Egilman

Very Very nice Craig!!! Well done....

Very true, I didn't claim they faced each other... But they were both in action in the same airspace and would be a good representation of the two sides... That's all I was thinking...

You know, George Welch's aircraft, (P-40B #160) would be a nice company keeper with this one.... They were both in the same air at the same time on the same day....

Ah Brother, Thank you... well at this scale only about 3/4ths of the detail came thru, I need to revise my engineering a bit to account for the scale so more of the visible detail shows... No sweat, that was the purpose of a test print.... Thanks Alan, I'm very happy with it, but now I get to tweak the design so it's more crisp and clean.... There is a huge difference between FDM and SLA printing, FDM gives you huge sizes, SLA gives you Fine Detail Definition, ( in a smaller part size) at some point the two should be able to work together to make stunning models.... Thanks my friend, Trust me the urge is there, but the engineering mind says that the design part isn't over yet... I have to essentially redesign most of it to move details around to aid the printing taking into account the way the machine works... Like not splitting the flanges between the parts on the full size separation lines, putting a flange on one part end and the next flange on the next part... Same process as injection molding or casting... The flange part gets the supports making removing them easier and cleaner... Fillets in this small scale are just about invisible so they aren't needed, but in a larger scale would need to be there... Like anything, it is a design process.... No need to be in awe brother, just another set of tools to do a job.... {chuckle} It's fairly simple.... but thanks It's appreciated.... EG

Thanks Ed, the experience was invaluable... there are limitations in scale of course, and that is one of the things I needed to learn, this provided some actual knowledge to the experience... Smallest thing real life you can model on this printer at 1/32nd and have it seen is 3/16ths or 1/4 inch.... Anything smaller disappears, that is a big bit of info right there... the bottom end of the printers useable resolution.... But that is how scale modeling works, we want it to look like the object, not be the object....

Thanks Ken... The resin is fine, I just pushed in the wrong place and it cracked... Most of the detail came thru, the stuff at the absolute lowest resolution of the printer 1/16th inch in real life, .002 thousandths inch in scale, (just over 50 microns) didn't come out, but the intake screens which were drawn at 1/4 inch did with great sharpness.... So I need to bump the realizable resolution a tad to .125 inch and try again... Also the angle which Lychee chose to place them at wasn't optimal and allowed a few of the flanges to warp a bit... The mating index locators were a bit tight as well, Needed some filing to slip together... I'll need to give a bit more clearance for a smooth assembly.... Adjust the sizes of the support structure as well, some of them were a pain to remove.... Overall those are minor adjustments, for a draft quality test print, I think it came out great, it looks the part which is more than can be said for the kit part... {chuckle} Yep I will be doing a complete exterior detail scheme, although at 1/32, will probably be designed integral into each section rather than separate parts, all that detail will just be too small to print as individuals... In a larger scale though shouldn't be a problem.... The air islands were .125 thickness, they don't show up on the model... It was expected... The printer has an absolute resolution on paper taken from the stats of the parts used to build it with, but it has a practical resolution as well, that at which it will actually print at.... Still learning, but I now have some more info to base designs upon....

Well, my first, self designed, 3D print... The first step was reducing them in SW to 1/32 scale..... Five parts scaled by just clicking a few buttons with the mouse..... Saved as .STL files which converted them to mesh files..... Then loaded into Lychee Slicer... Everything set to automatic, supports, angles with Anti-aliasing turned off.. A simple draft print.... What's happening here is the grey parts are fine, the red part has errors that Lychee is unable to fix... So while it was printing, (3.5 hrs) I went back into SW and stepped thru the compressor center section and fixed the error... But, Lychee fixed enough of it to allow it to print... Once Lychee does it's thing it created the slice files for the printer and copied them to a USB stick which gets plugged into the printer for printing.... Now there is no connection to the printer from the computer so I was following along on the computer watching the progress as it printed... the white layers in the pic is the print progress at this point, just a bit over half way.... (about 3/5ths done) And a printer view... And when it finished printing.... Next step is to wash and cure them.... so the build plate goes into the Wash N Cure machine for a 6 minute alcohol bath and a 10 minute drying period before they are separated from the build plate.... Dried, ready to separate.... Separated from the build plate and from each other ready for curing.... 4 minutes curing time, which is a bit long, I just wanted to make sure, 2 minutes should be sufficient... So lets see how they turned out... Are they going to mate up? How much detail came thru.... I'll let the pics speak for themselves, remember this was a draft print, just to see if it actually works as expected... And yeah fragile, you have to be careful in how you handle them, they break fairly easily.... Well, most of the detail came thru, but at 1/32 scale you do need to adjust your design for greater thickness for strength or be very very careful when you handle them.... I need to adjust the mating parts so they fit easier in the future, but overall, I think it is a success! A little fine tuning and I can work with this especially if I'm careful in how I set up Lychee slicer... The print settings I used are the generic ones for Anycubic Basic Resin that came with the printer... Overall I'm very very pleased.... Tell me what you guys think and don't be bashful, everything is welcome at this point.... EG

Well Thank You OC!! Just putting together a lot of different previous experiences in my life with a little training in software... It's really not that hard... Anyone can do this if they really want to... Post printing update in a few my friend.... EG

Well a final update on the Aft Compressor Frame.... Except for a bit of fitment tweaking she's done.... Top... Showing the top mount which also functions as a compressor pressure relief valve when installed and the 12 stage air bleed port on the right, (that triangular boss) and the capped cool air taps on both sides... The one on the right usually has an elbow for connection to the environmental cooling system while installed on the F-86... Left Side... The left side motor mount in the center and on the right of that is the anti icing bleed port which is uncapped and the oil intake poet from the oil filter to the rear bearings... Bottom... No motor mount on the bottom, what you see on the bottom is the Oil Scavenge port, this pulls the oil out of the bottom of the frame and it flows to the Oil Cooler.... Right Side... And on the right side there is little in the way of connections... 3/4 Rear View... The back side view of course shows the Burner Can flanges and three pressure dump ports... which ones are open depends on the aircraft it is installed in... The F-86 only had one open on the right side which has a dump valve connected to it which would open and dump the compressor pressure when the engine was shut down or there was an inflight engine compressor fire, (usually happened during a compressor stall if the airflow was interrupted long enough to allow the flame to burn back into the compressor... Opening the port created a negative pressure situation causing the fuel-air mix to dump causing the fire to lose it source of fuel) 3/4 Front View... Not much new to see here just completing the all-round views... What I need to do now is reduce the size of the mating rings so the out-facing ones will be a few thousandths smaller than the in-facing ones to make sure they fit together when they come off the printer and are cleaned and finally cured.... Five weeks to get this far, but it is getting easier as I remember how to do things in Solidworks.... From what I can gather the rest of the sections should be a bit easier, not as much detail to recreate.... Anyway, should be ready for test printing in a couple of hours barring any major disasters... Onwards my friends.... And thank you for following this excursion in fantasy.... EG

Thanks Ken, trying to get it as close to the real shapes as possible.... Yesterday? a 50 mile round trip to the hospital for a stupid covid test! yeah, nothing but a covid test... They called me at home that evening to do the pre-op interview.... Just Wonderful.... The state of medicine today.... I added the injector port bosses to the mixture chamber profiles and the vent bosses to the back of the firewall.... Take a look, what do you guys think? Injector Port Bosses... I still have the two bosses to add to the right and several more, but they should be fairly easy.... Anyway, I been spending my time in detail finishing... I had to re-draw the mounts for their supports and filleting to get them shaped properly... I also added some color differential to show the machined surfaces, it doesn't do anything for the physical geometry, but makes for a much nicer picture presentation... Onwards my friends...

And here he is is in the moment... Taking off the Akagi early morning, Dec 7th 1941.... He was the leader of the second wave Fighter Section...

Can't do that... It probably won't be test printed till after I get back... I noticed a little thing in one of the HD pictures which caused a little bit of investigation and resulted in the Aft Compressor Frame being rebuilt, now on version 3.... I had the profile of the mixture chambers all wrong.... This is what was... This is what it is now... (much more accurate) That looks a LOT better.... Onwards my friends... now for the details.... EG

I would quit flyin as well, better to float than flambé.... At the pressures, flow rates and temps these things run at I'm surprised we don't lose a lot more of them than we do.... The Burner Cans on the J-47 are round and flanged at both ends... The Deflectors, (which are those sheet metal parts that direct the flow from the cans into the turbine nozzles) are separate parts installed behind the turbine firewall..... (fortunately I don't have to model those as they are inside the turbine casing) Flow Deflectors.... These things are amazing pieces of engineering... Most aren't aware but that most of them for their massive size and the amounts of thrust they produce are made of mostly sheet metal welded together.... Well anyway, I'm almost done with the Rear Compressor Frame... I built an entire test piece to figure out the best way to get the Injector Chambers modeled.... It was interesting for a while but I finally sussed it out... So now all I have to do is some intermediate ports and details like the injector plates then the ubiquitous fillets that are all over the place.... Here's a rear 3/4 image of where she stands now.... Well I'm hoping that I get to do a first print before I go into the hosp... But I think it will have to wait till I get back home.... Making progress.. Onwards... EG

Small update... Aft Compressor Frame... Just the basic shape to build the details on, I think I've gotten an idea on how to do it.... Front flange to the back firewall, it seems like it is a tube and everything else forms off of that.... Back Side... As you can see I already put the bolt head detail on the front flange to match the center casing... The back side of the firewall has eight flanges to mate with the Burner Cans... how they go together is the flanges meet and there is a clamp that locks each can to the firewall... what I'm going to do when it comes time is create the matching flange on the Cans and then model the clamp as a ring that slips over the flange on the firewall... This will give me the necessary separate burner cans with a center support structure like the real engine shows... Another interesting thing, there are no bolts in the firewall... The rim of the firewall is nothing but a circular flange where the airframe firewall mounts with bolted clamps... That keeps the burner section isolated from the mixture chambers in the aft Compressor frame.... The rest is figuring out the external contours of the various chambers inside the frame....I'm also going to have to figure a way to step down the center section so when it's extruded out to meet the turbine nozzle section it can expand back out to it's 3 foot diameter... Thus giving the burner cans room to be their normal size in relation to everything else... This is why it's time to do a test print on the five section already modeled... (when the aft frame is done) Anyway, Onwards....

Thanks Jolley... Well, it's scheduled for Monday, be home Tuesday... A simple overnighter... I go in for the Pre-Op on Friday... Everyone thinks it's no big deal... Kind reassuring in a way... Not sure if it's going to work out, once I get the aft compressor frame sussed out, then comes the first print test.... Only five basic parts, but if they won't print then I'll have to figure out why.... Keep your fingers crossed... EG

Thanks Alan... Yeah, it gets a bit tricky from here.... Update in a few...

Anyway a very short update, I've finished the main compressor case and am getting ready to start the aft Frame... Got the bolt rings on and spaced properly, and the air bleed bosses are done.... I'm now where I was when I started to rebuild this.... I'm going to have to study the aft frame for a bit to try and figure out how best to build it.... it's going to be a challenge... Onwards....

Amen my friend, whatever it's going to be, it's going to be.... Nothing we can do about it.... (and a lot is going to depend on what people are willing to pay for)

Thank you Brother... I don't think they are going for the full lube job my friend, just knock some kinks out of the oil lines.... {chuckle} (besides, I lubed myself up more than sufficient when I was younger)

Yep, that new car smell... KP is the "Honey I shrunk the car" guy here.... {chuckle} I only hope when I get to my Mk IV Ford I do half as well... Another masterpiece... What surprises me the most is I haven't seen his work on the cover of Tamiya magazine or some other modeling rag, he deserves it...

Yellow Papa is one of those colors that benefits greatly from a light colored primer underneath..., oranges and reds do as well if you want them bright and vivid...

Ok, another small update.... I wound up reworking the compressor body again... Those pesky detail pics!!! I went to put the bolts on the flanges and found that none of them line up where they should be in relation to the grooves... (isn't that always the way?) So I spent a bit of time finding accurate pics to get the groove pattern down and then the bolt pattern and yes they both have a variable spacing pattern.... Real life... My approximation of the above... Both patterns get narrower and closer together the closer to the aft end as they go... It was the dickens to find images that show this clean enough to measure... Here is a closeup... Getting closer.... Anyway I'll keep plugging along and eventually It will be done.... Thank you for following along and all the compliments... It's appreciated...

Everyone thank you for your support and confidence and well wishes.. The procedure is a carotid stent to keep me from having a stroke... It's been showing up in weird little ways over the last couple of weeks and the doc ordered a few scans and exams and they found a blockage... Something they are moving on quickly... I should know when I go into the hospital in three days and at max I will only be in for two days... It will be over before we know it... Thank you all very very much for your well wishes, prayers and support, it means a great deal to me... EG

Thank you Ed, trust me it's motivating to see the interest... I've put more work into this than I intended, maybe it will be worth it... I think I'm gonna be fine as long as nothing breaks before I get to the procedure... The doc is a great one, (good looker too) and I get to be awake during it so it can't be all that bad... I think I'll be fine....

Thanks Dan, I'm feeling it will be ok... and the build isn't going to stop.... ONWARDS!!!! {chuckle}