the wife):

IMG_3722.jpg


Cut a piece of Kleenex tissue out:

IMG_3723.jpg


Then using diluted Elmer’s (50/50 with water), brush on till the tissue is soaked:

IMG_3724.jpg


Smooth out any wrinkles, then cover with kitchen cling wrap. Using your fingers, press the wet tissue into the strainer. You should see the pattern in the cling wrap:

IMG_3725.jpg

IMG_3726.jpg


Let this dry. After about 15 minutes, you can remove the cling wrap to help speed the drying:

IMG_3727.jpg


CAREFULLY remove the dry tissue. It’s fragile and tears easily, so go slow, using tweezers as necessary to pry the stuff off the strainer:

IMG_3728.jpg


Paint the color of your choice (I choose an Army green) and viola! Instant diamond quilt:

IMG_3730.jpg


Paint it orange, it would look good in those rescue helicopters.

Mike
 

Elliott

Senior Member
Genius at work! This could also be used for some military cargo plane interiors when configured for passenger transport.
 

Bomarc

Member
So, took the simulated quilted stuff and made the poor gunner something to kneel on. Stuff some layers of paper towel to “puff” them up a bit:

IMG_3731.jpg

IMG_3732.jpg


And put them in a (hopefully) haphazard, casual way:

IMG_3733.jpg

IMG_3734.jpg

IMG_3736.jpg


Gives it a homey look now, right? I have some left over white belts from a seat belt set I used on the navigator’s seat up front. Should work well for the safety harness here with some (minor) modifications.

Mike
 

peter taft

Senior Member
I am sure the gunner would feel well protected and fairly comfortable in there Mike - i dont believe i said COMFORTABLE :cry: well at least not too un-comfortable :rolleyes: Nice work as is your usual sir :thumb:
 

Bomarc

Member
All righty then, wrapping up the innards of the tail gunners station. As mentioned before, I took the remains of that seat belt set I used for the nav's seat, and fashion a safety harness:

IMG_3737.jpg

tail_seat.jpg


Not nearly the amount of webbing as seen in the drawing, but enough to give an idea. Also made my last intercom controller (the silver box). In they go:

IMG_3738.jpg

IMG_3741.jpg


This will be the last time I take a shot from this end:

IMG_3740.jpg


And that's it. Attached permanently to the fuselage:

IMG_3742.jpg


In the first joining of major components, the stabilizer with fins gets permanently attached. Some mat board props combined with the fuselage in it's jig help keep everything square:

IMG_3745.jpg

IMG_3747.jpg


The leading edges of the fins are parallel, a good sign:

IMG_3748.jpg


The grid on your cutting mat is a good aid for alignment too:

IMG_3746.jpg


So once it's all dry, I can start to fair this and the canopy in. I'm running out of parts....

Mike
 

Bomarc

Member
Tiny update tonight as I've been formulating a battle plan as to how I'm going to make the tailplane look like it's part of the fuselage (I don't know yet!). One thing I discovered was that Orlik nipped the corners off the elevators. Not sure why they did that (green arrows, along with the original article to compare):

IMG_3749.jpg

h-tail01.jpg


I actually assembled all the control surface away from my usual modelling lair (in an "undisclosed location in Southern New Jersey") so I didn't have all my ref's handy, otherwise, had I cuaght that disconnect with the elevators sooner, I might have left some extra material on when cutting out the skins and painted to match. No matter, tonight was spent restoring the corners. Took some of the swatch material supplied in the kit:

IMG_3750.jpg


Trimmed and edges touched up, I printed some yellow-green swatch material of my own (both in 20lb printer paper and 65lb card), sealed with fixative spray and used the lighter weight to make a cover piece to finish off the end:

IMG_3751.jpg

IMG_3752.jpg


Now I can start building up the fuselage fairing to match the final end condition of the elevators, plus throwing the gunner's canopy framing into the mix:

IMG_3753.jpg


Just wish I knew what I was going to do there.

It'll come to me...

Mike
 

Bomarc

Member
So, I'm down to the last few somewhat major skin pieces of this kit, one of which is the center stab section. Cut it out and dry fitted. Gotta say, fits like a glove, but check out the coloration:

IMG_3754.jpg


Huh? What? I guess the designer thought this piece wraps around to the lower side where the gray is. So I had to modify with more extra dark blue pieces:

IMG_3755.jpg


Stinks because not only do I have to touch-up and blend the joints, but I loose the cool rivet patten too. The rivets tend to wash out in the dark blue anyway, so OK:

IMG_3756.jpg


Last of the kit's parts before I start detouring with scratch built stuff, the canopy fairing:

IMG_3757.jpg

IMG_3758.jpg


Then added new elevator end fairings using mat board lined with more of the extra blue card from the kit:

IMG_3759.jpg

IMG_3760.jpg


Next will be the canopy base framing and that should set the stage to tie it all together.

Mike
 

Elliott

Senior Member
It's a shame the cockpit is closed up. All you need now is to crew it with Tirick's Arc 70 paper figures. Shouldn't be too hard to convert them into WWII figures and I know you have extra canopies lying around somewhere......:mrgreen:

 

Bomarc

Member
Shouldn't be too hard to convert them into WWII figures and I know you have extra canopies lying around somewhere......:mrgreen:

Hmm Elliot, interesting suggestion. Let me give that some considera........NO! I ain't going through another canopy install on this thing. wall1

More to come....

Mike
 

Bomarc

Member
However, the tail position is still open hmmm?

You know, making the canopy removable at it's jettison-able break point like in the photo is very doable....hmmmmm indeed:

h-tail02.jpg


Like "nomad" in Star Trek, I think I need to "re-evaluate"...

In the meantime, a first attempt to blend in the tail section like the original. First the remaining sides were added to form the base of the canopy. Some internal structure detail added and touch-up paint applied:

IMG_3761.jpg

IMG_3762.jpg

IMG_3763.jpg


I had to detach the side armor pieces as they were in the way. I’ll leave them off until the bitter end when the canopy goes on for good. That’s when the gun sight will be added. First stab at a fillet using the extra kit material. I don’t if this is what Orlik had in mind when they included all those extra swatches of color, but it sure has come in handy:

IMG_3764.jpg

IMG_3765.jpg


Touch up paint, and not too bad:

IMG_3767.jpg

IMG_3768.jpg


Get the other side and then the bottom done, and work on a canopy mold plug can begin…..

Mike
 

Bomarc

Member
Well, that went quicker than I thought it would. Done with tail plane blending:

IMG_3772.jpg

IMG_3773.jpg

IMG_3775.jpg

IMG_3776.jpg

IMG_3777.jpg


At least now the stab looks like it’s part of the whole plane, and the elevators aren’t just hanging from the back with no connection to the fuselage:

IMG_3778.jpg


Mold making time……

Mike
 

peter taft

Senior Member
Mike... you are as cooooool as a cucumber out of the fridge in Summer :cool: , and just as enjoyable - You make this aircraft so personal yet like a gift to us guys that follow your every move. Lovely work :thumb:
 

Bomarc

Member
Thank you, Peter. It’s entirely my pleasure to present this build to all who will tune in here. Like “Jim G” said in his Otter build, I just want to give a little back for all that I’ve enjoyed on these forums.

Soooooo, this past week was spent on molding the gunners canopy. Slow and mundane work, which finally resulted in actual canopies molded tonight. For the benefit of the Zealot regulars who may not have seen how I created the cockpit canopy on the forward end of the fuselage, I’ll give the blow by blow for the gunner’s canopy here, which I did exactly the same way. First I created a 3 dimensional template of the canopy from 0.030” thick sheet styrene:

IMG_3779.jpg

IMG_3780.jpg


For the first canopy mold plug I used FIMO, which is a Scullpey like clay product that hardens when you bake it. I didn’t have any on hand this time around, so for the gunner’s canopy I used Milliput, a two-part epoxy putty that is kneaded together, then hardens in about three hours. I blobbed it on the end of a brass rod:

IMG_3782.jpg


Once hard, I started to carve down the blob, using my template as a guide:

IMG_3783.jpg

IMG_3784.jpg

IMG_3785.jpg

IMG_3786.jpg


Based on the fit in the template, the initial blob came up short so I kneaded some more Milliput and added some make-up areas:

IMG_3787.jpg


Final shaping and finishing and it looks about right in the jig:

IMG_3788.jpg

IMG_3789.jpg


To ready the mold for vacu-forming, I first epoxied the brass rod back into mold (it tore out while I was shaping it):

IMG_3790.jpg


That rod will help anchor the mold in my machine. Then I filled any imperfections and/or cracks with successive coats of superglue. This creates a hard shell that takes to polishing well. I like to polish my molds as a last step; It shows up those last niggling imperfections (more superglue!) and it seems to make clearer canopies (to me, but I can’t swear to it. Just part of a routine I guess). So once it was as smooth as I could get it, put the plug in my home made vacu-form machine and started making canopies:

IMG_3791.jpg


Once you get the hang of it, it’s kinda fun. I used the same 0.020” “Vivak” (PETG) clear plastic I used to make the astro dome I related earlier in this thread.

Always good to make extras:

IMG_3792.jpg


That’s all I got for a week’s worth of work. All that's left is to cut one out and fit it to the model. I needed to make at least two, as I plan to open the top thanks to Elliot’s suggestion. I’ll need one to make the base canopy with the opening, and the second to make the removable portion, like the real deal:

h-tail02.jpg


Some useful links:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/staedtler-fimo-soft-polymer-clay/

http://www.micromark.com/VIVAK-PLASTIC-11-WIDE-x-14-LONG-x-020-THICK-PKG-OF-2,7732.html

http://www.milliput.com/home.htm

Mike
 

Bomarc

Member
I have to say, one of the advantages of making these elaborate templates is that you have a decent jig to mark your initial cuts on the finished product:

IMG_3793.jpg

IMG_3794.jpg


Not much tweaking after cutting, and it's a pretty good fit (if I don't say so myself):

IMG_3797.jpg

IMG_3798.jpg

IMG_3799.jpg


I plan to cut out the flat panel to the rear to be replaced with an actual flat piece of plastic. Now to cut off the top in the appropriate place, and build up some framing....

Mike
 
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